Week 232: Sketches - Album Cover

Sketches - Album Cover Which do you prefer? Hi Guys! I'm back in the UK and preparing to play this spring/summer. I'm working on a demo album of acoustic songs in their purest form. Tracklist: 1. 21st Century Man 4:58 (listen) 2. I Can't Sleep Tonight 4:32 3. These Are The Days Of Our Lives 3:11 4. Sofia's Song 3:34 (listen & free download) 5. Maybe 3:46 6. Smile 3:18 7. The Purpose Of Existence 4:14 8. Hold Me 0:52 9. Lord Have Mercy On My Soul 3:39 The album will have 9 songs on it and will be ready and available in a few weeks on BandCamp and at my gigs. Because I'm a solo artist, I'll be collaborating with other musicians to perform live in different setups, as a solo, a duo & as a band. Currently I'm in the studio recording & producing a full band version song number 3. These are the days of our lives. I've put over 70 hours into this song and it really has been a learning curve. My objective is to get the best possible quality in the song and production as I can using a DIY model. Later I'd like to go into a pro studio and work with a producer. I will have a preview for your feedback on which of the 2 versions you prefer in my next newsletter in May. These days I'm listening to producers like Timbaland, and solo artists like James Bay and Hozier. I look forward to performing for you soon and getting your feedback on different versions. E.g chill-out, instrumental and acoustic versions. I look forward to playing live. But its back into the studio for the moment.See you soon! Zack aka RedEyeZack I prefer album cover A I prefer album cover B

Week 129: Creating A Setlist

Hi Guys!

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:

• What Do You Feel
• Who Knows What You're Going To Be
• Summertime & Smile
• Hold Me & Flying Free
• The Purpose of Existence & RadhaKrishna
• Two Sparrows
• I Can't SleepTonight
• 21st Century Man & Satisfy My Soul

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.

Next gig is Saturday May 4th at Pipiolo. I look forward to seeing some of you there!!

Zack aka RedEyeZack

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.

Source

Week 119: Technology as an Accelerator

Hi Guys!

I wanted to do something simple like a slideshow with all those lovely photos that I´m taking. So I uploaded to FLICKR and embedded to my website and blog. Only problem is that people on mobile devices couldn´t see the slideshows! Then I tried with HTML5 but it didn´t work.

Finally good old YouTube and movie maker (free in windows) gave me this result. I played around a little more and added my guitar audio tracks as background music as well as effects and cool transitions between the pictures. I could also add text to some of the pictures. Finally add intro title and credits at the end and voila! You have a more interesting way of looking at photos.

I'm also preparing some Pink Floyd songs for our Jam session this coming Friday 15th Feb. We are planning some gigs and recordings in the coming months.

Look forward to seeing you there and streaming online in the near future.

Zack a.k.a. RedeyeZack

Here's an interesting reference to technology in music:

David Byrne, founding member of the Talking Heads, label owner, Byrne makes the point that while technological innovation creates efficiency for the savvy artist, technology alone cannot enable you to have a successful career. 

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