Making a Scene Presents an Interview with American MileAmerican Mile isn’t just a band. They’re a touring machine, a modern voice for Southern rock, and storytellers for the real American struggle. Built on pure road-warrior grit, the band is carrying Southern rock forward with a sound that’s loud, raw, and impossible to ignore. http://www.makingascene.org
Making a Scene Presents Gerry Casey's Interview with Claudia CaneClaudia Cane has been a force in the music scene for almost 25 years. German audiences first got to know her as the voice behind several SAT.1 TV theme songs, including the tracks for Benzin im Blut with Sonja Kirchberger, 36 Stunden Angst, and Die rote Meile. Her distinctive, raspy voice stood out right away. After spending five years in London completing professional training in acting and musical theater, she returned to Germany and quickly became known nationwide. http://www.makingascene.org
Making a Scene Presents - The Secret Power of Sidechains: How They Shape Modern MixesIf you’ve ever looked at a compressor or a gate and wondered what the little “Sidechain” button does, you’re not alone. Most beginners skip right past it because it looks like something made for scientists, not indie musicians working in a home studio. But the truth is simple. A sidechain is just a way to let one sound control what happens to another sound. That’s it. Once you understand that idea, you unlock one of the most powerful tools in the entire world of mixing. http://www.makingascene.org
Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Paul FilipowiczHe has been playing the blues for more than 40 years, all while working full-time in construction and roofing to make a living. This year, worn-out knees and elbows finally pushed him into retirement from the heavy labor. Even so, he hasn’t slowed down. He’s now building a cabin near Tomahawk using timber he harvested from his own 70-acre property. http://www.makingascene.org
Making a Scene Presents - What Is Latency? And How to Record Without Losing Your GrooveWritten for indie musicians who just want their tracks to sound right without fighting their gearIf you’ve ever tried to record vocals or guitar and felt like your timing was weird, or you couldn’t stay in the pocket no matter how hard you focused, you’ve already met the enemy. That enemy is latency. Latency is one of those home-studio problems that doesn’t care how talented you are. When it’s bad, it throws off your groove in a way that feels like someone moved the beat a few inches to the left. http://www.makingascene.org
Making a Scene Presents - Turning One song Into 30 Pieces of AI-Generated ContentHow Indie Artists Can Turn a Single Track into a Month of PromotionThe New Reality: One Song Isn’t Enough AnymoreIf you’re an indie artist trying to grow your fanbase today, you’ve probably already felt the pressure. You drop a song, you post about it once or twice, and the whole thing sinks into the feed like a stone. It feels unfair, but this is the world we’re in now. The truth is that the platforms don’t promote your release just because you’re talented. They promote you when you give them steady content that keeps people watching. http://www.makingascene.org
Making a Scene Presents - Touring 2035: Why Your Next Fanbase Will Come From a Wallet, Not a ZIP CodeThe touring world you know is collapsing. That old-school strategy of drawing lines on a map, circling major cities, and hoping enough people show up to cover gas is fading fast. For decades, touring was built on guesswork and geography. But the next era of touring won’t be about cities at all. It will be shaped by something far more powerful and far more honest: blockchain wallets. These wallets hold tokens, smart tickets, digital credentials, and little pieces of fan loyalty that tell you exactly where your true community lives long before you ever pack a van. The touring map of 2035 will be drawn by clusters of fans who have already proven they care, not by the ZIP codes a promoter says might be “good markets.” http://www.makingascene.org
Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Kamel L King Entertainment Lawyer and Artist ManagementKamel L. King was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. He studied at American University in Washington, D.C., before returning home to attend Tougaloo College, where he graduated with honors and earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and International Relations. He later received his law degree from Mississippi College School of Law, focusing on intellectual property and entertainment law. http://www.makingascene.org
Making a Scene Presents - Why Web3 Touring Collectives Will Replace Booking AgentsHow Indie Artists Can Use DAOs, Fan-Powered Ticketing, and Community Spaces to Build Tours Without GatekeepersThe music industry likes to pretend that touring is some kind of secret science only insiders understand. Booking agents act like they hold magic keys. Venues act like they own every path to a stage. Promoters act like they decide who deserves to play. But if you talk to indie artists long enough, you learn the truth. The system isn’t complicated. It’s controlled. And Web3 is about to tear that control down to the foundation. http://www.makingascene.org
Making a Scene Presents Gerry Casey's Interview with Pierre Lacocque of Mississippi Heat!On the back cover of Mississippi Heat’s album Footprints On the Ceiling, there’s a photo of a man playing harmonica with such intensity you can almost hear the music in the silence of the still image. That man is Pierre Lacocque—the band’s founder, bandleader, and principal songwriter. What that photo suggests is exactly what his music delivers: a harmonica voice full of fire, soul, and emotion. http://www.makingascene.org
