Featured News

Photo provided by Fly Kugin

This week's featured artist is Fly Kugin, an immensely talented violin player who injects a classical flair to jazz, rock, pop, and music from all over the world. She enjoys both solo performances as well as dual-streams with many talented SL performers.

For more information and to hear her music, check out her official website and SoundCloud

Q: When/how did you hear about Second Life?
A: I discovered Second Life five and a half years ago. I had a new laptop and was searching for games. I discovered an advertisement on the internet about Second Life, so I downloaded the viewer and created an account. It happened by accident via the internet.

Q: At what age did you start playing violin, and do you play any other instruments?
A: I was at a fine arts high school when I started playing the violin and have been playing since then. At the same time I also started playing the piano. In addition to the violin and the piano, I can also play the flute and the ukulele.

Q: Are there any aspects of playing the violin that are specific to this instrument and not found in other string instruments?
A: I was at high school when I started playing the piano and violin, as I stated above, and in the beginning the violin was harder for me to play than the piano. This is because I had experience with the piano in middle school. I had a small keyboard and was playing melodies and the piano was initially my first musical passion. At the beginning of my professional classical music education in high school, my main instrument was the violin and everyone in my class had to play the piano. I still loved to play the piano at the time, as I was more familiar with the violin, but one cannot get the sounds as easily on the violin than on the piano. But my high school violin teacher started to give me very emotional pieces to play. An example of such a piece is Pietry Illyric Tchaikovski's "G Minor Canzonetta." This particular classical piece went straight to my heart and was so emotional. After this, I started to practice the violin more. Within four years I realized my violin skills had improved very much. I applied to university with the violin as my piece for the entrance exam to the music program, and I passed! At this point, the violin was my main passion. In music I really cannot compare any instrument, but I was wrong because you have to be patient with instruments. I was not patience with the violin, so in the beginning the piano was my main piece and I practiced it more. I believe that there is no instrument that is harder than any other: all instruments can be played if you have time, patience, and are willing to make the sacrifices necessary to learn the instrument.

Q: What are some of your favorite songs to cover on the violin?
A: There are too many to count and name! But there are a few that I feel really passionate about. These pieces are: Lara Fabian's "Je T'aime," Queen's "Show Must Go On," Tomaso Albinoni's "Adagio," and Lucio Dalla's "Caruso." I am always adding new covers, but I cannot ever stop playing these four pieces.

Q: Tell us about your creative process as it pertains to instrumental music, like how you convey ideas and feelings without words.
A: This is hard to explain, as it is about feeling. For example, if the song is about losing someone, I put myself into the song so to speak and I think about a time when I have lost someone and put that emotion into playing that particular piece. If the song is a funny song, I remember a time when I was having fun as a child and put that particular feeling. My feelings are reflected with my violin fingers when playing. Music is a reflection of feeling, so the audience will feel the pieces as well. If I feel happy I will play happy music, If I am sad then the music I am playing is sad.

Q: What is the most meaningful aspect of the SL music community to you?
A: For me the most meaningful aspect of the SL community is the music. Because music is life for me. Music is the place or object where I realize I am real when I am in Second Life. Music makes me feel so alive.  I could make music in any location or in any time zone, but Second Life provides a great opportunity for me to share my music to strangers and friends who are around the world. This is important because there are so many people around the world who have different perspectives about music, so getting appreciation from many people from different backgrounds and cultures gives me confidence and makes me very happy.

Thank you, Flyqueen!

If you or someone you know would like to submit content for Music Mondays, please fill out this form.

This week's featured artist is Downunder, who has been playing energetic rock music in SL for over six years. Come get amped up at one of his shows soon!

His music can be found on SoundCloud.

Q: When/how did you hear about Second Life?
A: Well it was by accident really. I was on a program for a while called IMVU, where I could dj only. A friend on there that recommended Second Life to me, as he said you can perform there, so I joined up. At first I didn't like it, avatars weren't so good, so I went back to IMVU for another year or two. Then, I finally went back to Second Life and stayed. I was lucky to find an awesome manager, Pam Astonia, who has been with me for many years, and of course the amazing Downettes. They get to experience what it's like to be onstage and they all do an amazing job.

Q: How did music come into your life, and what instruments do you play?
A: My love for music began at an early age, always listening to the radio for new bands, but unfortunately I played professional sports so that took priority. It was only when I retired from sports that I joined bands and started playing all over Australia. I’ve tried to play the guitar but was hopeless, so singing is what I concentrated on.

