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May 27.2011
First, and mostly because I like to have a visual at the top of the screen, here’s this:
Last night we had such an intense and wonderful thunder and lightning storm. Actually it was more lightning than thunder, the sky was lit almost constantly by flashes of lighting all over the sky. But it was the way this storm came upon us that was the most mysterious and exciting: the night was dead quiet. Then there was a distant rumbling. It didn’t have the kind of shape of a normal thunder clap. It was more constant and long. Much lower. But obviously massive, obviously a sound from nature, not a machine. I was watching a movie and put the computer on pause to listen… Then suddenly, and I mean as if a button had been pressed, there was an intensely powerful wind and rain on the roof. Then the lightning started, and I could see the trees surrounding the house violently shaking. The lightning was so bright, so intense, so constant. I ran to get my camera but the storm had taken out our electricity so I fumbled with my camera and was unable to get a reading. About 20 minutes later the storm passed, but it was a wonderful 20 minutes.
Little Guy!Apr 21.2011
Here you are, my friends… performance of my song “Little Guy” from the April 11th performance at CFAN, in NYC.
Just a little back story - the inspiration for this show largely came from working with Liuh-Wen Ting. She’s a brilliant violist and has shown a real interest in my music. We did a little test run together in Spain last October and it lit my imagination on fire! As soon as I came back I started developing arrangements of most of the songs for two violas and harpsichord. Plus, or course, a bunch of sine waves and voices.
Rehearsing for this show was an amazing pleasure. Liuh-Wen brought in Eddy Malave, another brilliant violist, and we began to work on perfecting the viola parts.
My pal Leigh looked me up with Michael Resnick, who’s a drummer in several really great bands, including Inlets and Arpline. He’s awesome, and worked so hard in a very short period of time to prepare for the show.
Finally, a couple words about the song… It’s called Little Guy and it’s about a paranoid schizophrenic living on the boundaries of a small suburban town. He has a war going on (in his head of course) with the children of the town, who in reality spend a lot of time teasing him. He has a personal relationship with Zeus, who has given him the power to create lightning. The battle goes down halfway through between the little guy and the towns-children. You might notice I sing “and lightning strikes!” and then that line is repeated 4 bars later. From that section on I am doing voice looping, building up a pattern of voice harmonies.
This song always makes me cry! Hope it moves you too!
Anyway, many thanks to Jennifer and J from Flat World Productions for inviting us to do this show, as well as providing me with the first mix. I’ll announce this again later on, but we’re preparing for a show on August 13th at the same place. I’m definitely looking for strong male singers for the show, so if any of you in the NYC whereabouts know of any, please let me know!
Jaime’s writeup!Apr 12.2011
Great digital writeup of the April 9th show at CFAN from Jaime’s Weekly Concert Update! YAY!
“Fredo Viola @ Church For All Nations (4/9/11) - A buddy of mine asked me to check out this artist and when I asked for description here is what I got: “Very hard to describe. Esoteric, beautiful, artsy, adventurous.” And having caught the show, I would say those were all accurate in describing the music. Although, I would probably add theatrical somewhere in there. Fredo came equipped with a gentle yet transcending voice that reminded me strongly of Devotchka mixed with Jonsi. His band, which consisted of a couple violinists and a drummer, were simple yet complex in their compositions. It was the type of music that begged for your attention as it drifted by you.
On a side note, I have never been to this venue - a church on 57th btwn 9th and 10th ave - but it was pretty awesome. The acoustics were nice and the room leant itself perfectly to the music.”
SATURDAY NIGHT PERFORMANCE IN NYC!Mar 20.2011
TOMORROW NIGHT’S THE NIGHT! My first gig back in the States in 3 years! It’s going to be a nice set with me, 2 violists (including the immensely talented Liuh-Wen Ting and Eddy Malave) and with Michael Resnick on drums. Plus, of course I’m going to sing my heart out.
The performance is in a Church/venue. It’s called CFAN - Church for All Nations, and I’m told it’s a Hell’s Kitchen Landmark with really great acoustics.
The address is as follows:
417 West 57th Street, Between 9th and 10th Avenues.
Saturday April 9th. My show, which should run 45 minutes to an hour, begins at 9PM.
Looking forward to seeing many of you there.
The Curve BallMar 01.2011
One of the great things about the internet is that it has no boundaries. That’s especially good when there is a British radio show as wonderful as Curve Ball. The DJ, Chris Evans, is as close to a musical saint as I can imagine. Check out his show 10PM UK time (for my US friends, that’s 5PM) every Tuesday.
The Curve Ball