creative briefing

A difficult challenge for music performers is to communicate their talents in a visual manner. While I thoroughly enjoy simple and intimate acoustic performances, most others need to have their other senses tickled a bit to get the full experience. Music videos accomplish this by pairing songs with short movies that visually relay the stories, messages, and meanings behind the song. Concerts on the other hand, typically do this with lighting effects.

Two Tuesdays ago I spent my night at the Danforth Music Hall to watch Lifehouse on their Toronto stop. The concert was amazing, but that’s besides the point. In addition to all the auditory sensations that night, what really caught my eye were the lights. Alternating palettes of vibrant colors that were tied together perfectly gave the concert a stunning light show that truly augmented the whole musical experience. The visual stimulation was like porn for artists and designers in the form of bright, bright lights.

Naturally, I had to share it with all of you. Hope it brings you some inspiration!

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Hey, it’s been a while. How are the kids?

Yes, I’ve been absent for some time. But for those of you who have been paying attention (all 3 of you), you’ll know that if I’m absent here it usually means I’m drowning in work elsewhere. But have no fear, I’m alive (for the time being) and am just making a much needed visit to the surface for some air.

What have I been up to? A crap load. Remember what I said about the up-and-down nature of the freelancer lifestyle? Yea, it’s definitely an up time. In fact, it’s getting up-er as we speak.

But I thought I’d leave you all a quick update on a few items so that you don’t feel neglected and start to hate me. So here goes (in no particular order)…

FITC

I wanted to do a full write-up on my experience at FITC but after some thought (and some serious lack of time and energy), I realized it wasn’t worth it. In all honesty, the 4-day conference fell below my expectations. It was very Flash-focused this year, which is fine, but in many of the presentations there seemed to be a lack of enthusiasm for the material being presented. But there were still a handful of sessions that I really enjoyed - namely that of Grupo W (”The Madness of Interaction”), Gmunk (”Gmunk Kickdown 08″), and Joshua Davis (”New Works”).

Musical inspiration

It’s the season of [awesome] concerts as I’ve had the privilege to be in the musical presence of my favorite artists: Jason Mraz (last Sunday), Lifehouse (last night), and Jack Johnson (August 3). Music has always been my second creative love and immersing myself in live tunes is a truly inspiring experience. Aside from the auditory sensations, I came away from last night’s Lifehouse concert with some pretty sick visual stimuli as well. I’ll be sharing them in a later post.

Taxes!

As you know, today is the last day of tax season. If you haven’t filed your taxes yet, you’re either fortunate enough to not owe the government anything, or you’re now panicing because I’ve just reminded you that you have to do your taxes. This year was the first year I’ve had to incorporate my business transactions into my personal tax process and I’ve learned a lot in the process. I wanted to do a write-up on some of the things I’ve learned (i.e. rule #1: get an accountant), but I realize that it would have very little relevance now that tax season has passed. If anybody shows enough interest, I’ll do the write up. Otherwise, I’ll save it for next year.

I’m on the WinMo train

To satisfy my tech itch, I recently swapped my Blackberry 8320 Curve with a HTC Touch. I’m big on productivity and staying connected so any new phone I get must perform well on both counts. Of course the big difference between the Blackberry Curve and the HTC Touch is that the latter runs on Windows Mobile. While I still very much have my old MS juices running through me, I’ve always been reluctant to jump into WinMo because of poor market reviews of the mobile OS. I was told that version 6 (which is what the Touch came loaded with) is a leap ahead of its predecessors, and that the newly released 6.1 is even better. Comparing the two devices, they are both great business tools. WinMo has the one-up however because it syncs perfectly with my Outlook data and can run Word, Excel, and PowerPoint seamlessly through its Pocket Office suite. Ironically though, WinMo blows as a phone. I have a post in the works for those of you who are looking to add a smartphone to your on-the-go arsenal and are contemplating between Blackberry and Windows Mobile. And no, the iPhone is not part of that comparison.

I’m not going anywhere

Thank you for all the kind people that emailed me about my biggest mistakes. Apparently, it might have come off that I was leaving my business behind, but if you read carefully I’m simply making changes to it. It’s a really exciting time for me as I’m just starting to get knee-deep in the planning process of the next big thing. So you can all rest assured that I’m not going anywhere.

Back to work! Thanks for staying tuned in.

I came across this Volkswagen ad tonight starring my music idol John Mayer (who seems to get a mention in every one of my music-related posts). I’m not sure when the ad aired or where it was aired, but it targets car buyers who are also music enthusiasts. And not even regular “I like to listen to music” music enthusiasts, but very specifically “I like to rock out with my guitar” music enthusiasts.

If this ad had aired in Toronto in August, I probably would have taken a second look at VW’s. I too was in the market for a new car at the time, and I am also very much a guitar-playing music enthusiast who may or may not have ever had the urge to plug into my car’s stereo system and rock out on a white backdrop and be cool like JM. But the question is, how many of us are there?

We see car ads targeting audiences as specific as soccer moms, construction workers, and extreme athletes. Are guitar players (or musicians in general… I suppose you could plug in a keyboard too) out of sync (hah! pun was actually not intended) with these audiences, or did the marketers at VW see them as a natural (and profitable) segment of their typical audience?

If anybody has any info on the ad or campaign, please share!

I know, quite a revelation. </sarcasm>

Brought to light by a close friend today, I’ve spent the last 30 minutes or so watching each of the videos from Marie Digby’s YouTube channel. I have no intention to add another post to the blogosphere that testifies to the power of the social media landscape, but I’m a sucker for acoustic music covers so I thought it warranted a mention. The videos not only portray Marie as a talented and beautiful musician, but also captivates me with the fact that you get to see a side of her that you rarely get to see in other “celebrities” - the human one. And I think this is really where musicians (and artists in any other shape or form) are benefiting most from mediums like YouTube.

People these days are more skeptical than ever about everything they consume - music included. But I think that making effective use of social media tools (whether it be Facebook, MySpace, or YouTube, in this case) helps to reassure us that these are real people and not just some staged and over-produced group of pretty faces (if Britney did an a capella YouTube video, she’d surely regain some positive PR). John Mayer’s blog does it, Bathroom Sessions does it, and Marie Digby’s YouTube channel does it (if you don’t believe me, check out her Halloween post).

Where it loses a bit of its magic is when we find out that it’s all part of an elaborate scheme derived by a marketing team’s attempt to leverage the phenomenon described above. But by then you’ve already gone out and bought the Marie Digby CD, told all your friends about it, and wrote about it on your blog.

So there you have it, another post that testifies to the power of YouTube and the social media landscape. (Oops.)

Now go and indulge in the goodness that is Marie Digby’s cover of Rihanna’s “Umbrella”. Ela. Ela. Eh. Eh. Eh.

In my periodic search for musical inspiration, I came upon this clip of John Mayer performing in a music store somewhere for a small crowd. John combines two of my favourite songs in this clip, and whether you’re a music/John Mayer fan or not, I guarantee you this will leave you in awe.

It takes some time before it starts, but he gets into things around 5:00 (counting down). The real magic begins at around 1:15.

Besides showcasing what a phenomenal musician John is, this video truly was an inspiration to watch. When he gets to the solo, you can really tell John leaves the music store for about 20 seconds and hits musical euphoria. Caught in his own moment of glory, doing only what he does best - create music.

These moments are pure, rich, and rare. They are moments that define exactly what you’re made of. These are moments you should strive for, whether you’re a designer, a writer, a strategist, or in this case, a musician. These are your moments of brilliance.

Have you ever experienced one of these moments?