« Crowdsourcing: Amateurs work cheap; Looking for more R.I. blogs; Camel recipes | Main | An amazing story: Fox gone wild -- and rabid, too »

June 23, 2006

3 musicians play a 'Basement Fort' tonight, spreading the word via YouTube video

The email from Will Brierly was simple:

Basement Fort A tent made from sheets draped over a couple chairs. The old dryer in the corner whirring and rumbling. A bag of slightly warm candy in hand under these sheets. June 23rd 2006 The first Basement Forts will take place at the Mediator. (50 Rounds Ave Providence RI) 6:00 doors 7:00 (sharp) music – performance ends by 10:00 $5 All Ages

Basement Fort is a monthly performance from three different performers telling stories and singing songs, held in special places in the area.

Performing-
Will Brierly
Chris Rosenquest
Cadence Gree
Click this link for a video promo of the show
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLRo5nkmagQ

I clicked. Familiar scenes of Providence unrolled -- Prospect Park, with its statue of Roger Williams overlooking the city, Route 95, RISD "beach" (the grassy sloping lawn at Benefit Street), the barn-red exterior of the Mediator -- along with shots of the three performers and fragments of music and speech.

Interesting way to promote a performance that's not a tour, not quite a concert -- there are stories -- and not in a commercial club: Make a video, put it on YouTube and hope for a buzz.

There's a boatload of creativity here, a viral spreading of the word. In the future, I can imagine projo.com with a local music blog devoted to videos of bands playing tonight, just like this one.

I emailed Will with some questions. Here's our exchange, slightly edited:

Tell me about how you made the video.

Chris, Trevor, Danny (Trevor's drummer) and I wanted to do something other than the traditional fliers, to let people know about the show. So with the help of some cameras and video editing equipment we shot a short sort of commercial for the show. We didn't want it to be like a regular commercial though, but more just a nice minute or so of video to let people know about the night and learn a little bit about what we are trying to do.

I have a feeling that a lot more local companies, bands, artists will use a similar technique, with the cost of video editing equipment and cameras going down, and with programs being easier to use. That video was shot over the course of 5 or 6 hours, and within a week it has over 1000 plays on youtube.com. I don't know who is watching it, but I'm hoping its people in Providence, because this is going to be a real fun show.

What kind of camera did you use to shoot it?
Sony digital High 8.

Who shot it?
All of us held the camera at one point, so we all took turns really.

Did you edit it on a Mac or a PC? (Did you edit it, or someone else?)

We edited it on a Mac, Trevor did most of the clicking, but we all came up with ideas sitting together to direct it. The guitar playing in the background was just a little improv that I did, playing right into the mic on Danny’s laptop. Luckily it seemed to fit right with the video.

Will all the Forts be at the Mediator?

They could be, we'll be discussing that later this week and setting a date for the next one. I'm a fan of playing weird and/or interesting places, so we are constantly on the lookout for a new place. I figure along with the music, the venue where a performance takes place can make a huge difference in the whole atmosphere of a performance. It's like the frame of a painting, or where it's hung will make a difference as to how good it looks in relationship to things. Of course the music has to be great too, or else it doesn't matter where you have it, it just won't be fun but we like to take care of all these little details to make something really special. The name Basement Forts came from the idea of having your own place, where you feel comfortable to express yourself. I think every show is a chance to do that, but we want this one to be extra special.

"The name Basement Forts came from the idea of having your own place, where you feel comfortable to express yourself" -- aside: (For most adults, that's the bathroom/shower.) (:

So you haven't rented the next hall. But you're committed to three?

Yup we’ll definitely be doing three shows, after that we’ll see where we can take it next. We haven’t rented the next place but we have some ideas on where we’ll be doing it, which we’ll let everyone know about once it’s all set in stone.

Do you have any mp3s of this trio?

Yup they are available at

- www.chrisrosenquest.com
- www.willbrierly.com
- www.myspace.com/cadencegreen

We don’t have any mp3s of the three of us performing together. Most of the night we’ll each be doing separate sets, but we’ll have many guests, and we’ll also be sitting in on songs as a full group too.

We will also be recording Friday night's performance to release limited edition CDs available at the following Basement Forts show.

Hmmm. Is there such a thing as a "limited edition" CD any more? (You gonna put DRM [digital rights management software] on 'em?)

Hehe well we’ll only be making 50 copies with the original artwork and everything.

(Want to talk, as a musician, about this part of it?)
You don't plan to sell it online? People have lots of choices of what they're going to do Friday nights, so you may have potential fans who just can't make this gig.

Yeah we’ll probably give it away online for free as mp3s, maybe if we have copies left we’ll sell them too. But we want to give something special to the people who make it out to this place, so we’ll only be doing this short run of cds. (We’ll make sure to send you a copy though)

(Back live) Here's the last bit of Will's original email -- who they are:

The Performers-

Will Brierly – Nationally known singer/songwriter, Rehoboth MA native. Will has toured many times though every state in the country playing everything from arenas to under bridges and in basements selling thousands of cds along the way. To quote Will, “I’m really into Jay-Z, Primus, GG Allin, Bjork, Ben Folds, and Harry Nilsson, I don’t think I sound much like any of them, but I do happen to sound like the sound that happens when my guitar strings and vocal chords vibrate, so that works out good.”

Chris Rosenquest – Providence resident, has truly proven himself as a musician to pay attention to. Chris uses acoustic guitars, loops, and samples to create incredible orchestrations of his compelling and thoughtful songs. Chris recently performed with the Slip and Erin Mckeown at the Sustainable Living Music Festival. He is leaving for his first east coast tour August 1st, up and down the East Coast.

Cadence Green – AKA Trevor Bowman, hailing from Newport Rhode Island. Trevor’s pristine voice and haunting lyrics have been captivating audiences of Rhode Island for the past two years. He recently completed a 2 week Canadian tour and will be heading out on another east coast tour ending it to record a new EP in Florida.

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 10:23 AM | Permalink