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Honestly it's sad to have seen them go. The league reference seemed appropriate 😂 -Marcel

Thank you so much for tuning in and the kind words<3 Stoked to make more videos like this. -Marcel

There’s a South African podcast I was watching that focuses on mainstream artists, and what they said regarding promoting is that artists aren’t obligated to promote an event, that’s what promoters are for. They went as far as saying mainstream artists even charge a separate fee if you want them to punt your event on their pages because they’re giving you access to their followers, and you’re asking them to do a promoter’s job. Now obviously, the alt scene isn’t generating the kinda money mainstream is generating, and the argument for the alt scene is ‘community’, bands share the event because we’re all pushing for the same thing, which is fair enough, but I’d argue that you as an individual would have every right to tell someone who’s booking you, that you’ll play the show but won’t be able to make content around it, because as you say, it’s an entirely different job on its own. Sure, you may be labelled as being difficult to work with, but it sounds like you’re disgruntled at the way things are, so it’s a worthy tradeoff for peace of mind, especially when you have valid reasoning as to why you’d rather not promote, it’s simply not your job, your job is to entertain the crowd by playing your music at the event, as a musician that’s what your fee should cover, plus expenses. Bands promoting events should be nothing more than an act of camaraderie, not an obligation. In fact a simple share regarding the event should suffice, not an entire production video😂. The part about inauthenticity is tricky because there’s no hard rule as to how you should promote your ‘content’. Just because a walk these skies, or an indie dog puts up jovial videos, doesn’t mean you have to do that too, not sure who set this expectation because it’s inaccurate. In fact, you need not even post videos just because everyone else is posting them. If you feel compelled to post a video, it’s in your best interest not to do it just because x band is doing it and doing it a certain way, people can tell if something isn’t genuine. If there’s a lineup consisting of 5 bands, it’s okay to be the one band that uploads the poster with a caption telling people to check you out that evening or even share it to your story, especially if 4 of the other bands are also going to be promoting the event and uploading videos acting the fool. If it’s draining your soul and doesn’t feel right, don’t force yourself to do it, do whatever is in line with your way of doing things. I used to run the Thorns IG when we were still active, I literally used to either create or share the poster accompanied by one of our photos, and wrote a caption, and the shows were still well attended. Not because of thorns of course😂, but because of everyone’s contribution, and just because the other band’s contribution was posting a ‘funny’ reel, didn’t mean I had to do the same. If there’s a fear that anything other than ‘funny’ videos won’t slap or won’t be received well, and if you feel like must post/upload, you can always just upload and promote the post, or hire a social media manager if it’s an aspect you feel is super important for the band but just aren’t enjoying it. There are people out there that enjoy the hell out of your band’s music, and I’m certain that they’d be okay with you posting something akin to your gratitude post, which was genuine and sincere, vs one where the band is trying to be funny, but deep down that just isn’t who you guys are. It might work for the bands that do it because they’re just crazy in general😄, there’s running inside jokes amongst some of the bands because that’s who they are, chill guys that aren’t that serious, but if that isn’t your kinda sense of humour, don’t feel compelled to follow what they’re doing. What you guys are doing on a music level is insane🔥, and it shouldn’t be tainted by any pressure to follow or do what everyone else is doing on social media. We need a Lower Hollow in the scene, and if things continue feeling the way they are for you, the passion will die out, and we can’t have a scene without you okes♥️

