After a long series of flights, we eventually arrived in Delhi and went straight from the airport to the gorgeous farmhouse we were staying at.
There was some initial excitement when the local monkeys decided that they wouldn’t let us near the swimming pool, and chased us away – but we eventually managed to come to an arrangement with them, and I spoke to Ian about what we had come to do.
But there wasn’t too much time for swimming, as Faith and her team from Music Basti arrived to tell us about the project and how it works, and to hear what we had in mind for the recordings.
Back in July, Ian and I went to India with Jez Collins from Birmingham City University to work on a project with an organisation called Music Basti.
Music Basti is a youth-run charity that organises music workshops in homes for street children. The music workshops are run by professional musicians, many of whom are successful recording artists.
We thought it would be an interesting idea to travel to Delhi, work with the musicians and the children to record an album of songs, and release it online. We wanted to do this for a few reasons, but the most important was simply to try and raise money for the charity.
All proceeds from the album sale will go to Music Basti to support their work, and hopefully bring it to the attention of a wider audience.
The first thing you should know about the Product Manager for MySpace Music is that he’s an independent musician. He’s in a band called Big Kid. That’s him playing the drums. He also writes most of the songs. I found that both encouraging and surprising.
Myspace Music Product Manager Steve Clark approached me through my blog to have a chat about what was going on at Myspace, the big changes that they were making, and what they were doing to belatedly address the fact that they have access to (as I put it) every frickin’ band on the planet.
Now, I’ve been critical of Myspace in the past (to say the least). My complaints have been many and varied, but my concerns have been especially with respect to the fact that all of their efforts in the music space have been directed exclusively at major labels – and the fact that as an interface, both for artists and for fans, it’s a pile of crap.
A friend of mine once joked that you can’t polish a turd, but you can roll it in glitter. Basically, Myspace has been rolled in glitter.
Saskia and Steve dispensing wisdom at All2gethernow
Four out of the five of us made it to Berlin for All2gethernow this past week. In fact, Andrea was one of the event’s key organisers and she did an amazing job of pulling such a brilliant event together.
