We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Shane Thirteen a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Shane, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Have you signed with an agent or manager? Why or why not?

In our case it was a PR agent, a record label, a critic and a social media guru. New Heavy Sounds, our record label is located in the United Kingdom. They provide what local bands can’t do for themselves. World wide distribution and PR. We have just started our journey with them. But it is the best move we could have made for the future. A record label is every musician’s dream. It wasn’t easy. It took years of networking and playing shows. We were fortunate enough to find some critical acclaim with our first recording we released through an online platform called Bandcamp. Our social media Guru, Matt Bacon from Dropout Media showed us how to maximize our social media mileage. We did everything he told us to do. Low and behold it worked and we were featured on numerous huge platforms within our genre. After that, a few heavy duty critics found us and have been championing our cause since. One in particular went so far as to petition labels on our behalf. That’s how we met Ged and Paul from New Heavy Sounds. When we released our last single C Squared Music as North American PR, came into the mix. Currently that is our team. There is a lot of buzz around the name They Watch Us From The Moon! We are releasing our new album on New Heavy Sounds in the near future and we are excited to see what happens next. These connections all came about because of networking and showing positive growth as a brand. The music industry is cut throat. You have to make yourself a commodity before anyone takes you seriously. In our case countless hours were spent on stage costumes, song writing and concept marketing, live shows and crafting a brand, and even more hours in studio production. When you work people take notice. Connections are more born through your own efforts. Once those connections are built then real growth happens. It took us a few years to build that launching pad. We are about ready to blast off!!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

At first glance They Watch Us From The Moon is a heavy rock band one may come across on any music streaming platform such as Bandcamp, Spotify or Apple Music. Hopefully once the music has moved you, and you take a deeper look you will see we are a live action theatrical project offering a visual experience and a thought provoking message. Taking cues from the Japanese movement in heavy music called Visual Kei the band utilizes the modern art form of customized cosplay to achieve a science fiction inspired look. The band’s comic book, which is rebooting along with the release of it’s first full length album in 2023 is played out in costuming and concept in the live show. The self titled comic book follows the idea that the band was abducted by alien’s and now champions the Earth as it’s protectors from an evil Alien Empire based on the Moon. Steeped in age old government conspiracies that lend to the ideas of UFO’s UAP’s Alien abductions, secret space programs and the fact that human beings are not alone in the universe. This project is a clash of music, comic art, sci fi stage theatrics and cinematic sounds. Many critics have started using the term Doom Opera in reference to the way we deliver the story concept and the vocal talent that carries you off on our cosmic adventure. We have a new album being release in 2023 on New Heavy Sounds Records out of the United Kingdom. Please follow our social media and keep up with our adventures. You can find us on any platform @OfficialTWUFTM or @TheyWatchUsFromTheMoon.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

When I came back to music I was middle aged. I just hit 50. I had played music all through the 80’s, 90’s and early 2000’s. The game back then was simple. Practice till you bleed. Play anywhere and every where as often as you could. Friend’s birthday party? Play it. Skate Park benefit? Play it. Battle of the Bands with bands completely out of your genre? Play it. That dangerous biker bar outside of town? Play it twice. You put up fliers, pass tapes to your friends. Then grind and grind and grind till you can build a tour. Record songs, release them, then repeat the whole thing. Now the game is different. All the above now starts on social media. You still have to grind but the industry changed from the early 2000’s to 2015 the game had changed completely. Now days you can’t get a toe in the door unless you have a social media presence. You have to invent reasons to be worthy of attention. You can’t just shred anymore. Your shred has to have some sort of purpose. There needs to be a connection to hearts and minds. But through the computer. Which for most is near impossible. The content creation game can be a thankless full time job that pays nobody and renders zero return. What I learned is to first document. That alone is content. Document what matters to you about your art or musical project. In our case it’s both. But document everything. Pick it apart and repurpose everything twice until you are in the content creation mode of operation. Content producers reap the rewards. In our culture today everyone feeds on 3 minute or less blocks of information. The best thing you can do for your marketing is the same thing the major marketing firms do. Find trends then adapt them to your content. I was completely lost on the process until I met people that helped me navigate the ins and outs. The best advice I have is if you don’t understand how to navigate social media there are tons of companies that will help you understand it. If you are in music, Dropout Media is one of the best!

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

This is going to sound crazy and people in the upper echelons of the entertainment industry, the deep industry would go crazy. But, I believe there should be a rule that if a mid size to huge touring act plays your city a local artist should open the show. I’m talking actually open, not forced to start when the doors open or only play 15 minutes. On the smaller stages this already happens. Lots of bands and artists network with others at the same level and depend on them for DIY shows and promotion. Somewhere along the line between nobodies and stardom, the idea of unity and cooperation got lost. Mostly having to do with “management” types not wanting to work for someone that doesn’t pay them. Then helping the little guy works against your profit. So that cooperation and networking gets severed and damage is done to relationships. The overall answer to this question is to normalize cooperation with artists. All art matters. There is nothing wrong with helping to cultivate the next generation of artists and musicians. Instead of competition, cooperation. Let’s find ways to drive creative competition. I think the idea should hold true for all art. If you go to an art gallery to see expensive art by famous people, then it should be normal to see an unknown artist within the same gallery. If anything to show how influence runs through experience. Exclusion and gatekeeping ruin everything. The best artist or musician in the world may have already been passed by on the account of an executive somewhere not getting the point of an artist they can’t relate to. You might though. The most relative artist to you may never be found. Support local and underground!

Contact Info:

• Website: under construction
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theywatchusfromthemoon/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/officialtwuftm
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/OfficialTWUFTM
• Other: TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@theywatchusfromthemoon

Image Credits
Photos by John Clayton Art by Rick Lara