It smells holiday and Los Sundayers arrives with their second album “Cógelo”, This Spanish collective plays an energetic music, a mix between reggae, ska, funk and all the styles each member will bring out. Always ready to party, you could see them everywhere in Spain and maybe in Europe in the next months.

You are a big band! How many people are you and where are you from?

We are ten musicians right now! But with a good compression we can adapt our show to any stage, haha! And we compose and do our reharsals in Madrid, Spain.

What is the function of each one?

Carlos drums, Areta percussion (congas, pailas), Barto bass guitar, César electric guitar, Lita keyboards, Ana trombone, Pablo trumpet, María voice, Belén voice, Dani voice. Also, we share others functions in the band as backline organization, vans hiring, management, merchandising…

How did you choose the name of the band?

In Spain the real sundayer are peoples who go to the countryside, but only by car and during the weekend, and in many cases don´t respect enough the nature. We changed the term to give it a party connotation because we love traveling but enjoying and respecting the nature and with a further ecological vision.

How would you describe your music?

It´s impossible!! we love too many styles, so we play all we like: reggae, ska, funk, swing, latin, rock, balkan…Maybe fusion it´s an appropriate term, but we don´t like labels. The only thing that´s sure it´s that is music to dance and to get good feelings.

Who makes the choices about the song? Who makes the composition and the lyrics?

It´s a hard work, we do the choices all together, but the original idea of a new song always is brought by one of us, and not always the same one. The lyrics, depending on the song, are composed in origin by the three singers, Barto and Ana. Later other members change some words or phrases to adapt the melodies or because they have better ideas to add to some parts.

Are you some professional musicians? Are you in tour all the year? Do you play in other countries?

Not now. Some members studied music but not professionally. The band was formed with the idea of enjoy music traveling and discovering places and people. We know that is very difficult to live of our music right now, so we try to have good moments with it and make the audience dance and enjoy our songs.

Right now we have between 20-25 five shows in a year but only in Spain. We have the idea of traveling around Europe this autumn and winter, so we are looking for european management because we know that it’s very expensive to bring ten musicians to Europe and for us it’s too difficult to book dates.

Where did you make your best concert?

We have very good remains in some concerts. We played in two street shows in the Barceloneta beach, with  peoples who were walking at the street, stopping to watch our spectacle and getting surprised. Also we played at the doors of the Viñarock festival, one of the most important open air festival in Spain.

Can you explain what is AE Distro and how do you work with them?

We worked with them from 2007 to 2009. They distributed our first album, “Eterno Domingo”. They are a copyleft discography that publishes bands under Creative Commons licenses and make booking for some others too. Right now we autopublished everything because we don´t have the money to work with them and we prefer to be absolutely independent, only publishing our album on internet.

If you could make a show or song with one artist  or band, who would you choose?

The Cat Empire will be great!! It’s one of our principal influence.

What’s your next project?

Try to play in other countries and begin to compose our third album this autumn .

A word to finish?

Listen and download our album!! We think that the culture needs to be free and we are sure that you will enjoy our “Cogelo!” album!! And, if it´s possible, try to bring us to your country to play!!

To promote Creative Commons-licensed music and the musicians behind them, Musikpiraten e.V. comes back this year with the Free! Music! Contest.

Until the end of July, musicians and bands releasing their art under a Creative Commons license could subscribe on the website of the association for the contest. Until August 22th there will be an additional remix-phase: the participating artists are invited to submit single stems or acapellas in addition to the individual audio tracks. By submitting individual tracks or the submission of music videos, the chance to be on the sampler will increase - but just a little bit.

A panel of music bloggers, artists and netlabel enthusiast will decides who will be promoted on the Free! Music! Sampler 2010. It will be available as a free download and also pressed on CD. The highlight of the Free! Music! Contests will be on October 2nd in a party at the Wiesbaden Kreativfabrik.

Free! Music! Contest 2009

In 2009, nearly 60 artists, mainly from germany but also from other european countries, the U.S. and Brazil, filed Creative Commons-licensed music for Free! Music! Contest. The published compilation presents a wide selection of music style: german punk, english rock, electro, jazz and modern piano music, almost everything is available.

Despite a price of 2.50 € and a free download option, all 1000 CDs have been given away. On the publication day the sampler has been downloaded only at musik.klarmachen-zum-aendern.de more then 1,500 times!

Musikpiraten e.V.

Musikpiraten e.V. is a registered non-profit association whose purpose is to promote free culture with emphasis on music as an artistic mean of expression. To achieve these objectives, the association organizes and supports events and opereates the musik.klarmachen-zum-aendern.de.

