I got the opportunity of interviewing Shan malaika over the week, An amazing singer! Check out what we talked about!

Shan Malaika is also swiss based student.

Hi shan, how are you doing? thanks for doing this, Welcome to YHP

Hello! I’m great thanks. Thanks for having me, I’m honoured!

Can you quickly give me some background information about yourself?

I’m a Tanzanian girl who grew up in Switzerland. I’m studying there at the moment. English is my mother tongue and I mysteriously have a fairly strong American accent

So how did you get involved in music?

Music was always an inherent part of me as long as I can remember. I sang my first solo to Michael Jackson’s “Heal the World” at 5 years old, was always in the school choir and I learned to play the piano by ear at a young age. It was something that came very naturally to me and I’m really grateful to God for that.

When it comes to the actual songwriting process, has it been harder to write songs based around certain subjects than to write songs that would be on more personal subjects for you?
Songwriting can be very cathartic and I think that’s why a lot of people find it easier to write about personal experiences or feelings. Since the age of 10 it’s been a form of therapy to create songs out of all my personal experiences throughout my adolescence. But I’ve also been put in the situation whereby I’ve been given a certain subject to write about and have done it.

It hasn’t been any harder; I think once you get into the swing of songwriting you can write about anything. But I am less attached to the songs I have written that didn’t come from personal experiences and I think the personal songs will come off as more real, heartfelt and sincere.

Why and when did you start uploading videos on youtube?

My first upload, a cover of “Someone Like Me” by Atomic Kitten, was on the 6th of July 2009. I actually created a youtube account in November 2007 as some friends had pitched the idea to me that I post videos, but I was always too afraid and could never do it. A particular friend of mine was very persistent on the matter and gave me a deadline, and I finally found the guts somewhere to upload something.

What are some of the opportunities using social media to promote your music has brought you?

I’ve worked with some popular Youtube artists such as Nick Pitera and Lisa Lavie, was a part of the We Are The World 2010 remake, which gained news coverage in the USA, featured on Perez Hilton’s blog and have received positive feedback from celebrities like Taio Cruz and Shontelle. All of this from singing in my bedroom! The internet truly is powerful!

If you could open for anyone who would it be and why?

One of the people I’d love to open for Rihanna, because she’s a world renowned recording artist with a fanbase that ranges in age groups, and her music is predominantly pop but with a lot of other influences. I think my music is aimed at a wide audience and I love dabbling in all sorts of genres of music from acoustic folk to rock and motown, so I feel like there’d be a little something for everyone to enjoy at her show.

What is the best advice that you have ever been given?

Value yourself. Fear God. Never compromise your values. Work hard.

Who were your major influences, internationally and locally?

Justin Nozuka, Leona Lewis, John Mayer, Lauryn Hill, Michael Jackson…

What has been the best moment of your music career so far?

I think being on Youtube in general has been a huge highlight of my music career- posting videos online definitely took my music career to new heights – I might even go as far to say it’s what really started my music career to begin with! It’s enabled me to generate a worldwide fanbase and get in contact with some other great artists. Ever since I started posting videos, I’ve taken my music a lot more seriously in general.

How would you best describe your vocal style?

Hmm… I’d say soulful…but adaptable to many styles.

What is, or has been the biggest obstacle you have faced as female artist?

Honestly speaking, a female artist is appreciated for her vocal ability but sometimes even more importantly her image and beauty. Some female artists have gained success due to their looks, image & sexuality rather than their actual talent and the harsh truth is that sometimes people won’t give your music a chance because they don’t like the way you look. I’ve personally faced a lot of criticism regarding my appearance on the internet and I think it’s challenging to get people to focus on the voice and message rather than appearance.

What do you do when you have free time?

Study. I’m a massive nerd. And spending time with friends and family. My life is actually constantly a little hectic but I like it that way

What tips do you have for aspiring musicians, especially those that are too shy to put videos on youtube?

Any aspiring musician should be strong to handle inevitable criticism and discouragement, stay focused, passionate and most importantly, stay true to themselves. As for people who want to post youtube videos: go for it! I don’t think people have anything to lose by posting videos online.

I’ve learned a lot about myself, singing technique and just society in general – it’s been a very eye opening experience. I feel like I’ve become a lot more thick skinned and driven, and it’s awesome having a creative outlet. I’ve also made a lot of friends from all over the globe. I’m so grateful for all of it. It’s definitely worth it!

What’s next for shan, what should we be expecting from you next?

Lots…and I mean LOTS of original material. I have over ten years worth of songs that have gathered dust on the shelf and I finally have the resources to bring them to life for people around the world. I hope people are excited to hear what I have to say

MYSPACE
http://www.myspace.com/shanmalaika

YOUTUBE
http://www.youtube.com/shanmalaika1

TWITTER
http://www.twitter.com/shanmalaika

MP3 DOWNLOADS
http://bit.ly/9guADW

FORMSPRING
http://www.formspring.me/shanmalaika

During the week, I caught with an acoustic-pop duo called “Karmin”. The group comprises of Amy Heidemann who plays the guitar and sing lead vocals while nick slaps a wooden box, called a ‘cajon’ while singing harmonies.

The couple who met at Berklee College of Music in Boston and have been dating for 5 years after writing couple songs together decided to start their own group.

Now the full interview, hope you enjoy it.

Hi Guys, Thanks for doing this, how are you both doing?

Amy: I’m feeling quite nice today, thank you!
Nick: A bit bloated…but besides that, fantastic. Haha.

Can you give us some background information about yourselves so the YHP audience can get to know you better?

Amy: We are an acoustic-pop duo called “Karmin.” I play guitar and sing lead vocals and Nick slaps a wooden box, called a ‘cajon’ while singing harmonies. We make YouTube videos of our original songs and also cover popular songs. There are some that call us, “The Little Band with a Big Sound.”

Why the name Karmin? Who decided on the name?

Nick: After we decided to form the band, we spent 2 months trying to decide on a name. We wanted something simple, but the “Beatles” was already taken. Karmin is actually a combination of the word ‘karma’ and the Latin word ‘carmen’ which means song.

How long have you all known each other? How did you meet?
What genre of music do you consider your work to be? Who are your major influences?

Amy: We met at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Nick was studying jazz trombone and I was a voice major. We actually started dating first, but after writing a few songs together, decided to start our own group. We’ve been dating for what, 5 years now?

Nick: Yes, but it feels like 38. Just kidding. No really though, the genre is acoustic-pop but we draw influence from hip-hop, rock, and R&B. For artists, I gotta say John Mayer, Coldplay, Beatles, and all 90’s pop rock.

Amy: Artists for me are KT Tunstall, Gwen Stefani, and VV Brown.

When did you form your band? What inspired you to make music together?
What are you currently working upon?

Nick: I remember it like it was yesterday. We were sitting in a train station two years ago, when Amy turned to me and said “Why don’t I learn guitar, you get a cajon, and we’ll be the modern day Simon and Garfunkel.” At the time, neither of us played those instruments, so I naturally said, “Let’s do this.”

Amy: There is this special thing that happens when we write or play music together, so we were curious to see what it could become or if other people would like it. Now, we are working on building a global fan base through the internet while developing a killer live show.

Do you have any upcoming shows we should know about?

Nick: We do a lot of street performances, but it’s getting really cold outside. We are planning to stream our next live show, so watch out for that!

What made you guys start uploading covers on YouTube? How has that been so far?

Amy: The YouTube covers give us the chance to play really awesome hit songs the way that we hear them! It also puts us in front of new eyes and ears on a regular basis, building our audience.

