Wavy Lee

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Today I’m talking with HipHop artists from the dirty south, Wavy Lee.
wavylee
Tony Coke: Where are you from and how long have you been making music?

Wavy Lee:
Im from the northside of Atlanta I been making music for 12 years.

Tony Coke: What’s happening in your world at the moment, what are you currently promoting?

Wavy Lee:

My newest Mixtape #IhateWavyLee

Tony Coke: That’s an interesting name, I don’t think I’d want to meet Wavy Lee lol, what else is interesting about this project?

Wavy Lee:
It gives a variety of vibes and sounds.

Tony Coke: What is your current, biggest musical career goals?
To go on a major tour with about 40 cities.

Wavy Lee:

Tony Coke: Awesome, on the road is a good place to be! What’s coming up next for you?

Wavy Lee:
Nothing but #IHATEWAVY and tons of new videos.

Tony Coke: Why did you select this song as your current single?
Wavy Lee:
It was a song that everyone I knew liked.

Tony Coke: How does this single relate to the rest of the Album, EP or Mix-tape?
It relates well because the mix-tape is more about my everyday life than anything else.



Tony Coke: What was the writing process for the song?

Wavy Lee:
I was telling my friend about a story that happened to me when we were beat searching, The beat was played and I was like yes thats the one .



Tony Coke: What does this song’s lyric mean to you?
Wavy Lee:
It explains every part of the situation I was in at the time.

Tony Coke: What would it be like to see you in person performing this song?
Wavy Lee:
Probably really mellow because its a really mellow song , but I would have some sort of visual to bring you to the situation i was in.



Tony Coke: Could your fans summarize who you are as an artist by this song?

Wavy Lee:
No not at all I don’t think they ever could.



Tony Coke: Is there a video planned and or completed and if so, what was the
idea behind the video?
Wavy Lee:
Yeah there is one planned but If I tell you the video it will ruin the surprise

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wavy-lee
Tony Coke: One last question, what is your motivation behind your music?

I just love to do it , its fun and its the best way for me to express my self.

Tony Coke: Cool man, best of luck and keep us updated on #IhateWavyLee!

For more on Wavy Lee, connect with him at:
www.wavylee.com
https://twitter.com/wavy_lee
www.instagram.com/wavy_lee
https://soundcloud.com/wavylee

TooTall – Toronto RAW

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If you haven’t been to a RAW event yet, you should go and check one out. They combine different forms of expression into a fun night of artistic stimulation at venues across North America.

They are constantly showcasing talented musical acts such as TooTall from Toronto, CA.

Tony Coke: Welcome TooTall. Are you originally from Toronto? How long have you making music?

TooTall: I grew up in the small town of Grimsby, Ontario. After high school I wanted a job in media. Decided to Move to Toronto at the age of 18 to go to Film school. I‘ve been performing and involved in the music scene stating high school from filming local shows, acting in theatre, and working as an extra in movies.
Music is the reason I wake up everyday. I couldn’t imagine my life without it. When I started rapping to beats everyday, I knew I wanted to start my career in music.

Tony Coke: What musical projects do you have going on at the moment?

TooTall: I’m currently working with a few different producers and mixed-genre artists to create my digital EP: “High-Aid-Us”, coming out this summer.
The EP wouldn’t be the same with out the support of videographer, and former “LED” DJ partner, Craig Wood @cameronwoodly.

www.soundcloud.com/tootalltoronto

Tony Coke: What’s interesting about this project?

TooTall: Why High-Aid-Us?
I was in DJ group a few years back called “LED” (Lights.Electro.Dubstep) – we performed and organized events, big and small, all over the city for a few years.
We decided to take a hiatus for a while to focus on new solo directions. That small break gave me time to create the monster: “TooTall”.

Tony Coke: Cool, what are your goals for TooTall?

TooTall

TooTall: Currently my musical career goals are to work with as many talented artists as I can, learn from them, and make some great tunes together.
I just want to share music and good vibes. Dreaming of a world tour with a group of positive, like-minded individuals to keep the feeling alive…

Tony Coke: What’s up next for TooTall?

