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Meet Algerian band NOMADIX

5/8/2020

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Vocalist Sidali Zaid reached out to me on Instagram about featuring his band Nomadix covering Kaleo's new song "Break My Baby" -- which we of course said yes to! We love a good #KaleoCover. Meet the band members from Amizour in Kabylia, Algeria:

SIDALI ZAIDI (ace) @sidali_zd_: vocals / guitar

MOHAMMED SAID MERZEG @aya_berka: bass guitar

ADEL ABDELLI @adel_abd75: solo guitar

SIDALI WRITES: Alors on est un groupe de musiciens originaires de kabylie, Amizour plus exactement, constitué de : Sidali Zaïdi (moi même) (voix principale et guitare) Adel Abdelli (guitare solo et voix) Mohammed Saïd Merzeg (guitare basse et voix) pour l'instant nous sommes 3 (nous cherchons encore un batteur à l'heure actuelle), on partage un réel amour pour la musique, le rock le blues, le reggae et pleins d'autres styles, nous nous considérons avant tout comme étant des artistes, avant d'être musiciens

Car nous aimons réellement cela, je suis moi même un grand fan de kaleo, à mon avis c'est l'un des meilleurs groupes de l'histoire, et ma chanson préférée du groupe est "I can't go on without you", mais j'aime aussi une chanson qui n'est pas très connue, " that's all how it feels". On espère avoir un jour l'opportunité de les rencontrer et peut être même de travailler avec eux

Nous avons créé notre page sur facebook NOMADIX aussi si vous voulez voir !

Alors on est un groupe de musiciens originaires de kabylie, Amizour plus exactement, constitué de : Sidali Zaïdi (moi même) (voix principale et guitare) Adel Abdelli (guitare solo et voix) Mohammed Saïd Merzeg (guitare basse et voix) pour l'instant nous sommes 3 (nous cherchons encore un batteur à l'heure actuelle), on partage un réel amour pour la musique, le rock le blues, le reggae et pleins d'autres styles, nous nous considérons avant tout comme étant des artistes, avant d'être musiciensCar nous aimons réellement cela, je suis moi même un grand fan de kaleo, à mon avis c'est l'un des meilleurs groupes de l'histoire, et ma chanson préférée du groupe est "I can't go on without you", mais j'aime aussi une chanson qui n'est pas très connue, " that's all how it feels". On espère avoir un jour l'opportunité de les rencontrer et peut être même de travailler avec euxNous avons créé notre page sur facebook NOMADIX aussi si vous voulez voir !

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BEHIND THE SCENES AT RED ROCKS!!!

10/25/2018

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If you were there that night (20 June 2018), you would know that Red Rock String Quartet really added an extra oomph to the Kaleo concert at Red Rocks. When I saw that they had posted a little behind-the-scenes rehearsal clip on Twitter, I reached out to them to see if they had any more -- and they did! Below you'll find a few thoughts and some extra BTS photos from the quartet's co-artistic director, Lauren Spaulding.

"They were super awesome, friendly, and very respectful of us joining them!!"

"Kaleo was made up of true artists! The lead was amazingly consistent with his vocal work, which is very difficult to do on tour!! He expected perfection from himself and the musicians, but he was respectful and reverent of our quartet! "

"Many bands ignore us or think of us as "back up singers", but the whole band was warm and welcomed us into their songs, dressing room, and rehearsals! Thor was especially awesome helping us get all the cues and with some final edits to our music — as we only had one rehearsal before the performance!"

I'm feel so lucky to be able to share these with you, as I was at this concert as well and immediately was struck by the incredible impact the addition of a string section added to the whole experience. Absolutely one of a kind and completely mesmerizing to be a part of.

Becky on cello, Lauren on viola, Yerim on second violin, and Yuanmiao on first violin

My hope for the fandom is that this gets released as a Red Rocks live concert taping...but in the meanwhile, here's my recording of their DOUBLE encore performance from the end of their concert ;)

"We had a complete blast and look forward to working with them again!"

Discover more about Red Rock String Quartet here

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New drawing by artist Camille Mialon

3/28/2017

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Artist Camille Mialon of Roche-la-Molière, France just posted her newest drawing of JJ on Instagram! Here she shares a few thoughts about it with us, including the supplies she used and a behind-the-scenes look at her workspace!

After two long days, I've finally done that drawing and to be completely honest, I'm pretty proud of the result. I choose that picture of JJ because I liked the way he stands on it and his facial expression really inspired me (that pensive and melancholic look makes him look 100 times more attractive ) .

