This week, we decided to venture into Times Square. Honestly, if you live here, chances are you don't frequent this area unless you work here. Not that its a bad place, because really, its the heart of NYC...but its a little hard to take in on a regular basis. Wall to wall everything!
Unlike Union Square, where the people are the main focus, Times Square is known for tall buildings, hypnotic advertisements, tourists, taxi cabs, bombs, police, Broadway shows, hotels, and now, a 24 hour Forever 21. lol Seriously.
Heineken threw a huge party on the west side of Manhattan in a huge warehouse as part of their "Inspire" world tour. I actually ran into 'Jenni from the Bronx' host of the 2chix1mic radio show and we hit the green carpet with our guests then hit up the party which featured many guest DJ's, and reknowned reggaeton artist "Tito El Bambino," as well as other artists.
The event provided tons of things to do, from live instruments to rock out with, Silkscreening, to customize your own t-shirts, photo booths, tons of games, food, and an endless supply of Heineken all free for everyone attending.
I have actually been a guest on the 2Chix1Mic radio show in the past and got a chance to sit down with JenniFDB and talk to her about her show after rocking out on the guitar a little bit. So with that being said, we will be doing a full feature on JenniFDB very soon.
Here are some photos that capture some of the fun going on that night...
Harvey Champagne and I decided to go see Billboard #1 artist, Sylvia Tosun perform at F-Word on Friday, July 30th. She performed some new songs from her upcoming EP, Above All, and her number 1 dance hit, Push n' Pull. My shots of the performance are actually terrible in comparison to the actual performance (and the pictures that somebody else took). I have to say, her performance was very impressive. During her first 2 songs, there was some feedback from the microphone...and although she still sounded great, Sylvia stopped the performance for a sound check and delivered an impromptu opera song. Yes, opera. Her songs may be sexy house tracks, but the lady can belt out some amazing notes.
We got to catch up with her backstage and she agreed to do some Q&A with us! So we will be doing a feature on her in the next few weeks, as her EP will be dropping at the end of the month. Here are the pictures we were able to salvage from that night:
Sylvia Tosun and Mike Milan
The Blonds and friends backstage.
Sylvia and Harvey Champagne
For a taste of her music, check out her Mike Ruiz directed video for Underlying Feeling:
You can also be a fan of her on Facebook..and view much better pics of the performance: Click Here.
I first met The Fire and Reason during one of their photo shoots as I was assisting the photographer, Kareem Black. What I first noticed about them is that they are really cool, fun and relateable. No big ego's or pretension despite the fact that they are NYC's electro-pop, rock stars. The group is made up of Bella, the vocalist/song writer, and Steve, the genius behind the beat making. We are definitely fans here at SWNYC, and we know once you listen to their music, you will be too. Their songs are super catchy, energetic and overall party ready.
Are you ready to get hype?
The Fire and Reason have performed all through out NYC, Boston and San Francisco, just to name a few cities. They even had their first TV performance on The 2009 NewNowNext Awards. Definitely the makings of a group on the verge. Fresh off of their video shoot for their newest single, This isn't Love, I was able to catch up with Bella and ask her some questions.
SWNYC: How long have you been making music?
BELLA: We have been making music as The Fire and Reason for over 3 and a half years. I have been writing songs for as long as I can remember. Steve has been in various bands over the past few years-- and I think we finally found the perfect fit, for the type of music we want to be making.
SWNYC: How would you describe your sound? and is there a direction you want to take your sound that you haven't experimented with yet?
BELLA: Our sound is electro-pop-rock, for now-- we definitely want to explore more organic sounds in our next set of recordings. We call our sound Edgy Pop- because it is catchy and people love to sing and dance to it, but the beats Steve writes are definitely harder than most stuff on the radio- I know we want to explore more organic sounds, like strings, piano, and acoustic instruments next. We love the dance stuff, but we really want to challenge ourselves as songwriters and not be one trick ponies.
SWNYC: What do you want people to know about you that they may not know? It could be personal or musically etc.
BELLA: Hmm-- Well I have a LOVE and OBSESSION with FROGS. I love anything that has frogs on it. Steve was a comic book geek growing up, and he was a really good comic book artist as a kid, and still doodles a bit.
SWNYC: Whats next for The Fire and the Reason?
BELLA: We want to finally release our ALBUM, we wrote, recorded, and produced it all on our own, over this past year- and want to get it out to our fans! We want people to hear our music, and whether it's on a record label or self released, it will be out in 2010!
SWNYC: Whats so great about NYC?
BELLA: Anything can happen in NYC. There are so many amazing, and talented people here in NYC- and an artist/musician has access to everything here. So it's a great place to be, to network and meet people that you can collaborate with and make amazing works.
SWNYC: What do you want people to know about you that they may not know? It could be personal or musically etc.
