Do you love what you do?

Hey y'all

Ill start this blog by asking. Do you love what you do (for a living that is)?

I gotta say, I love my job man... many people over my 14 year career in the music industry haven't taken my job seriously and sometimes it can be very disheartening but I've taught myself to shake it off and show them the way it really works and then they're like "aaahhhhhhhhhhh crap" hahahahahaha.... cos its not just climbing on a stage and singing and/or playing an instrument. The awesome thing about my job is that the avenues are endless. There's always some new direction to go in and all can be very lucrative BUT some are dead ends too. That's what's so exciting, is that you never know. I also get to wake up every morning nice n early and start writing or demoing songs. Watching something take shape into something that you feel could be the next big thing (who knows) is like nothing you can describe. It puts me on such a high. A good friend who happens to be my manager worked in the corporate market for over 22 years and was miserable as hell. She woke up mornings and wondered what the hell she was doing. Till the day she decided, "you know what?", screw this vibe, lets take a chance... That's the key in today's world guys. If you don't take a chance you'll always wonder and there's nothing worse than my 2 least favorite words "WHAT IF?" Im only 30 years old but I definitely don't want to be 50 and be stuck in a job I hate for 30 years of my life. If you don't have major responsibilities, take that leap of faith and dive into the deep end. If it doesnt work, at least you tried but remember that there's always a solution to a problem so DOOOOO IIIIITTTTTT!!!!!!

Anyway, apologies for a short one today but just had to share this thought with you as its been on my mind.

Had this chat to a guy the other night and he was having such a huge party on his own and I asked him where's his friends. He says they're working at their dead end jobs they been in for most of their lives. Sad to be partying, man alone, but I actually thought, how crap it must be for those peeps.

Only you can make you happy guys... so take a chance and avoid, "What IF?".

What you think?

What happened?!!

Hey guys and girls

I must just start off by saying, I'm sorry for being so quiet. I've been out of action for a while working on getting my album out and in the process I've completely forgotten about the people that mean the most, you (my amazing fans, friends and family).

I'm back in action now so I will work harder on not being so scarce.

SO......... Some really awesome things have gone down over the last couple of months. Ive released 1 more single after "Everything Ive Got". We tried releasing a 3rd single but got a terrible response for it, hahahahaha... and this is what I love so much about our music industry. We don't like much do we? hahahahaha... kidding. Ive been having so much fun making plans for the rest of 2013. I will be performing my first big show for 2013 on the 3rd of May, but more about that in the next blog.

I have to tell you guys about this really crappy experience I had on the 20th of March 2013 on the night I did a show with Joshua Grierson and BlackStoneRadio. A month or 2 prior to the show we received a contract from the venue stating all these super intense clause's which in our minds, we thought this is awesome cos that means that they're really sorted and organized (checking a venue out thoroughly is important to all those artists that's wanting to book their own shows). During this time we had tech riders and guest lists and poster designs etc sent through via email of which our mails weren't even opened.
So on the day of the show we arrive at the venue round 16h00 as we had to be there round 18h00 for sound check (We are the early bird type hahahaha). The engineer hadn't even heard about the show till that afternoon. The venue takes R1500 off the door, which to be fair is pretty reasonable if everyone sticks to the arrangements and works together, as we know the kind of cost that goes in from the venues side eg. Door Lady, The Posters being put up inside the venue, A stage hand (to help with the setting up to reduce time wasting), back line and more... None of the above was supplied except a door lady and they still held us liable for the full R1500. Now I don't really know what to take from this...
The turn out was so terrible (so we thought). I opened the show with an acoustic set with my band at which time we played to our loyal supporters, the 8 of them made it amazing for us, singing almost every word to all my songs. We had loads of fun on the stage and I knew, seeing this, that our next artist "Joshua Grierson" would really appreciate the small crowd as they were really into the music. To our unbelievable disappointment, Joshua decided to walk out of his set cos, (as directly quoted by him), "I don't play to 5 people so I'm sorry I'm leaving". Is that shocking or am I just old school where you never EVER walk out of a show. Then before "headliner" comes on we find out that all their supporters including the whole band was sitting in the restaurant waiting for their slot and then has the audacity to ask if their supports can pay half the cover cos they weren't there for the whole show. I was so disappointed cos their manager is such an amazing person and was there right through our set and was really being supportive. We decided to work with these artists as we know that they're great musicians and have some great music.

