Val Halla with Def 3 SXSW
Mar
15
I saw Library Voices, a Regina band, tear it up in Toronto last night. First they played El Mocambo and won over a jaded rock indie crowd. Subtle leg wiggling soon turned into to full on clapping, shouting, and groovin’ to the shout-along celebratory choruses. They ended their set with a cover of Neil Young’s “Unknown Legend”, with everyone singing loud chorusing harmonies, and a front of stage beat down of what I believe was the floor Tom.
I have to say, those kids from Regina did such a great job winning over that Toronto crowd, and giving it their all (kudos to all band members for not only “breaking” one, but POURING out a sweat), that they actually made me well up with pride and tears came to my eyes!
I expect to see great things in the future for that band, and I expect they will be and already are, great influences in the Regina, Sask. music scene.
Hella Props to Library Voices!
Mar
12
This is my first article for GoMoNews, about Vancouver company Mobify.me
Mar
7
Ok, so basically I have been holding off making regular entries on here because I really wanted to get this Blog formatted in a cool way, and looking awesome for everyone before I started directing people here. BUT ALAS, a “blogging for dummies”, “wordpress for dummies” and “the huffington post” intensive study later, I am exhausted and not yet ready to properly execute the changes I would like.
I leave for Toronto, for CMW in 4 days and I don’t think i will have time to get the Blog organized before going. So I’ve decided the posting must begin regardless!
This Blog is going to focus on my music career, and what I’m going through in the middle of this digital/mobile/music revolution, as a SO FAR (fingers crossed for the promise of the future) unsigned artist.
It’s getting very crazy in this world. I’m sleeping very little, I’m on the computer very much, and the more time on the computer I spend, the more pissed off I get I’m not practicing guitar, or writing, or singing. So that in turn seems to actually be working to MAKE me sit down and do those things everyday. So maybe this is going to work out after all.
I will be in Austin, TX for SXSW right after CMW.
There are two new songs on the way and I will post a link to them here next week as soon as they are ready!
I have a new skateboard, and the weather is GREAT in Nashville. Aside from how insanely busy I have been lately, and how I have seen virtually NO ONE (I am spending most of my days recording and working on the two new songs with Producer Bob Funk, and then returning home to lock myself away in my room and play music and type on the computer – writing songs, learning Classic Rock tablatures, booking shows, booking flights, organizing my “web content” and trying to say hello to people on facebook here and again…you know “socializing” hhaha), I am actually RIDICULOUSLY happy.
I’m finally focusing on music in as many hours a day as most people do a 9 to 5 job. I am working my ass off to take the reigns in my career instead of waiting around for someone to do it for me like I did for a very long time. I think I expected talent to help a lot more than its probably actually going to . hahaha. Honestly, if talent were the key, half of the people down here in Nashville would be signed. But sadly, they are not. So I can either sit around and fuss over it, or get my ass in gear and TAKE IT TO THE STREETS (enter doobie brothers music).
I have much more info to divulge, and many more specifics to get into, but I just wanted to stake my claim on here and say, YES I AM DOING THIS BLOG FO REALZ STARTING TODAY….like an American Astronaut putting a flag up on the moon, I’m staking a claim! (I am getting closer to learning the Star Spangled Banner because I have already been to 4 NHL games this season)
So please feel free to check back whenever you like. I will be updating at least once a day, no matter if it is a large or small entry.
I’ll leave you with a little bit from an interview with Terry McBride (he is the CEO of Nettwerk Music which is based in Vancouver and is label home to many well known artists, such as Sarah McLachlan). This will help you understand how crazy things actually are in this industry right now. There is a revolution going on in music that is as big as any other that has happened. It is not as cool or romantic as the 60′s or 70′s and it doesn’t have the angst of the 90′s Grunge movement, but it is a relevant and industry altering revolution no less. This will not only change the way we receive music, but the music itself. The rules of music making, and the rules of music listening. The rules of being a music fan, and the way we get to experience being a music fan. Basically, EVERYTHING is about to change as we know it.
I hate to say it, because it is void of all beauty and majesty RIGHT NOW (though watch and great things musically are on the horizon), but this is Woodstock 2.0 (feel free to exercise your gag reflex now if you couldn’t stand to hear that term).
