To get better at playing live you need to play live.

Part 81



    I am sitting home and waiting for UPC service guy, while writing this. I have had a forced break from all the promotion work for the past few days, due to loss of internet connection. As a result I managed to fix my bicycle, that has been on my to do list for a long while and instead of working all hours of the night I actually caught up on some well needed sleep:-). In a way good timing, as I have one of the busiest weeks of Sliotar's calendar ahead of me. St Patrick's day gives us all an excuse to have a party and no one does it quite like Dublin. Sliotar will be holding court in the Porterhouse in Temple bar, we call it a Sliotarpalooza. We'll be there Thursday 15^th 6-10pm, Friday 16th 6-10pm, Saturday 17^th 6.30-1am and on Sunday from 4-11pm. Of course on top of this JPKALLIO.COM is rehearsing intensively, getting ready for our first stint of concerts in 2012, photo shoots and all the other promotion. So busy to say the least:-)

    Many musician friends of mine after hearing about Sliotars schedule have said with a sigh “oh I wish I could do that”. So I thought to shed a bit of light on few so called secrets (only people who don't know this, or refuse to believe it call it a secret) and home truths, while I already feel sorry for my fingers;-). I am fully aware of how lucky I am to be playing in Sliotar and get to play live as much as I do, to travel all around Europe playing some amazing gigs and also some not so amazing... But here are the details of the so called “secret” recipe of how Sliotar got there. I would say the number one key to the bands success and longevity is our residency in the Porterhouse, this has given us an opportunity to play live every week for the past 16 years, out of which 12 I have been there. This has made three musicians in to seasoned pros when it comes to performing live. People often ask me if I get nervous before a concert With Sliotar? No I don't. Sometimes if there is lot of hanging around I get anxious, but not nervous. I have gotten on to stage in front of nearly 3000 people or played on live TV and as long as that unit is around me, I am right at home as we have done it literally thousands of times. And I am not saying this here as to boast, I am trying to explain that to get to the point where you can step on front of any audience without having to deal with nerves, you just need to do it a lot. And with Sliotar we did, we took any gig we could to get the name out and to play to new audience. We still do this on tours if we are in a new territory. And still today my best bit of advice to any band is to play live as much and as often as possible. When no one knows you, it is not a time to pretend you're a rock star and to think you are better than this or that gig. And unless you have done those 100 or so pub gigs where you got comfortable playing with each others live, you are not ready for that big festival stage. Everybody wants to skip this and just get to do those big gigs, but it is a learning curve and there is a big reason why you need to do it. Big festival stages are where the cracks show, so make sure you fix them first before you get up there. Personally I think the sign of a great musician is when you can get on a stage, have a crap sound, everything that can, will go wrong, but you still deliver a killer concert. You need to learn that your personal needs and comforts are not important to the audience. Once the show starts, you just get on with it no matter what happens. We have had everything gone wrong with Sliotar over the years and when it does it makes for a tough gig! But you get on with it. We have had problems with power in some areas of Eastern Europe where the power supply just wasn't steady enough and kept knocking out our front of the house speakers, we have had paraffin sprayed all over our instruments by the guys doing a fire shows before us (there was no one coming near us with a cigarette that day), we have had every imaginable situation go wrong with the drums, kick pedals falling to pieces, cheap rental kits hardware collapsing, Des having to wedge drums against each others and taping everything together, but still doing a kicking show, we have had broken tooth, foot, ribs, ligaments, torn muscles, squashed knuckles, blood... lots of blood, food poisoning, serious chest infections, high fever, nervous breakdowns, electrocution... And still, the show always went on. Sixteen years a go if you would have thrown one of these things at us, we probably would have freaked out and the gig would gone down the drain, but now we just get on with it. And that level of confidence in your self and in your fellow band members only comes from playing lots of live shows. So play at any given opportunity anywhere!

    As to JPKALLIO.COM, we are still quite new band. But surely my and the other guys past experience should make it a breeze to get to the same level of confidence? No! We still need to get used to playing live together as a unit, we need to get used to covering each others backs when everything goes down south, we need to get past our individual needs and start thinking as a unit, that's what bands are made of. This is why we set our selves the 100 concert challenge in the first place:-)

   So there you go, sorry for once again running away with my rant, but hey... Now for a few bits of quick updates. Well as I mentioned in the beginning of this post, Sliotar will be celebrating 2012 Paddy's day in the Porterhouse here in Dublin from 15^th to the 18^th of March. Also this week good friends of ours and a brilliant band Mike Got Spiked are playing an album launch show in the Industry (downstairs in the Mezz) on the 15^th of March. These guys are brilliant! Check out their new video





    JPKALLIO.COM has a busy April planned as well:-) here is the gig list so far: 4^th April Sweeney's, 13^th April Adelaid bar, Sligo, 19^th April Submarine Bar, Crumlin, 20^th April Slaughtered Lamb in Swords. More on the way;-)

    So that's a lot to digest for this week, hope to see you over the weekend and back here next week. Happy St Patrick's day every one!