TooTall: You can see me perform, at the RAW Toronto Signature Event March 17th at Maison Mercer – tickets are now available @ TooTallToronto.com & RAWartists.org
Like the Trailer Park Boys? Check out my latest single; “Samsquanch”
You might be able to get a closer look at the Samsquanch , on my Twitter: @Twitt__her
Instagram @tootalltoronto

For more info on the BIG Guy “TooTall”, the High-Aid-Us EP, Events, and Music Downloads visit: TooTallToronto.com

RAW:Toronto presents SIGNATURE! Featuring Visual Art, Photography, Fashion, Music, Performance Artists, Accessories, Hair and Make-Up Artists!

A fun and exciting evening of live performances, runway shows, live hair and make-up, accessory design and visual art displays! 50+ talented artists involved! Our BIGGEST and BOLDEST show yet!

Thursday March 17th, 2016 at Maison Mercer (15 Mercer St.)
8pm-12am (Performances, Runways, Art Displays, etc.)
12am-2am (After Party with music by Nicodemus the evilrobo)

$20 advanced http://www.rawartists.org/toronto/signature
$25 at door
19+ event

One Girl Symphony

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With today’s technology, it doesn’t matter where you are from, or what your passion, you can find an audience and achieve success. Today I’m talking with Whitney Vandell, aka One Girl Symphony, from Ethiopia. She is making an musical impact, globally.

Tony Coke: I’m quite excited. I don’t think I’ve ever talked to anyone from Ethiopia before! Where in Ethiopia exactly? And, have you always been involved with music?

One Girl Symphony:
I live in Addis Ababa but I was adopted at the age of two by an Austrian-American woman serving as a missionary who was a classically trained musician and teacher. Growing up I spent much of my childhood following my mother living among tribal people in remote areas across Africa.

There was always music around the house and we had one of the few private grand pianos in Addis. Seeing how little there is here in terms of entertainment and my mother being a rather private person living on the outskirts of town, most of the time we would just spend playing and listening to music together. It’s just the way it always was and I don’t remember a time when music wasn’t a part of my life.

Whitney300x2002

Tony Coke: You obviously have a big project going on, and it sounds pretty ambitions. Tell us about it.

One Girl Symphony:
I recently released my album ‘One Girl Symphony’ that is available on CD, DVD film and an Android app. I spent the last ten years writing and recording it. The album is acoustically recorded with only real instrumental performances featuring nearly twenty different musicians from around the world contributing in an online music collective.

Tony Coke: Remote collaboration is becoming more and more normal these days. How did that process work for you? Was it a challenge being in Ethiopia? I would think the internet connections may not be as fast in other parts of the world.

One Girl Symphony:
I collaborated with musicians from around the world over the Internet where I sent MP3 files of backing tracks and got their instrumental recordings as high quality music files on Dropbox. With the internet here in Ethiopia I could sometimes take a almost a day to sync so it was a challenge in itself. The biggest part of the Internet collaboration was with the violinist of William Stewart who was living in a remote cottage in southern France during this period.

The One Girl Symphony has been so well received, they even performed at TEDx.

Live @ TEDx – Addis Ababa from One Girl Symphony on Vimeo.

Tony Coke: Congratulations on getting the project completed. It must have taken forever! What was your motivation to keep going?

One Girl Symphony:
Though I like to think I don’t feel a need to prove myself or impress on anyone, spending thousands of hours working on a handful of tracks, I would be lying if I didn’t want the music to reach more people than myself. When I got into rock music in high school Slash from Guns n Roses became the father figure I never had when growing up. In the back of my mind when working on all these song I secretly planned to one day play them for Slash and afterwards drive over to Axl’s house to jam and hang out. I’m still planning for that to happen.

Tony Coke: OMG that’s awesome!! I think we all have scenarios we imagine like that to keep us going. By the way, Slash came to the radio station I was working at several years ago. He had that “I’ve been wearing the same leather clothes on a tour bus for five days with no shower” vibe (smell) going on. He was very nice, but I didn’t get to jam with him 🙁
What’s coming up next for you? Any plans to tour globally?

One Girl Symphony:
I have no idea! I just try to do the most of what is right in front of me, trying every day to absorb new inspiration and ways to express my feelings. I am ready for my next project to have a very long time horizon and I expect it to take many years just like with One Girl Symphony.