Nick: It’s totally different from writing original music because you don’t have to think about composing, just interpreting. We also throw lots of humor and dramatics into the videos, so they’re fun to make and hopefully fun to watch, too.

What are your rehearsals generally like? Do you have a set time each week in which you practice or are rehearsals more spontaneous?

Amy: Rehearsals happen when we’re both free! Usually, I run the rehearsals.

Nick: I usually run rehearsals, no matter what Amy says. The best ones are spontaneous.

What has been your biggest challenge as a band? Have you been able to overcome that challenge? If so, how?

Nick: Our biggest challenge has been the D.I.Y. thing. We literally do everything ourselves. Every time there’s an obstacle we say, why can’t we learn how to do that too?

Amy: That’s true! We’re like, recording studios are expensive, so we learned how to record ourselves and the same goes for video editing and graphic design. Yesterday we designed a Karmin t-shirt that will be available shortly!

What do you guys enjoy doing outside of music?

Amy: I can’t wait to see the new Harry Potter movie.

Nick: I can’t wait to pay for Amy’s ticket to the new Harry Potter movie.

What advice do you have for people who want to form their own band?

Nick: Only do it with people you musically trust and see eye to eye with.

Amy: Get ready for lots of hard work!

What has been your most memorable moment so far as a band?

Amy: Opening our CD for the first time was pretty amazing. We made friends with Janelle Monae and her band, too! They saw our cover of her song “Tightrope” and invited us to a show in Boston.

What are your ambitions for the future?

Nick: We want to spread only a positive message and give people something to smile about. We want every person in the world to get to hear our music.

Thanks guys.

Thank you! 

Follow them on twitter and dont forget to like them on facebook

Check out some of their covers and original songs:

“Carbon Copy” an original:

Willow Smith – Whip My Hair (Cover by Karmin)

WEBSITE:
http://karminmusic.com/

YOUTUBE:
http://www.youtube.com/karmintube

I would like to thank Tim van Rongen for making this interview possible.

Here is my interview with Airto Edmundo, A 24 years old singer/songwriter who has gotten huge publicity from his covers on youtube and also managed to build a good fan base for his music. Hope you enjoy the interview.

Hi Airto, Great to finally have you here on YHP, how are you doing?

Good to be on YHP! I’m doing great, thanks!

Before we go further, i would like to start with an introduction, tell us about yourself? Who is airto edmundo?

Airto Edmundo is a 24 year old dutch guy who used to play soccer but now goes through life writing, composing and producing music. ow and loving that!

How did you get into music?

Well, when I was around 15 years old I really started ‘listening’ to music and around that time I started singing as well. Just trying to do what the singers on the song did. But as I grew a bit older I kind of felt like I wanted to do more. So I started singing harmonies and ad-libs to songs I listened to, little after that I was figuring out how the song was made by trying to recreate the music in my music program.

At this time I was playing soccer on the highest level of the Netherlands and I was put in front of a hard choice…possible soccer career or music…? Me cancelling practice from time to time because I wanted to do music said enough. Before I knew it I was working on my first self-written song in 2005 called “You”, the real beginning of my music and end of my soccer life.

When did you decide to start recording your songs, especially posting covers on youtube?

That was in 2005, I think I started doing youtube videos by the end of 2005, or beginning of 2006, I can’t even remember. I was just curious to see what the people thought of the music and my voice. And after the first video, many followed!

How many instruments do you play?

I wouldn’t say I really play any instruments well. Though I know my way best on piano/keys. I’m learning a bit of bass-guitar and guitar as well. Just to sweeten up demo’s and productions I do from my home.

How would you describe your music to people?

Music from the heart, honest music! Soul with a hint of pop and rnb.

What instruments do you use to create your music?

I just switched to a Mac, so I’m still trying to get the hangs of the new music app I’m using, but I compose on piano and write while composing. That always seems to work best for me. Often words come to mind when you’re playing chords and messing around with a melody as well. They often end up to be in the lyrics.

Who are your musical influences?

I’d have to say Donny Hathaway, Brian Mcknight, Stevie Wonder and a lot of cats who’ve been doing the soul, neo-soul, pop, rnb music in the last ten years! Music has kind of changed, billboard songs don’t do that much for me anymore unfortunately. Everything sounds a bit too much alike for my taste.

Are there any plans of signing to a record label?

Well we’re trying to do as much independent of course, a label could help out in many ways and can give you the step to reaching bigger things. We’ll see how it all works out. If we can get the help of a great label and get a good deal, why not right?

What kind of atmosphere or area do you like performing in?

I think a medium sized venue with an intense vibe would probably suit my music best. Being up and close with the audience… Seeing how people respond. Yeah I see myself doing that for a long time. *Laughs*

What has been some of your most memorable moment so far?

Probably having diner with Usher (thanks to Tameka Raymond) and doing a song with Anthony Hamilton, just weird to think that YouTube made that all possible for me. Its just great to have people reaching out based on what they hear and see. I really recommend to put stuff online to all aspiring artists/songwriters/composers/producers. Its the future!

Are they any decisions you’ve made that you regret or wish you could go back in time to change?

Uhmmmm no, I mean I have my moments where I think “what if…” , but don’t we all? I’ve always been honest to myself, never betrayed my own visions or thoughts about music and I don’t intend to either.

How does it feel to see people excited to see you perform?

That just brings a certain feeling inside of me that I can’t describe, you want to smile and enjoy the moment the best you can but you have to keep singing, so I try to let my eyes and vibe do the talking. I love to read comments people leave on my videos as well. I take some time everyday to scroll through every comment on my videos. Always does me good to see that people enjoyed. It makes me want to do more and more music.

What is the weirdest thing a fan has ever done?

There hasn’t been a weird thing that a fan did actually. I guess i’ve been lucky huh? lol I’ll get back at you when something DOES happen.

What would you say has been the key to your success so far?

I think it’s being being real and showing my passion and love for music through music. Making songs different than the original and giving it another feel maybe? Of course doing a couple covers of songs that turned out to be huge helped me as well. People seem to share the videos too and I appreciate that a lot. Its so awesome to see how the web works sometimes.

Are you currently working on any new project?

I’m writing for my album! And working with a couple of other artists as well who are trying to get some music out (some already settled, some who want to break out) I’m happy as long as I can do music wether its for me or for others (Though my own project is a priority now).

Do you think that digital is way forward and no point of releasing a physical cd?

In the future definitely! Right now there are still people buying cd’s and just loving the whole physical thing with the booklets and all, so I’d do both for my stuff. But digital is definitely the future, its so much easier for artists to go worldwide digital as well.

What should we expecting from you in the future?

A lot of music I support, more covers, a lot of tweets, interaction with fans, more gigs and hopefully an album pretty soon! I’m doing my best!!

Do you have anything to say to your YHP readers and your fans out there?

Just a big THANKS for supporting me, checking out the videos, leaving me all those comments and sharing the music I share with you. Without that I wouldn’t have been able to do music full time and wouldn’t have been this determined to get my music out there and share it! If you want to drop me a personal note, you can do that through my twitter or Facebook!

Before you go, is there any upcoming musician out there, especially those in the Netherlands that you are looking forward to?

Wow these questions are always so tough. I’m very curious about hearing the new “Lisa Lois” stuff. Check her out!

Thanks for your time airto

My pleasure!

Dont forget to check out his youtube channel
Follow him on twitter
Check him out on Facebook

Kina Grannis is a 25 years old singer/songwriter from Orange County, currently based in Los Angeles.

She was only 15 when she started playing the violin and later on got into music fully. She started experimenting with song writing and composing which eventually led to her falling in love and teaching herself how to play the guitar.

