Welcome to another amazing month of music from the incredible musicians that make up the Sonicbids.com community. We have chose a select group of amazing musicians that will be speaking directly to the Skope readers. As always we encourage readers to dig deeper and check out their EPK’s.
Caroline Jones
www.sonicbids.com/CarolineJones
Skope: How did you react when you knew you are now A2W selected on Skope?
Caroline Jones: I feel extremely grateful and privileged to be able to live my passion for music and share it with others.
Skope: What are you currently promoting the most via an album, tour, single etc?
Caroline Jones: I released my debut album, Fallen Flower, in January 2011 to iTunes, eMusic, Thumbplay, Napster, Spotify, Amazon, and Bandcamp. I spent 2010 writing and recording the album.
Skope: How important is the support of your friends & family to your music?
Caroline Jones: I appreciate my friends and family greatly, and it is my sincere hope for my music to inspire them as well as fans and other listeners.
Skope: How does your music reflect your personality & your real life?
Caroline Jones: My music is the amalgamation of my feelings, thoughts, beliefs and observations of the world around me. To distill a sentiment, to observe the coalescing of verse and melody in relation to a character or circumstance, these are the satisfactions of songwriting.
Skope: Do you work day jobs and if so how do you balance?
Caroline Jones: I currently attend New York University, where I study music and literature. My studies perfectly complement and intellectually enrich my career.
Skope: What is coming up for you & where you at online?
Caroline Jones: My website, www.carolinejones.com, will re-launch in April with a bunch of exciting new features, including a customizable music store complete with an archive of live videos. I Livestream many of my acoustic shows that I perform throughout the New York area; check my website for the schedule of upcoming Livestreamed concerts.
JUICE
www.sonicbids.com/JuiceBoston
Skope: How did you react when you knew you are now A2W selected on Skope?
JUICE: We were both surprised and honored for the opportunity to be featured as a 2011 Artist to Watch in Skope magazine.
Skope: What are you currently promoting the most via an album, tour, single etc?
JUICE: Currently we are promoting our EP entitled, The Squeeze, which is in production and will be released in mid-April. Also, we are promoting our local and regional shows (dates advertised on our website) as well as the Launch Music Festival, where we’ll be performing next month on April 23rd.
Skope: How important is the support of your friends & family to your music?
JUICE: Not to come off sounding cheesy, but the support of our friends and family gives us the ability to do what we do. Without their support, it would be easier for us to become disingenuous to the music industry, and be turned away and steered off course by criticism and discontent. So, just in case they don’t know it already, we love you and appreciate your support.
Skope: How does your music reflect your personality & your real life?
JUICE: Our music is defined by all four of our unique personalities. Each of us comes from a different background and geographic location. Our distinctive pasts along with our daily life experiences bleed into every note of every song. You ask us, “How does your personality and your real life reflect upon your music”, and we say, “How could it not?”.
Skope: Do you work day jobs and if so how do you balance?
JUICE: Currently, two of us are finishing our bachelor’s degrees at Berklee College of Music while the other two members work day jobs. Because of this, our schedules vary and it can be difficult to coordinate anything from band meetings to rehearsals to shows. However, we’ve found the time to meet every Sunday night and at that time, plan out each week and month, adjusting in accordance to everyone’s schedule. Our Manager, Lance Tobin, champions this effort to keep us efficiently running and productive. He is our level.
Skope: What is coming up for you & where you at online?
JUICE: As previously stated, we’re working on our EP, “The Squeeze”, and more information, including our upcoming shows and appearances, and more detail about us can be found at the following websites: www.juiceboston.com
Buddy Comfort
www.sonicbids.com/BuddyComfort
4-4 WATER
www.sonicbids.com/44Water
Skope: How did you react when you knew you are now A2W selected on Skope?
4-4 WATER: my reaction was crazy! it felt good to be selected by one of the biggest media outlets accross the country! I want to thank everyone at skope!!
Skope: What are you currently promoting the most via an album, tour, single etc?
4-4 WATER: theres alot going on right now! I think the most important thing is my single “bow down” is being heavily promoted and supported! the official music video should be out real soon….plus I have a mixtape titled “Respect It” dropping after the “bow down” music video! We plan to continue to push the single “bow down” until we can’t no more!
Skope: How important is the support of your friends & family to your music?