I also picked this one because it is an Ultra HD pic so it allowed me to zoom in on every little details of his face and hands, which are making the drawing looks more realistic.

For the drawing material, I use a lot of different pencils (Brand: H&B, bought on Amazon) from 5H to 8B for the sketch, the details and a little part of the shadows, 3 types of Charcoal (from Soft to Hard) for the rest of the shadows and a drawing fader/stump (<-- not sure of that :/).

For the paper, it depends on the drawing : for this one, I used regular sketch paper.

I hope you'll like it and don't hesitate to click here to leave a comment,
your opinions are always welcome ! xoxo

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2nd Pete Turner Guitars Q & A is now online!

1/1/2017

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After both Pete and Kaleo started posting pics back in November of JJ with his new custom resonator, I knew the second Q&A was going to have to include more info about it. I was hoping it would get played at one of the concerts sometime after he got it so that someone in the fandom could capture it, but alas, only those lucky audience members on French TV got to hear it.

In the meanwhile, Pete and his wife, Heidi, were so gracious in sharing their knowledge, design research, and experiences with us!

Learn more about both the Runes and general guitar construction so that we can be doubly appreciative when it starts making its concert appearances...

Read the second Q&A interview with Pete Turner Guitars here

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Want a piece of custom designer Jenny Dayco's jewelry?

12/14/2016

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I noticed Jenny Dayco early on in my fandom explorations because she kept posting all these photos of her jewelry on the boys as they were beginning to make various U.S. television appearances. I reached out in the beginning of my fansite construction and hoped that she would be down to share some of her work -- and totally surprised me by sending a bunch of pictures from their first meeting
(which you can see all of here!)

Read the Q&A with Jenny Dayco here

I was very excited to learn that she was open to sharing more about her process and how she came to be one of JJ's go-to custom jewelry designers. Not only that, but she's begun re-creating some of those custom pieces for her online store!

From now until December 20, you can get any or all of JJ's stuff plus 20% off your entire order with code TIMETOSHINE

Her tagline is "Want a piece?" Um, yes please.

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Pete Turner and the MARRAKECH RESONATOR

11/20/2016

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I had originally only planned on this to be a one-time interview, not thinking that there could be much I would be able to cover about one band's single resonator guitar.
But then Pete shared this little sneak preview tidbit with me:

JJ commissioned a new Marrakech when we met in July, and I will be presenting it to him at the Koko gig in London on 23 November. I can’t tell you too much about it now as even JJ has not seen the finished instrument, although he did give me ideas for the design.

Here are some photos of it being built:

Sneak peek of my newest baby □□ 3 days until I give it to #kaleo I will be sad to see her go #sneakpeek #guitar #guitarist #resonator #artist #marrakech

A photo posted by Pete Turner (@peteturnerguitars) on Nov 20, 2016 at 4:56am PST

So I can definitively tell you then, that is just a first Q&A with Pete Turner, as we'll be following up later after JJ has had a chance to try out his custom resonator! Fandom, if you get a glimpse of it during its early appearances, tag either Pete or myself on Instagram or send us images of it in concert! We'd love to see it onstage!

Go to the Q & A with Pete Turner of Pete Turner Guitars

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Introducing the Q & A Interviews section!

11/10/2016

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I am very excited to start up this section because I love research and details, and this kind of background information is personally very interesting to me. I know a lot of you will probably think that this is going to be a Q & A section for Kaleo themselves and maybe one day, I'll actually get to do a little interview with each one of them.

But honestly, they do a pretty good job of doing interviews with other people (and you can read as many as I can possibly find here) that I'm actually pretty stoked to bring some light to the other people involved that make Kaleo so awesome for us. And what's even more mind-blowing to me is that the first one I'll get to share is with EYK STUDIO.

It's hard to be a fan of Kaleo and not be a fan of Eyk Studio as well.

Eyk Studio is the production company who have created most of Kaleo's emotionally captivating music videos, and have played a key role in bringing their songs to visual life.

Many of those "WOW!" and "OMG!" moments have come after watching one of these music videos -- especially their live recorded sessions (in a volcano, on an iceberg, inside a cold, snowy church). There's no denying the cinematographic power Eyk Studio brings to the lyrics, and those images become deeply associated in our mind for everytime we hear that song again and again.

I am totally humbled, honored, and quite frankly in awe, to be able to bring you a two part Q+A session with Hörður Freyr Brynjarsson and Pétur Már Pétursson of Eyk Studio to answer some questions about the video production side of Kaleo's music, including some in-depth info about their latest release, "Save Yourself".