@@Zwane031 Ah bro, this was a really cool read, and a great perspective in general. A valued response for sure. I think there's a genuine social pressure to create content a certain way, or have things look and feel a certain way. When one consider video equipment in itself and that investment for arguments sake, I'd way sooner spend that money on upgrading actual gear we use weekly to perform / write / record with. I guess to some extent, the pressures are external and even internally, for any band really. I mean, this kind of conversation I feel is healthy as it's something a lot of dudes just struggle with, and you run the risk of letting it defeat you - which in itself is weird considering no band really proclaims themselves to be great video marketing gurus, though some are clearly better than others. It's a blessing when you have the skillset in your camp, goes without saying. So, in terms of Lower Hollow, we obviously book and self-promote a lot of our own shows, where we invite bands etc to join and so on. It's a grind to get bands to promote a show (genuinely not calling anyone out), but essentially we ourselves aren't promoters drawing an external bigger cut and split equally amongst all, so there's that underlying hope / expectation that everyone's hands will go into that success for the show. Ah man, it's not easy. It's cool to take on your opinion and take stock in general, I feel it's a real consideration point. I mean, there's cool video stuff we do wanna do, but you're mostly chasing the tale creating these "come watch my band" videos that you don't get genuine opportunity to do the shit you wanna actually do. I'm not disgruntled at the creating music part, touring or whatever goes into the music aspect of it, I'm all in there. I guess it's just this pressure to follow, in order to be seen, in order to exist. But you've also correctly so, put me in my place - and I appreciate that. You don't need to do anything you don't wanna do. I guess all in all, it'd be great to get back to the fundamentals of music itself and have that be the reason people support shows.

Thank you so much for always tuning in!

Look forward to seeing the new content! -Marcel

Thank you so much homie<3

Thank you so much for tuning in! We'll definitely be doing more videos like this in the future.

I think the Covid scenario played a major role in bringing a lot of bands to an end for sure - changing the landscape. This had its own knock on effect, in that brand new lesser experienced bands were casting themselves into a field with very little to no guidance; really figuring a lot of it out alone. So a lot of the inexperience seen these days is a case of bands just not having had any torch passed to them. I think recognizing these issues is helpful as well, because it takes the issue and at least gives it a "name", to which anyone who's facing this can address it and educate themselves (the band) to get what was perhaps lost along the way. Recognizing the issue also removes the sting and places everyone's headspace more towards figuring it out and getting better at whatever you're looking to achieve with music.

Mixed genre events aren't inherently bad, it only becomes an issue when it's the only option. I 100% agree that we're on our way to a new era and I'm super hopeful that it'll be a positve one. The gap in marketing/advertising is a way bigger hole than most realise but the unfortunate issue is how big of a risk it'd be in terms of profitability. Collobaration and passion are absolutely the key at this point<3 -Marcel

I think it comes down to the fact that organizers are multi-tasking multiple rolls. Bands are definitely struggling to hold down all fronts (solid recordings, Social media presence, Solid live performance, Etc.) but that's incredibly difficult and consuming for practically zero financial gain which makes putting in that extra effort seem null

​@@sludgeunderground I sort of disagree in terms of the financial gain comment - there is quite some money to be made, which is why I stated the events organizers and poor planning affects these things so much. If bands and organizers work together to sell as many tickets as possible, then they make money - if more people are at the shows then they have a higher chance of selling a lot of merchandise. If bands have more money to work with, they can put more financial backing into growing the audience, getting quality media out and marketing upcoming shows. If shows are an attraction and interesting to go to, then more people will go to them. I have a band and organize events on the regular. I see that there can be significant financial gain if everything is done right from the get go, ie. merch looks good enough that people would buy it even if its wasn't band related, the event has great visuals, videos and gets some financial backing to get to enough people to buy tickets, deals with venues are fair and they don't take cuts from the event (which means more money to pay the bands). The social media presence is something I have been struggling with tremendously over the past few months. I've given my band an ultimatum in order to get them to participate more in the social media work, which gives me more time to work on the recordings and visual content of the band. The sad reality is that most bands are actually solo projects with only one member doing most of the work. Bands that do really well and grow really fast often have each member fulfill a separate but significant role. If more people realize that they can actually make money from these things, they would be more incentivized to do more for their bands and events. Although people generally do this for the love of the game, that mindset can be incredibly toxic to hinder monetary gain by running things as with the expectation that it won't do well but will be fun. It is entirely possible to make money whilst having a lot of fun doing it.

