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This week on “Music Mondays,” we are featuring Novel Popinjay, a Second Life veteran who creates rap and hip hop tracks that encompass a broad range of moods and tones. His music is perfect for a long summer drive, with some songs being smooth and dreamy and others infused with an upbeat tempo and lyrics laced with confident and candid expression. He is adept at sampling snippets of dialogue and speeches that make it easy for listeners to visualize each detailed moment. 

Definitely check out his SoundCloud and music video to experience it for yourself! 

Q: When and how did you discover Second Life?

A: It's been so many years, I don't even remember how I got on here. I’m 14 years on SL.

Q: You described your music as rap, trap, and hip hop. For those unfamiliar with these genres, rap and hip hop are often seen as interchangeable. In your words, how would you distinguish them as two unique categories?

A: I feel rappers more so want the fame and money, and hip-hop is more so emcees and they love the craft. I feel like I possess both hats. I love the craft and I also have that flashy trendy vibe with my music.

Q: How did you first get involved in making music, and what instruments and/or programs do you use?

A: I record in ProTools. I mix and master my music as well as my artist’s music. I co own a record label with ym hollies called Hoolyville Records. Hoolyville Records consists of 10 artists.

Q: Tell us about the musicians that have been the most influential to you.

A: Sade, Tony Tony Tone, Papoose, Eminem, TI, Donell Jones, R. Kelly, 2Pac, Biggie Smalls, and Big L, in no specific order. I love all genres of music actually and have no favorites. I appreciate different styles for different moods.

Q: What aspects of the SL music community are the most meaningful to you?

A: Live performances, urban DJs and strip clubs. Also shout out to the brothers Kappa Theta Phi!!!

Q: What advice would you give to a young musician who is just starting out?

A: Take your craft seriously, be consistent, humble, hungry, and professional.

Thank you so much for sharing, Novel Popinjay! We look forward to hearing your voice continue to evolve and flourish.

This week’s featured musical artist is Komuso Tokugawa, whose work defies easy categorization. His style has evolved over many years of studying music to the molecular level and is also deeply informed by his travels and different cultures.

(Photo Courtesy of Komuso Tokugawa)

Q: When and how did you discover Second Life?

A: In 2005 I was in Australia researching game based learning and heard about SL. At the time they didn't allow international signups. Eventually they opened it up and I signed up. I quickly discovered there were a handful of musicians live streaming into SL and that sounded interesting (literally!) so I got to work (with the help of some great SL collaborators) and started jamming too. There are a few of those original musicians still jamming in SL too!

Q: You describe your music as Bitstream Boogie and Bluestronica. For those not familiar with these terms, could you please describe them?

A: I have a lot of musical interests, and I like doing mashups of different genres to create new hybrid musical genres to go with my experiments into new sounds and instruments. Bitstream Boogie I'd describe as a mix of groove-based Mississippi Hill country blues blended with world music roots rhythms and sonic experimentation around a core of blues tone. Bluestronica is a mix of electronica grooves with electric blues. I've also done a lot of ambient music work.

Q: What drew you to these genres? Any albums you would suggest?

A: Great question! If I had to describe my style in a short sentence I’d say it’s all about Groove, Tone, and Story. The groove is the heartbeat of the song, the tone is the emotion expressed through instruments/voice, and the story is the composition and arrangement flow that takes the listener on a journey. Any music that has those three elements captures my mind, body, and spirit.

There are so many great influences but to pick a few: 

-Ali Farka Toure & Ry Cooder - Talking Timbuktu

-Morcheeba - Who can you Trust?

-Younger Brother: A Flock of Bleeps

-Atomic Skunk & Bluetech - anything by them

-The Blues Roots: Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, Hound Dog Taylor, Etta James, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and so many more.

Q: What instruments do you play, and how did you start playing music?

I sing and play slide guitar mainly (with a dose of finger style and pick), harmonica (mainly in a rack), Shakuhachi, and electronics of different types via different control interfaces. I developed a dynamically controlled AI rhythm section as backing for playing online in SL.

My parents had an extensive record collection so I grew up listening to a lot of jazz and big band music. Then one night I was trawling the airwaves on my radio (a device we had back pre-internet days) and out of the static came this sound I'd never heard before - the crying sound of a blues harmonica and it captivated me with the emotion. I'd found the weekly blues show from a university radio station, and I was off on a musical discovery journey.

