I (and to be clear, I -am- an “I”) have been working with musicians for a long time.

No need to use the royal “we” here: at the time of this writing it’s just me, by my lonesome: John Reeve.

The TLDR: this is my attempt to figure out how to get some attention for some of the musicians I have worked with.

Fox Mandala is not a “Record Label” per se. It’s not a “Marketing and Promotions Business”. It certainly is not a “Recording Studio”. Right now, it’s mostly an idea that I am trying to bring into form.

I’ve been playing music my entire life. I’ve been recording stuff for other people since the late 1990s. Making records has always been a thing I have loved. Doesn’t matter if it’s just me in my headphones trying to learn how to layer background vocals. Doesn’t matter if it’s me in a concert hall trying to engineer someones Juliard audition tape. Doesn’t matter if I’m just dropping some double bass bhind my buddy’s tracks:

I love playing music, and I really love making it.

A thing I have never been good at has been the “business” of making music. I am bad at promotion. I don’t like selling stuff. I am bad at not just tossing stuff out into the world before it’s been highly polished. I am bad at media strategy: I don’t care if I relases something every week or follow things up with related media. I am bad at finding “actionable metrics”… I just haven’t ever cared about measuring my “reach” or “engagement”.

I don’t feel bad about being bad at those things.

At the same time, I don’t feel like it’s impossible to get better at them. Or, at least I think it’s possible to get “good enough” at these things to be useful for my own purposes and to help some folks around me.

So that’s what this site is… a surface upon which I am going to start building those kinds of skills.

Have a good year!