@@solongserenity I agree with you there, for real. I mean it's really not always easy to get buy in from bands when marketing shows. I've had to beg some bands on a legit level and lose my shit because you just see no mention of anything anywhere. It's not easy in that sense, and there's a balancing act of how much is enough or when is the marketing just too much altogether? There's for sure good money to be made, no question about it. Pre covid was brutal for bands because you'd split R40 6 ways and that doesn't even cover a single trip for a band member to get to the show. It was pretty difficult. Now, since Covid and largely because the entertainment industry (then unable to work and earn) was placed in the spotlight for a long time as low income group. Coming back to shows post Covid you had an immediate increase across the board in ticket price which was well and properly overdue a decade earlier, but now we had it. So yeh, totally agree that there is good money to be made, and with that money bands are able to make necessary gear upgrades, better recordings, tour more without going bankrupt... It's not about becoming millionaires (though let's face it, that'd be great too). It's super shit not having drum sticks or new strings when needed, or the fuel to tour. So I fully agree you can earn well if you work well and push hard, and you can still hold the integrity of the music together. Nowhere does it state that your favourite bands are living on the streets, so why should you?

@@sludgeunderground Totally agree that there's a massive issue with that multi-tasking aspect of being in a band. You simply cannot be everything all in one well contained unit. Great friends + great communicators + incredibly good songwriters + self produced heros + mix & master geniuses + marketing guru + street level flyer beast + show supporter at all the local shows + Steven Spielberg + Video editor + Post Production + Social media wordsmith + Graphic designer.... This is just a few of the roles expected to be carried out amongst the few dudes in a band, oh - and don't you dare suck live - because then all these other points you might have gotten right are all worth shit and mean absolutely nothing. It's just too much. It's also a massive point of contention within any band as its hard to keep all these aspects in motion. Oh, two of our members are fathers and husbands... so there's that too? Where in what world can all these aspects be carried out to their finest degree? We gotta figure this out, because it's an unnatural level of expectation and certainly an unhealthy level of stress within the space of being in a band.

Yeh, mixed lineups are genuinely a good way to introduce people to new sub genres and bands of course. I know this is how we try and keep things fresh. It is tough though because folks seem to want that idealistic only hardcore or only metal type show, which is understandable. As someone who's set up shows for decades now, it's impossible to have your perfect lineup as there's always bands you'd maybe like to play alongside who just can't make the date etc.

Absolutely, i think i left out why they're good by accident. However the problem is that they're almost exclusively whats happening

@@ashleydebeer3893 Do you think it boils down to the fact that there just aren't enough bands in those Sub-genres? I don't envy your position of being an organizer at all. What the audience wants can 100% be cursed.

@marcelsmuts2197 probably not enough bands. I mean, consider you're playing 2 shows per weekend... how many bands in any said region? You really do need to consider diverse lineups. Personally I'm not opposed to that at all, it's been so rad jamming shows with so many different styles and just soaking in variety. If you ask those close to me, I suffer from listening to heavy music exclusively all night for a full show. It's just too much auditory heaviness for me, so its nice to break it up. Even changing the music to alternative rock during band changeover is helpful for me, for the audience. As much as shows are about the bands, the music... there's also a social scene aspect of attending and for that you need background music between bands, which also serves the point of elevating the actual performing band when they do start playing. In many instances, cross country... I think guys who attend punk shows, attend hardcore and metal shows. So there's definitely cross pollination there, which is good. These scenes are connected through friendship and through music.

@@Anton8690 thank you for checking it out Anton♥️ and thanks for the feedback as well. Man, can’t believe you were there and we didn’t link up, but hopefully we can catch the next flick together as well. All solid points and great attention to detail and symbolism. You’ve mentioned things none of us picked up on, and we even discussed behind the scenes that it’s one of those you need to watch again and again to pick up more references and Easter eggs, so it’s impressive that you picked all this up form one session🔥. Definitely hoping to do more of these in future for sure🤝

@@DolliDulce good question. Just do the transfer into the stock trade for 3 months, which’ll cause spike in the interest return, doubling your payout. If you put the assets under your name, but as a company, it’s an immediate tax write off, guaranteeing you further profit. It’s a win win💫. Sign up to our 30 day course and get 1% off

@@ChefMarxZa guess Black Coffee, Nasty C, and Blxckie are examples of mass not quality right?