I'm mainly self taught but I've since done a music master’s degree. My experience being a self taught musician has also been behind my development of music education apps like https://harpninja.com/. I'm currently in the alpha testing stage of a new web app I'm developing to help musicians practice more efficiently and effectively.

Q: Your music draws from musical styles found all over the world. How did you learn about these?

A: A big part of it was the uni radio station I mentioned before, they had specialist shows of different genres you never typically heard: African, folk, world music, etc. When I went to uni there I volunteered for graveyard announcer shifts and spent them exploring their eclectic album library. Since then I've lived all over the world (now in Tokyo) and have explored many musical cultures.

Q: What aspects of the SL music community are the most meaningful to you?

A: SL music has always been the "killer app" of SL to me due to its effectiveness in bringing diverse people together to create long term virtual relationships through the high bandwidth emotional channel of live music. 

Some examples:

-Venue owners like Dr. John Kane, owner of Dr. John's Music Park (and also a great musician!), where I've been performing a weekly gig every Friday night since 2013.  There's been a bunch of other great venue owners and promoters over the years (RIP Circe Broom).

-Real time music jams/collaborations with other musicians, like fellow SL musicians Hathead Rickenbacker, Noma Falta, and others. An example of one real time networked live music event in a custom juke joint set I made, filmed by the late great SL Machinima artist Osprey Therian (RIP).

-The audience relationships. I'm forever grateful to anyone who's willing to listen to my musical experiments, and happy it can help soothe their soul. It's as much musical therapy for me as it is for the audience. Many of them are long-time SL'ers who I've never met in real life but we come together via SL to have a high touch emotional connection experience via live music. 

-One of my audience wrote this about me which I think describes my style best: “Komuso Tokugawa’s approach to the blues is unique. The rough-around-the-edges sound is often described as ‘dirty’, ‘grungy’ or ‘alternative.’ Highly experimental, Komuso takes influences from world music and wraps them around the emotionally charged blues core to create his sound.”

Please check out his music below!

Websites

https://komuso.info/

https://sonicviz.com/

Audio Links

SoundCloud

https://hearthis.at/sonicviz/

Videos

https://komuso.info/category/videos/

(photo courtesy of Mike00 Carnell)

This week’s featured artist is Mike00 Carnell, bringing us rock music with an infusion of upbeat blues guitar from Hamburg, Germany. For his performances in Second Life, he is usually accompanied by Henrietta the goat, pictured above. (She also has a RL counterpart.)

Check out his SoundCloud for some fun bops to start your week with!

Q: How and when did you hear about Second Life?
A: A friend from Skype told me about SL in 2007 and after a few weeks I decided to create an account. Her name is Amelle Loon.

Q: What instruments do you play and what brands/models do you prefer?
A: My main instrument is the guitar. At the SL music jams I also play bass and cachon/drums or percussion. The main brands for guitars I use are Fender, Gibson, Taylor and Martin and for amps Fender, Marshall and Roland (RL use).

Q: Your SoundCloud says you live in Germany. Can you tell us about some cool German musicians that people in other countries might not know about?
A: I’ve been to SL music jams or meetups in Germany, Netherlands, England, and USA, and I have met a lot of great musicians at all of them. The ones from Germany are Aminus Writer, Lani Aboma, Wolem Wobbit, Mark Taylor, Edy Rau and more. By now I call them all RL friends.

Q: I remember hearing "Without You" by Harry Nilsson and how much I loved it, and then my mind was blown even more when I heard "Si no estas tu," the Spanish version. Have you ever had a moment like that? How many languages do you sing in?
A: I know the feeling of suddenly hearing a song you know in another language. My preferred language for songs is English for some reason. In SL I sing in English and German. Some people are kinda surprised to hear songs in German in SL, which makes me smile.

Q: Tell us about the most memorable show you've played or seen in SL.
A: The most memorable shows are always the dual (greetings to KevinMThomas Carpool) or multi-streaming shows when you interact with one (or up to three) other musician(s) to create a full band live sound. It is so much fun and also challenging to all jam together.

