Posts Tagged "music"

Regardless of what they actually say their reasons for making music are for, All aspiring musicians want to be stars. The dream of stardom has been the fuel for many a music career for hundreds of years; Mozart and Michael Jackson are in that respect not as different as one would think, issues of respective talent and taste aside. All current and past pop music stars have one thing in common, though: a hit song that propelled them into pop stardom. The question that has haunted many songwriters and musicians since the dawn of popular music is: what makes a song a hit? I’ve had the privilege of working with many artists, producers and songwriters over the years who have created million-selling albums and singles, as well as hugely successful commercial jingles,...

Thursday night at the King Kamehameha Club. We just finished our first set, and I was surfing the Net on my iPhone, reading my favorite news blog, the Huffington Post. The first headline in the Breaking News caption: Michael Jackson Suffers Cardiac Arrest. The news was shocking, but I was hopeful that he would eventually be OK. I went to the bar to get a drink, then I returned to my seat to continue reading. I hit the refresh button, and in an instant, my heart dropped into my stomach; Michael Jackson had died. Feeling quite numb, I spread the word to the people around me that the King of Pop has died. The most common reaction was, “are you kidding me?” People couldn’t believe it. My colleagues Tiffany and Worthy, two singers who like me are known for their...

It’s been a few days since my last road trip, and it’s often difficult to find themes that make each and every gig experience unique, because frankly, most of my shows follow similar patterns. What I like to report on are certain subtleties I notice at each show or block of shows. One of the more interesting subtleties is the observation of how people tend to party during certain times of the year. With summer just around the corner, people are definitely getting into party mode. How did this change in attitude affect my job on this latest road trip? Let’s take a look. Gig 1: May 20 – Session Werk, Walldorf I’ve performed in many, many venues in Germany over the last 15 years or so; from bars, clubs and restaurants, to city and village festivals, to...

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...