Excitement on a Sunday afternoon

 

CD competition turns out to be a real thriller

 

It was a close call, as they say, when the CD-competition drew to an end on October 15. Thousands of people from all over the world tuned in, to see which 10 artists would be included on our promo-CD. Here is what happened, and what will be next.

 

 

And so we installed ourselves in front of our computers at 5.45 on a Sunday afternoon, thus securing front row seats for what turned out to be an extremely exciting close of our first ever SellaBand competition. Which ten acts would make it to the SellaBand Presents... Part 1 CD? In true pokergame style, Believers from Belgian act Headphone waited until the very last minute, to enter the top 10. Fans from MayorMyx, Second Person and Simeon responded just in time, to claim their position, leaving New Zealand's Kane Sole just outside the Top 10, even though a number of his loyal supporters rooted for him until the very last moment, by buying extra Parts. They came only 1 minute too late, because we framed the Top 10 at precisely 6 PM Central European Time.

Here's the proof of how we framed the top 10 on Sunday 6PM.

 

Kane himself has since responded, in a very professional fashion, by thanking his Believers: "Hello everyone...It's all good:) the support you all have given me has been so incredibly rewarding in itself, you guys rock!! thank you all so so so so so much for believing...I'll keep writing...you keep listening!" And in fact, his remarks are spot on. Although he realises it would have been great to be included on the CD, this artist has set bigger goals for himself. And it remains his ambition to raise $50,000 so he can record his own quality-album.

 

Mindblowing

So, what happens next? The 10 acts have all received an e-mail in which we ask them to submit one of their tracks. These songs will be mastered at MotorMusic Studios in Belgium (one of that countries' top recording facilities) and will then be put on a CD. The album will be called 'SellaBand Presents... Part 1.' and each band will receive 25 copies to use for promotion or to hand out to friends and family. The CD will also be sent to hundreds of radio-stations, ad-agencies, newspapers and magazines, to draw attention to SellaBand and to prove to the outside world, that within two months after it's launch, the quality of the music on our website is simply mindblowing!

 

Free of charge

Also, every Believer with a minimum of 1 Part in any of these 10 artists, is entitled to a free copy of this CD. These people will all be notified and with a simple reply to SellaBand, the album will be sent to their home-address. Free of charge, because if there is one thing that SellaBand wants to put accross, it is that we value our customers and will go the extra mile to prove it. And as for Kane Sole? We love this guy and we are totally convinced he will reach his goals and will no doubt make it onto SellaBand Presents... Part 2.

 


In their own words...

Second Person

 

 

Sophisticated, stylish, lush. Those are just a few words that spring to mind when listening to the songs of Second Person. Ambitious, eager, and quickly ascending the SellaBand ladder, are a few others, when you take a closer look at this three piece group from London, England. Here's an introduction to the band that seems to be really good at attracting new Believers.

 

"We joined SellaBand because we believe absolutely in the principle it upholds and the people who have created it. It's a fantastic idea and we think it will help to launch many bands in the future... It's great to be involved at such an early stage, very exciting! Our aim is to make beautiful, complex, accessible music and match it with incredible visuals, whether it's live action videos, animation or montages for live performances. It has always been our ambition to create a video for each and every track we record and then put these out on a DVD at the same time as any album we release. We have a large number of skilled animators and directors working with us and many are working completely for free as they really believe in what we are trying to do."

 

Enjoyable project

"Things are pretty busy for us at the moment, we are currently working on a concept EP as well as our second album and have just finished editing a live DVD. Julia has started recording French and Spanish versions of some of our new songs, and has even recorded a partly Chinese version of "Four Leaf Clover". This has been an interesting and enjoyable project, but not one we have taken lightly. The utmost care has been taken to preserve the meaning and metre of the lyrics and so far we're pretty happy with how it's going. The first of our music videos has just been finished and since it was animated we decided the band should actually appear in the second one, which we finished filming this week. Rather than digital we opted to shoot on Super 16mm film, which meant a lot more work, but it was great fun and (from what we've seen so far) it's looking better than we expected."

 

Music for films

"We aim to start rehearsals for live shows in the new year. We need to plan carefully how we are to play the new material in a live context and also how to incorporate the visual elements into the performance - something we are very much looking forward to. Later in the year we hope to compile an album of all the collaborations we've recorded with other UK artists and maybe get some international guests to come and work on it with us too. In the last couple of years we've scored music for a few films and TV series and we'd definitely like to take some time to score a full feature film once everything else is completed.In the long term our ambition is to continue to make the music we love and we hope that Sellaband and our believers can help us get there..."

 

Picture from Second Person "Gone Fishing" music video 

www.sellaband.com/secondperson

 



 

Q + A Mayor Myx

 

"We have a story to tell"

 

Sometimes there is more than meets the eye. At first glance, Mayor Myx comes accross as a guitar-wizard who uses his instrument to prove the world how good is he. But wait a minute, Mario van Schijndel is not only very good indeed, he also has the ability to add real emotions to the myx (pun intended) and it turns out there is a whole concept behind the music. Read on if you want to find out more...