Although she claimed to have written her first song when she was only 5 years old.

She is of Japanese, English, Irish, French, Dutch, Welsh and Scottish descent.

She said that she draws inspirations for her music through her life, friends, family, strangers, dreams, nature, and art and classifies her music between folk, pop and indie.

In 2008, things couldn’t have gone better when kina decided to enter her first video “Message From Your Heart. The song won the Doritos Crash the super bowl contest in 2008 which resulted in her getting a recording contract with Interscope records.

In 2009 she decided to leave the label to stay independent in an attempt in keeping her creative freedom after the label wanted her to spend time writing and developing new songs, working with songwriters in the industry rather than completing her nearly finished with her original writings and songs.

Her video has been played during the commercials of Super Bowl XLII. She also sang the national anthem for the Auto Club 500 NASCAR race in Fontana, California. Her songs “Never Never” and “People” were used in episodes of MTV’s reality series College Life.

Her songs have been featured regularly on General Hospital and was in an episode of the ABC Family’s mini-series Samurai Girl in September 2008.

Her latest album Stairwells was released on February 23, 2010 has received huge reception, debuting at No. 139 on the Billboard 200, No. 5 on the Billboard Top Internet Albums chart, No. 2 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart, and No. 18 on the Billboard Independent Albums chart.

Her single valentine already has over 3million hits on youtube and not to forget that she has over 45million views on her youtube channel.

She has continued to show that she doesn’t need to be signed to major label to make it in the music industry. She has continued to use online tools such as facebook, MySpace, youtube and twitter to keep in touch with fans and showcase her music and talent to the world.

She is currently touring around the U.S. she has just finished her performance in Vancouver.

Hey Guys, I finally got the chance to do an exclusive interview with daniel mazano, the oldest brother of the Rock band – Boyce Avenue.

I tried to leave the conversation very raw to keep it engaging, It really has a lot of information on how they started up to the right now, i think all fans of boyce avenue will find a lot of details, value and juice from this interview.

Anyone really looking to start a musical career, a band, trying to breaking in the music industry especially as an unsigned artist and also through youtube.

Did you know Daniel Mazano is a law graduate from Harvard Law School and was working 40-50 weeks on a day job before he quit to join his brothers to start up the band.

Enjoy the interview.

So yes finally

Yes seriously sorry, we’re actually shooting a video today for our youtube channel, we’re starting to get back into it, and it’s been a while since we posted some fun videos, some covers, and blogs so we’re just starting to ramp things back up and post some original videos.

We’re at some shoot in a studio in Orlando, so i just wanted to make sure to get away for a little bit for somewhere quiet so we could chat.

No problem, so what video is it?

Umm…It’s a secret i guess {Laughter}

So you’re not going to tell us what video it is

No{Laughter}, it’s not a big deal; it’s just something we’re looking to drop this weekend so i don’t know if you’re subscribed to our channel so you could just check it so we’ll probably post it on Sunday.

Yeah course I’m subscribed, I like what you guys are doing

Thanks

Yeah, I’ve been following you guys from 2007 when you started, i think the first video that got my attention was the your cover of OneRepublic / Timbaland – Apologize, i think that was first video that really made me stick to you guys and i just kept following what you guys were doing.

I think you’re going to love the video that we will be posting this weekend

Nice

It doesn’t feature either of those artists, but it’s got piano and its a fun song that we’ve been vybzing to on the radio and we think it will be getting some VMA love, as in the artist that originally wrote the song, not our cover, we think they’ll probably take away a VMA or perform on the VMA so we’ll see.

Oh nice, I’ve been doing some research on your background before this interview and one of the first thing i want us to quickly get into before we head into the interview properly was that how does someone that graduated from Harvard with a law degree just go into the music industry, i mean are you using your degree or anything?

You know i practiced law for a little bit but all along i was doing music with my brothers and i always knew that was what i wanted to do.

There are a lot of things that come that require you to use problem solving skills and to use people skills and my degree and my experience in school have actually really come in handy.

For a long time, i was the acting manager for the band, we have a whole team around us now but there was a time when i really had to make sure we were ok with the contracts and figure out how to do certain things on iTunes, so a lot of research and education skills came in handy it hasn’t been a waste.

But i wouldn’t change anything for what I’m doing now, i really love performing for fans, and creating new music you know, it feels like I’m finally doing what i was meant to do but the path that i took to get here has served me well.

Ok that sounds good, how were you able to balance studying in school and still having the time to push out music, covers on youtube and let’s not forget practicing with your brothers?

It was really tough man, the hardest part was when things started picking up for us as a band from 2006 onwards, trying to run a big youtube channel and i was working about 40-50 hours a week at my day job.

WOW!

Yeah so it was a really big moment for us in oct of 08 when we were all finally able to quit our day jobs and able to focus on music, it will be almost “OMG” it will be 2 years October of 10 because our first European tour ever was in October 09 and I’ve stopped working for almost year at that point, but anyways it was a really big deal, because fabian was also working a day job so it was such a relieve to focus full-time on the fans, music and videos.

So let me get this right, you and Fabian were working full-time and trying to run the band at the same time?

Yes there was a period for a good while then that we were working because we had to do everything on our own, which means we also had to fund all of our recordings, our projects, buying cameras, so we were working really hard also with having families, doing everything basically, but on top of that we were still rehearsing, you know writing new music.

Going to recording studios on weekend and it was just this crazy process, we almost finished the entire album like that and it wasn’t until the album was pretty much done and things have gone on like that until the point where we could just focus on touring and the youtube channel but its been great.

I’m going to come back to you guys touring in a bit, but i just want to go back a bit to when you guys started, how did you all get into music, i mean three brothers playing instruments and singing, how did that happen? Was it something your parents kicked into? What’s the story behind that?

Music is always been a part of our lives, we’ve always loved music, my mum has a pretty singing voice and my grandfather would always play classical guitar and sing, classic Hispanic song, Puerto-Rican folks songs and stuff at family gatherings and on holidays.

So music was always something we were around but it dint really grab on in a really intense way till alejandro was about 13 or 14, he just started playing the guitar like 10 hours a day.

Oh wow, that’s crazy!

It was crazy, he’ll get home from school till the wee hours in the morning he would just play and play and teach himself and learn songs and fabian started playing the guitar about the same time, you know we’ve always been best friends so we all just started playing together for whoever would listen, we kept on and we knew that is what we were meant to do.

How long would you say you guys spent practising, for a newbie how long would you say they should spend learning and practising every day?

Oh gosh, it’s hard to say, it’s hard to put a number on that, the most important thing is to really put care on it, you know you have to be really passionate about what you do, you know the thing that matters most to you.

I think for us , what we did was to take every spare moments we have because we knew we were busy, we know we have degrees and families and other things that we need to do, but every spare second we have, we try and get together and play for people, we try and write music and do the best we can with it, it was just that passion.

You know it’s like i talk so much about leaving behind the day job and being able to solely focus on music but one of the things that was really good about having other distractions was that you realise how much you really like the music thing that when you get home at 7pm from your law job and you find yourself spending about 3-4 hours working on music or lining up studio to go and record or filming a video then you realise wow i would do this even if i wasn’t getting paid, you say to yourself this is fun i really do like this because a normal human being wouldn’t be doing this.

I think it’s the same with other people you have to really spend some time with it and make sure it’s what you love.

Ok, Alright, i want to go back to when you guys were starting up at 13, playing and praticising for 10 hours straight which is crazy, especially at such a young age, what motivated you guys, what was the inspiration behind that, waking up in the morning knowing that you going to have a structure to play the piano, learn the guitar, to do your vocal training, what was the push behind that?

