DIY Artist Development — Creating Superfans
Note: This article is my first in a series of primers for my upcoming panel at SXSW, Artist Development in 2018 — Do It Yourself? I’ll be moderating a discussion with Adam Weiner (Low Cut Connie), Rishi Dhir (Elephant Stone, Mien, Black Angels) and Saundra Williams (Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, Saun & Starr, Low Cut Connie, Victor Wooten.) In this piece, I’m tackling the concept of creating a superfan which can prove integral in helping artists develop and reach more fans.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been obsessed with emerging artists and their path to success. I’m fascinated with how artists grow from local nobodies to national somebodies. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ ‘Into the Great Wide Open’ tells this exact story and was an early lesson in artist development. I learned about artist development terms such as A&R man, agent, and a roadie named Bart.
MTV, Top 40 radio, liner notes and song lyrics continued my early education about artist development. I graduated MTV and began listening to WOXY (my local college radio station) and spending my time and allowance at Looney T. Birds (my local record shop in Oxford, OH.)
My first interactions with tastemakers and influencers included condescending record clerks questioning my album purchases and radio DJ’s challenging me to have better taste. I found the folks who had overlapping taste in music and wanted to know what they listened to. I still believe that music discovery is best fueled by trusted tastemakers — radio DJs, your music geek friends, playlisters — who tell everyone they know about an artist they love. Today, anyone can be a tastemaker, and that’s a pretty cool thing.
Consider this example from my younger days. I first saw local band 12 Rods at a battle of the bands. They were a bunch of weirdos (like me) who made spacey, electro-inspired rock. They were the absolute coolest band I had seen play live. Then, things started to move for them. After that battle of the bands, WOXY started playing them. To me, they were local celebrities. In my mind, they had made it. But they had bigger aspirations. I wanted to be part of their journey. In fact, watching their journey made me want to be part of the music business.
My first official gig in the music industry was as a 12 Rods street team member, which I landed by calling a phone number taped to the bulletin board in the local record shop. It was 1996, and their debut EP, ‘Gay?’ was about to drop. (Side note this EP was the first music review to receive a 10.0 from Pitchfork — which has since been deleted.)
Payment for handing out 12 Rods samplers on a somewhat conservative college campus was a t-shirt with their signature Mr. Rogers logo, a promotional CD-R copy of their EP, and unlimited stickers.When I wasn’t in professional street team-mode, I was dialing college radio stations to request 12 Rods. I told everyone I knew about 12 Rods. When they played live, I’d invite all of my friends to see them with me. It was difficult to make people care about emerging artists in a pre-internet world, this didn’t stop me from trying.
My experience with 12 Rods had unknowingly transformed me into one of their superfans. I realized that successful artists had a loyal fan bases that purchased their records, requested their music on the radio, supported them on the road, and told all their friends.
(Side Note: There’s a fantastic new documentary, ‘Accidents Waiting To Happen’, which tells the story of 12 Rods.)
If we fast forward to today, everything has changed, yet nothing has changed. One of the goals of artist development is to create superfans. 12 Rods accomplished just that with me.
What is a superfan? Let’s use sports to help define this. Daniel Wann, a sports psychology professor at Murray State University developed a Sports Spectator Identification Scale (SSIS) to identify superfans, or what psychologists refer to as “highly identified fans” in the late ’80s. On a scale of 1 (not important) to 8 (very important), the SSIS asked participants to rate themselves on the following questions:
1. How important to YOU is it that the team listed above wins?
Not important 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Very important2. How strongly do YOU see YOURSELF as a fan of the team listed above?
Not at all a fan 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Very much a fan3. How strongly do your FRIENDS see YOU as a fan of the team listed above?
Not at all a fan 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Very much a fan
“It’s a major part, for some fans, of how they define themselves,” Wann says. “So when you get that wrapped up, that connected emotionally, to anything, the consequences of that thing are going to be felt personally.”
Back in the world of music, superfans make their favorite artists part of their identity, which has them invested in the rise and success of an artist. Think of superfans who are members of the Kiss Army, the Beyhive, Ten Club, Deadheads, or even the Juggalos. Many fan club members joined in the early days of an artist’s career and continue to celebrate in the artist’s success.
Am I saying that every emerging artist needs to create a fan club? Absolutely not. However, they need to find a way to cultivate that relationship and empower fans to share their story. Tools like email lists, social media, crowdfunding, and Patreon make it easier than ever to connect with fans. However, there’s a human element and focus on quality that too many artists forget.
Low Cut Connie has created superfans in the most organic ways. Low Cut Connie is a boogie-woogie rock & roll band from Philadelphia fronted by Adam Weiner, also one of my SXSW panelists this year. Adam carries the torch for piano players in rock n’ roll. Their live show makes every room feel like a sweaty dive bar where Adam preaches the gospel of rock ‘n’ roll. The live show should be enough to create a superfan; however, Adam converts casual fans into true believers through human interaction. When Adam gets off the stage, he immediately heads back to the merch table to connect with his fans after every show. His fans aren’t just fans, but they become his personal friends. He knows their names, their stories and how his music has affected them. It’s this gift that has created countless superfans for Low Cut Connie.
Adam has even humanized his hustle to get press and gigs. One of the band’s earliest superfans is the Dean of American Rock critics, Robert Christgau. Adam mailed Christgau a copy of ‘Get Out the Lotion’ with a handwritten note explaining why he thought he’d like it. It’s this personal touch that caught Christgau’s attention. While many artists assume they should hire a publicist for press, Adam took the time to get to know many critics personally. It was this same human touch that introduced Low Cut Connie (through some intermediaries) to President Obama, who included the band’s Philly anthem, ‘Boozophilia’ on his first summer playlist in 2015 (you’ll hear the whole story at the upcoming SXSW panel.)
Low Cut Connie doesn’t only have famous/critic superfans, but they have an army of local fans just about everywhere (and they take this relationship seriously.)
If there’s a fan that asks Low Cut Connie to play Paducah, Kentucky, they’ll play there. True story.
Low Cut Connie subscribe to the craftsman mindset, which is another tool that has helped them to develop superfans. As Adam can attest, there are no quick wins in this business. Their live show and recordings are reflective of this. They respect their fans and want to deliver the highest quality product at all times. If one of Low Cut Connie’s superfans tells their friends to see a show, it better be the exact show that they described. A sweaty, piano-thumping, rock n’ roll rejuvenation that takes you away from your daily grind faster than Calgon.
Adam subscribes to the same rules that Steve Martin’s wrote about in his memoir, ‘Born Standing Up.’
“Nobody ever takes note of [my advice], because it’s not the answer they wanted to hear,” Martin said. “What they want to hear is ‘Here’s how you get an agent, here’s how you write a script,’ . . . but I always say, ‘Be so good they can’t ignore you.’”
The band’s stage show is well rehearsed. Their look is honed. And no matter where you see Low Cut Connie, you’ll see an amazing show. I’ve seen Adam play to a room of 2 people the same way as he plays to thousands. He knows that those 2 people will tell their friends about the show they saw and the next time, it will be a room of 4 people (hopefully more!). That’s important.
As Adam promises his fans in their song ‘Rio’, ‘stick with Low Cut Connie and you’ll never fucking lose.’ That’s the truth.
I’m looking forward to discussing this and more with Adam at my SXSW panel, Artist Development in 2018 — Do It Yourself? on March 16th at 4:30pm. Next week, I’ll be sharing a taste of how Rishi Dhir has developed his career and created superfans for Elephant Stone.
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