Take a read of what happened with Jamma blog partner "Kiss of Beth's" caught up with the support artists in preperation for Jamma's live "331" launch event on 01.02.20
Welcome back my home slices,
Tonight we are talking about the upcoming launch night for music platform Jamma. I hung out with the support artists for their 331 launch night, which is on the 1st Feb 2020 in Wokingham, and interviewed them. We got deep and dirty with what music means to them and why they think Jamma is a good thing.
But what is Jamma I hear you cry? (below info provided by the Jamma team)
Jamma was created as a continuation of the foundations laid by musical genius, pioneer and freedom fighter Prince. He fought the music industry to realise complete artistic freedom and creative control. We wanted to build on this to create a platform that is committed to (genuinely) helping independent artists to progress and grow… together.
But why is this important?
In an industry overrun by corporate control and dominated by major labels; more and more artists are committing to going the independent route. This is to achieve control of every aspect of their artistry. The independent music scene now accounts for 39% (as of 2017) market share. A platform such as Jamma is essential to help the existing and future generations of artists connect, grow, earn and more importantly… keep Jammin’!
The aim of Jamma is to make independent artists lives a little easier; enabling them to Work Smarter & Jam Harder !
You can sign up to jamma for FREE now by clicking here .
What is this “331” event though? It’s 3 gigs, 1 night all headlined by Marva King [ of Prince & The New Power Generation ] and her band. Sounds cool right? You need to snap up your tickets fast as they are nearly gone. You can pick up your tickets here . I’ll be there doing some photos and reviewing the evening, so worth it to hang out with me.
So let’s get into the interview. The three support acts for the “331” night are Gary Millard, Amya-Ray and Lively.
I asked them all the same 5 questions about music and their feelings on Jamma.
As always I’m the Bold Bitch . Gary is represented as G , Amya-Ray is hitting us as AR and Lively is reppin’ the L .
Explain your music for me and why people should listen to you…
AR: My music is quite ethereal and it is just real life stories. People can relate to it that’s why they should listen to me.
G: I am a typical acoustic singer song writer, I sing depressing songs. I have something to say and music is about having something to say instead of the same old bullshit.
L: My music is from life experiences and what I see in the media and what I see in every day life. Why should people listen to it… if you want to broaden your horizons. A lot of people get stuck in their own little thing and don’t know what’s going on.
Who are your biggest influences?
AR: I have so many names, it’s quite difficult for me to pinpoint a few because I get my influences from so many places. I grew up with Bollywood music, my Auntie introduced me to Arabic music and then I grew up with rock, my mum likes soul. I love drum and bass. It’s really hard to pick one thing. I could sit and listen to some jazz or go to a rock gig. It depends on my mood.
G: I’ve got a weird mix too, to be fair. Lots of folk, traditional music, traditional Irish music… but now I am getting more into new age poppy folk. Your Dermot Kennedy’s stuff, big fan of Will Vardey, another man with incredible poetic ability who really has something to say. Frank Turner of course. What singer song writer doesn’t like him. He’s a very sexy man.
L: All sorts really to be honest with you. I grew up listening to a lot of different genres of music, from my parents taste in music, my brothers taste in music and then my own taste. From rock, garage to drum and bass. Started as a garage MC when it comes down to anything to do with performing. Love hip hop, love rap – my brother used to be a massive TuPac fan.
What does music mean to you?
AR: I mean I’d be dead without music to put it bluntly. It saved my life literally. I have quite a heavy childhood and listening to Eminem, gave me hope and carried me through. When I started writing music it was quite therapeutic and that allowed me to express myself and allowed me to escape all the horrible things that happened. Good and bad things… all the emotions; theres a piece of music for all the emotions.
G: My dad bought me a bass guitar for my 11th Christmas present and that’s what got me into it in the first place. He would always make me listen to classic rock in the car, singers like Meatloaf and Buddy Holly. My dad has never sort of been the most encouraging person in the world but one thing he has really really pushed me with is music. He’s always insisted that I never put the guitar down, that I never stop singing and I never stop writing songs like no matter what. I quite often have days, I feel like putting the guitar down and I feel like stopping. I feel like my dad worked too hard, for too long to provide for me to disrespect him by stopping.
L: Everything really. It’s given me a creative outlet, its helped me find who I was as a person. Through school and everything I never really had anything that I felt was my strong point, nothing I felt that I was good at. As soon as I found this, I was like ok my thing. I was getting invited to parties to MC and shit like that. That’s when it showed me it’s given me a confidence. That it can open doors that I wouldn’t of had if I hadn’t of found that. The amount of opportunities that I’ve had since then that’s come off the back of it is kinda like my own fault that things haven’t gone farther than this point. I kinda held myself back and I am realising that now. It’s given me everything.
Why should people come to the “331” event?
AR: You’ll get a nice collective of different genres and you get three for the price of one.
G: How often do I gig these days. I hardly ever gig these days. I’m coming out of gig retirement to play this gig. Support Jamma it’s potentially the best the thing that could happen to grass root music right now. We legitimately need this. Every week new live music venues are shut down. what we need to be doing right now is encouraging as many people as possible to be supporting this and taking in live music at a venue. Supporting artists fairly so we get more artists coming through and supporting the promoters working with the artists.
L: Obviously to see the performances that goes without saying. To come and see the idea put into practise, the event is basically what the idea is and what the website is. It’s a local venues, with local artists performing and coming together through Jamma. It’s kinda like a living, breathing, performing version of what the website is going to deliver.
What do you think makes Jamma different? Why do you think people should join Jamma?
AR: I’ve never come across something like this before, where we are given the opportunity to meet people. Usually it’s just online or forums where you can connect but theres something very personal about meeting up with each other and making it very real. It’s a constant support and everything is connected and everyone can share their ideas, building on it together. It’s got potential.
G: I genuinely believe in what these guys are doing. Theres a lot of people who go around saying they want a good deal for the artists and stuff and most of the time it’s just to line their own pockets and the artists dont get anything extra. I really believe in these guys and what they are doing. One of the key reasons I basically don’t gig any more, it ends up costing me money to play a gig. How on any level are we meant to be growing the art of live music when it’s costing the artists money to play a gig, it’s beyond it. You have to support Jamma because we might not have grass roots music in a decade. We have to get stuff like this off the ground because otherwise people will just stop.
L: It’s a platform that’s there to bridge the gap between the industry. That’s the point. Not only that I’ve seen some of the venues, so I know it’s not bullshit. It’s real, in the flesh, you’ll be able to reach out to the venues you want to play. Get out there, play as many different venues. Get out there and do as many different shows as possible – doesn’t matter how big or how many people you’re performing to.. if its 5 or 500… take those shows. Thats what this platform is going to be able to provide for people.
I’d like to thank these three artists for sitting down with me and being subjected to my interview questions and the many many sexy jokes from Gary…
You can check out Gary on his socials; Insta here and Spotify here .
You can check out Amya-Ray on her socials; Facebook here , Insta here and youtube here .
You can check out Lively on his socials; Insta here and ditto.fm here .
Look guys, I truly believe Jamma is going to change how the grass root artists connect with other artists and venues. We need to support this up and coming business because this is the future of how we do things in the music industry.
Get yourself signed on for free, support this and see if Jamma can take you to venues that you never knew were possible.
Nathan. Joe. You have my full backing and support. You will always have space here on Kiss of Beth’s. I believe in you and I believe in what you have created here.
Fucking props to you lads.
Now get your tickets to this evening for fuck sake. We gonna have a sick time.
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