A day at the races-Reviews-July 28th 09

My intention with these reviews is to give you a picture of the performer with a little background, the show itself and talk about the venue. I use the eventslist in SL to pick an act and then I just go there and experience while taking notes.


Eponine Dench at Falling Waters - 2PM slt

The first show of the day was a promising one judging from the eventslist and normally I would refer to the backgroundinfo from there but I cannot do that in this case because even though it was listed it simply didnt happen.
I don't know what led to this but at least they could have taken it out of the eventslisting so people wouldnt arrive in a big vacuum of wasted time.
I see it as a clear example of poor or no communication what so ever between staffmembers: Who does what?

Falling Waters is a big open spacethemed venue which gives you plenty of room to manouver. They even have a second floor for the crowded days but I doubt many people will notice it is there unless they are told so personally I would save the prims.

Stage is also in a good size as you probably can judge from the picture so there is enough space for the performer to put anything they would want on there.

Walking around the floor you do notice that the texturing is not what they thought about the most so that needs some adjusting.

The most positive thing was a fountain of notes far to the right of the stage which I found very neat and maybe..instead of hiding it back there I would use the size of the stage and put it in the middle behind the performer on stage...but that is only a second opinion.

You may wonder what falling waters has to do with a spacethemed venue but I did find a lovely picture behind the bar with some falling waters in the woods which made me think that the build of the venue may have been somewhat different in the past.


Maxx Sabretooth at Sunset Jazz Club - 3PM slt

Maxx is from Oklahoma and his performance includes genres like R&B, Blues, Jazz, Motown and a little Contemporary Country.

All in all he would be presenting some familiar songs in his own style using backingtracks. He should be a real crowdpleaser so off we went to experience that.

The show was set to start at 3PM slt but already 3 mins before that the stream was put in and revealed a very energetic guy all ready to perform and witn a voice to go with it.

My partner pointed that out very well later in the show when she said: "This is a countrysong....and he makes it sound good!"

Maxx did a good job in staying in touch with his audience with talking to us and a few times during his songs he moved out on the floor and danced with some of the ladies while singing. A nice touch and he did make it back to the stage before the song was over which was an accomplishment as we were approx 48 people at the spot.

Technical difficulties will without a doubt occur once in a while when you perform and in the middle of the show the player with the backingtrack wouldnt start. It lastet for a minute or so which is a very long time. Many would have panicked and feel embarrased but not Maxx. Instead he talked to the audience, telling stories while waiting for the bleeding thing to start because when it comes to the technology you cannot do much else but wait for it. If it won't start, it won't start. Simple as that.

All in all my partner and I was having a great time with Maxx Sabretooth and we wouldnt hesitate with spending another hour with him in the future.

Sunset Jazz Club


The Sunset Jazz Club has been in existence and hosting music in SL since 2004. The picture does not give the venue the credit it deserves because already when you enter you are amazed by the egyptian theme over the place and the use of some wonderful goldtextures makes this a very impressive venue.

In many venues you see the traditional "stage-in-the-middle" build but this stage is placed in the corner. It is not big but big enough and adds to the open feel of the dancefloor so even though we were many people there it did not feel overcrowded at all.

Again this is a venue with a second floor and except from adding to the looks I don't think it is very usefull afterall. No one would notice it unless they already knew it was there.

The venue is run by Circe who has been supporting and helping performers in SL a lot during the years. When you look at the walls you can see posters with a lot of names showing their appreciation to what she did for them and the music scene in SL.

As mentioned above the show began 3 mins early and when we landed there was some discussion about what stream to use between Maxx's people and Circe. Maxx's stream was thrown on the land and off we went.
I don't understand why the discussion had to take place in public chat but I guess it was all about marking off your territory. I didnt need to know about it so to me it was unnescessary and bad judgement from whomever started it.


Haruno Watanabe at Australian Musical Dreaming - 4PM slt

Haruno is of Japanese origin but living in United States and has been classically trained since childhood. She was a member of Tanglewood Festival Chorus, Chorus Group for Boston Symphony and Boston Pops for more than 7 years.
With that introduction I went off to the venue with some high expectations and I was not disappointed...for the most part.


