“Got It Going On,” a breakout single by My Silent Bravery, a one-man rock act out of Boston, MA sat at #1 for nine weeks ahead of Lana Del Ray, international superstar, on the Billboard Hot Singles Chart. How? Manager Evan Stein has a lot to say about a good momentum plan.
“The key to a good momentum plan, is thinking of it like a wheel. A wheel will pick up speed and go faster and faster but it needs spokes in order to hold itself together and remain on course.” Spokes, in this case, represent the different ways one can promote their release. Think streaming, radio play, social media promotions, getting a song into a film, tv show, or ad. All of which generate buzz on their own, but when you have many ‘spokes’ working together, each one can boost the other to multiply interest and build momentum. “All the spokes moving together at the same time is what an artist needs to have a successful release.”
Stein started working with Matt Wade of My Silent Bravery about five years ago, when he was looking to get his new album at the time, Can’t Quit, more exposure. When My Silent Bravery released their single, “Got It Going On” earlier this year, the goals that Evan and Matt laid out was simple: Chart on Billboard for 8-10 weeks on a hybrid chart. The plan was to work with Indiehitmaker after success with Bob Pressner to build momentum off the back of a music video with “as much mass appeal as possible.”
“Things have changed in the last five years or so. It used to be that a song could speak for itself, but in the past few years with the market flood, brand has become very important, who you are as an artist, what makes you unique, that’s important. When I go pitch this song, it’s not “here’s the song,” it’s “here’s a nice summer song by an artist that has an uplifting brand.”“Brand has become very important, who you are as an artist, what makes you unique, that’s what’s important for indepenent artists like My Silent Bravery.”
– Evan Stein, Manager My Silent Bravery
The video, which can be viewed above, stars Producer Kurt Zendzian’s dog in a cheeky dig at typical rockstar excess videos. The dog ended up becoming an important centerpiece of the social media drive. The fans fell in love with the dog, spreading it around and even creating their own related content. Stein emphasizes this as an example of being ready for anything that can be used to build your momentum. So far the song has earned upwards of 3,786,739 views and, this week, nine weeks at number one on the Hot Singles Sales and twelve weeks on mu;ltiple charts including rock and alternative hybrid charts.
One of the most important spokes in the wheel is building engagement and maintaining the relationship with fans. “Meeting Bram and going through this process and realizing that having that story not only visually, but throughout the web and social media, and the importance of congruency and making sense across your whole platform is extremely important.” Stein explains, “and through that is how you identify fans and your niche and use that to drive momentum.” My Silent Bravery maintains and builds this relationship through primarily a weekly facebook live stream where he plays songs and talks to fans through comments.
IHM President and founder Bram Bessoff chimes in to say, “There is no single magic bullet to success, you need to have your spokes aligned and in place, but also be prepared to react to success and build on it, even if it comes in a different form than you were expecting.”
Stein sums it up as our interview draws to a close, “You have to remember that every release is important, and the timespan of a release needs to be anywhere from three months to a year. You can’t release things too quickly or you’ll cannibalize yourself.” What’s next for My Silent Bravery? Expect another single release before 2018.
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