Music is one of the most powerful vehicles man has for conveying emotion. It is one of the few areas where the baring of one’s soul and the child-like spirit of play are allowed a paradoxical marriage; at once vulnerably personal and yet both created and listened to for fun. When done well, music is more than just entertainment. Instead it becomes the image of life, from the everyday and mundane to the intangible and unseen. It carries us into the deepest recesses of despair, through the ecstatic heights of joy, and makes pit stops at every place in between.
At Not a Sound we look for ambitious artists that are more than entertainers. While there is most certainly a place for that kind of music, we are more interested in giving coverage to artists who strive towards some of the following things:
- Well-crafted lyrics (we love lyric-driven music)
- Unique perspectives (personal, political, philosophical, socio-economical etc.)
- Album-oriented music (see Build a World, Not a Sound)
- A-typical song structure choices (we welcome progressive, artsy, and mathy tendencies when they suit the song/album)
- Ambitious musical/lyrical choices (try new things, be bold)
- Attention to arrangement (sometimes a piano and voice is all you need for a beautiful piece, sometimes you stack as many musicians as you can into the studio. Get creative with what you use and don’t use)
Think of these six categories as guidelines and not as hard rules. You don’t have to tick all of these boxes, or even most of them. We want to hear your art, so don’t be shy about submitting! If it’s not for us, don’t be discouraged. Just because one blog doesn’t care for what you do doesn’t mean your art is bad or in any way invalid. Never give up creating based on the taste of a couple strangers on the internet.
Not a Sound 