What happened?!!! Have I been out of the scene so long that I missed the part where even musicians stopped supporting one another? I just feel that the decent thing to do would be to encourage your fans and one another to support other musicians, even if I was the worst artist there, its just pure decency.

Ill end this off by apologizing if I've offended anyone as I am not in the naming and shaming game but damn guys. Support costs nothing man, you are right there. Why sit in a different room or walk out cos there arent enough people? Its wrong.

Anyway, enough of the emo stuff.

I will be posting more about the progress of my career and other topics soonest.

One more thing... Gareth James Chronicles stopped quite abruptly as we had some time and technical issues but we'll get back on it soonest.

Gareth James Chronicles - Episode 1 (Get To You - Acoustic)

Gareth James Chronicles - Episode 2 (Let You Go - Acoustic Demo)

Gareth James Chronicles???? and my nervousness behind........

There has been some talk of an album coming soon by local, Cape Town Modern Country artist, Gareth James. Well, you've been hearing correct!!! woooohoooooo!!!

Guys and girls, I am so excited for this release, not just cos its my first full length album EVER but also cos I am doing it in the genre I fell in love with over the last few years, Modern Country. Now when I say "Modern" Country, I mean it exactly as it says. Its Country music with a pop/rock influence. Who are my influences with regards to my debut album? Good question... Here are some artists that I am heavily influenced by:

1. Keith Urban - http://youtu.be/nUVFuK1Opmc
2. Rascal Flatts - http://youtu.be/4fqPcnuVPR8
3. Taylor Swift - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA4iX5D9Z64

and many more...

The recording process was so amazing and working with Award Winning Producer, Jurgen Von Wechmar of Sunset Recording Studios in Stellenbosch was such an honor. Finding a producer that suites your genre is pretty easy in South Africa if you're in a rock band (depending of the sub genre of rock) but finding a producer for a Modern Country genre is super hard as you can imagine with Country stemming from Tennessee routes, but he just did a brilliant job. I also have to thank the musicians involved in making my dream a reality,

1. JP Crouch (Drums - Twitter: @JPCrouchMusic)
2. Andre Hope (Bass - Twitter: @Washburn76)
3. Donovan Chemaly (Guitars - Twitter: @Donthejhonson)
4. Marko Van Der Merwe (Keys)
5. Joe Recroseo (Pedal Steel, Dobro, Slide, Baritone, Electric Sitar)
6. Gavin Edwards (Male Backing Vocals - Twitter: @GavinEdwards_)
7. Berenike Monnery (Female Backing Vocals) and she also co wrote and performed a Duet with on "One In A Million Dream"

Yes this is a big band hahahahahahaha...

So to take you through our studio Journey I am going to put together a series of videos on youtube (release date to be announced soon) called, Gareth James Chronicles, that will feature some studio footage, sneak previews into the album's songs, acoustic performances of the songs and many more...

I must admit... I am super nervous to see how the South Africa audiences are going to respond to a Genre that they all know and love but performed and released by a local artist. What do you think?

Thanks so much again to everyone that participated in the making of this album and then last but not least, the most important thank you goes out to my manager,, Michelle Smit (Twitter: IamMichelleSmit) for her support and ma pal... we are going places...

Keep you updated soon

Cheers for now....

Steal it it's fine but you won't keep me down!!!

Hey Everyone

Good to talk to y'all again.

I'm writing today to tell you guys about my recent ordeal. On Friday morning on the 7th of September sometime between 01:00am and 06:00am somebody thought it a good idea to break into my studio and rob me of my bread and butter. R92500 worth of my life's work was stolen from me including 2 of my prize possessions, a Taylor Acoustic Guitar and a Shure Super 55 microphone. I wish I could explain how I feel about this cos the sad thing is that it's someone I know. Someone that knows MY gear as there were a lot of items that were in there that didn't belong to me and that they didn't touch. According to the detectives this person (I know who you are) had enough time to choose exactly what they wanted and knew exactly what they were doing. Some of the items that were stolen had to be unplugged in a specific manner that the common thief wouldn't know about. Very sad state of affairs this is guys BUT!!!!

