On a shoestring project part 37

  As you know from last week’s blog, life as a musician has its ups and downs. This week we have some great news! Jpkallio.com was selected as the wild card in the King Kong club! So we are performing at this months Semi-finals in the Village on Thursday the 19th of May. As you might know from the last time, it is the band with loudest claps, wildest cheers and craziest fans that gets to the final. They have an Empire state shaped Clap O Meter that measures the volume of the cheers for every band at the end of the night; it's pretty cool looking apparatus!

Also the upstairs venue at the Village is a brilliant, great sound system, amazing lights. It’s going to be one cracker of a night, and we need you there to support us. Here is a link to the event on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=160127527383064
You can select your friends to invite to it, if you are on Facebook and we would really appreciate if you could do so :-)
  The next bit of good news is: jpkallio.com has a new video out! And boy we are proud of this one ;-) Check it out!


  The video is once again a DIY production, our favourite kind of production ;-) I built the set, Qra set up the camera and we just went for it. And I can tell you; those guitar heroe games have not a patch on the entertainment value we got out of it! Then Qra edited the video and we were ready to go. Once again I am trying to make few points here: first videos don't need to cost an arm and a leg. Second: the promotional value of cleverly shot good looking video is priceless!
  So we hope you will enjoy this video, and share it with as many friends as you can. I was talking to a friend of mine last week online. And he asked when we will be on tour in Europe. Well I told him that it is way too early for that! We need to build some following first online. It comes down to the same thing; the value of the band is how many people they can bring to a venue. So if you are reading this outside Dublin and would like to see us play live, you can do us a favour and share this video with as many of your friends in your area as possible, so that when we eventually approach a venue, we can say: look, we have had ex amount of views from your area on our YouTube video.
These really are some of the great tools of the modern music business. Most social media sites offer you statistics and analytics that if used correctly can be valuable tools.
  And how about last week? As you know, Qra was in a bad way with his back, but we still had some concerts... So Krystian Mazur stepped in. And he did unbelievable job, considering he had a 24 hour notice to the first concert!

Krystian on our way to Leixlip

The Wednesday night in the Pint was quiet, I think most people were either broke or partied out after two bank holiday weekends on the row, but this kind of suited us fine as Krystian got to run through the set without too much pressure. On Thursday we were in the Arthurs bar in Leixlip. This was a great night! It is so nice to play at a band night when all the other bands are just nice people, no egos ;-) We were first on and Krystian really stepped up to the task! We made loads of new friends.

The second band of the night was 9thlife, a melodic metal band rocking it hard! The have been taking a bit of a break from gigging due to some line up changes, but this was their comeback gig, and boy was it good! No signs of rustiness here. The last band on the night was The Lost Colours, young acoustic rock band. It is so great to see young guys who understand the business and treat it as such! These guys had some great rhythmic play and tight harmonies. Both of the bands, I am sure you will hear about in the future.

  Also we will be playing the basement of the Sweeney’s bar on the 25th of May in the Juke Box night, so if you can't make it to the King Kong, then see you in the Sweeney’s. But sure, why not come to both :-)
Talk to you more next week. Oh yeah and almost forgot to tell you, Qra's feeling better and will be with us next week in the King Kong!
J.P.