After last weeks free gig at Teteria Salterio (Teahouse) I realised I could perform without a mic and amp in front of a small friendly crowd for 1 hour and 20 minutes. It wasn't just about steaming through the songs like a train. I got into a comfort zone and a rapport with the audience and even read some poetry.
My second official gig is at Pipiolo this weekend. It's a place known for six nights of singer-songwriters every week. It's the biggest of the small places I've elected to play and the 1st paid gig. Just 3 Euros at the door!
I've also set up at Ticketea.com, an online system where people can purchase tickets in advance for all kinds of events and venues can scan printed tickets or electronic tickets on mobile devices to validate the tickets. It was fun figuring out how the system worked & will come in handy in future.
I've started rehearsing with a few different people and hope they will join me onstage for a few songs each.
The other group sharing the billing are POOL, playing as an acoustic duo of Gilles Estoppey on piano and Claudia Steccato on vocals.
I'm planning a few theatrical elements and would like to add some surprises to each show. I've been looking into guerilla marketing and used recycled train tickets to write my address on last week and hand out to the audience. I also collected email addresses at the show.
I'm working on new songs too, just to give some surprises and something never heard before, even on my website.
Well I'm pleased to say I managed to play for 1 hour and 20 minutes with about 11 Songs at my first gig last Thursday at Teteria Salterio.
I started rehearsing last Monday and put a setlist together. Its important to change the key and pace of the songs. I kept the singalong songs till the 2nd part of the performance so I and the audience were both warmed up. I started with 2 completely unknown songs never heard before.
Feel free to listen to these Red tracks by following the link:
Then I introduced a poem called Sweet love and asked for a volunteer - Giulia to read some selected parts with me. Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to use the microphone and amplified that I had brought along. So it was a completely unplugged performance. Luckily most of the people sitting close were friends and they were very silent during the performance of the quieter songs like Sofia's Song.
I gave a short introduction to each song, about where, how or why it was written. I decided not to keep regular time for a lot of the songs and improvise some intros and outros, with some breaks in the middle for teaching the audience some of the melodies. I finished on two very melodic and catchy songs.
Overall the gig went well. It was a calm and chillout atmosphere and I think the music reflected that.
Gig at Tea shop. Milestone - 5000 views on this Blog. Wanted - Acoustic Guitarist & Cajon player
.
It's been a sunny start to April and I'm rehearsing for my 1st gig on Thursday April 18th at TETERIA SALTERIO. I've dug up some old acoustic songs that have never been heard before. They have a folk element and story-line with characters, I thought it would be a good idea to present them at my 1st acoustic solo gig as RedEyeZack. See more info on this reverbnation profile page.
I'm excited about playing to such an intimate group of friends in a very sweet location. I'm a bit of a tea man myself, so what better place than a tea shop to make your first gig as a solo artist.
I've started checking out other places I could play and in the meantime I'm looking for other musicians to jam with and accompany me with these original songs. Another acoustic guitar or Cajon. Please send me an email at redeyezack@gmail.com if you are interested.
The other thing I've just noticed is 5000 views on this blog. That's since I started in October 2012. I've managed to post regularly every week since then.
Enjoy the sunny weather in Barcelona. If not, get yourself over here!!
I've got my first paid gig at PIPIOLO on May 4th! I will be sharing the stage with POOL. It's a small, cozy place for an intimate evening of acoustic live music. Here's more info and a slideshow of our evening at the bottom.
https://www.facebook.com/pipiolo.bar
Last night after our Pink Floyd Jam session, a small group of us headed off to meet up with other friends in a music bar called 'Pipiolo'. Jose had brought along a producer/ singer-songwriter to introduce me to & I was there to meet the music organizer, Gemma to see if it may be a good place to start my small performances.
The tiny door at Pipiolo - C/ Balmes 113 had a guitar fretboard as the door handle and we stepped down into the cozy bar. The friendly staff took out guitars into the backroom which was full of more guitars! There were 3 musicians playing covers booked and 1 by 1 they came to perform a set of cover songs. Before the evening had finished we discussed the possibilities of organizing a gig for RedEyeZack for May.
