hey everyone...
My band is looking for a new member, to play violin and at least one other
instrument (or voice). Read on to find out a bit more.
About the band
We formed about 4 years ago, intending to be a live drumnbass band, but we quickly ended up with 10 members into so many different things, our style became a mixture of dnb with breakbeat, folk, psytrance, funk/jazz, ambient, rock/metal, latin/salsa, dub/dancehall, etc, etc. The only real way to get a grip on our style is probably to listen to some tracks. You can find some at our website:
http://www.dartrecordings.co.uk/keiretsu/
Where you can also find more info, pictures, etc.
Violin mp3s
there are quite a few mp3s on our ampcast page:
http://www.ampcast.com/music/17539/artist.php
for ones featuring the violin, look out for :
pinch assault (live) - arabianish folky melodies
seismosis (clip) - a folk reel
and see also
http://www.dartrecordings.co.uk/keiretsu/keiretsu__timestorm_clip.mp3
a clip of the title tune of our latest album, handel-style violin in this one.
The vacancy
Our violinist Justin is leaving to go travelling in September. He also plays acoustic guitar and alto sax for the band, so he`s leaving a large hole. It`s critical that we replace the violin, but we don`t seriously expect to find someone who can cover everything he did. So long as you play violin and can do at least one other thing, whether its sing or another instrument (brass would ideal so we can continue to have a 3 piece horn section, but whatever), we can work around it.
In style, the violin parts mainly cover: classical/baroque, celtic/folk/reel/jig and lyrical arabic/eastern melodies. Justin is well beyond grade 8, a lot of his parts are very fast and sometimes in difficult keys as well - so you will need to be a very competent violinist. On the plus side, you`ll probably be working with Justin over the summer to learn the parts from him, and he`s also perfectly happy to score them all out for you.
Naturally, once he`s gone and we start writing new material, then your own styles can start getting showcased. We songwrite entirely democratically - the samplist often writes the bassists bassline, the trumpet player picks apart the guitar part, or whatever. Everyone is involved and this would include you. Whatever your style and tastes they would become a part of our sound - it doesnt have to be the same angle that Justin took with his riffs. Personally I`d quite like to see a country/bluegrass approach to fiddle for example.
What you`d get out of it
We are a very, very serious act. Here`s what Knowledge Magazine said about our gig in CARGO London last summer: "simply put, jaw-dropping... theirs is an intense, multi-layered sound that`ll be headlining Glastonbury`s Jazz Stage within the next two years, if there`s any justice... the biggest audience response of the evening, and deservedly so."
Our response was "whats wrong with next year?"
In other words we are aiming for the top and we definitely have full belief that we can and will get there. Recent gigs have been:
Sunday May 2nd - Brighton Concorde - supporting Lo-Fi Allstars - sell out
Thurs May 27th - Leeds Met Uni- with Exile
Sat May 29th - Newcastle WHQ - Curves - headline set - sell out
Sat June 5th - Strawberry Fair, Cambridge - main dance stage (about 5,000 ppl)
In the summer we`re at the Edinburgh festival again, in September we`re doing a folk/world festival in the lake district plus bits in Manchester, Brighton, London, etc tbc.
So - you`ll get to play all over the country to big crowds of people going nuts. You wont get any money, though! We certainly dont! One day, one day...
What you need to put into it
Of course this has a flipside. We all have to be incredibly committed. I dont exaggerate in the slightest when I say the band is #1 in our lives, bar nothing. We have to arrange our whole lives to accomodate the continued existence, never mind progress, of this band. With 10 people, getting everyone availabile for gigs/practices/studio is a real nightmare, we need people who are very committed. That travelling the country? Well, it`s us that have to drive ourselves and roadie all our own heavy kit around the country. Then (dont) sleep on the promoters floor, and drive all the way back home to go back to the hated 9-5 the next day. We generally cover people`s basic travel expenses but we dont guarantee it.
So, basically you need to be serious enough to put up with quite a lot of cr*p. In our eyes all the cr*p is worth it because the music and gigging is honestly that good - if you`re just along for the glamour or money it wont happen because there isnt any!
If you`re interested, or even if you have ideas where I might someone who is, get in touch
and there`s lots on the webpage
o well we wil hav 2 wait til we r older.shame tho!