Interview: Boots With Spurs

Boots With Spurs really are quite fantastic, but it wasn’t until we had a chance to chat to them that we realised how fantastical they are as well. Their debut album is a brilliant piece of work, seemingly concocted out of a recipe of 30 years worth of science fiction films and The Mars Volta. You can read a review of that here. As the band sat in smoking jackets drinking a bottle of wine they found at one in the afternoon, we spoke to them about pretty much everything. Warning: the following transcript is not for the faint of heart.

The Only Thing I Know For Sure: Hey guys, thanks for taking the time out to chat, and thanks for the album as well, it was really good.
Clay Bail (Guitars): Thanks for the awesome review.
TOTIKFS: Yeah, I do apologise for making it sound as if you lot were a bunch of mental cases, starting it off with mentioning the asylum!
CB: We couldn’t decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing. I think we all decided that it was a pretty alright thing. We can be mental cases.
David Finch (Bass): That’s why we’re wearing smoking jackets!
TOTIKFS: At one in the afternoon! I really enjoyed it; I thought it was really refreshing. Normally when you get sent unsolicited stuff like that and you listen to it, it’s like some 14 year old kid sitting in his bedroom crying with an acoustic guitar and having a wank at the same time.
CB: We all do that to. We don’t record it though!
TOTIKFS: I’ll start by asking a massive question – how did the band form, and why?
CB: Well that was the two of us (Matt Gonzalez, drums). We’d been around eachother for a while and we were just hanging out one night. We’d never really made music together at all.
Matt Gonzalez (Drums): We weren’t even friends!
CB: [Laughs] Yeah. His roommate plays in a band with my roommate. And so, we just started messing around on an acoustic guitar and we decided it sounded cool, which is kinda funny because you wouldn’t guess it listening to our music. So the two of us started hanging around in my basement and we started composing music that was just for us to have fun playing it. It was just going to be guitar and drums and then after we got into the studio we decided we should fill it out a bit. We took three months off and Matt wrote some lyrics, I wrote some basslines and we got our good buddy Vince from High School to sing for us.

TOTIKFS: So why did you choose the name Boots With Spurs?
CB: It really amounted to us sitting in a room writing down all of the cool words we could think of. Then we decided that Boots With Spurs best fit what we were going for. We’d already written ‘These Boots Were Made For Moonwalking’ and we’d just started ‘The Sun Never Sets On Andy Griffith’ so I think we were in that zone and it seemed appropriate.
TOTIKFS: Are you all big Western fans?
CB: Absolutely.
MG: I think the main dichotomy is that I am the band’s resident Native American. Clay is the band’s cowboy, and when the two of us were in the lab writing everything out that’s how everything panned out. We’re huge fans of cowboys vs Indians.
DF: And astronauts!
CB: I’m a big fan of all the scores for all of the Leone, Eastwood movies. Those definitely had some inspiration. On ‘The Sun Never Sets On Andy Griffith’ you can hear a little bit of that in the melodies, particularly the intro to the whole record I think is a pretty good homage to that.

TOTIKFS: What were your initial inspirations when you were setting out? Who did you want to be like?
MG: We wrote ‘These Boots Are Made For Moonwalking’ first, and at that time I was really under the influence of Jon Theodore from The Mars Volta. His drumming took me to new heights I think; I started studying a lot of his drum parts, a lot of the grooves and a lot of the wacky time signatures they did but by the time we were wrapping up ‘These Boots’ we were reaching out to all different types of places. I started getting a lot more into Frank Zappa and The Mahavishnu Orchestra and a lot more jazz-fusion groups that we tried to incorporate into this post-punk bubble. When people ask us what we sound like, most often we’ll say psychedelic post-punk.
TOTIKFS: That really came through; the whole Mars Volta thing was an obvious influence.
MG: The stuff that we’re working on now for future recordings…I mean we’ve moved on a lot since then already. So you can expect some very different sounding stuff to come out from us on our next recording.
CB: If you take our record and reverse the order of it so that ‘These Boots Are Made For Moonwalking’ is first, you’ll see a lot more pop structure in that; there’s a lot more of us using recurring themes and composing one big half-hour piece. Whereas ‘The Sun Never Sets On Andy Griffith’ we ended up doing it like it was a movie, where every part is a different scene. It jumps around a whole lot and the parts don’t necessarily match up one next to the other if you were to put the tracks out of order. We started to go into different styles and write some parts that just sounded like nothing that we’d written before, and we’re still doing that now.