Haruno starts with telling us that she is not feeling well today but she has never cancelled a show and will go on as long as her voice permits it. The talk was very low in the beginning but with the always helpful audience that was fixed. She also told us that she was going to use backingtracks even though some person had tried to tell her that it was a bad thing to do...well, too much info...now get on with it, please.


She started out with "Fields of Goal".....and forgot to plug the backingtrack in....bummer!...but the 20 secs showed us that here we were listening to a wonderful and powerful voice. If she had decided to continue singing "Fields of Goal" accapella I would have been with her all the way! It was amazing. After that she could do anything and I would just smile and applaud like crazy.


"Ave Maria" was served in a very lovely way and if this is how she sounds when she is not well I am certain she would blow me away when she is at full power.

Halfway through the show Haruno wanted to introduce her new piano to us and played 2 pieces on it which showed some skills but if the piano is supposed to be used at a performance it should be much closer to the mic. Furthermore she tried to do "Edelweis" with both piano and song...she lost and had to stop after 30 secs of it...more practice needed.

Back to what she did best...the singing...and the last 20 mins of the show was just as enjoyable as the first 30 mins.

All in all a fine performance except for the little offtrack on the piano and I would love to listen to her when she is all well again.

Australian Musical Dreaming

This venue is beautifully placed in a mountainious area which adds to the dreamy athmosphere that they want to have there.
Looking at the picture you may think that it is a basic venue and you are quite right but please go there and look at the colorchanges of the backdrops on the stage and you will experience a little bit of magic. Works best with midnight setting though.
Dancefloor is a bit dominating almost like a club floor but I guess it's supposed to add to the magic feel again of the place.

The show was run smoothly and some gadget was greeting the new visitors when they arrived and you even got a shoutout when somebody left...hehe...why is that important to know?
It's the same when someone has been standing in a corner all day and has to proclaim to the whole area that now rl is calling and they have to leave.....don't know about you but I really don't care why they leave...just...leave.;o)

Anyway, it is a nice venue to visit and perform at so I would recommend to try get a gig on their stage.;o)

What are they thinking - the people?!

Don't worry!;o)

This is not going to be a 3 hour long lecture about how a thought is created as a neural sparkle somewhere in the left or right half of our brain even though it is a very fascinating subject to cover.
"I think......therefore I am."
Now if that means that you are non-existing in this world if you don't think then I can only come up with yet another quote: "I see dead people!".



Preparation




In SL there is always an Open Mic going on somewhere which is originally designet for new musicians to try out performing in SL but also for experienced musicians to test new stuff and ideas. Mainly it is about presenting yourself to the world and show what you can do.

Open Mics consists of 20-30 mins slots which allows more artists to get on stage and the audience can more easily survive if one of the artists is having a bad day because they know it will only be 30 mins of suffering.

I know that some venues want you to play for an hour at their kind of open mic but they are only out to get a free concert from you and they hardly tip more than 200L$ during the hour so be aware of that. If you really want to play at the venue then just go ahead but don't expect to get more than experience from it and you won't be disappointed.

What I do want you to do is that when you arrive at the venue you are PREPARED!

You have a songlist made for the 30 mins/60mins or at least you have an idea of what you wanna present to people.

When I do a 30 mins set I can fit in 4 or maybe 5 tunes with a little introduction to each and a 60 mins set consists of 8-10 tunes depending on the length of the ones I have decided to play.

It seems to me that many other artists can present 5-6 tunes in a 30 mins set and ofcourse close to double of that in a full hour show.

It is not that I have long speeches between the tunes myself....the tunes are just a bit longer than others....even though some people might say that I do talk too much.......it's not true....between you and me....its not! ;o)

What I hate the most is to come listen to an artist....and we are also talking about "experienced" ones.....and then they spend 20% of a 30 mins set saying: "The hardest part is to choose what to play".

Get out of here! That's rediculous!

Ah ok, maybe that was a bit harsh. Maybe they just woke up on the stage and found out they actually were supposed to play....something.

I don't know... but I want to hear....something.

Don't waste peoples time with fiddeling up and down your guitar and make strange sounds with your mouth...come prepared!!

During a 60 mins show the same rules apply...you come with a bag full of songs/tunes that can fill out the show. Sometimes you may be in doubt but don't let the audience know...just choose the next song and get on with it as if it's the most natural thing right now.

