Track of the Weekend #55: Darkside - “Paper Trails”
Be seduced by the unusually simple sounds of a new group that has been sitting comfortably atop the Whyd Hot Tracks this week. “Paper Trails" by Darkside (Nicolas Jaar and Dave Harrington) is captivatingly clear, gliding along to the beat that is sophisticated in its level of plucking complexity. Add in the throaty lust of lyrics that hover deeply above, and you have nothing short of an addictive track that feels like it should sound. Thanks to Milou for sharing it with us, Darkside's album “Psychic” is out next month.
#FMF4 Day 2 [PHOTOS]
Here are the Future Music Forum in Barcelona, the music industry has descended to network and discuss some of the latest projects in the music tech space. Gilles and Yuval were on panels focusing on music discovery yesterday.
The #AntigaFabrica of Spain’s ubiquitous beer Estrella Damm makes for an awesome venue, with no worries about the free beer running out.
And as we are writing this Evergig CEO Arthur Dagard is pitching his concert video platform:
And we are very pleased with the view from our hotel room courtesy of the organizers of Future Music Forum, look at that view!
#FMF4 Music Discovery 2.0 Panel
We are posting live from the Future Music Forum in Barcelona where Gilles has just gone up on stage to discuss the Whyd perspective of curator-focused music discovery alongside @stevietitmus from Shazam and @alex_esser from Tunaspot in the very unique environment of the #AntigaFabrica of Estrella Damm and moderated by Andrea Leonelli of Digital Music Trends.
Topics include big data, data collaboration, location-based discovery, and more! Video to come after the conference.
Meet Us At Future Music Forum Barcelona
Are you going to be at the FMF conference tomorrow and Thursday? Part of the team is heading down to sunny Barcelona to take in the expert analysis and network with some of the most exciting start ups and established players in the music business.
Gilles will also be participating in the Music Discovery 2.0 panel, moderated by host of the weekly show Digital Music Trends Andrea Leonelli. DMT has becoming required viewing for keeping up with major news stories in the music technology space. Leonelli also produces the DMT 1-2-1 interview series, featuring music start ups. Gilles, his massive beard, and Whyd had the honor of being the very first episode, you can watch it here. Also on the Discovery 2.0 panel for FMF are music mega-app Shazam, and location based music service Tunaspot.
If you’re there, come find us, or drop us a line at tony <at> whyd.com.
Never stop jamming!
Interview with FROM KID: Two Voices, One Melody
1. You’re the band FROM KID. How long have you been playing music together and what was the initial spark?
We two started playing together about one year ago. For a small charity concert in our hometown we got together to write a few songs. While we were playing for this purpose, we both realized we really like that kind of sound. Our music that was growing back then was really simple. Based on a warm organ sound, two voices and some guitar we played a few concerts in our area. At this time we more and more liked what we were doing. After these concerts we decided to hide from the world to work on new songs. We added more different sounds and tried to refine our music. The result of all that, was the birth of FROM KID.
2. How did you find your unique sound?
Our songs develop in a natural way. We let our songs decide how they’re supposed to sound. And that’s changing from one song to another. What all songs may have in common is our love for melodies in two voices. Many things in our music change from song to song. SOme are supposed to be played softly, others can be loud.
3. Who are your influences and how do their styles show up in your music?
The most important influences for us are people, their way of life and the collision between them. If you ask us for any artist we like, we probably would say, Fink, Sophie Hunger, Björk, Tom Odell, Empire of the Sun, C2C, and about a hundred more. Our best concert so far was a concert of Fink. We were obsessed by this incredibly good live performance. Back to the question; everything is influenced by everything. FROM KID could be a mix of everything.
4. Tell us about the new single “Sun.” Who should listen to it?
"Sun" is our new single. It’s also our first single. This is supposed to be our "Hello you all, we are FROM KID track." We recommend "Sun" to everyone who is curious. And everyone who is on the run to explore, to dream, to live.
“Sun" also climbed the ranks of the Hot Tracks, briefly resting in the top three of all tracks shared on Whyd. If you needed any more convincing to listen to this amazing track, there you go!
Like their Facebook page, and of course subscribe to them on Whyd!
Interview with Erwan: Co-Founder of Beware!
ALL IMAGES FROM erwanchecman.tumblr.com
It’s a lazy August afternoon when the doorbell to my apartment chimes. The microphone is out and ready to record the interview with one of the co-founders of Beware! a webzine dedicated to culture, fashion, design, architecture, photography, and music. That might seem like a lot of subjects to cover, impossible maybe. It sounds like a project doomed to fail, the result of an over-ambitious web denizen who gets amped up on coffee one morning and decides to change how the world digests culture. But that’s not the case here at all, because Beware! has been publishing original content daily for over four and a half years.