TOTIKFS: Has music been something that you’ve been doing for a while?
MG: Yeah. I remember I got my first drum kit when I was 14 years old.
Vince DeSantiago (Vocals): Me, Clay and Matt all went to High School together and we all went to the Chicago Academy for the Arts. Clay and Matt were both in the music department and I was in the musical theatre department, so I sang everyday for four years straight and Matt played drums and Clay played guitar.
CB: That amounted to about six hours a day of practice while we were there.
MG: I don’t like to admit that though. Because, if anyone asks me how many hours I’ve practiced in high school and they hear six hours a day, they would be like ‘why the hell aren’t you better?’ Now if I practiced for six hours a day I’d probably be a very disgusting drummer!
CB: It’s a matter of what we were playing to I think. I’d been playing guitar since I was six years old. I did years of classical training before I ever picked up an electric guitar. I started playing electric when I was twelve and then got into Kiss and AC/DC and stuff like that. That would turn into Led Zeppelin and it just kinda grew from there. We’ve been practicing for years but we’ve been dabbling in different styles. Matt played punk rock drums for…forever!
DF: I think this is the first time we’ve ever encountered this type of musical experience and performance. I’ve never played in a band like this, and we’ve all played in many bands prior.

TOTIKFS: You’re still a young band at the moment. How long have you been at it?
MG: We’ve played two shows so far. [Laughs]. We’re brand new but we’ve already got a lot of attention from the people who have come to our shows. You can tell that it’s going to be a very cult-like atmosphere coming to a Boots With Spurs show. We want everyone to dress up like Indians, and instead of clapping do Indian calls.
TOTIKFS: You could have half the people come as cowboys and half come as Indians, and instead of a wall of death you could have a wall of cowboys and Indians attacking eachother.
MG: At our first show, I put on the invite that I sent out to everybody, that if they showed up dressed as an astronaut I’d make sure they got in for free. But nobody came dressed as an astronaut!