Q: How would you describe your style, and how has it evolved over the years?
A: My style is all over the place, I like to consider myself an entertainer as well as a singer. I love having the crowd involved, I feed off that energy and at most shows I have too much energy and perform for many hours. I think my record is a five hour show. I think most SL performers evolve together for all new genres that come around.

Q: What are some of the albums/tracks that have helped get you through the last year?
A: Bands like Matchbox 20, Neil diamond, Foo fighters, and Inxs to name a few that I draw my inspiration from and have helped me get through a personally terrible year for myself.

Q: What was your favourite inworld performance?
A: Other than the numerous charity events, the show that always sticks in my mind was a memorial for a past manager of mine, Annie, who unfortunately passed away. It was a very hard show to do as she was loved by a lot of people, and I still dedicate her favourite song to her to this day, bless her.

Q: What is the most meaningful aspect of the SL music community to you?
A: Well, the talent. So many amazing performers in Second Life right in your lounge room, every genre, anything you like. Now that is amazing.

Thank you, Downunder! If you or someone you know would like to submit content for Music Mondays, please fill out this form.

Have an amazing week, everybody! 

Donn Devore at Gonja Land

This week's featured artist is Donn Devore, a talented multi-instrumentalist who creates electronica and post rock inspired by the paranormal, his spiritual experiences, and more. He even has an album of Brony music!

Please check out his official website, Bandcamp, and an extended YouTube set.

Q: When/how did you hear about Second Life?

A: It was around the Thanksgiving holiday in 2006 when I saw a news story on tv about SL and virtual worlds. I had been playing WoW for a couple of weeks but I wasn’t that interested in quests and monsters. SL seemed more interesting: with an economy, virtual real estate, you can fly everywhere, meet people, make out with them, have a laugh, and no one is trying to kill you. I explored SL for a year before I decided to perform. I saw musicians performing for crowds of 80+ listeners in a sim and thought, I can do this! So I learned how to set up a Shoutcast audio stream and started playing gigs, singing cover songs and playing acoustic guitar. That was in October 2007 and it’s been an interesting ride. 

Q: What types of instruments do you play?

A: I play guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, synthesizers, organ, drum machines, and various electronic devices. I’ve played guitar and keys since I was about 9 years old, I took lessons as a kid and studied music in college. I performed in metal and hard rock bands all through high school and college but was always creating electronic music in my room with synthesizers and drum machines. I worked as an audio engineer in recording studios for many years so that experience helps with the technical aspects of performing a live stream show since it’s essentially a live broadcast of a studio session. 

Q: While there are so many types of music software, do you have a favorite or do they each serve different functions?

A: It depends on what kind of project I'm working on. I’ve been a Protools operator for over 20 years in recording studios. It’s the most stable DAW and is especially good for recording acoustic instruments and bands, and it’s better at synchronizing with video or film. But in the last 5 years I prefer to use Logic Pro and Ableton Live for electronic music production. Ableton is a loop-based digital audio workstation which lends itself well to electronic music, letting me trigger samples and loops in real time to create a song from sections instead of a pre-recorded track that plays the same every time you play it. I use Logic Pro for a few specific instruments because it has the best sounding Hammond B3 organ and electric pianos in the game.  I perform using Ableton Live and Logic Pro in combination with real keyboard synthesizers. With Ableton Live I can create song arrangements on the fly using an 8x8 grid controller like a Novation Launchpad, triggering different loops that play the various sections of a song. It gives me control over each individual instrument in the mix. I use drum pads and note repeat functions to play live drum fills, create transitions, and dial in delay and reverb effects on the fly. Or, I will let the loop run for a while and I’ll play melodies or improvise solos on keyboard or guitar.

Q: I'm a fan of electronic music and I really enjoyed your album Telepathic Alien Communication. Did you have a strong reaction to the Pentagon releasing UFO videos? Although it quickly faded to the background with all the 2020 madness! 

