Week 131:Building A Mailing List. NEW VIDEO. Free Download. House-Parties.

Hi Guys

I'd like to thank you for showing interest and despite the rain, coming to my 1st official gig at Pipiolo bar! It was wonderful to have a full house in such an intimate atmosphere. I hope that those that couldn't make it will get to the next gig.

I have a local mailing list which I'm building to inform music lovers of gigs, local venues, local bands I'm collaborating with. Please sign up on www.redeyezack.com. Or JOIN OUR MAILING LIST
Our monthly Newsletter also has the latest news of Gigs, videos, new songs, competitions, free downloads.

I'd very much like your support & look forward to performing new songs for you.

I'm looking to do Non-Traditional gigs & Houseparties. Drop me a line if you know any unconventional venues or you'd like to help me organise a gig for your friends. Email me at: redeyezack@gmail.com

My first free gig was at Teteria Salterio. At the end of the gig I collected a dozen email addresses. It's important to build a local following as the internet attempts to make us all global right from day one. I still need time to develop the craft of songwriting and performing live in front of a local audience. That's why I've chosen to play at small locations, house parties. 

By playing these, I'll be able to get real feedback on the songs and interact with the audience. Afterwards it may be possible to organise a gig in bigger venues, but they usually want you to rent the venue & bring people. 

As an artist starting out, this is too much to expect. I'd rather play a free gig in a place where the venue have their regular clients and bring people so I can expose my music to them, rather than paying to rent a venue and wondering if I'm not going to be able to bring enough people (thereby losing money).

One way to build a fanbase is to offer a free exclusive download in return for an email address. I've just added this to my homepage (see link above). 

This summer I'll be keeping you in touch with my travels, as I look for festivals and start recording my 1st EP.

Let me know if you have plans to visit Barcelona! :)

PLJ

Zack aka RedEyeZack

Week 130: Getting Paid Gigs

Hi Music Lovers!

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.

PLJ
Zack aka RedEyeZack

Week 127: Starting to Gig - Pipiolo Bar

Hi Music Lovers!

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.

Have a great week & catch up soon!

Zack aka RedEyeZack