Click here to go to part 1 of Q&A with EYK STUDIO

I recently created this logo animation for Eyk Studio. - Our website is finally live @ www.eykstudio.com "We stretch in all directions, have different roots but grow as one." #eykstudio #reykjavik #kobenhavn #oaktree #logoanimation #titlesequence #studiologo #logodesign #filmmaking #filmproduction #videoart #motiongraphics #aftereffects #c4d #trapcode

A video posted by ❌❎❌ (@bachmotion) on Sep 22, 2016 at 9:00am PDT

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"All the Pretty Girls" cover by @taylor_music21

10/30/2016

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When we first heard this cover a couple of months ago on Instagram by

@taylor_music21

we couldn't help but listen to it
over and over again.

We ended up loving it so much that we reached out and asked her to do a full-length version for us.

SHE SAID YES!

A video posted by Jordan (@taylor_music21) on Sep 5, 2016 at 4:38pm PDT

Well, here it is! Exclusively shot and recorded at the end of Oct 2016 for us to debut on our fansite, we are super stoked to bring you the world premiere of Jordan's cover of "All the Pretty Girls" below:

(You can request other songs for Jordan to cover on her
Instagram account @taylor_music21)

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Land of the Vikings - Days 6 & 7

9/8/2016

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by kaleo.fp

Day 6 was really boring cause we had to drive 6 hours back to Reykjavik. We were supposed to take this F-Road to Hella (I love that name) but it was pouring down so we didn’t.

Day 7 was my last full day in Iceland so we did Reykjavik! The capital is really different but very pretty, we first visited the Iceland Museum and that was pretty cool. I loved the architecture of the city with the colourful roofs and the Harpa building is worth a visit. Argentinian steak houses in Reykjavik are very popular and very good. The capital also has many bars which are very cool to visit and hangout in.

One monument to visit there is the Hallgrimskirja, it has really beautiful views of the city at the top and the inside is very unexpected at least for me it was. Last place I visited was Kringlan which was a mall. Compared to US malls this mall is so much cooler! I didn't buy anything which is crazy, but I really had no more room in my suitcase. But my cousin went to Dressmann and bought some stuff, and the lady whom works there asked me why I was here in Iceland.

Iceland museum; viking woman (photo kaleo.fp)

Harpa building (photo kaleo.fp)

Hallgrimskirja (photo kaleo.fp)

I said that I know it was a beautiful country and my favorite band Kaleo was from here. Turns out her brother went to school with Rubin and now plays soccer with Rubin frequently. I was freaking out so badly cause it felt like a small world in Iceland compared to the US or Europe. Like if I asked a random guy in Iceland “who is Kaleo” they would most likely know, but it wouldn't be the case really in the USA or Europe unfortunately.

After we left the awesome store with the girl, we went to Reykjanesbaer to find this really really really good pizza place. Seriously the best pizza crust ever made. After that whole entire trip I really enjoyed all of my time there and will go back very soon to visit anything that I missed and the Northern part of the island.

Iceland is truly a place where it cleared up my mind or I guess you could say “the elves spoke to me” since they believe in fantasies. Even thought it was a short 1 week I will always remember all these crazy things in this tiny country (This country may seem small but it is huge).

View from Hallgrimskirja (photo kaleo.fp)

(Final entry in a 5-part series about kaleo.fp's trip to Iceland)

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Land of the Vikings - Day 5

9/6/2016

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by kaleo.fp

Vatnajökull National Park day! I was actually so scared of this, but I said to myself you have to walk on the glacier cause you might never get the chance again. We put on our hiking boots and walk on the glacier with these spikes that remind me of Wolverine lmao.

The awesome British tour guide moves every 6 months to travel as much as he can (he’s 22 btw). Arron the tour guide actually loves Kaleo too! But anyway we hiked on this glacier for 6 hours and it was so beautiful, but thank God I didn't fall into a crevasse and die… that’s what I was scared about lol. After leaving the glacier we went to this really cool place called Fjallsárlón Glacier Lagoon. It’s a lake with turquoise icebergs in the water of course. Unfortunately we were on the wrong side so we got yelled at by these scientists. We still didn't go on the right side afterwards, but we saw the same stuff as them anyway. Afterwards we were planning on going to Hali which is 15 minutes away but since I'm co-pilot I messed up for once in my life. We ended up driving 1 hour to Höfn! I had never messed up giving directions, but I guess I ran out of luck. We drove back to Hali and slept there.