Streaming with Caldy

Written by Atomic Newsroom on 21 February 2020

With the world of music changing each and every day, more and more artists are turning to different mediums to get their music out to the masses. This includes a step up in busking, youtube video’s, blogs about their personal lives (or little puppies!?) and much more.

It use to be a musician without a gig would hit the streets with their hat out playing songs for tips gaining multiple levels of success in the process and sweating their arses off all the same. These days, we have seen a lot of artists taking up the trend of staying home in comfort, flicking up a bit of open source software and streaming a show live from their home built studios or even lounge-rooms!

We spent some time catching up with Albury/Wodonga artist, Caldy who talks about how he uses these new tools to get his music out!

You have been playing on the border for a long time now. Where did you get your start on stage?

I did a lot of performing in high school with the choir and school bands, but my first live gig out of school was as a singer in a cover band when I was 16 out at the Yack folk festival, I was ridiculously nervous, especially since I had to play bass for a song when I’d never played it before.

You weren’t always behind a set of strings, what other instruments do you play?

I play drums, I dabble in bass, I was learning piano back when I was really young and I’m a singer.

What are your musical influences? i.e. what sort of music do you like to listen to?

I listen to most kinds of music depending on the mood. I was brought up on pub rock, soul and RnB, but I found metal and hardcore and I find it resonates the most with me.

What would we expect out of a Caldy show?

You can expect dad jokes, polite mumbling, and then some belted out tunes that’ll make you laugh and cry.

Have you written any original music yet?

I’ve written a couple of originals in my time, but none of them are included in my acoustic set. I am working on some though, they’re just very slow works in progress.

You have been streaming on Twitch lately, how is it being received by your audience?

I’ve only got a couple of viewers at this stage, but it’s been really chilled out so far. I’m hoping to grab some more when I start incorporating my music into my streams.

Do you find you have a better chance of receiving an audience by streaming rather than playing at a venue?

Honestly hard to say at this stage. I feel like my style of music will have a chance to go “viral” because it’s mixed in with gameplay. That being said, the few gigs I’ve had with my own name on a poster, the turn outs haven’t been the greatest, so I can only really improve from here.

What sort of audience numbers are you receiving by pushing your craft on Twitch?

The reports I get after streams say my numbers are pretty small at the moment, but I’m holding viewers at the moment for an average of over an hour at a time, so I’m thinking that will improve exponentially if there’s tunes scattered through the stream as well. Should be interesting to see!

We have seen a lot of success with Streamers in the past. Local artist Chris Miller saw mass track streams, Radium status, repeating weeks on the top of the Atomic Countdown and his track “Not Crazy” taking out number 1 on the Atomic Hundred of 2019. Maybe this is the new way to get your music out to a global audience!?

Are you seeing a growing trend in musicians taking to streaming?

There’s currently a huge platform there for it, and I’ve sort of popped in while it’s already real well established, so I can’t comment too much on the trend, but I think there should be more people taking the plunge.

Do you think Stream gaming is going to be the next big thing for music noting failing trends for turnouts at live events?

I don’t think it’ll be the next big thing so much as an alternative big thing. We already see big gigs streaming online at the moment, and that just makes things convenient for people that can’t travel. I don’t think the live experience can be beat though.

What is your most memorable moment as a muso? Best show, best song you learnt, best moment…

It’s still got to be the first time I saw a crowd moving to original music I’d written alongside my mates in Mercury Owl, looking up from the drums and seeing kids moshing to us was a real rush and still fuels my drive to entertain people 8 years later.