TOTIKFS: Let’s talk about the album for a bit. Put it in your own words – what is the whole thing all about?
CB: It’s a fusion of Apocalypse Now and 2001: A Space Odyssey. The concept is that there’s this one human being out in space by himself, driven a little bit mad by solitude and he sees all sorts of things on the way that no human being has ever seen before. So, whilst he’s cooped up, he’s also being let out of the basic human lifestyle and by the time he reaches the final destination ‘Goldilocks’ which is…y’know, the porridge isn’t too cold, it isn’t too hot, he finds the planet that’s right for humans, a place that could support human life. Then he thinks ‘what do I do from here? I’ve found this pristine planet, and I could save the human race, bring them here and we could expand and move to new frontiers or I could preserve the sanctity of this planet that I’ve just found’. And that’s the dual ending thing we’ve got at the end of the record. Ending A, it’s supposed to be the arrival of all the world’s ships to colonise the planet which is now essentially fucked. Then on ending B he decides that he doesn’t want to let the rest of the human race know about it, and it’s him just releasing himself out of the ship to float aimlessly.
MG: We all wrote lyrics, but I think especially on ‘The Sun Never Sets’ I wrote the majority of them and then because of that I was the one who had to set the story out scene by scene with the lyrics I wrote. Basically, the major themes of Andy Griffith are…what I think of it as is the story of the boomerang. What goes around comes around; it’s this story of redemption, it’s this story of second chances and it’s this story of finding things within this world that you didn’t think existed and using them to play the part of your life.
CB: We kinda wrote the stories as we went. It was something that right off the bat we got about through ‘Space Heater’ and then we said ‘what’s that song about?’. We started talking about ideas for what it would be setting up for the rest of the record. Once we’d sorted out the basic story there, we just built on it as we wrote the music. Every track was a new section, a new scene, and by the time we got to Andy Griffith it was just ‘ok, what happens next’ or ‘hey, I have this part’ and we’d practise it and then say ‘what scene in the story was that?’ So we just wrote it as we wrote the music and the stories changed over time from what they started out as. We’d write a new part and then that music would inspire us to take a completely new turn with the plot. ‘These Boots Were Made For Walking’ was always going to be a sort of sci-fi-esque thing.
MG: The way I could probably quickest sum up the plot of ‘These Boots’ is that it is the story of imperialism in outer space. It’s written much in the same vein as Heart of Darkness and the film Apocalypse Now. It’s set up with the same structure: this man is on his imperialist voyage, stopping at these hubs on his way, until he gets to the place where he finally realises what he’s supposed to do there, and by the time he does his prerogative has changed along the way.
TOTIKFS: I think a lot of people will read this and not know whether you guys are absolutely barmy or complete geniuses!
MG: We wanted to avoid the whole pop structure thing from the beginning. It’s just so dull to me. You have your intro, verse, chorus, bridge, verse, chorus, out. I’m done with that; I think musicians can start being more creative than the same thing every time.  There are a lot of bands who are now and have been doing things similar to what we’re doing, and that’s just the way I prefer to listen to a record. I want to put a record in and listen to it from start to end.
DF: I think it’s almost a difference of sitting down and reading a good novel or reading a book of short stories. Either approach can be done, and be very meaningful, but I think I enjoy an entire album as opposed to flicking track from track.
CB: I like when albums avoid silence whenever possible, unless it’s to achieve an effect. There’s an interview with Omar Rodriguez-Lopez that I read: he said ‘I’ve just never liked hearing pauses between songs – you put on a record and it gives you two minutes of energy and then cuts you off, starts you over and then cuts you off, rather than just taking you for this long ride’. Rather than a whole bunch of different paintings, it’s a series of paintings that will tell a story together.
TOTIKFS: Will there be any extensions to the stories?
MB: ‘The Sun Never Sets’ is only the first part of this story. Andy Griffith has a lot more to do before his story is over.

TOTIKFS: It’s pretty all over the place what you do. What’s the music scene like in Chicago?
CB: There are some good venues for sure. It’s hard to get people to come out in Chicago it seems. People are more into going out to bars with jukeboxes than bars with bands I think.
MG: I left Chicago, and went to Florida for three months around this time last year. I started noticing that the thing with Chicago is, when you have your childhood friends here and you leave then you come back, and you see that everybody is still up to the same shit that they were doing 20 years ago, it’s a bit disconcerting. People in this town aren’t ready to move on. I’ll try to phrase this without sounding conceited but we’re doing something musically that people in Chicago aren’t willing to try. People in Chicago want to hear punk rock, and metal and pop music, and there are great blues bars but people aren’t ready to elevate music here. Everybody just wants to do the same thing they’ve been doing, forever. It’s a little bit annoying.
CB: There are some fantastic blues and jazz musicians in Chicago for sure, but as far as the rock scene goes I think stylistically it’s a little bit limited.
DF: I think moreso, there are a lot of great acts that come through Chicago. Everybody wants to play Chicago because once you have the following I think everybody follows very closely. Trying something different doesn’t often happen with bands that come out of Chicago.
CB: Yeah, it’s a huge place for big bands that are touring. We have some enormous venues here, and the Rolling Stones come through and they’ll play three nights sold out. People are going out to concerts but there’s not that much local attention.

