I Am Frank! Interview for Double Page Spread

Carried out my interview with I Am Frank! and managed to get an answer from all four of them for each question, which was lucky :)

Here are the results:

What do you think of your upcoming album Lovers In Lisbon?

Jim: "Well, yeah, I'm very excited about it. We've dedicated a lot of time and it's got potential."

Sam: "I'm quite excited. It's a whole new experienced for all of us to be out there. We're proud of the album."

Luke: "We've been working for a long time on it and it's going to break down barriers and blow people's minds! (He laughs)"

Gaz: "We've put a lot of time and effort into it and i think it's pretty damn good!"

How did the group form / how did you guys meet?

Jim: "We met at college because we all have the same enthusiasm for music."

Sam: "As everyone else will probably say, we all met in the first few weeks of college and basically said 'why not?'."

Luke: "We all do music and music tech at Ludlow college and decided to make use of the recording studio here to lay down some tracks."

Gaz: "Yeah, same as the others, we met in music at college and bam, it all started."

Who or what are you guys influenced by?

Jim: "Alternative bands like Coldplay & Muse as well as Oasis and other bands like Kasabian."

Sam: "The Editors, We Are Scientists, Coldplay, Muse and general Indie/Alternative music too."

Luke: "I'm influenced particularly by 80s sounding synthpop and The Cure."

Gaz: "I'm influenced by many different genres... Red Hot Chilis and Bullet For My Valentine are two examples.

Do you write all your own music and lyrics? If so, why?

Jim: "Yeah, we write our own stuff, It's how we can express ourselves, like a sort of poetry."

Sam: "Yes, of course! It's a way of displaying our independent thinking."

Luke: "Yep, we write it all our own because it's original and more unique to us."

Gaz: "Yeah, we do. We play a couple covers, but we generally start jamming and just go from there really."

What was the experience of recording your EP and first album like?

Jim: "It was a great experience, we put so much time into it and all share the passion for our records. It was great fun!"

Sam: "Very good! It was great, we all realised our musical ability and how they fit together when we were recording."

Luke: "It was tough as we had to produce it ourselves and it was all new to us, but don't get me wrong, it was definitely a lot of fun."

Gaz: "Hard work! But definitely worth it and we goofed around and have a good time."

Finally, for any readers hoping to get noticed by record labels, what advice can you give?

Jim: "Never give up, if you have something you want to achieve, set yourself a goal and work as hard as you can to achieve it."

Sam: "Go to gigs, get a fan base and following going and just go from there."

Luke: "(He Laughs) You need the tunes to start with, be original and send your EPs off to as many labels as you can. Get yourself out there!"

Gaz: "As Jim said, NEVER give up. That's it really, just keep on pushing yourself."

QUOTES SECTION:

If you had one sentence to describe the impact of music on your life, what would you say?

Jim: "Music is my life"

Sam: "My soul is musical"

Luke: "I'm so 80s it hurts"

Gaz: "Music is epic and always ongoing"

 

Contents Page Drafting Process

This is my first draft of my contents page at a very basic level. As with my other first drafts, there is not really any presence of colour and there aren't any graphics or anything to make it stand out (e.g. effects, drop shadows, glows, bevel, emboss etc.)

This draft of my contents page has colour added to it to help break up the text and background and improve readability.

This draft has drop shadows and glows added to text, making it easier to read and stand out. I have also added blue table lines, breaking up the content. As well as this, i have added a glowing CD graphic and a tilted small front cover image with the issue number and date underneath it (also tilted).

This is my finalised version of my front cover. It has been covered with the letters "EP" all over the background at 10% opacity on photoshop to break up a plain background and also subtly advertise the magazine within itself. (The EPs are easier to see on large version)

Double Page Spread Drafting Process

This was my first attempt at making a double page spread, which was an idea that didn't turn out as well as i thought it would do. I scrapped this idea, due to the following reasons: It was too dark for an indie magazine, there were too many pictures which gave the appearance of separation between band members and Luke said it made Sam look like the leader of the group.

So i began to redraft my idea completely, rooting around in my photoshoot folder as i discovered the one i original i intended to use (the dark one with Sam on the right) was too dark. I had to use this photo, which i hadn't posted as a photo i was using and flip it so it was more aesthetically pleasing and suited for my layout. This version, like my other first drafts, has no colour and no effects and is at a basic level just so you can see the layout.