Some artists may be thinking too much about what people would like to hear and maybe that's why many cover-artists with a 100+ songlist end up with singing the same 12 songs every time.

I tend to do the same sometimes because even though I have only performed my own original compositions I have experienced that the lovely people in my fanbase have chosen their own favorites during the more than 1½ year I have been performing in SL...for which I am very honoured and proud of by the way!;o)

I try to change it and one of the things I did was having differently themed concerts like the church-concerts I do with my more quiet compositions.

Ofcourse you can take in requests but when you run out of those...back to your initial plan because you did remember to make one...right?;o)


Don't act like a moron on stage saying: "Hmmm...what to do...what to do...??"


Come prepared!!




Want to get paid or not?


I run a venue in SL called The Yard Club and 2 months ago I sent out a notice in all the major groups telling that I pay all performers at my venue. I have a feecap at 4000L$ for an hour but they will get paid and they can put out their tipjar as well.

In my opinion a cool deal compared to the more and more venues offering tips only.

Well, some venues will lie to you and say they are a tips only venue when they infact do pay some of their performers..heh.

Anyway, I sat down and was expecting a little storm on my venue now that it was all out in the public that here was a venue that actually paid performers to be there.


Hmm, nothing happened.


I did get 2 responses but far from expected.....strange.


A month later I sent it all out again in the groups, made an ad in classifieds and even posted it in the SLMC Forum because maybe that would bring it to the attention of someone.


5 responses!


Okay.....so 7 artists in SL want to get paid for their performances and the rest prefers being tipped only...even when they actually get money thrown at them??


What kind of thinking is that?


A few possible reasons for this comes to mind:


1) "The bombardement of notices in SL is so heavy that they automatically close every single one that does not have their name on it if they get them at all."

-Are the groups usefull at all?

2) "The people that they hired to keep an eye out for paying venues are not doing their job."

-Hire new ones....unless you are partnered with them...then just keep running in circles.

3) "They have friends....those friends have tip only-venues......if they get paid at other venues then they might lose the friends."

-And?....What do YOU want?

4) "The Yard Club doesn't bring any new people because it is no following."

-Only a few, but we don't have any shops or the like. We just provide a lovely stage for you to perform on.


I bet there could be other reasons as well but I only wanted to point at a few possible ones.


Personally I would much rather close The Yard Club than ask artists to perform for free. Would be like asking other people to pay your tier for the land.


This also made me wonder why I actually run a venue.

Is it just because it has been a part of me almost from the beginning of my second life?

Maybe it is time to turn the key for good because with this little interest in getting a paid gig there surely is something rotten in the musicbiz of SL.

Like if there were no biz at all in this world.


"I see dead people!"


-TA-

Venues in Black and White

Many venues pop up in SL and just as many pop out shortly after. Not nescessarily the same ones and some for different reasons though many of them vanish from the grid because of poor management and no economic understanding at all. Maybe the title should have been "Venues in Red and White" instead but me being from Denmark that would have been more like a national anthem.


"I wanna have a live music venue!"


Sure you do and I think you should just go ahead but there are a few things you do need to think about before starting.


Size and type of venue

Land tier

Artist fee

Stream fee

Employee fee


Size/Tier


Size and tier often go hand in hand because the bigger venue you want with all the amazing surroundings you can think of, the bigger land you need to fullfill your dream and we all know Linden Labs policy on that one: "You pay!". That is the first expense you can always count on will be there every month.

I have seen venues build on a 512 sqm parcel which is free from tier every month and it can work for some because basically all you need is a stage, maybe a floor to dance on, a danceball and maybe a few lights here and there.

Yup, that is all!

Now just make a group for the venue with a fitting title for yourself and you can call yourself a venueowner.

Dreams tend to evolve though, I know that from my own experience, so if you are thinking a big venue with hanging gardens or a major festival venue.....Then eventually you will have to pay tier.


Type


When it comes to type of venue we are all different and mostly it is based on the type of music we prefer if any. (openminded...right?). Some venues are created to reflect a certain period in time i.e 1940's type venues, gangster type venues or sci-fi type of venues just to name a few but you get the picture. It is all up to you and frankly....most artists that you get on your stage don't care where they play...as long as they get paid. Sure you will meet artists that check out the place to select dress or outfit and to see where you build the stage but often they arrive 5 mins before showtime and says: "Hey Bro, Good to see you, where's the stage?"

