Concert At Sea competition!

Wildcard for Francis Rodino!

Hundreds of bands have applied and registered for a chance to perform at Concert At Sea. Holland’s best Band Blof, who are the hosts of Concert At Sea, have spent all of last week visiting all of the participating bands’ pages and listened to all of them. Then they had the very difficult choice of choosing 10 bands who would compete for a slot on the Nieuwe Revu Stage on Concert At Sea, as well as picking their personal favorite who would get a so called ‘wild card’ to perform live on June 30 to a potential audience of 60,000 people!


Well, the four gents in Blof have made their choice. Their wild card goes to… Francis Rodino. He and his band will travel to the Dutch coast on June 30, to perform a set in front of thousands of people. And so will Nemesea and Cubworld. These two SellaBand Recording Artists will have their albums released in a few weeks time and will get the opportunity to play their brand new songs in front of a big audience.

 

Grande finale

Which leaves one position still vacant. Blof have submitted a number of names of bands that they think should go down well with their festival audience. Some of them were US-based, but when contacted by us they had to withdraw because the 1000 euro travel expenses that SellaBand offers as part of the package for playing this gig is not sufficient for them. And so Blof were kind enough to come back with some extra names and as a result we can now start our grande finale with 10 bands/artists that should all be able to travel to Brouwersdam on June 30, to open Concert At Sea at 3 PM on the Nieuwe Revu Stage.


A sneak peak of how the stage will look like.. 

 

The ‘voting’ system

We promised to do it different this time, and we will. Please go to www.revu.nl and find the Concert At Sea banner there. This is where you can vote for one of the 10 bands below. You can vote only once and for one band only. It's free and should be painless. There should even be some directions in English... 

AliouneK (Portugal)

Benefits of Making Enemies (Sweden)

Blister (Germany)

Cloon (Belgium)

John Bindle (UK)

Man Made Ivory (NL)

Radius (NL)

ShortFall (UK)

So What (NL)

Susanna Fields (NL)


In next week's Tribune we will inform you who will be the final SellaBand that gets to play at Concert At Sea. In next week's issue we will also inform you which 25 Believers have won a pair of tickets to attend the festival...



Francis: This is fantastic!


Next week we will inform you which band gets to join Nemesea, Cubworld and Francis Rodino. Speaking of which, this is what Francis has to say about being handpicked by Blof:


"I’ve only ever had tears of joy twice in my life. Usually I have only experienced tears of sadness. I used to think that tears of joy were something that would happen only to girls. The first time was Summer 2006, when Italy beat France at the World Cup. We had finally kicked their buts and got our revenge for what they did to us in the Euro ’98. Forza Italia!

The second time was last Friday as I opened my email and stared at the news that I had been chosen by Blof to perform at Concert at Sea - one out of  hundreds of talented SellaBand acts. What’s the catch? Is this a joke? Why me? My experience as a musician in life as been fulfilling but always an uphill battle. I have always struggled to get my music heard by industry people. I played gig after gig – with passion and energy, sometimes at crowded venues, but also small low key places. I sound-check 5 hours early. I call (and pay) for rehearsal studios. I spend countless hours recording vocals and producing. I sacrifice friendships and intimate relationships for this disease that I call “pursuing the musical dream”. Not all my friends understand what I’m trying to achieve. They don’t understand what it feels like to be obsessed.

 

“Belief” in my music has come from the most unlikely places. Some of my closest friends have not “believed” in me whereas strangers from around the globe have parted with their hard earned cash to support this unknown UK based singer/songwriter. So SellaBand, I thank you. Thank you for giving me the platform to connect with real people – to make real friendships – and giving me this marvellous opportunity.

This next section is a personal message to the boys in Blof: Thank you for having great taste in music. I WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN. You have made the right choice and you are going to see magic on the Nieuwe Revu Stage. Thank you for the opportunity – thank you for believing in me.

This is for my band: This would never have happened if I did not work with fantastically talented musicians: Matt George (Drums), Nick Hollis (Lead Guitar) and Allan Burls (Bass). We have already recruited a new keyboard/pianist so stay tuned!

I want to say thank you to Maitreya for inviting me to share the stage at London Calling, and for becoming my friend who I admire and respect.