You know alejandro was the one, they was a phase in his life when he just threw himself into it in such a way where i have never done, that’s just the way he is, he’s our lead singer,he just loves music so much, he goes to sleep listening to music, he wake up wanting to figure out whatever song he was into at that time, he just spends hours figuring it out.

I don’t know what drove him other than he just loves music that much, i dint have the luxury of being in high school or college when a lot of this stuff really picked up for us and became like our big driving force, i had a hard time because i was really trying to not get kicked out of Harvard law school, i was married, I am married, alejandro is single and i just had to be as efficient as i could with my rehearsals.

What i really cherish is when we all got together as a band and just make something come to life together, but alejandro i know there was a phase where he spent a lot of time just on his own really working on his acoustic guitar, i don’t know, i don’t know where he got the discipline, i would love to bottle some of that myself.

So you’re married now, how is the married life going?

Good, I’ve actually been married for 8 years now, i got married when i was 21 to my high school sweetheart, it’s amazing, she’s been really supportive of the music thing, it’s funny because everybody ask, you know adults usually why are you doing this music thing, you could have been a successful attorney.

What’s funny is that if anybody should be asking this question, it should be my wife but she has never asked because she understands that it’s a family thing, it’s something that we love, it’s our passion, she’s been a rock for sure.

That’s great; i can’t even start thinking of marriage right now {Laughter}

I dint mean to scare you

It’s cool, I’m not that scared {Laughter} Going back a bit again, when did you guys decide to form the band, when did you all sit and say to yourself, we’re going to take this serious and form a band and come up with the name ‘Boyce avenue’ how did that come about?

The name is the combination of the two streets that we grew up on as kids and since the band is the three of us, the three brothers it just felt right to use something that was personal and was a statement of where we come from and as far as when things started picking up for us or when it got serious It’s a really difficult question but if i had to answer it.

I would say around 2003-2004 we finally found ourselves in the same city, in our hometown, in Gainesville Florida where my brothers were studying and where i studied at some point, so we were back in Florida and we all were essentially together , we were able to play live shows and start recording music so in about 2004-2005 things started to get more serious and by 2007 when we started our youtube channel and it had taken off that was another level for us.

So would you say it helped that you guys are brothers? Did it make things easier for you?

Absolutely, i think it goes both ways, sometimes people prefer to not be with families or people that they know so that they could be forced to get out of their comfort zone, so they can try new things.

For us, it was the complete opposite it was one of those cases that it really really helped a lot and worked because we were family and we get along so well, we’re not like the oasis type situation {Laughter} where we always at each other’s throat i know its sexy to say that we’re beating each other up and fighting but we really don’t.

We respect each other and all of our respective talent and it’s a comfort zone to really be working towards something with people you trust that you know are going to be around forever and its really when we go on tour especially because we all share a room, we get along, i couldn’t imagine touring with strangers, so it’s been great, it’s been a huge positive for us.

I know we kind of skipped this when we started talking, but i wanted to know who the eldest was?

I’m the oldest

Ooh wow, so you’re the oldest, then Alejandro and Fabian

Actually no, Fabian is the middle brother

Ooh wow, so Alejandro was the youngest and that passionate

Yeah it’s crazy

Anyways, how did get onto the youtube bandwagon so early, how did you know it would be the next big thing, how did you get started, especially posting covers?

Its crazy, its crazy man, everybody is doing it now its insane, its funny its like we got the itch, its like we got the itch to get back in it and do some videos and get back in touch with those crazy youtubees man, so we’re doing some collaborations coming up so we’re going to get back into posting a lot more videos but to answer your question, its crazy to see that its the 3 year anniversary pretty much since the day we posted our first video, its a whole new world on youtube now.

We weren’t the first to post cover videos or sorts or music videos on youtube as an unsigned artist/band not getting radio plays but we got in early enough to notice that people were doing it and they was an audience for it.

People were enjoying seeing some of the early early youtubers posting videos of themselves doing interesting stuff, doing songs and stuff like that and we thought hey we could do this but do it differently, lets be the first band, lets be the first group of 3 or 4 people that actually do a video together as oppose to just one person with a webcam and lets actually make this professional, not like sleek and impersonal, still personal.

You know we filmed in our house, we’ve filmed in our bedrooms, we’ve filmed in warehouses, it was all about bringing people in and letting them see who we are, not having the lack of quality distract them from the performance and the music, having it easy on the eye and it really worked.

You see it everywhere now but at the time it really worked, im glad that a lot of people still remember that that it was our fresh approach and it was a way of doing things.

How would you describe the impact that youtube has had on your musical career, collectively as a group? What would you say has been some of the advantages and opportunities that came from posting up covers of songs on youtube? I mean the possibility of doing that becoming an overnight celebrity?

Oh Gosh, {Speechless} Its huge, its just been so big for us, we always wanted to get our message out worldwide we dint want to just do things locally, we knew they was a whole world out there that loves music and we really wanted to get to everybody and youtube has been the vehicle that has allowed that to happen.

We’ve been able to play shows in the Philippine, in Canada, all throughout different continents, Europe, the uk, Ireland, you name it and we’re getting request everyday to play in places like Australia, Latin America and we’re trying to find the time to get out to see everybody but none of that would have being possible honestly without youtube.
In this day and age, it’s just encouraging to know that you could go and on your own you could do something like that.

SO talking about youtube, i know you guys use other social network and tools to reach out to people, i was going through your facebook fan page and you have over 180,000 people on there, your twitter is well connected, your youtube subscribers is crazy, how do you leverage all those tools?

You know it’s crazy, people are spread out all over the place and that can be kind of a difficulty trying to make sure people know about your tours and the music that you’re putting out but i think they are all pieces of a puzzle, you’ve got your people that like twitter, facebook, MySpace, youtube.

For us, its about going out and making sure everybody has the opportunity to say hi, to let us know what they are thinking and maybe to listen to some of our music and so we try to use as many of them as we can, I’ve been more and more active lately on facebook, twitter in particular, I’m really loving twitter from the road, a lot of people don’t get the concept of it but i encourage people to join because we have a fun time on the road posting pictures and letting people know where we’ll be and so we can meet with fans.

Its just a fun way of networking with other artist and also to get in touch with the fans and then facebook which is huge because pretty much everybody uses it or knows about facebook so that really fun, I’m on facebook like daily.

Before the whole youtube phenomenon, were you guys getting any radio plays, or shows, concerts opportunities?

Before we started the youtube channel, we’ve won couple song writing competition, we also were getting some buzz on MySpace for our original music but to be honest, as far as the ability to do shows worldwide and all that other stuff, to really sell your music, it really wasn’t possible, it really i dint take off until the youtube channel took off.

How would you guys describe your music?

Our music is essentially pop rock music which really means its rock music with interesting drum arrangement, alejandro does our drum arrangement actually, he‘ll map it all out in his head.

Wow..He’s like the little genius in the group right?

Yeah yeah he really is, he has a good production mind, we produced the whole album together, we do that as a group but he really has a good mind for that kind of stuff but you know its a very electric guitar-drum driven sound, its rock music but very melodic acoustic influence and feel to it

A lot of times the easiest ways is to say its the kind of things that will sit with the fans of coldplay, train, goo goo dolls you know stuff like that.

During all this period, did you guys ever have a downtime where as a group things weren’t going well?

With youtube like a down period?

No, a down period in general, as for the whole group..Boyce Avenue, if there was ever a period and how you guys dealt with it?