Tony Coke: You can hear the album on all streaming services and www.OneGirlSymphony.com, as well as iTunes
You can also get the One Girl Symphony app for android at
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.carlkuhl.onegirlsymphony

Nicole Russin-McFarland

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Interview with Nicole Russin-McFarland

am·bi·tion

amˈbiSH(ə)n/
noun
a strong desire to do or to achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work.

I love associating with talented people. But talent alone won’t make you successful. You need ambition. I seek out ambitious people to work with because ambition is infectious.

Nicole Russin-McFarland definitely has the “‘biSH”.

Tony Coke: Nicole, catch us up on your background. You’re from Illinois, yes? Have you always been into music?

Nicole Russin-McFarland
Illinois in the USA! Not much happens there – and that is exactly why I feel I developed any skills I had better than had I grown up in London or another exciting, thriving place. The most you can do in Illinois is go to some museums, go to the state fair downstate in Springfield, or visit the lake. Or go shopping. We have some seriously world class shopping similar to Manhattan or Paris there in downtown Chicago. I have studied music since I was five years old. I am so glad my parents made me study it as well! Possibly the greatest gift you can give your child is knowledge.


Tony Coke: I know you have several projects going on, tell us about your latest musical endeavor.

Nicole Russin-McFarland
My film score for our movie, The Eyes of Old Texas, currently on iTunes. I co-composed it with the very talented rocker and celebrity chef, Brian Tsao. Brian did an amazing job on the metal rock aspects. I worked all the classical music. Some songs are purely my work with orchestral sounds. Some are his. And the really, really unique work that’s so unusual and oh so good? The songs blending orchestral music with rock!

Tony Coke: So, not only are you working on a movie, you wrote the soundtrack and released that entirely on it’s own, before the movie was released?

Nicole Russin-McFarland
We crafted a very unique and interesting soundtrack for a cartoon movie we are currently in the slow process of finishing. With animated films, most people overlook the sound. You’ll have the generic elements of someone being sad, so “Oh Mr. Director, hello! Why don’t we have the clarinet dip down two notes? And when we have them happy, we can do the violins in no real pattern making a bunch of noise that really sounds like the warmup for a live orchestra? The audience is too dumb to care about music!” I highly disagree with this method. A cartoon movie is a real movie and needs to be treated like one. Any movie, period, needs a precise theme. We have a theme throughout the movie which inspired the title of the movie. Our movie is based on “The Eyes of Texas” theme song from where I graduated, The University of Texas at Austin. This theme is so classic and awe inspiring to millions of people who know how famous my school is. The sports events all play it too – check out our many Olympic athletes who are, like me, UT Austin alumni. The song is so meaningful. So not using it in a story that I actually got the idea for years ago when I went to school there would be terrible. I had to work on that theme.

Tony Coke: It sounds like you identify very closely with the visual side of music and the emotions it helps create. Is that a path you’d like to continue on in the future?

Nicole Russin-McFarland
I always work on writing down my themes so when the time comes, I can pull one out and have ideas ready, whether it’s for my future work or if someone wants to hire me. I definitely want to set myself up in the future to be animating movies regularly and composing the film scores for them. Animation is truly meaningful in my heart. I love it so much. Between any romantic comedy and animation, I’d rather go watch the latest Pixar or DreamWorks Animation film! And I really want to begin treating kids like smart people via my work, both as a film director and composer. Kids are little adults. I used to hate when I was so small how people would talk to me in a dumb voice and treat me like I didn’t know anything. I knew, as did other kids. We on the playground mocked their fake voice changes when they spoke to us. We knew everything. Children are worthy of good stories, funny jokes, silliness, and more from a grown-up’s movie. However, it’s not often done. And nor are strong film scores.

Tony Coke: I agree, I remember feeling that way as a kid also. So what is up next for you, what can we look forward to?

Nicole Russin-McFarland
Wrapping up directing and animating this movie this year so it can be ready to hit the film festivals! In The Eyes of Old Texas, we have a whole plotline on the “disaster takes place in 2017!” We have to be ready for film festival audiences to have the movie in a timely manner. So we’re gonna hustle until this thing gets done and done beautifully!

Tony Coke: Great! Best of luck to you, let us know when it’s finished, I’m anxious to see it!

Website: OfficialNicole.com
Twitter: @nrmcfarland
Instagram: @nicolermcfarland
Facebook: @russinmcfarland