I added colour to this draft, using different shades of blue to highlight important text and white text for the normal writing text (When i do the real text, i will use columns)

This is my final draft for my double page spread. I added background shadows to the main bulk of text and drop shadows to the coloured text to make them stand out more, i also did the same bevel and emboss smoothed effect for the I Am Frank! heading to make it stand out more and added white outer glows to both that and THE INTERVIEW part. 

Let me know what you think :)

Double Page Drafting Process

Here is my drafting process for creating my contents page, from start to finish:

This was my first mock up, following my layout draft designs from earlier in February. There is no colour or graphics on this version other than the barcode.

This version i added colours and the plus sign and sticker/label graphic. I stuck to my agreed theme of mostly blues, with a little green to break the text up at the bottom.

This time, i added a lot of effects to help things stand out more. I added drop shadows to all layers (the entire series is done purely in Photoshop) and white outer glows to "I Am Frank!" and EP. I also beveled and embossed EP - it may not look like it, but i ramped the depth up to 1000 and played with the smoothness dial to get this funky effect.

This is one of two finalized drafts (granted, without the proper text/articles on it yet!). I changed some of the fonts from my original idea of Caviar Dreams to make the magazine more glossy and stylish, to give the appearance of a more sophisticated and sleek style. I Am Frank! is in Kushtie Script and the PLUS and EXCLUSIVE! parts are in "Birth Of A Hero" font. The straplines are in Champagne Light font. I fiddled a little more with the EPs smoothness and was happier with this effect which is less washed out in my opinion.

This is the second version of finalised draft. It's exactly the same as version one but for the Bolder/Thicker EP.

Let me know which you prefer, thicker or thinner EP logo?

Cheers :)

First Layout Drafts

Here are four layouts for my magazine, let me know which you think will work best. (The band picture will appear to the left side, the heads being near the top and naturally legs/feet at the bottom)

Fonts!

Please comment letting me know your favourite font out of these :)

The Treatment - EP Magazine

The Magazine:  EP

 

Target Readership:  EP is a magazine targeting a similar audience to the already existing Q Magazine, published by the Bauer Media Group, which is described as “Open minded experience seekers, the Q audience don't define themselves by the music they listen to. Music is an important passion”.

 

EP will be read by those who are indeed open minded when it comes to music, but more specifically an audience that is interested in discovering new and upcoming indie, underground or little-known bands (hence the name, EP). The age target will be from around 15 to 20 years old as these are typically the ages in which people are interested in new, upcoming indie music. In terms of finance, the 15-20 age groups will likely be able to purchase EP themselves out of their earnings or pocket money in the C1/C2 classes. The audience of my magazine will mostly be men interested in gigs, musical interests, and high expenditure on music in general.  EP readers will tend to be musically aware or talented, with greater appreciation for new types of music and the background behind it. They will also be people with a wide interest in various bands and music genres that influence indie music in some way. EP readers will be those with aspirations in the music industry or those wanting inspiration from artists. Readers will be those who have music as a main part of their life, not afraid to actively search out music on the internet, be recommended new bands/groups and listen to older music that is not as popular as modern day music.

 

Form and Style:  EP is an A4 full colour magazine which contains interviews, album reviews, roundups of collections/records, gig coverage, news and new/alternative bands or groups. Covers use models of approximately the same age group as the target audience and use non-garish colours such as blues and purples, with appearances of clashing colours to highlight things (e.g. green).  EP will regularly feature unknown, new, or up and coming bands on the front cover, to introduce readers to them and intrigue them to buy and read EP.  Cover lines will be related to the above mentioned albums reviews, interviews (Though this will often be the main headline), news etc. Graphics used will be to try and show the audience that this magazine is good value for money, with sticker-like graphics and turned-page graphics creating a jam packed front cover whilst remaining refined.  The magazine will sell at £2.75, a new pricing scheme for a fortnightly EP issue rather than the usual monthly or weekly.

 

Themes and Typical features:  EP will have many regular features typical to that of indie or alternative magazines such as Q.  Every issue will include gig coverage, album or band reviews, and interviews with artists as well as (if possible) a new band each issue.  There will be a strong focus on indie music although it is not solely indie and covers new genres as well. EP will also attempt to include reader opinions on reviews and gig coverage, though this will obviously not be in the first issue. The magazine will also include the latest news from the alternative/indie scene and articles could include things such as music lessons, advice, tips and tutorials the writers will use language familiar to the target audience to make the magazine, using some technical music vocabulary, showing that the audience will have to be knowledgeable to read the magazine.