Fortunately we haven’t too much of that, it’s been a steady journey we dint want to rush things so we took time to finish the album the way we wanted, we took to start touring so that it was an organic build and the only thing i would say thats been some what of an obstacle in this day and age is that it’s very difficult to get radio plays as a new band especially, but that takes a little bit of patience londontour and time educating people on who you are and what you’re doing and that’s sort of the thing that we’ll be working on soon.

Other than that everything has flown very well we feel very good about the growth we’ve had with the fans and how nothing’s been too fast, too slow, it all worked out pretty well so far, so we’ll just keep building.

What do you think has been key to your success so far?

Honestly i think its hard work, especially when we were putting out a lot of videos and also to finish this album, i will definitely say hard work and I’d like to say us been grateful to the fans has paid off, i hear from our hardcore fans who say that part of the reason that they care so much about us is because we care about them.

What would you say has been some of the key lessons you’ve learnt as a band since you started up?

One thing that we are just starting to realise is that you can never let up, you can never let your guard down and you should never stop working, we’ve gone through phases every once in a while when get a little comfortable, we’re in a down face, we’re not working as hard as we could or as we should to connect everyone, to post videos, to stay in touch.

I’ve learnt over time that you really do need to fight through those patches and make sure to always be there for everybody and try to be active. I feel like it keeps your music better, it can get crazy but i feel its a very important ingredient to doing well.

I was trying to remember something whilst you were talking{PAUSE}, yes i got it, they was a show you guys performed at and managed to draw a crowd of 20,000 and this was before you got signed, can you tell us about, what’s the story behind that?

Actually what happened was that we went to the Philippines for the first time ever in February 2009, the promoter brought us over and they set up four shows and we weren’t really sure how it would go but over the course of those four shows we ended up playing for, i guess everybody estimated close to 20,000 Filipinos fans.

It was just insane to have had that experience and to have that kind of turnout as an unsigned artist and band was really mind-blowing for us and that’s just an example of a country that really gets youtube and appreciate acoustic music, we’re starting to see that as we tour more and more around in Europe that a lot of the fans there are very similar.

They get it, they like the music, they love the show they keep coming back and it’s been exciting to see it keep growing in Europe as well.

That does sound amazing, 20,000 people

Yeah the show was just really mind blowing.

How did you guys get a manager or get some management, how it happen?

He actually found us on MySpace and reached out and we stayed in touch and since there they were from Florida, they just came to couple of our shows and we just have a really good feeling about them and since we’ve done a lot of things on our own for long enough we felt like a manager can help take it to the next level and so we signed up with them and it’s been really good ever since.

Ok that sounds good, what country has been your best place to perform so far?

It’s really hard to say because every place is different, every place we’ve played has their own flavour and the fans bring their own personality to the show, it’s really hard to say i know i can definitely say there is something very uniquely fun about uk and Europe shows, there’s something about the passion that the Europeans have for live music that you don’t always get everywhere else and that’s been our favourite thing about touring in Europe for sure.

So what would you say has been your most memorable experience so far?

You know that first show we did in the Philippines is one that always stick with me just because to go from doing smaller shows in your own country to just being in a totally foreign territory and have the people turn out in such big numbers, with such enthusiasm for your music and when you get on stage with that level of intensity and screaming and cheering, it was a very memorable moment.

Who are your musical inspirations?

The goo goo dolls, john mayer, cold play, train, oasis – a lot of these band have really been big influences for us.

Ok, so what do you guys do for fun, to take the edge off?

You know we work out sometimes, we’re not really great about that {Laughter} but we play basketball or fabian and i will play poker, we like to spend a lot of our time with our family, watch movies, TV shows, DVDs and stuff like that, you know just the usual kind of stuff.

What TV shows are you into at the moment?

We’ve been really into Dexter lately, fabian got all into lost and you know that finished quite recently we were into that a couple of tours ago, someone just got me into the tudors, im just starting and i really like it and we’re all really into entourage.

Entourage, I’ve had a few people telling to watch it so anyways let’s talk about you guys getting signed by universal, i know earlier this year you guys got signed by them, how did that come about and what are the benefits of getting signed to a major label?

You know they have been following us for a while and we wanted to wait until we have established our touring base and had done more things for ourselves and had finished the album, but at some point we were about to release the album on our own under our label 3peace records they just decided that wanted to work with us, they seemed to really get our music and where we wanted to go with everything so we signed up.

The thing with major labels is that honestly it’s very radio driven so again that’s part of the whole thing that we’re working on right now, is to just build the radio presence and that takes time, takes patience but really we’ve mostly being doing what we’ve always done until the radio story starts kicking in.

People think that a major label does a tone of stuff for you but they really don’t so yeah we’re pretty much just doing our own thing.

Getting signed by a major label doesn’t it help with your distribution, getting press, getting shows, concerts, TV and stuff like that?

It helps but they are really hesitant to do anything these days until something starts really really working at radio, so until the radio story picks up a lot of label won’t do physical cd anymore, they just do digital releases, so it depends on what label you’re with and it depends on the deal, it depends on what the situation is, i just think that it’s very inflated what people think that label actually do or how instrumental they are.

I think that if you got something going on your own that you’ll find that sometimes they don’t actually do a whole hell of a lot but they are still the best means of still getting your music out there to the masses especially if you don’t have a whole lot going on internet-wise, but it’s been good i just think we just have to keep at it and see where it goes.

So i just wanted to move on to talk about your new album and the reception it’s been getting so far?

The album is called “all we have left” and it’s something that we’ve been working on for a few years, we produced the whole thing ourselves, wrote every single song, every word, every drum part, string part, it’s a very personal personal project.

I’m really starting to wonder why you guys really need a major label, you guys are touring by yourself, making music yourself, taking care of the expenses yourself, i really don’t see necessity or the value of getting signed nowadays, i think the value of getting these day and age has decreased.

Yeah you’re absolutely right, i mean the problem is that we really believe in our original music, we feel that it has the potential to affect people in a very big way, we want to get our music out to as many people as possible unfortunately they are still a few things like radio, syncs and TV and movies that are still a good way of helping to do that but you’re absolutely right to point out that we’ve been very successful on our own and we’re grateful for that and we’re going to keep doing that honestly.

We’re actually going to make a big thing at the end of this year, to do some cool collaboration with other youtube artists and do some fun stuff so that our youtube fans can still feel the love but you know the album is still an important thing for us.

For us doing cover videos and doing blogs or whatever is great but at the end of the day, a lot of what we play at live shows and a lot of what our fans keep coming back and wanting to hear is the original music because it’s really personal and they know how much we care about it and so the album was just a completion of that.

We did the music video for every breath, and we did some videos in the studio. We did some live videos that people have really loved so we’re just going to keep doing things like that so that people can appreciate the original music

So quickly when are you guys going to be in the UK?

We’ll be in the UK in November, we’re doing UK from nov 16th to nov 23rd, we’re playing London, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Belfast and then we’re playing in Dublin.

Great, will definitely see you guys at the London event, But Before we wrap i just wanted to know if you have any tips, techniques that you could share with upcoming artists and bands out there?

I would just say to work very hard, make sure that you are genuine with your fans and appreciative and to use the internet as much as possible, it’s a great resource its competitive and its tough and it’s not the answer to all your or every other’s problem but it is a good way to get your music and your message out to a broader audience so i do think people should give it a shot.

Thank you so much Daniel for your time i know it’s been crazy taking time to do this with the shoot going, really appreciate it

Thank you so much i really appreciate it

Not a problem

Don’t forget to follow, network an get in touch with them on the following networks.

http://twitter.com/boyceavenue

http://www.facebook.com/BoyceAvenue
http://boyceavenue.com/
http://www.myspace.com/boyceavenue

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Sometimes i just wonder what age do we/you start taking our kid/nephew/cousin to the studio or getting them a private music teacher, the time to get them interested in learning a musical instrument or some vocal lessons.

