A Day in the Life of Ben Howe, who runs Arch Hill Recordings

Ben wakes up from dreams of wide -open spaces and wonders where he is. Usually it is in Auckland NZ, it is raining and the dog Jefrey (with one F) is barking out in the laundry. Ben lets said dog in, who proceeds to try to lick his face bite something or beg to be let outside (and if possible escape through a hole in the fence Ben hasn’t fixed yet, thus necessitating a three hour search through neighbors gardens). If he hasn’t escaped, Ben walks said dog in the rain followed by a congested drive to work. Ben tries to set a good example by getting to the office before Rosie the promotions manager arrives, which he doesn’t usually manage to do.

Once at the office Ben puts off checking his emails by going immediately to the kitchen to make a coffee, which he usually makes either too strong and dark or too weak and milky. Having made said coffee, Ben then tries to avoid checking emails by looking on Facebook and wondering if he should add the “Hot or Not” application. He worries about what kind of rating he might get, so he then goes to the “Cities I’ve Visited” application and wonders if he has forgotten any important cities that might impress his friends. He then notices that he actually doesn’t have many friends, so he worries if it is being to forward to try to make friends with people he doesn’t really know. He then decides that record label managers should seem aloof anyway, and that’s why he doesn’t have many friends. Plus, people are probably intimidated by his “Cities I Have Visited” application.

After the coffee has long been finished and Ben has procrastinated as long as possible on said websites, he takes a big breath and checks his email. Aside from the usual requests from bands needing more money, huge slow MP3 demo files from people he doesn’t really know, angry Australians and some reminders about unpaid bills there are usually a couple of emails following up on various things he has promised to do that he has since forgotten about. At this point Ben usually decides he really needs to get organized and write some of these things in his diary.

Ben then searches for his diary under various piles of unfinished lists, crumpled receipts, demo Cds, unsigned contracts and chargers for mobiles he has long since lost. Usually at about this time the phone rings and it will be a welcome relief to have a long conversation with someone from a former record label or an aspiring manager about all the things that are wrong with the music industry and how everyone else is doing it all wrong. While having these kinds of important conversations Ben likes to step outside and pace around the office courtyard making a special effort not to step on any cracks in the tiles. Sometimes he worries that the neighbor might be related to the people being discussed in these conversations. If the call came through to his cellphone the battery usually runs out mid-way.

By this time it is usually lunch time, and he regrets not having earlier organized to meet someone for lunch – like real record companies are supposed to do – so he boils and egg or opens a can of tuna and worries that others in the Native Tongue/Mana music office next door think it smells funny. During lunch Ben checks the “guitar effects pedals for sale” section on Trade Me – usually he has already checked it three or four times during the morning.

In the early afternoon Ben sometimes consults said diary again (if he found it earlier) and notices that some album artwork might be urgently due, someone really needs a band biography written, the GST is due or something else really important needs doing. If he has time, Ben then copies this list carefully into the next day’s page in the diary and makes a mental note to get one of those blueberries or eye-phones, then heads off to some afternoon meetings.

Afternoon meetings are usually with managers, bands, media types or government funding bodies and this is where Ben really gets going and starts addressing the big issues. Words like “grassroots”, “the long tail”, “digital aggregator” and “synchronization copyrights” are thrown around with abandon. If Ben remembered to bring a pen he might start drawing diagrams on scraps of paper, especially if he has had one coffee too many or decided an afternoon wine is in order. Usually these meetings end with some kind of plan for Ben to do a whole lot of things he neither has the time or money for.

In the evening, if it is the earlier part of the week, Ben usually has a band practice with White Swan Black Swan , or might plink a plunk on his guitar. If it is the latter part of the week he might either be feeling obliged to go to a gig he doesn’t want to, or he is really excited because he wants to see this new band he heard on the radio or listened to on myspace and, like, they might really literally be going to blow up or something. Or sometimes he might have a gig of his own, or perhaps a show by a band on Arch Hill.

In any case, when Ben gets to said gig he doesn’t want to lean on the bar at the back and look like some kind of A&R douche but neither does he want to be bopping and drooling like a fanboy up front. Instead he compromises by standing around looking uncomfortable – which fortunately is usually how everyone else looks anyway. He also tries to avoid making loud record company type comments like “the front man is really good but they just need some good songs” or “they’ve got some great songs but man they are ugly”. However, if Ben has had a couple of drinks he might make these comments anyway, which in the morning he tells himself is ok, because everyone else was saying them too.