4-4 WATER: support is one thing i dont take for granted when it comes! we all know how this industry can take a toll on you and the ones that youre close with! to be honest i have more friends and fans that support me more than family! and to be honest im perfectly ok with that! but having those ones that support me means alot!! i feed off of that energy….it makes me want to continue doing what i love to do and also it helps me to be able to relate to people through my music!
Skope: How does your music reflect your personality & your real life?
4-4 WATER: My music reflects me in major major major way!!! I use my life in 95% of my music! being a hiphop/r&b/rap artist i believe in connecting with life experiences!
Skope: What is coming up for you & where you at online?
4-4 WATER: I have alot coming up! the offical music video for “bow down” will be out soon! plus I have a crazy crazy buzz happening in amsterdam! i will be touring over in europe this summer!! radio promos/campaigns etc.!! you can find almost anywhere online!! twitter.com/44water or youtube.com/44watertv or reverbnation.com/44water or you can simply google “4-4 water bow down” to see everything at once!!
Roosterhead
www.sonicbids.com/Roosterhead
Skope: How did you react when you knew you are now A2W selected on Skope?
Luke: I thought it was really cool that Skope was featuring a new band like us.
Skope: What are you currently promoting the most via an album, tour, single etc?
Shawn: We recently released a new single, “Yo (What’s Up?).” It’s a fun, offbeat punk/hip-hop hybrid that’s a perfect introduction to all things Roosterhead. You can listen to it for free on our website, www.roosterheadmusic.com.
Skope: How important is the support of your friends & family to your music?
Shawn: We count on friends and family to give us an outside perspective on our music since sometimes it’s tough for us as artists to back up and appreciate it objectively. We’ve also been lucky enough to meet an array of talented local musicians who we can count on to challenge us, inspire us, and basically give us a home, musically.
Luke: My dad is a country musician; he taught me guitar and bass growing up and made sure that music was a big part of our household. My mom gave me all her Moody Blues and Kinks records to listen to when I was a kid, and I’m still grateful for that. They both give me lots of feedback about our music. My wife writes sci-fi movies and understands our creative drive, and is also Roosterhead’s public relations manager, so she gives us so many good ideas.
Skope: How does your music reflect your personality & your real life?
Luke: Our music is sort of like looking at our lives through a nkaleidoscope: there are some true stories in there, but we try to reveal them in interesting ways. What’s more important to us, though, is what people get out of our music–we’re all about self-expression, originality and fearlessness, so we hope that message comes through. We want our music to inspire people to be as weird as they want to be.
Skope: Do you work day jobs and if so how do you balance?
Shawn: Luke works as a failure analysis metallurgist and at the moment I’m working at a cubicle sorting mail. We live together in an old house built in the 1950’s–dubbed Studio Las Dakotas after our home state of South Dakota–which gives us a lot of flexibility with our schedules. It’s also easier to balance things as a two-person band.
Skope: What is coming up for you & where you at online?
Luke: We’re trying to play more unusual shows this spring (like a big outdoor music-and-fried-chicken show with a few other chicken-themed bands), and we’ll also be playing a “busking tour” around OC and LA this summer. In the meantime, we plan to start looking for label support so we can do even bigger things. You can also expect to see many more odd-looking instruments popping up at our shows in the next few months. Join our mailing list at www.roosterheadmusic.com, but also check out www.facebook.com/roosterheadmusic to stay informed about all the cool stuff we’ll be up to soon!
Flight Brigade
www.sonicbids.com/flightbrigade
Model-T
www.sonicbids.com/ModelT
Skope:How did you react when you knew you are now A2W (artist to watch) selected on Skope?
Hybrid- “Dope! Well let’s storm their offices and make it an encounter to remember haha..” no, really.
SkipTown- “Storm” is such an invasive word. How bout a gift basket?
Skope: What are you currently promoting the most via an album, tour, single etc?
SkipTown- We are currently promoting our new ep “The Assembly Line,” which you can download here http://www.mediafire.com/?67pfq3bvnifppxq. The single “Can’t Do It Like Me” just got nominated for an Independent Music Award for Hip Hop song of the year, so we’re very gracious for all the positive feedback we’ve gotten so far.
Skope: How important is the support of your friends & family to your music?
Hybrid- The support of friends is very appreciated and essential in spreading the word. The support of IMMIEDIATE family – is not important to me. They are my blood and I love them either way. I grew up in a very laissez faire atmosphere where I’ve been doing what I desired to do since about 14 years old. My passion & career and my family are 2 separate entities – each beautiful in their own way.
SkipTown- My parents have been so supportive, I wouldn’t be the musician I am today without them. And my friends are invaluable to me. Always have been always will be.