 

1. Who is Mayor Myx?

"A few years ago, I was honoured with a challenging assignment: Compose the music for a dance made by 3rd year students of the dancing school in Tilburg, the Netherlands. The dance was originally composed on other music.Composing became choreography, choreography became composing. A wonderful cross-pollination and it turned my world upside down. I accepted the challenge and it became a great success. The taste of composing, smell of the theatre, sensual-exciting challenge of dancing and the desire to perform my own arrangements, was a great experience. There must be another outlet for this, I thought. I kept on searching for a totally new way of musical thinking! Together with my friend and partner, designer Dolly Krabbendam, i considered a totally new theater-concept: “Emotions “. A fantastic and fantasy-filled experience of music, image, light, voice and dance in a completely new manner of musical thought, combined in a total-theater program. Music was composed, arranged and recorded. Promotionfilms and videoclips were produced, musicians and dancers arranged. As well, storyboards were prepared, website and cd-covers were designed, texts were written and a new “baby” was born: “Mayor Myx”.

 

 

2.People wonder where the name comes from? 

"The name Mayor is proceeded from the anagramm of the name Mario. The word Myx stands for the combination and cooperation between Mario and Dolly. We choose the letter Y because it looks good in graphics.
Mayor Myx is a name that you can pronounce easily and you will allways remember."

 

3.Why did you join Sellaband?

"We joined Sellaband because despondency came over us. We became frustrated by the ruling music business. With Sellaband there is a refreshing wind blowing through the sleepy world of making records, and it is also possible to get the attention you need from a lot of people, with the possibility of a “dream contract”! At the same time the quality of a band is determined by the number of believers, so it can’t be more honest! This is also a great opportunity to tell the world our story!"

 

 4.Who are your musical heroes?

"We both don’t have special musical heroes in particular.But we are certainly inspired by different trends and styles. Both in music as in theatre. Because of that you’ll find a lot of musical styles in Mario’s compositions, like rock, classical music, blues and symphonic atmospheres. Mario as a musician admires people like Edward van Halen, Jan Akkerman and John Farnham. Not only because of their technical skills, but also their capabillity to touch people in the heart. Dolly as a designer is inspired by great artists as Salvador Dali, because of his enormous versatility in creating surrealistic spheres, and also the costume-designer Vivienne Westwood, because of her obstinacy and brutalism. Her great example in theatre-producers is Robert Wilson."

 

5. If you raise $50.000,- , who would you to like to work with in the studio?

"We don’t have anyone special in mind, but for us it is very important to work with somebody who understands our way of making music. It’s also desirable that he or she indentifies with the things we do, in order to get an even better result at the end. It is very important that you hear on the CD what you see on stage."

 

6.Are there any other artists on Sellaband you like?

"Yes certainly. We both like Lola Perrin, because of her way of playing the piano; she plays with a lot of passion . Her way of approach is very much in our line. We also like Ananth from India. He makes beautiful film music. We like Kirt because of his different way of making music. And finally we like Nemesea. They have a lot of musical quality in the band. Especially the beautiful voice of Manda."

 

7. Have you ever considered working with vocalists?

Sure! We are already working with voices. Besides the song “Tell me” (see www.mayormyx.nl ) we use voices in a not very common way.The voices are a very important addition to the spheres in the performance.
In the future we don’t exclude working more intensive with vocalists. Untill now we haven’t used too many lyrics. Words can be restrictive in the story we want to tell you with our music and performance."

 

8. Why should people believe in MaYor Myx?

"MaYor Myx is adding a new dimension in music- performance.  We visualize our music –what you see is what you hear- you get a very complete picture of the things we want to tell you. There are no lyrics, so the music is personal and a unique event for everyone. It is a dynamic interaction between guitarist, band, singers, dancers and video-art complete with a beautiful colour and light spectacle, joined together in theatre-performance; Emotions. Emotions is a ninety minute theatre performance which takes the spectator to the depths of his soul with music, picture and dance. Identifiable emotions including sorrow, melancholy, confusion, happiness, uncertainty, parting, deliverance and harmony are part of the show. “I create musical paintings that come to spectacular life during each vivid live performance.With my guitar as my paint brush, the audience sees literally the spectrum of emotions passing by.”


Finally, we like to thank all our fans and friends for their wonderful support!"


www.sellaband.com/mayor-myx
www.mayormyx.nl
www.myspace.com/mayormyx

 

 

Pick of the Week


Every week we ask one of our Experts to choose their three favorite acts on SellaBand. We reward their choices with one Part for each act that gets their vote. This week it is Gerard Babitts, an experienced industry professional, currently residing in Atlanta, Georgia. Here's his Pick of the Week:

 

1  Headphone

A mysterious and intriquing mix of dark, morose, and lush elements.  Muse meets Radiohead.

2  Kane Sole

Solid, roots acoustic blues reminding me of a mix of John Butler Trio and Dave Matthews.

3  Knaeckebroedt

Quirky and fun electronic music.  A mix of indie and dance.  Quality stuff.