On a shoestring project part 48

Part 48

  I had an idea to write about royalty payments in music, and how they work this week, but I've been on the road with Sliotar and just didn't have time for the research, but we'll come back to that at later date. The response to our Punk Rock Mayhem show has been unbelievable so far :-) More bands have contacted me than I could ever put on the bill. But this just makes me think we might just run this more often, but we'll see how the first one goes first ;-)

  I am writing this week’s blog in a very nice hotel in Prostejov, in Czech Republic. For the past few days I have been at a wonderful Celtic music festival called the Keltska Noc. When you get to play at festivals, you do end up spending lot of time outside, and very often the festivals can be away from towns. At this festival we stayed in a cabin, on the camping grounds of the festival, so the hotel is a nice change. This got me thinking about some practical tips for touring. I have read blogs about this subject in the past, and thought I would have my own say in this subject. By touring here I talk about tours longer than few days, for example Sliotar Summer 2011 tour is 7 concerts in 15 days. In Sliotar terms that is a short tour. We have done anything up to 6 weeks. On tour there is always constant battle between being comfortable and making money. You see, it might sound romantic sleeping on people floors, but if musicians are not well rested, I would not expect a brilliant gig... And comfort costs money. You end up digging in to your gig fees, which is the money you should be holding on too. Websites like booking.com are great, and more in advance you book, the better deals you will get, if you can afford it, I would recommend to book separate rooms. The long drives and waiting for gigs is lot of time to spend with your band mates, and you will need your own space as well. But do work with in your budget, there is no point spending €100 per person, if the gig only pays around the same...

  Water, this is your only friend! Drink lots of water, several litters a day. Being on the road dehydrates you, long drives, spending time outside, or in air-conditioned rooms. Also alcohol... I am not going to tell you not to drink. I do understand the importance of socializing and connecting with your audience even after a concert, and that’s when lot of networking is done as well. But just be careful, if you are drinking a lot on the road, your body gets used to the alcohol and you end up drinking more and more... I've had some wild times on the road in the past, but now I try not to drink before a concert, I find my vocals suffer from even a small amount of alcohol. But this is just me, and every one to their own. Food wise I’ve seen lots of advice on how to eat cheap on the road and the world famous burger fast food chain comes up all the time. OK, you don't always have time, or money for a nice meal, but for the love of your own body I would highly recommend against the “Golden arches”. If you only have time for fast food, kebab is much better option. And when you do have a chance, eat a proper meal. If you are staying at hotels, do use the breakfast. I know it sounds like nice option just to sleep to the last minute, but your body will thank you for setting alarm for breakfast and even going back to bed for few more hours. Some people are great at sleeping during travel; I'm bad unless I am completely shattered. But yeah, you do need sleep; coffee can only get you so far... Bananas are good source of potassium and energy, and it is always a good idea to have some multivitamins with you. It is surprising how fast your immune system goes down, and being sick on the road is no fun at all. That’s all the tips this week, I shall continue more on the subject later.

  Also I thought to share with you another video from our concert in the Pint few weeks back. Here is a song called Misery. The bass is bit low in the beginning, but you'll get the idea :-) I'll leave you with this and back for more next week.

J.P.

On a shoestring project part 47

  This week I have quite lot of stuff to go through so let's get started.

  Last Thursday’s Live and Unsigned night went better than we could have hoped for. JPKALLIO.COM was the winner on the night, and as a price we got a day of very valuable studio time :-) This will be the beginning of our first Album for sure; we'll get also a professional photo shoot as part of the price. We'll share all this with you guys as we get to it, but for now here is a video from the night :-) As always, let us know what you think.



  On the night there was some great music, and I had already checked out t one bands online before the gig. I am sure you know by now that I am a punk rock fan. On the night there was a band from Monaghan called the Sketch! These young guys rocked the house! And I said this before; it is such a great to see talented bands that have their feet firmly on the ground. No egos, just nice guys and rocking music. Last week I talked bit about putting on a show, these guys are such a great example of that. You can just see that they are having fun on the stage. You will get a chance to see them in action soon, just keep reading and all will be revealed.

  We were featured also during the week in a great punk rock blog called the Punk Rock '77 Thru Today. It is a very serious list of punk band interviews. Check it out and while you're there, check out our interview :-) If you think your band could fit the blog, just get in contact.