The man who walks in is young, attentive, excited, and a little nervous. His project has grown to such large levels because of his passion, and the time he invests everyday into improving the quality of the content on Beware! He is also my neighbor, and co-hosted our second AperoMusicTech at Point Éphémère. His name is Erwan Manchec.
The publication of this interview is timed with the first Whyd Selection for Beware! that just hit the web today. It is the first in a monthly series featuring the most popular music on Whyd, alternating roughly between electronic and indie. Make sure you check Beware! every second weekend of the month to listen to Whyd’s selection.
We sit down to begin the discussion, to hear the story behind Beware! and how they got to where they are today. I tap the microphone, it’s recording.
TH: Let’s start by talking about the timeline. When did it begin? How did it develop?
EM: For the context, Beware! was created officially on January 1st, 2009. We started with something called Beware Blog, a terrible name that didn’t work very well, so in 2010 we created a new site also with content in English called Beware Mag. Today it’s the 13th of August and we are about 50 contributors.
Beware! is an urban culture magazine focusing on architecture, fashion, graphics, design, photography, and music. We started with all of the topics at the same time. What we did was organize it so that we had a different category each day of the week; Monday was design, Wednesday was fashion, etc. The idea was really good but it didn’t work because news doesn’t work like that.
TH: Didn’t people appreciate that? Seems like that is a really interesting format to present your content.
EM: Well to be honest we didn’t really have much of a response at the beginning, so it’s hard to tell, but we weren’t able to cover news quickly because of the structure of the format, and we are always searching for things that are truly exclusive, which is hard to do after the fact.
TH: What is your favorite category personally?
EM: Photography, because I am a photographer on the side. It’s the category that I understand the most. I appreciate the other categories too, but not as much.
TH: What type of photography do you do?
EM: Portraits, landscapes, streetscapes. Images talk the most to people I think.
TH: Did you start Beware! to create inspiration for your own work?
EM: No, I started photography two years after I started Beware! The idea for Beware! was to create something to showcase things that are beautiful. I like things that look nice. Beware! was a way to create a project around those beautiful things.
TH: So photography for you came after?
EM: Yeah, I was in Copenhagen with the guy who designed our logo and he started to teach me things about talking photos, and when I went to live in London I really fell in love with it, the environments, the light.
TH: Are there any links between the styles of the content across the different categories of Beware?
EM: We always talked about a lot of things at the same time, so they are not connected, as long as it inspires. It’s photos that emit emotion, that can be transmitted and rejoined in a certain way.
TH: Now that you are working on this for more than four years, you’ve seen things online change. Is it more difficult now?
EM: In 2009 there were already a lot of blogs. We were able to keep it together for over four years because we found a model that works. We all do this for free, and there are a lot of blogs that just stop, people change jobs or lose interest. We found a way to do this with no cost, lots of time, for sure, but I think that it’s about as complicated today as it was before. We have more ways to promote ourselves but all of these social channels are jammed up.
TH: The average lifespan of a blog is six months. It starts off very well, and then it collapses. How did you keep it going?
EM: I’ve always looked at this like a pleasure, I spend four or five hours per day on this, and I found really cool people to help me who feel the same way. They are people who love to share, and the desire to do this comes naturally from that desire to share. We have also created a good team dynamic. We meet once a month for example.
TH: What is the music side of Beware?
EM: We started doing different compilations but it was really time-intensive. We started doing podcasts of about 30-40 minute mixes, but we couldn’t keep doing it because one of the guys left, and we couldn’t get someone to replace him. So we definitely want to relaunch the podcasts, and keep doing selections.
TH: What was the podcast?
EM: Nu-disco, a little Frenchie, things that have character, we have all gotten older throughout this whole thing, so the tracklists have become more mature too. We were thinking about things that are designed for moments, like a podcast to work to, etc.
TH: We have a ton of people who listen to Whyd only at work, so we know how that goes. What is your longterm objective? Do you want to continue to do this for fun?
EM: We are always talking about this, do we want to professionalize this stuff? We really want to go more pro, better content, more artistic, more in depth, higher quality really. We need to find our balance, so that our work is to push Beware to maybe become a creative agency, or a resource for creatives, there might be a way to monetize the site and our services. The brand Beware is also important, we have already made T-shirts, and other merchandise. We can’t take all of the routes at the same time. It’s a ton of time to get everything done. You just have to come and see it!
Follow Beware! on Facebook, Twitter, and subscribe to them on Whyd.
Track of the Weekend #54: Arcade Fire - “Reflektor”
Ladies and Gentlemen, #WhydWarOne is in full swing, and after a decisive battle last week that saw Whyd's Blond Music Ninja claim the top spot of Track of the Weekend, this week it’s the Very Tall Cookening Designer Julien Pelletier who advances his troops with the epic, monstrous, and full-on “Reflektor" the lead track from Canadian rock group Arcade Fire's upcoming album of the same name.