TOTIKFS: As a band you obviously want to grow your audience and succeed. But does the nature of the music industry contradict your music style in some respects?
DF: Absolutely. If we’re going to compete with any other original pieces that are being compiled, we have to be a whole three steps ahead of them. I think we’re a very diverse group of individuals with different influences.
CB: If the four of us were to write down individually which bands influenced us the most we’d have a page of a thousand bands.
DF: It would be comparable to the Rolling Stone’s top 500 articles. We try and know and understand everything that has come before us so that we know where to take things to the next level.
CB: The fact that we’ve been taking Latin lessons is us just trying to take that a little bit farther and learn some better communications skills, because I think they’ve got some of the best communication skills out there musically.
DF: I think communication verbally is something as well that we’re all getting together with. We like to have a good time and joke around, but we’re also working really hard to be able to communicate with one another and get our ideas down without having any arguments or taking anything personally.
CB: We bicker like a 40 year old married couple but we love eachother! But that’s what happens when you’re writing music with eachother for a whole year.
MG: Think of it as if me and Clay were locked into a room for four months with only eachother.
CB: Practising every day with one other person, you learn to have productive bickering!

TOTIKFS: Just to close off, try to explain your sound to an alien visitor who would have never heard of you guys.
DF: I think we feel that the aliens already know what we’re talking about! I think we could play giant arenas in outer space whilst no-one here would be following us.
MG: We’re trying to make Boots With Spurs the most fun you’ll ever have at a rock show. You can come out, you can dress up, and it’ll be like Halloween. Everyone’s hootin’ and hollerin’, jumping around, participating with us. It’s a dual thing going on: we’re up there playing for you, but we need you to come out and have the most fun you’ve ever had.
VD: As the audience relies on us to entertain them, we rely on the audience to entertain us as well.
DF: We want the theatre to not just be us on stage performing; we want the entire theatre to be a part of the show. Everybody that stepped in there is a supporting role in the cast.

[Via http://theonlythingiknowforsure.wordpress.com]

INTERVIEW: SUNNY DAY REAL ESTATE

interviewed for FasterLouder...

We’ve been working real hard the last couple of months just writing a record and thats just been really fun

Sunny Day Real Estate were one of the bands that both profited and were hindered by the explosion of activity and attention that centred around Seattle in the early 90s. Coming from that town they were immediately subject to forensic attention from the media and lumped in with what was being termed ‘grunge’. The reality was quite different as the band were coming from another place altogether. Their sound wasn’t derived from garage and punk rock, nor was it influenced by metal. It was a more dynamic sound that stemmed from teenage years listening to the likes of Slint and Fugazi and a chemistry between the band members that resulted in a democracy of their instruments and a kinetic energy in the combinations of their playing.

On the eve of their first ever visit to Australia, the newly reformed quartet are amazed that they have the opportunity to play in this part of the world. “I’m are so looking forward to getting over there, I can’t wait,” says guitarist Dan Hoerner. “We have this really great team of people [Foo Fighters management] that put this thing together for us. We would probably never have been able to do an Australian tour like this because we never would been able to meet anyone who would set up the tour for us. Right now we are getting to do things we would have never been able to do before. The USA tour we did, like 17 of the 21 shows were sold out and some were places we’d never played before,” he enthuses.

The touring over the last 6 months has given them a chance to revisit many old songs and one in particular has taken on a new lease of life. “There was a song on our first record called Grendel and it is one of my favourite songs and we could never get an arrangement that worked because we wrote that song in the studio and it was a conglomeration of a bunch of different things and we never really had been able to figure out satisfactorily how to play that song. This last time we got together we all sat down and it was the first time we got to play with Nate [Mendel] again since the ‘Pink’ era and we realised that with Nate we were able to play Grendel again and I think we played that almost every night on tour and I loved it. I think that’s one that does really well live,” Hoerner says.

Reunions often begin as a warm and fuzzy experience but has the reformation lasted with the excitement it first generated? “It just feels like things are going really well for us now. Things are moving forward of their own accord and its something we’ve never really experienced as a band before with things going well. I’m waiting for something to break,” laughs Hoerner.