Yesterday whilst browsing the internet, i came across an article with willow smith, will smith’s daughter getting to jayz’s record label and she is just nine years old {PAUSE} Yes just 9 years old, anyways moving on, today i have with me the talented and beautiful carmen reece who also started playing the flute and the piano at age 7, did i mention she was already in music from the age of 5.

Enjoy the interview

Hey Carmen, welcome to YHP, how are you doing today?

Im great thanks.

Can you quickly give the YHP readers some brief background information about yourself?

I’m a 23 year old singer/songwriter from England/UK

You said you started playing the piano and flute at the age of 7/8, how did that happen? What was motivation behind learning those instruments? Was it parental or personal?

From the age of 5 at primary school i took a huge interest in music and that stayed with me through the rest of my childhood. My parents were always very encouraging but never pushy.

How many instruments do you play?

I play two instruments, the flute and piano.

Would you say having a family that is musically driven has helped in your development as an artist?

Definately, all of my family members grew up playing an instrument so it was a very natural path to follow, they have a great interest in music and have always supported me.

Who are your musical inspirations?

My biggest musical influences growing up would have to be the ‘Divas’… Mariah Carey, Whitney Housten, Toni Braxton and Celine dion… i was a big fan of Boyz II Men also and later found Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson and Brandy.

How would you define your music? Would you class yourself as a soulful artist?

I would class my music and myself as a pop/RnB artist…. iv grown up listening to soulful music so id like to think that shows through my music.

When did it all become real for you, when did you realise that you are becoming more popular and people are starting to notice you?

I’ve been on a national radio tour this last year and its been amazing to see and hear the feedback that has come from people listening to the music on the radio…. its a dream! of course having the songs and performances uploaded on social network sites has really boosted the exposure and allowed for different audiences to experience my music.

So how does a girl from the UK find herself working with mark feist? How did you guys meet each other?

Mark and i met about 4 years ago, i was signed to a company back in London and they flew me out to work with some producers, Mark being one of them. We had a great couple of days then i went back to London.

Fast Forward 4 years, Mark was looking for some singers to demo his songs so he reached out to me, i was really excited about coming out to LA to work with him again as i had a few songs id written back home that i wanted to show him. The first day we worked together i played them to him and the rest is history.

So are you are currently signed to his record label REAL MF LTD right?

Yes thats correct.

Have you moved to the U.S now or you’re still in the UK?

No i’ve moved to the US. Been here over a year now.

What was the experience like in the brit school? How did that help your music career?

Brit school was one of the best experiences of my life so far. I am so grateful for that amazing experience it really paved the way for what was to come. I still have such fond memories.

Let’s talk about your forthcoming album – love in stereo, what was the motive behind it?

Love in Stereo is really a great pop/RnB album… it takes you through all sides of love – in Stereo form.. coming from all angles.

You recently released your 2nd single off the album called Raindrop, what has been the response so far for it?

There’s been a really great response to Raindrop i think people like it because it not only makes you want to move but is moving at the same time.

Do you have any plans in touring anytime soon?

Of course, We’re just finishing the album right now, Marks in the final stages of production with it, im sooooo excited for everyone to hear! so im sure once thats finsihed i will be on the road again touring.

What else do you like doing apart from singing and songwriting? What do you do for fun?

Now dont laugh (cause everyone else does)…!! but im a huge fan of playing badminton, i just love it, it really is a great game and a way for me to relax. I also have an unhealthy obsession with makeup. Love the stuff!

Do you feel the U.S gives you a better opportunity to showcase your talent better rather than doing it in the UK?

I love the UK so much its where im from… and i love the music that is made there, but working with Mark has brought me to the US and im not complaining! i love America and im so grateful for the support.

What opportunities do you think the U.S offer to music artist, or advantages it gives or do you think it doesn’t matter?

I think each to its own, for me i feel my music really sits well within the American market, i’ve grown up listening to so many american artists so maybe thats why… i dont know.

What would you say has been key to your success so far?

Keeping my friends and family very close by, im so lucky to have such a great support system, they really keep me level headed, and of course Mark and the Real MF team have been so focused and have continued to believe in me and give me this amazing opportunity.

What has been some of the most valuable lessons that you’ve learnt so far on your musical journey?

To never give up!! you just dont know whats around the corner…. stay true to yourself and keep believing.

What has been your most memorable moment so far?

My favourite moment so far was when we recorded the live performance footage for ‘Right Here’ – directed by the incredible Billy Woodruff. Every time i watch it back it gives me goosebumps and makes me so proud and excited for whats to come!

What advices would you give to upcoming singers/songwriters or instrumentalists out there looking to break into the music industry?

keep writing! its the best way of discovering yourself and who you are as an artist, it may not come straight away but perseverance is the key. Dont get knocked down pick yourself right up, noone else will do it for you….

Thanks Carmen, before you go, the million dollar question, when is the album coming out?

No set date just yet but real soon!!! i promise

Enjoy her latest cover of usher – DJ GOT US FALLIN IN LOVE AGAIN” FEAT. PITT BULL

Don’t forget to Follow her on Twitter and Like her on Facebook

Why not take something also to check out her website

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The Ability to get a following or showcase your talent has being made easier with social media, especially youtube, i recently got the chance to speak to her about her music career, especially leveraging the power of social media.

Check out the interview, hope you it encourages you!

Hey Maria, How are you doing, welcome to YHP?

Hi Joseph thanks for having me!

Can you give us some brief background information about yourself?

I’m a Greek-American singer/songwriter/producer. Sometimes I go by MZ and I’m a piece belonging to the future of music.

So how did you get into music?

Music was always the one thing that kept me consistently excited and intrigued growing up. I was the happiest when I was singing, even reading or watching anything that had to do with music! So I just kept myself involved and surrounded by whatever related to it.

Who was your musical inspiration growing up?

I had a lot of vocal inspiration more than anything-strong, emotional vocalists like Celine Dion and Mariah Carey. Musically it was everyone from Aerosmith to Luciano Pavoratti.

Who would you say has been influential in your musical career so far?

My partner Gabriel Santiago. He’s been with me every step of the way. He challenges my ideas and pushes me to be a better artist. My family and friends also motivate me and influence me in ways they may not realize.

How would you define your music as an artist?

Eclectic! I’m not genre-specific. My music is very emotionally driven so if I’m feeling a specific vibe I keep that momentum going without stopping to think, “is this my style?” But you will definitely hear a soulful-European influence somewhere along the way.

How did you get involved in posting covers of songs on youtube?

I wanted to be a hands-on artist and take initiative in my career. Myspace was actually the biggest music site around the time I first posted, but it put a lot of pressure on young musicians to upload polished, studio records. I loved that youtube was giving artists the ability to expose their talent in such a raw form!

What has been your most memorable moment so far?

Transcending the virtual world to actually meeting fans in person and having the opportunity to perform for them live rather than through the lens of a camcorder.

What would you say the impact of youtube has had on your musical career so far?

Huge. I’ve met incredible people and it’s given me a platform to showcase what I can do to literally the entire world.

How do you pick a song to cover?

I like to choose a song that’s hot at the moment and that I connect with. I have to love it!

How would you say has been your technique in growing your fan base?

Everything I do is very organic. I’ve really just been uploading videos/music and letting them take off on their own. Maybe later I’ll develop an actual “technique” but for now I’m loving the process of letting people find me on their own and allowing their discovery to be very natural. I love knowing that someone stumbled across my work and liked it enough to stay.

