The Matt/Jason connection

I was checking Matt's Twitter today, and I noticed that Jason sent a message to Matt:

@MGiraudOfficial yo man I need some keys on this record... Where you at?! Haha

Matt's response:

@jasoncastro I'd love to hook ya up with some keys man holla atcha boy. You gotta come to a show btw.

Hmm.

I know that I'm probably grasping at straws here, but this piqued my interest. Jason had to wait awhile before he signed with Atlantic and now he and Matt are in contact with each other. I hope that Jason is able to give him some good advice (perhaps he wants Matt's 'help' on his record?) through this 'limbo' process.

I'm wondering what WE can do while we wait. Does anyone know what the Dreadheads did last year at this time? I know that they had street teams and all of that, but I wonder what exactly they did to keep Jason's name "out there." And how much impact did they have on Jason getting a record deal? I'm hoping that I'm making sense right now. I just wonder when and why Jason caught the eye of the record exec. Was it because of Jason, because of his fans, or a combination of both?

iluvmatt wrote:

I was checking Matt's Twitter today, and I noticed that Jason sent a message to Matt:

@MGiraudOfficial yo man I need some keys on this record... Where you at?! Haha

Matt's response:

@jasoncastro I'd love to hook ya up with some keys man holla atcha boy. You gotta come to a show btw.

Hmm.

I know that I'm probably grasping at straws here, but this piqued my interest. Jason had to wait awhile before he signed with Atlantic and now he and Matt are in contact with each other. I hope that Jason is able to give him some good advice (perhaps he wants Matt's 'help' on his record?) through this 'limbo' process.

I'm wondering what WE can do while we wait. Does anyone know what the Dreadheads did last year at this time? I know that they had street teams and all of that, but I wonder what exactly they did to keep Jason's name "out there." And how much impact did they have on Jason getting a record deal? I'm hoping that I'm making sense right now. I just wonder when and why Jason caught the eye of the record exec. Was it because of Jason, because of his fans, or a combination of both?

Good questions, Iluvmatt. We need to do whatever we can to help Matt's career. I hope someone here knows what the dreadheads did.

I love that tweet from Jason. I loved him last year as well as Cook. But once the show was over I never thought of either of them again other than hoping they would be successful. How I am feeling about Matt has never happened to me before. I am ready to do anything to help that boy!

And who the hell wouldn't want Matt jamming with them on an album??? He's like a bolt of energy and talent.

iluvmatt wrote:

I was checking Matt's Twitter today, and I noticed that Jason sent a message to Matt:

@MGiraudOfficial yo man I need some keys on this record... Where you at?! Haha

Matt's response:

@jasoncastro I'd love to hook ya up with some keys man holla atcha boy. You gotta come to a show btw.

Hmm.

I know that I'm probably grasping at straws here, but this piqued my interest. Jason had to wait awhile before he signed with Atlantic and now he and Matt are in contact with each other. I hope that Jason is able to give him some good advice (perhaps he wants Matt's 'help' on his record?) through this 'limbo' process.

I'm wondering what WE can do while we wait. Does anyone know what the Dreadheads did last year at this time? I know that they had street teams and all of that, but I wonder what exactly they did to keep Jason's name "out there." And how much impact did they have on Jason getting a record deal? I'm hoping that I'm making sense right now. I just wonder when and why Jason caught the eye of the record exec. Was it because of Jason, because of his fans, or a combination of both?

Jenna knows some additional details but in general, Jason definitely had a "grass roots" movement to get him signed. People played his music on myspace, they had a website with a huge following who talked about him a lot, handed out CD's on tour, and so on.
I don't know how much trending topics on twitter helps or not, but I think in general uniting a bunch of people to do something to promote him is the best thing. The record companies worry about one thing - sales and profits. If they see a huge following and huge effort on someone's part, they become interested because they figure once signed, they will sell records.

poisnivy wrote:

in case y'all didn't see, Jason replied back

@MGiraudOfficial I know I missed yall in la, gotta see what I can do!


I'm a die-hard dreadhead so maybe I can help. As mentioned above we had a non-stop round the clock playing jason's music on myspace therad (that's still going on). Members took turns posting the # of plays each hour and also encouraged everyone else to play his music.