Pipiolo have music every night of the week from Tuesday to Saturday. From 10pm to midnight it's singer-songwriters with their own material and from midnight onwards it's covers groups. It's a small cozy place,
people chat during cover performances so it looks like a good place to practice. I will visit a few more times in the week to get a feel for the place and how different the crowd are for the singer-songwriters.
It's been a busy month. I've moved to an ideal location next to the Arc De Triumph in Barcelona. I've got two gigs booked, one for April 18th and the other for May 4th. I will be preparing an acoustic set for both gigs.
Concerts
Covers Band Project at BAMM
The covers band is developing well and we now have 9 songs under our belt. Here's the selection of alternative songs for female vocals too, so we should have a full set ready soon.
Original Playlist covers that we are attempting
Social night at Sala Monasterio.
Thursday nights is free Blues Jam Session from 11pm till about 2am! Narani our vocalist from the BAMM Pop/Rock Coversband had just graduated in Mathematics and it was a good excuse for a party.
We caught up with Larry Smith who played a set of rocking songs. Some old friends, new ones and a great friendly atmosphere.
Checkout Larry's awesome guitar playing in this slideshow
Spring is here and we're planning to do some acoustic rehearsals in the Citudella park.
Have a great Easter holiday and looking forward to playing live for you from April!
I recently met up with Alexis (who I've been trying to meet up with since Xmas). He's outside Barcelona. He's been playing lead guitar in various bands for five years. I'm going to check them out soon. He was kind enough to come into Barcelona to meet me. Later Tatiana joined us.
Last July Tatiana and her colleagues from Lampli organized a music festival called Petit Burg Festival ( a small format, I was there for the weekend and it was great, located in a lovely place up in the Pyrenees mountains, in Burg Village, they combined music with theatre, workshops etc..it had great local success) . I had seen a few videos of artists called ANÍMIC filmed performing on a bridge in the countryside. She also writes a blog about music, so it will be interesting to exchange ideas.
My blog has just had its most successful post 'technology as an accelerator'. With over 750 views, it's also pulling up another blog about looking for small venues. Traffic has increased 10x since I started in Sept 2012. I'd like to embed the blog on my own website- www.Redeyezack.com to get music lovers to explore the songs on the site and get involved in the Barcelona community scene. It's a bit tricky and I'll have to look into RSS feeds.
POOL - EP Release Party!
It's important to support musicians you know that have a similar passion for music as you do. And it's interesting to know local bands who are active and releasing material. So, then at 10pm I headed off to continental and met Gille's band POOL on a street corner giving out last minute flyers! Well done guys... 5 euros to enter on a Saturday night, a drink or beer around 3.50e and 6e for a spirit drink. Lighting of the bar was cool, just great for low light colour photos. I loved the luminous paintings of cool celebs. POOL played 2 songs before starting my favourite 3rd track with the funky electric guitar part played by Gilles on Piano-synth. It was a bit chilli peppers- give it away/pearl jam-alive/lenny kravitz with
guitar riff played on keys... Awesome and got the crowd going!
Checkout Claudia's sultry vocals on Pool's song 'Crazy' in this video slideshow.
POOL are:
Claudia Steccato - voice
Gilles Estoppey - piano / rhodes
Pau Sala - electric bass
Well it's been a difficult week with the change of climate and my allergic reaction to the change of season which became a cold, as well as having to visit the dentist twice this last month. Thank you 'Paracetamol & Antihistamine'. As my doctor in Istanbul once said, "If you don't take medication, your flu will last a week... If you take medication it will last 7 days...! But taking it will help you tolerate and work better". Thanks Dr.Birgul!
On the work front, things have been slow but I feel positive opportunities around the corner. I've spent the time resting and studying, preparing a blog and new English courses for the spring and getting ready to take my students to Brighton this summer for English courses.