   J.P.

New review and other stuff

Part 60

It's freezing cold October night outside. I am listening Thousand Watt Stares debut album, and it is a killer! If you have not checked them out yet, you should. Whether I'm writing this blog early in the morning or late in the night, it always feels like it's happening in the dark :-)

We had a busy week rehearsing new songs; they seem to be falling out of me at the moment. But that is a great complain to have. I talked about this bit before, but it's been on our minds this week. One of our main goals at the moment is to record an album, but there are little obstacle on the way called money:-D. This is a problem we share with most bands. The valuable information we gained from the interviews on this blog with into the void records and Trackmix studios has given us a very clear idea what it would take to record the album on our own. At the same time we are still contemplating weather we'll do it our selves, or try to go after the all so magical record deal with some underground label. As Darragh O'Laoghaire pointed out in his interview two weeks ago, if we do record and release the album on our own, we would pretty much limit our sales to live concerts. So yeah lot to think about. At the same time we have new songs coming out all the time and the band sound is evolving the more we play. Our debut E.P that came out in March, and still available for a free download from our website, is now about seven months old, and we would very much like to bring out some new material. So at the moment we are playing with the idea of either recording a single or another E.P. Both of these would be possible for us to do pretty fast. It has been a while since we brought any new music and we'd hate to keep you guys waiting ;-) So we'll keep you posted on this.

We got a very nice review at the open-mic blog at: http://the-open-mic.com/blog/2011/10/weekly-feature-jp-kallio/ I'll include the review here, but do check out the blog and we'd love to see some comments there as well :-)

“Weekly Feature: JPKALLIO.COM 17 October The feature this week on the-open-mic is JPKALLIO.COM with every body dies on the homepage. Play it Loud! The first words you see when you pick up JPKALLIO.COM’s first EP. Sentiments that compliments exactly what the boys from Poland and Finland are about straightforward Punk. First things first: the song. Everybody dies is a clear example of what three guys with a love of punk can do. With a lull just as the intro begins it really sets up the songs strong rift which continues throughout the entire song. This pause between rifts also helps to create a build up effect throughout each break in verse, which always builds to the strong drumming we see in all the bands music. The Bass seems mellow and then very deep at times, which always brings with it the strength and deepness presented in the songs lyrics. All of which is again brought home by the bands impressive guitar playing. The crisp and clear lyrics really show just how well polished an act JPKALLIO.COM really is. With a slightly dark undertone in both the lyrics along with the music one can instantly find themselves listening to the lyrics and connecting with the band. They really demonstrate the no nonsense punk that has stood the test of time from the Sex Pistols to the Offspring and now to JPKALLIO.COM. If you haven’t already checked out JPKALLIO.COM do it now and be sure to watch there video for everybody dies. -Dave Murphy” The Open Mic

I think it has something to do with the fact that I write blog, but when we get featured in other blogs, it always gets me bit exited. I mean most of the music press is run by money, but the blogs are where the real new music can be found :-)

Don't forget that JPKALLIO.COM will be tonight, 19th of October in the Sweeney's on Dame Street as part of the Juke box slot, organized by our friends Music Medium Live. The night is packed with great music, and Sweeney's is always a good night. Hope to see you there tonight.

And just before we finish, some more news just of the press. JPKALLIO.COM will be doing a late night gig in the Sweeney's again this Saturday the 22nd of October as well. We'll be taking to the stage just past midnight and rocking a full one hour set!

So that's all for now, come back for more next week.

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.

On a shoestring project part 42

  So it is the morning of our concert in Whelan's, upstairs that is, and we really hope to see you there. It's 8pm doors and music starts 9pm sharp. And as I mentioned before, there is a 11 a clock curfew, so all you people working the next day will make it for the last bus, dart or luas :-)

  And that’s enough advertising ;-). As you can imagine we have been busy rehearsing for the gig, and while doing this we realised that even after leaving out the tracks from our first E.P. We have more than enough material for a full album. But even more so, it sounds like a collection of songs that would work together as an album. Now obviously this was always some thing we were aiming for, but at the same time, the time needs to be right. There is no point recording an albums worth of songs just for the sake of doing it. All of us in the band love our music, we live and breathe it. We message each others YouTube clips of cool new bands we find and when ever we get together it never takes long before we start to talk about some new band one of us heard, or a new album some one got. And we have very old school approach to music. We still like albums, as a collection of songs that together becomes something more. Listening to some inspiring music is very important part of being a musician. It is very easy to take music as a granted these days, with it being available all over the internet by a click of a button. But most of us know it was not always like this. I remember a good family friend giving me a birthday gift of a cassette player when I was four or five, I think. Before this my parents did not have any way of playing music in the house. Although there always seemed to be a guitar around ;-) My dad used to drive trucks all around Europe and I remember the car stereos in the trucks being a great excitement to me. But when on that birthday I got my first cassette player and a cassette (it was Boney M...) it gave me freedom. Freedom to listen to music when I wanted and by god did I make the most out of this freedom and I must say my mother was very understanding ;-). The same family friend also introduced me to Lou Reed. Then my uncle had a collection of vinyl records. Everything about them fascinated me. The covers, the art work. There was Stray Cats and Motorhead, the two that stood out to me. And I am sure the guitars on those albums did start a life time fascination for the instrument. But still today when I hear a great album, it gets me exited. For example at the moment I can't stop listening to Social Distortions new album, a real genuine collection of songs that just works together so well. This is what I would love to achieve. To make an album that would have that same effect on people. Good album gets you hooked. You listen to it non stop for a long time and when you finally had enough, give it a rest. But when you come back to it, it just lights up something inside again. I do know music has a very different effect on every person. And I would very much like to hear what it means to you? Is it just something to dance to? Or something you just listen when you turn on your car radio? Or are you as obsessed about it as we are? And what do you expect from a good album? Or do you only listen to single songs? Leave us comments here or on Facebook and share your musical story :-)
  We got loads of more Radio play this week, this is the list so far:-)

