Posts Tagged "mannheim"

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a nerd. Always have been. I’m a tech junkie, but only in the years that I’ve owned an iPhone have I realized how dependent my life is on technology. Most musicians in today’s world are slaves to modern gadgets, and this became all the more apparent to me this past weekend. My journey into tech purgatory started on Thursday, with my teaching job at the Popakademie. I was armed with all the tools I normally use to do my job: laptop, iPad, audio interface, microphone. My students are preparing for their semester exams (each student must perform a 45 minute live looping set using only their voices and a “loop station”, either hardware or software based), which require loads of tech that...

As a child, I always dreamed of traveling to great European cities. I’ve had the great fortune to visit most of the cities I’ve dreamt about, and this weekend I performed in one of my greatest childhood dream cities: Athens, Greece. My road trip started on Thursday, when I spent two days in Mannheim, Germany teaching at the Popakademie. It’s getting close to semester exams, so I spent the time preparing my students for their big day; a 45 minute live looping performance. After my time there I travelled to Aschaffenburg for rehearsals and a gig in the evening. The gig itself was fine; I performed with a talented up-and-coming singer named Jennifer Washington. After three hours of sleep in my hotel it was off to the airport and my highlight gig of...

There are certain undisputed truths about being a pro musician in Europe, particularly in Germany, where I work most of the time: you’re always asked to do more than you want to; you’re always treated well, but never as well as you think you should be; and the cleanliness of the bathroom in your hotel room has more of an effect on your performance at the gig than you would like to believe. On this past five day road trip I travelled to the towns of Bregenz, Austria (directly on Lake Constance, the body of water shared by Germany, Austria and Switzerland), Mannheim, Cologne and Hamburg, a total distance of 1909 kilometers (1186 miles), all of it by train. I performed three shows with two different bands: the Bregenz gig was for a conference of IT...