We were lucky to have none other than Tom Pearce join Drooble, so we asked him to share some of his experience being a music industry veteran with over 40 years experience in the technical and business sides of the industry. Over the years, Tom has worked with many of the worlds top artists like Elton John, George Harrison, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck. Yes, we talked about that, the music business
today, and so much more – the interview with Tom is not one to miss!

Greetings, Tom! How did you discover Drooble and what do you think of our mission to unite musicians?

I discovered Drooble through one of your members – François Spannenburg – who suggested that it might be something I would appreciate. He was right!

There are all kinds of reasons for supporting any initiative that unites musicians, some of them creative reasons, some business, but most of all, really, I guess is just keeping alive the joy of playing and working with other musicians.

I think that technology these days can turn very talented people into hermits, locking themselves away in their own studios so, for me, anything that opens doors and lets in light is a very good thing indeed.

Introduce your current musical projects and tell us what makes them exciting for you!

Ah! Tricky. A lot of what I do these days is based around music project development in the game industry and most of that is pretty secret, I’m afraid, especially as project development can take a long time and cost a lot of money.

Developers don’t like risking an expensive idea being stolen and launched as an iPhone app after they have spent a couple of years developing it for PSVR 🙂 I don’t get into the studio as much as I would like these days and I miss the excitement of producing a new artist or a new song. However, I am a firm believer in media convergence (a term I hate, but have to live with) and that there are opportunities for growth and expansion in the music industry that labels and publishers have yet to explore.

This is the reason why I have become so involved in game music recently and I believe that the development of music-based apps, VR platforms and a whole host of other technologies will give composers and artists new outlets for their work and their talents and if the majors won’t embrace the ideas, the Indies certainly will. What makes it all exciting for me is the fact that we really are on the threshold of a new era – just like we were in the early 80’s with the development of digital audio, CD distribution and the birth of MTV.

It has taken a while but we are there again with VR and AR technologies as well as breakthroughs that we are making with game developers in understanding how to monetise music rights held in a game IP to the benefit of both the artists and composers as well as the IP owners themselves.

What are your most profound memories working with some of the world’s top-level artists, such as Jimmy Page and Elton John?

I could go on for hours on this topic! My most profound memories would have to include Live Aid – not just the show itself but also the work we did before and long after the event. We really did make a profound difference.

Working for Jimmy was an honour and working for Elton for so many years was simply a joy, too many memories to mention here but many of those memories also included the legendary producer Gus Dudgeon who was both a friend and a mentor as well as a prolific source of fun both in and out of the studio. He and his wife Shiela are sorely missed by all of us who knew him.

Probably, for me, my most profound memory came in 1991 during rehearsals for the George Harrison tour of Japan with Eric Clapton and his band. We were rehearsing at Bray Film studios (home of the original Thunderbirds sets and all of the Hammer House of Horror movies!) when one afternoon Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr dropped by to say hello. Within minutes they were onstage with George and Eric, just the four of them, playing Beatle songs.

I first saw the Beatles and Abbey Road studios as a kid in the mid 60’s watching the “All you need is love’ live transatlantic broadcast. I fell in love with the (then) amazing technology of international satellite TV broadcasting, recording studios in general, Abbey Road, George Martin and Geoff Emerick in particular and, of course, the Beatles themselves – it was a life-changing moment. Sadly, by the time I was old enough to find work in a studio myself, the Beatles were no longer a band so to have 3 out of the 4 onstage before my very eyes, with Clapton taking the John Lennon role was about as profound as it gets for me. Before anyone asks, we didn’t record it, no-one even took a photo. All of us there just knew that this was private, personal and magical.

As an experienced engineer and producer, what do you think about the democratization that happened to music recording?

Quincy Jones once said that “there is music and there is business – if you want to succeed, you had better learn the difference”. I would add that, these days, you need to learn both and learn them well. Back in the so-called ‘good old days’ there was only one medium available if you wanted to release your music – vinyl.

Pressing promoting and distributing vinyl singles and albums was expensive and risky and most, if not all, artists had no real choice but to sign up with a label. In addition, by comparison, studios were also very exclusive and way more expensive in real terms than they are now. The old joke of how to make a small fortune in the music industry is that you start with a big fortune and invest in a studio was true then and is still true now. The big difference is that you don’t actually need any of that now – I can do more in my office these days than I ever could imagine in the first studio I ever worked in.

Democratisation is an interesting word to use and in general, I am all in favour of it but it does kind of bring to mind an interesting comparison with the fall of the communist states in the late 80’s. Just like in the music business they went from a system of total control by a few powerful individuals to an open democracy powered by the many and in most cases, the many suffered just as badly as they did under the old regime. Democracy means that the power to succeed rests in your own hands and just because we have almost endless tools at our disposal to record, release, promote and distribute our music, it doesn’t mean that these tools perform some kind of magic that always leads to riches. At the end of the day, they are just tools. The one thing that a lot of artists these days forget is that the business itself has not changed… at all… in any way whatsoever.

For example, have you ever wondered why you need a UPC code for a digital upload? In other words, why does a digital file need the same barcode that was printed on the back of a CD insert? The reason is that the tracking systems used by iTunes etc. are exactly the same as they were with 7” vinyl singles 40 years ago. Steve Jobs didn’t revolutionise the music industry, he just gave us a different kind of shop.

I spend a lot of time advising artists who have recorded in their own studio, shoved the result out on Spotify and/or iTunes and then sat back waiting for the money to roll in. When it didn’t they started to wonder what went wrong. More than anything else, it is worth remembering that the real value in a piece of music is not in how many fans buy it but in what kind of deals you can make within the industry itself – licensing deals, master and publishing deals, sync deals and the list goes on and on.

To live and succeed in a democracy you have to learn to play the game and the rules of this particular democracy are pretty tough and haven’t changed much in years. Promotion is still one of the keys to success but again, understanding is the main thing. Take Facebook, for example. So many artists go all out on Facebook likes but they mean nothing at all – how many times have you liked a link a friend has sent you? It doesn’t mean that you will spend money – it often doesn’t mean even that you do like it, you’re just being friendly. Facebook followers are a more reliable indicator of possible future sales but it is worth applying the old ’10% rule’ there – if you have 1,000 followers, probably only around 10% of them will actually spend money.

So, to sum up, this rather long and tedious answer, you need to learn your trade as a musician but you also need to learn the business of music.

How important is collaboration for musicians’ development?

It’s not important – it’s essential!

What is it from your experience working with the elites that you most often have to bring to your clients?

Eric Clapton isn’t God, neither am I and neither are you! We all have good days and bad days and not everything we do is magical. Never be afraid to experiment, trust your heart before your ears and go into every session with an open mind.

How was life on the road during your time with Eric Clapton, George Harrison, and Jeff Beck?

From the 90’s onwards it was more civilised than you might expect (or want!). By the end of the 80’s the sex had become dangerous (AIDS, etc.), the drugs were expensive and the Rock and Roll had gone downhill dramatically but there were a few artists who rose above all that, Eric, George, Jeff and Elton in my own personal experience and there were others. All in all, it was an experience I would not trade for the world…I may write a book about it one day 🙂

What is the most important lesson you would like to teach every musician out there?