Heh, so much for the hanging gardens or the hell-themed venue with flames jumping out from every corner;o).


Artist fee


All people like to get paid for their efforts and artists are no exception so when you plan to book an artist you also need to plan on paying a fee for his or hers time on your stage. Sometimes you can be lucky and have an artist playing for tips only but that is not the normal thing and because they offer it one time doesn't mean they are willing to do it everytime.

Tips only events are mostly Open Mics with 30/60 mins slots or benefits/charities that collects money for a good cause and you can gather many different artists on that account.

Let me say this though: A friend having all christmas-presents stolen from the car while it was parked outside a mall and you wanna ensure they have a merry christmas is only a good cause for you and your friend so YOU pay to help your friend. Don't ask everybody else to!


Fees may vary a lot from artist to artist and some artists claim a fee because they heard that was the amount other artists claimed. I have seen as low as 1500 L$ for an hour and as high as 15000 L$ for an hour. Generally the amount pr hour is centered around 4000/5000 L$ and you can find really good entertainment for that and the opposite ofcourse but then let's hope you don't book those, right?

To avoid getting artists on stage that you really think suck or they claim a price because they heard it was the normal amount I only have one advice:

Check them out!

Go to their shows around the grid and maybe even more than once so you get the full picture of their performance. That is a good thing to do because the first time you were there might have been a bad sl-day with connection or stream. Maybe something else happened in RL that affected the performance it's difficult to know. After the second listen you can better decide if that is the artist you want to spend your lindens on.


Already at this point you should have decided how much money you want to spend on artists every month because together with land tier and stream rental it could quickly get really expensive running your venue. If you did make a budget make sure you stick to it and don't let any kick-ass artist roll you over because they are this and that good.

Many artists swarm the grid for venues that are willing to pay and if they can force a fee out of you...they will. The loser is you! They don't care. They just fly off to find another venue and so on.

In time you will learn what people most often try to force something on you and you have to be able to say: "Well, I guess he/she is not going to play at my venue then."


Stream fee


Just a short notice about stream rentals because they vary a lot and the cheaper ones can be just as good as the more expensive. Check out the market and talk to artists/venueowners and then make your own decision.

The good things with having a stream yourself is that artists at open mics often do not have their own and if the stream from the paid artist fails...you have a back-up ready.

Oh, if you have a paid artist coming to your venue you should point out to them that you expect them to bring their own stream. With the fee you pay them and whatever they get elsewhere, they can afford it. Otherwise make them reduce their price if not already or do not book them.


Employee fee


Do you want to run the whole thing yourself or do you want to get a manager and/or a host to help you out.?

They need to be paid too and come in different packages. Some will work for tips only. Some will want to get paid pr hour/week/month and again it's just to find one that suits your budget.

The advantages of having someone to help you is that you can be more people helping each other cheking out artists before booking them and during the event at your venue you can help each other with greeting the guests and keep an eye out for griefers that could ruin the experience for everyone.

Now if you do decide to hire people then please be cautious about what people you assign to what roles and to illustrate that I have a funny but true story from sl:


I was performing at a venue on a late saturday and we had arranged with some people from another venue to come listen to me so they knew what they were getting for their lindens. As I was performing on stage it was Jess that had the contact with the people and at some point during the concert she received an IM from the Owner of the venue that was listening in saying that his Entertainment Manager had left the concert because she couldn't hear and hardly understand what was going on onstage so they had decided that they did not want to hire me. Jess was surprised because everyone else enjoyed the show and had the sound coming out just fine so naturally she had to disagree with that statement from the Entertainment Manager. The Owner had only one comment to that: "That may be but she is my Entertainment Manager and I trust her judgement. SHE DOES HAVE A HEARING PROBLEM THOUGH".


???


Well, no wonder she couldn't hear anything, Professor!!


No one in their right state of mind would hire a person with a hearing problem to go out and listen to potential artists for their stage and then believe that they would be able to judge the quality of the performer. That only happens in comedies, I thought!


Now I know you would never do that so just see to that you get the right people on the right posts at your venue and you will do fine.


