Just completed a new music video for the song “Buddha Bar Fly”. I wanted to do something with a lot of Bollywood flair for a long time and I finally got the chance to put it all together the way I envisioned it. If you like it, share it with your friends.
Apr 18 2010
New Music Video – Buddha Bar Fly
Apr 07 2010
Marketing through Piracy – the Experiment
The experiment has begun. I eluded to this method in my article “Marketing your music in the age of iTunes” and now I am putting this method of “guerilla marketing” to the test. Getting your songs to be noticed, heard and downloaded via illegal file sharing.
I made two of my songs available for sharing on Limewire and other file sharing services, “Buddha Bar Fly” and “Swing of the Pendulum”. Let’s see how many people find and download these songs. I chose the two titles because they would show up for people searching for “Buddha Bar” and/or “Pendulum”
So, log on and search for “Alan Steward” on Limewire, Aquisition etc. and see how many file shares pop up.
Stay tuned to this blog and I will keep track and report on how many “shares” pop up on Limewire. If you ask me, you’re nobody in the music business until you are famous enough to be pirated!
Apr 02 2010
Remixing “Give it Up”
Attention Artists! I decided to create a “remix album” for the song “Give it Up” There will be five different versions, a HipHop Version, a Female Vocal and Vocal Group Dance Version, a Dancehall and/or Reggaeton version and I am open to other ideas that you may have.
I am on the lookout for collaborators, female and male vocalists, rappers and more. If you like the beats in “Give it Up” and you think you can bring something new and exciting to the song, please contact us at alan@alansteward.com
I will have ongoing updates on the remixes and collaborations in this blog and you can get a front row seat by keeping tuned to this blog.
If you don’t remember the song, here’s the short (video) version of “Give it Up” (This one doesn’t have the Jamaican “Bad Boy Bass” section). To hear the full version, just look up the song in our Music Juke Box.
I hope to hear from you and we create some magic together.
Mar 19 2010
Back on tour in Europe soon
Hello everybody. It’s great to be back on tour in Europe this year. Got our headquarters set up in Belgium this time, not the Netherlands but in today’s EU, the difference is about 5 minutes or 5 km.
I hope to hit a lot of new venues this year with the help of our new tour management, the Music Farm and things are off to a great start. I hope to see you all this year in the UK, Belgium, Netherlands, France, Germany, wherever the tour takes me.
Stay tuned for updates right here and if you know of a great venue where I should be performing, let me know at bookings@alansteward.com
Alan
Oct 18 2009
On a Mission
At the Swing of the Pendulum. My original Blog Post on a return to music revised with some personal thoughts from the the group Pendulum.
Alan Steward on a Mission – at the Swing of the Pendulum
Alan Steward, the self proclaimed (and so far undisputed) “King of Chill” is on a mission to bring musicianship back to the music scene.
If you would ask Alan what the music of Alan Steward is all about, the answer would be: “It’s about a return to music”. He feels this change is in the air right now. People want more than just blips and beeps, more than just ‘turntabelism’.
“I can’t believe that concertgoers will continue to be satisfied by watching a bunch of “DJs” who’s act consists of nothing more than sticking their right hand in the air every 45 seconds. Can that really be called a “live concert”?,” laments Alan
The success of the Australian Drum and Bass group Pendulum is a perfect example of this trend. Here is a group that actually plays Drum and Bass music and not just spins CDs. Pendulum has been consistently on the top of the electronic music charts. Another example is the Prodigy. No longer just two DJs spinning discs, the Prodigy live show features vocalists, guitar players and more. It’s a return to music and it’s a good thing.
“Personally, I always seem to be a little ahead of the trends with my music, using breakbeats on my album before that word even existed and using loops and samples before anybody ever heard of Fruityloops and Acid. But this time, I don’t mind being a groundbreaker and pioneer. I see new fans enjoying my music every day. People from Uruguay and Poland, from Japan and France are forwarding my songs to their friends. The change is in the air.”
Alan is taking his electronic world fusion style of music on a European Tour in December to promote his latest album “Licensed to Chill Tour” and he’s scheduled to hit the UK at the Purple Turtle in Camden on Dec. 8th. You can stop on by and see and hear for yourself if Alan can live up to his promise of “bringing real music” back to the stage.
As Alan’s latest song states, “At the swing of the Pendulum . . . your fortunes will turn” Maybe Alan will “be the change”?
We posted this article on our blog a while back but yesterday, I found this bit on Pendulum’s very own MySpace page:
“We want our music to be an escape. While technology continues to constantly advance production techniques and (arguably) sound quality, something has been lost in the process – that original sense of self-escape, the idea of leaving yourself open to experience something you don’t necessarily find in every-day life. That was the energy we picked up on and liked about electronic music when we first got into it. It felt like the same energy found with bands like Led Zeppelin and even The Beatles, and still occasionally today with bands like Tool, The Mars Volta, Queens Of The Stone Age and others.
To us, it made perfect sense to combine the best of both worlds, but it had to be done in a way that didn’t make it sound obvious. In the last 10 years you’ve had all these bands that tried to cross the bridge by recruiting a turntablist / using a synthesizer on their new single, or electronic artists who just threw an obvious guitar sample into a tune…but eventually it just came across as a gimmick or a bit cheesy. We thought we’d try and do it properly, because to us it still hasn’t been done right and theres a lot of room for exploration.
Oct 16 2009
Edgar Winter’s Frankenstein
When you ask me for the one song or album that most influenced me and my music, I still keep coming back to Edgar Winter’s “Frankenstein”.
Besides the fact that this song was absolutely revolutionary way back in the early 70s to combine funk, rock and electronic music, that song still represents very much the kind of music I am making today.