Whenever there was ANY poll about ai contestants that Jason was in we jumped on it like mad women. No One can out-vote a group of dreadheads on a mission.. don't know if y'all remember but last year Larry King had the judges on and there was a poll on who was your favorite idol. Dreadheads got on it and at the end of the show Larry announced who was ahead, and it was Jason Castro, simon went "nooooo" b/c he was shocked, but Paula was like "Told you!!". that was a GREAT way of getting his name out there. So any poll does the same. Post the poll information and just go at it, a thread about the poll is a good idea and you can have a "voting party" on that thread. For a perfect example of an on-going voting party thread go here: http://thedreadheads.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=yack&action=display&thread=2022&page=1


whenever we'd see a blog or article about AI especially about season 7 we'd put positive comments about Jason in the comments section, even if he wasn't mentioned in the blog.

NEVER be rude to someone who posts negative things about matt in a blog, just respond tactifully and positively. We do not want people thinking Matt's fans are anything but respectful.

You can also get a big group of people constantly searching is name on yahoo and google, etc. the people w/ the most searches are listed on the site.

giving away cds at tour stops is also a great thing to help. You can also give some away at local music festivals. Once Matt has an official website you can give people that information as well.

If you can play music at work then play Matt's, when people stop to ask who's singing you have a perfect promotion opportunity. You can also 'gift' some of Matt's music from his first 2 albums to friends on itunes.

we did do SOME emailing to record companies but some people felt that could backfire so it wasn't a main priorty.. I don't know if there's a chance that would turn some record companies off or not, but if you go this route just don't do it so often that they may get annoyed.

same with requesting his music to radio stations, it's great to do, but don't overdo it. If the same person keeps calling about the same thing it could backfire.

we had, and still have weekly "bonfires" to keep everyone together and pumped. It's a virtual party thread where everyone posts cool pics and pretends they're at a themed bonfire or something.. it's a great way to keep fans and members connected.


There wasn't this twitter craze last year but it has to be a good thing to keep matt trending.. we got #signmattgiraud trending last night and are working on it again tonight.. will definitely be doing that for the Grand Rapids show.

Also, I know there is some concern about the fact that Matt has several different fangroups and everyone is not under just 1 group. That is NOT uncommon and doesn't mean that all Matt's fans cannot or will not work together. For instance, there are the dreadheads w/ their own site, the Castrocopians w/ their own site, the official site w/ it's forums, the Goth Girls (equivelent to BGs) w/ their own site, the Castronauts from IDF and several more.. The thing is, everyone had the same common goal, which was to promote Jason and get him signed. It's the same way w/ Matt's groups. Just because there are several, it does not mean that is going to hurt Matt. All the groups just need to be on the same page when it comes to promotional ideas. This can be done by certain members of each group getting together and then bringing that information to their members. Again, once Matt has an official website this will become easier as everyone can get the information from the same place. In the mean-time the fangroups can act similar to a street-team. STs are usually segregated by geography, such as southeast, northeast, ect. Until something official is set up we can just discuss among groups and go for the common goal.

Also, we should not call ourselves street-team members or say we are street-teaming or anything like that until Matt has his OFFICIAL site and team members. That will most likely be end of tour or close. Jason's official site opened on 8/25 of last year but the street-teaming did not start till several months later after all the official personel got involved. It could hurt Matt if we try to do too much promotion before HE asks for it. I'm not sure what all his ai contract states but we do not want to overstep boundaries. We need to wait until we receive word from his camp before undergoing any large "street-teaming projects".


And do not freak out because Matt does not (that we know of) have any offers YET. It took a full year for Jason to announce his deal (and I'm not sure at what point he was actually signed but it was at least a few weeks until it was announced). In that time we heard things like "talking to people, taking meetings, news coming soon, will produce album independently if don't get signed, writing music, concentrating on tour, ETC) for a YEAR, that's what we were told by Jason and his camp. Do these things sound familiar? This process takes time and even if people have been talking to him he cannot say anything about it until his ai contract is up.

Also remember that no matter what we do the majority of the work has to be done by Matt himself. I truely believe he has the talent and the drive to make this happen but we need to keep showing him support. Keep letting him know that we love him and believe in him and will continue to support him no matter what. Giving him confidence in this way will be a huge help to him.

And, if you believe in prayer, pray hard. I am.


Those are the things I can think of off the top of my head.. I know it's a book.. sorry.. I will post more if I think of more later.

