Week 126: Venues & Gigs

Hi Music Lovers!

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

Sell music on Amazon at ReverbNation.com

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!

Zack aka RedEyeZack

Week 125: Finding Local Musicians

Hi Guys!

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

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Week 124: Content Is King & Making Easy Slideshows

Hi Music Lovers!

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.

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Week 121: Technology as an Accelerator II

Hi Guys!

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

He was participating in a 3/4 day conference TEI (Seventh International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction). Barcelona, the 7 th annual conference. So I put a note in my diary and made a point to check out videos on the organisations webpage.

Monday, February 11th at 8PM

Razzmatazz2, Carrer Pamplona, 88, 08018 Barcelona

http://www.salarazzmatazz.com/

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

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Week 120: Event Organisation - Moritz (founded 1856) & Timeout

Hi Music Lovers!

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.

Tel: 93426 00 50

Website: www.moritz.com/

Moritz on G+

TIMEOUT: TimeOut on Facebook

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Participants:

Aleko Capilouto, Xavi Pablo, Dani Royo, Ariadna Cebrián, Adrià de Yzaguirre, Mireia Serrano, Adri Ortiz, Héctor Ferreño, Dani Pujalte, Smile Films, Teo Campos, Luis Lungarini, Laura Guitérrez, Gal·la de Yzaguirre, David Oliete, Josep Torelló, Leonora García Casacuberta, Lucia Meler i Maria Vilaredas