I love it when I get to combine different parts my life. Whether it’s playing music combined with teaching it, or doing fun online conversation things a la Amplified and at the same time helping musicians understand what the web makes possible for them…
Bringing together New Music Strategies with Amplified always makes me very happy.
Last year, we did a transatlantic round table discussion – I and 3 musicians were in Nashville, while Dubber, Ian and Saskia headed up a room full of NMS-types in Somerset, England. We threw ideas back and forward, answered questions, and had a great chat about how life is for independent musicians, and how it could be.
Today we helped launch an online music project we’re very proud to be involved in – Music Basti’s ‘Monkey on the Roof‘ album.
In essence, Monkey on the Roof is an album featuring recordings of Delhi street children singing songs with professional musicians. We’re selling the recording online to raise money for the Music Basti charity. The album was produced by our own Ian Wallman and was made possible through a research project by the Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research.
Best thing about it is that the website is full of videos where you can see how the album was made, meet the children, learn about the amazing work that Music Basti do, and learn just what an incredible impact that music has on the lives of these kids affected by poverty.
Go explore the website and make sure you get yourself a copy of the album – for whatever you think it’s worth. And if you can help spread the word, we’d really appreciate it – and so would they.
People often ask us what we do. It’s hard to say. It has to do with music, new ideas, consulting, partnering and working on things we think are interesting. And the things we think are interesting tend to be about making the world a better place. We think music’s quite good at that.
‘More music by more people in more places’ would be one way of looking at it. This video would be another. We’re helping (the brilliant) arts organisation Heart & Soul with this project: The Dean Rodney Singers.
I mentioned last week that we’ve been planning some awesome, and that it will be coming soon. Essentially, it will be built around a very simple system, allowing us to have a really collaborative and very involving online event, that will capture lots of really useful knowledge and archive it for future reference.
In principle, it will work in three stages:
1) The provocation
It starts with someone clever who has something to say. They will speak for 10 minutes and we will stream it online. It will be about music. It will be helpful. It will be interesting. It will be challenging. It will make you think. It will last for no more than ten minutes.
Like a TED talk, only snappy – and not just interesting, but directly relevant to you personally.