I'm positive that this is part of God's plan for me and I know that now. Fortunately everything was insured so now I pray that they take care of me.

This is the list of items:

Taylor Acoustic
Yamaha PC9501N Power Amp
16 Channel Behringer mixing desk
8 Channel Alesis Multimix recording mixer
Dell Vostro Laptop
Behringer Condenser  Studio Microphone
Shure Super 55 vintage style Microphone
Vocalist Live 3 Harmony Pedal

If you hear of anything like this being sold, please contact me on gazaluz@gmail.com or in box me on Facebook (Gareth James)

I will be performing this Thursday evening as a solo act in preparation for my show with Karen Zoid on the 22nd of September with some amazing bands including, "The Inside Job".

Also if you'd like to just pop in and say hi, I'll be at the 48 Band Off at Barnyard Theater judging the finals of the Battle of the Bands. Come around guys and lets support some of Cape Town's best up and comers. The show is on Friday the 14th of September.

Ill update you guys soon with more info...

Cheers for now....

Musicians vs. Live Music Venues

Hey Everyone

I must apologise for being so scarce. Ive just hit a bit of a bad space and am slowly crawly out of it again. I just want to tell you guys a short story about my feelings on the topic of Live Music Venues that don't pay hard working musicians.

I just want to start off by saying, that I speak on behalf of all musicians, whether they do their own songs or whether your in a cover band or a solo act.

I fully get that the Live Music Venues that cater for original bands, well most of them anyway, supply sound and engineers and have costs to cover and I have the world of respect for most of them. BUT my issue comes in with Live Music Venues that don't want to pay for the guys that have been performing cover shows and working dam hard to make a living. I spoke to a fellow musician not too long ago and I was blown away by the price this Live Music Venue was paying musicians, R600 to play for 4 hours. If that's not exploitation that what is and what freaked me out is that musicians are falling for it cos they need the cash. I mean, if mine workers can kill people for a cash increase, then surely we can stand up say SCREW YOU!!! to those type of venue owners. Can you imagine what these venues that advertise and are known for live music would do with no musicians and to top it off, there's nothing violent about standing up as a musician and saying "pay for the quality I deliver or SCREW YOU!!!" (Although in some cases the venue owner could give you a fat smack for saying SCREW YOU!!!) but still... he'll still be sitting with no live music... I mean if every musician thought that way, then maybe venue owners would start thinking.

I mean I have some close friends that own venues that pay amazing cos they know that if you want quality Live Music then you must pay for it. I know as I have seen it for myself that on some bad evenings depending on the size of the venue that they'd still make enough to pay a musician more than R600 and no one plays 4 hours any more guys come on now...

Look I also fully understand where some Live Music Venue owners come from when they book an artist as they're promised so many people or a certain quality and the opposite is delivered. Then hold an audition evening where a certain amount of musicians come and sing 3 songs and then you can choose the best that will suite your venue. But dont have an audition and tell the musicians to do 2 sets (for an audition) and then refuse them a gig afterwords. If the situation arises and they auditioned for 2 sets (which adds up to more than 1h30min) then the least you can do is pay them rather than have let them come out to give you a free show. And if they were really bad then cut your loses but please stop using singers and musicians for your own personal gain and think you guys are going to get away with it forever.

The thing I love the most about our industry is that it's so small. STOP IT GUYS!!! Musicians will always be musicians as its in our DNA but Live Music Venues that make use of Musicians at no pay or minimal just cos they can, those come and go...

I hope I didn't make too many people upset by my blog but I just had to vent and who else can I vent with if not my awesome fans, friends and family. I heard recently that I'm known for pulling good people in and kicking them to the curb at random so I want to end this blog off just to let y'all know that I love y'all very much and respect and appreciate everyone's support over the years. 

Have an amazing week further and feel free to comment as much as you like... If you don't agree with what I have to say I fully understand but comment anyway.

Cheers for now....