My dream has always been Rock & Roll. I don’t want to be an “indie artist”, I don’t want to be a “pop artist”. I want to be a rock star. I want to play GOOD music, that affects people, that serenades their lives, that gives them a time and a place to document, and lets them go back there whenever they hear that song again. I want to play a loud distorted guitar and blow people’s ears off, then I want to slow it down and bring out the acoustics, and fill the room with ambience and give people shivers up their arms, and have some kind of holy rock gods coming down to tickle your neck experience with an audience full of people. I want to drive around the country side, Canada, the US, Mexico, all over and see all the people there, and talk to them, and view life through the eyes of many. I want to see Europe one day and maybe even Asia (Culture shock gives me anxiety, and that’s why the “maybe” for Asia…cause I am afraid of the unknown sometimes haha). I want to go hang with the Australians and the New Zealanders, where THEY live and not just in Vancouver always! 
I want to fucking rock. Its what makes me happy. And 5 years ago if I was at the stage i’m at now in my career, about to venture out into this musical world with all my ducks in a row, they probably would have beat the rock n roll right out of me, dressed me up in some kind Genie in a Bottle outfit, and poked me with a Cattle Prod till I could move like Christina.
But today is a new day friends. And the rock star can live once more. Stay with me, and I’ll prove it! Rock & Roll has just been reborn! It is 2009, and the Internet and open sourced software programmers just saved the world from forever becoming a manifestation of a Don McLean lyric.
And I leave you with the words of music industry prophet (haha) Terry McBride (from rollogrady.com):
R&G: You recently spoke about cloud-based servers, mobile applications and smartphones being the future of the music business.
Terry: What’s happened in the last ten years is kind of moot. The next 18 months will determine the future of the music business. It’s a situation where the turnover on phones by the average consumer – now I’m being generous here – is every two years. It’s probably shorter. The smartphones that are starting to dominate the marketplace are specific platforms now open to applications that are being developed outside of the R&D departments of all of the various carriers. Apple, when they opened up their App Store, I think they sold, what, 150 million apps in maybe 9 months. It stunned the world, and Apple is a small player. They might be a noisy player, but they’re a small player within the mobile space. Research In Motion launches their store this month, Nokia is launching Ovi in April and Google has already launched their Android site. You’re going to see millions of applications come onto the marketplace. You’re going to see social filtering of the really good ones, and what’s going to be in there are applications that change the behavioral habits of how you consume music. The need to download music will no longer exist. If anything, it will be a hassle. You’ll have smartphones that can probably handle two to three hundred songs. That’s a gradual download; you’re actually not streaming it. It’s actually on your phone but it’s pulled from some sort of server, whether it’s your own server or a cloud server. To make all of these applications work, you have to have really good metadata, which means that business has to focus its efforts on really good metadata. Rich metadata is going to work with all of these applications. You’re going to see digital maids, digital valets. You’re going to see applications for maybe five bucks a month where you can access all the music that you want, how you want it, when you want it, imported to any device. So why would you want to download? Why would you want to go online to try to find it for free? Besides, something you find free might not work with these smartphone apps. Five bucks is no big deal to have unlimited access. That’s where everything’s going. All of the current arguments and debates are moot. I would even say that the ticker has now started on when the iPod goes away. I think Apple saw that.
R&G: So their primary focus will be to promote the iPhone?
Terry: They’ve been pushing the iPhone more than anything, and when they opened up their App Store, their intuitions were proven right. It is the App Store that has driven iPhone sales.
R&G: Do you think the major labels will sign off on these applications?
Terry: I don’t think they have any choice in the matter. It’s really just a subscription model, but it’s the application. A subscription model has never worked to date because it’s always been a hassle. It only works on your laptop, you can’t port it between devices, and it’s always streaming and always a pain in the ass. Last.fm and Pandora have been nice, but transferring that around has been really difficult. The applications coming with these smartphones will change all that and make it a hassle not to use them. Downloading will seem like a hassle two years from now. It will be like, ‘Download something? Are you nuts? Here, I can instantly access it. Watch, I’ll just type it in and my valet will go find it for me.’