Water Tower Sessions Guidelines

Field Guide Photo Credit-Eric-Roberts

There’s nothing like the thrill of seeing an artist perform on stage. Whether it’s your first time or 100th time.  There’s also something unique about a live video session performance, where an artist can truly connect on a more personal and intimate level.

At Scummy Water Tower, our goal is to showcase energy among the diverse world of creatives, spanning genres of musical artists, videographers/filmmakers, and venues around the U.S. and the rest of the world on our site and social media. Furthermore, we hope the Water Tower Sessions videos act as a virtual tour of diverse communities, many of which have their scummy water tower. Bonus points if the video features a water tower or includes your favorite Replacements songs. 

We will showcase your talent as an artist and creative through our video performance sessions, dubbed Water Tower Sessions. We’d love to showcase your talent as a creative and promote your recently released album, upcoming album, or other work of art with one of our Water Tower Sessions.  In addition to posting on YouTube, we also post the Sessions, usually with a Q&A or Interview write-up, on our site. The series runs twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. 

You can find the sessions on our sessions page and our YouTube page.

If you’re an artist, filmmaker/videographer, or venue, please contact both Josh and Alex, josh@scummywatertower.com and alex@scummywatertower.com, after reading Things to Consider below. 

Things to Consider

Artists

If you’re a performer who would like to be involved, here’s what you should know:

  1. Please submit or have your management team submit a self-filmed or professionally filmed video.  Though we’d prefer to highlight as many band members as possible and all that are featured in your new album, the performance can be solo, partial, or full band.  
  2. The performance should include at least one original song, ideally a song written by the artist. No maximum video length.  Covers are OK, but please try to limit them and please properly acknowledge/credit the original artist. Occasionally, we’ll have themed or special editions of the sessions, including some with all covers. 
  3. Artists are responsible for filming costs. We know that renting a space, equipment, and production staff can be expensive, but we also appreciate a DIY mentality, so we encourage filming at a unique spot outside of your town or while you’re on tour.  Maybe even near a water tower.  If possible, consider filming inside a venue while you’re on tour or in your practice space.  We’d love to see across not only the US but also various points around the globe.   
  4. Feel free to talk about the stories behind some or all the songs between performances—bonus points for your favorite Replacements songs or acknowledging your musical influences.
  5. Videos should ideally be 2 GB or less, and the MP4 format is preferred 
  6. We have a template that includes slides for credits before and after your video is featured.  Please make sure everyone involved is thanked during the filming of the video.  Artists and their management teams should send any credits they’d like included in the outro (e.g., who is in the band, who filmed it, where it was filmed, etc.). Please also include via email the band site/link/anything you want to promote, and the new album title and cover art so they can be featured in our YouTube video as well as the write-up on our site.
  7. The videos will be accompanied on the site by one of the following write-up options – interview-based feature and Q&A, artist essay, and editorialized feature. Josh and Alex will coordinate with you on which write-up works best for you for this Session. For essay and interview options, artists will focus on/answer the following questions:
    • What was your experience like during the filming of the session? Favorite moments and stories?
    • Why did you pick the location to film? What makes it special to you, the band, or your music? Are there any notable details about the location or its surroundings?
    • Who filmed the session and why? If working with a filmmaker, what was it like working with them? How did you film it?
    • Why did you pick the song(s)? What was the original inspiration?
    • Why did you film it as a full band, partial band, or solo? What do you like about that method of performing the song (i.e. acoustic, partial band, etc.)? How does the song benefit in that form?
    • In what ways does the session relate to your latest release? How did it inform the making of the session?
    • A Q&A with various questions about the artist’s latest release
    • What credit info should we use for the three “slides”?
  8. Please send a screenshot from the session video to use as the article’s main image, as well as a few press photos to include within the write-up. For essays, please include an author photo and short bio.  

Videographers / Filmmakers

If you’re a venue that would like to be considered as a possible location for artists to film, please get in touch with us.

If you’re a videographer or filmmaker looking to support film artists, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. We’re open to all levels of filming experience and would love to feature your work on this site and our YouTube channel.

Venues

If you’re a venue that would like to be considered as a possible location for artists to film, please get in touch with us.