Edgar Winter took his Moog synthesizer and made it sing, wail and dance at a time where nobody even understood how to use the thing for anything but to ‘make noises’. I can’t really claim to be the first to combine soul and funk with electronics (as in today’s house music), Edgar Winter was the one who did it and that song rocks to this day.
People have been asking me about musical influences all the time and I am never quite able to get an answer while other musicians wish to sound just like U2 or sing just like Luther Vandross. My influences come from all over but I can truly say, “Edgar Winter’s Frankenstein got the ball rolling for me..”
If you don’t know the song, check it out on iTunes or at your favorite internet music site. It still rocks!
Oct 10 2009
New Video – Rising from the East Live!
You can get a glimpse of Alan’s upcoming live shows right here. We filmed Alan during rehearsals for the “Licensed to Chill” European tour and the results are now on YouTube:
Enjoy! And please come out to the concerts to support the Underdog. Click here: Tour Info Link
Oct 06 2009
Licensed to Chill European Tour
Alan’s European Tour schedule is beginning to fill up. Alan will be touring the UK, Netherlands and Belgium (still working on Germany) from November 28th to December 12th.
Here are the confirmed performances so far:
28.11.09 – Lambooijhuis, Hengelo, Netherlands
30.11.09 – Muziekgieterij, Maastricht, Netherlands
01.12.09 – The Purple Turtle, London, UK
05.12.09 – The Premises, London, UK (Invitation only)
09.12.09 – Spirit of 66, Verviers, Belgium
To get more info and to get tickets for any of these shows online, you can visit http://www.alansteward.com/european_tour.html
To the first 100 people who book a ticket online at each venue, we give away “Licensed to Chill” CDs autographed by Alan Steward. Online ticket sales will be available from October 15th. Simply come to the Euro Tour Page and click through to the venue you would like to order tickets for.
Oct 03 2009
A Visit to the Temple of Boom – Alan Steward in Concert
The room is pitch black. Only a eerie red glow cuts through the fog that covers the stage. You can make out several banners with Oriental symbols in the background, the kind you see in Kung Fu movies. An orchestral soundtrack starts playing through the speakers. Am I in the wrong place? Is this the Prague Symphony? From backstage, a bright halogen flashlight cuts through the red fog. Here’s Alan Steward, in his typical Indiana Jones adventurer outfit, entering the stage with the bright halogen flash light scanning the stage. He is pointing his flash light into the crowd, scanning the audience while the smoke thickens and the colored glow itensifies.
Suddenly, a booming 808 drum beat cuts through the orchestral soundtrack. Yes, I am in the right place and the “King of Chill” has just entered the “Temple of Boom”. Alan grabs a guitar and sits down centerstage. Not an ordinary guitar mind you, this one you can see through. He starts playing an acoustic solo that reverberates sweetly throughout the room while the sub bass continues to boom in sync with the ever swelling sounds of the orchestra. We are in for a good chill this evening.
Well, not really. As soon as the first song finishes, an ultra deep synth bassline is taking over paired with a pounding drum beat. A sweet female voice chants in Hindi over the arpeggiating synth lines and pounding rhythms of “Global Warning”.
In the middle of all this multi cultural audio mayhem is Alan, pumping out guitar leads that would make Jimi Hendrix blush. This musical magician has taken command of the stage, effortlessly controlling the multiple keyboards, vocoders and drum pads. The high tech light show is in perfect sync with the music, switching from multi colored washes bathing the stage in a colored glow to strobes and lasers that move to the beat of the music. Alan’s live repertoire includes a mix of songs from all of his four albums, from “The Groove Enigma” to the unreleased drum and bass tune “Swing of the Pendulum” from his upcoming “Temple of Boom” album. Calling his show “high energy” may be an understatement. Alan combines rock, electronica and world music into a tight coherent musical mixture that is almost impossible to describe.
With every song, Alan seems to be raising the energy level just a little and by the end of the show, the audience is rocking. It’s the return of the rock star. Alan is playing his daft punk inspired rock anthem, “Underdog”. The audience is singing along while Alan grabs his guitar and leaps to the front of the stage to play the final lead. “We are all just Underdogs. we are all just Underdogs” The vocoders are fading…….. The King has left the building!
Sep 12 2009
A Return to Music – At the Swing of the Pendulum
If you were wondering about the meaning of my latest song “Swing of the Pendulum” and if it had anything to do with the group Pendulum, here’s my official explanation:
If you would ask me what the music of Alan Steward is all about, the answer would be: “It’s about a return to music”. I feel this change is in the air right now. People want more than just blips and beeps, more than just ‘turntabelism’. Deep inside every person there’s an appreciation for rhythm and melody. That’s been like that for thousands of years.
I can’t believe that concertgoers will continue to be satisfied by watching a bunch of “DJs” who’s act consists of nothing more than sticking their right hand in the air every 45 seconds. Can that really be called a “live concert”?
The success of the UK/Australian Drum and Bass group Pendulum is a perfect example of this trend. Here is a group that actually plays Drum and Bass music and not just spins CDs. Pendulum has been consistently on the top of the electronic music charts. Another example is the Prodigy. No longer just two DJs spinning discs, the Prodigy live show features vocalists, guitar players and more. It’s a return to music and it’s a good thing, believe me.
Personally, I always seem to be a little ahead of the trends with my music, using breakbeats before that word even existed and using loops and samples before anybody even heard of Fruityloops and Acid. But this time, I don’t mind being a groundbreaker and pioneer. I see new fans enjoying my music every day. People from Uruguay and Poland, from Japan and France are forwarding my songs to their friends. The change is in the air.
At the swing of the Pendulum . . . your fortunes will turn.
Have a listen: http://www.reverbnation.com/tunepak/1806839
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