Tuesday, March 23, 2010

0

Blogswara in the news again!

I must thank Indian Express for their continued support to a non-commercial platform like Blogswara. This article appeared in their Kochi edition in the beginning of the month. Thanks to you guys, for your continued support to sustain the uncelebrated, off-stream music. (By the way, have you heard the songs yet?)


Express Features

First Published : 05 Mar 2010 12:48:00 AM IST

KOCHI: Blogswara , the internet music community that acts as a common platform for amateur musicians, has released its sixth album.

The album has 14 songs sung by 22 new artists in four Indian languages.

A free music movement where visitors/ listeners can listen and download mp3 files free of cost, Blogswara (www.blogswara.in) began as a blogging initiative by a few people around the globe, who loved to sing.

Till date, many of the singers associated with Blogswara have not met each other.

According to Joseph Thomas, who was one of the first to launch the concept of Blogswara, the attempt is to showcase the hidden talent of amateur singers before the world by producing original music and sharing it over the internet.

“Soon after the release of Blogswara version 5, we had begun with the work of the 6th album. For the first time, we have included a Telugu song, last time we had included a Kannada song. It’s the first time that so many amateurs are joining the effort, last time we had 15 new singers,” says Joseph.

Professional singers like Pradeep Somasundaram and TV anchor Divya have also rendered their voice for the album.

Blogswara proves that people, wherever they are or whatever languages they speak, can come together for a cause - here the cause being music.

And the digital age has made it easy for them to collaborate, the blog says.

True to its tagline, ‘United in Music’, the album has many lyricists and music composers from across the globe, who worked from their respective places together to come up with the album.

News link here

Monday, March 01, 2010

28

Blogswara V6 - Your comments please!

Hello there, so we have just released our 6th online album and would love to have your feedback as usual. Do listen to the songs, and please put in your feedback in the comments section here. Don't forget to mention the song name and team when you put your remarks. We appreciate your feedback!

Our special thanks to Jyothis E for his continued support in providing the space to host the songs and to Pradip Somasundaran for all the technical help extended. Thank you folks!

Thursday, February 25, 2010

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Blogswara V6 - Song teasers

Blogswara V6 - Song Teasers

Visit http://www.blogswara.in to listen to the V6 songs preview!


With 14 songs in 4 Indian languages, Blogswara's 6th online album is releasing on March 1st. Listen to the song teasers from the player given below and share the buzz with your friends. Tweet it, blog it to support the best platform for free independent music and let the Blogswara saga continue!

Follow us @Blogswara for Twitter updates.

Monday, November 09, 2009

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Blogswara on Twitter

We are happy to announce that Blogswara is now officially on Twitter. Follow us @Blogswara for updates on our albums and other news.

On another news, we have received 15 song submissions so far for our latest album V6. The songs evaluation is about to begin and keep watching this space for more details!

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Monday, August 24, 2009

0

Blogswara Interview in Manorama News

Manorama News telecasted the interview with Blogswara members today. Check it out below:

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

2

Blogswara on Manorama News

Manorama News, a major Malayalam news channel in Kerala, will be telecasting an interview with some of the Blogswara artist on the following dates and time. Do catch us there!

August 24, Monday, 2:30 PM
August 25, Tuesday, 5 AM & 9:30 AM

Sunday, May 03, 2009

2

Blogswara V6 - Dates extended

The deadlines for the Blogswara Version 6 have been extended. Please find the new dates below and you can check out our website for more details.
DEADLINE #1: June 13, 2009

DEADLINE #2: November 5, 2009

DEADLINE #3: November 26, 2009

DEADLINE #4: December 16, 2009

DEADLINE #5: January 1, 2010

DEADLINE #6: January 10, 2010

DEADLINE #7: January 15, 2010

DEADLINE #8: January 20, 2010

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

2

Blogswara V6 - Inviting Entries

Hello

This is to inform you that Blogswara V6 dates have been announced in the website. Check out http://blogswara.in/blsProcess.htm for details. And if you would like to be a part of Blogswara V6, do not forget the dates to announce your participation! :-)

Music and peace.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

0

Blogswara featured in Indian Express

Blogswara has been featured again in the news. This time it is Indian Express (Trivandrum edition) who ran a story on us in their daily supplement Expresso (Click on the image to enlarge).

Friday, January 23, 2009

3

Interview with Deccan Radio

Deccan Radio, a 24/7 Internet radio, has interviewed me about Blogswara. This show will be aired on Deccan Radio on 25th of January 2009 at 9 AM IST and 8 PM IST which is 8 PM EST on 24th of January 2009 and 9 AM EST on 25th of January 2009. Check out Deccan Radio's website for more details.

Thanks to the folks at Deccan Radio.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

0

My experience singing Khushiyan

By Rashmi Nair

I had fun singing this song (Khushiyan); it was my first attempt on an original composition. I must say it definitely was a great learning experience for me. I had no idea it was going to turn out the way it did. It took almost a month for the song to shape up. During that time, my parents were visiting us. It was almost like singing to an audience - the only difference was I received live feedback and often constructive suggestions. We laughed and joked about my ‘husky’ voice and my goof ups here and there.

I live in a small apartment complex, so after singing those high registers, the next day, I would often open the main door to see if there was an eviction notice pasted outside.

