http://fredoviola.com/blog en fredo@fredoviola.com Copyright 2012 2012-01-30T19:58:54+00:00 http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/sound_forms_with_peter_wetzler http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/sound_forms_with_peter_wetzler#When:19:58:54Z A couple days ago very impressive and talented musician and composer Peter Wetzler interviewed me for his show, Sound Forms, which plays on local Kingston radio.  Kingston has a thriving music and arts scene, and I’m so happy to have finally been introduced to a few of them.  (I met Peter through my friend Jennifer, who is herself a singer!)  Anyway, Peter asked me to bring over a few songs of my own, plus some songs that I love and have influenced me.  The result is this show, which is streamable from the station’s archive. Sound Forms - radio interview 2012-01-30T19:58:54+00:00 http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/beckapedia_and_guy_garvey_hooray http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/beckapedia_and_guy_garvey_hooray#When:19:52:58Z Got alerted by Google today about a 4 minute piece about me by Beckapedia during “Guy Garvey’s Finest Hour”, a great BBC 6 radioshow by Guy Garvey, lead singer for Elbow.  SUPER YAY! Guy Garvey’s Finest Hour 2012-01-30T19:52:58+00:00 http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/a_new_adventure_and_magic_ritual_acapella_disco_roller_skating_music http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/a_new_adventure_and_magic_ritual_acapella_disco_roller_skating_music#When:14:29:55Z Just wanted to let you know that I have begun to release new music (finally!!!) and will be doing so on my new bandcamp page.  Fredo Viola on Bandcamp I offer you two new songs.  Well, actually one is a song, the other could be described as magic-ritual-acapella-disco-roller-skating music for the most adventurous of you..!  So I figure there’s something for everyone here.  Both of them will be premiered tonight on The Curve Ball, hosted by my favorite DJ and music afficianado, Chris Evans. The first song is called A New Adventure, and it’s pop.  Pure pop.  Actually, the song is about the internet, and the odd second reality that we have created out of it.  Sometimes I feel like we’re building a bubble around ourselves that reflects some aspects of reality but without it’s depth and vulnerability.  That’s what the song is about.  On A New Adventure I have a special guest vocalist, Tabitha Zisser, and her pals Athena and Verity.  Hope you all enjoy it!  Also, my good friend Nancy Kokoro will be doing one of her fun, experimental videos to it on Thursday (I’ll let you know where once it’s ready!) and it is being used in an ad for the an upcoming Etsy Mobile app.  A New Adventure by Fredo Viola The second… errr… vocal ritual is a crazy one.  It’s called Rain or Shine and it’s a completely live, completely improvised performance.  For the past couple of years I’ve been developing a live compositional technique which has a pretty intense ritual aspect.  Anyway, this is one of the best ones.  I love it.  It was written during a time that I was feeling very lost, very down, very grumpy!  And the piece was a ritual to transform that sourness into something ecstatic and full of joy.  The original improvisation was 27 minutes, so for sure it’s been abbreviated, the mix manipulated a bit and I even added the occasional hand clap.  But aside from that there have been no other corrections.  It’s live.  Put on some headphones (and some rollerskates), crank up the volume and enjoy. Rain or Shine by Fredo Viola They are both for sale, and if you want to offer some encouragement, please buy!  They’re only a dollar, or 63 pence in England, 0, 73 euros in Europe! 2011-11-15T14:29:55+00:00 http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/back_from_france http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/back_from_france#When:21:57:01Z Sorry for the delayed post.  I have been back now for a week and still can’t seem to get back jet-lag!  Anyway, the trip to France was a wonderful one.  I had Liuh-Wen and Eddy joining me from the States with their violas, and met Louise Le May and a drummer by the name of Michel Blanc while over seas.  Despite having only 2 days of rehearsal, I felt a real creative bond with all the musicians.  The show was marred by some pretty sizeable sound issues (including a great many blossoms of horrendous feedback) but despite that I FELT IT!!!  I really think we all did. French audiences are great.  Hell, FRANCE is great!  To any French fans reading this, please don’t feel taken for granted, but I’d forgotten how much I love your country, and the experience of singing for you!  I have posted a lot of pictures on Facebook.  My pal Hector came and took a lot of great shots back stage with my 5D.  They look awesome.  Anyway, onwards!  I have a gig coming up the night after Halloween!  Yes, Tuesday the 1st me, Liuh-Wen and a new violist named David Cerutti will be performing at The Living Room, about a 45 minute set.  Should be awesome!  Please come and show your support!  2011-10-17T21:57:01+00:00 http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/cfan_performance_2_invite http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/cfan_performance_2_invite#When:23:32:00Z CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS Any folks in the vicinity of NYC on the weekend of August 13th, please come and see me live at CFAN!  It’s a marvelous church (and venue!) and we have a line up of great acts, beginning with Doris Cellar of Freelance Whales at 8PM, followed by Teletextile at 8:35, followed by me at 9:30, and finishing with some psychedelic goodness from Illuminator at 10:30!  Click the above link for all details! 2011-07-14T23:32:00+00:00 http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/death_of_a_son_from_the_april_show_at_cfan http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/death_of_a_son_from_the_april_show_at_cfan#When:04:17:00Z 2011-06-16T04:17:00+00:00 http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/great_new_i_am_your_autopilot_music http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/great_new_i_am_your_autopilot_music#When:18:58:00Z Hi there folks, Sorry about the silence recently. I had a graphics project that kept me very busy.  I hope everyone’s spring has been a lovely one.  Here in Woodstock the weather has been schizophrenic, really since late Winter.  Anyway, just wanted to draw your attention to 3 great new tracks from my friends, the band I Am Your Autopilot!  They shared them with me while in development, and they started out great, and ended up BRILLIANT!  Take a listen!: 3 GREAT SONGS! 2011-06-11T18:58:00+00:00 http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/spring_lightning_storm_and_red_states http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/spring_lightning_storm_and_red_states#When:16:30:00Z 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. 2011-05-27T16:30:00+00:00 http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/little_guy http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/little_guy#When:15:15:00Z 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! 2011-04-21T15:15:00+00:00 http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/jaimes_writeup http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/jaimes_writeup#When:14:46:00Z 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.” READ LINK 2011-04-12T14:46:00+00:00