World Record Label Music Magazine

Lesleigh Kivedo

Who is Rodríguez? If you had asked that question to an American audience five years ago, the response may have been vague at best. Sin City director? Actress from Lost? No, this Rodríguez is cut from an entirely different cloth.

Sixto Rodríguez is a Detroit-born rock musician who released two albums in the early 1970s. But at the time of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan, Rodríguez’s efforts went widely unrecognized, causing him to quit the music industry and find work as a construction worker instead

All the Wiles

Interviewing Jared Klok

Michael Arbou

With an acoustic sound and a lively local presence, The Chimney Swifts have become a welcome sight in Nova Scotia, Canada’s Annapolis Valley music scene, with Jamie Loughead on vocals and bass, and new addition Mike Aubé on mandolin, guitar, vocals, and percussion. I got down to business with singer and guitarist Jesse Potter.

Kristen Simons

 On January 15, George Watsky, the California rapper, announced the release of his first truly commercial album and a March tour. The album entitled Cardboard Castles is set for release March 12 available on iTunes and is available for pre-order now. The Cardboard Castles Tour will stretch March 8 through May 28 and feature Dumbfoundead.

Cardboard Castles is the first album not available for free download on Watsky’s Bandcamp page, a fact that Watsky himself addresses in his YouTube announcement. The album will be streamed free to the public before the release for the availability of the financially embarrassed. Watsky has also promised a new video every two weeks on YouTube.

Erin Sharpe

After a long flight, I finally landed in southern Japan. A few days later, in the supermarket, I experienced my first real jolt of culture shock. But not from the food.

At five or ten minutes before closing, “Auld Lang Syne” started playing on the sound system. It was only October, nowhere close to New Year’s. What could be the occasion?

I must have made a face. My new friend smiled at me. “You get used to it,” she said.

As I made friends in town, I started asking about things I didn't understand. I was assured that “Auld Lang Syne” was played when most shops were closing, as well as at graduations.

Lesleigh Kivedo

For many of us, music is an escape from the hum-drum of our everyday lives. But what about the musicians behind the melodies? Many of them have backstories that run much deeper, often reflected in their creative, unusual choice of stage names. From trying to escape their rather ordinary, unglamorous names, to making unconscious political statements, to the just plain random, the truth behind their pseudonyms is often stranger than fiction.

Michael Arbou

Fear obviously plays an important role in military operations, both in creating fear in the enemy and in replacing fear with courage within the company. On the battlefield, music gains control of these emotions. Let’s take a look at how young soldiers in various battles have used music to inspire each other and to dominate the aural, psychological combat zone. 

Jason Hayward

In my last article, I began to examine several key points of advice to follow when facing creative block, particularly when we would call it a “rut” or a “dry spell.” These terms refer to a relatively short-term block – a situation where, after working creatively for a period of time, we stop being productive.

Nicole Mendes

Reality bites. It really does. The world’s a horrible place with terrifying happenings. You can be brave, but it’s all an act. Life is just too scary, and even the most confident of people will admit they’re fearful of it every now and then. I know I am.

So how does someone cope in this den of vice? How do you make it through the days and nights and keep that smile on your face? Is it an act?

Power Of Music

 “Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.”

Marion J. Lougheed WRL Magazine's editor in chief

Although it has been said that “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture,” we all insist on doing so. We’re not the only ones; musicians themselves are keen to express themselves on the topic. Here are some quotes to keep with you through 2013.

All music is folk music. I ain't never heard a horse sing a song. - Louis Armstrong

Without music, life would be a mistake. - Friedrich Nietzsche

After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music. - Aldous Huxley

A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence. - Leopold Stokowski   

Cristina Radu

Traditional Christmas songs can be associated with many images, depending on one's life experience: carolers that roam the local community, folklorists who collect folk stories, people who show reverence for the birth of the Son of God.

The classical image of children or adults caroling is the first thought evoked by the word "carol.” Mostly in the wintertime, many people come to the door or gate to wish good to their hosts in exchange for fruit, bagels, and some money.

The most comprehensive picture of Christmas traditional songs, however, is neither the modern mercantile events or its cultural roots, but the event itself behind the feast of Jesus Christ. People are singing with reverence and thanksgiving to God and man relates to His first-born. 

