Back in action!

  Well hello every one once again. It has been a crazy summer so far and for me it won't be over until the second week in September, when I finally get a chance to take some holidays for few weeks:-) So far I have had very busy year. Most of it has been due to Sliotars new album and everything the new album brings with it. Also we had few busy months with JPKALLIO.COM on the spring. But just before I was about to leave on the summer stretch of Sliotars tour, Sebastian and Patryk dropped the bomb and told us that it was a time for them to leave the band... It did open a bag of emotions that I really did not expect. About a month before there was a band meeting where we tried to address the issues. I put aside my personal instincts and what I had learned over the years and for the next six months I decided to do things other peoples way. But a month in to it we got the news that the lads had decided to call it a day. I must say one thing though, the guys did pick as good time as you ever can for their departure, so fair play to them. We played our last concert with this line up on the 6^th of July 2012 in the Sweeney's basement. I am sure you will see both Sebastian and Patryk around the town playing gigs sooner or later and we'll be hooking up for pint's I'm sure:-)

  Now I did have time to think about everything for the past month and a half while on tour with Sliotar and when I got back. The longer I play music the stronger I feel the need to be true to my self. True in the sence how I write music, play music and how I conduct my business around the music. So I'll be sticking to my own instincts from now on;-)

  This week we have been back rehearsing. We decided to go back to three piece, like we did when we started all this. I am happy to say Des Gorevan, who I have been playing with for the past twelve years in Sliotar kindly stepped in for now and he will be playing with us this Saturday night in the Sweeney's bar. It really does feel quite natural have him on the drums. Maybe if we talk to him nicely he'll stick around.

  So here it is, we're back in action! And after my holidays in September you'll be hearing more from us. But for now, we hope to see you in Upstairs in the Sweeney's this Saturday the 1^st of September. We're glad to get the opportunity to play support for the legendary Patrik Fizgerald! Also the wonderful Pimps and Gimps will be playing on the night.

https://www.facebook.com/events/133751503433793/

Have a good summer and I'll be back in August

JPKALLIO.COM will be rocking the Sweeney's basement this Friday, it's a line up of some great kick ass music:

Basement Sweeneys Fri 6th July with.
ALICE CAN'T TURN LEFT 11.00.
JPKALLIO.COM 11.45.
PAGAN RIOT 12.30.


This is going to be our only show this summer. 


  After this gig we'll be scattered bit all over the place:-) Seba will be on drum duties with Seanie Vaughan Music, Patryk is playing the bass with the Pimps and Gimps Fanpage, I will be on the road around Europe with Sliotar and Qra is joining us on bass for three weeks as well. I'll be documenting some of our tour madness at Sliotars facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/sliotar.


  After the summer we'll be back in action again in full swing:-). I thought long and hard this, even though it's not that big deal. Starting from next Tuesday I will be on the road and in "Sliotar mode" and I want to concentrate on the tour, the concerts and documenting the tour with videos and blog posts on Sliotars web site www.sliotarmusic.com. Due to these commitments I have decided to take a break from writing this blog for the duration of the tour. I also do feel the need to get bit refocused with this blog and I think the break will do world of good to me:-)


  But I will post links to our tour stuff as they appear on Sliotars website, just not to loose the contact with every one here as well. So I suppose it is time to wish every one a great summer. Hope you all have a good one, I know mine will be mad one anyway;-) and I'll talk to you after the tour.
  
   J.P.

Sweeney's rocked!

Part 93

  June is here and it ain't looking pretty so far... You'd think I got used to this by now after sixteen years in the country... Anyway. Last Friday we played at the Sweeneys basement once again. We were happy that Foad musick asked us to take part in their night. There had been some changes in the basement room! To our delight the cursed pillar right on front of the stage had been removed. This opens up the stage straight away. They also had moved the bar on the opposite side it used to be and now the room is starting to look like proper venue. I also heard rumours about new equipment, and to be honest with you, this is the last thing that needs to be fixed and then Sweeneys would have pretty sweet venue in the basement as well. On the night there was four bands, Corrosive machine, JPKALLIO.COM, Jobseekers and The Freebooters. All of the bands on the night played great energetic sets, It was like every band just fueled the next one even more. It was really great to see such a high standard of punk rock bands and an enthusiastic crowd. This was one of our better gigs in a long while. Once again big thanks to Foad musick for having us.

