Publishing houses today do not like to take risks. They prefer to publish books written by well known authors who have a solid fanbase following. However, people like me, sometimes prefer new writers with styles and stories I have never seen before. People like that find themselves in the world of independent publishers. So here, on this week’s Bookette, we give tribute to those lesser known indie titles, by sharing some of the books we came across this past month. [Read more…]
Miccoli – Photo: Miccoli Facebook
Welcome back to this weeks Fresh Friday, this week’s feature is the very talented Miccoli! I stumbled upon this great band on twitter of all places and just instantly loved their sound. This week has an added extra as the band were kind enough to do a Q&A as well….. Lets find out more about Miccoli.
Miccoli are a British band that comprises of twin brothers Adriano Miccoli (vocal and acoustic/electric guitar) Alessandro Miccoli (piano, vocal, acoustic guitar and clarinet) and sister Francesca Miccoli (vocal, piano, and harmonica) and formed the band in 2006 in Birmingham England. Miccoli wrote, produced and recorded their own debut album “writing on rooves” and preformed some of the singles from their debut album at the O2 Wireless festival in 2006 and the following year played to a packed crowd at the Glee Club in Birmingham.
The music video for their single “Idle Stranger” was featured on VH1 and bliss TV in the UK in 2013, the music video also picked up a few awards including:
– Monthly Top Talent and Top Talent Week 22-26 – June Citizen TV 2013 – Took out 1st
– Best Of Music Category – July Citizen TV 2013 – Took out 2nd
– Top Talent Week 35-39 – September Citizen TV 2014 – Took out 2nd
Miccoli also picked up a few awards for two other music videos:
– Top Talent Week 35-39 for “Can You Hear Me” – September Citizen TV 2014 – Took out 2nd
– Top Talent Week 22 for “Magnify” – June Citizen TV 2014 – Took out 1st.
One of the bands recent singles is called ‘addiction‘ and I can tell you Miccoli are my new addiction! Not only are they exceptionally talented they also have a uniqueness that most bands today don’t have, they have the old school band sound with a modern twist and what I mean when I say old school sound is that like bands of old, you can hear every single instrument played in each of their songs. They have nailed the art of balance between music and vocals and it give you this beautiful eclectic yet nostalgic sound, which their singles – ‘Tell Me‘, ‘Undo‘ and ‘Devices‘ all feature. You need to treat your ears to Miccoli and I promise you once you hear their beautiful sound, you like me will be addicted! Below is the Q&A that Miccoli were kind enough to do for our readers.
Miccoli
When did you start singing and songwriting?
We were all involved in music from an early age playing in orchestras at school then bands when we left school, it was around that time when we came together and started writing songs at home as we all lived together an it kind of made sense plus organising rehearsals and song writing sessions were easy.
For our readers who have never heard your music can you explain your sound in five words.
Memorable melodies with haunting harmonies.
You write your own music; where do you draw inspiration from and what is your favorite part about the process?
It sounds cliché but we draw on our own experiences in life to write about, it can literally be anything that has affected us on an emotional level in same way or another. I’d say one of my favourite parts is getting to empty your head putting it down on paper or sealing it in a melody.
Who have you always dreamt of working with and why?
We are Big fans of Fleetwood Mac that would be our first choice, they inspired us a lot listening to them growing.
Share with us your proudest moment in your career so far?
Probably having our video played on Vh1/MTV not embarrassed to say we recorded the first airing and celebrated of course with a cup of tea…Obviously.
Who is your favorite artist and what is your favorite song right now?
That’s tricky as we mainly listen to music that’s not really current or from a different era, like Fleetwood Mac we mentioned earlier but other artists like Police, Sting and Simon and Garfunkel, we are just able to relate more to this on a personal and musical level too.
Miccoli is definitely a band after my own heart, we share the love of the same artists and their music, I don’t know how I have lived without them in my playlist this long! below is the official music video for their single ‘Addiction‘ hope you guys enjoy it as much as do.