Music e TV new website

World Record Label just Launched it's second website. Music E TV™ Social Network is now live!

 http://musicetv.com/index.php

Nicole Mendes

I run my finger along the playlist and what do I see? A mish-mash of songs from Frank Sinatra and Chicago, to Slipknot and Miley Cyrus (yes, she’s there) – a true melting pot of music. In my opinion all brilliant musicians, but it’s sad that one of the things they have in common is payment for their services (at least the majority of the time). Oh, they all love music and play to fulfil that need, but money is also a big factor – particularly nowadays what with bling bling and shiny sexiness draped all over the silver screen. There are those, however, who have decided to point a finger at the money issue and say: “Wait a minute! Look!” – primarily the 1960s/1970s free-love people. Here are some of my favourites:

Lesleigh Kivedo

“Money doesn’t talk. It swears.” Famous words by Bob Dylan in one of his most famous songs, “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding).” In the song’s lyrics, Dylan laments the rise of commercialism and consumerism in popular culture. He later commented: “Music can save people, but it can't in the commercial way it's being used. It's just too much. It's pollution.”

The “pollution” that Dylan was referring to encapsulated the music industry up until the 1960s, at which point an enormous paradigm shift would see artists shunning major record labels to follow their own independent paths. The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, and the Beatles were just some of the forerunners of this so-called counter-culture. Along with flower power and anti-war protests, a new type of artist was being born – one that refused to compromise musical integrity for monetary gain.

FIORELLA MANNOIA

THE STORYTELLER!

Marion Lougheed - WRL Magazine's editor in chief

With the advent of social networking, online marketing, and mp3 downloads, independent artists have more options than ever to get their music heard. Unfortunately, the good and the bad can get equal exposure simply by putting the same amount of effort into their promotional efforts.

Or so they say.

While it’s true that the initial stages of exposure are likely to be the same, the fact remains that if your music is not well made and well presented, then few people will want to listen to it. So there is a culling phase, if you will, where good music rises above the rest.

On this year’s 6th of September, I turned on my television with the hope of seeing (and hearing) an improvement in the popular award giving ceremonies. Alas, my hopes were completely shattered and I truly don’t think I’ll have enough mental strength left for the upcoming MTV Europe Music Awards. Once again - the domination of a single genre, mostly performances that were based on everything but real singing and inspired music, and winners that wouldn’t even have been mentioned 20 years ago, simply because the music back then was actually music.

Green Day to pay tribute to Amy Winehouse

Nowadays, it is very common for musicians to pay tribute to their fellow colleagues who have passed away recently. It is hardly a surprise that the sudden death of Amy Winehouse resulted in the latest “fight” for tributes and praises among musicians. Fans are usually happy to see that other musicians care about what happened with their pop idols but in most of the cases music lovers are annoyed by the ways other bands or musicians try to

Orange O’ Clock

What do you get when you combine three extraordinarily talented youngsters, innate musical ability and unwavering passion? A burgeoning indie pop-rock collective called Orange O’ Clock.

Marion Lougheed - WRL Magazine's editor in chief

The internet is rife with lists promising easy ways to success. I realize that this is an SEO (search engine optimization) trick and also a way to get people to read your blog posts, but I feel that the value of the content is diminished by the over-ambitious title.

Here are some recent examples of titles claiming to help musicians further their career:

Lesleigh Kivedo

When you think of South Africa, what comes to mind? The Big Five, Table Mountain, Nelson Mandela? Now add one more title to that list: international music destination!

It seems that more and more international musicians are finally making their way down south. And it’s about time too. For years, South African music fans have had to make do with televised concerts being screened on MTV and VH1. Whenever a top artist or band announced a “world” tour, we would watch in disappointment as Africa was overlooked time and again. While other continents like Asia, Australia and South America seemed to feature on nearly every international act’s tour line-up, the letters “SA” would never be featured on the agenda. Until now.

CONCERT FEVER

In the short period between 2011 and mid-2012 alone, we have welcomed global megastars U2, Coldplay (and Kings of Leon later that same month) followed by Lauryn Hill and John Legend to our shores. And it’s just heating up. Fans went into a frenzy when Lady Gaga announced that she would be bringing her Born This Way Tour to the country in November 2012. Her Little Monsters went into overdrive, with tickets sold out within hours. So ardent were their efforts, they caused the local ticketing website to crash due to heavy traffic. Edge of Glory indeed.

Also visiting in November this year will be rock superstars Linkin Park. With number-one hits like Crawling, Numb and What I’ve Done, the alternative metal rockers will be bringing their Living Things tour to SA fans. And just this week, the Twitterverse was abuzz with rumours that the Red Hot Chili Peppers would be bringing their edgy California rock to the country for the first time. This followed a supposed leaked concert poster which advertises the band’s February 2013 tour. This seemed to affirm a cryptic earlier tweet from the band’s drummer that hinted at the band adding an SA leg to their tour.

London 2012 Olympics Games

The Olympics have begun and the country is abuzz with Olympics Fever. The populous are walking the streets with painted faces, colourful nails, and brightly decorated hair whilst draped in nationalistic clothing and their homeland’s flags. It’s a beautiful scene of patriotic pride and honour!

