Real Men Don’t Cry by DOX

Get a great deal on the album here: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/dox12

RMDC stands for “Real Men Don’t Cry” which Is track #5 on my album “Venture Capital”.  RMDC is the next video release from my disc which should debut on YouTube in about 2 weeks.  What I’ve learned from releasing my previous two videos is that I need women in the videos regardless of the subject matter.  The song could be about boulders and I’d need women sitting on those boulders.  The song could be about toe nails, and I’d need to show women painting those toe nails.  Come hell or high water, I need the fairer sex to hold these guys’ attention.  At least that’s what the men I’ve spoken to tell me.  When I released the last video “sorry”, that’s all anybody asked me.  One of my friends even went as far as to tell me that they were tired of seeing my ugly mug, in my own video!  So with that emphatic statement said, I enlisted the help of a couple of lovely female dancers for this video.  What I found interesting about these two women while shooting the video was just how distinctly different both of their presentations were.  They were both great in their very own ways.  One of the girls, LeTara, was technically sound, and she had that dougie working real good.  The other girl, Destiny, had a more fluid approach.  Her movements were real easy, cooler than the other side of the pillow.  After watching them go hard for four takes each, I gained an appreciation for just how hard it is to go hard dancing for four and a half minutes nonstop, but the ladies pulled it off like champs.  Of course we gave them five minute breaks between takes.  Another nuance worth mentioning is that the two girls never met.  This was by design.  We wanted both women to be extremely comfortable, without worrying about what the other one would be doing during her set.  Based on what I observed from both women, that was the right decision.  Of course there are other scenes in this video, but this video is for the men, so it’s all about the women.  No exchange underscores that better than when my video editor came over to me during the video shoot and asked me just how much of me was I expecting to see in my own video.  I responded by saying when in doubt, cut to the girls.  Regardless of who is on the screen, it’s still MY video.

Venture Capital by DOX available on Amazon and iTunes now.

I just found out that my debut album “Venture Capital” is being pirated on several websites.  By my count there are at least 10 sites, but there may be more. When I say pirates I don’t mean “Pirates of the Caribbean”, and I certainly don’t mean Disney’s animated kiddy flick “Pirates!” which just came out a weekend ago.  I mean straight up internet thieves.  Obviously it’s somewhat disappointing, but given some of the things I’ve experienced thus far, I’d say that this is just the other shoe dropping.  I stumbled on these pirates by accident, after searching my album on Google.  I was shocked to see that so many websites who I have established zero business relationships with, were offering downloads of my disc for free.  I was talking to my friend and producer RealIZM about it yesterday and his initial reaction was that I should sue.  But sue who?  I don’t know who these people are, and I haven’t a clue as to where they originate from.  They could all be in cahoots, or they could all be acting as independent agents.  Who knows?  This for me is a catch 22.  On one hand, in some ways it’s a compliment that someone would deem my independent music as good enough to be stolen, on the other hand, pirates erode the bottom line and undermine any potential sale.  Every day since my album was released I’ve been echoing my own personal mantra that it’s a dirty game when confronted with an obstacle.  This latest setback has me sounding like a broken record.

Sometimes I watch a YouTube video’s meteoric rise from zero to one million views in 24 hours and I think to myself, “What would it be like?” It would be great, but I think my heart would race with trepidation if any of my videos was getting that much attention. But as I said before, it would still be great. The torture scenes in the “Sorry” video were a lot of fun to shoot. I had some people tell me they were uncomfortable watching me get slapped around like that, but no worries, I’m fine. A lot of it was played up for the camera to make things look as authentic as possible. The scene that we tried to make look as real as possible was the choking scene with the bat. During filming, my assailant choked me for a good 30 seconds, but it felt like an eternity. At the end, about five seconds before that scene ended, I yelled out “that’s gotta be enough”. In the video you can see me mouthing those sentiments at approximately the 2 minute and 35 second mark. Suffice it to say, the choking scene is the scene that I paid for the most. After the video was shot, for the next two weeks I had trouble swallowing. The pain was pretty intense. I emerged from the blows to the chest, the back, and the shot to the leg unscathed though, so overall it was great. I’m going to refrain from explaining the concept of the video, because I once read that if you have to go overboard explaining what you were trying to do, then your concepts need fine tuning. As of this writing the “Sorry” video has over 200 views in a little over a week and a half. Thanks to everyone who has viewed it already. If you haven’t seen it as yet, you can scroll down below this latest posting to see it here on my blog page. Thanks again.

Sorry by DOX

I’ve gotten a lot of great feedback regarding my first video release “violence”. The latest comment I got was that I had a good videographer. I also have to credit my editor who did a really nice job as well. Of course as an independent artist, I have a very small group of remarkable people who are quite possibly making me look better than I actually am. I definitely appreciate all of their help. As for the video itself, we wanted to give it the feel of a public service announcement. That’s the reason the one shot in the video that has me in front of a black background holding up cards as visuals to drive the message home. That shot was done in a basement with black bed sheets covering the walls to create a more neutral setting. Another shot has me on the couch at home listening to the track on my iPod in my living room. The goal here was to convey to my audience that I enjoy listening to my own music as well, in case there was any doubt. The third and final shot has me in downtown Minneapolis on the corner of 7th street and 10th avenue, just across from the Metrodome, in a scene where I’m picketing to get the word out that we need to stop the violence. What I remember most about that day was just how cold it was. We shot that scene on a Saturday afternoon in mid February, and it was a frigid 9 degrees Fahrenheit outside, with a pretty strong headwind slapping me directly in the face. I had to hold my picket sign firm, because it was getting jostled around just a bit by all that wind. I want to thank everyone who has viewed my video on YouTube so far. I’ve gotten some helpful feedback from quite a few of you, and I will be keeping all of it in mind when I’m working on subsequent videos.

Violence by DOX

I recently submitted some of my new music to Pandora for airplay consideration. They must be really busy over there at Pandora, because my submission happened almost a week ago and every time I check the status of my submission, it says that my submission is still “under review”. So while I await a decision, I thought about what it would mean to be approved for airplay on the very popular internet radio site. Obviously for me it would be huge. As I understand it Pandora has over 100 million users, which would mean great exposure for my music, provided that my songs ever navigated their way into anyone’s playlists. On the other hand, what if Pandora rejected my submission? There may have been a time when that would have been devastating for me, but now I just view it as part of the process. Don’t misunderstand me, it would certainly be a setback, but if the Jeremy Lin story has thought me anything, it’s that even the experts on occasion can be wrong. For anyone unfamiliar with the Jeremy Lin story, Jeremy Lin is the Asian American sensation who turned the New York Knicks’ season completely around. They were dead in the water until they discovered his talent on the end of their bench. The only reason the Knicks even played this guy was because they were decimated by injuries, so even they didn’t know what they had until he showed them is a game situation. Well before Jeremy Lin was a New York Knickerbocker, he was an undrafted rookie free agent, and then a roster casualty of both the Golden State Warriors and the Houston Rockets. Both teams cut him, and countless NBA scouts and teams passed on him and his talent. Now Lin is in New York averaging something along the lines of 24 points and 10 assists. Just goes to show that even if they don’t believe in you, as long as you believe in you, anything can happen. I believe in me, and if I don’t get airplay on Pandora, I’m sure I’ll get airplay someplace else. Thank you Jeremy Lin and thank you Pandora for your consideration.