  We will be back in the Sweeney's on the 6^th of July, but part from that we made a decision on taking it bit easier with the gigs and concentrate rehearsing a lot and working on some new material with out the pressure of getting it done for the next gig. I suppose what we want to do is jam the stuff for a while before we commit to a structure. Very often once you play song a live, it seems to be set in stone and even if you think to change something, you never get around to it. Another reason for the break is the European championships. I have made the mistake of booking gigs during big events like this in the past and lets just say I have learned my lesson:-D Anyway, I only have five weeks in Dublin before I am on the road again with Sliotar and this is bit longer tour... And the preparations for that will keep me extremely busy.

  Now in the mean time, Patryk is been busy playing bass with his old band Pimps & Gimps, he is a man of many talents;-). The Pimps & Gimps are playing with other friends of ours the Joyful Noiz in the Harbour Bar in Bray. So if you are looking for some good music this Friday, why wont you hop on the Dart and head over.

  For now, enjoy the early summer days;-)

J.P.

Another year done and what a year it was!

Part 70

   Once again we have come to the end of a year and it is a time to reflect on the past year and plan for the new one. JPKALLIO.COM had a great year:-) We played our first concert, and followed it with another 16 concerts! We released our first EP that got phenomenal response in the Punk rock internet radios around the world. We also brought out two videos from the EP. Qra lovingly filmed and edited the black and white concept for our first video Right out of here, that was viewed over 700 times in the first week and has now gone well over the 2000 mark. Check the video here: We followed this with another video for Everybody dies, we wanted to add bit more of our tongue in cheek attitude on this one and this one has also done extremely well. Check it out here There was some high points in the year where we did pretty well on several battle of bands, and organized few of our own gig nights. But also some low points when Qra injured his back... but it is all on the way up now. Fueled by the success of our first EP and the response we got at our concerts, we started work on our Album by spending two very productive days in the track mix studio. We were all very surprised with what we came out with. Six songs, that still need a bit of tweaking but most of it is there. We loaded some of these track up on the Roadrunners Sign me to site and for the past three weeks we have been in the top ten on their rock charts:-). So you can say we accomplished a lot, but we did put lot of work in to it as well. In the new year we are planning to continue at least at the same speed, if not even go up a gear.

   As to the blog, well we went from having about humble 20 readers a week to literally hundreds a week! We had some great interviews form Trackmix studios, Invictus productions/ In To The Void records and the Sessions from Near FM. In the new year I have big plans (as always) for the blog. I have already scheduled another record label interview and more on the way, I'll also try to get my hands on some promoters along the way and any other people industry who could have some helpful information to share. I must say I have been blown away how helpful and open with advice every one has been so far. I am also thinking to add some interviews of other bands who are doing the same thing we are and share notes with them, and it would be nice to get some more music on the blog as well:-)

   Through out the year I also got to see some great concerts! There are so much great music happening in Ireland at the moment. I got to see Time is a thief from Cork, The sketch! The Casement Ghosts, 24 Broken amps, 9thlife, 20 Bulls each, The Kerouac, Normal bar the Swords, Pimps and Gimps, Theories Divide, The Objex from Las Vegas played a stormer in the Pint in February... I have been thinking about this as well, I think one of my new years resolutions will be to go to see more live concerts and this could be something we might report on this blog as well:-).

   I also had one of the best summer tours with Sliotar, and fueled by the experience we started work on Sliotars fifth album, that will be out on 25th of January.

   So all and all, it has been a good year, yeah there was some hick ups, but I can say the good over weighed the bad and I am really looking forward to 2012. Big thank you once again for Qra and Sebastian for sharing the journey with me and big thanks to you guys for reading our blog week after week:-)

   So I hope you all have great end to the 2011 and start the new year in style. Happy new year to one and all and I will talk to you more next week.

 J.P.

