That's great news, @Sebastian Jautschus! Really looking forward to the episode as I've been listening to and admiring From Somewhere Quiet for a while now. And thanks for reposting his IG post, @Jacopo Ramonda. I would be interested in the following: Background / Biography: - Are you formally trained as a musician? - Was the pandemic a catalyst for starting From Somewhere Quiet? - Are you still working a day job alongside the project? Creative Process: - In one of your IG posts, you mentioned that only a small percentage of your songs actually get released. Do you usually work on multiple projects in parallel? - What criteria do you use to decide when a piece is truly “release ready”? - What typically sparks a new song for you? Is it often a new sound (for example from a new pedal), or does it usually start with a riff, motif, or hook? Guitar Nerd Questions: - What are your favorite pedals at the moment? - What does your recording setup look like? Do you go straight from the pedalboard into the DAW, or do you record through an amp? - How do you create those beautiful ambient textures and pads in your tracks? Marketing & Promotion: - Which promotion strategies have you experimented with, and how would you evaluate their effectiveness? - Do you actively promote your Spotify “This Is From Somewhere Quiet” playlist (for example via ads)? - How much of your steady growth would you attribute to editorial playlists — and how much to collaborations (e.g., with Adam Dodson)? Sorry for the many questions, I have already limited myself to three per section 😄

Hey @Peter Monrad, super interesting to see how similar our approaches actually are! I’ve never worked with a dedicated mastering engineer so far — even though I have two musician friends who produce as well. Part of the reason was simply that I wanted to really learn and understand the whole process myself. And, if I’m honest, I also didn’t want to keep bothering my friends with my solo instrumental rabbit holes 🙂 You’re absolutely right about the tape character and analog warmth. For me, that’s exactly the goal. The “digital coldness” of many modern guitar recordings has always been the biggest aesthetic disturbance for me. Adding subtle saturation, soft compression and harmonic movement feels less like coloring and more like correcting something that would otherwise feel sterile. Funny enough, I also used the Logic tape delay preamp without the delay itself in the beginning — just for the character. These days I mostly use a Softube plugin for that purpose instead: https://www.softube.com/eu/plug-ins/tape-echoes And thanks a lot for sharing the EQ screenshots! That’s genuinely fascinating. If you had asked me beforehand, I would have bet that my track had less top end than yours. Which probably proves your earlier point: we tend to judge our own material more critically — and often inaccurately. Your visual/methodical approach makes a lot of sense to me. I sometimes try to do something similar, but I have to be careful not to disappear too deep into the analytical rabbit hole and lose the musical instinct in the process.

@Peter Monrad Oh yes, I’m right there with you. I also bought a few Universal Audio plugins again on Black Friday, and I keep realizing how time-consuming it is to really get used to and properly test new tools. It’s exciting, but it also takes a lot of time before you actually know what you’re doing with them. And in the end, most “normal” listeners don’t hear these subtle production differences anyway. What really matters is whether the song itself works. If I look at my stats, my best-performing track is honestly not particularly well produced — it’s basically just the Ed Sheeran riff that works. That’s a good reminder for me not to overthink things too much 🙂

Hey @Max Fedoseev, thank you for your honest and open late-night thoughts! I really appreciate the transparency. I can relate very well to what you’re wrestling with regarding the live business. I also play in bands across different styles, and even in the rock scene here in Cologne, it’s extremely difficult for an unknown band to get well-attended gigs. At this stage of life (mid-40s), I’m also no longer interested in the hustle of endless support gigs and sleeping in vans. Realistically, what’s left is renting a small club once or twice a year and playing mostly for friends and family — which, financially, is never cost-covering. For my solo project, I therefore made a conscious decision from the beginning not to pursue live gigs at all. That said, one idea I found interesting — I believe it came up in the podcast with @Hvetter Hvetter — was playing at yoga events or similar settings. I think, as with all marketing activities, finding the right audience is the real art. And yoga, meditation, or mindful events seem much more aligned with our kind of calm instrumental music than the typical club setting. In any case, I truly hope you’ll find a financially sustainable way to continue your path. I’m rooting for you 🤞🏼 And @Graeme Ross — yes, artists like Einaudi (wonderful photo by the way!) or Hermanos Gutiérrez are filling large venues. But they’ve already crossed into mainstream territory, and their journeys involved more than just gradual organic growth. Hermanos Gutiérrez, for example, had the pivotal connection with Dan Auerbach — and that kind of catalyst changes everything. Without that, who knows which clubs they’d be playing today. From my perspective, the core question is therefore this: How does a small independent artist build that kind of momentum without major support or a breakthrough connection? That, to me, is the real strategic challenge.

Oh yes, @Graeme Ross — I really like that idea. Bringing instrumental artists together could actually make a lot of sense, especially in terms of sharing risk and audience. And as @Sebastian Jautschus put it so nicely: “It’s not a question of if, but of when.” 🦦🎸

@Sebastian Jautschus Yes, the vinyl has two sides and each side can contain a maximum of 23 minutes. See here: https://elasticstage.zendesk.com/hc/en-gb/articles/30010522683281-What-are-the-Vinyl-and-CD-product-specifications Unfortunately there is no Shopify connection, but selling via ElasticStages itself is quick and easy to set up.

Hey @Peter Monrad , the shipping from London to Germany (EU) went completely smoothly in my case. No issues at all. That said, I just double-checked and slightly corrected my earlier number in the post — I increased it from €35 to €42, because in addition to shipping there were also taxes on top (see screenshot). Even so, I still find the price absolutely reasonable for a true on-demand vinyl service. Especially considering that @Sebastian Jautschus mentioned his pressing ended up around €80 — in that context, this feels more than fair. Regarding mastering: Before uploading anything, I spoke with an audio engineer to clarify what I should pay attention to for vinyl. ElasticStage also provides quite detailed guidance on their website, which helped: https://elasticstage.zendesk.com/hc/en-gb/articles/30898244171793-Do-I-need-to-master-my-tracks-for-Vinyl In the end, I kept it very simple: - I reduced the overall level slightly using a gain plugin (just to give some extra headroom). - I applied a gentle low-end filter to avoid problematic sub frequencies. That was essentially it. The adjustments were minimal, and the record sounds very good on vinyl — no issues with distortion or low-end problems. So at least in my case, I was able to use my original masters with only small technical adjustments.