Thanks for filling in the details and then some. The GiraudSquad twitter account had a list of suggestions to help promote Matt. It wouldn't hurt to add a link to this thread on the twitter account.

poisnivy,

THANK YOU FOR YOUR POST! It was like reading words from a wise medicine woman. I am kneeling on the ground listening to your every utterance!

You have given me so much hope regarding Matt's fans ability to help. I have been concerned that fans were scattered, now I see that has been wasted energy on my part. Last night's trending effort was so exhilarating because all the fans worked together. I think we are a lean, mean, fighting machine for Matt!

I really appreciate your words of wisdom. And good luck to Jason. I am a fan of his and plan on buying his CD as soon as it's out. I remember vividly his performances of SOTR and Hallelujah. Made my cry.

poisnivy wrote:

in case y'all didn't see, Jason replied back

@MGiraudOfficial I know I missed yall in la, gotta see what I can do!


I'm a die-hard dreadhead so maybe I can help. As mentioned above we had a non-stop round the clock playing jason's music on myspace therad (that's still going on). Members took turns posting the # of plays each hour and also encouraged everyone else to play his music.

Whenever there was ANY poll about ai contestants that Jason was in we jumped on it like mad women. No One can out-vote a group of dreadheads on a mission.. don't know if y'all remember but last year Larry King had the judges on and there was a poll on who was your favorite idol. Dreadheads got on it and at the end of the show Larry announced who was ahead, and it was Jason Castro, simon went "nooooo" b/c he was shocked, but Paula was like "Told you!!". that was a GREAT way of getting his name out there. So any poll does the same. Post the poll information and just go at it, a thread about the poll is a good idea and you can have a "voting party" on that thread. For a perfect example of an on-going voting party thread go here: http://thedreadheads.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=yack&action=display&thread=2022&page=1


whenever we'd see a blog or article about AI especially about season 7 we'd put positive comments about Jason in the comments section, even if he wasn't mentioned in the blog.

NEVER be rude to someone who posts negative things about matt in a blog, just respond tactifully and positively. We do not want people thinking Matt's fans are anything but respectful.

You can also get a big group of people constantly searching is name on yahoo and google, etc. the people w/ the most searches are listed on the site.

giving away cds at tour stops is also a great thing to help. You can also give some away at local music festivals. Once Matt has an official website you can give people that information as well.

If you can play music at work then play Matt's, when people stop to ask who's singing you have a perfect promotion opportunity. You can also 'gift' some of Matt's music from his first 2 albums to friends on itunes.

we did do SOME emailing to record companies but some people felt that could backfire so it wasn't a main priorty.. I don't know if there's a chance that would turn some record companies off or not, but if you go this route just don't do it so often that they may get annoyed.

same with requesting his music to radio stations, it's great to do, but don't overdo it. If the same person keeps calling about the same thing it could backfire.
we had, and still have weekly "bonfires" to keep everyone together and pumped. It's a virtual party thread where everyone posts cool pics and pretends they're at a themed bonfire or something.. it's a great way to keep fans and members connected.


There wasn't this twitter craze last year but it has to be a good thing to keep matt trending.. we got #signmattgiraud trending last night and are working on it again tonight.. will definitely be doing that for the Grand Rapids show.

Also, I know there is some concern about the fact that Matt has several different fangroups and everyone is not under just 1 group. That is NOT uncommon and doesn't mean that all Matt's fans cannot or will not work together. For instance, there are the dreadheads w/ their own site, the Castrocopians w/ their own site, the official site w/ it's forums, the Goth Girls (equivelent to BGs) w/ their own site, the Castronauts from IDF and several more.. The thing is, everyone had the same common goal, which was to promote Jason and get him signed. It's the same way w/ Matt's groups. Just because there are several, it does not mean that is going to hurt Matt. All the groups just need to be on the same page when it comes to promotional ideas. This can be done by certain members of each group getting together and then bringing that information to their members. Again, once Matt has an official website this will become easier as everyone can get the information from the same place. In the mean-time the fangroups can act similar to a street-team. STs are usually segregated by geography, such as southeast, northeast, ect. Until something official is set up we can just discuss among groups and go for the common goal.

Also, we should not call ourselves street-team members or say we are street-teaming or anything like that until Matt has his OFFICIAL site and team members. That will most likely be end of tour or close. Jason's official site opened on 8/25 of last year but the street-teaming did not start till several months later after all the official personel got involved. It could hurt Matt if we try to do too much promotion before HE asks for it. I'm not sure what all his ai contract states but we do not want to overstep boundaries. We need to wait until we receive word from his camp before undergoing any large "street-teaming projects".