Now, the shock to the system and the celebrating (getting drunk with Lucia Iman, another phenomenally talented musician  - she made me promise not to disclose the pictures of before and after absinthe shots) is over. There’s hard work to be done. We are going to be spending the next two and a half weeks polishing off our performance as we plan to engage and captivate our Dutch (and International audience).

Thank you Sellaband, thank you, Blof, and thank you Believers – without whom I would be another bedroom musician."

Francis Rodino

Run for Cover…

It is such a great feeling to see some of the things we’ve all been dreaming of come true. And perhaps there’s nothing more exciting than the completion of the first proper SellaBand album. Dear Believers (and fellow artists), it is our absolute pleasure to inform you that the master, artwork and bonus content have all shipped to the factory and should be turned into 5,000 exclusive limited edition digi-packs in the next two weeks. We are equally proud to show you the picture of the front cover of Nemesea’s CD, entitled: ‘In Control’.

The final tracklisting of the album is as follows:

•    No More
•    In Control
•    Home
•    The Way I Feel - feat. Cubworld
•    Lost Inside
•    Remember
•    Believe
•    Like The Air
•    Broken
•    Never

We plan to launch the album with an exclusive online listening session for our Believers, details of which will be announced shortly. By the way, we will keep the good news coming, because next week we will reveal all details of the upcoming Cubworld album ‘Step Lightly; Create Out Loud’ which will be released around the same time as ‘In Control’.

 

Welcome to the ‘Club’…


We feel blessed with the number of people that have offered us their help in any way, either to promote SellaBand, improve the website or to add new suggestions to the concept itself. The quality of what our community can bring to the table is astounding as well. This knowledge has led to an initiative called ‘Club SellaBand’. When we saw the ‘cunning plans’ that Believer ReyGamba had in store for his own little info-site, we invited him for a chat in our office. The result is ‘Club SellaBand’ hosted and developed by Mr. Gamba, but fully endorsed by SellaBand. What is great about ‘Club’ is, that it is all user generated content and that, when enough people like the applications that Rey has developed or will develop in the (near) future), we will adopt them and ‘transport’ them to the mothership i.e. within the www.sellaband.com domain.

 

Here’s what ReyGamba himself has to say about Club SellaBand:

“Some of you have already noticed the new link at the bottom of the pages called ‘Club’. Clicking this link will bring you to a separate website called "Club SellaBand". The Club is a community platform made and maintained by volunteers. For months I saw ideas and improvement wishes passing by and also many people sending requests and suggestions to SellaBand. We can sit and wait, but I decided to offer some help to speed up the process a bit. I'm not a musician, but I can play some keyboards :-) I contacted SellaBand HQ who embraced the project to better inform and support the community and be a playground for future developments.

 
Rey Gamba resting from all his hard work 

New functionalities

In the Club you will find charts, statistics and overviews to have more ways for discovering artists of your liking. Also in the Club, the long wished ‘SellaBand Event Calendar’. Here you can search for live shows in your country. As an artist you can add and update your gig data or promote your incentive offers. Got any questions about SellaBand or how to use the website or club site? Then go to the Club helpdesk where your question will answered by Club Members. Read back in the history of SellaBand in the ‘world archive’ and ‘specials’ about previous events, milestones and competitions. A few basic chat boxes are being setup to get in touch and chat with other Believers and artists. Well.....there is still a long wish list.. so new functionalities will be added in time.

Get Involved!

The Club is not a one man show, but is there to be used as a group initiative. Therefore I make an appeal to help bringing the Club alive. What can you do? Well whatever it is you wanna do :-) But for now it would be nice to have a Club Team who will help out with updating the news, making interviews with artists or helping with the Helpdesk. Also people who want to volunteer to be a ‘Genre Watcher’ or ‘Country Watcher’ are more than welcome. As a visitor you can help by leaving comments, reviews and chatting. To get the most out of Club SellaBand always use the main entry by clicking the "Club" link at the bottom of every page. In this way you will get a "Day Pass" that identifies you in the Club so you can interact, get more functionalities and get personalised data.