How to make sure you won't get booked again

  So here we go, I'll get the rant out of the way first. In the past seven months we have done 15 concerts. In these 15 concerts we have done anything from battle of the bands to show case nights to organizing our own concerts. And as lot of you know through my experience with Sliotar and other bands I have played in over the years, I have done well over thousand concerts. So I have seen a lot and I know how hard it is to get band of the ground. Here is one thing that has been bugging me lately: when a band takes a part in any kind of show case/band night, I would expect them to stick around and listen to the other bands. And believe you me I know some of the music would not be up to every ones taste, I don't have much tolerance for out of tune guitars (get a tuner and get your guitar intonated!) and bad timing (Practice with a click), but suck it up, they are in same situation you are or were. Ok, you might have to get up the next morning early to work, but first of all you can talk with your band mates and some of you could stay, if some of you must go. Second, and do I have news here for you, if you seriously want to make it some day, I mean make your living out of music, you will need to learn to get by with very little sleep. Let's repeat that one just to make sure you got it: Being a full time musician, you need to learn to get by with very little sleep! Six hours is a good night sleep for me. Now in all fairness, about once a week I do pass out for nearly twelve hours... But You get my point. There is always some excuses and sometimes they are more valid than others. So just stop and think about it the other way around. Think what you would want the other bands to do while you play? Musician’s talk that's how the word goes around and to be honest with you, what I've seen in the past year, this is what separates the frustrated amateurs from the pros.

  Let's look at this from a different perspective. As I mentioned there above, we have organized some of our own gig nights, and helped other organizers to book bands as well. This is something I have big plans for, and will be doing more and more. From a gig organizers perspective, unless the band has a genuine reason, I mean if you have a important festival gig the next day and a long drive, that's fair enough. But if I just see the band come in, play their set and run off, because it's well past their bed time, you can be sure I won't be booking them any time soon. And if you think I am the only one who thinks this way, I've talked to few organizers and it is one of those things that register at the back of their mind. They will remember the band that stayed till the end and checked out every act. You might think here, what does that have to do with music? Everything! You expect other people to support your band if you don't support others? Anyway, enough of that ;-)

                                         Thanks to Will Bury for the photo.

  So we had a busy week :-) JPKALLIO.COM played twice in Sweeney's. Wednesday was the Music Medium Live night in the basement. As the regular readers of this blog know we've been there few times before. They are a small group of people working hard trying to do something for the music scene in Dublin and slowly but surely they are building momentum, once again proving that hard work and persistence does pay off in music business. They run a Singer songwriter night in the Sweeney's on Tuesday nights, Juke box slot showcase on Wednesday nights, FissionFriday once a month upstairs in Sweeney's and they are just starting another night in the Mezz on Sundays. So if you are looking for a gig for your band or solo act, get in touch with them, they are really nice people as well :-)

  On Saturday night we were back in the Sweeney's, upstairs this time. Weekend nights in Sweeney's are busy, so we had a hopping gig. This was number 15 in our 100 concert challenge, slowly but surely getting there ;-) Also on both gigs it was great to see so many familiar faces, we are making friends on the way.
The next concert at the moment is the Rocktober semi-final in the Fibbers on Saturday the 19th of November. The standard of this competition has been very high, so it will be a great night of music. I think we need to pull out few extra stops for this one ;-)

  In the mean time, we have decided to go and record few tracks in the Trackmix studios, so in few weeks time we'll lock our selves in there for few days and we'll see what comes out of it. We will be bringing camera with us and try to document some of the stuff while we're there. So before that we'll be rehearsing our backsides off. Oh yeah, and we need to agree on the songs we want to record...
So that's enough for this week. Hope you managed to get through the autumn with out a cold; I'm trying to shake mine. Have a good week and I'll be back for more next week.

  Oh nearly forgot to mention:-) The Halloween is on its way. I am taking few days off and going to Warsaw for the long weekend, but there are some great concerts around during the Halloween weekend that deserves a mention. Our friends the Pimps and Gimps are playing in the Harbour bar in Bray on Sunday the 30th of October, so head over there for some quality punk rock. Also the EHT promotions are running a fancy dress metal night in the Pint and our friends 9thlife will be on the bill along with loads of other great bands. Hmm... how do I get a feeling you might find Qra at the Harbour bar and Sebastian at the Pint;-)

J.P.

Make your own band website part 3

Part 59

  Winter is really staring to push its way in to Dublin. Friday night was great :-) Thanks to every one who came in and big thanks to Taran for a kick ass sound!. Now well be back in the Rocktober semi-finals in the Fibbers on the 19th of November, but before that we’ll be in Sweeney’s on the 19th of October. I really enjoy when we meat new similar minded bands during these band nights. Check out Pimps and Gimps http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pimps-and-Gimps-Fanpage/134404993273734 Great punk band that we'll most certainly will be organizing a show with sooner or later :-)
Also last weeks blog got exceptionally good response, so inspired by this we are scheduling new interviews as I write. I'd really like to get as much inside on the music business here as possible, so watch this space.