Miccoli Links
https://m.youtube.com/user/miccolimusic
https://mobile.twitter.com/miccoliofficial
Welcome to a new weekly feature article “Fresh Friday’s” where Skatronixxx Music will feature non mainstream Artists from all genres every Friday. There are so many talented artists out there that we are missing out on due to an over saturation of mainstream air play, that’s why we at Skatronixxx.com think it is important to feature these artists in a bid to share their talent and music with our readers. To kick off our first “New Music Friday” feature article is the very talented and fellow Aussie Phebe Starr.
Phebe Starr – Photo: Verbicide Magazine
Phebe Starr is an Australian singer-songwriter from Sydney, New South Wales. Phebe’s music has a really unique sound and style to it and is classed as Electro/pop, she has been compared to the likes of Florence And The Machine, Sia and Lykki Li. Phebe got her start from a Australian Radio Station Triple J and her debut single “Alone With You” was well received and landed on several blogs including, Neon Gold, Interview Mag, Perez Hilton, Vogue and Harpers Bazaar. Her single ‘Feel My Love” has just recently had 1 million plays on Spotify, Phebe’s songs are truly music to the ears, her voice is flawless and has a uniqueness that I’ve not heard before, her music has a way of getting into your soul, making you want to move, while other tracks are able to make you feel calm. Every track of Starr’s is different and for me personally find that refreshing and quite a rare quality these days.
Phebe is based in Los Angles where she has been growing and developing her craft further within the US writing scene, Phebe is set to release her new EP ‘Chronicles’ into the world, the EP features 5 strong, theatrical tracks that are sure to make the world sit up and take notice, and so it should, Phebe Starr is incredibly talented and everybody needs to know her name, here is what Neon Gold, Interview Mag and Perez Hilton had to say about Phebe Starr…
“Her hypnotizing voice sings about becoming lost in dreams, along with a synth-pop backing track.” – Interview Magazine
“Phebe Starr is the latest pop starlet from down under to make our collective heart skip a beat. You’re about to seriously fall head over heels for Phebe Starr, but it’s ok, we’re all in this together.” – Neon Gold
“Phebe Starr is serving it!!! This Australian is channeling some old school Kate Bush meets new school Marina & The Diamonds! A fave and another fave! AND, in addition to great music, Phebe is also serving us some great and interesting visuals too!” – Perez Hilton
seriously guys do your ears a favor and add Phebe Starr to your playlists, you and your ears will thank me! You can find her tracks below.
Phebe Starr – Photo: Phebe Starr Facebook
L.A show August 31st at the Bootleg Theater
$8 Tickets available here:
http://www.ticketfly.com/purchase/event/1216969?utm_source=fbTfly&utm_medium=ampOfficialEvent
Here is the second part of our new Indie Game series. This time we introduce an indie company called Start Get Ready and their upcoming mobile game Sleepy Mouse. Sleepy Mouse© is a 2D, 75-level, physics based puzzle game in final stage development, and it should be playable in August 2016. The owner of Start Get Ready Dan Norris is a French Polisher by day, and solo independent games developer by night! Remember to read the interview after the game introduction, where Dan answers our interesting questions.
Where did you get the idea for your game, and how did you start?
I’ve loved playing many of the iOS hits, such as Angry Birds and Cut The Rope. They’re really simple concepts but utterly addictive once you start playing. I wanted to make a fun puzzle game with a cute character, that is easy to pick up and play, even on the go. I tried quite a few ideas before hitting on Sleepy Mouse – the little mouse who likes to sleep, loves his cheese, but hates to wake up hangry! My original idea was to make a version of the old coins game that kids play at school, with three coins, where one coin must always pass between the other two with the aim of getting one of the coins in the opponents goal.
