Indie Spotlight: Amanda Duncan

Amanda! Thank you so much for taking time to chat with me today! For those who aren’t familiar with you, how would you introduce Amanda Duncan to a new friend?

     I almost feel like actually asking a friend how they would answer this! Haha! I’ll give it a whirl…”This is my friend, Amanda. She’s creative, goofy, and watches an episode of Parks and Rec every single day.”

You’ve got quite a musical history! Opening for the likes of Dierks Bentley, Lindsey Stirling, Eric Hutchinson, and being nominated for (and winning!) quite a few Independent Music Awards! How did you get into music and what has that journey been like for you?      

     I was always singing as a little kid. My love affair with creative tech started with my audio cassette double-decker karaoke machine. I would spend make up songs with nonsense words and then spend hours layering harmonies to them. I also created a show called “The Cookie Hotline” where “people” (meaning me) would call into the show to order various types of cookies. The pitch slider on the karaoke machine definitely got a lot of use on that show. 

My journey as a singer-songwriter really began my junior year in high school. I didn’t want to sing to karaoke tracks anymore. I asked my uncle if I could borrow his guitar that was collecting dust. I would come home from school every single day and practice with a book and tape. Yes, I was still using audio cassette tapes.

From there I started writing terrible songs and eventually started writing halfway decent ones by the time I was out of college. Back when the dinosaurs roamed the Earth, I had posted a demo of my song “Love I Have for You” on MySpace. People really seemed to dig it. Shortly after releasing that, I promoted a show I had at a local coffee shop. I ended up packing the joint and when I sang that song the whole room sang along. I wasn’t expecting that...and in that moment I knew that I wanted more of THAT.

From that point on, I started taking my music career very seriously. I focused on honing my songwriting and marketing skills. I dove into the world of web/graphic design and audio engineering. It was important to me to have those things in my arsenal because I wanted to be as self-reliant as I could be. 

You have SO many things going on as a creative and I want to talk about them all! But let’s start with some of the creative things you’re doing outside of your own music. For those who don’t know, you actually have a production company where you do videography, animation, and graphic design work! I think my favorite is the animation you did for “Where Do The Seasons Get Their Names.” How did you get into this kind of work and how does it affect or inspire your own creative output?

    I have an addiction to making things. Hahaha! Any time I start learning something new I ask myself, “How can I tie this into my music career?”  

After being an audio engineer for so long, the software-loving geek in me was ready for another journey. Stepping into the video world was pretty natural for me. I had dabbled in animation for years, designing a bunch of websites using Flash (now Adobe Animate). The actual videography part of what I do came along when I got hired to edit videos for a real estate company. We would hire other people to go out and film and the footage they would send back was teeeeerrrible. I knew if I had the equipment I could do a much better job.  So that’s just what I did. I went all out...lenses, glidecam, monopod...even a drone. I knew I eventually wanted to make music videos for myself and this was the perfect excuse to splurge. Again, everything always connects to my music career.

For the past 6 years, I’ve made music videos for fellow local musicians. Getting the work would be as simple as chatting with a friend about their music video idea and me saying, “Let’s make it!” I was pretty hungry to develop my video and animation abilities. I’ve been able to cut my teeth on these projects and some of them have even gone on to win awards at film festivals. Pretty exciting stuff for me!

As if your own music and running a production company wasn’t enough, you ALSO have a livestream show called, Soft Pants Nation: A Motivational Variety Show! You’ve nearly crested 70 episodes, the show production is amazing, you spotlight tons of other creatives and inspirational people, and it seems like you have an incredibly good time doing it! Tell us where the idea for this show came from (and please tell me how you landed on the name 😂) and what your experience has been running this show for two years now?     

     I grew up watching variety shows like The Muppet Show and Carol Burnett. I love how there were special guests, musical numbers, and comedic skits. In 2014, I aired 2 episodes of a live streaming variety show concept that I had, but it was short lived because I didn’t really have a fleshed out plan of attack.

Fast forward to April 2019, I was feeling pretty sad about the state of my music career. I had a full album that was mixed and mastered, but I didn’t have the funding to print my CDs or get my merch made. (More on this later). I wanted to launch my weekly live streaming show when I released my album, but I had no idea when that was going to be. I already had the name because I would always joke on social media about living in Soft Pants Nation. People always got a kick out of it.

One night I was fed up with feeling sorry for myself. So, I grabbed my guitar and my phone and hit “go live”...and that was the beginning of Soft Pants Nation. I didn’t have an exact plan other than wanting to bring joy into people’s lives. I knew that if I made other people feel happier, that it would make me feel happier. 

After the first episode, the ideas started flowing and I quickly began to realize that I could use my music as a vehicle to inspire others to live happier, more creative lives. The show has grown so much. I have a co-producer now and we just celebrated the show’s 2 year anniversary.

Now, I of course want to talk about your upcoming album, Big Time Superhero. But there’s no way to start talking about it, without first talking about your experience fundraising through, and ultimately being robbed by, Pledge Music. For those that aren’t familiar with the Pledge Music fiasco, give us a snapshot of what happened and how it affected you and your album Big Time Superhero.

*I'd like to note here that after creating her own crowd funding portal on her website Amanda was able to raise every penny that Pledge Music stole from her! Indie for the win!

You know at Indepreneur we love Indies taking control of their careers and doing things for themselves, and you’ve certainly taken that to a new level. You mentioned that you’ve always been into marketing. What’s your history with marketing and how did you come into Indepreneur? 

     I’ve always loved the marketing aspect of music. The creativity of designing posters, coming up with campaign ideas with throughlines, and putting together fun promo videos has been my kink for a long time. Haha! Again, it always goes back to my addiction of making things!

Indepreneur found me via :::drumroll please::: Facebook ads! The targeting was spot on. Discovering that there were other cool music marketing nerds like me was really exciting! I started to listen to the podcast religiously. I immediately fell in love with their overall philosophy and approach to marketing.

You’ve been in the Indepreneur community since 2018! How has that impacted your music marketing efforts and what has kept you in Indepreneur over the last three years?

     The Buddy System is...well...everything. Having the knowledge to “meet people where they’re at” is THE foundation of a good marketer. For me, the most important lesson that Indepreneur has taught me is that it’s all about the connection with your fans. This has helped transform my mindset and business decisions. I spend my time focused on how I can give back to the people who support my art instead of stressing about how to get more plays on Spotify. Approaching my career in this way is so much more fulfilling and impactful. 

Follow Amanda Duncan here: 

WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | SPOTIFY | YOUTUBE | INSTAGRAM | TWITTER

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