Skope: How does your music reflect your personality & your real life?
Hybrid- The must directly reflects my personality in real life. Why talk about flashy cars or touring the world until I have it or am doing it? Even WHEN we are, I feel like music is more about content than just namedropping. I’ll be the flyest out – but my lifestyle and material things are more of personal preference than music subject matter. So when listeners here lyrics I write or recite – whether sincere, sarcastic, aggressive, sensitive, etc – that’s what I sincerely felt at the time OR that’s what I felt in reaction to the beat.
SkipTown- The music for me is like capturing a moment. I could never make the same song on two different days. What I’m feeling or inspired by is so unique and varied that each track is like a snapshot of my life at that second. But I’m a very nostalgic person as well, so my overall aesthetic definitely draws on sounds from when I was younger. I love the sound of drums on a Motown track, I like the textures of old video game soundtracks, I ‘m into old R&B horn sections. I just mix up the old and the new with whatever I’m feeling and we go from there.
Skope: Do you work day jobs and if so how do you balance?
Hybrid- I do have a day grind while I juggle 22 credits to complete my BFA. Balance – to me – means ‘completing’. I forgot what sleep feels like but one way or another I get it all done.
Skiptown- I’m a freelance producer/ engineer/ composer. The two halves of my life go hand in hand pretty much. It gets overwhelming for sure, especially being a recent graduate in the middle of a difficult job market, but I love what I do. I guess I’m just a huge audiophile or tech geek. Either or.
Skope: What is coming up for you & where you at online?
Hybrid- Coming up is more indie releases of ever-evolving music, more live shows, and more appearances here and there, as well as working behind the scenes musically. Find us online at DatPiff (http://www.datpiff.com/Model-T-Model-T-The-Assembly-Line-Part-1-mixtape.205944.html ) on my own blog LiveHyClass.tumblr.com, and definitely on twitter.com/iFlySkyHy @iFlySkyHy. Get in touch with us!
Kamilah Marshall
www.sonicbids.com/KamilahMarshall
Skope: How did you react when you knew you are now A2W selected on Skope?
Kamilah Marshall: I was very excited! I found SKOPE about 5 months ago and I think its a great magazine!
Skope: What are you currently promoting the most via an album, tour, single etc?
Kamilah Marshall: I just released my debut CD GYPSY MOONSHINE a few months ago. The genre is Contemporary Blues with a hint of Country and a dash of FUNK!!! In one word we describe it FUNKABILLY!!!
Skope: How important is the support of your friends & family to your music?
Kamilah Marshall: Support is everything. I know I wouldnt be able to do any of this without my friends and family and some very loyal fans!
Skope: How does your music reflect your personality & your real life?
Kamilah Marshall: Funkabilly is unique, funky, emotional, adventurous……and a bit of a nonconformist. As am I.
Skope: Do you work day jobs and if so how do you balance?
Kamilah Marshall: Happy to say I have never worked a day job and have always been able to make a living singing. I do sing back up for other Artists.That’s how I actually get my bills paid. I spent almost 7 years with Bette Midler.
Skope: What is coming up for you & where you at online?
Kamilah Marshall: Right now Im on tour with an artist named Matthew Morrison. We’re touring through the summer and in between those dates I have dates of my own to gig and continue to give life to GYPSY MOONSHINE! You can find out more about me at www.kamilahmarshall.com or www.twitter.com/kamilahmarshall
Erica owns the sky
www.sonicbids.com/Ericaownsthesky
Skope: How did you react when you knew you are now A2W selected on Skope?
Erica owns the sky: We are stoked! The band is pretty much still in its infancy so to receive the level of exposure and positive reactions that we have after only 5 months on the scene we are very happy. We have worked very hard to come to this point so to have someone like an A2W selection really affirms all the work that we’ve been doing.
Skope: What are you currently promoting the most via an album, tour, single etc?
Erica owns the sky: We have 3 songs released for free online as a demo for our upcoming album. These are to give people a taste of the band and what to expect from us. We have also just launched our youtube page /ericaownsthesky which has a couple of videos we’ve made up to give people something visual to digest while checking us out. We are in the middle of recording our first professional music video and finishing our album. It’s a mammoth effort when combined with promotion, but when the album ‘A week in minutes’ finally hits the shelves I think it will all be worth it.
Skope: How important is the support of your friends & family to your music?
