In the Pint 10th of November

  Right, this Saturday we are playing upstairs in the Pint bar on Eden quay. There is pretty impressive line up on the night! Part from us it's
Rafters,
Smash Your Baggage
Crafty Fuzz,
The Velourias,
My Mind Races,
Shallow stream,
Skyward Rifles

 Hope to see you there!
    J.P.

Bob Baker sharing some of his best advice

  Here is a great little inspirational video from Bob Baker ( http://music-promotion-blog.blogspot.ie ).
For those of you who don't know of Bob Baker, check him out. He has some very valuable information for musicians who wants to go the independent rout. I have mentioned him before here, but he really provides wealth of information time and time again.




  Just a quick point here though. From time to time, I think it is ok to slow things down a bit and use this time to do some of the research Bob mentioned in the beginning of his video. I mean it is great to have a good game plan and go for it with blazing guns. But from time to time it is good to take a break and refocus.

  I know it looks like we have disappeared from the planet, but quite contrary we have been busy preparing lots of things. Soon you will hear more from us:-) On Saturday the 10th we are back playing live in the Pint. More info on this and many more things to follow soon.

  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.

Silly season for musicians

Part 67

  OK, so we are well in to the silly season, Christmas parties taking over the pubs and bars and shoppers attacking the town like crazy. We've been bit scattered for the past few weeks. I was once again on tour with Sliotar and Qra had to pop over to Poland to try to fix some of his on going back problems. But next week we'll be all back in action again. As much as I love playing in Sliotar, I do miss making lots of noise with Qra and Sebastian;-)

  Now back to the silly season. It has been an interesting week in Ireland to say the least... The covernment announced the new budget, and I'm not sure if I should say much about it here... But I'm sure we'll write songs about it for years to come. Dublin has already turned in to that mental place, that it always does before Christmas. Being a musician this time of the year is filled with mixed emotions. Of course you enjoy the family time, all the food and celebrations. But as musicians don't get payed for holidays (yep you heard me right!) it also means lost gigs and no pay. I know I am lucky as I have regular concerts with Sliotar and being at this for year I am much more prepared for it now, but I do remember many a rough Christmas. And even this Christmas I am sure there are many musician out there who just can't wait to get over the holidays and back to work, so they can pay their rents. I am not trying play the worlds smallest violin here, or get some sympathy. Instead I am just once again trying to bring in little bit of reality to those of you who are dreaming about making a living from music. It can and will be tough, but that is the price that you need to be willing to pay for doing something you love for living. Summer holidays? Well you better work it around the festival season. You know, I do hear it so often people say to me, oh it must be great doing what you love for living... And it is, but if I would tell you the price you pay, well you might think twice. Then again, it is not the only job with antisocial hours out there;-). The other side of the coin is that many of us are having tough time as it is, due to the most ridiculous recession of our life time, created by creed and stupidity, so why not give it a go?

  And now for something completely different;-) YouTube introduced some changes during the week. We all know and hate how Facebook throws changes up with out asking or telling any one about them. But YouTube made their site much more “Social” if I may use the word. The really cool thing about the new site is that you can change over to the new profile, and if you don't like it, change back. Now there's a nobel idea for facebook. But yeah, I messed around a bit with it, and it was pretty easy to get your basic profile up. Also unlike on Facebook, you can actually change your page name. I am really lookin to spend some time on the design side of the things. I got a good feeling about this one and when I get to the bottom of it, I will share with you more details. You can also keep an eye on how I get along at JPKALLIO.COM's YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/JPKallio I must say here also that if you don't have your band up on YouTube yet, get on it! It really is a great tool.

  Oh yeah and a quick update. We were supposed to perform at the Pint on 17th of December, but the show was canceled. Instead we'll be there on 14th of January with some great bands. The confirmet acts on the night so far are:

My mind races
Nuke the fridge
Dave's Last Rave
24 Broken Amps
Them Apples
JPKALLIO.COM
But more on that closer to it:-)
Have a great week and we'll be back for more next week.
 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.

Reality check

Blog 53

  So the second year, here we go! I'm just back from a short break on the north coast of Poland. I had a week of sunshine, beach, sipping cold beer and making funny faces to a four month old baby. So as I am sure you can imagine, I am pretty relaxed at the moment. But I knew I had a big work load waiting for me here in Dublin, which I was actually looking forward to, but I do miss the sunshine...

  Our birthday bash is getting closer, Friday week, to be exact and if you want a sneak preview whats coming up, The 9thlife who will be playing on the night, are playing in the Pint this Thursday. You should check them out!
We are really looking forward to the show as JPKALLIO.COM has had a bit of a break from the live shows. We have few more dates booked for the rest of the year, but I am playing this bit safe as Qra has few hospital visits next month and until we know that his back is ok, we'll concentrate on rehearsing songs for the album. I am the type of person who rather does things than over analyze them and wonder if I should or should not do something, so holding back can be tough for me, but I'll still rather be safe than sorry. Making sure Qras health is OK and he can play any shows in the future is our priority number 1 right now.

  But as I mentioned this before, we do have some tough decisions ahead of us about the recording of our first Album. These are the same problems most bands face. Will we record the album with our own equipment, or in a studio? If we decide to go for the studio, I know for sure that the album will take much longer to finish, just because of the finance, or lack of it. In the other hand I can understand that especially Sebastian is worried about the drum sound on the album. This is something that many bands fail to get right in their rehearsal demos, but still with little bit of knowledge(and microphones, leads and stands combined with your usual recording set up) it can be done. But by recording the album by our selves, it would give us more freedom, time and room for experimenting. In a studio it is always a race with time... But I would like to hear your thoughts on this, as we will be sharing the process here with you guys. Would you like us to record in Studio and share with you what goes on in there, or would you like us to record the album by our self and go through the process step by step?

  This actually brings in mind another subject. Money! This is something that has some sort of effect on all of our lives, weather we want it or not. But lets just look at this for a second from a musicians point of view. I'm sure most of you think Money should not get in the way of music, but it does play big part on things. The very least in my mind what band needs to do to exist is to play music and to do this you need a rehearsal space. I would say the usual going rate at the moment in Dublin is €50 per session (usually four to five hours). If you want to take your band seriously, you want to be rehearsing minimum twice a week. So do the maths, it does add up pretty fast. Then you have all the equipment you need, even the basics. If you want to record some of your tracks that you spent endless hours rehearsing, studio don't come cheap. When you get your demo out, and get some concerts, you do need to get to the venue with all your equipment, another cost. I am not trying to scare any one here, but you do need to be realistic about all this. If you play in a band that plays original music (not just covers), you do need to accept that it is an expensive hobbies, which will take lot of your time and only has an microscopic chance to lead to career. Once again let me tell you, I am not trying to scare you, but I've come across so many websites selling you the short cut and telling you how you can do this. If this is so, why only so few of the thousands of bands out there “make it”? Well, persistence and hard work definitely do come in to the game. Most bands fail because they give up.Life gets on the way, work, family... and yes, money... But if you really do love playing music, let me ask you one question: what would you rather spend your little extra cash that is left after paying your bills? So what I guess I am trying to say here is if you rather spend your money on your music than for example holidays in the sun, nights out in the town, new car (even second hand) etc, you might just be on the right track;-)
J.P.