RedEyeZack - Vlog #6: Live Expressions Festival (July 7-9) 2017

A short VLog of my experiences at this new Live Expressions Festival.

Only 40 mins from Central London yet a million miles from civilisation...

Located at the beautiful Colebrook Lakes in Royal Tunbridge Wells, boasting a lake and wooded area and featuring your favourite Live Expressions artists, DJs, and performers. The 500 capacity event will showcase performers across the globe from rock to indie, funk to folk, soul to acoustic, reggae to hip-hop, blues to electro-swing - twinned with our favourite house DJs to make the most of our 3am licence.

0:00 Intro to Live Expressions:
0:39 Old Friends
1:28 The Blue Moon Cafe - Live Chillout Open Mic
3:17 Entrance
3:56 Jewellery Stall - Faisal & Mirihane
7:00 Pizza - Restaurant
7:22 Face Painting - Stall
9:06 Masquerade - Stall
9:34 Fierce Tiger - Zack's Face Painting by Nicola (Feat. Princess 'Bob')
14:03 RedEyeZack - I Can't Sleep Tonight
17:24 RedEyeZack - Smile
21:00 Having a GREAT time!
21:32 The band I came to see - Sarah Tonin (feat. Staff Jugglers)
25:22 Outro

For more info check out our website: www.liveexpressions.co.uk

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CHECKOUT more cool demos and a FREE DOWNLOAD: Flying Free: http://ow.ly/6vSu305fAwn

RedEyeZack - Flying Free (live)

Vlog #5 - Jamming: what will happen next?

This was one of my 1st exploits of making a Vlog while on the move and not just in the office or studio. On my way to a blues & Jazz jam session with (Lucio, Ricardo & Antonio) not really knowing what to expect... there was a workshop/demonstration, a concert then the jam. See how I got on stage, jammed the blues & did one of my original songs too!!

Week 298: RedEyeZack - Vlog #4: DIY / Making A Demo EP Cover

Week 267: Live Performance of Flying Free at Barcelona 3D Film-Misic Festival

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After visiting Barcelona to celebrate my birthday week and escape from the UK winter, I was invited to perform at a 3D film festival hosted by Edgar Gonzalez and now in its 4th year. The event was held at the former Estrella Damm Brewery.

A cool venue downstairs for gigs and a reception area upstairs for launches & corporate entertaining. I was amazed at the quality of cinematography of some of the short films. Although there was no formal stage area or plug-in area, we improvised a song in one of the brewery vats that had been converted to a seating and museum piece.

Well... you've got to prepared to improvise sometimes ;)

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Week 248: Recording Guitars In Ifield, West Sussex

Vlog #2

Hi Guys!
Summer is finally here in England and I'm starting to chill out and get into the recording process. Acoustic & Electric Guitars. It has been a turbulent 2 months and now I'm finally relaxed enough to enjoy being more creative in the studio.

I hope you are enjoying a relaxing summer and look forward to traveling from September.

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 213: New YouTube Channel Developing

Hi Guys!
I'm visiting my brother in Dublin these days! Loving the music vibe here.

Subscribe to the official RedEyeZack YouTube channel for music videos, behind-the-scenes, live footage, playlists, and more: http://ow.ly/zAoDu

I've started doing open mics again. Trying out new songs and preparing to record more over the winter.

PLJ

Zack aka RedEyeZack

Week 207: RedEyeZack: October-November Updates

Hi Guys!

I've been back in Barcelona teaching Business English Intensive (Yes, that's my dayjob) and I extended my stay!

PERSONAL STUFF:

At the end of the summer, I moved back to the UK due to lack of regular work in Barcelona. I've finally decided that I think Camden is the best place for me to live in London. I came back out to Barcelona for a teaching assignment for 1 week. Due to fabulous weather, I have extended my stay. I've been recording and mixing and learning about mastering while catching up with friends, musicians, relaxing in the summer climate which is pretty freaky for this time of year. It's always 'next year', a learning curve, where you need to make mistakes and errors before getting on the right train. One that will allow you the summer you deserve, doing what you want to do, being where you want to be or having time to do what you love. I like the analogy of the train, the journey that you experience living on the way... not necesarily the destination.


FREE STUFF:



Just hit 'Buy Now' and enter price '0' and checkout to download.


ORIGINAL SONGS:

I've been churning out a song a week of works in progress.