Disquieting, alarming, yet hypnotic “Reflektor” has spend the week atop the Hot Tracks, melodically reminding us all that an orchestra can be packed into seven people. We are definitely looking forward to the new album due out later this year.
Whyd’s New Logo: First Ideas Are In!
Since we announced that we were seeking inspiration yesterday for our new logo, we’ve got some cool feedback and a couple of interesting sketches that capture how people view Whyd.
The first one come from dub producer duckii, who whipped up this design:
And music and other shit who submitted this design:
And finally, there is this awesome GIF from wijtze, it doesn’t automatically loop so you have to refresh, but we love the direction!
Send us your ideas! hello@whyd.com
Whyd’s New Logo: We Need Your Help!
If you’ve been with us for a while, you know that Whyd is a community led project to create an awesome place for us music lovers to collect and share the tracks we love, no matter where the music comes from. We’re gearing up for some big things this fall and winter, and one of those things is the branding of Whyd. While the current Whyd logo has served us well, it is rather uninspiring and bland — a relic of the past, and considering that Yahoo! just shat the bed with their new logo, we want to make sure that the face we will be presenting to the world is something that captures Whyd’s attitude, that is in itself an ambassador for all of us and the music we share.
Since building our platform according to your wishes and desires has led us in a good direction so far, we wanted to reach out to you to ask if any of you have any ideas, inspiration, or designs that you’d like to send us. In a way, we are crowd-sourcing our logo inspiration. We will take everyone’s suggestions into consideration, and if someone manages to come up with a logo that is perfect in itself, or nearly perfect, we will pay you for it as if we had hired you as our creative agency.
There are only a few criteria that need to be mentioned:
- It should have the name “Whyd” spelled out, since our name is not immediately simple to pronounce, it helps if people can see the whole thing.
- It should be urban, edgy, not the washed-down Silicon Valley “apps for your mom” style that tries to appeal to everyone but just ends up making everyone yawn.
- The fewer colors the better, and please none of this green/red/blue/yellow Google/Microsoft/Ebay shit. Choose a strong color and go with it.
- Try to incorporate something to do with music. That’s the juice of this whole thing, after all.
Send them to us, or suggestions, ideas, questions! hello@whyd.com
Interview with Now Playing Mag: An Eclectic Box of Musical Discovery
1. When was Now Playing Mag born? Why did you create it?
Now Playing Mag was born in February 2011. Everything came from a conversation. Along with other friends who are passionate about music and who are also bloggers, we realized that while we wanted to follow the news from all of the musical genres that we love, we could easily find ourselves opening a dozen windows in our browsers because it was nearly impossible to find an outlet that covered all of our tastes. I listen to everything, almost without any restriction. I have a collection where Vampire Weekend resides along with Billie Holiday, A Tribe Called Quest, Angélique Kidjo, Van Morrison, Benjamin Biolay, Blur and Spice Girls. Now Playing Mag was created for all people out there with eclectic tastes, a media outlet where all different facets of music meet.
2. Who is the team behind the magazine? Who does what?
Today the Now Playing Mag team is made up of 20 members coming from around France and even Florida! I don’t know how to really define our functions at Now Playing because they are all multifaceted. I am the Founder, Editor-in-Chief, webmaster, director of publication, and I manage too. There is also Morgane, the other editor/boss, she manages the articles, partnerships, and contests. I am assisted by Léa, who handles contacts at labels, promo agencies, and others as well as planning. In terms of editing and content, there are a few teams here at Now Playing. Some of them cross at times. The hip hop team is piloted by Stéphane with Pierre (who also handles jazz) and Atman; the indie team is managed by Sarah with Camille D and Morgane; the electro team is where we find Imane, Johann (who is also our graphic designer), Louis, and Morgane; the soul/R&B team is Francine, Célia, Laurene, and Florien (and also often Atman); Emilie takes care of rock; Camille B. the French scene; and Astrid handles music from around the world. Finally, there is Ludovic who is behind the photographs and the acoustic sessions.
3. What are the musical genres that you cover?
Now Playing Mag is defined as being a “eclectic music box,” from jazz to indie pop including soul, R&B, rap, electro, world music, French classics, pop, metal, and folk. Alternative and classic scenes meet here. For the time being we have a smaller focus on genres like country and techno, but that will change!
4. Who should read and listen to Now Playing Mag? Do you have plans for the future?
I would say everyone! Mostly people who are avid for discoveries. For the future, we aspire to position ourselves among the referenced media for musical discoveries. We are also building a new version of the digital magazine that corresponds with our hopes and those of our readers.
Make sure to like the Now Playing Mag Facebook page, follow them on Twitter, and subscribe to them on Whyd!