On the website, the association regularly presents bands and musicians who have released their works for free. Each month a creative commons licensed film is presented and shared. In addition, many projects are presented, which can help creatives to make their works more easily accessible to the public, so as to increase their awareness. Last but not least, current news from the world of free culture are published.

Soul music has found his representative on jamendo with Will Hammond Jr. Born in 1969 in San Francisco (Bay Area), he grew up performing in bands and singing in church choirs and theater groups. While studying music in school, he co-wrote in 1991 the hit song “Hold You Tight” for Warner Bros. artist Tara Kemp which went Top 3 on the Billboard Pop & R&B charts and went to become a certified gold record with 800,000 units sold.

In 2003, he released his debut project, “Brothafromanuthaplanet” under his pseudonym “Soul Folk”, for which he was nominated for a 2004 California Music Award. His new project “Soul Folk Continued” is available on jamendo with 27 tracks of pure groove.

You made this hit song “Hold you Tight” with Tara Kemp in 1991. Could you explain us how this could have been possible?

I met and worked with Tara through her boyfriend-producer Tuhin Roy, who I went to high school with. We were working on another band called “Bass House Funk” and initially we used Tara as a singer for the project. When the local radio station KMEL heard the B-side single “Hold You Tight” they instantly thought it was a smash! We got a few offers to release the single until finally Craig Kallman of Big Beat Records signed us on to produce the single and then an album deal with Giant/Warner Bros. Records via music mogul Irving Azoff.

What happened after this success? Did you work with other artists? Have you signed with a label?

When we first started working in Los Angeles, we met a few labels and managers. One of my highlights was meeting Stephanie Mills and playing her a song I wrote entitled “Everytime You Call”. The other highlight was writing material for Color Me Badd’s first album (which were never picked up). I ended up signing a pretty bad songwriting agreement with the previous producers which left a bad taste in my mouth.

As you are in the music business for nearly 20 years now, can you tell me how you think it has changed?

Now that the music industry is going “digital” things have to change in how we market ourselves and what access is given to the average artist/songwriter. It has made things easier for people to promote themselves via YouTube, Jamendo, CDBaby and allow people to download or stream their music globally.

What did you do between 1991 and 2003, the year you dropped your first album “Brothafrumanothaplanet”?

In 1998, I was working in the Bay Area for a bio-tech sales company and got laid off so I decided to move back to LA and start working on my first solo album. A lot of ideas came out of that experience because it was the first time when I didn’t have a set plan in my life and I could just live and grow and build as a songwriter without the pressure of writing a hit song. The first track that came from that experience was “Days and Nites in the City” which was dedicated to my hometown San Francisco.

Can you describe your album “Soul Folk Continued”?

The cd is a culmination of different images from my life….translated into a musical mix of soul grooves and progressive/electronica layers. I wanted this album to be a representation of me; a variety of feelings and perspectives and musically diverse but still staying true to my soul background. From the groovy funk of “When It Rains” to the drum & bass layered “Beautiful” this cd will give you an emotional tapestry of life itself.

What decides you to put it on jamendo?

My fiancée told me about this site when she was looking for music for a class she was teaching. I thought it looked interesting and I built my own page…et voila!

Who made the sounds of this album? Have you made it yourself or you have producers who are in charge of it?

The majority of this project was made in my studio apartment back in 2007. I started with studio beats and sampling and then added some live music. I worked on a Mac laptop, a studio mic and software synths.

Who are the artists who influences you the most?

I grew up listening to Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and Michael Jackson. Big time Prince fan and of course his disciples which include D’Angelo, Bilal and Cody Chesnutt. I would love to work with those producers and writers who made that magic happen. My old drummer used to play me tapes of The Young Disciples with Carleen Anderson, Omar and Mica Paris. I loved the energy they gave to the music and it was free of the boy band sound we get now. It gave me hope to keep writing the songs I want to write and maybe someone would understand my story too.

Where do you find inspiration for your lyrics? How do you work on it?

I am inspired by different experiences in my life. A lot of the lyrics were written from love, life, strife and struggles of living in the city.

You are now the CEO of Dreamtree Entertainment. Can you say it’s the finalisation of your artist process?

I have always tried to stay as an artist first but with the knowledge of writing, music production and sound design for various projects in digital audio. My prior experience has helped me work with theater playwrights and filmmakers in helping them build music scores and soundtrack.

In which way you wish to develop it?

My next big plan for the company is to create a publishing catalog for film and commercials and work with other musicians and singers to write tracks for licensing.

What will be your next your project?