It didn’t work well on mobile but there are certainly elements of that game still in Sleepy Mouse. In the early days of development I built versions of the game using different game engines, such as Cocos 2D and Blender’s Game Engine, but settled on Unity 3D. I found Unity 3D really easy to use and unlike other engines where you have to build your own level editors, that functionality is built into Unity 3D – it’s literally ‘drag and drop’ to put your levels together. It also handles graphics and animation unbelievably well! What might have taken days to put together can be minutes of work using Unity 3D. You can also prototype very quickly. I started by developing a few different prototypes to get the mechanics of the game working. Once I’d settled on the best way to play, I could then crack on with building the levels. Sleepy Mouse has 3 different stages – 25 levels per stage. In each stage you meet different obstacles, such as holes in the wall, fridge magnets, alarms and traps which will try to steal Sleepy Mouse’s cheese. Once I had identified the 3 stages of the game and the main obstacles, I could map out the level design and start coding.
What are your expectations for the game?
My main desire in creating Sleepy Mouse is that I’ll have produced a game that other people enjoy playing. For me there is nothing better than discovering a game that you love and can’t put down. I hope that it’ll be a game that is accessible for many different ages and challenges people to better their scores through shot complexity. If Sleepy Mouse is well received on iOS then I’ll convert for Android and introduce new obstacles and levels.
What was the hardest part in making your game? How about the most fun part?
Creating and testing 75 levels is really tough. Coming up with interesting levels, that aren’t too hard or easy and with enough variation and a reasonable learning curve for the player, is a real challenge. I’ve got a real respect for puzzle creators now. One of the biggest challenges when making a puzzle game of this type is trying not to introduce too many new obstacles. It’s easier to add a new obstacle to the game, than to think of inventive and fun ways to use the ones you already have, but too many obstacle types makes the game feel rushed and a bit disjointed, with no real puzzle progression. I really loved the prototyping stage because you don’t need to care about writing clean, efficient, bug free code, or how the graphics look, it’s raw ideas that you can try quickly which is a lot of fun. I think the real reward though, is toward the end of development, actually having other players play your game. It’s pretty scary at first but a real joy to see someone try your creation.
Is making games a hobby, or do you want to earn your living with it?
It’s a hobby, but it’s more than a hobby…it’s a real love. Programming is something that I’ve been doing since I was 9 years old. I wrote my first ever program on an Amsterdam PCW9512 at the age of 9, and was hooked immediately. I loved that I could get the computer to do something I wanted it to do. I got the computer to tell the user their name and favourite colour and thought that was amazing…Thankfully I’ve come a long way since then! If Sleepy Mouse makes a bit of money then that’s amazing, but I’ll continue to build games whatever the outcome.
Do you have any other game projects at the moment?
If Sleepy Mouse proves popular I’ll definitely be releasing new levels that incorporates new obstacles and puzzles. I’ve also got a number of different ideas and prototypes for new games – one involving sharks hunting shoals of fish – completely different to Sleepy Mouse. This would be a 3D turn-based strategy game that you’d play against other networked players – you’d each have 3 sharks, each with different abilities (speed, power, and defense against other sharks). You need to strategize to break up the shoal whilst keeping other players sharks away. It’s very early days but something that I’m excited to explore further once Sleepy Mouse is complete.
Anything you’d like to say to people who dream of making games?
If you love it, do it! See it through, actually finish a project. It’s very easy to get distracted by different ideas and keep changing focus. You need to see a game through to completion to get the biggest reward and sense of achievement. A big learning for me as I approach the end stages of developing Sleepy Mouse is how much work is involved in marketing a game. I’ve been heads down in developing Sleepy Mouse and hadn’t really appreciated how important it is to start communicating ideas for your game to the gaming community from early concept development. I’d really recommend people start this early – not just because of the time involved but also to generate excitement and anticipation for their game. Above all, make sure you’re having fun. If you’re not enjoying developing the game, the game is unlikely to be fun to play!
Follow @SleepyMouseGame #sleepymousegame on Twitter to stay up to date with the game’s development.
Play with passion!
auburn.geek
Today I am introducing to you a new game article series featuring different indie games and their makers! The idea is to make you familiar with smaller game developers and their products that are made with love! Here is the very first part just for you.
