Oct 9, 2010
Current mood:inspired
Hi there
Can you believe just 3 years ago, I relaunched my music career after it being part-time for so long. Starting and finishing the album I’d worked on by putting a band together, independently releasing my album HerStory on iTunes with what I thought was a pretty wicked marketing campaign mixed with a hectic schedule of gigs. That was just 3 years ago and somehow it feels like just the other day. As long as it’s taking writing new material and trying to find the right person to place my songs/me…I am loving just being a musician full-time. Yes, it’s many many miles away from home but it’s so grounding exploring new ground…and I love wearing sunglasses singing GaGa’s Pokerface!!! I really am having the time of my life working for el-live Productions. So since Sin-City Singapore with MaXimum and Magenta bands, this is what Miss T has been up to…
Three weeks ago I landed in Muscat, Oman, my first Middle East Country to perform in. Arriving shortly after Ramadan, I met my new band members from Liquid Band (http://www.facebook.com/#!/liquid.el.live?ref=ts). A six-piece…covering rock, reggae, latin and top 40 hits. You’ll find Wilson Novoa on keytar and lead vocals, Michael Mullerleile on guitar and vocals, Robert Angelow on keys, Rob Varro on drums and vocals, Nuno Vilar on Bass and of course me on lead vocals. It’s always fascinating and nerve-wrecking meeting new people you’re going to work and live with…but a month down the line and it’s such a pleasure working with these Cats!
Our venue is called Safari Club and decked out in true African fashion, so I feel right at home when working! Our audience is really mixed, more male dominated on most nights and culturally diverse. Oman has a massive expat community of South Africans, Tanzanians and British as well as Lebanese, Indians, Philippines and many Middle Eastern people too. Most Oman and Asian women are Muslim, so are pretty much homebound. Being a Muslim country men and women are required to behave and dress accordingly. Men wear a long robe called a Dishdasha with a Kumera hat, whilst women wear an Abaya, their clothing covers every part of their body except their eyes. Of course, non-Muslims do not have to wear any of this attire but there are rules of the Sultanate to abide to whilst living here. Omani days of the week differ too. Saturday is Monday and Friday’s on Wednesday…and on Sunday (western-world Friday) at 2am every night club and live music venue shuts, a bit like closing time in the UK! Shopping is a bit like European times 9am-2pm and reopening from 5pm-midnight. On stage, as performers we are not allowed walk off the stage and sing/dance with the audience, we have to perform from the stage and work the audience that way. There are other live music venues, but the key is not to focus on what they’re doing as we’ve got our own thing going on. So with all the different cultures, rules and regulations we’re learning and implementing these changes into our show so that we still rock out! It’s not a piece of cake when starting out, but you always have to work hard at anything if you really want it to be a success…and then work a zillion times harder to keep it and move to the next level.
The most amazing part of my job right now is that we have an audience which appreciates so many genres of music. Our crowd will go crazy for anything from The Doors to Bob Marley to Pink Floyd to Lady Gaga to Cranberries to Akon to Santana…I haven’t seen anything like it before! But know that when we give them what they want, we’re guaranteed to bring the house down. It can be a pop-tastic or rocking-crazy night…it’s a completely different mindset when you need to change the playlist constantly like this.
So each week, we listen to what the audience want to hear and learn about 4-6 songs per week to keep our people happy.
Coming up is the October Beerfest celebration, Halloween plus a weekend of birthdays within the band…I hear the bells of Funhouse ringing!
So check us out and RSPV at http://www.facebook.com/pages/event.php?eid=152278421469099&ref=ts or please keep in touch on my twitter/facebook updates….there’s plenty of inside info and photographic evidence of our time here, all in the name of music!
Thank you to the new fans too, just loving your vibe :>
More to come soooooonnnnn…lotsa love to you all!
LT
XXX