 

Potential advertisers:  A range of brands will advertise in the magazine each week, particularly those relating to the typical interests of musically interested people. These will include game advertisements from companies such as Ubisoft, EA Games or Bethesda Softworks. Adverts will naturally also include album adverts for recently released or upcoming releases. New band DVD releases could be included, such as “The Beatles – Cirque du Soleil” .Finally, there will naturally be adverts with details of upcoming gigs and events.

 

Editorial Team:  The editorial team for EP will be made up of experienced writers and designers from Extended Play Media Group. The team will be mostly made up of young, musically interested and experienced men around the 20 year old mark, however, readers of the magazine will also regularly be asked to contribute their ideas in the form of e-mail or letters and older writers can contribute to the classic/older music features. The team will do extensive research on competing magazines to attempt to include fresh articles that the competition isn’t including, or are doing so only on a vague/basic level  The aim of the team is to bring fresh ideas to the target audience whilst also having a wealth of reliable experience.

Audience Research Survey Results

I used speedsurvey to gather information on you guys, which helped greatly. Unfortunately, it only runs up until 25 respondents, then wants you to pay to see the results. However, i was lucky enough to view the results just before it went over and can remember a substantial amount. The answers were as close to as follows:

Are you male or female?

24 Respondents MALE

1 Respondent FEMALE

--- This shows me my target audience will largely be male and could shape the content for them.

What age range are you in?

About 40% of people were in the 21-30 age rage

About 50% were in the 15-20 age range

The other 10% was spread to the ages above 30.

--- This shows me that i am mostly aiming for a fairly young, teenagers and those in their twenties audience, so will have to include modern content and also enables me to refine my content to specifically cater for this age range.

If any, which music magazines do you currently read? (if none, put none)
and what do you find good or bad about your current choice of magazine?

The majority of the respondents did not currently read a music magazine, but those that did liked their magazine because of the genre of music it covered. None read Kerrang! however, showing that perhaps the popularity for a weekly rock-based magazine is fading. The magazines that were read were NME and Q because they liked the bands they covered. The things they did not like was incorporation of things too mainstream into the mags.

---The lack of people actually reading a magazine from the respondents shows there is something missing from the current market, which of course i am aiming to fill with my indie-based magazine. The complaints about mainstream content should not be a problem with my magazine, as most of the bands i would feature would be new, underground and indie bands. The NME and Q genres are not a far cry from my genre, so it bodes well for me that they like their genres.

What would you look for in a music magazine in terms of features/articles? AND What would you AVOID in a music magazine?

Preferred features:

• Interviews
• Album Reviews
• Gig coverage
• Simple, clean page designs
• Free gifts (e.g. CDs)
• Roundups/collections of records you should buy

Disliked features:

• Adverts
• Bad page layouts/over complex
• Text that is too small to read properly
• Garish colours
• Overly critical/trashy reviews

---My response to this is fairly simple, try and include the liked features and avoid doing anything in the disliked section. I plan to make page layouts as intuitive and clean as possible with easy to read text and stick to my intended blue themed design (not garish). I can also try to include the liked features, which shouldn't be too difficult.

What is your favourite genre of music?

There was almost one vote for every genre of music, but the main focus was on trance and indie (with 4 votes each).

---As trance will not be appearing in my genre of magazine, the preference for indie is a good indication that i am targeting the right market.

Would you prefer a more expensive monthly magazine, or a cheaper weekly mag?

The spread here was fairly even, with a slight preference for monthly.

---This was interesting to have as a result and made me think about going away from the normal two trends of weekly or monthly and go straight down the middle at a fortnightly magazine (allowing more time to save for the magazine, and alleviating pressure to buy it weekly) so that it is a good all rounder.

What sort of price range would you be expecting to pay for a WEEKLY magazine?

Most people here voted for the £2.00-£2.50 bracket, with a few in the bracket below in £1.50-£1.99.

How much you expect to pay for a MONTHLY magazine?

Most people here voted for the £2.99-£3.49 mark, with a couple going for the above bracket £3.50-£4.00

---As the above prices are fairly close together, i think my earlier idea of a fortnightly magazine is a wise one. I could set the price inbetween these two brackets at £2.75 and make it fornightly, so that it isnt as expensive as a monthly, is only slightly more expensive than a weekly one yet would potentially have double the content. 

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Overall, i think my audience research survey helped me to make many decisions and had enabled me to focus my magazine's content and can now complete a treatment  sheet in the near future.