Monday, December 22, 2008

0

Silent Mind

By Shivkumar Krishnan

The origins of 'Silent Mind' were in mid 2006, when i was experimenting with the Korg Triton and Karma range of synthesizers... I had conceived a soft instrumental piece that lasted for about a minute, to be used for montage scenes (showing transitions of time) in movies. Then when Blogswara V5 came along, I decided to amp this to a complete instrumental track. I played around with Virtual Instruments (from EastWest corporation, for instance) to simulate the orchestral sounds. Then I met Bill Williams, a sound engineer near San Francisco, who helped me mix the piece...

He was amused to hear the Mirudangam sounds! We had a fun time at the mix sessions, with Bill coming up with different Western drum sounds and trying to get it to gel with the whole piece...
I'm going to add vocals and continue with this piece in the coming months. Hope you like the piece and it gives you a peaceful state of mind!

Tools used to compose: Pro Tools LE7.4, Korg Karma synthesizer, Godin Freeway Classic electric guitar, EastWest Orchestra platinum edition, SwarShala (from swarsystems, to simulate Eastern Instruments).

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

2

My story of Azhaithadhu Yaaro

It was in the last year that Vijay S had asked me to sing his first song for Blogswara. The song was called Kaathirundhen and it is one of the much appreciated songs of Blogswara's V4 album. I loved that song totally and was happy to sing it with Sindhuja, a wonderful singer. I practiced the song a lot, recorded it multiple times, but fell ill just before I was to make the final recording. I had a terrible cough which was followed by sever throat pain. My voice was hoarse and this lasted for almost 2 months. I knew I wouldn't be able to finish the song and I requested Murali R to sing it. The song came out very well with the vocals of Murali and Sindhuja.

I was glad when Vijay came up with another gem of a song this year and asked me to sing it. When I heard the song Azhaithadhu Yaaro at first I wasn't sure if I could sing it. The shruthi of the song was way too low for my vocal range (I think my vocal range fits for the mid-range songs, not too low and not too high) and I expressed my concern over it. Especially the parts like "kaaNaamal kaaNaamal maayam" in the 1st charanam were too low for me and the song tempo was a bit fast. So the tempo was changed to be a bit slower and the shruthi a little higher. Still, the tempo did not leave much room for improvisations from vocalists but the song in itself was so beautiful and it did not need much improvisation.

Vijay S had started planning the song early, so we had enough time to practice the song. He first sent the song to Sindhuja and she was kind enough to record the song in her voice and sent it for me to learn. Vijay is a perfectionist but he also let the singers to take freedom in improvising at parts. There were so many emails sent back and forth and Vijay would also call me on the phone to discuss certain parts of the song or to explain the meaning of the song.

At one point of time, I thought I wouldn't be able to do the final recording, because my sinusitis usually gives me cold and nose blocks in regular intervals. So I told Vijay that I might not be able to finish the song on time or he better get another singer. But he was confident that I would be okay and that is how my voice went in. :-)

The orchestration of Azhaithadhu Yaaro, done by Vijay N, has gone through a lot of phases and Vijay N has done a wonderful job. He has made video about this orchestration experiments and you can watch it here.

I never met any of the people who have worked with this song - Vijay S is in Bangalore and we talk only over the phone or chat through Gtalk. My communication with Sindhuja was limited only to Gtalk and emails, and I have interacted with Vijay N only through emails. Yet, we were able to do this song and I think that is the beauty of Blogswara. That it encourages people to come up, communicate and collaborate irrespective of the location and with their love and passion for music.

Listen to Azhaithadhu Yaaro from here

Monday, December 15, 2008

1

Un-making of Azhaithadhu Yaaro

Here is a video put together by Vijay N about his experience in orchestrating the song Azhaithadhu Yaaro.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

94

Your comments please!

The song teams who participated in the 5th version of Blogswara would love to hear your comments. Please do put in your comments in this comments space. Thank you.

Thursday, December 04, 2008

1

BlogSwara Version 5 - Song teasers posted!

Hola everyone!

It is time for another version of Blogswara! Yes, it is Blogswara's version 5!! We have posted the song teasers in our website, so hop over to there to listen to the 20 seconds long song previews.

We have 14 songs this year and in four languages - Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada (the first Kannada song of Blogswara) - and also instrumental music. All by some of the people who have participated in Blogswara's previous versions and many new faces.

So watch out for 12th December 2008, which is only one week away from now, for the grand release of Blogswara Version 5. And do spread the word around!

Monday, March 24, 2008

8

Inviting Entries for BlogSwara 5!

Hello all,

We at BlogSwara are inviting entries for the 5th version of BlogSwara project. Please visit our website for more details and start working on your songs!

Friday, January 18, 2008

4

Blogswara on a thesis

It is a joyous moment for all of us who worked with BlogSwara platform to know that it is getting attention from an opposite corner of the world. BlogSwara has become the center case study for an MA thesis submission.

Jessica Keyes
, a student of Department of Music, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada has chosen the music blogging with a primary focus on BlogSwara for her academic defense. Her paper titled "Blogging Music: Indian Musicians and Online Musical Spaces" presents an ethnography of the Indian music blogging community and a critical analysis of the historical and technological foundation for music blogging.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

66

Blogswara version 4 - Your Comments

Friends,

BlogSwara Version 4 has just been released!! You can listen to the songs from here. Also see the artists involved with this album here. Do let the people who participated in this version of BlogSwara know your comments on the songs. You can add your comments to this post.

Thanks for listening.