Punk Britannia

Punk Rock Demonstration

King Kong Radio 2xm

Pluto Radio

v103rock

Music world radio

4a4a-fm

Radioi

Off The Chart Radio

Radio Arcadia - Toronto

LG73.ca

Monorock Radio

Radio Quebec

Ragnar Rokk Radio

  It is half past midnight when I write this, and I need to be up for rehearsals in the morning so it's time to get some shuteye. But before I go and drift away, let me just say something I don't say often enough: Thank you for reading this blog :-) It started as only a small blog, bit of a hobby for me, but 42 weeks later, the blog and everything around it including JPKALLIO.COM genuinely has had a big impact on me, and to my delight we are getting more and more hits every week :-) Thank you people and stay tuned, we are only getting warmed up!

J.P.

On a shoestring project part 38

  I am really exited about the King Kong Club semi-final :-) For those of you who don't know what I am talking about check out last weeks blog. Tomorrow night, the 19th of May, upstairs in the Village on Wexford Street. Come along!
  We go some nice news this week as well. During the week I bought the Hot Press (An Irish music magazine), there was an article that I wanted to read, but never got around to it due to a busy week. On Saturday morning I had a chance to chill out and as usual, started my morning with Coffee and Emails. In my mail box I had an Email from Jackie Hayden, a journalist who writes for the Hot Press, among other publications. He informed me that our E.P. “Play it loud!” was reviewed at his column “The First cuts”. Well I was up like a flash looking for the magazine, and after about fifteen minutes I found it between my lyric sheets and other papers :-) And there it was, the first acknowledgment of jpkallio.com on a printed press. The review was very nice and as our first one I am chuffed.

"Lumps of punk and punchy hard rock" "Some impressive guitar work from super Kallio himself. One suspects they are possibly best in a live setting"
Jackie Hayden - Hot Press

  Now once again I find my self telling you, this is something you can do as well if you are in a band. Once you have a recording, there are music magazines around that will review it. But start small, don't just expect your first recording to appear at the top of new releases. Hot press has the First cuts column that does review new bands, and You can find more magazines with similar columns. Just do your research, all music magazines have websites and most of them have review submission information on their website and if not, the information should be only Email away. Here again I believe very much in a personal contact. So if the magazine does not have specific submission information, I usually email them with a link to our music or video. I ask if our music would be some thing they could include in their publication, and if so I ask for mailing address. Also check what they want, some just want MP3s hosted on your website, and some magazines need two copies of the CD, one they send to a reviewer and one they keep for the design team in the office. Also include a A4 bio, and sometimes a letter to go with it. Unless they specifically ask for it, I would not send press clippings from other reviews, reviewers like to make their own mind about your music and no amount of fancy reviews by other reviewers is going to change this. Going after some publicity works just like everything else in the music business, small steps at a time. And when you do get a review, it is only good manners to thanks the reviewer and let them know you appreciate the work they do. If the review is not so good, do the same thing. No one wants to read just sugar coated reviews. Besides, it is still just review by one person. For example, Foo Fighters new album got really bad review in Irish times, but Metal Hammer magazine called it their best album yet. You win some and loose some.
  So the past week we have been busy rehearsing for the King Kong Club. The set is going to be rocking! Next Wednesday the 25th of May we are playing a concert in the Juke box slot, in the Basement of Sweeney’s on Dame Street. The night is organised but the Music Medium Live, and should be a good night. This looks like it is going to be our last gig in Dublin for the next few weeks, but we'll be back for more in mid June :-) We have hand full of new songs on the way again, and just wan to work on them for a few weeks.
  Big thank you to all of you who checked out our new video last week :-) It is getting some nice views. We still would like to hear what you think of it, so keep those comments coming. Also if you have any ideas for future videos, we'd love to hear them as well.
  So that’s all for now, I'll talk to you more next week.
  J.P.