What should we be expecting from you in the next couple of months?

Diversity. This is my time to play, grow and develop myself as an artist. I’m very concerned with expanding my creativity-from covers to the release of originals and performing! Sometimes, I don’t even know what to expect from myself!

What has been your favourite cover you’ve done so far?

“Tik Tok”! It’s such a fun song! And “Empire State of Mind” I really love it the electric guitar sliding through, gives it a gritty feel. (I know that was 2, I cheated) haha!

In the youtube world, who are your inspirations and why?

Youtube is flooded with talent these days! I find a new inspiration every time I search through videos.

If you had a chance to work with one person, who would it be and why?

This is an impossible question! There are too many songwriters, producers and artists I’ve always admired that I need to work with!! I’ll list one from each category for now: Claude Kelly (songwriter), Darkchild (producer) and Kanye West (artist).

What advices do you have for any newbie looking to start their musical career or perhaps starting posting covers on youtube? Any tips? Any techniques?

Be fearless. Believe in yourself more than 100% and always try to step outside of your comfort zone! For anyone looking to utilize youtube I’d say don’t be intimidated by how you compare to others.

The key is just to make sure you are consistently growing and getting better. And be kind!! That’s just an important human quality in general, but is taken for granted in this industry.

Thanks for your time maria, hope to chat up with you very soon.
Check out her page on youtube and don’t forget to follow her on twitter.
Check out her facebook fanpage

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I recently had the pleasure of speaking to a cool acoustic rock music group called shamrock shakespeare.

Check out the interview

Hi Guys, How are you doing? Great to have you on YHP

We’re doing great, thanks for having us.

Can you briefly give us some quick background information about yourselves?

Well, Ryan and Sean went to high school and reside in suburbs just outside of Chicago. Danny, on the other hand, is from Washington DC. We are all entering our third year in college.

Danny and Sean attend the University of Notre Dame while Ryan goes to Northwestern University. Ryan and Sean both taught themselves guitar and Danny has been singing and playing piano since he was 6. In our
YouTube videos, Ryan sits on the left and Sean is on the right.

What genre of music do you consider your work to be? Who are your major influences?

Our music would probably be classified as acoustic rock since we have only recorded our music acoustically. Eventually we hope to develop more of a rock/alternative sound. We draw our influences from many artists including: Dashboard Confessional, John Mayer, The Fray, and Something Corporate.

How long have you known each other? How did you meet?

Sean and Ryan have known each other for about 5 years now. They went to high school and played football together. Sean and Danny are roommates in college and have known each other for 2 years. Ryan met Danny through Sean.

When did you form your band? What inspired you to make music together?

We formed our band about 3 years ago after a community service trip in high school. Ryan brought his guitar and I sang some covers for the other people that were on the trip with us. They all loved the show and we had fun playing, so we figured why not keep it going?

Have you guys started performing at shows? Do you have any upcoming shows?

We have played a few shows so far. Mainly just in basements at parties. We want to start playing at some open mics in the city sometime soon. Hopefully from there we can gain some popularity and start playing shows at real venues.

Who writes your songs?

We all do. Ryan tends to write most of the music and Danny writes most of the lyrics. Sean usually adds or changes lyrics as we start putting the song together.

What are the main themes or topics for most of your songs?

Each song is usually about some sort of strong emotion we are feeling when we start writing a song, or something that we feel pretty adamant about. We all also love to joke around so we could see some humorous songs to come about.

Do you think these topics will change over time?

We all love to joke around so we could see some humorous songs to come about, also I feel the topics will change as we change. As we go through different things, the songs will reflect that

What are your rehearsals generally like? Do you have a set time each week in which you practice or are rehearsals more spontaneous?

Our practices are very sporadic and not very organized. We just like to have fun and mess around. But when we have a show coming up, we meet very often and focus at practice. We can be very productive when we need to be.

How has the journey been so far?

It has been fun. We love adding new songs to YouTube and then reading the comments. Every show we have played at we have had a great time. It has also been a little slow. We haven’t had the time to work on our music as much as we would like to.

How has your music evolved since you first began playing music together?

When we first started playing together, Sean didn’t even play guitar. 3 years later he has started to write some music. Ryan has evolved by writing songs in different tunings and by picking up the piano.

With Danny joining the group he brought his skill of the piano and vocal background to add a lot. Over the past 3 years, our music has gotten more complicated and allowed us to play more interesting music together.

What has been your biggest challenge as a band? Have you been able to overcome that challenge? If so, how?

Our greatest challenge has definitely been time. We write music a lot with Danny, and he lives 660 miles away in Washington DC during the summer. And during the school year, Sean and Danny go to school 100 miles away from Ryan. So writing a song usually goes something like this: Ryan writes some music and shows it to Sean. If Sean likes it, we email it to Danny. When Danny gets a chance, he writes lyrics and records his voice. Danny will then send the music back to us to listen to and edit. We will send suggestions back and forth and record many different versions and email them back and forth. The whole process takes roughly 3-4 months.

What’s your ultimate direction for your band?

Our ultimate goal is to take some time off and live in the same city for awhile. That way we can spend a year or so focusing on our music and getting professional recordings done. We really believe that we can make it with our music. We have gotten very positive feedback from everyone that has heard our original songs.

What advice do you have for people who want to form their own bands?

Form a band with people you know well and trust. It is easy for us to bounce lyrics and music off of each other without feeling embarrassed. Sharing your lyrics can be awkward at first, so working with people you trust helps. We also know each other well enough to tell someone when we don’t like their music. This is also helpful because we only want to record our best work and you need someone to be honest with you.

Thanks for your time guys.

Thank you for having us. It was our pleasure.

Check out their music
Youtube
Myspace

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Hey Guys, I had the opportunity to interview the beautiful and multi-talented media artist Sheena, Sheena has used social media to share her passion for music, TV and film.

She just finished her new video on youtube, check it out!

Hope you enjoy the interview.

Hi Sheena, How are you doing?

I’m doing great thank you!

So can you quickly give us some background information about yourself?

That’s an easy question (laughing)! In a nutshell I would say I’m a Media Artist, with roots as a singer-songwriter. In today’s digital age, I find myself attracted to various areas along with music, like TV/Film, and of course the Internet has been good to me as well!

How would you describe your style of music?

My music is really an amalgamation of many different styles. I’ve been fortunate enough to have been influenced by different corners of the world. I grew up in Canada, studied jazz, and opera and always loved R&B/Pop music.

My grandfather, who was a composer in India taught me to appreciate Indian classical music from an early age. And, to add to the mix, I lived in Tokyo a few years ago and that really opened my ears and my heart to a whole new musical world.

What type of music do you listen to?

I love any kind of music that speaks to me. The message can be found in a catchy beat, a beautiful storyline, or even something weird and quirky that catches my attention. I love music that is moving.

Doesn’t matter what the style is, as long as I can feel the passion behind the beat or words, I’ll keep listening.

Who are your musical inspirations?

I cannot just name one or two people who have inspired me. I am really lucky that way because my inspiration stems from everything and everyone around me.

We all have music in us. Of course, my family and friends contribute the most to my songwriting, because I write from my experiences (or theirs!); and, in terms of inspirations to sing, the list starts with my first choir director and range to my favourite singers and songwriters today.

A person can be inspired just about anywhere and I think the trick is just to be receptive to it. I once heard that songs are already written, we just have to find and share them. I believe that 100%.

At what age did you realise that singing was a career path you wanted to pursue?

I’ve never really wanted to do anything else to be honest. Of course, I’ve had bad days, weeks or even months, but when music hits me hard I shift my focus to screen projects (nothing that I can reveal yet I’m afraid!) or to the SheenaMelwani.com world! How can you really complain when you do what you love every day?