Too often the first step of playing live gigs together is the only step so fans will be over the moon to hear that Sunny Day Real Estate are moving forward together. “We’ve been working real hard the last couple of months just writing a record and thats just been really fun. We’re in the writing and demoing process right now and we’ll probably go into the studio after we’ve done the European/Coachella thing,” Hoerner estimates.

“We want it to be good, we don’t have expectations about doing anything in particular or sound like anything, we just want to make a record that appeals to us. That being said, we’ve always tried to do the best we can do when it comes to making a record and this time’s not any different,” he explains.

The chemistry between the band members is something that caught the ears of fans when they first heard Diary and LP2 (The Pink Album). They were able to weave drama and intensity with guitar, drums and vocals and they weren’t afraid to do it with both a delicate and brutal touch. “We have this particular alchemy with each other and there’s no way of telling why or what it is. Whenever we look too closely at it or try and pick it apart and figure out how we did some of the best things we’ve done, invariably we miss the mark. Luckily this time around we threw off all caution and just started playing songs and not caring if they were even good or not and so that has been really freeing and fun,” admits Hoerner.

“That’s the thing about writing now that I love, that we just started going for it and I think that’s why those things worked in the past – we did not care if anybody would be listening to our music and we didn’t care that our stuff was really weird and had no chance of being on the radio or anything and we just sort of did it. I think that’s the way we need to keep doing it because we could never sit down and intentionally write a song that was going to be a hit. We’re just not that kind of band,” Hoerner proudly states.

Since their mid 90s heyday SDRE’s influence has often been apparent with indie guitar bands who have sought to create new and interesting diversions from the mainstream. This continued appreciation, the apparent camaraderie in the band and the prospect of a new album are all exciting signs that the short term forecast at least is looking great for this unique group.

[Via http://doubtfulsounds.wordpress.com]

Kim Bum's interview to Jyosei Jishin

(Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone! Here is a translation of Kim Bum’s interview to Japanese magazine Jyosei Jishin, a Valentine’s Day gift to all of you! Enjoy!)

This time Jyosei Jishin features the young “pretty boy” actor Kim Bum. Through the TV series East of Eden, Kim Bum received a lot of attention from the female reviewers. Later, Kim Bum gained further popularity via the role of So Yi-jung in Boys Over Flowers.

X-Gun (the show host): “Wow~~ that’s him! That’s him”
“Hello. Nice to meet you.”
Kim Bum: “Nice to meet you.”
X-Gun: “wow, you look really handsome!”
Kim Bum:” Thank you.”
X-Gun says to the interpreter :”He understands what I said.” Then he turns to Kim Bum, “you’re so tall.”
Kim Bum:”Thank you.”

How many times have you been to Japan?
Kim Bum: About ten times.

What do you think about Japan?
People in Japan are very friendly and polite. Personally I like Japan a lot and hope can come here more often.

In Japan, flower boys are very popular. You played Nishikado (So Yi-jung). Including the other three roles, which one do you want to play most?
I think Nishikado is a very charismatic role. Even I could go back, I would choose to perform the same character.

We have another version Flower Boys in Japan. What do you think about it?
Since the original version of flower boys has been very popular, I feel some pressure, especially for the viewers who have seen the previous version. I would consider their thoughts upon the new version.

Talking about Kim Bum, apart from TV dramas, we also have this (he’s taking out Kim Bum’s Japanese single from his pocket.)
This is my personal album, which hasn’t been released in Korea. A single only released in Japan.

This album also includes a Korean song?
Yeah. It includes a soundtrack called “now I’m going to meet you” to Boys Over Flowers and my latest Japanese single as well.

What are the difficult parts of singing in Japanese?
No matter what this song is recorded in Japanese, a foreign language for me. So I was worried if I would be able to express my feelings well through the song.

Any plans to expand your career as a singer?
After releasing this album, I feel music has its own appeal, which is different from that of acting. If possible, I’d like to pursue further education in music.
That’s also what the fans are expecting.