On the music front, I've made some slideshows for two songs that are not very visible on my website: Sofia's Song and Living a Lie... I'm posting them here for you to get a good look and listen. It's important to create content to give more exposure to songs with visuals. Mainly due to the growing influence of YouTube for discovering new music.
I've also added individual pages that allow you to 'rate this song'. You can also see the Stats of how others rated the song from 5 (I love it!) to 1 (Poor).
I'm looking into 'screen capture' software so I can show you exactly how to make the slideshows in a DIY training video (coming soon). Making slideshows is an easier way of getting a video of a song up on YouTube without the production expense of making a video clip. In future I may have a go at a storyboard of photographic stills using models/props/lighting effects etc... Any of you that would like to collaborate, please send me a email at zackqureshi@gmail.com
It finally took me about 20 minutes to put a slideshow together. The first time I remember it was 2 hours or so! Once you learn the software you intuitively know it's possible to cut and paste repeated actions. So I learned that I could 'highlight/select' all my photos and add an 'effect' to them as a 'batch' and do the same for 'transitions'. The effect I generally use is 'Ease In' It creates a gentle zooming-in effect. The transition I most commonly use is 'Fade' because it is possibly the smoothest transition between photos. There is also an automatic slideshow generator that adds effects and transitions but I will reserve that for more energetic up-tempo songs.
All the slideshows here were made using 'Microsoft movie maker', so when you're happy with your slideshow, just click 'publish' and wait for it to convert the format and generate a version compatible for the web. Then 'upload' to YouTube.
I was at the Nike FlyKnit product launch this week. It was a beautiful structure and a great piece of engineering. Looks like a great place for a private party. I gonna get me one for my garden! Very interesting promotion, great branding and lots of money to do things properly :)!
Wonderful Life: (Original Em), key Gm (Play Em on 3rd fret)
Mad World: (Original Fm), key of Gm (Play Em on 3rd fret)
Light my fire: In original Key of Am.
We arrived at El Patio Studio at 9.15pm. It was the first time I had seen Luis and we went down to the basement. There were 2 small rooms, a medium sized room and a larger room with a sofa.
The studio was well equipped with amps, cables, mics and mixer.
We set up the mics and positioned the instruments in a circle. By 9.30pm the others were arriving and we began with our first song- One by U2. We played round and round with chords to the verse, Am D F G for 10-15 minutes taking it in turns to enter. I started with the acoustic guitar for 4 bars, then Sheera entered with Ukulele, 4 bars later Luis started with Clean Electric guitar. Then Gustavo came in on the drums, Dom added more rhythm on acoustic guitar 2, Carolyn created bass notes on her trombone, Miquel entered with Acoustic guitar 3 and finally Narani began with the first verse.
We then worked on the chorus C Am F C & finally put the whole song together. It was great because everyone was listening to each other and playing steadily.
2 hours went really quickly and we also did; Light my fire (the doors), Mad World ( Tears for fears), Wonderful Life (Black).
We shared the cost of the large room which was 17e/hour, so it worked out about 3euros each. Much better than going to play in the music bar, cheaper and more productive. We are planning to put a set of 15 songs together then start looking for small venues to make some fun gigs. Great way to join in, sing in English and learn words to great songs.
We look forward to seeing you at our first concert!
Zack & Members of Pop/Rock Coversband at BAMM
Miquel - piano/guitar
Narani - vox
Gustavo - drums
Luis - Electric gtr w/effects
Dom - Rhythmn Gtr
Carolyn - Trombone
Sheera - Ukulele
Tony - Guitar/Vox
Manel M - Acoustic Guitar 2
Guests Singers: Ester Galeote & Elena Mendez Jose Galeote
Other songs: (Click o song for YouTube video link)
We had a fantastic evening of live music at El Nostre Raco, (C/ Boria 22, Barcelona, ES) the other week! There was a surprise in store for us too... It made the evening an experience & surprisingly more interesting as well.
