We were lucky to catch up with Atlas Cage recently and have shared our conversation below.
Atlas, appreciate you joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
I’ve been in music all of my life. I was in a metal band in high school, got into producing and mixing in college and after I graduated, began interning at a recording studio called “The Sonic Ranch” in Tornillo, Tx. I’ve had the privilege of working with a lot of different artists in a lot of different genres, which really influenced my passion for music.
Getting experience in the trenches within the industry inspired me to want to start a label years ago. I wanted to be independent and create a hub for musicians that I liked and admired. But, for 15 years I was so focused on the day to day (and sometimes hand to mouth) of surviving as a performing musician, that my aspirations to create a label kept getting put on the back burner.
Finally in 2019, feeling discontent with my music distributor and recognizing the shift in the industry away from live gigs being the be-all of music promotion, I remembered and reevaluated that dream of launching my own label. I wanted to put out music on my own terms. The landscape had changed and I wanted to explore what creatively could be done with a small independent label. I also wanted to leverage the 15 years of gained experience to help others, both in developing their creative potential, and helping them with the business structure needed to achieve the vision they have for their artistic career.
Atlas, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Sky Titan Media was founded in 2019, housing 4 diverse music projects including pop, hard rock, hip hop, and ambient soundscapes. In the intervening years we have had major album releases with Strings of Atlas, and the debut of Chords of Eve, along with single releases from all the projects. In 2021 we launched a line of “music infused” fashion tees and hoodies to pair with album releases.
The mission of the label goes beyond the development of music and artists. It recognizes and embraces the ways we connect as a community, and acts on that by supporting local and regional nonprofits, and adhering to social and environmentally conscious production and distribution of music and products.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
I think people may not understand the impact of the different ways to support creatives, particularly those who are trying to make a living with their art. There are a lot of ways creatives need support. Unfortunately the shift to people mostly getting their music through streaming services has been really hard on artists. Did you know if your song streams 1000 times, you make about $3?
So how do you support creatives? Likes, comments, subscribes and shares feel great. It’s the emotional support that keeps us getting back to work every day – knowing we are reaching someone and they are reaching back. Selling merchandise or music, or having ways to support us directly like a patreon account is what keeps a roof over our heads so we can keep creating.
When it comes to live music, particularly on tour, performers are often just breaking even or may even be losing money. Back when I was touring, I’d work odd jobs to save up enough money to have the privilege of getting to travel and play music. If i didn’t have a couch to crash on I’d sleep in the back seat of my ’74 Nova. Selling CDs or merch (which required an upfront investment in inventory) was what kept me going. So yeah, if you’re seeing music live and want to support the band, stuff the tip jar, buy the CD even if you don’t have a cd player anymore, or at the very least let them know how much you enjoyed the show and tag them on social media.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
We were excited to introduce “Sky Titan” to the world at SXSW in Austin, TX in spring of 2020, only to have it canceled days before our first event. Our first two big album releases for Sky Titan were scheduled for April of 2020. We had big plans for a release party with an interactive, immersive story driven experience to debut the albums by Strings of Atlas and Chords of Eve.
Instead we had to completely change up our means of introducing the new albums. We did a 12 hour facebook live stream release, featuring 10-15 minutes at the top of every hour of interviews with those involved in the creation of the albums, debuts of the songs, and music videos. A month after that we did a crowd sourced video for the title track of “Dear Engineer”, using contributed videos of fans from the community to create the final music video.
As lockdowns lingered we had to get creative in how we got the music out there and how we engaged with audiences. We dabbled in producing an interactive avatar app, a video game, and “music infused” clothing line. All that is to say the traditional way of backing an album release was not available and we had to let those limitations drive us to reinvent. The clothing line in particular was a really special outcome of this pivot! Our line of music infused clothing came out of that challenge, inviting fans to support and experience the music they love in a new way, both by wearing it, but also each item having a code that gives them access to exclusive content and songs.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://skytitanmedia.shop/
- Instagram: @skytitanmedia @chordsofeve @striingsofatlas @mnemonicfrequency
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skytitanmedia
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sky-titan-media/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/skytitanmedia
- Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0fQhKnhYUSKI2Hz917tREA?si=cd7b07c5c38c44ab “Othercide” video game by Sky Titan: https://www.skytitanmedia.com/sky-titan-gaming-othercide
Image Credits
Tatiana Jitkoff Atlas Cage