What type of girls do you like?
Since my job doesn’t have fixed schedule. Hope she can be considerate and supportive.

Talking about fans, what are the differences between Japanese fans and Korean fans?
Koreans fans are very active and strightforward. Japanese fans seem very gentle and considerate.

If there are any restaurants or places you always go when you come to Japan?
I like Japanese noodles and Harajuku in Tokyo.

If you go to Harajuku, are there fangirls screaming to you” it’s Kim Bum”?
No really.

So it’s going to happen from now on.
I don’t think so.(laughs)

The same thing happens in Korea?
I don’t really have chances to go shopping in Korea?

Can you tell us what are your goals?
I hope there can be more chances for me to meet overseas fans, including Japanese fans.
Also, due to my busy work schedule, I hope I can have more personal time and be more productive. I will try to bring new dramas to the viewers.

You’re 20 years old, right? How do you keep up with your busy schedule?
Try to work out a lot and keep healthy.

Any break afterwards?
A very short break, around one week.

Please give Kim Bum more break time, and let him rest more.(talking to his management.)
Have a nice rest in such a short break.

Then, Kim Bum gives out his autography, including a “thank you” in Japanese.

Credit Kim Bum’s Chinese fansite and the video uploader

[Via http://bumsso.wordpress.com]

I'm Not Afraid Because I Know

Carrie Underwood took time before performing the “Star Spangled Banner” at the SuperBowl to answer fans questions sent in to VitaminWater. She talks about her tour, where she gets her energy from, and more.

She looks absolutely breathtaking. I just don’t know what it is that is so beautiful about her but she has it.

Thank you to the mystery person on formspring who sent this in Don’t forget to follow us on twitter @BeautifulBallad!

[Via http://beautifulballad.wordpress.com]

Unemployment Limbo

Well, fellow failures, the Respectable British Educational Institution with which I interviewed did not hire me. I take some small comfort in the fact that they have re-posted their ad more than once since I received my rejection e-mail, which means that none of the other candidates they interviewed were what they were looking for. I guess they know what they want.

In the meantime, I’ve been to one more interview — which I went in for on a moment’s notice. I had sent in my resume for an office/sales position with a car importer-exporter, and they wrote back telling me I should give them a call so they could tell me more about the position. When I did, the guy suggested I just come in to talk to them in person. I was totally unprepared for an interview, not having showered or eaten yet that day, but I threw on some respectable-looking clothes and hopped the train to Shinjuku. The guy met me at the station and took me to a coffee shop in the bottom floor of their office building to interview me, only for one of the first things out of his mouth to be, “We’re looking for someone to stay long-term …” Right. I’m willing to be a little evasive with potential employers on the subject of how long I’m staying in Japan (which really is until August at the latest barring, an amazing job offer), but I’m not going to lie outright, especially not for a position which I was just told may involve training for up to six months. Ever the optimist, I offered my services for any short-term work they might have — and it’s possible they may be able to give me a job translating their website into French. WHICH WOULD BE AWESOME. It’s been over a week and I haven’t heard back yet, but one can hope. Oh, the hope.

Meanwhile, recognizing the distinct possibility that I might not find a job by the time my tourist visa expires and will have to hop a plane back to the States, I’ve started perusing the Denver job listings again. Nothing much listed for positions starting as far out as April, but I did apply for a couple government jobs and one position with a travel company. Don’t think I’ve given up on Tokyo: I’m still scouring the dozen employment websites I check constantly and sending in my resume for the few that I can actually in good conscience apply for. But the more time goes by, the more likely it is that this will be just a tourist trip. Either way, I intend to enjoy it.

[Via http://generationfail.wordpress.com]

Machinima Winner - archonmerc!

Remember the machinima contest that Allods Online NA had? Well the winner was announced, and it was a damn good video. The winner was archonmerc. Check out the video:

We happened to get an interview.