Bottom line


When you get to the end of the month you will look at your numbers and you will realize a few things:


1) Your expenses will always be way over your income and if you should happen to break even it's most likely because you were on vacation for 2 weeks and didnt plan events for that month.


2) Tips from the guests does not make you rich at all. Sure some artist at a 4k fee will bring in 54 guests but only a small percentage of them care to tip the venue and you will be lucky if tips gets close to 1k on a good day. Many events will have the following approx. outcome:

Artist: 4000 + 2500 in tips

Venue: 800 in tips


3)...Still in chock after the above..


4) Question yourself: "Do I want to have a venue at all?"




If you after reading all of the above still want to run a venue because you love live music like the rest of us I can only say: "Go for it!.....and watch the expenses!".


As a final remark I can tell you that at our own venue, The Yard Club, we want to pay all performers a fee and to keep the budget. To accomplish that we lowered the number of artists that we feature on our stage and set a feecap that we won't go over.

So far we have met a lot of understanding and support from the artists performing at our venue because they also can see that it's better to accept a basic amount plus tips compared to ending up with all venues paying tips only.

I don't say it's the only way but that is the way we do it at The Yard Club.


I hereby declare the bazar open! ;o)


-TA-

Electronic music?...That's Techno...Right??

...Continued from previous post...



After the first rather successful appearance on the SL music scene Jess decided to start knocking on some doors and I also wanted to check out how other performers...performed....including adressing the audience and presenting their work.

You can learn a lot from watching other people doing their stuff..good things/bad things and you also have to keep in mind that even though that good thing worked for that performer it may not nescessarily be the thing for you to do.



First view on the SL live music scene


I once saw a documentary from Nashville telling about the thousands of musicians coming to the city every day hoping their dream will come through.

At some point in the documentary they drove down a street in Nashville and on every corner there was a guitarplayer and in between as well all hoping for that certain person to come by that could make their fortune. Many of them would have to try sell their equipment a month later to get money for a ticket home because it didnt work out for them.


When you first look at the many many performers in SL its like that street in Nashville with a lot of guitarplaying men and women. My guess is that approx 75% of the performing acts in SL is one person with a guitar but as I said...It's a guess.

Then later on you learn that there also are male and female singers that sing to backingtracks presenting wellknown songs and evergreens calling back memories for to the audience.

You will also find performers playing the piano and again presenting tunes and songs that people know and maybe have a memory or a feeling attached to.

Again my guess is that approx 90% of the above mentioned performers have two things in common:

1) They are persuing a dream through SL with more or less luck combined with more or less talent.

2) They all do covers of popular songs/melodies even rather new ones but the fact is that people hear something they already know.

How could I possibly get my own music out there when everything seemed to be like a family dinner or the local musician playing at the local bar?

Only one answer to that one: "Hard Work!!"


Presenting the music to the world

I read an article somewhere that stated the following: "The more different types of music you like to listen to tells you how openminded you are as a person".

I like that one and as I said in the previous post I like all music from Classic music to Hard Metal and those of you that have seen me at concerts in SL know that I attend to a lot of different music being played. If there is a melody and an idea in it...I am with you all the way.

I was about to learn that far from all people read the same article and shared the same views I have on music. Sometimes it was like when the very first synthesizer-composed music was presented and all the so-called experts shouted out:

"That is not music....I give it 6 months and then it is dead and forgotten!"

Heh, boy were they wrong or what!

We wanted to get out to as many people as possible realizing that not all would like what they heard but hoping to catch up a few fans along the way. It's more difficult to do that if the venueowners are unwilling to even have a short listen to what I had to offer. Many of the conversations were quite short and would be something like this in a shortened version ofcourse leaving out all the gestures from the place:

Me: "Hello, my name is Torben Asp and I was wondering if I could use your stage to present my music in SL. It's my own original compositions and something different from what you normally hear in SL."

Venueowner/manager: "Oh okay, what kind of music do you do?

Me: "It's instrumental music.....electronic....on synthesizers."

Venueowner/manager: "Electronic?...That's techno right?....Like a DJ?...Nah, I don't like techno sorry."

Me: "It's not techno, it's more soft than that...I play live on a synthesizer.....No DJ....ofcourse you can dance to some of it but some of my tunes are slow, dreamy and in my opinion beautiful....if you have 10 mins sometime I can play some for you?"