Making a Scene Presents - How to Use ChatGPT to Analyze Your Mix and Make It BetterThe New Secret Weapon for Indie Artists Mixing at HomeMixing your music at home shouldn’t feel like guesswork. But most indie artists know the feeling. You sit in front of your speakers, you start turning knobs, and you hope for the best. Some days everything sounds muddy. Other days your vocals feel harsh and thin. Maybe your kick drum disappears on phone speakers. Maybe you’re scared to even compare your mix to a real release because you don’t want to hear how far off it is. http://www.makingascene.org
Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Pops FletcherMy story starts at age thirteen in the Roosevelt Jr. High auditorium. Three of us stood onstage with acoustic guitars, blinded by a single follow spot, singing “If I Had a Hammer” and “Blowin’ in the Wind.” I didn’t realize it then, but folk music was the doorway that pulled me into a lifetime of performing. http://www.makingascene.org
Making A Scene Is Moving Toward a 100% Ad-Free, User-Supported FutureFor more than a decade, Making A Scene has been showing up every single day for the indie music world. We have published fresh content every single day for over 10 years straight. No breaks. No missed days. No excuses. Every sunrise brings new interviews, new reviews, new gear talk, new music business guides, and new tools to help independent artists grow. This is not a hobby for us. It is a mission. http://www.makingascene.org
Making a Scene Presents - AI Isn’t Replacing Musicians—It’s Replacing the Music Industry MiddlemenThere’s a strange truth hiding in plain sight in the music world right now, and the only people who seem scared of it are the ones who have the most to lose. If you listen to big labels, legacy execs, and certain industry talking heads, they want you to believe that AI is coming after the artists. They want you nervous, shaking, and convinced that a robot is going to take your guitar, steal your mic, and drop an album on Spotify before you can tune your instrument. http://www.makingascene.org
Making a Scene Presents - Emotion-Driven Mixing: How AI Reads Feelings to Shape the SoundThere’s a quiet revolution happening in the studio, and it has nothing to do with new mics or fancy compressors. It’s about something deeper. For the first time ever, we have AI tools that can actually read the emotional tone of music. Not just the key, tempo, or waveform shape. I’m talking about mood, feeling, energy, and intensity. This is called emotion-driven mixing, and it’s changing everything for indie artists, bedroom producers, and even film scorers who need to tell a story through sound. http://www.makingascene.org
Making a Scene Presents - AI-Powered Music Ads: Smarter Targeting, Better ResultsWhen you hear people talk about AI in music marketing, it usually sounds like a bunch of tech hype. But the truth is actually much simpler. AI has changed ads on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok in a way that finally helps indie musicians reach real fans without wasting money. You no longer have to sit there trying to guess interests, age groups, cities, or behaviors. The machines do the learning for you. AI watches who reacts to your music, who skips it, who follows, who saves, and who keeps repeating the song. Then it reshapes your entire ad delivery behind the scenes. http://www.makingascene.org
Making a Scene Presents - Warner Music Signs Deal with Suno.com and Ends it's LawsuitSo… What Happened?Last week, Warner Music Group (WMG) announced it had settled its copyright lawsuit against Suno. That lawsuit was one of several filed by major labels in 2024 and 2025, accusing AI music generators like Suno (and its rival Udio) of using copyrighted recordings — without permission — to train their AI models. http://www.makingascene.org
Making a Scene Presents - Music Metadata on the Blockchain: Fixing a Broken SystemThe music industry has a weird problem that nobody outside the business talks about. It’s not streaming payouts. It’s not labels taking too much money. It’s something way more basic, almost embarrassing when you think about it. The whole industry still runs on broken metadata. Metadata is the simple information about a song like who wrote it, who produced it, who played on it, who owns the master, who owns the publishing, and what identifiers track those rights. Without it, the entire royalty system collapses. And right now, that system is held together with duct tape, Excel sheets, and outdated databases that can’t keep up with the global music economy. http://www.makingascene.org
Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Roy Blumenfeld of The Blues ProjectRoy Blumenfeld has lived at the center of some of the most electrifying moments in New York’s 1960s music revolution. Born in the Bronx in 1944, he came of age just as American rock and roll was taking shape. Drawn early to the sounds of blues, R&B, and jazz, he picked up the drums and quickly became part of the city’s vibrant, fast-moving music scene. http://www.makingascene.org
Making a Scene Presents Gerry Casey's Interview with Rebecca DownesBirmingham-based singer, songwriter, and independent artist Rebecca Downes has spent more than a decade building one of the most respected reputations in modern blues-rock. Working closely with longtime co-writer and multi-instrumentalist Steve Birkett, she releases all her music on her own label Mad Hat Records—a fully self-sustained operation that handles everything from writing and recording to manufacturing, marketing, and global distribution through Cargo Records. http://www.makingascene.org