What will you say has been some of the benefits of posting your videos online, especially on YouTube and the power the internet has given individuals and talents to be able to share their passion with the world?

I was in Japan when I posted my first video on YouTube, and thought it would be a good way to stay connected with my friends back home. It was my way to share my voice and music with my circle of friends and family (and I thought a few others might watch as well, and that was fine by me).

Now, two years and over 10 million hits later, people from all over the world are encouraging me every day to finish my album, to sing another song on SheenaTV, to help guide their own budding careers. I get messages in English, French, Spanish, Hindi, Japanese, German, Portuguese – the list goes on and on!

The internet has literally brought us all together and it’s thanks to YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and such sites that independent artists now also have direct access to a worldwide fan base.

Why did you decide to start SheenaTV?

I first started SheenaTV because I was contacted by Yahoo! to be one of the very first broadcasters for a beta project called Yahoo! Live. I thought it would be a nice way for people to get to know the real me and agreed. Ironically, the Yahoo! program died but SheenaTV went from an average of 50 viewers an episode to close to a 1000 – thankfully not everyone chats at the same time!

People enjoy connecting in ‘real-time’ and SheenaTV allows me to do so directly with my fans. Apart from playing the part of the ‘Human Jukebox‘ (people don’t seem to care if I know all the words to their favourite songs), I also sample some original music, discuss issues the group wants to discuss and sometimes give everyone a ‘behind-the-scenes’ view of a video being filmed.

What do you outside music, what other projects are you involved in?

I’m into a lot of things other than music! Music may be my heart, but it is not the only thing in my life! I spend almost every morning at the gym, enjoy practicing yoga, love to cook, and most of all – love to eat!

What should we be expecting from you in the near future?

Many wonderful things I hope! I have an album in process, an iPhone app in the making, some screen ideas somewhere in the mix and I’m just going with the flow. Its not about the destination, but the journey, right?

What has been your greatest challenge?

When you handle everything independently, it really takes discipline and motivation to keep moving forward. I think this has been my biggest challenge thus far. Somedays, you can wake up and feel like you’ve moved backwards, and that’s not a nice feeling!

Lucky for me, that doesn’t happen too often, and when it does the people in my life are great at getting me back on my feet. And, when that doesn’t work I just get on SheenaMelwani.com or Facebook and seeing people commenting from around the world, at all times of the day and night reminds me immediately why I do what I do.

What advice do you have for those who want to pursue a career as a singer?

Don’t take no for answer. If you want to be a professional singer, then keep singing and don’t be afraid to put yourself and your music out there. Not everyone is going to like your voice, but you have to keep pushing. And in this day and age, with all these social media tools right at your fingertips, there really is no excuse anymore. Sing because you want to sing, not because you want people to listen!

Where do you see yourself five years from now?

A lot can happen in five years! I hope I’m doing more of what I’m doing now. Working on various media projects for a wider audience. I am a big believer in destiny, so I too am excited about what destiny may have in store for me!

Any last words for your fans and the readers of YHP?

Of course, I always have something else to say! Thank you for watching me, listening to my music, visiting my website, and simply for believing in me. It makes all the work much easier to do when you see people enjoying the final product, so a big “Thank You” – from the bottom of my heart for making my experience such a wonderful one.

Thanks for your time Sheena

You are very welcome. Thank you for your time as well!

Connect with Sheena

SheenaMelwani.com
Facebook.com/SheenaMelwaniMusic
YouTube.com/SheenaMelwani
Twitter.com/SheenaMelwani
Myspace.com/SheenaMelwani

Hey Guys, I had the opportunity of doing an interview with an upcoming music artist and producer, Samii and Srs are two best friends who are looking to become the music sensation of the netherland , and they are already talking to eventually becoming an international sensation, you should probably take notes of their names.

It all started from posting a video on YouTube, now their cover of iyaz replay now has 1.7 million views in just over a month.

Hope you enjoy the interview!

Hey Guys, How are you doing?

First of all we’d like to thank you for this interview! We’re actually feeling really good. Srs just finished his final exams and Samii is going into his last year of school. Yep, we’re still in high school

Can you give us some background information about yourselves? Let s get to know you guys? What you guys do?

Well, where do we start. Let’s begin to say that we know each other since the age of four. We lived in the same street. Apart from being best friends, we also share the same love for music. While Sami was busy with singing and writing, Srs got involved with making beats. We started of making dutch music.

We did that because we wanted to approach people in the Netherlands, because that’s where we live. After we’ve done several things, such as performances on live television, performances for a big audience and reached thousands of youtube views, we decided to start making English songs.

How did you both get involved in music?

That’s a pretty funny story actually. When the first season of Dutch Idols came on TV, we really enjoyed watching it and we had a CD with all the performances on it. When we saw this, we both knew that we wanted to do the same as them, making music and entertaining people. We never thought that it would become so serious though.

Your cover to Iyaz replay is going crazy right now, it has over 1.7 million hits in just over a month, where you expecting it, how did you react, what did you guys do?

Well, the only thing we can say is WOW! We could never even dream about such a big number. The first day we uploaded the video it already got like 100.000 views which we thought was already crazy!! But 1,7 million views!? You couldn’t pay us to believe such a thing, haha!

You done a song called “You make me go”, what are the responses so far?

They’ve been really good so far. Listeners say that the song makes them happy. It’s so funny, we made the song when we were in a ‘’Summer mood’’. We just recorded the song, made a video and posted it up on the internet. Getting such good responses motivates us to make more songs like that.

What kind of music do you guys listen to?

We basically listen to really anything. As long as it sounds good. We prefer pop, r&b and rap, but a good rock song can also be awesome.

Who are your musical inspirations?

That would be a big list… just to name a few of them: Jason Derulo, Lady Gaga, Usher, Lil Wayne, Iyaz etc.

What are you guys currently working on, what should we be expecting from you during this summer break?

We’re working on some original songs and some new covers. We’re actually releasing a cover of Jason Derulo’s ‘’In My Head’’ very soon. We are also trying to collaborate with some other youtube-artists.

How has the journey been so far? What have been some of the key things you’ve learnt so far?

So far it’s been great. It’s absolutely a great feeling to get so many positive reactions on our music. Those reactions are really rewarding since we put so much work into our music. What we definitely learnt so far is that we need to keep focused on our music and be consistent with it.

What are you looking to do better or different now?

We’ll try to work even harder to reach our goal.

What has been one of your most satisfying moments so far?

Ehmm, I think that has to be one of Samii’s live performance in the Netherlands. Just seeing 1500 people singing along to a song YOU made, is one of the best feelings you can have.

Have you guys ever had a challenging process that almost made you guys doubt the path you’ve taken?

Sure. When we decided to built a home-studio, we expected that making music would be much easier, because it was ours and we would be the one that decided when and how long we would record. But when we got started we found out that we didn’t know that much about recording.

At that point it was pretty frustrating because we spent a lot of money on the studio and we didn’t immediately got good results out of it. It just took time, but after a while we learnt to work with it. I guess hard work pays off.

What would you like to say to anyone out there supporting your music?

Thank you for your support. You really put smiles on our faces

What do you guys do for fun?

We’re just teens so we like to do things that most people of our age like to do. Going out, hanging out with friends, going to the cinema and the city, playing basketball and also playing games of course, hehe:D

Where do you both see yourself in the next 5 years?

Sami: Hoping to see a song from me on the billboardcharts haha
Srs: I hope that I will be working together with a lot of famous artists.

Thanks for your time guys.

Thank you too!!

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