Venueowner/manager: "I don't think people here will like that kind of music so I will pass. Good luck".


Sigh!

Yea, it may seem like whining but when you have created something and would like people to give you feedback it is frustrating when you can't get the chance to present it. Anyway, back on the horse and move on.

Later on I did get a chance on other venues to present what I could do and they were amazed by the sound first of all and the compositions.

A lot of Open Mics....and then..

While scouting for venues I played a lot of open mics at The Forum that was owned by Jess Oranos. Open Mics mostly are 30 mins slots and it was a good way to train the performance, talk to people and presenting new stuff. Even today 1½ years later I love doing the open mics because you tend to meet new people that didnt even know you existed.

As the open mics went along and the people came listening I started to notice that i had some regulars at my small performances. Ah ok, the "small" performances now were close to an hour long because of new material being added.

Then it happened...my first concert "out of the house" so to speak.

It was one of the regulars that was opening a new club and as he loved my music he would like to have me performing at the Grand Opening of the place....Yahoo!!

We went to check out the place...always do that....and it was an Exotic Club but I requested to the owner that the girls would keep their clothes on at least for that hour the concert would last and there was no trouble with that.

The day arrived and it was great!!...Instead of playing for the usual 3 to 10 people I suddenly had 25 at a concert and got some new members in the fangroup as well.

Now you would think that a lot of people would come listen everytime they saw my name in the events list....ah ah.....remember that we like people that are openminded to music and ofcourse they listen to different types of music so you wouldnt be the winner everytime.;o)

5, 21, 8, 11, 32, 17, 2

Lottery numbers?

Nope, that is how different amounts of people you can have at your concert. If you should win on that combination of numbers I want a share though;o).

While the big numbers will make you feel like flying and the low numbers will make you feel depressed you always have to remember one thing....and I had a hard time with that in the beginning....: THEY are there because they love what YOU do..so give them the show they deserve and they will return to listen next time...or next time again. (openminded, remember?)

Shortly after my first concert at the exotic club I was having my first appearance on "The Rock".....actually its Rocky Shores...but everyone calls it "The Rock".

The performer before me...guitar....had pulled in a rather good crowd so I was happy about getting my music known to even more people.

Alas, when I started playing the first tune I noticed that people left one by one without even listening to it...I guess they heard the word...electronic...synthesizers and programmed....then they had judged it as being Techno...you know...like the venueowner we visited earlier.

The last 40 mins of the show I played for 5-6 people including the owner Ticious, some of her people there and Jess.....TA was not happy....but got through the concert and thanked the people that stayed.

Obviously it must have showed that I was sad that people left because afterwards Ticious said something like this to me: "Don't be sad because people left...Doesnt mean you are not good at what you do....People often expects a certain type of music here at Rocky Shores and your music is new to them and they have no relation to it....In time you will find the right audience for your music...Besides there can be many reasons why people left....For the record I loved listening to your music here at "The Rock"...Keep getting out there and you will get more people at your shows".

Now that is a venueowner you have to love! Ticious!.....thank you;o).

A year later I was back at Rocky Shores and we had a lot of people there......and they stayed!...Yay!

Is there anybody out there?

As time went by I started wondering if there were other people performing electronic music live in SL and that is when you learn the value of your fanbase. Many of them have been to several concerts around the grid and one day someone asked me: "Have you ever been at Cypress' concerts....I think you would like it and I would love for you two to meet."

Sadly I cannot remember the name of the lady that said it but she was right and getting to know Cypress Rosewood in SL has been an inspiring experience indeed.

I went to one of his concerts and was amazed by the soundpictures he painted in peoples minds and ofcourse I noticed a lot of people there...more than I would ever dream of having at the time.

The majority of people seemed to be from Elven sims and other fairytale areas in SL so I started wondering if that was the audience that would also love what I did.

Okay, home again from the concert thinking about what to do next and then I get an IM from Cypress saying that he had heard that I performed electronic music in SL and he would like to have me playing at a big event called ElvenAid 2008.

Now that was something. A lot of other artists would be playing on the lineup but I got to present my music to a large audience at a public event in SL.

