Digital Pill – working musicians talk about their lives

Leading up to this year’s Quiet Music Festival here is a video of some highlights from last year
“Much of what is a musician’s practice can be lost in performance at festivals. The nuanced, the intimate, the delicate, the very breath is obscured. The Quiet Music Festival celebrates this detail and takes a creative approach to the presentation and staging of music. When it comes to the staging of music performance the Festival asks the question – Is bigger better?”
Leo Dale, co-director, Quiet Music Festival

http://www.quietmusicfestival.com/ Now over three days

FRIDAY 30 APRIL Feature Concert
Victor Valdes (Mexican harp virtuoso) plus Tihai (Indian Classical) hosted by Derek Guille
SATURDAY 1 MAY Workshops
Victor Valdes and Valanga Khoza
SUNDAY 2 MAY Performances all day
for the full program of artists see the website

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Happy new year to you all
I am currently drawing up plans for an improved podcast studio. It’s only on the drawing board at the moment but I have a budget in place for it already, so it will definitely happen – better set and lighting, a bit more space to run an occasional interview, moving up to 1080 resolution videos and occasional trio performances in studio.

To date the videos on the site have been mainly either performances or lessons, here’s a sneak preview of the other topics you can expect to see covered in the coming year
Out on a limb – videos about musicians who have taken a risk because of an idea they had and it has paid off. Practise – besides ideas about WHAT to practise – this would be a series of videos about ideas to KEEP you practising. Musician’s stories – I have been collecting these in 2009 and plan to start a series in the next couple of months. At the gig – more video shot at live gigs

Also
Live streaming – continuing to experiment with live streaming and move up to 720p streaming
Digital Pill availability as an iTunes podcast

2009 was a BIG year for the site with mainstream publicity and Digital Pill passing the 100K views mark.
As of today that figure is touching 140,000 views.

Thanks to
Phil Greenwood and Kim Lynch for their great work redesigning the site
and our supporters (links on the right)
the site’s subscribers
to everyone who passed on the word through facebook etc
to every one who contacted me with encouragement and constructive criticism
Garry Barker for writing the excellent article about this site in the Age
and to all the musicians who came and sat in my little podcast studio and shared their ideas and music
and were very gracious about my video direction

Finally
I will need to continue to find financial support to keep the work going
but that doesn’t detract from the fact
that Digital Pill is a labour of love . . .

Thanks

Leo Dale
Melbourne, Australia

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Garry Barker  has written a feature article in the Age GREEN GUIDE about Digital Pill and the Louie Prez CD launch.

Below is some info about the new Louie Prez album with Leo Dale, Ray Pereira and Doug DeVries.

Sample the first track – The Phantom – in this youtube clip

Visit Louie Prez online here

The album tracks are on iTunes

BUY the Louie Prez CD – SCAM – here

CDs are also available NOW instore at JB HiFi – Readings Carlton and Basement Discs as well as in any other store in Australia or New Zealand through our distributor the Planet Company

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This week I’m celebrating the counter turning over 100,000 video views for Digital Pill. Its been great receiving emails from every corner of the globe and tracking all the interest inside and outside of Melbourne, Australia – where all these musicians are based.

Thanks again to all those who have contributed. The recent video from Cam Robbins is a ripper.

Thanks again to Arts Victoria and Maribyrnong City Council for financial support

and Phil Greenwood and Kim Lynch for the site redesign.

Leo

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On Saturday November 28th 9-10.30pm Louie Prez will be launching SCAM in a global live streaming event, broadcast from the Dog Theatre in Footscray Australia as part of the Big West Festival. In conjunction with Digital Pill and supported by Maribyrnong City Council, the trio will present music from their new album. Come to the show and be part of the live audience or hear the band streamed into your lounge room via the internet. Lights camera action. Frank Woodley is going to MC for the night. And on bass special guest Zvi Belling. 42a Albert St Footscray Melway ref: 42 C5

The team at Digital Pill are excited about this new opportunity to branch into Live Streaming of the incredible music from Melbourne, Australia. Two cameras, audio tech, lighting and set designer, floor manager, software tech and of course – the musicians

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Two new site improvements

1. Digital Pill will now be uploading video in High Definition – see the most recent post from Dave Evans.

2. There is a new page of statistics that outline the proportion of local content in the newspapers as opposed to music from elsewhere. Its updated weekly. Its is the menu as Statistics

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Maribyrnong City Council has now also come onboard as a backer for Digital Pill. With their help and Arts Victoria we now have the funding to produce 26 posts in the 09/10 year.

The fun starts July 1st. Let me know what you want to see.

Thanks

Leo

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Today I received a letter telling me that Digital Pill has received some funding from ARTS VICTORIA for the 09/10 year. This means that the pilot phase of this site has now ended and I have some support to post once a fortnight beginning July 1st. The funding also includes money for an illustrator/graphic artist – Kim Lynch, and an internet marketing guru Phil Greenwood so expect to see some changes next month to the look and functionality.

I have also attached a copy of the funding proposal if anyone is interested to read it.

Incidently we are still looking for further backing so we can get to the point where we can post once a week.

Thanks

Leo

PS. Go straight ahead and type into that comment box to let me know what you make of this. Any requests? Now is the time to start making them.

Click > HERE < to download a pdf of the proposal

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Hi, this is just a short note for anyone wondering when Digital Pill will be posting any more of its ideas, lessons, concerts etc. I have a great job in the first half of the year as Co-director of the Quiet Music Festival. It takes up a lot of my time. The Festival is on this Sunday May 10th so shortly after I’ll be inviting a long list of musos, who have offered, to make the track to my home studio (yes, its a shed in the backyard) and stand in front of the new improved backdrop (car carpet from the Hardware store) and bathe under the lighting rig (lamps from Ikea!). Thanks for all the support and suggestions up until now. The blog has been very, very, very popluar. I thought you may like to see a picture of the Quiet Music Festivals award – the Cone of Silence. Thanks , Leo

Cone of Silence award for the Quiet Music Festival

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