A: Thanks! I’m glad you enjoyed the album.  As a fan of the paranormal and ufology I appreciate this question, and I could speak for hours on UFOs and the decades of government cover up. We’ve known since the 1970’s that UFOs have shut down nuclear launch control systems like Malmstrom AFB in Montana and visited military bases in the UK. Other countries have released video and information about UFOs. Our military has known about them since the 1940s going back to the Roswell crash and the Mt. Rainier sightings or the Phoenix Lights in 1997 and other more recent events like the Tic Tac videos released by the Pentagon. I’ve followed many of the authors and speakers in the UFO community that have advocated for disclosure for many years so it wasn’t really a surprise, but it was an odd time to drop that information on the public given what we’ve all been dealing with in 2020. Most people either didn’t notice, didn’t care, didn’t believe it, or said “I’ve been saying this for years and I told you so!” I’m probably in that last group. But we should always be skeptical since we've been lied to and they have reversed their position on this topic many times in the past.

My personal contact with aliens was through a series of shamanic experiences. With the intention to quit smoking cigarettes in 2015 I used psilocybin mushrooms to help me overcome my addiction to nicotine. In those ceremonies I communicated with different alien-like entities. This is a common report from people who travel in these spaces. I composed most of the songs for that album as a result of those intense experiences. I spent the next three years recording and mixing the songs, all the while suffering from serious health problems as a result of a toxic mold exposure. This album project was part of a long healing process for me and the ‘aliens’ gave me encouragement to continue on the path, to find ways to heal myself from a painful chronic illness, to tell my story and help others. I’m in a much better place now, despite the current pandemic, since through that crisis I have learned many different methods for maintaining my mental and physical health. Music is a part of that along with a healthy diet, yoga and exercise. 

Q: Where would you suggest starting out to someone unfamiliar with the SL music scene?  

A: For listeners, the fastest place to find music inworld is through the live music listings in the search tab. Search for live music events inworld and go to lots of shows. If you want to get onstage and perform, search for open mic events. It doesn’t matter where you start, just go to lots of different places to listen and watch what people are doing, and you’ll get a feel for the environment and find a place you like. Make some friends, talk to hosts and venue owners. The scene is like a small town with hundreds of musicians and dozens of live venues where we all play on a weekly or monthly basis. There are many live music announcement groups you can join inworld to get artist info and landmarks for all the shows happening or upcoming.

Q: What is the most meaningful aspect of the SL music community to you? 

A: Sharing a few precious moments of live music with other humans listening from around the world is meaningful. Music relieves stress and reduces anxiety for the listener. It transcends language, political and cultural boundaries, it can lift spirits, make you cry, make you laugh, make you dance... It can have an emotional impact on the listener, remind them of the beauty and joy in the world, and how awesome it is to be alive. When someone tells me they have been inspired by me or my music to improve the quality of their own life, that's meaningful and makes me proud of what we are doing here.

Thank you, Donn!

If you or somebody you know would like to submit content for Music Mondays, please fill out this form.
 

Image provided by Amforte

This week's featured artist is Amforte, whose dedication to music started when she was a child, growing more potent with time as she became familiar with various styles. This singer songwriter is not afraid to bare her soul, and her music is an energetic and comforting reminder that there is always someone who can relate to what you're feeling.
 

Please check out her official website to listen to her music and see what's she's been up to! Below are some links to follow her inworld.

AMFORTE (AMFORTE Clarity):: 
secondlife:///app/agent/16f3fc26-7d2b-4e89-9de2-0cd96303df2d/about

SL Music Group
secondlife:///app/group/6e7b8cdc-46a2-6ccd-dd97-f15423689378/about

Q: When/how did you hear about Second Life?
A: I heard about Second Life from a friend who was already performing online. It wasn't long before I signed up and started performing. This was all back in December of 2008.

Q: How did you start playing music?
A: I was eight years old when I begged my father to let me take piano lessons. Years later, I picked up a guitar and started to learn how to play and write music. I have never turned my back on music ever since. I started performing in SL as a guitar player and vocalist and never actually played the piano for 12 years until recently. I introduced piano to my concerts and haven't stopped.

Q: Who are some of your favorite musicians?
A: There are so many bands/musicians that are my favorite, but these are some of them: Radiohead, Billie Eilish, Coldplay, U2, The Verve, Garbage, Alanis, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Cranberries, and many more! I don't just like one genre of music. I listen, love and sing to country, rhythm & blues, pop, rock, edm, jazz, blues, and I don't stop there. Music is my life. It moves me and it's my therapy.

Q: Tell us about one of your best songwriting moments.
A: To me, emotion has a lot to do with songwriting. I have to feel something. I remember a few years ago, I experienced such heartbreak, and ended up writing a song in a matter of minutes. My emotions took over and I ended up writing one of my best songs.