  And now back to our band website project. How are you getting on? This week I'll show you how to add more pages. So let’s log in to our site again, if you still don't know how to do this, I'd recommend you’re read through the parts one and two of this build. Once you are logged in, in the side bar on your dashboard you'll have a Pages button, just click on it. Now on the next page there is Add new button almost on the top of the page, beside the title. Click on this. Now the next page is really as simple as it seems. Let’s say we want to do a Biography page, your band do have biography? If you don't, then you are skipping over things here. I'll assume here that you do have one. But if you don't, let me know, as if there are many bands without biographies, maybe the subject would be a worth a blog. Anyway you can copy and paste your Biography, or type it in the text box on the page. And above the text box and below the Add new page title you have the title box, where you can type the title of the page. This is how it will show up on your web pages navigation bar as well, so for example “Biography”, “Bio” or maybe just “Band”. You can also add a picture on the page if you want. For example if you have text already on the page and you want to add a picture of the band above it, place your cursor here and then above the text box you have upload/insert followed by four small icons. The first one of the icons is for adding an image, second for video, third for audio and last for other media. Click on the add image icon and an upload window opens up. Click on the select a file and choose a file from your computer, up to 2MB. Once you have done this, the WordPress uploads the photo and once it is uploaded you will get a window where you can add info on the photo. I would recommend you to change the title of the photo to something short and relevant. Also add an alternative text. This means if some one has a computer that would not be able to open the picture; there will be an alternative text instead. You can also ad an caption on the photo, this will appear under it. Below this you have the description part. It would be good manners to add here the photographers details, after all they are artists as well and need any promotion they can get. Below this you have alignment and size options. Once you have selected them, you can press the Insert into post button and you should have a picture on your page. So that's the Basics. Now that you have image and text on your page, you can press the blue publish button on the right side of the screen and your page is live. There are few self explanatory text editing options on the page, similar to the once you'd have on your Email or word processor. With these you can ling the text, Make bullet points, Bold Italic, check spelling or insert a link. Once your page is up, you can repeat the process and make more pages. For example, if you want to make separate page for individual band members, booking and contact information...

  The two pages I'd like to take a quick look at are the live concert list and gallery page. For the concert list you can either write all your gig dates on a page with times, locations etc. Or you can use an external widget. For example ReverbNation has nice ready made widgets. I personally like to use artistdata.com. I have it linked to many of my social media sites, so I can just post the dates in one place and this posts them for me in to many of my social media sites. Both websites provide a html code that you can copy, and then just return to your add new page. On the top right corner of your text box you have option for visual or HTML, click the HTML. Now you can paste the gig list code here: after this click on save draft on right hand side of the page. Then you can click back to the visual and add additional text if required. As to the gallery you can start a new page, title it as “Gallery, “Photos”, “Images” etc. Upload images to your gallery as on the biography page. You can do this one by one or several at a time. To do several at same time, just select more images by holding down Ctrl and select with your mouse (this is for PCs, not an expert on macs...). Once the photos are uploaded, at the top of the upload window you have gallery tab, and at the bottom of this page you have insert gallery button. This places the Gallery on your page.

  So that is the basics of our band website. Now if you want me to cover more detailed info on the WordPress subject, let me know. I do know not all of my readers are musicians so I don't want this project to take over the blog. But we’ll add more to it as questions arise.

  Now just a quick note on bit of a reflection of the past blogs, as you know we had Darragh from Invivctus, and four weeks before we had Michael from Trackmix studios. The beauties of these interviews are that JPKALLIO.COM has gained lot of valuable information from these interviews, as I hope you have as well. And it just goes to show. If you ask for information the right way, people are willing to give it to you. We learned that it would be possible for us to find an underground label that specializes to our kind of music, so now we have endless hours to be spent researching labels on internet. We also have much clearer view of the budgets required, the pros and cons making the CD by our selves, or with record label. But at the same time, we have only scraped the surface, and we'll be looking in to much more information before we make any decisions. But we have been working on new songs, and they are sounding better every day. So the next step will be starting to make some demos. These are exiting times :-)

That’s all for this week, we'll be back for more next week.

J.P.