It was a success....many people...nice comments and new people in the fangroup..I loved every minute of it.;o)

Later that year I also played at Yuri's Night 2008 arranged by Cypress and again many people listened and got in the group.

Did Cypress like my music?...I was not sure...but I do know that I blew him away when I composed "The Cypress Chronicles" in his honour and hauled him to Red Rock Mesa in SL for him to listen...and the best thing was that he never knew why untill I presented the tune....Me like to surprise!;o)

On monday night Cypress hosts an internetradio broadcast called "When Worlds Collide". It takes place both in SL and RL. In RL you can tune into the station and listen. If you are in SL you can go to the studiosite and see what is going on.

I was asked to appear on the show for a talk about music in SL and I would also be allowed to play 2 tunes of my own. A great opportunity to get heard by even more people.

The first appearance on the show was a disaster because of technical problems so I got another shot at it later in the year and that went far better.

Even though the first show was bad I did get to present my tunes and that was when I met Jana Kyomoon or rather.....she heard me for the first time.

It turned out she also performed electronic music in SL so now all of a sudden we were three people performing different types of electronic music so it was only natural that we stuck together and supported each other.

Jana and I did some back to back concerts and we called us "The Dynamic Duo". People loved those shows because we changed stream every 30 mins. After a long pause we have started doing them again but as I cannot fit into the Batman costume anymore we now call them "The Swap Team" so look for that name in Events and you will get 2 hours of the best electronic music there is...played live!
Oh, I also composed a tune for Jana close to her style of music called, "Mental Journey" which I belive she was rather proud of. You never know for sure with those UK people, heh.

The sum of it all

I started performing in October 2007 alone and not knowing how it would all turn out. Now it was summer 2008 and things were really starting to move ahead.

I was selling MP3's in SL, I got my website torbenasp.com up and running, I performed at SL5B which is a huge SL birthday event, I composed a tune (Luminaria) for the Relay For Life event going on every year in July and even got to perform it at their livevenues, I got my músic on CDBaby.

Jana, Cypress and I started to do Mini E-Fests every month at my venue called Ethereal and we still do.

October 2008 I had my one year anniv. as a muscian in SL and we launched the first of many to come TA's E-music Festivals with 12 hours of different music (openminded...yes?) through the day. I also got to the 200th concert mark in October 2008 not counting the many open mics that went along with them.

Now its already summer again but 2009 and the last 6 months have been great all in all. The fan group is of a nice size and I also have a mailllist for the people that are full on groups...and they are many.

The concerts I have done have been well-attended mostly but ofcourse numbers vary a lot From 10 to 57, heh...but I am honoured to play for every single person that attend my concerts and always amazed when I can gather 20 people for a 30 mins show.

Let me end this long and tiring novel before it comes to an even longer series of books, Yikes!

I would never have gotten to where I am today without the love and support from all of my fans, many venueowners, the so-called non-political fractions in SL, Cypress, Jana but most of all the ever hard working, always caring and the one that said: "...And I wanna hear no excuses!"

Jess Oranos!

Me love you big time! ;o)

***In the following posts I will talk about different aspects of the live scene in SL as I have experienced them and once in a while I will come with reviews of concerts I have attended inworld and I go to a lot - Stay Tuned!***

-TA-

Summing up (2½ years...Geeez!)

It begins

Now just to get started on this blog I will try to look back on the past 2½ years in SL from when I got "ruthed" the first time. (Edit. Note: Ruthed was the way we all looked before we discovered skins, shapes and Xcite)

I started my SL Career on the dancepads on some dance island where they had music streams running all the time. So my first goal was to find out how to collect L$. It's amazing how happy you can get when you get past 10 L$ the first time.
Later on I discovered the multi games and the money started coming in faster which allowed you to buy stuff with some sort of quality. The best thing you can say about the freebie items you meet in the beginning is that they will increase the number on your inventory items and that's about it.

My first land

After approx. 2 months I could buy my first plot of land...a 512 sqm which is the smallest plot to live on in SL...but again...TA was happy...He got something....moved on so to speak. I even build my first house there and was damn proud of it....though if you look at it today it looked like a Cargo Waggon flying in midair.
Soon it got too small though so I was always looking for something with more room and space. I wanted a club!!