Q: Do you have a favorite SL venue for performing?
A: All of the venues that I have performed in within SL have been amazing. Although I've had to cut my schedule down a lot, I will still be writing music and performing in SL. I have been working on my second album that should be released in December 2020, or early January 2021. I am also working on a couple of film projects: one is a web series called GHOST SLAPPED that will be out sometime early in 2021, and the other will be a short film (and perhaps my first feature film) later in 2021. Anyone interested can follow these projects or my music in the links shared here.

Q: What is the most meaningful aspect of the SL music community to you?
A: The most meaningful aspect of SL to me is reaching out to the community and sharing my music with the world, virtually. There is a community here that relates to my music, and some find comfort in it.

Thank you, Amforte! Here are some more links to her projects.

AMFORTE MUSIC RL LINKS:
Subscribe: www.REVERBNATION.com/AMFORTE
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AMFORTEMUSIC
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amforte/?hl=en
AMFORTE FILM PROJECTS:
www.GHOSTSLAPPED.com
 

If you or anybody you know would like to submit content for Music Mondays, please fill out this form.

This week's featured musician is Al Hofmann, whose one-man band has treated us to a fusion of rock, jazz, and electronic elements for 14 years. With over 3,000 inworld shows under his belt, his style has no doubt evolved time and time again and each performance brings fresh interpretations.

Please check out his official website and YouTube channel to experience his music for yourself!

Q: When/how did you hear about Second Life?
A: I heard about Second Life in the summer of 2006 on a local tv program about new conceptual art tendencies.
 
Q: What instruments do you play, and at what age did you pick them up?
A: I play the guitar: electric, acoustic, classical and midi guitar. With the midi guitar, you can play any instrument sound with it. MIDI is an acronym that stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. It's a way to connect devices that make and control sounds (such as synthesizers, samplers, and computers) so that they can communicate with each other using MIDI messages. {I also play} bass guitar, percussion and charango, an ancient South American {stringed instrument}, kind of mandolin. I started to play the guitar at the age of 5.
 
Q: How would you describe your music?
A: The style I play is being defined as fusion. A mix of different styles, mainly jazz and rock.
 
Q: Tell us about some of the musicians who have been the most influential to you.
A: John Mclaughlin, Jeff Beck, Chick Corea, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Weather Report, etc.
 
Q: How has your relationship to music and creativity been affected by the pandemic, and what would you say to inspire other artists during this time?
A: The positive side of the pandemic is that you have time to fully embrace what you do. Whatever that might be, you can improve what you love to do the most. A wonderful opportunity to even discover the purpose of your life. I strongly believe there is art in every individual. Life and humans are an act of art.
 
Q: What is the most meaningful aspect of the SL music community to you?
A: The most meaningful aspect of the SL music community is planetary conscience. No more borders, languages, political implications, time frames. One love: Art on the planet. SL has given us all a terrific chance to connect with artists and people around the world.

Thank you, Al!

If you or somebody you know would like to submit content to be featured in Music Mondays, please fill out this form.

Photo by Selena Whalen

We would love to have more Residents sign up to be featured in Music Mondays!

Especially with SL18B and Music Fest coming up... If you are performing and haven't been featured, we'd love to get you some publicity before the events.

Don't be shy! Sign up today

(Photos by ๖̶̶̶̶ۣۣۜۜζ͜͡ ƝЄƛԼ๑̶̶ۣ., Ryanna •{ The ImageMaker, and Roman Godde)

We are very excited to announce a brand new initiative that aims to highlight the many talented musicians of Second Life. Our virtual world has a thriving community of artists who span a vibrant range of styles. At any moment in Second Life, you’ll find live music performances occurring across the many clubs and venues that are a key part of the fabric that makes up the Second Life community. We feel that the music scene in Second Life deserves wider recognition and promotion -- and that’s why we’ve created Music Mondays. 

Beginning next week, we will be spotlighting a different musician in a blog post published each Monday. This is your chance to discover and celebrate the musicians of Second Life as we share insightful background information, interview questions, and links to their music and/or videos. As many of you know, there are hundreds of music oriented regions and venues in SL. We hope to spread awareness of this active scene, as the calendar of live performances is brimming with excitement. In the near future, we’ll start to showcase some artists on our recurring talk show “Lab Gab,” too!

If you would like to be featured, or have a recommendation, please fill out this form.