This is what you can expect from FutureKat SuperPark, that is hopefully coming out this august: In FutureKat SuperPark, you’ll meet all sorts of Anthropomorphic Space Freaks, collect Trinkets that reveal their secrets, and even though you are expressly forbidden from petting the FutureKats, you might come to find that breaking the rules is kinda fun… This VR Jogger for Google Cardboard and iOS has a simple control scheme – you’re given a single Action Button and you walk in place to move around and explore – and a psych-pop soundtrack written by a small slew of musicians from around the globe. Pierce International, Unlimited’s radical new experience will hold a revered spot on your home screen and in your heart, and since it’s on the most inexpensive VR platform EVER, you won’t have to break the bank before you can begin blowing your friends’ minds with FutureKat SuperPark!
Now that you know what the upcoming game is all about, here’s a delightful interview with the developer, R. Travis Pierce, who really surprised me with his witty and informative answers. My favourite parts were the second and last question, hope you’ll enjoy reading them as much as I did!
-I wanna build this really fun, really weird world that people can explore, meet all these weirdos, catch a glimpse of what’s going on… I wanna set ‘em up to play the sequel I guess. Ha! But really… I’m wanting to make something I’d wanna play – that’s one of the two original goals for myself in all this – create something really fucking cool that reminds me of all the games that made me love games (Rare, Nintendo, Naughty Dog, Insomniac…) that created this whole new feeling in you and allowed you to casually make your way through a – what I look back and think of now as possibly highly drug-fueled – story. Create that world and those characters and that story, and to get it done in a timely fashion. We’ve got a lot of game developers sitting on these ideas for years and years, and I think there’s a certain point where you’ve gotta gauge the idea’s relevance. It can remain relevant for a long time after it’s released, but I think you gotta get it out there ON time. – Make it great, but don’t waste time freaking out. Hoping to wrap production by August 31 – daunting, but not impossible.
4) Is making games a hobby, or do you want to earn your living with it?
-Oh, I totally wanna earn a living with it. I wanna have a team of people earning their livings from it! That’s been my bag with pretty much anything I’ve done – music, video, animation. I think it’s fine to split your life up into different parts and say “Hey, this is my thing and I’m gonna make it for me. No one else needs to understand it and I’m not interested in getting a dime out of it,” but my thing’s always been to try to create something of value to people where they end up wanting to pay you – and the way that I’m able to do that is by making weird stuff that gets people to go “Woah!” and get them to wanna show it to their friends so they go “Woah!” too.
5) Do you have any other game projects at the moment?
-No other games currently in production. However, as soon as this game is finished I’ll immediately begin work on the next one – for which I’ve already been tossing around a few ideas. I’ll obviously still be pushing FutureKat SuperPark – the campaign won’t end for awhile – but as far as all that time spent designing and coding… it’ll have to switch over to the next thing. That’s just how my brain works.
6) Anything you’d like to say to people who dream of making games?
So I was approached by Rob from Hidden Home Records about doing a release on his band Sheep Among Wolves split EP with UK hardcore band CROWN and was only happy to oblige with his request.
This project has been in the works for over a year between the two bands and will be a joint release from Hidden Home Records and Local Colour Records and will be release to the general public on the 29th of May. I have been lucky enough to have given it a listen already and like what I have heard so far we have Sheep Among Wolves who are an Indie/Punk band and CROWN who are a Hardcore band so it’s a nice contrast in musical styles.
You can check both bands out at the following links
Sheep Among Wolves
Facebook:- https://www.facebook.com/Sheep.Among.Wolves.Music/
Twitter:- https://twitter.com/sheepamgwolves
Bandcamp:- https://sheepamongwolves.bandcamp.com/
CROWN
Facebook:- https://www.facebook.com/CrownHC/
Twitter:- https://twitter.com/CROWNBAND
Bandcamp:- http://crownuk.bandcamp.com/
Hidden Home Records
Facebook:- https://www.facebook.com/hiddenhomerecords
Twitter:- https://twitter.com/HiddenHomeRecs
Local Colour Records
Facebook:- https://www.facebook.com/localcolourrecords
Twitter:- https://twitter.com/LocalColourRecs
Recent Comments