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/

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.

It's good to be busy

Part 87.


  I have a very busy week behind me, and another one just started. And guess what? I am loving it :-) We had two concerts with JPKALLIO.COM. On Thursday we were over in the Submarine bar in Crumlin. This is well known Sports bar, but to my surprise it is amazing venue as well. There was a small case of unsuitability though, I'd assume most bands playing in the venue usually are either more folky or indie rock. There is a decibel meter on top of the bar facing a stage and as soon as we started it maxed out and stayed like that until the end of our set :-D. But hey, everyone seemed to enjoy it.

  On Friday we were in Swords and in the Slaughtered Lamb. This is a quite busy battle of the bands. There was eight acts on the night and we were the second last to get on the stage. The Slaughtered lamb had a nice set up, but we were starting to feel the hanging around and two late nights. In all fairness, it is a part of the job and something I am well used to with Sliotar, in the famous words of Charlie Watts on the 25^th  anniversary of the Rolling Stones he was asked what the 25 years had been like he said: “Five years of playing and 20 years of hanging around”. It never really gets easy, but I think with time you learn to deal with it better. I think the biggest thing to keep in mind in a moments like these is that you are not alone, all your band mates and the other bands on the night are in the same situation, so moaning about it does not make any ones life any easier. It can also hard on your concentration. After waiting for four hours, you get up and play, it can feel like it sneaks up on you and sooner than you think the gig is over. There is something I do and find it helpful. After setting up and just before I play. I try to just clear my mind and slow down my breath. If you do this even for like 30 seconds, it can have surprising effect on your performance. So try it out the next time;-)

  Then on Saturday and Sunday I was busy with Sliotar. The pressure is on with the summer tours starting on in mid May. There is always some car maintenance before the tours, which I am very happy Des, the drummer in Sliotar takes a good care of. Also before any tour I look through all my guitar set ups and at the moment I am going through some changes in my acoustic guitar rig. For years I disliked acoustic guitar amps, even to the point that it might have been over 10 years since I tried one. But a friend of mine gave me a lend of Marshall AS50D which I used on the Sunday gig. I must say I was very impressed! There is definitely a reaction between the guitar and an amp that I think I have been missing with the acoustic guitar. It felt like it all made sense lot more once again. So now I am looking what else there is out on the market:-). I have met people who tell me they are very happy with their instrument set up. Personally for me, I have been a professional musician for the past 15 years now and I have constant need to improve on my sound. I think the day I stop trying to improve my sound, is the day I should call it a day... But still, all the nice toys in the world won't change what your fingers do, that's where the real magic is and that's why still after 15 years I practice almost every day.

  Now this week JPKALLIO.COM will be in the basement of Sweeney's tonight (Wednesday the 25^th of April). We'll be the first on at 9.30pm. This is the first of the Music Mediums rock/Metal nights, which they are hoping to have once a month. In all fairness it was about the time Sweeney's had a dedicated night for the harder side of the music spectrum;-) There are some great bands on tonight, and If Sweeney's basement had a decibel meter, I'm sure it would stay up all night;-)

  Then Tomorrow the 26^th of April we'll be in the Pint once again. There is always an excellent sound in the Pint and we're really looking forward to this one as well. There is a

  And this weekend I'll be in the Porterthouse with Sliotar again on Saturday and Sunday. So yep, busy week;-). And you know, when you are independent musician, busy is good. It is almost always better to be playing than not. The only way to get better at what you do is do it a lot. No amount of rehearsals will never get you the experience you get from playing live. And it is the best way to spread the word of your band As well.  Hope to see you at one of the shows.
   J.P.

Rumble and roar in the Dublin music scene

  I find my self getting little bit exited about the way things have been going in the underground music scene for a past while. It's obvious that more aggressive music is building up again. The Metal scene in Ireland is growing like a wild fire, and the punk brewing up as well. I personally do think that the times we are living does play its part in it. Good old friend of mine and some one who has worked in the music business for well over 30 years once said that it is a historical fact that music and arts always has its boom during recession. I know it can sound bit crazy, but it does make sense as well. I know things like classical music will suffer due to its exclusive nature, but on the street level things are happening. During the boom, pubs did organize music, but it was more tourist oriented in Dublin. Now the local hangouts have realized the power of live music, and it is great to see. There are many venues JPKALLIO.COM have played in in the past year that are great examples of this, Sweeney's on Dame street are hopping! And I am sure they would say it is lot to do with the live music, which in most days of the week they have in two or even three floors. The Pint on the Eden quay has really started to establish it self as a serious venue in the Dublin music scene, especially for Metal. After a small break Thomas house is back organizing live punk nights. The Gypsy rose on Aston quay is running gigs in the basement and acoustic gigs upstairs. And this is only small scratch of the surface of the bubbling music scene in Dublin.

  The other factor in the picture is money. Whether we like it or not, it plays it's part on everything. Sometimes when times are good, and it is easy to make money, that's just what we do. We take the well payed corporate gigs, mold our set lists to suit them, ware our black suits and jump when we are told to jump. Don't get me wrong, nothing wrong with this. But when the work isn't there, you need to keep your self busy, and that's often when you have time to concentrate on what you really want to do. And in tough times people do look for solace in music. Also during good times, music can be more of a party tool, where as when things are not so good, music can be the language to express frustrations and anger. For example cover bands, something like “Sweet home Alabama”, always a strong classic, would have been very popular, but now you get “Killing in the name” by Rage against the machine. But very often these are all things that just pass us by, and we don't pay attention to it. But what always amazes me is how the big promoters tend to work in the past... Only in 2012 German Hard rock/ Metal legends Rammstein play their first concert in Ireland. Now think what ever you may of them, they will fill the O2 and would have done so long before. Oh yeah, and do you remember the famous Manu Chao visit to Dublin quite few years ago? The promoter booked him to Whelans, as they didn't know him and didn't think it would sell... The concert was eventually moved and Manu Chao played to a full house in the Point. But the good thing in all this is that the smaller promoters have had a chance to break in to market that was very much dominated by two giants in the past. Now we have Napalm Death coming to play in the Pint, and the ticket price is very reasonable, thanks to the fact that the major promoters didn't have their "major"cut out of this.

  So as much as we all get dragged down by the news of doom and gloom every day, in music business it is the time of the independents. Small labels who do what they love, small promoters who put on shows for bands they love, and most of all bands who do what they love, not what they are expected to do. What do you think the future holds for Dublin music scene?

  I am just back from a long weekend away, I was in need of charging my batteries, and that's just what I did:-) But now JPKALLIO.COM is very busy getting prepared for some recording. As I mentioned last week, we'll be going in to the Trackmix studios next week for few days. And at the same time I am busy getting the recording of Sliotars new album done. So busy times, but hey, it's the only way how I know:-) 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.

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.

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.