We were about 12 people, 6 musicians and 6 listeners who doubled as our audience & singers. They helped us to select 15 songs from a list of around 50.
We separated into 2 groups. Musicians and audience. We made 2 seperate
lists and then compared them.
Here are the songs the musicians collectively selected: (Click on song for YouTube link)
I'm looking more into technology, art, installations and audience interactivity. How can technology help us to enhance an existing live act?
Checkout the intro video and slideshow of the concert.
TEI Promotional Video:
By chance I met Volker at the Wednesday webmaster meetup. We got chatting about streaming and agreed that subscribing to 3rd party providers to stream live would be possible and affordable. Volker sent me a link to checkout: www.ustream.tv/platforms/plans
Across from the conference concert hall is the venue Razzamatazz where the delegates could enjoy a free concert and demonstration of the use of these technologies. It was at one of the smaller halls-Sala 2. I was impressed at the lighting mood of the place. It felt like being in an aeroplane hanger with atmospheric lighting effects of blue and complimentary red of the bar in the distance was going to present a visual experience (See this slideshow below).
The first performance was an award winning entry for a new bio-instrument that was plugged into the muscle and blood flow monitoring equipment of Marco Donnarumma : Hypo Chrysos | Action art for vexed body and biophysical media (Xth Sense Biosensing Wearable Technology) and amplified his exertions on the stage into audio effects and synchronised with a slideshow in the background. Although the two stones he was dragging about didn't really entertain the crowd for too long, some variations of the curious dramatic art performance and visual graphic projection did get me thinking about biofeedback and other ways the technology could be integrated into an already established and choreographed live show performance.
The second were a trio who created a backing track and and performed their songs in a simple rhythmic way with bat tons for drum sticks hitting he air for bass drum and snare rhythm, a minimalist guitar style and over-processed vocals with a synth player adding effects.
Not very musical, but in the hands of accomplished musicians or dancers the technology could shine much more and the audience would be satisfied at least with the skill of the performers.
There were 6 Macs onstage and little musicality. I think I'd like to take some of the ideas, get my hands on the technology and apply them to live shows of bands performing gigs to develop audio visual compliments and interact more with audience participation at live shows.
Any collaboration of music with technology are welcome.. Please contact me on zackqureshi@gmail.com
We arrived promptly at 9pm and went down the steps to a basement/museum area. There was a table of event organizers dressed up in various costumes.
I was invited by Alejandro whose friend was one of the organizers of the event 'Ornitorrinco'. It was free to enter if you were wearing a 'Fancy dress' costume, if not, 5 euros including a drink. We had come to see the first gig in the Moritz Fabrica sponsored by TimeOut Bcn. The restaurant upstairs has been open since Nov 2012 and the basement had been prepared for live music events. The sound and lighting systems made it good for live music and great for photos!
The hall was an open space with curiously placed pillars that divided the space into different corners. In one corner the band and stage, in another the temporary bar.
The lighting was very good and created a warm atmosphere. Sponsors logos were clearly visible as projections on the walls around the hall and 2 colourful projected logos around the stage area. There was also a Timeout advertising board and a 2nd stage for the DJ to spin after the gig.
The organizers concept was to put 2 bands: MiNE & The Seihos of varying styles onto the same stage, playing the same song and thereby creating a fusion. The second song I heard was Walk of Life by Dire Straits. The bands had clearly come out to entertain and get the party atmosphere going. As you can see the costumes were quite outrageous and very entertaining on stage. It was a university crowd and most of them were really up for it when it came to dressing up. My favorite was the three matadors (great costumes guys... where did you nick them?!).
Moritz Beer Factory Opening Party In Barcelona: http://youtu.be/SwmMwngInW0
Address: Cerveses Moritz, Ronda Sant Antoni, 41 08011 Barcelona.
.JPG&container=blogger&gadget=a&rewriteMime=image%2F*)
.JPG)
