STEWART COPELAND

Hello gang, as you know I am always very busy with my new (now it's about two years) adventure as a free lance music consultant. I never say too much about it, I am still struggling to make it work, and day by day I have to say I get more and more interesting contacts, I get new commitments, I am getting more and more interesting projects to work at; the only main problem is getting paid, and that's part of the game nowadays, but I am learning and I have started asking money upfront.
One of the projects I have been working at, is the coordination of the release of Fernando Saunder's new record; Fernando is Lou Reed's producer, as well as a great bassist player who played with Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, John McLughlin and many many others. I 'sort of' manage him for Italy and I worked to find a deal for him; I ended up finding a contract with an indipendent Italian label (VideoRadio Records), a publishing deal with RAI (the national and most important radio and tv channel in Italy, like the BBC in UK), I did all the graphics such as the cover and the digipack layout, and I am doing the promotion as well, scheduling interviews,reviews and whatever gives visibility.

BUT

what I am mainly proud of, is that one of the track, with Lou Reed on vocals, has been produced by me. It's called 'Jesus', originally written by Lou Reed for the Velvet Undergroung, played live with Fernando Saunders a few years ago and relesed in a previous cd with just Lou and Fernando on guitar, bass and vocals. I put my hands on it, created an intro, moved the chorus to a new level with a new armony on its back, arranged the rhythm section that didn't exist before...and voila!
Fernando loved it, as well as the record company, so we decided to put it in the record, and now, it's the first single released to promote the cd. It's already on Itunes, a few seconds can be heard:
iTunes - Music - Jesus (feat. Lou Reed) - Single by Fernando Saunders
The cd will be released on November 20th, and will be distributed in Italy and, hopefully, in some other countries around the globe (we already have requests).
The cd will include also the featuring of Suzanne Vega and Jan Hammer. Some of the songs were already inside a record Fernando released last year but just for Czech Republic. All of these songs were rearranged, but some of the songs are completely new.

www.fernandosaunders.net

Congratulations, Gio! iTunes I can do. Keep us in the loop and thanks for your good news!

[quote="giovanni"]the only main problem is getting paid, and that's part of the game nowadays, but I am learning and I have started asking money upfront.[/quote]

It's the curse of the self employed Gio and I've found over the years that you have to develop quite a hard head when it comes to money. Asking for payment or part payment up front is a very good idea as it sends out the message that you offer a worthwhile and valuable service and if you value the service you provide then your clients are more likely to value you too. Personally I'm not very brave about asking for overdue payment but it gets easier with practise and upfront payment or partial payment as a 'booking fee' is a great way to do it as not only are you stating that you are a busy, efficient and professional person and therefore only those who seriously want and can afford to employ you should make bookings, but also it really cuts down on the amount of overdue payments so you don't have to do the totally demoralising chasing for payment in the first place.

Nothing is perfect and you will still get the odd bad payer here and there, (personal experience has shown me that the wealthiest are often the worst payers) but I tend to just drop these clients if they make a habit of not paying their bills and word gets around amongst the others. Most importantly, pleading for payment makes you feel like crap and it doesn't work in the long run. Avoid it at all costs if you possibly can.

All this aside, having been self employed for about 11 years now, I can't imagine ever going back to working for someone else. There is a lot of freedom when you get to choose your own clients and working hours, no office politics to deal with, no grumpy boss (except for when you're in a bad mood with yourself ) I love being self employed!

You're latest news is so exciting! Huge congratulations to you and I've got this album on my want list for i-tunes for when it comes out on the 20th. I'm a fan of Suzanne Vega too so that's an added bonus.

As Laura says, do please keep us in the loop.

Tank you for your suggestions and words! As I always say, I am learning, a lot.
No doubt I feel like it's way much better to work for yourself, a different kind of life, surely better in many ways, heavier in some others, but I expected it.
Nowadays, where many employees found themselves without a job from one day to the other (I do not wish that to anyone of course!!!), I thought it was the right move, due to my past in the music biz, and I am still convinced I have done the right move. It will take some time of course, I always say you need at least three years to 'start' in a proper way. I have to say that week by week I keep on having more and more requests...and this sounds definitely good!
I will keep you posted!
Thanks again for your precious words!
Gio

Congrats Gio, I always try to keep up with what you do, albeit a bit belatedly sometimes

thank you !
Gio

This is reallly neat. Lou Reed, wow.
I enjoy work by his wife too.
Copngrats & cool!