Jordan Feller and Marc Gilfry, the duo behind Neil Frances, have released their latest single featuring Raffaella named ‘On the Lookout.’ The song focuses on the theme of celebrity obsession and the popularity of unhealthy comments on social media. Vocally Raffaella delivers an ear-pleasing performance that goes well with the soothing production by Neil Frances — making it a playlist ready song.
Balint Dobozi ‘Avarnes’
Balint Dobozi’s latest album Avarnes is one of more melliflous downtempo, ambient-filled neoclassical-like albums to appear in the recent months. Dobozi wonderfully captures a mysterious mood throughout his eclectic-sounding project through subtle-sounding piano and silky textures that makes this album one to follow.
Hobbies and passions can lead to some life-changing careers. A passion for music can lead to some exciting, world traveling careers. But there are other lucrative options too. Event planning can combine some pretty big passions—music, organization, people, and certainly a passion for completing a project. Additionally, exploring opportunities to sell tickets with Stripe can add a seamless and secure payment solution to enhance your event planning endeavors.
Event planning has become more popular in recent years. The luxury of having your event tailormade for you while you just get on with your day-to-day life is a great thing. Think about how many events happen globally every day? It’s lucrative, active, and a lot of fun.
What is event planning?
Evens break down into a range of categories:-
Education – training, conferences, graduations
Promotional – launches, fashion shows, political events
Commemorations – memorials
Celebrations – weddings, birthdays, parties, social events
There are many more too. You can choose to specialize in a niche or be flexible and do everything.
Before you can put on an event, you are going to have to take some of the following steps:-
Researching the event type
Creating a theme
Finding the right locations
Meeting with decor, food, and entertainment suppliers.
Transportation planning
Invitations
Accommodation
Supervising on the day of the event
There may be more; there may be less. It is up to your business model how that looks.
Who becomes an event planner?
Event planning is an attractive job prospect for many different types of people. Usually getting started in a different career and finding more ways to tie that into a well-paid career. Event planners sometimes start out on the events team for their local hotels and music venues. That is part of the learning process that can make becoming an event planner so much fun.
Market research
Learn more about what other event planners are in your location, the services they provide, and how much they charge. Some of what they do will be applicable, and other things won’t be.
You will also need to decide on your own niche. Will you specialize in corporate events, weddings, or live music events? You should opt for something you have a passion for and will enjoy for years to come.
Start-up costs
You can start your event company on a tight budget. If you rent office space, then you will need enough money to keep your office for a few months. You can also purchase a number of items that are commonly used for the type of events that you will be arranging: chair covers, chalkboards, cool cornhole options, backdrops for photos, photo booth props.
If you work from home and store the items in your garage or around your home, you can save a lot of cash.
And finally, if you are thinking about event planning, it is worth noting that most events will take place in the evenings and at night. It can be so much more than a regular 9-5 job for those who have a passion for music, organization, and seeing a large group of people happy and impressed.
As their name indicates, in earnest‘s brand of indie folk is rooted in raw emotional honesty and deep introspection. Composed of couple Sarah Holburn and Thomas Eatherton alongside Toby Shaer, the Southend-on-Sea band’s music calls to mind the likes of Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers in its intimate exploration of mental illness, but what quickly sets them apart is Sarah and Tom’s dual songwriting; their songs seem to be in direct conversation not just with the listener, but also with each other. ‘put me under’, from their recently released debut self-titled EP, is an unflinching look inside Sarah’s negative thought patterns written from her perspective, while follow-up ‘come upstairs’ sees Tom singing about their experiences battling these feelings of depression and anxiety together. “When we ask if we deserve this/ We are digging our own grave,” he admits over a haunting string-laden instrumental, his delivery powerful and impassioned. But the most heart-wrenching moment arrives on ‘fables’, where the two join forces for a hair-raising crescendo that’s the closest the trio’s ethereal sound comes to approaching overwhelming chaos. It’s precisely that unique dynamic that makes the record’s final message of togetherness all the more potent: all three members, as well as collaborator Chris Asher and producer Peter Waterman, sing together on closer ‘the house’, a glimmer of hope in the midst of darkness.
We caught up with in earnest’s Thomas Eatherton for this edition of our Artist Spotlight series, where we showcase up-and-coming artists and give them a chance to talk about their music.
How did you form in earnest?
We used to be a different band with a few extra members. Over time, our writing naturally started to take itself in a different direction and the time came to re-evaluate what we were doing and how we went about it. ‘in earnest’ was born out of a need to create music that was more direct in its intention, more personal and artful.
You’ve cited artists like Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker as major influences – what is it about their music that resonates with you?
We love music that is written and based on true stories and raw emotion. The music that speaks to us the most is the type that breaks your heart or results in self-study and introspection. Both Phoebe and Julien are definitely artists that are at the forefront of this type of writing and we just love it so much.
While your music evokes the same sort of intimate vulnerability, part of what separates you from such singer-songwriter acts is that you exchange songwriting duties. How does that dynamic play into the kind of songs you write?
