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Blogger of The Week: A Pocket Full Of Seeds
A Pocket Full Of Seeds is a UK music blog run by 2 brothers. The boys don't specialise on any particular genre or decade for the songs they post but manage to combine a decent taste in music with their own opinions, thoughts and photography which has brought them a loyal fan base.A Pocket Full of Seeds is run by two brothers. What made you decide to run the blog together?
I got the idea of doing a blog after interning at a label in SF. I read tons of blogs each day and I had a pretty good idea of what my kinda blog would look like but I wanted to have a couple of writers to makes sure we could get enough content together. George has a music taste and writing style, which is hard to find in the blogosphere so it works out pretty good.
Have you had any arguments or disagreements over what to cover on the blog?
Well we only really get to see what the other person has covered after they post it so it's usually too late for a brotherly argument! Some of the most successful posts we have had have been when George has gone on some rant about rubbish dubstep songs or the negative side of the blogosphere, which I usually try and avoid being such a mild mannered guy!
A Pocket Full of Seeds is an unusual name for a music blog - is there any special story / thinking behind it?
It's a lyric from the song Christmas TV by Slow Club. When I got back from 6 months in the states where I had the idea to start the blog I went straight to Latitude Festival and Slow Club finished their set with this song and it just blew me away, it still does.
When you started the blog, was there anything special you did you get the word out there about it?
I guess not really. I'm a firm believer that the secret to a successful blog is to post at least once a day about good music that people haven't heard before. We do well out of aggregators like Hype Machine, StumbleUpon and links from other blogs but at the beginning there's not much you can do except work pretty hard for very little return, which is a bit rubbish.
With Twitter now a prevalent social media tool, has this changed the way you blog and promote the links on APFoS?
I am still undecided about Twitter as a tool for a blog. All our new posts get linked to on Twitter and I use it occasionally to have a chat with bands and other blogs which is great but it's not a big part of the way we do things. I sometimes think about sitting down with the computer for a few days to try and get our Twitter and facebook pages up to scratch but I always end up doing something a bit more fun.
How do you find out about new music?
We are lucky to be on the books of some really good PR companies who know what we like and occasionally offer up a real gem. I love getting submissions directly from the band as well, the scruffier the better! Another great way to find new music right now is to have a snoop around festivals for bands you have never heard of and take a gamble on their live show. And if all else fails then you can always see what the blogs are talking about!
Are there any ABoF artists you've heard that float your boat?
The most recent band on the ABoF books I took a shine to was The Sons (or is it The Son now?). Scotland has been producing some great music for the last few years and this is no exception.
Finally, do you have any music tips for us (signed or unsigned)?
Caulfield Beats, Civil Civic, Chet and Cains and Abels.