The Yard Club

The first version of The Yard Club opened the doors in april 2007 and was no success what so ever but it was a great learning experience and besides that I got some great inputs and help from people around me at the time and I am forever grateful for that. I even learned that there was such a thing called Events List...yay!
At first The Yard was a club...running music streams as I knew it from the dance island but soon I learned that I needed to have live dj's to try to increase the number of visitors.

So while moving to bigger land and building a bigger club (edit. note: I have always build my own stuff...simple...but functional) I started looking for live dj's in SL and I tell you that it's a jungle out there. I was lucky in finding mostly reliable ones but also met some not so reliable and that is exactly as you would experience it in RL too. I interviewed a lot of "Best DJ" in SL but you would be surprised how often a thing as "being on time" slipped their minds. Well, in time I got it narrowed down to the reliable ones and we had great fun when they were working at The Yard Club.
During that period I also had several dancers at the club and they were a great support in downtimes and happy with me in uptimes. We often talked about it being like a home or family business and I can't thank them enough for that time...it was wonderful!! You know who you are.
Then someone mentioned to me that there actually were live music in SL...Singers singing to backingtracks and musicians playing guitar streaming live into SL. Now that I had to check out and started my research.

The Yard Club as a music venue

A new world opened to me. Now I could actually cover all of my music interests by having all kinds of performers at The Yard and not only the DJ's and their choice of music. (Edit. note: My musictaste ranges from classic music to Metal...and then some...if there's a melody in it...I am with ya.)
Of course the pricing were a lot different but it was worth it as to experiencing that side of the music scene in SL. Already at the first concert one of the audience shouted out to me: "Great Venue!....Where's the venuetipjar?" So obviously I was missing out on some lindens there and had to get one of those up.
(edit note: I will talk about my view on venuecosts and income in a later post)

The Yard Club continued to grow...different shapes...different lands.....different builds and some even postulated that I changed too much and maybe they were right...one thing was certain though. I never build the same Yard Club twice and there have been a few;o).

A thought entered my mind. Could I use the SL platform to present my own music?

Rehearsal, rehearsal and...erh...rehearsal!

I have always been good at composing and especially synthesizers is my fav instrument. So many possibilities and with the Reason Software you can have a million dollar studio on your PC..woohoo!!
Even though I started composing seriously in 1998 my music never left the bedroom.
Okay, I had some of it uploaded to different sites but the SL music scene seemed to be a lot more exciting and you could get feedback at once while performing.
To get started I needed some info and I got great help from Summer Serra of the FCMC about how to stream into SL. It turned out to be quite simple so we got that settled. Now to the hard part.
Ofcourse I knew my compositions by heart...but...when you suddenly have to present it live...you need to rehearse....a lot....to get it right. As the tempo of the music, the backgroundstuff, the effects, is pre-programmed there is no room for mistakes on the main synth during a liveconcert...and no...it is of no help that you programmed the whole shit yourself, trust me.
3½ months of rehearsal, changing a bit here and a bit there, putting in small breaks so I could change the instrument I wanted to play, drinking tons of coffee...(yea, sometimes coffee is God!)and finally I was satisfied with the sound and presentation.....and then it struck me:
What if they don't like what I do?

The doubt thing is probably one of my worst enemies when it comes to just going out there and present what you've got.
Luckily Jess Oranos was around.

The First Performance.

Jess incidentially walked into The Yard Club one day when I was playing for fun over the stream I used at the venue. I already knew her through some time and she was one of my best friends and now she was about to become the very reason why I am performing in SL today.
She asked me if it was the internetradio playing on stream and when I said no, she was surprised and told me how amazing the sound was and how beautiful the melodies were.
That lifted me up because now one person liked it....there ought to be a few more out there. Next thing she said was that she was planning on doing an open mic at her Forum....and she wanted me in it...without discussion.;o) She had another artist lined up but it turned out that I was the only one at the show...and...it was great!!
Not many people ofcourse but the ones there said that it was great to listen to something different from the normal livemusic in SL.
TA was happy...again something was accomplished...and a new path was chosen in SL.

To be continued...

Got meself a blog...yay!!

Hey there everyone!

So I got a blog place so I can share some of my views and opinions with you.....maybe no one will ever read it....but hey....Venting is free..and good for ya.

-TA-