Hope to see  you soon at "Club SellaBand".

http://www.sellaband.com/club


Maitreya: My Road to 50K…

 

Still high on our live-event, we were almost ready to go back to normal when we said to ourselves: wait a minute, wasn’t there another artist who rose to $50,000, while we were busy preparing ‘London’? Yes there was. And in fact, he was in England too, so we got the chance to ask him to write a little piece about his great adventure. Here it is, in his own words…

 

By Maitreya.

"To think there is $50,000 waiting to be used to record and distribute my first solo album is almost too much to believe. Seven months ago I was a struggling musician from New Zealand, living in New York City trying to make the right moves, meet the right people and do the right shows to get that lucky break in 'The Industry'.  Hoping against hope that someone would discover me and make my music their mission. Seven months later I'm still living in New York, still struggling but I'm no longer praying for a miracle.


SellaBand came along and broke down the barriers we face as artists who want to record and share our music simply by declaring, "It's Your Music, It's Your Choice". I understood these words to mean it's my music and I can choose to take a chance by putting it out there to be judged.  That is the one decision you have to make to join SAB. Once you put your music on SellaBand, there is no more room for complaints that you don't have an audience for your music, or no one is giving your music a chance. Everyone has a fair chance. It is in your hands; it is your choice as to how you want to garner interest. It is never going to be easy but now producing a professional record and securing new fans is a reality.


I made a plan very early on.  I knew how I wanted to approach SAB and I stuck to the things I wanted to do - what I didn't realize was how much I was going to learn and grow on my road to 50K.  My experience on SAB has made me a better artist and a better person. I know more about who I am as an artist and I feel more connected to the people who are listening to my music than ever before.  I have formed amazing relationships with Believers on the site and their feedback has deepened my understanding about their listening experiences. People relate to my music and now more than ever I want to make an album that represents who I am.


This record is the culmination of a lifelong dream so I am not lacking in inspiration or drive.  My goal and passion is to record the best and most honest album I have in me. I want to do this for everyone who has Believed in me from when I was 12 years old to the present. I don't see a difference between people who have supported me on SellaBand and those who supported me before there was ever such a thing as SellaBand. After meeting so many incredible people in London last week I know that we share common convictions: a love for music and a desire to see everyone who works hard for it have their chance to succeed. On SellaBand 917 Believers in the community have given me that chance and I am going to work harder than I have ever worked to succeed.


I've been writing this album my whole life, so it will be a depiction of my life until now.  Each song will represent a lesson I have learned and the characters are those I have learned the lessons from.

I really want it to work together as a story and a singular entity. I want to co-produce this album and learn as much as I can in the process.  Adam Sieff told me SellaBand is about taking your music to the next level and I know that for me the next level is taking my production skills to a truly professional standard. I want to produce an album that mixes originality and honesty with beautiful arrangement and musical sensibility.  Over the next month I will be looking for the right people to help me do that.


I want to thank you all for your amazing support over the last seven months. I want to say a special thank you to Logical One for being so dedicated to my cause. Thank you to Lidewy and MaWa for making the final days so much fun. Thank you to everyone in the chat rooms and everyone who sent me wonderful messages of support before, during and after reaching 50K and the London Showcase.  I am sorry I have not been able to reply to everyone yet but I'm working on it! I really want to wish all the artists on SellaBand the very best in their goal of reaching 50K. Just so you know, I'm not going anywhere, I am keen to help artists in any way I can. I  keep my remixes coming and I am very interested in mentoring artists who want serious direction and support on this journey. Thank you all again for helping to make this dream a reality!  Stay tuned…


Love & Light, maitreya


We can't get enough of the bubbly stuff: Toastin' for Maitreya  


 

 

LONDON CALLING:

How was it for you?

Apologies to those who’ve had enough of our little London bash, but we at SellaBand HQ simpy can’t get enough. We just keep watching all those stunning performances, as well as the pictures that so many of you have sent us. But, in all earnest, this is probably the final feature on London Calling. In conclusion, we’ve simply asked the five main performers: How was it for you?

 

Lucia Iman

 

How was London Calling for you?

“It was awesome being able to play for the people who have believed in us so passionately. I loved giving something back, live, and I so look forward to keep this going, this is just the beginning...”

What was your personal highlight of the trip?