And do not freak out because Matt does not (that we know of) have any offers YET. It took a full year for Jason to announce his deal (and I'm not sure at what point he was actually signed but it was at least a few weeks until it was announced). In that time we heard things like "talking to people, taking meetings, news coming soon, will produce album independently if don't get signed, writing music, concentrating on tour, ETC) for a YEAR, that's what we were told by Jason and his camp. Do these things sound familiar? This process takes time and even if people have been talking to him he cannot say anything about it until his ai contract is up.

Also remember that no matter what we do the majority of the work has to be done by Matt himself. I truely believe he has the talent and the drive to make this happen but we need to keep showing him support. Keep letting him know that we love him and believe in him and will continue to support him no matter what. Giving him confidence in this way will be a huge help to him.

And, if you believe in prayer, pray hard. I am.


Those are the things I can think of off the top of my head.. I know it's a book.. sorry.. I will post more if I think of more later.

THANK YOU SO MUCH for responding to this! I feel better now. I bolded what you wrote about emailing record companies and requesting radio stations to play Matt's songs because I have seen this happen in the past and it hit home for me. I know that it may not be the best example, but I remember Justin Guarini having to kindly tell his fans to "back off" because even though they were trying to help him by requesting his songs, the radio stations were actually getting a bit miffed. That's why I'm wondering if all of the Twitter trending and emailing record companies could cause more harm than good. It's just that we all want to help Matt and right now I think everyone just wants to do SOMETHING...we just don't know what the best thing is for him right now! I know that the Twitter trending makes him happy, so that'll work for now!

Thanks for all the advice, poisnivy! It's helpful to hear from a Castro fan who was involved in helping him get a record deal!

I think Matt definitely has a chance at his own record deal if all of us keep his name "out there" after the tour (if he isn't already signed by then).

I was so excited to read the tweets between Matt and Jason because I think it would be so awesome if they eventually collaborated on a song! I can't wait to hear Jason's new album when it comes out later this year. I love the unique tone to his voice, and his version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" is one of favorite AI performances of all time!

poisnivy wrote:

in case y'all didn't see, Jason replied back

@MGiraudOfficial I know I missed yall in la, gotta see what I can do!


I'm a die-hard dreadhead so maybe I can help. As mentioned above we had a non-stop round the clock playing jason's music on myspace therad (that's still going on). Members took turns posting the # of plays each hour and also encouraged everyone else to play his music.

Whenever there was ANY poll about ai contestants that Jason was in we jumped on it like mad women. No One can out-vote a group of dreadheads on a mission.. don't know if y'all remember but last year Larry King had the judges on and there was a poll on who was your favorite idol. Dreadheads got on it and at the end of the show Larry announced who was ahead, and it was Jason Castro, simon went "nooooo" b/c he was shocked, but Paula was like "Told you!!". that was a GREAT way of getting his name out there. So any poll does the same. Post the poll information and just go at it, a thread about the poll is a good idea and you can have a "voting party" on that thread. For a perfect example of an on-going voting party thread go here: http://thedreadheads.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=yack&action=display&thread=2022&page=1


whenever we'd see a blog or article about AI especially about season 7 we'd put positive comments about Jason in the comments section, even if he wasn't mentioned in the blog.

NEVER be rude to someone who posts negative things about matt in a blog, just respond tactifully and positively. We do not want people thinking Matt's fans are anything but respectful.

You can also get a big group of people constantly searching is name on yahoo and google, etc. the people w/ the most searches are listed on the site.

giving away cds at tour stops is also a great thing to help. You can also give some away at local music festivals. Once Matt has an official website you can give people that information as well.

If you can play music at work then play Matt's, when people stop to ask who's singing you have a perfect promotion opportunity. You can also 'gift' some of Matt's music from his first 2 albums to friends on itunes.

we did do SOME emailing to record companies but some people felt that could backfire so it wasn't a main priorty.. I don't know if there's a chance that would turn some record companies off or not, but if you go this route just don't do it so often that they may get annoyed.

same with requesting his music to radio stations, it's great to do, but don't overdo it. If the same person keeps calling about the same thing it could backfire.

we had, and still have weekly "bonfires" to keep everyone together and pumped. It's a virtual party thread where everyone posts cool pics and pretends they're at a themed bonfire or something.. it's a great way to keep fans and members connected.