You and I Deadmaus ft Medina

@@shariffdeen5201 what Sibusiso said✅

@@Dev1nci 😂😂

@ Just kidding of course 😄 I actually Googled it, I was surprised how many acts come from Durban.

@@Dev1nci some of which are representing us globally🔥. I’m sure Cape Town has its gems as well though🔌

@ Of course and Jhb as well 😄

@@Dev1nci those okes are the Hollywood of SA😂it’s kinda expected by now that Joburg has talent🔥

@@ronminor3029 100%! The music scene in SA is great on all fronts😤🔌

@@FrancoisCalldo-ho7qf name one thing Bloem has over DBN CPT & JHB😄

​@@sludgeundergroundCourts 😂😂😂😂😂

@@sugarzee8845 😂😂😭

Could make a solid argument for Durban weather being better as well😅

@@SageLeps ooh nice, what’s Sheffield like? Only know of the Sheffield football clubs, not much else

@@sludgeunderground It’s 30 minutes away from Durban not in England

@@SageLeps oh my, I had no idea 😅. North or south coast?

North

@@johnjuanlouw5137 what about charros?😅

@sludgeunderground it's the 1 thing Durban has that the rest of SA doesn't have

@ 😄😅

@@DaytonDownes-vg4nw who you got?

@@nicholasmenzingcobo314 no lie detected🔥

@@nicholasmenzingcobo314 only facts!

@@Opensourcerer12 Durban will surprise you. We have one of the biggest Slam metal bands in the world, they’re called Vulvodynia. A Durban artist (ByLwansta) was the first South African artist on COLORS in Germany. Don’t get us started on Black Coffee being one of SA’s biggest exports. Durban has mad talent🔥

​@@sludgeundergroundNasty C was molded in Durban

@ so was Blxckie. Durban is elite🔥

Yass thanks man, didn't know that!

@ check out some of our episodes, we’ve had chats with Durban artists king👌

@@manAfrica without a doubt🔥🔥

Frfr!!

@@mphomoagi2561 you sure? Keep in mind that Durban has produced Grammy winning artists. Black coffee has a Grammy, black Mambazo has 5. Both KZN acts

From Durban and live in Pta and jozi most of the time.. But Durban has talent

@@boikanyoleabile4393 you know ball🫡

It all starts in Durban pah don't get it twisted,if you want to see flames ,search Squad 6ix from Durban day heights listen 2 biggie

It's wer blxie cums from pah

100%!!

Thanks Keesh🫶🏾

having a mobile set up that is such good quality never ceases to impress me 😄👏👏

@ thanks so much😂! So I tried the cinematic mode for the first time which shoots at 4K 30fps, and as much as I like the depth thing, it’s not quite as good as an actual camera. Quality suffers even more with the cropped shots, but i had to try it out in order get the wake up call to buy an actual camera😅. I like how mobile looks for the online stuff though. Thank you tuning in Keesh🫶🏾

Thank you for tuning in king🫡! How dope are Meagan’s questions?😭🔥

@sludgeunderground she's got a really cool approach to the format

@@johnmarks2904 thanks for watching legend🫡

BAARSINATI

You guys did lose power at the show with us though, load shedding rules. :/

Something LFC isn’t😘

Loadshedding fvcks with show times that side too?🥲

@@sludgeunderground Been a minute but there was a stage where it was a massive concern.

Klub

@@wvdl8468 legend!

@@ashleyvonkleist3541 Ash🫡

@@ashleyvonkleist3541 best🔥🔥

@@Uninterested69420 Durban legends🔥🔌

😄 thanks dude! much appreciated

Legends!

Doing something you don't enjoy definitely hampers creativity!

It's not that I didn't enjoy it, money just tainted it a bit

Love that!

He really does. Man has archived a big part of our scenes history