What's The Haps?!

As the new year rolled in, the list-making, plan-hatching and internal pep-talking commenced in full-swing and I'm happy to report that the year is off to a great start. I will update you on upcoming shows, tours, post videos and podcasts shortly and keep you up to date with all the musical shenanigans. To that end, here's a little a nugget of what I'm working on currently.


Pecha Kucha on the 19th of Jan, 2011 - Third Line Gallery, Al Quoz, Dubai.

For the uninitiated, Pecha Kucha (usually pronounced in three syllables as "pe-chak-cha") is a cult event following a very simple presentation format where you showcase a certain (mostly creative) project you're working on, within the framework of 20 images, each only lasting 20 seconds. The images forward automatically and you talk during the slide show, giving the audience a quick yet insightful glimpse into whatever it is you've chosen to speak on. 
For this edition of Pecha Kucha, I've teamed up with Reiner Erlings (Producer/Songwriter & Co-Musical Director of 'Movement') to do a live demonstration of the creative process of writing music for a 60-piece orchestra. We're taking one of my songs, 'Sinking Superhero,' deconstructing it by breaking it down to its bare bones - the main guitar riff, the melody and the chorus - which I will be playing live and then demoing how we built a body for this song to exist within, piece by piece. This particular song when rearranged, keeping in mind an orchestra, lent itself very graciously to an interplay between live orchestration, electronic percussion and sound design. This presentation will bring to light all those elements, and touch upon the cross-pollination of contemporary and classical music which is the nucleus of 'Movement.' 


Pecha Kucha is basically creativity central, so if you're looking to scope out the creative scene here and all the cool freaks then definitely make your way to the Third Line Gallery on the 19th of Jan. For more info just click http://www.pecha-kucha.org/night/dubai/
And yes, important detail - it's FREE. 


Vblog Series - Meeting the Creatives. 
One of the main objectives of Behind The Pop Filter, besides being a place to keep records of different projects I'm working on, is to bring to the forefront the people who actively give to the creative scene here. Yes, all 7 of them. (joke.)
Anyway, to that end I've been busy doing video interviews with musicians, artists, journalists, gallerinas all speaking about being creative and the opportunities that have come their way by just living in this little hamlet of ours. 
First of that video series goes up on Saturday the 14th of Jan.  
Stay Tuned.