  Now I will move to a very important announcement. This little blog of ours will be one years old in five weeks time, and as you know the birth of our band JPKALLIO.COM started from this. So we decided to throw a bit of a party. We made some great friends over the past year, got to play some great gigs, share stages with some brilliant bands, so we thought it would be cool to get some of these guys to join us, and organize a night with some kick ass music. To our big surprise everyone we asked were on for it :-) So this is going to be one big party!

  On the 2nd of September in the basement of Fibber Magees, on Parnell Street here in Dublin, we will have a Punk Rock Mayhem night! Doors 8pm Live music from 9pm to at least 12.30 am and then we have Punk Rock D.J. blasting some great records until 2am. The line up on the night will be JPKALLIO.COM, 24 Broken Amps, 9thlife, Sketch! and the Casement Ghosts. This is going to be one kick ass Friday evening and to see this line-up just for a €5 is a bargain ;-) We will be working on some drink promotions as well, but more on that later.




  For the next few weeks, JPKALLIO.COM is taking a bit of a rest, Sebastian is going on a well earned holidays to Poland, Qra is trying to house train his new puppy Ozzy :-) And I am going on a few weeks tour with Sliotar. But we'll be updating all our social media sites almost daily and have few more videos on the way. And our blog will be back for more every Wednesday morning as it has been for nearly a year :-) So spread the word about our birthday bash to everyone and I'll talk to you more next week.

J.P.

On a shoestring project part 46

  Last weeks gig in Sweeney's was amazing! The night was packed with great music. The Casement ghosts rocked and we'll definitely be gigging with these guys again :-) James Mitchell was brilliant as well. Even the soundman Russell Hogg got up and sang few songs, what a voice the man has!The organizers, Music medium Live are really becoming very active company and you will hear lot from them.

  As I mentioned last week, JPKALLIO.COM will be performing this Thursday the 14th of July in the Pint on Eden Quay. It is the Live and Unsigned night and they are always great nights, but this also is the 10th concert of our 100 concert challenge. Still a long way ahead of us, but definitely a milestone, so party is in order me thinks and the place will be the Pint on Thursday night.

  I thought to challenge our selves once again, like we don’t do it enough already ;-). I wrote a new song that was finished on Friday morning, so I thought it would be cool to play it at next concert. So the challenge was to arrange and rehearse it in time for the gig. We went through it on Friday’s rehearsal, now the setback was Monday, as Sebastian migraine got the worst of him (the boor guy suffers badly from time to time) so we had to cancel it. Now we are left with all of us practising on our own, and then we have long rehearsal on Wednesday (The day this blog comes out, so probably while you read this, we are slaving our back sides off to get the song ready), so this really could go either way. The song is fast and energetic, for me the challenge is the rhythm of the vocals; lots of words that won’t make any sense unless you get the rhythm right and you have just enough room to articulate every word. Also there is a bit tricky guitar solo due to the speed of the song. For both Sebastian and Qra there are equally tricky bits that involve much muscle work. For Qra the forearm strength and endurance is a required, good bass player tend to be great arm wrestlers ;-) and Sebastian... well... he probably lost few kilos already in Friday’s rehearsals:-D. As I said this could go either way. We are professionals and if we think the song is not ready, it won’t make the set list. Also you need to find a balance between rehearsing new material and working the older stuff for the set list. But if all goes well, we'll play the new song Thursday night in the Pint :-)

  Also preparing for any show is busy time. We do spend time on our set lists, tweaking them until we are happy that the songs flow together. While preparing for this one I was looking some videos on YouTube of bands that I respect and think do great live shows and it got me thinking. You should give last bit of you to every performance, but where does the line between pouring your soul into a performance and turning it in to a gimmick lay? I'm sure most of you remember the RHCP legendary entrance in the Woodstock 1994 with the Light bulb costumes? Great idea at the time, I’m sure, but when one of the wildest live bands come on the stage looking like they have broom sticks stuck up their back side playing one of their biggest hits, it just does not work. But at the same time, at least they gave it a go... It is a fine line. Like The Rolling Stones, their shows have grown bigger and bigger, bit like a circus, but when they did the concerts for the Shine alight documentary in a small theatre, they rocked the socks off it. Now back to the real world, both of those examples are of course massive bands. But even on a grass root level, if you are playing at a club, do give it all you got, but don't think that its cool to trash the backline of the venue just because you've seen it doe by some one famous. Do it and I'll bet its the last time you'll play in the venue or any other venue that hears about it. Also it does not look good if you're having a private party on the stage. Lots of jokes between the bands that no one else gets are sign of an amateur and boring. You are there to entertain. I know some of you think that you're not, that you're there just to play music. If I want to hear some music, I listen to my records. When I go out, I want to see a live SHOW! Music is important, and it should come first, but it won’t make your gig amazing on its own. So if you are a musician and next time you have a gig coming up, think about the show a bit. For example, think about what you are going to say between the songs. And make mental notes after the show what worked and what didn't. Learn and develop.