   




LIVE COVERS: (View in browser if necessary)

To get accustomed to playing live, I've also recorded some live acoustic covers to keep it real and prepare for performing. I meet friends at open mics around the city and play covers like, wish you were here, Imagine, Wonderwall...









My music focus starts on Fridays and through the weekend. Now I'm focusing more on teaching through skype lessons, this helps to pay the rent and keep me flexible to move around more, I really love traveling and look forward to touring in London & Europe next spring. This winter I'm planning to spend 10 days in Dublin with family and check out the local music scene.



INDIA SPIRITUAL FESTIVAL IN GOA :

My friends Dev Om & Meni Prem Shunyam (Yoga/meditation & Life coaching workshops) visited London and invited me to come out to India to play at a festival in GOA this winter. So, I had my first try at composing a tune for Yoga/Meditation. (View in Browser if necessary)





A BIT OF FUN:

This was discovered in a monastery very close to the infamous cubes on the seafront at Barceloneta, Barcelona, Spain. Historians are trying to discover whether it is indeed an original from one of the great masters ' Davinci'. A map was discovered inside the cubes and pointed to a rock venue called Sala Monasterio.

The painting had been hanging in a corner of the stairwell for a number of years until a tourist pointed out that it could indeed be the 'Gothi' masterpiece that had been stolen by vampires on a halloween night in 1742.

This version is so cool!


PLJ

Zack aka RedEyeZack x

Week 195 B: Learning English Through Music

Hi Guys,
I just finished adding a special page to my Destination English website. I had been teaching teenagers these last few summers in Brighton, UK. Every Friday, we would have a kind of farewell concert in the main hall as students would have to say goodbye to their friends who were leaving. 

We spent the week teaching classic songs like; Yesterday, Hey Jude by the Beatles, as well as modern pop songs. Then the class would perform in front of the whole school. Above is a list of some of the other covers I've done. I'm planning to teach these songs as part of TELF. I think we need other ways of engaging students through music.

I've made a page for my music and I'd like to share that with you. I've made special efforts to write subtitles in English and sync them. On YouTube there is a great feature on the settings button at the bottom of the player (It allows you to change the quality and speed of the video/audio). A fantastic tool for learners of English or anyone that's not native. 

I will be adapting the content and adding notes and explanations of the useful expressions that I use. 


Zack

Week 195: Vlog #1 - Summer 2014

Hi Music Lovers,

Remember to pamper yourself a little this summer after all that hard work! There's lots going on with me (20 to be exact;). Mostly preparation of songs and recording. 

Watch my informal Vlog  (Subtitled for my students & learners of English) on YouTube (Please subscribe to my channel) or below to get the full update and insight into the songwriting process. Its been three summers and I finally get to work on music! 

VIDEO:

Here's a Guitar Instrumental version of a track called 'Maybe'. I kind of grabbed a Santana sound to play with on this one. Let me know if you like it... It's helping me a lot musically to write instrumental versions of my songs.

SOUNDS:

Have a great summer! It looks like I'll be here in Barcelona most of August and then a couple of weeks in London for September.

PLJ (Peace, Love & Joy)

Zack x

PS. New website should be ready by the end of the summer and I'll be looking for gigs to play. 

Here's the original Sound of Silence (Acoustic Version)

"The Sound of Silence" is a song by the duo Simon & Garfunkel. Written in February 1964 by Paul Simon in the aftermath of the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy,^[1] the song propelled the group to mainstream popularity. An initial version preferred by the band was remixed and sweetened, and has become known as "the quintessential folk rock release".^[2]In the U.S., it was the duo's second most popular hit after "Bridge Over Troubled Water".

The song features Simon on acoustic guitar and both singing. It was originally recorded as an acoustic piece for their first album Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. in 1964 but on the initiative of the record company's producer, Tom Wilson, it was later overdubbed with drums, electric bass and electric guitar, all without the knowledge or participation of Simon & Garfunkel and rereleased as a single in September 1965.^[3][4] The single reached number one on New Year's Day 1966 and was included in the 1966 album Sounds of Silence.

"The Sound of Silence" was originally called "The Sounds of Silence" and is titled that way on the early albums in which it appeared and on the first single release; only on later compilations was it retitled "The Sound of Silence". Both the singular and the plural appear in the lyrics. In his book Lyrics 1964–2008, Simon has the title in the singular.

Here's the same song overdubbed with Electric guitar and drums!