“I really enjoyed meeting my peers, the guys at Bulletproof Messenger were so much fun (and very sweet, sorry guys, I gave it up), Jamie from Maitreya who's a cutie, everyone at Second Person, quality people in every way...Brian, Hans and all the wonderful believers...god I probably need to keep it short, but it really was a pleasure meeting everyone in real flesh and bone. Everyone from the SellaBand Team, Annette, was such a goddess in arranging all the travel stuff, Dagmar and Pim and Adam and Johan...! It was very special seeing friends who I haven't seen in many years, and be with them under such special circumstances.”

BPM (DJ Skuba)


How was London Calling for you?

“The London calling gig was amazing, probably one of the best experiences of our lives, and something we will never forget.”

 

What was your personal highlight of the trip?

“I personally couldn't pick out one particular moment of the trip that made my highlight reel.  The fact is, for all of us, the entire trip was one big highlight.  From meeting everyone for the first time, to working with such an incredible staff, and this being our first time playing overseas, it was all just unforgettable and hard to describe.  We had so many different experiences with so many different people that everyone has shaped this experience in a different way.”

Maitreya


How was London Calling for you?

“The night itself was wicked!  We put a lot of work into preparing our show and I'm so happy with the results.  I had guests practicing in three continents and for the show to go without a hitch was brilliant. Performing with Cubworld, Clemence and Francis Rodino was a SAB dream come true for me.  They were absolutely professional and gave me everything in their performances. I had a great time and felt a lot of love from the crowd which is always great.  It made me really happy to perform for all the wonderful Believers who made it and it was brilliant to meet so many of you afterwards. A massive thank you goes to Tony Platt, the Stage Crew and Adam Sieff for bringing us exceptional sound and a smooth night.  Thank you also to Annette and the rest of the SAB crew for all their hard work and making London Calling a wonderful trip for Pebbles, my crew and me. I can't wait for the next show!!!”

 

What was your personal highlight of the trip?

“Being able to meet and celebrate reaching 50K with so many of the Believers that got me there was brilliant. Meeting Believer Extraordinaire Mandy Kongaika!  Meeting the SellaBand staff and sitting down and talking to Pim about his initial idea, where we are now, and it's future was awesome.  The gig and after party put faces and personalities to the names of so many Believers and that makes everything so much more real for me.  You are all real music fans and you all have a great passion for the music of SellaBand artists. Saying thank you and knowing I'm a part of this family is definitely the highlight of the trip for me.”

Second Person

 

How was London Calling for you?

“London Calling was an amazing experience for us! We had such a fun time and it was nice to meet so many more of our believers in person. We are right in the middle of recording our Sellaband album but we are so glad that we took the time out to come and play the show! Regardless of the heat, the atmosphere in the venue was great and we felt so comfortable on stage surrounded by so many new friends. Sellaband has created an amazing family of Believers and artists, and backstage it was fun being able to hang out with the other bands. We've made some great new friends and look forward to seeing them all again soon!”

 

What was your personal highlight of the trip?

“There were two main highlights for us, the first was Cubworld performing ‘The Alphabet’ with us and the other was being able to premier one of the songs from our new CD. It was the first time that anyone, other than Tony Platt, had heard anything from the album and we were really looking forward to being able to play it to our believers first - in person! We've been happy with the way that album is going but the response was far better than we'd ever expected. We start mixing next week and will go back into the studio even more happy and confident than before. Thank you to everyone who was there or watched it on the webcast - we love getting your messages so please keep them coming!”

Clémence

 

How was London Calling for you?

“London Calling was for me a magical moment ! Touching meetings with the Believers, particularly Empire of One that I found so sincere, clever and generous ; meetings with the other artists, all genuine and talented ; this wonderful gig where I was so happy to sing for my believers, and also to sing this duet with Maitreya that I like so much; this after-party full of happiness, it was like a dream (sometimes a bit surrealistic ) becoming true .. unforgettable ! I will keep the mark of this magnificent memory forever tattooed on my heart!”

What was your personal highlight of the trip?

“The most important thing  during this trip is the fact that I had the chance to perform live and in English, particularly for my Believers. I was waiting for this moment with great impatience, I was so happy that I felt as if I was on a cloud ... I'd like  to start again very soon!”