The winning video was the recruitment advertisement for Bloodpact. Can you tell us a little bit about Bloodpact?
Once I start, I could go on forever! I’ll just say that we are a mature bunch, we really don’t care for drama. Although we are a hardcore guild, my philosophy is that you don’t have to be a jerk to be a badass. (Can I say that?)

As for our history, we started in Corum Online (gPotato land!) over five years ago, and since then played 2moons before we came here. The core members and leaders are like a family, and instead of making cliques in such a huge group, we include everyone! We are lucky to have many members from the EU, Australia and Asia too, keeping it active 24/7!

As for me, Bloodpact is on my mind all day long, that might not be healthy, but it’s surely good for the guild.

Now how about a little bit about yourself?
My name is Thomas, I am a 23 year old journalist and photographer from Norway. I play on the North American servers (and have brought friends!) because of the language barrier and clique nation/region-centric guilds in the EU.

I just got out of the Royal Norwegian Air Force a little over a month ago where I completed my one year draft. I had actually signed up for news about Allods months in advance, and was bummed the closed beta testing started before I could complete my service. It hasn’t hurt me though, and I’m glad I could manage to ’scramble’ Bloodpact on such short notice with a lot of help from my sidekicks Arteigon and Aewa.

What was the inspiration of the video?
Actually, Allods is inspiration enough! It was everything I hoped it to be and more. I always like to make videos for guilds, but now my interest was piqued with the fantastic foundation for getting majestic shots in Allods Online.

It was actually never my intention to enter the contest, just because it was a guild advertisement. A guildmate, Kemwer, pushed me into it though! Haha.

How long did it take you to make this video?
Not long enough… When I say that, I mean I love the process of making it as much as seeing the finished product. But I’m sure I lost a few potential levels on my characters to say the least due to being wrapped up in video making. Better time spent now than in open beta, am I right? Overall, I think I spent upwards of 10 hours and 200GB of hard drive space on recording it, and 40-50 hours on the editing.

It’s OK though, the sun never comes up in Northern Norway during the winter anyway, so I’m not missing anything!

I’m constantly adding new Allods videos to my YouTube profile, and have already made 3 of them since the contest entry, so I guess I’m an avid advertiser for the game and Bloodpact.

Did the video come out the way you invisioned it?
Truth be told, yes. Funny enough! Although I made the mistake of not uploading it in high definition, in this case for me it just adds some more character. And the movie itself, I am quite content with just because I found the right music, and patched the shots together just how I planned when recording them.

Who did the voice over?
Actually, I’m wondering that myself. I found the line on a CC sample sharing site, and when I asked for who to credit I just got back a generic answer. It does however fit quite well!

Did any others help you with the video?
Yes! First off, Kemwer, the Brazilian stallion, got the shots from the end of CBT#3 dance of the old square, and made our new logo as well. So much credit goes to him here. Also, the entire Bloodpact guild of course! At that time we only had around fifty members, but there were no problems getting suggestions and critiques, or people to come to the “set”. And of course, Astrum Nival who’s amazing art direction makes such beautiful scenery possible – and gPotato for giving this magnificent game to us through the intertubes.

Anything you’d like to say to The Novograd Times readers?
Support Allods, and respect your fellow players =)

It’s a monster high quality game made with love and care and detail. Might be sounding like a fanboy here, and maybe I am, but I just urge people to stay with it and keep it up! The community over all is pretty nice, and I don’t want that to change ever. You guys rock!

–

Once again congratulations to archonmerc. Enjoy your Razer Megalodon Headset!

[Via http://novogradtimes.com]

Logan Sama: The Grime Minister

Little Dee, Logan Sama, Blacks and P Money at KISS

Logan Sama has become like the Prime Minister of the grime scene. You’ll always catch him being blunt, straight to the point, controversial and protective (when it concerns the grime scene anyway) and he has obtained great respect for doing that over the many years that he has been involved. I caught up with the KISS DJ to talk about grime, mainstream radio and…The Chemical Brothers?
MindOfGrime: Over the years you have become known as the Prime Minister of the grime scene. Why do you think that is?

