Then Came MIS - Motion Image & Sound

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The Freedom Mixtape

Its been a while!

Yes i know, iv been busy....or at least i'll use that excuse for now!

Well, working in the music business over these past couple of months has taught me a lot, and i keep learning every day. One thing that stood out is that hard work pays of...no matter what kinda work you do or what industry you work in.
I'v had the privilege of meeting many young upcoming artists with big dreams! it great to see how far music has come over the past year in Kenya. To be very honest, if anything i have learnt that raw talent can NEVER make up for hard work, and if anything your talent can only get you past the 'door' its hard work (among other things) that keeps you in the game.

Many young artists unfortunately are not willing to put in the time. The time to learn, to grow, to get your s#*t right! (for lack of a better term)

I have seen first hand what hard work can do! and it has helped me get this far....truth is though that i have not even started!! i still have so much to learn, to experience to change, correct and improve on as a music producer, but my point is sometimes all you need to do is just start, decide to take the road your on and do your time. you never know what's in store for you!

Its my dream to see some of these young artists iv met over this year becoming the biggest musicians, performers and icons not only in Africa but in the world too! and this is one of the many reasons my family started Sound Mind...BUT more on that later.

Back to hard work;

We (Rigga, Astar, Bupe and myself) embarked on this project for several reasons!
I would love to share it with you guys...feel free to comment, criticize, share and just enjoy it!

There is so much i have leart both technically and musically as a producer in the curse of this project. so many things that worked...and even more that didnt!lol! 

but most importantly who would have thought we would have a full 12 track album out in 3 months??..and a quality one at that!!

Just put your mind to it! make deadlines! get the job DONE!

Enjoy:

Sound Mind Logo

Sound Mind | Artist-Specific Sound Engineering

After a year of freelancing and engineering at various gigs around town I have began to realize that there is a huge wealth of music and performance talent in Kenya; Nairobi specifically, in fact, much more than you might think. I also realize that people are now generally more willing to pay more for this type of entertainment.

But as I have stated before, we are still miles behind as compared to the international music scene when it comes to technical skill on lights and sound and basically all the small components that actually make a show a SHOW! And this is not because we do not have the equipment or the means to get the right equipment and facilities, but the skill behind putting these things together is lacking.
The other thing I notice is that yes, we do have a few popular artists who have won awards here and there and get loads of gigs and air-play etc., however I do believe we do not yet have bonafide Kenyan Superstars. Taking nothing away from the few who have worked hard to become heroes, role models and trend setters in Kenya, I still believe that in the next 10 to 20 years (or even sooner) there will be still space for young artists to go far beyond what we have ever seen in the Kenyan music and entertainment industry!
Yes, there are a few things that will go into making or creating such artists including training and development of talent, cut-throat business & marketing strategies, new business models and PR for music and entertainment that will give us an edge and make Kenyans competitive on an international stage. All these things will play a part.

But if I may so humbly suggest that one of the biggest parts of this (if not the biggest) will be performance and presentation!
You all remember that one Coldplay, Jay-Z or Beyoncé gig you watched and thought, “OMG this is it!” and many artists including the late great MJ had that one album, gig, music video that propelled them to the stratosphere of superstardom!
I believe there a quite a few Kenyan artists or musicians even DJ’s that are capable of creating these kinds of spectacles, if I may call them, in their live performances!
The technical side of achieving this is really important and more attention to detail on the audio visual side needs to be observed. To create the ultimate Kenyan Superstar; sound and visual display need to be taken more seriously than they have been in the past.

This is one of the reasons I have created Sound Mind. As well as working on music production, mixing and film scoring I am also taking the next step with live sound and looking for artists who understand this and how important their live sound is for them.
Artist specific sound and engineering will take the industry to the next level!
And it would be my pleasure to be a part of creating bonafide Kenyan Superstars. I intend to achieve this through the skill and knowledge I have gained over the past few years working for and with some of the best in the industry.

It is time to do what it takes to get us to the next level!

LongHorn ([(-_-)])

The Grammys | 2011

The Grammys | 2011

This isn’t usually my thing, thing and I have found myself being a critic of award shows over the last year, merely because of how ‘manufactured, they all seem to be (trust me, I would love to be in those meetings where they decide that Tray Songs* should win best male artist… I MEAN COME ON!!???).
*or any other artist you feel is not so deserving…yet.
NOT to say that this award show isn’t manufactured, BUT its The Grammys. And with a staggering 109 categories, the variety is a mouth watering experience for music lovers!

So will get right to it and give you a few highlights on some of the nominations and categories I’m interested in.

Record Of The Year (includes artists and producers)

• Nothin' On You - B.o.B Featuring Bruno Mars
• Love The Way You Lie - Eminem Featuring Rihanna
• F*** You - Cee Lo Green
• Empire State Of Mind - Jay-Z & Alicia Keys
• Need You Now - Lady Antebellum

Really glad for Lady Antebellum, new act this year and the SoundOnSound review on the mix for their album was pretty cool. The rest very popular this year, ESOM has won many awards already so won’t be shocked if they take this.

Album Of the Year

• The Suburbs -Arcade Fire

• Recovery -Eminem
• Need You Now - Lady Antebellum
• Teenage Dream - Katy Perry
• The Fame Monster – Lady GaGa

Now, where to tart, Lady Antebellum again, GOOD JOB! Eminem keeps doing it, and I feel this album was brilliant, producers like dr.Dre, Just Blaze, Lil Wayne etc, great representation of hip hop I feel. Lady GaGa and Katy Perry (my definition of pop corn music although as a performer I think GaGa takes the crown) either way, the numbers speak for themselves and so ay, credit to them.