Erica owns the sky: Very important. It’s been pretty overwhelming how well received our music has been even within our personal circles. We have all be in bands before and friends will listen and ‘tolerate’ your music. But there is a genuine feeling through our family and friends that we are onto something good here as we find them pushing our music to their friends off the own backs and through it we are gaining some real, genuine fans. Also they are always ready to assist us in whatever way they can without us really needing to ask. Without them we’d still be the only ones to have heard our songs.
Skope: How does your music reflect your personality & your real life?
Erica owns the sky: Well music is an extension of yourself as a person. So without a doubt. All our songs are semi-autobiographical and the lyrics are always born of the feeling that the music gives. A particular progression and melody triggers a connection to a time and place, or certain events and the theme for the song and lyrics are born. There is no more honest medium than music in this regard and we are no exception to this. I believe good lyrics should be specific enough to tell a story people can relate to, without being so vague that they come across as the ramblings of a madman like a lot of bands do.
Skope: Do you work day jobs and if so how do you balance?
Erica owns the sky: We all work day jobs yeah. The balance is a constant battle. Work is a necessary evil of survival. Music is the dream and work is part of the road you must take. For me personally (Sam) I think it’s more important to not resign to a life of routine and keep your eye on the bigger picture. Honestly, without music, where would we be?
Skope: What is coming up for you & where you at online?
Erica owns the sky: We are back to Brisbane and the studios in April to continue work on our first album ‘A week in minutes’ then later that month we will wrap up production on our first professional music video for the song ‘Loaded gun’ in Darwin. We are looking forward to a getting the album and video out of the way so that we can look at our first national Australian tour later in the year. From there we want to take on the rest of the world and show them what Aussie rock is about.
www.facebook.com/ericaownsthesky
www.myspace.com/ericaownsthesky
www.youtube.com/ericaownsthesky
www.twitter.com/ericaownsthesky
www.ericaownsthesky.net
You can also find out band profiles on Reverbnation, Broadjam, Taxi, Purevolume, Sonicbids, Jango, LastFM, Giglauch, you name it.
Autumn Zero
www.sonicbids.com/AutumnZero
Skope: How did you react when you knew you are now A2W selected on Skope?
Autumn Zero: We are very excited about being selected to A2W on skope.Exposure to the public is hard to get. Opportunities like this are great for Indie artist!
Skope: What are you currently promoting the most via an album, tour, single etc?
Autumn Zero: We are promoting our new album ” Mouthful Of Dirt” which is currently available on iTunes. We also are releasing a single to radio in April through Radio Mavens PR out of Nashville,TN. We are in the process of scheduling shows through the summer to promote the new album.
Skope: How important is the support of your friends & family to your music?
Autumn Zero: The support of friends and family is very important.Having people close to you to support you and believe in you is a necessity, belive me, there are many more downs in the music industry than ups!
Skope: How does your music reflect your personality & your real life?
Autumn Zero: Our music directly represents our personality and our real lives.We try to stay honest in our writing and basically write what we feel at that particular time.We truly believe that if you write from the heart,others will feel that and be able to connect with your music. also if you write music that you like, chances are somebody else will like it to, at least you hope!!!!
Skope: Do you work day jobs and if so how do you balance?
Autumn Zero: Yes, currently we all work day jobs.It is a major balancing act.We usually spend all our vacation time during the summer traveling, playing festivals and fairs, driving as far as we can on weekends and holidays, and back to work on monday! Alot of mondays are painful!! Don’t expect alot out of us on mondays,HaHa.
Skope: What is coming up for you & where you at online?
Autumn Zero: We plan on spending the summer promoting the album any way we can. we are currently speaking with some labels about support and distribution. Hopefully that will lead to dropping the whole day job thing! We can be found all over the net. Our official site is www.autumnzero.com but by googling autumn zero you can find our myspace page, reverbnation,lastfm. The new album “Mouthful Of Dirt” is available for download on iTunes and also www.diskfaktoryjams.com/Autumn_Zero. Oh yeah, Skopemag.com!!!!!
Absinthe Junk
www.sonicbids.com/absinthejunk
Skope: How did you react when you knew you are now A2W selected on Skope?
Absinthe Junk: Jazzed! We’re very excited for this opportunity.
Skope: What are you currently promoting the most via an album, tour, single etc?
Blair: We are currently promoting our newest single “Devilish Grin”
which is off our forthcoming sophomore release, “Death in the Afternoon.” Devilish Grin and our debut album “Living Ghosts” are both available at digital retailers and a few select tracks are available via our website for free download.