Major sporting events are fascinating phenomena – they have a way of bringing people of all races together even when they are on separate and opposing teams. It’s that sense of loyalty to one’s country that overrides any racism, hatred, bigotry, and/or malice which may be present; and it all begins with a major opening ceremony.

What Is Next In Music Technology?

There was a time when people had to carry bulky walkmans and CD’s for listening music while on the move. Remember all those hassles that you had to go through to store all the music CD’s that you had in your collection. You needed CD cases to keep them safe, had to regularly clean the CD’s to keep them in good shapes and despite all these endeavors, a single scratch would spoil all your efforts to keep your favorite songs safe.

Jason Paul Hayward

Jason Paul Hayward on Composing Music for Film

Composing music for film is different beast from other types of music writing. Networking and knowing how to communicate are key to fostering the relationships that will get you to where you want to be, according to composer/multi-instrumentalist Jason Paul Hayward.

Hayward, who also writes and performs singer-songwriter pieces and original electronic music (as Spinoza Gambit), recently completed two film scores. The projects were The Needle and the Damage Undone, a documentary by Mad Mummer Media, and a short drama directed by Frank Barry, called Life in the Days of Mary.

Enrico Rava

WHAT ABOUT JACKO AND JAZZ? ASK ITALIAN TRUMPET PLAYER ENRICO RAVA

You probably haven´t heard anything about a town called Viljandi but you might have come across

the name of the country- Estonia, one of the three Baltic states. It is a very small country and during

its short summer there are held various music festivals, in fact so many of them, that it´s hard to

choose which one to attend.

Kristjan Randalu

Kristjan is an estonian jazz pianist and composer, born in 1978, a son of two classical pianists, he was exposed to music from an early age, he continued his studies in Karlsruhe, Stuttgart, Cologne, and at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

In 2003, he moved to New York City and completed his education at the Manhattan School of Music, earning a Masters of Music Degree. Additionally, Kristjan attended The Henry Mancini Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he performed on the two-time Grammy nominated Concord Jazz album "Elevation ".

Hayward Amps

Rick Hayward has taken a passion and turned it into his work. Most of the guitarists in and around St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada will refer you to this guy for any sort of tube amp design, building, modification, or repair.

“If somebody calls and asks if I can do a couple of mods on their amp to make it sound like another amp without them having to spend a whole lot of money on a brand new amp, then I’m the man.”

His clientele mainly comes to him through word of mouth. He works out of his basement, and, as a guitar player himself, he understands the drive for what his wife Bev calls “the perfect tone.”

Blue Gillespie

Anyone who is familiar with the sci-fi show Torchwood will know who Ianto Jones is. For those of you who aren’t too good at remembering character names let’s recap: Ianto is the quiet, mild-mannered, impeccably attired butler-type dude who is completely besotted with character Jack Harkness. Now take this proper Welsh boy (real name: Gareth David-Lloyd), give him a beer and microphone, and what do we have? Yes, the hard-core trilby-wearing vocalist from the metal band Blue Gillespie.

Are the fans themselves demoralizing the artists?

Music piracy: Are the fans themselves demoralizing the artists?

Technology has undoubtedly made tremendous contributions to the music industry. It has patronized the design and development of numerous high-tech musical devices such as the auto-tunes, electric guitars, DJ players as well as a number of virtual tools that include software and musical file formats. In short, technology has taken music to its next level.

You can easily download any latest releases from the internet in mp3 format for free and can listen it on your ipod. You neither have to wait till a new song is officially released, nor have you to buy a CD or DVD, all you need to do is just google the song’s name, download a pirated version and listen. So, as long as technology is there, the music affectionate have to worry about nothing.

Chris Martins

Chris Martins of heavy rock group Kingdom of Snakes is using the do-it-yourself approach!

Vireo

The members of hard rock band Vireo are not always on the same page when it comes to their music or their style, but that doesn't seem to bother them. They do share a lot of the same long-term goals, and disagreement is what keeps them fresh.

“A lot of it comes from the conflict,” bass player Andrew Robinson explains. “Because if we all liked the same thing, we’d just play the same crap over and over, and it would just get boring. Nobody would argue with horrible decisions.”

Vlatko Stefanovski

Although born in Macedonia, Vlatko Stefanovski is a musician popular in all the countries that were once part of Yugoslavia. Since his music is based on the tradition common for all Yugoslavs, we can agree that his art is reluctant to borders and politics, it’s unique and appropriate for every generation.

Music career of Vlatko Stefanovski begins in his late teens when he formed the group Leb I Sol (Bread and Salt) which soon became one of the most important names in the music scene of former Yugoslavia. After few years of active playing, Vlatko Stefanovski leaves Leb I Sol and turns to his solo career releasing his first solo album Cowboys & Indians. From this moment, his career begins moving upward.