Nuclear Blast Internship Diary - Day 3

Wednesday 28 October 2015

More delays on central line. Plus it was hammering down with rain so not the best of starts. But I still got in before 10 and got straight down to business.


The best thing about working at a label office is the sound system. Can you think of any other workplaces that liberally play Type O Negative or Unleashed at 11am?

 It feels like this is a label run by actual music fans, unlike the 'tin-eared, graph paper brained accountants' whome the Dead Kennedys say run the major record companies. (Simon Cowell has never struck me as a genuine music lover to be perfectly honest.)

Mark, the boss, then sent me a spreadsheet to fill out with stock numbers and prices of NB releases on Amazon. Took a while to locate everything as Amazon isn't the easiet of sites to navigate but i eventually got the hang of it.

The best part of the day, however, was being offered to be on the guestlist for the Deathcrusher Festival on Thursday, but I had to decline as I was falling a little behind on university work - and the only band I hadn't seen on that bill was Carcass, whom I don't see disappearing any time soon, so i can go see them whenever they're next in town. But I am reviewing Endstille and Eastern Front on Friday, so it's not all doom and gloom.

Lisa left the office around 1 and said she'd go over more online things next week. She's going to Transylvania for Halloween. Something I should do at some point.

I was also told that the album reviews editor at Kerrang likes his black and death metal, so all the bands on the books like Enslaved and Immortal get covered. So Kerrang might raise itself up from the 'dark ages' I think it's been going through these past 12 years, by focusing on awful Pop Punk, Emo, Post Hardcore and Metalcore acts.

I've noticed a fair few Hard Rock, Psychedelic and Gothic Rock bands on he label too, which is great meaning NB has variety. It's good that it isn't just metal they put out - though I was surprised when they signed The 69 Eyes - but I cannot complain because that band have never put out a truly terrible album.

However, just for experience, I wouldn't mind doing some work experience at a label who specialise in only one type of metal. The infamous Helvete in Oslo does look promising...

Nuclear Blast Internship - Day 2

Tuesday 27 October 2015 

I arrived a little later and felt worried about being late but Claire, the press officer, told me I wasn’t expected until 10 so I was still early.

What a relief.

First of all, I filed away a few more magazine cut outs. As I leafed through the folder I was happy to see some of my published works in there. My review of Behemoth in Devolution Magazine and my Blind Guardian write up in Metal Monthly were just a few. Made me rather chuffed to know something I wrote had been read in this office.

Then Nik told me to put about 40 copies of the new Anthrax single ‘Evil Twin’ into envelopes and sticker on the radio station addresses. This felt like good manual labouring fun as I made up a routine of packaging and filing. It felt good using my hands as it beat staring into a computer screen all day.

Once that was done, I was shown how to use a franking machine to put the postal payments on the envelopes. Doing the mail might not have seemed like a typical music industry role, but it showed how big the logistics of getting new music out there can be and how much manpower it requires.

Lisa and Claire then discussed the Cradle gig last weekend. Apparently the band played well but the dancing girls didn’t know what to do. Someone covering that gig had already told me they were a letdown so I wasn’t surprised.

Whilst I can see the appeal of dancing girls, and I am not against them being used in any art form at all, I do sometimes find them cringe worthy. And I do wonder how many young people go to those sorts of gigs just to see a sexy woman waving her breasts around to the music.

In the afternoon I filled out more radio and TV airplay spreadsheets. Slayer had the most plays with their new single ‘Repentless’ and I posted more social media links about the new Suicide Silence video and what Dani Filth makes of Halloween in general. 

It was a typical day at the office,  but the most interesting part was when I was on my way home and Claire had accompanied me to post the singles I’d packaged. She told me how she’d come straight into PR from the world of Art and Sarah, the other press officer, had studied journalism before getting into the music world. 

According to her, PR appealed as what a journalist would do without all the hassle of research and interviewing people. Now that could come across as spiteful to all the hard working journalists I know, but I do get what she means. Being someone who likes to work backstage and give others a helping hand, I can see the world of PR beckoning me closer and closer.

Music PR is definitely a worthy encounter if you love music but aren’t sure if you could be a professional music writer. But always keep your options open as this is my first proper experience of this world.

Nuclear Blast Internship Diary - Day 1

Over the next three weeks I'll be interning at the London office of Nuclear Blast, one of the most succesful Heavy Metal record labels on earth. 

For anyone curious about how a record label is run, I'm going to document each day on here - detailing just what goes on for an intern in the music industry.

 


Monday 26 October 2015

I arrived at the office before everyone else. Something I was hoping I wouldn’t.

The manager, Mark asked me where I was from and seemed surprised I didn’t have a Greek accent. Then Nik, the radio and TV guy I’d met while interviewing Dani Filth came in. So far everyone had been really friendly.

My job at the label consisted of posting links of Tumblr and Twitter. First time I’ve used both platforms in many many years. Putting up things about whichever band is on their books. They also said I should write the odd press release or ‘retrospective’ about a band every now and again, if I have any knowledge of their past output.

Lisa, the head of marketing told me the average life of a Tweet is four minutes. Something I really was not expecting to learn – that was the most interesting thing I learnt on the first day. Now I really felt like I’d transferred from journalism to PR and was visiting a whole new world of the office realm.

Posting the same thing over and over from different magazines and media partners was the bulk of my day. Such as the new lyric video from Anthrax who are set to release their new album next year. Video was being promoted by Metal Hammer, Team Rock, Prog Magazine and Classic Rock.

Something about Overkill covering a Johnny Cash track also made the rounds.

In the afternoon, all the others went into a meeting leaving me to cut up the latest edition of Zero Tolerance magazine and stick pages covering label bands into the scanner. They said I could play with the sound system so I blasted Nachtmystium and Woods of Ypres as I taught myself how to use a Stanley knife. 

Eventually they all came back and I spent the last hour filling out spreadsheets detailing which latest song had been played on which radio station last week.

In all it was a true experience of how the music industry functions behind the facade of celebrity and teenage angst and idolatry. So many millions of kids grow up wanting to be the next big thing, but do they ever spare a thought for those who help them get to that level of stardom? Here’s to all the backroom kids who keep the cogs grinding when giving the world its entertainment.