Best New Artist

• Justin Bieber HHUUUUHHH?? Oh well.

• Drake

• Florence & The Machine

• Mumford & Sons

• Esperanza Spalding

Drake, there is something different about this one, and y’all know it! Great stuff. Florence & The Machine, I keep saying I want to produce music like hers, great performer too. Mumford & Sons, first heard them late 2010, these guys take indie to a whole other level, and huge congratulations to them. Anyone who is big on producing acoustic music, string instruments, it’s a must have.
Esperanza Spalding – Pure Genus. That’s all.

Best Female Pop Vocal

• King Of Anything -Sara Bareilles

• Halo (Live) - Beyoncé

• Chasing Pirates - Norah Jones
• Bad Romance - Lady Gaga
• Teenage Dream - Katy Perry

These ladies can actually sing, (thank god) but I think we all know who the winner is?

There is much more, and I have only hit the tip of the ice berg, but a few highlights for me are
- John Mayer (battle studies) Nominated for top pop vocal album. Justin Bieber is there too (my world 2.0) guess he has done well!?
- Best Electronic/Dance Album (very important category for me) and really impressed at what BT has done over th past few years, his album (These Hopeful Machine) deep and inspirational, very musical, and really fun! Hope he wins.

- Best rock performance by group or duo with vocals. Both Muse and Kings of Leon nominated, they did well last year.

- Best Metal performance. Its great to see Lamb of God, Slayer, Korn and Megadeath there. If you know me you know this is quite my music.

- Its great to see Ryan Leslie and Janelle Monea on the Best Contemporary album category (Transition and ArchAnderoid respectively)

Best Rap Album

• The Adventures Of Bobby Ray -B.o.B
• Thank Me Later -Drake
• Recovery –Eminem
• The Blueprint 3 -Jay-Z
• How I Got Over -The Roots

This is a tough on..? Really great albums.

- Still on a hang-over from Power of One, but great to see Israel Houghton nominated again another album (Love God. Love People).Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel album.
- Hans Zimmer, 2 nominations for Best Score Soundtrack Album For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media (Inception & Sherlock Holms). These were both great movies, and listening to the scores again, Zimmer is top class. In this category are also Danny Elfman (Alice In Wonderland), James Horner (Avatar) and Randy Newman (Toy Story 3)


That’s it from me for now. There I so much more I have not touched on like the Jazz and Latin categories, orchestra and spoken word etc. so please indulge yourself here:

http://www.grammy.com/nominees

You know that saying, Beauty I in the eye of the beholder?....hmm, wonder what the music one is??

Long Horn ([(-_-)])

And Happy New Year!

Live Sound – The Kenyan Tale Part One: The Problem?

As many of you might know, other than my passion for studios, recoding gibberish and rock and roll; live sound is one of my main things.
this is also known as being the ‘sound man’, ‘sound engineer’, ‘manning the desk’ or in this part of the world, the ‘technician’ and sometimes mistaken for the ‘dj’; feel free to add to my list!

Live sound engineering is like being an audio traffic cop. Typically, a musical group will direct a variety of sounds at the audience, usually through amplifiers. These different sounds must be managed correctly to make sure the audience receives what the group is sending. Managing these sounds is concert sound engineering. (http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/live-sound-engineering1.htm)

I HAVE HAD IT! And I am totally disgusted by the sound quality we here in Kenya are giving audiences, weather in live concerts or live music on TV to small unplugged gigs! It is ridiculous! And I say this because ignorance is no longer an excuse!
Put it this way, we are all human beings, and the matter between our ears is exactly the same! We have the talent in Kenya as far as artists and performers go! World class talent I tell you! We have aces to quality equipment, audio and lighting gear! But most importantly we have access to INFORMATION.

I will support this by saying that we see the quality brought by international artist at many gigs in Kenya. But why is it that the half dozen local opening acts (that are brilliant as artists in their own right) offer a poor so that, yes, as cliché as it ‘sounds’, BLAME IT ON THE POOR SOUND! Why does this happen time and time again. How can something as important as sound have such low priority? Even from the basic organizational level? For a music concert especially? Ai?
do we never notice the 10-15 minutes the main international act takes before coming on stage and the ‘punky’ looking guy that goes on stage moves things around, presses a few buttons on the board, and alas! Then we all ask ourselves why they sounded so different from the local acts?

- never let your reputation overshadow your performance -

This is something my father told me and I feel it applies to many things including this. We must realize that sound engineering is an essential part of the performance because an artist is their sound. Their sound is their sound man!

Make your sound a priority.
LongHorn ([(-_-)])

And then came the Rock Society of Kenya

Profile - The RSK is a non-political organization devoted to protecting and promoting the interests of rock artists in Kenya while upholding high ethical standards and maintaining social responsibility. We believe in and encourage innovation and creativity and intend to assist Kenyan rock artists to access the local and international music industry so as to allow them an opportunity to showcase their talent as well as our country’s diversity.

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/group.php?gid=423965090079&v=wall&ref=ts

This is the start of great things for rock music in Kenya.
I will soon be giving y'all details a bout various local band that i like and that will most definitely have great impact in the coming year as well as progress on the Ueta project.
Please join this group and support the industry!

LongHorn ([(-_-)])