I am working on a few projects…two which may be “digital-only” releases; an acoustic-electric select of progressive soul songs, a children’s project called “Baby Ballyhoo” and a soundtrack cd for indie film “The Invisible City”.

A word to finish? Do you have something special to say?

My sound is eclectic but contemporary, groove-orientated but not static..it’s the soundtrack to the “beat of the city…”

Some sadness, disappointments, sorrows? Happiness, laughs and joys seem to be so far away from you and time seems to go away? Stop for a moment with bilk, Sousbock, Emerald Park, Allison Crowe, Sleeping Sky, Silence is Sexy, … . The music can sometimes make you a lot of surprises.

StrangeZero is an electronic band from Athens (Greece) composed by SteliosZero & Io-V. The two members first met in 1984. Later, in 1990 they started writing music under various names using just a sampler and an Amiga 500. They recorded rain sounds and sounds from the places they travelled to, combined with breakbeats, acid tunes and guitars. In many tracks they used vocals and all these tracks still exist in audio tapes & DAT.

After some years Stelios worked as a radio producer while Io-v went off to Beograd to study medicine. They met again in 1998, when they decided to start an electronic band.

Since they released 5 studio albums, experimenting all kinds of music and create their own sounding. Now they are back on jamendo with their new album “Newborn Butterflies”. It’s time to learn more about this project and StrangeZero!

Can you describe your album “Newborn Butterflies”?

Newborn butterflies is our new start. It’s both of us growing up into chaotic soundscapes and expressing all the words through sounds. StrangeZero died 2 years ago with the album “The Neverlands” and reborn with a butterfly effect. It’s a zero becoming more strange. It’s the definition of StrangeZero growing up.

As you are a duet, how do you work on your productions?

Our sounding is a result of various thoughts and emotional status. Sometimes we write something using the midi with basic presets and we leave it there alone, to mature as a newborn idea. After a while, one of us take it and develop it further. Some other times one of us turns on the microphone and sings a melody… then this melody is synthesized and then becomes something. And other times we just play something using the piano and record it using anything available at that moment.

We always work together on the final result but in parallel we work alone on the synth and/or string ideas, always based on our psychological status at that specific moment. In short words, there is no role, we work as brothers, as a Zero sharing a moment.

After time, when everything is finalized (Newborn butterflies took more than 2 years) we are deleting most of the songs. We don’t want to keep them. It’s like they are lost moments. We only keep the moments we want, the moments that reminds us of something, the moments that meant things and then we take these final audio moments for mastering to the studio.

Where do you find inspiration for your music?

From people around us, from smells traveling from the past to take us back, from everything that triggers an emotion. Our inspiration is the sound itself, the core element of music.

What will be your next project?

We are currently working on a documentary music, which unfortunately will be commercial. In parallel we are discussing of re-mastering “The Neverlands” and adding some extra tracks. We are considering selling the remastered edition through Jamendo in high quality (wav) and giving all incomes to a specific “help cause”. Of course the normal edition is there for free download, since 2008.

A word to finish? Do you have something special to say?

It doesn’t matter what we say. It doesn’t matter what they say. It doesn’t matter what you say. All that matters is where music is taking you and how do you want to end up there. Trust your senses, share you emotions without converting feelings into words. Love and respect…

Discover ‘Ikebana’ their latest video

You do not believe in the Magic of this World ? Stroll through the delighted Universes of Arnaud Condé, Roger Subirana Mata, Galdson, Dancing Willow, Brigan Ensamble, Aislinn … they will prove you the opposite.

17/ Brigan Ensamble - the king set reel

Sweet, melodic, and dreamy, dancing, sunny and retro, without missing a few songs to let off steam. Let yourself go with this playlist and share all its emotions with Lzn02, Syntharmony, Fresh Body Shop, Bodhisattva, Degrees and many others.

We have our own channel on YouTube! Discover the latest video clip and shows of the jamendo’s artists :

Kellee Maize - Big Plans

Amity In Fame - Big Plans

Los Sundayers - No Nos Pertenece (live version)

You have been a real little Angel all the week? The weekend approaches and you want to throw everything away : the suit, the files and shake your head, FREE at last ! Forget the halo, just come and headbang with nocreeps, Sekshun 8, Kernel, Helldorados, REVENGE, Sins n Bliss among others.

After the grayness, a holiday feeling is coming on the air of Jamendo. Delicate sounds, sunny pop, good humor and zen attitude : welcome the sun and let yourself be lulled by the sweet melodies of Adult Only, Morgane Dola, Maya Filipič, Leslie Hunt, Fatblueman and many others…