There wasn't this twitter craze last year but it has to be a good thing to keep matt trending.. we got #signmattgiraud trending last night and are working on it again tonight.. will definitely be doing that for the Grand Rapids show.

Also, I know there is some concern about the fact that Matt has several different fangroups and everyone is not under just 1 group. That is NOT uncommon and doesn't mean that all Matt's fans cannot or will not work together. For instance, there are the dreadheads w/ their own site, the Castrocopians w/ their own site, the official site w/ it's forums, the Goth Girls (equivelent to BGs) w/ their own site, the Castronauts from IDF and several more.. The thing is, everyone had the same common goal, which was to promote Jason and get him signed. It's the same way w/ Matt's groups. Just because there are several, it does not mean that is going to hurt Matt. All the groups just need to be on the same page when it comes to promotional ideas. This can be done by certain members of each group getting together and then bringing that information to their members. Again, once Matt has an official website this will become easier as everyone can get the information from the same place. In the mean-time the fangroups can act similar to a street-team. STs are usually segregated by geography, such as southeast, northeast, ect. Until something official is set up we can just discuss among groups and go for the common goal.

Also, we should not call ourselves street-team members or say we are street-teaming or anything like that until Matt has his OFFICIAL site and team members. That will most likely be end of tour or close. Jason's official site opened on 8/25 of last year but the street-teaming did not start till several months later after all the official personel got involved. It could hurt Matt if we try to do too much promotion before HE asks for it. I'm not sure what all his ai contract states but we do not want to overstep boundaries. We need to wait until we receive word from his camp before undergoing any large "street-teaming projects".


And do not freak out because Matt does not (that we know of) have any offers YET. It took a full year for Jason to announce his deal (and I'm not sure at what point he was actually signed but it was at least a few weeks until it was announced). In that time we heard things like "talking to people, taking meetings, news coming soon, will produce album independently if don't get signed, writing music, concentrating on tour, ETC) for a YEAR, that's what we were told by Jason and his camp. Do these things sound familiar? This process takes time and even if people have been talking to him he cannot say anything about it until his ai contract is up.

Also remember that no matter what we do the majority of the work has to be done by Matt himself. I truely believe he has the talent and the drive to make this happen but we need to keep showing him support. Keep letting him know that we love him and believe in him and will continue to support him no matter what. Giving him confidence in this way will be a huge help to him.

And, if you believe in prayer, pray hard. I am.

Those are the things I can think of off the top of my head.. I know it's a book.. sorry.. I will post more if I think of more later.

I loved your book and it felt very comforting reading it!!
And I am happy that we are actually doing some of the things you mention in your post - good to be in the hands of a pro'!! :-)
And I am not to worried either with all the diff fangroups - we had some hoopla going on for a short while, but I feel everyone is coming together for Matt - so that is just SO great.
Even if I can't contribute 100% I try the best I can from my little place far away :-)

YES.
A Matt Giraud/Jason Castro collaboration would be fantastic.
That is all I have to say about this. [:

Cindyy wrote:

YES.
A Matt Giraud/Jason Castro collaboration would be fantastic.
That is all I have to say about this. [:

If there were any record producers out there with half a brain, they could see that a Matt/Jason collaboration would be so AWESOME! :cheers

Both are talented guys with dedicated fan bases! And can you imagine all THE PRETTINESS in one room? OMG, I LOVE THAT IDEA!

Please, someone make it happen!

http://www.castrocopia.com/media/gallery/pwjgvaTop12Party_14.jpg

poisnivy wrote:

y'all are welcome, glad I could help


Another thing I remembered is if you have a myspace of facebook account it never hurts to send bulletins of Matt's music and post videos on your fb and myspace proflile (also add his music to your myspace player). Then all your friends who may not watch Idol can be educated


if you have any more questions you can send me a message at myspace.com/keldobbins I don't get to log onto the forums everyday so I don't want to miss questions.

Wow, thank you so much for bringing all of these good ideas here! I feel like what we did for Matt the other night (getting him to trend at number 3 and stay there for a good 2 hours) gives me hope that Matt's fans have a lot of power to help Matt and to get his name out there. I'm glad you brought your ideas here, maybeone of these days we can all decide on something, and get togther to make it happen