Skope: How important is the support of your friends & family to your music?
Ben: Support from our friends and loved ones is probably the main reason we can do what we do. They are the most forgiving people in the world, and they rock out the hardest of anyone at our shows, even when they have heard our songs a million times before. We wouldn’t be here without them.
Skope: How does your music reflect your personality & your real life?
Ben: Our music is a reflection of our individual influences and experiences, and what happens when you put all of those things together in the same room or on the same stage. I listen to a large variety of music, but the groove and pulse is always the most important to me. I try to make that the biggest priority in every note I play and part I write.
Blair: We all come from diversely different backgrounds and not just musically so when we come together to write there’s this incredible fusion of personality and experiences. The most important thing for me in our music is the reflection of life in its rawest artistic form.
My goal with all our songs is to not only write what I know but to write lyrics that no matter where you are in your own life, you can relate to them. Our personalities are almost the opposite – we write this brooding music but we’re really a bunch of goofballs.
Skope: Do you work day jobs and if so how do you balance?
Ben: I am the Event Coordinator for a major music instrument manufacturer. I’m also a huge sports fan and hockey player, so it is definitely a challenge to keep everything going. You just have to make the band a priority, and be consistent with our expectations of each other. Everyone sacrifices their time, money, and sometimes sanity to keep the band going. But its worth it.
Skope: What is coming up for you & where you at online?
Blair: We’re releasing a live album and several new live videos soon in addition to working on our second album which we plan to release this fall. It’s already taken a beautiful new direction beyond “Living Ghosts” that I think really captures how we’ve grown as a band across the board.
Ben: I think with the way our recent live shows have been going, and the new songs we are writing/recording, we are defining and expanding our identity as a band. And it’s really friggin’ exciting.
You can find Absinthe Junk at:
http://www.mypieceofjunk.com
http://www.facebook.com/absinthejunk
Moonlyn
www.sonicbids.com/Moonlyn
Skope: How did you react when you knew you are now A2W selected on Skope?
Moonlyn: in a good way
Skope: What are you currently promoting the most via an album, tour, single etc?
Moonlyn: my latest album “Blondes Prefer Gentlemen”
Skope: How important is the support of your friends & family to your music?
Moonlyn: important but i don’t have any real friends & i’m not close to my family
Skope: How does your music reflect your personality & your real life?
Moonlyn: like a the smooth mirroring surface of the darkest abyss
Skope: Do you work day jobs and if so how do you balance?
Moonlyn: i do some modeling & acting on the side… sometimes it gets tough to juggle…but i never allow anything to take too much of my focus & energy from my music.
Skope: What is coming up for you & where you at online?
Moonlyn: i’m currenty organizing a new line-up for my live shows. i can be found a few places online and i’ve listed them all below.
www.moonlyn.com/
www.myspace.com/moonlynmusic
www.youtube.com/profile?user=moonlyn
www.facebook.com/moonlynmusic
www.twitter.com/moonlynmusic
Grown Up
www.sonicbids.com/GrownUp2
Skope: How did you react when you knew you are now A2W selected on Skope?
Grown Up: Wow…we couldn’t beleieve it! It’s a great opportunity for us to share our music with new people. We feel honoured to be featured on A2W Skope blog.
Skope: What are you currently promoting the most via an album, tour, single etc?
Grown Up: We are mainly promoting our debut album Dragons & Flowers. We released it on the 13th of November in Florence. It’s on sale on Itunes, Napster, LastFm, CdBaby etc. and in some shops in Italy. We also promote our live show because we think our perfect dimension is live!
Skope: How important is the support of your friends & family to your music?
Grown Up: It’s very important for us. What would we do without our friends supporting us during live gigs! They are fantastic!
Skope: How does your music reflect your personality & your real life?
Grown Up: Our music totally reflects our personalities. Both lyrics and melodies talk about our life experiences. When we compose our music is right from the heart and we hope it sounds sincere.
Skope: Do you work day jobs and if so how do you balance?
Grown Up: We are both music teachers. Filomena teaches voice tecnique and PAolo Guitar and viola. That’s how we balance. It’s great because you can share your direct experience with your pupils and see them grow musically. It’s a fantastic experience!
Skope: What is coming up for you & where you at online?
Grown Up: We are planning gigs in Italy and soon we hope to start a European tour. We are desperately looking for a booking agency but it’s not happening for now. We are online on our myspace/grownupduo where we upload all live videos and we list our live shows. Check it out!
