Making a Scene Presents

Making a Scene Presents - How to Create a Local Music Scene
How indie artists can “Make a Scene” again with AI, Web3, and real-world hustle

If you’re waiting for your local scene to “come back,” you might be waiting a long time.

That’s not because your town stopped caring about music. It’s because the pandemic didn’t just shut down venues. It broke habits. It changed what people consider “worth leaving the house for.” It raise...

Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Duke Robillard

Duke Robillard is one of America’s most respected guitarists, singers, songwriters, and bandleaders, celebrated for his mastery of blues, jump R&B, swing, and roots rock. Over the course of a long and influential career, he has earned a reputation as a true musician’s musician—an artist whose deep knowledge of American roots music is matched by exceptional skill, taste, and v...

Making a Scene Presents Gerry Casey's Interview with Eliza Neals

Eliza Neals is a powerhouse in modern blues—an artist, songwriter, producer, bandleader, composer, arranger, keyboardist, and label owner whose self-written and self-produced music has been heard on SiriusXM’s B.B. King’s Bluesville since 2015. Blending blues, rock, and soul into bold, unforgettable songs, Neals has built a body of work that pushes beyond traditional ...

The Receipts Era: Why SongProof Is Showing Up Right When Indie Artists Need It Most

There’s a moment every songwriter knows. You’re in that glow right after the hook finally lands, the verse makes sense, and the demo is “good enough” to send. You export an MP3, you toss it into a text thread, you drop it into an email, you DM it to someone who says they can help.

And then, if you’re honest, your stomach tightens for half a second.

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Making a Scene Presents - The Weekend Build: How to Set Up an Owned-Fan Machine in 48 Hours

If you want Spotify to be the top of your funnel instead of the end of your funnel, you don’t start by chasing more streams. You start by building a place for listeners to land, a reason for them to stay, and a system that remembers them when they do.

This is the part the industry skips past because it’s not sexy. Infrastructure rarely is. But...

Making a Scene Presents - Spotify is the Billboard, Not the Building

If you’re an indie artist in 2026, you don’t have a “marketing problem.” You have an ownership problem.

Most indie release plans still follow the same tired loop: post the Spotify link everywhere, chase saves, chase playlists, watch a bump happen, then start over next month. It feels like progress because the numbers move. But it’s not leverage, because you still ca...

Making a Scene Presents - Wingman (Mixed In Key) A Demo Accelerator

Wingman from Mixed In Key ($79) is built for the modern reality: a lot of great songwriters don’t play piano, don’t play bass, and don’t want to spend three hours hunting for the “right” chord under a vocal idea. Wingman lives inside your DAW as a plugin and listens to the audio you feed it, then suggests chords and basslines that fit what it hears. It also includes...

Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Jordan Rainer

Jordan Rainer is an award-winning singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Atoka, Oklahoma, bringing a bold rock edge to modern country. With a guitar on her shoulder and a no-nonsense stage presence, she’s been turning heads in both Nashville and the Texas country scene, building a reputation as an artist who hits hard, sings with conviction, and connects fast.

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Making a Scene Presents Gerry Casey's Interview with Billy Bucklers of Billobucklers

Billobucklers is a UK band built around the songwriting, voice, and restless musical spirit of Billy Bucklers, a Leicester-and-Nottingham original who writes like he’s lived it and plays like he means it. Rooted in the Midlands but never boxed in by geography, Billy brings a hard-earned perspective to every song—mixing grit, humor, and heart in a wa...

Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Erick Brandt

Erik Brandt has been the ringleader of the award-winning Twin Cities eclectic Americana group the Urban Hillbilly Quartet since 1995. When he’s not on stage, he’s in the classroom teaching high school English in St. Paul, Minnesota—bringing the same love of language to both his students and his songs. Over the years, he’s performed in venues across the United States, Canada, and...

Making a Scene Presents - Booking the Festival Circuit Isn’t About “Buzz.” It’s About Proof

For a long time, getting booked on a festival felt like being chosen. You got the email, you posted the graphic, you told your friends, and you hoped the weekend would change everything. That feeling still matters, because it means you care. But the festival world has changed, and the artists who keep winning in it have stopped treating festi...

Making a Scene Presents - Why Ownership Beats Virality Every Time
The day the internet “loves” you can still be the day you learn you own nothing

Every indie artist has felt it. You post a clip and you don’t expect much, and then your phone starts buzzing like a broken snare. Comments show up from strangers, shares stack up, and somebody types, “How are you not famous?” and for a minute you can taste the alternate timeline where one ...

Making a Scene Presents - Why Monitoring Is the Most Important Part of Your Home Studio (And the Most Ignored)

There’s a specific kind of heartbreak that only home studio people understand. You finish a mix at 1:30 a.m., tired but proud, because in your room it finally sounds like a record. The vocal is sitting right where you wanted it. The drums feel tight. The chorus lifts. You do that little head nod like, “Okay… I’m getting goo...

Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Melody Guy

Melody Guy is a Nashville-based Americana singer-songwriter whose unforgettable voice and fearless honesty have powered a life on the road, with more than two million miles of touring across the United States. Blending rock, country, soul, and pop, she delivers songs with the kind of emotional clarity that stops people mid-conversation. Her voice has drawn comparisons to Eva Cassi...

Making a Scene Presents - Streaming Growth is Slowing And That’s Good News for Indie Artists.

For the past ten-plus years, the music industry has sold indie artists one simple dream. Get your music on streaming. Get on playlists. Get the numbers up. Then, somehow, the money will follow. A lot of artists found out the hard way that this dream has a catch. Streaming is real. Streaming is powerful. Streaming can introduce you to new li...

Making a Scene Presents Gerry Casey's Interview with Jamiah Denzel Rogers

Deacon Denzel and Dirty Church is the kind of band that doesn’t just play a set — they build a room, light it up, and then invite everybody inside. Rooted in the sweat-and-soul tradition of rock, blues, funk, and gospel, their sound feels like a late-night revival meeting colliding with a barroom jam: gritty, joyful, and impossible to fake.

http://www.makingas...

Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Otis Walker

Otis Walker was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and came up in the deep musical tradition of the American South. He cut his teeth in the music business in Muscle Shoals, absorbing the sounds, work ethic, and soul that have defined generations of legendary recordings. That foundation shaped both his playing and his approach to songwriting, grounding his music in feel, groove, and auth...

Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Dana Maragos

Dana Maragos is a Chicago-based singer-songwriter whose music is rooted in storytelling, tradition, and a lifelong relationship with song. Her journey began early, when her grandmother bought her a $25 guitar in Chicago’s Old Town at just six years old. Growing up on the city’s South Side, Dana learned her first chords from a teenage neighbor, singing along to the songs of Bob D...