LOGAN SAMA: My radio show has always been about promoting the scene. From keeping the live sets going on legal radio, to showcasing the most exciting talent to a commercial radio audience. I guess it is by default seeing as I have the only 100% grime show on legal radio, I got ”elected” to that role. I’m a public servant of grime.

MOG: Servant you know [Laughs]. Okay, so tell us about your DJing history…

LOGAN SAMA: I just started buying records when it was called garage in like 1999, listening to guys like Ez, Karl Brown and Fonti. I used to have a mess about on friends decks, because I only had a hi-fi turntable. I got proper decks in 2001 and ended up getting a show on Rinse FM in 2002. In 2005 I got onto KISS and that’s how it I got here.

MOG: Your show every Monday night on KISS has been a huge part of the grime scene getting out to the masses…

LOGAN SAMA: It’s like the first rung of the ladder for guys who are really hot on the underground to climb into mainstream visibility. All these guys in the charts now have to come through my KISS show and 1Xtra to become commercially viable artists. Of course I focus on the grime sound though, rather than the artists specifically.

MOG: What was it about grime music that made you decide to make a career out of it though?

LOGAN SAMA: Just out of chance really. I happened to do really well, really quickly and I have to thank my family for being supportive and understanding when I dropped out of university to ”be a DJ”. I know my dad thought I was fucking mad.

MOG: I’m sure he’s proud of you now Logan. In January the station decided to cut your show from 2 hours to just an hour. Tell me honestly how you felt about their decision?

LOGAN SAMA: Well firstly it wasn’t just my show, it was all four shows in the 11-1 slot. So that’s the funky house, drum & bass and electro shows too. It was just a scheduling shuffle, not anything reflecting on the popularity of the genres, obviously I am disappointed that I have an hour less time to promote the music I love and the live bars get cut down as well, because that’s my favourite part. It’s going to be tough to work out a new format for the show, but I am sure we will manage. Radio is always changing and nothing stays the same, these things happen and I am glad there’s still a place on legal radio for a 100% grime show.

MOG: That is very true! Do you personally like any other type of music apart from grime? I mean, what did the parents play when you were growing up, because I’m pretty sure they weren’t into Tempa T or Big H?

LOGAN SAMA: I like loads of different music, random shit. Dean Martin, Nirvana, Chemical Brothers and Masters At Work. Before I got into garage and the underground stuff I used to listen mainly to some mad electronic stuff like old Prodigy, The Crystal Method and a load of other stuff. When I was growing up it was all 80’s bands and I remember my old man used to have a load of cassettes like Sting & The Police, Dire Straits, Genesis, Adam & The Ants and Blondie. I enjoy 80s pop music cos’ they use a bunch of cool synth sounds that I often hear people going back and using today with plug-ins for their software sequencers.

MOG: You run a label, Ademantium, right?

LOGAN SAMA: There’s just so much music being made and I saw that not enough of it was coming out. I started the label up to try and get some of the tunes I was playing on the radio out into the shops and I know it must irritate the piss out of people to hear tunes getting played by DJs on the radio and they can’t get them. When I was a fan of underground garage, starting out I wanted every tune I heard and then when I got into DJing, guys like Slimzee and Mak 10 had all this amazing music. I just wanted to make sure more of it ended up in the shops and hopefully that can continue into this new decade with new sales models.

MOG: What do you have planned for 2010 and beyond?

LOGAN SAMA: I just want to continue to promote the grime sound. This decade is going to be really exciting, because with the Internet we really have all the tools to do everything ourselves, so I am going to try and do as much with it as possible. Multimedia shows, live events, connecting with the buying market, that’s what I want to do and just really get this great music out there as wide as possible.

Catch Logan Sama on KISS every Monday 12pm – 1am

(This was a 5-10 min chat with Logan, he couldn’t done it any longer)

Huge thanks to Logan Sama for this interview,

Mind Of Grime.

[Via http://mindofgrime.com]