  So there you go, and now back to some updates :-) JPKALLIO.COM featured on a punk rock blog in Brazil called Punks do Mundo todo  Also we working on booking some dates for September and October, so more on them soon. Might even have a Friday night coming up ;-)

  For now, hope all has a rocking week and I know we will, especially in the Pint on Thursday night ;-)

J.P.

On a shoestring project part 45

  After what I would call a miserable (weather wise) May and June, we finally got bit of a sun in Dublin last weekend. Even the pale Finn got a bit of a tan ;-)

  We've spent the week getting ready for the Sweeney's gig on the 6th of July. It’s going to be a rocker! Also we are really looking forward to the 14th of July in the Pint, it will be the number 10 on our 100 concert challenge ;-). Those of you, who are coming in, don't forget to mention that you came to see JPKALLIO.COM. We need to bring in minimum 10 people to be in the competition :-) The night kicks off at 8pm. After this we will take a small break from the live shows. But we'll be back with full force in September.

  We got a really nice review of our E.P. “Play it loud!” on the July issue of MRU magazine and on the Music Review Unsigned website. I'll include it here, but do check other reviews on their site at http://musicreviewunsigned.com

Play it Loud

Three piece alternative punk band JPKALLIO.COM debut EP Play it Loud does what it says on the tin, it will have you playing it load, four tracks of pure dirty melodies and underrated guitar hooks, this is a band that just loves playing music, after listening to the EP you will hear the experimental sound that JPKALLIO.COM creates on the Play it Loud EP.


Track one is called "Everybody Dies", well that's true when their time is up, but not like the title the song is far from being morbid, full of melodic guitar sounds with an uplifting sound coming from the vocals, Green Day meets JPKALLIO.COM on a warm day for some tea? Maybe, but I like it.


Let Me Tell You Tonight is track two and it's got that deep moody gothic rock sound, dirty guitar licks and grunge sounding bass groove, chorus is a bit disappointing needs a bit more umph! And I feel it weakens the song even though it has got the potential of being a great tune.


The third song on the EP is called Right Out Of Here, rockabilly beats with blues rock guitar hooks drives this song, it has a real good catchy chorus and the song has just the right dynamics throughout it, sounds like Rory Gallagher got a sterile punk injection.


Final track is called Alive, the intro has a nice slow build up in this song, great lyrics and very raw in parts, Alive has got that anthem rock feel you know the ones that you have to wave you lighters or candles to, I have to say for a debut EP Play it Loud isn't half bad, it has a real nice mix of music and definitely a band worth checking out.


Review by T.Halpin


We'll have some free copies of the E.P. with us in Sweeney's on the 6th and in the Pint on 14th of July:-)

  Also our radio play list just keeps growing :-) the Live365.com has put on few of their shows and UK based Noize Level Critical has given us a blast as well. I also did few interviews for a podcast and a blogs and as soon as they are up, I'll post the links here and on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Punkrockers.com...

  The regular readers of this blog know I occasionally include stuff here about Dublin music scene. Friend of ours is going to organize a really cool thing called Music Market Ireland. Check them out on Facebook. Basically it will be a market in Dublin where you can get a table and bring in your music related stuff, instruments, amps, records and DJ gear. And there will also be some live music. It should be a great event. Do join their Facebook page to get updates on the event.

  We have started planning our bands one year birthday concert. It will take place at the end of September. We are still bit undecided on the venue, so any ideas would be welcomed. We had a good night in Whelan's, but we would like to do this one on Friday night. Also we’d like a venue that would allow us to go bit later than the 11 o’clock curfew, as we are hoping go get few more bands to play with us :-) So we would like to hear your suggestions.

  That’s all for this week. Talk to you more next week.

  J.P.