Paul Simon began working on the song some time after the Kennedy assassination. He had made progress on the music but had yet to write the lyrics. On February 19, 1964, the lyrics coalesced, as Simon recalled: "The main thing about playing the guitar, though, was that I was able to sit by myself and play and dream. And I was always happy doing that. I used to go off in the bathroom, because the bathroom had tiles, so it was a slight echo chamber. I'd turn on the faucet so that water would run (I like that sound, it's very soothing to me) and I'd play. In the dark. 'Hello darkness, my old friend / I've come to talk with you again'."^[6]

Simon showed the new composition to Art Garfunkel the same day, and shortly afterward, the duo began to perform it at folk clubs in New York. In the liner notes of their debut album,Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., Garfunkel claims: "'The Sound of Silence' is a major work. We were looking for a song on a larger scale, but this is more than either of us expected."^[7]The duo recorded it for the first time on March 10, and included the track on Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., which was released that October.^[8] The album flopped upon its release, and the duo split up, with Simon going to England for much of 1965, partnering up with singer-songwriter Bruce Woodley of The Seekers. There, he often performed the song solo in folk clubs and recorded it for a second time on his solo LP, The Paul Simon Songbook, in May 1965. In the meantime, Simon and Garfunkel's producer at Columbia Records, Tom Wilson, had learned that the song had begun to receive airplay on radio stations in Boston, Massachusetts, and around Gainesville and Cocoa Beach, Florida.^[9]

On June 15, 1965, immediately after the recording session of Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone", Wilson took the original acoustically instrumented track of Simon & Garfunkel's 1964 version, and overdubbed the recording with electric guitar (played by Al Gorgoni and Vinnie Bell), electric bass (Joe Mack), and drums (Buddy Salzman), and released it as a single without consulting Simon or Garfunkel. The lack of consultation with Simon and Garfunkel on Wilson's remix was because, although still contracted to Columbia Records at the time, the musical duo at that time was no longer a "working entity".^[3][9][10] Roy Halee was the recording engineer, who, in spirit with the success ofThe Byrds and their success formula in folk rock, introduced an echo chamber effect into the song.^[3] Al Gorgoni later would reflect that this echo effect worked well on the finished recording, but would dislike the electric guitar work they superimposed onto the original acoustic piece.^[3]

For the B-side, Wilson used an unreleased track he cut with the duo a few months earlier, on which they had tried out a more "contemporary" sound. The record single "Sounds of Silence"/"We've Got a Groovey Thing Going" entered the U.S. pop charts in September 1965 and slowly began its ascent. In the first issue of Crawdaddy! magazine, January 30, 1966, Paul Williams, in reviewing the later album, wrote that he liked this B-side song which he found pure "rock and roll", "catchy", with a "fascinating beat and melody" and great harmony.^[11]

Simon learned that it had entered the charts minutes before he went on stage to perform at a club in Copenhagen, and in the later fall of 1965 he returned to the U.S. By the end of 1965 and the first few weeks of 1966, the song reached number one on the U.S. charts. Simon and Garfunkel then reunited as a musical act, and included the song as the title track of their next album, Sounds of Silence, hastily recorded in December 1965 and released in January 1966 to capitalize on their success. The song propelled them to stardom and, together with two other top-five (in the U.S.) hits in the summer of 1966, "I Am a Rock" and "Homeward Bound," ensured the duo's fame. In 1999, BMI named "The Sound of Silence" as the 18th-most performed song of the 20th century.^[12] In 2004, it was ranked #156 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, one of the duo's three songs on the list.

Wikipedia-  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sound_of_Silence

Useful Expressions: 

Courtesy of Destination English.com / See Students Site

Pamper - to look after someone very well, especially by making them feel very comfortable or by giving them nice things
She had a whole evening in which to pamper herself.

Vlog - a blog that contains mainly video

Update - to add the most recent information to something such as a book, document, or list
The latest edition has been completely updated.
The database updates automatically when new information is entered.

Insight - NOUN British English pronunciation: insight /ˈɪnsaɪt/ 
a chance to understand something or learn more about it
insight into: a revealing insight into the mind of a violent murderer
provide/give insight: The research should provide valuable insight into the nature of this complex organization.

Grabbed - to take hold of something in a rough way
He grabbed the knife before I could get to it.
One of the men was grabbed and bundled into a car.

It looks like - It seems, it appears that

a couple - MAINLY AMERICAN a small number of things or people
There were a couple of things I wanted to discuss.