Kim Baker: Press & Reviews

ROCKTALK ~ LA Times
"Moving to the Next Level"
Folk singer hopes to engender a rock following during her U.S. tour, which starts in Ventura.

By BILL LOCEY, Special to The LA Times

She wants to rock, but for now, Kim Baker is a folk singer who has a million songs about relationships or the lack of the same. She and her backup singer, Krista Enos, will kick off the Rock Star 101 Tour with a gig at Cafe Voltaire in Ventura tonight.

The tall singer-songwriter moved from L.A. to the Bay Area to go to school and ended up staying there with all those Giants fans. Baker has two albums currently out, "On Her Dream," and "Rising Tide." She has fans, too. During her last visit to Ventura several months ago, a carload of them followed her down from the Bay Area. Baker stopped packing for her big tour long enough to chat about the latest.

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So what's the deal on this tour?
We're going everywhere, and Ventura is the first stop. We're going across the country to the East Coast and heading as far north as Portland, Maine. The whole thing is going to be sort of a test for us. We want to choose three territories in the country that we like, and then keep going back to those areas. When we return, I'll begin work on our new album.

How's the Bay Area music scene?
Oh, it's great, but I'm actually looking forward to getting away from it for a short while. I love to travel. Lots of people come to see you at certain clubs, but I want to take it to the next level. I'm ready for the next step, and I think, you can only do that by consistently touring. You have to develop a strong fan base.

Is it a bad thing to be called a folkie?
No, not at all. It's good, and I'll certainly know more about the folk scene when we get back from this tour, because we're playing at three folk festivals. Right now, I'm a folk musician at heart, but I also want to be a rock musician. I want to have a solid drummer and a lead guitar player, but it's hard to find people who are willing to tour day in and day out. My ultimate goal is to have enough fans and enough money to hire some musicians and start playing at bigger clubs throughout the country and the world.

What's the difference between playing a coffeehouse and a bar?
At a coffeehouse people tend to listen more to the subtle nuances of the music, while at a bar, there tends to be more people drinking and partying. It's definitely hard to play in a loud bar if you're a folk musician.

Who goes to a Kim Baker show?
I get various types of fans. I've made a lot of friends with people I've met and then ended up spending time with. Once, when I played the Genghis Cantina in L.A., a caravan of people came down from the Bay Area, so I've made a lot of loyal fans, and am very grateful. Hopefully each fan I make will tell a dozen more.

What do you think your music sounds like?
I usually say it's acoustic rock, but I am starting to play more on my electric guitar too.

If you weren't doing this, what would you be doing?
All I can think of doing is music. I really can't think about anything else because there really isn't any other option for me. I worked full time to make enough money to do this tour. Music is definitely a lot of hard work--I think I spend 90% of my time on the phone or the Internet instead of playing my guitar, but it is well worth it. I love what I do.

Do bad relationships make for good songs?
Yes, they do, although I'm trying to move away from that and write songs that tell stories which reflect the complexities of life from other people's perspectives. Right now, I have at least three full hours of music, all originals.

So for now the plan is tour, tour, tour. Money, money, money. Rock, rock, rock?
That's it.


Ventura County Edition
Section: Calendar
ID: 0980056566
Words: 765
Byline: BILL LOCEY
SPECIAL TO THE LA TIMES

Music Makers
Brandweek , March 15, by Kipp Cheng

Folk singer Kim Baker doesn't really care whether or not a major record label "discovers" her and then signs her to a six-album deal (although she's not entirely opposed to offers, in case any big record label honchos are reading this).

Instead, for the San Francisco-based singer-songwriter, reaching her devoted fanbase is paramount, not the cachet of a major label contract. And besides, as Baker and many fellow indie artists see it, the future of music distribution is currently undergoing a rapid sea change, thanks to the accessibility and efficient transmittability of compressed audio formats like MIP3, aided by the ever-increasing ease of self-publishing on the Web.

"The old way of thinking was that everybody wanted to get signed to a major label and there are some people who still believe that's the absolute best way to go," says Baker. "I'm somebody who believes in releasing independently."

Like many unsigned musicians, Baker founded her own label, Earthwater Records, and self-released her debut CD, On Her Dream, early last year. But unlike most undiscovered artists, Baker has taken her music directly to her fans by making it available for sale on her Web site, located at www.kimbaker.com, and even going a step further by offering free sample downloads, as well as singles sales, using the encryption system of Seattle-based Liquid Audio.

If a study conducted last year by New York-based Jupiter Communications is right, the labels will find that consumers indeed will be willing to forego the slick packaging of a store-bought CD for downloading. The study, "Record Labels and the Imperative for Digital Distribution," found that though revenue from online music sales will be minimal in the next five years, it's advantageous for labels to eventually adopt digital distribution "to harness its marketing potential and combat online piracy today, and to appropriate the affiliate market from retailers over time."

For major labels, the report roughly translates to: you snooze, you lose. And lose big time.

By 2002, says the Jupiter study, online music sales in the U.S. will climb to $1.6 billion annually, with $30 million of the projected revenue going to digitally delivered music. An estimated $1.4 billion in U.S. revenue will result from the sales of pre-recorded music, including CD and music video sales. In essence, traditional and e-commerce sales of music will be running apace in less than five years.

Changing the rules for how music is purchased and delivered is a complicated tango, and for record labels the embrace of technology and music is a sometimes tenuous one. "Major labels are a little more reluctant at this point. They have a good thing going," says Bill Wood, vice president of marketing at Liquid Audio.

But the most likely scenario--as long as the major labels acquiesce--is that music delivery online will still be mostly run by the same group of distributors that run it today, even if some artists do break through on their own. The possibility has little to do with technology and everything to do with marketing.

"Not all artists care if commercial rules are in place regarding the distribution and redistribution of their music," says Miller. "Ask any of the 5,000 acts that are on MP3.com. But I would put one Alanis Morissette against 5,000 bands that no one has ever heard of."

In the meantime, it will be interesting to watch whether indie artists have much success hawking their wares online. Baker, for one, is optimistic. "Business is good. I think [selling music online] is something that's definitely going to grow a lot more in the next five years," she insists.

For Baker, with her tailor-made-for-Lilith Fair harmonies and melancholy grrl lyrics, a big name recording contract may not be inconceivable at some point down the road.

But in the meantime, Baker continues to sell her CD online and hopes to sign others to Earthwater who are starting out in the business, so that she can impart lessons she's learned about selling music online.

"I think the major labels are terrified," says Baker. She adds that if the major labels don't get it together, "they're going to lose a ton of money."

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