Q: What is the most meaningful part of the SL music community to you?
A: The most meaningful part of the SL music community is that people from all over the world are connected together, and due to the time zones you can listen to live music almost 24/7. You can listen to all kinds of music, many languages, and accents. 
Especially these days, it’s very nice to have SL live music, you can still play gigs or listen to other musicians, being around people without risking anything.

Thanks so much, Mike00!

If you or somebody you know would like to be featured in Music Mondays, please fill out this form. Wait times on hearing a response will vary, as we have received an enthusiastic response from many talented musicians (to our delight, of course!).

Pictured above: Holly Giles at ~No Strings~

This week's featured artist is Holly Giles (pronounced 'Jiles'), a smooth crooner with an eclectic style hailing from Australia. She likes to sing country, rock, and pop from classic to contemporary and can be found at her venue ~No Strings~ each Tuesday and Saturday at 8pm SLT. (slurl for venue: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Areumdeuli/226/27/80)

Please check out her music on her website as well as this video.

Q: When/how did you hear about Second Life?
A: In 2011 I joined an online chat platform called IMVU due to some personal stuff that forced me to be at home and unable to work. I ended up staying for 5 years. I heard about SL from some people at IMVU who were trying to convert some of us over, haha. I created an SL account in 2015 and kinda used both IMVU and SL for about a year until I decided that SL was more to my liking, with people around my own age. I was in SL for about 2 years before I even KNEW there was a Live Music Community lol, so once i discovered that, I gave away my IMVU account to a friend and I have never looked back.
 
Q: I really enjoyed your renditions of classic country songs. What drew you to that genre?
A: My music is actually very mixed genre, with country music only taking up about one third of my song list. I was raised on classic country music with my mum having her own band in my childhood, so I learnt my love of country from her and I always say that classic country is my soul music lol. But I do love all music so I tend to sing what I love, from classic country, classic rock, 90's pop and country, through to modern pop like Lady Gaga.
 
Q: As with any artistic style, country music has evolved so much over the last century. Which decade/era is your favourite, and why?
A: Oh that's easy. I love the old country. The Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn era of country. These country legends are like storytellers. Every song has a story. Every song has a purpose to it. I don't know how else to explain it. I can have my heart broken and find my story in a classic country song. I can feel overjoyed about something and find my happiness echoed in a classic country song. While I love all music and listen to even the most modernist of pop music, I personally just don't get that feeling from it. I get the happiness of an awesome beat, or well-written lyrics but yeah, not that feeling.
 
Q: If you could open for any musician (alive or deceased), who would it be?
A:I think a lot of people who follow my music would expect me to say Dolly Parton right now, and I thought I would too, but you know, I think I would LOVE to open for Bette Midler. Wow, what a musician she is. I think if I opened for Bette Midler, I could sing anything I wanted to before she took the stage. I could sing some James Brown, followed by a Dolly Parton song, followed by some Creedence lol. I wouldn’t be restricted to one genre, like I would be if I opened for Dolly, I feel.
 
Q: Do you ever get stage fright before performing in SL? Describe your preshow ritual.
A: OMG. I only started singing, I mean really singing in Second Life AND real life 2 years ago. The reason I never sang before is that I suffered MASSIVE stage fright. I would freeze up and my voice would go shaky if I tried to sing in front of anyone. It took a lot of help and compliments from online friends for me to get the courage to sing in Second Life. My very first show I was so nervous that I felt sick. But by halfway through I suddenly forgot that I was nervous and I just sang. I found the talking part a lot harder than the singing part lol. Now, I don't feel any nerves in Second Life, but am working on my nerves in RL lol.
 
Q: What is the most meaningful aspect of the SL music community to you?
A: Without a doubt, the part I enjoy the most is singing a song and seeing in local things like “OMG I love this song!” or "Oh wow, I haven't heard this song in years!” I love getting requests, I love sharing my love of music with others. I love talking about how my mum used to sing this song or that song in her band while I slept under tables at the local pub. I love that 2 years ago I couldn't sing this song or that song, but that now with some practice under my belt, I can blast that song out like it's nothing. I love just being able to sing and the fact that people want to hear me sing still blows me away every time I open my mouth.

Thank you, Holly!