Myself (Tom) and Sarah handle the bulk of the core songwriting, and we usually do this separately and there are a few reasons for this. Usually we come up with initial ideas individually and we don’t feel it’s of benefit to compromise the original writer’s intention for the song, so we bring full songs into rehearsal, explain what they’re about and our vision for them and then we work collectively to create the finished article. We do like to change things up every now and then, so we’re currently working on a double-single that will feature a double lead vocal all the way through both songs!
Much of your EP deals with themes of mental illness. Was the process of writing and recording the project in any way cathartic?
Absolutely. The self-study and cathartic benefits of writing music are basically the whole reason that we do it. We find that singing about our own personal experiences and struggles in life make the music that much more poignant and relatable to our listeners. It was a difficult thing to begin doing it, but our fans have responded to it in such a positive way. If we can also help other people with their struggles, then that’s an added bonus.
How does it feel to have the songs out in the world? Are you already working on your next project?
It feels great! We’re always looking ahead to the next project and new music, so it’s great to have these 6 songs out in the world. Some of them we wrote almost 2 years ago, so it’s very exciting to hear people’s thoughts on them. We just finished recording our follow-up EP that we expect will be a 2021 release.
What’s your message to anyone who listens to your EP and can relate to the experiences you sing about?
We hope you enjoy these intimate impressions from our lives and find some hope or empathy within them. It’s so important for us to share our stories in order to lessen the stigma that is attached to mental health and needing to reach out for help – we hope that hearing our stories will encourage you to tell yours.
The world’s most successful football game and EA’s cash cow FIFA has returned for another year with what seemed to be just another update on their previous version of FIFA. However, some clear improvements in gameplay have emerged, and some highly-requested updates in FIFA career mode seemed to have satisfied even the football aficionados. But was it enough to surpass the annual critic’s surmise?
Let’s get the ball rolling with the gameplay of the game. Firstly, there are a few meagre changes I’ve personally noticed whilst playing the game, the most worrying one is that scoring goals seem to be much easier. Some have praised this improvement but for me scoring seven goals against Liverpool whilst playing with a mid-table team seems realistic now, seemed a bit too far fetched in the game when I did it. Of course, these minor changes did bring in more bugs into the game which could have destroyed the enjoyability of playing FIFA online or against the CPU on Ultimate difficulty. Luckily, whilst the overall experience feels a little unfinished and buggy it is nevertheless much better than what we had in FIFA 20.
Moving towards career mode, we have been finally given back the simulate match experience we wanted. EA reimplemented this feature from the classic game of *checks note* FIFA 07. Yet, it still really fails to give us full control we want when it comes to skipping and fast-forwarding. The game does, fortunately, let you jump in and out from the match, and simulate the rest of the match for those who want to score five sweaty goals in ten minutes and let the game decide what happens next.
Another positive of the career mode is scouting. Yes, it’s somewhat improved this year. Now we can finally scout in more countries like Lithuania, or even Estonia. We have also been given the option to develop players further which is something every career mode player has requested since the dawn of time. To make things more fun, at the start of each save you can also decide if you want to give your club a financial boost. This can go up to £500 million, meaning you can take a League 2 club like Bolton straight back into the Premier League, like the old days when FIFA 07 existed.
Player career mode doesn’t seem to have changed much, but with the simulate match choices, we are presented with an easier route to progression and a much quicker one at that. In terms of realism, the pro career mode still seems to confuse player ratings, as my pro player, who was rated 70 would not get chosen over a player rated 58 — even when I’m scoring hattricks each game I’m selected.
Now to the negatives of the career mode. The most urgent feature that needs adding is statistics. I understand we have the basic standings, career stats, but the lack of depth in those stats is just embarrassing. Why can’t we have more historical stats and records shown as a challenge for career mode players? Pushing further, the board gives us lacklustre challenges that don’t elevate the game but abate the improvements it brought back.
Adding to this, job searching is still dead— there was no attempt to fix that. Maybe this was all part of EA’s realism attempt? International jobs still suck too, sadly. The game doesn’t need a lot to fix some of these things, especially the job search. Just make positions open throughout the whole season, from pre to postseason. And, maybe give a chance to leave the team right at the end of it, like the old FIFA games used to have? Perhaps EA could bring this notalgic feature back into FIFA 22.
In conclusion, the game struggles to wow us but has managed to repair some of the significant issues that made the game unendurable last year. The bringing back of simulation mode in career mode and training sessions has brought about a feeling of nostalgia. A feeling we have been craving for at these times of difficulty and uncertainty. FIFA 21 is a positive note in the FIFA franchise and thus deserves at least some approval from its players.
On Friday (October 23), The War on Drugs delivered a remote performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. With each band member joining virtually from their their own recording space, they debuted a new song called ‘Ocean of Darkness’. Check it out below.
The War on Drugs recently announced a new live album titled LIVE DRUGS, which is set to arrive on November 20. Back in August, they put out remix of a previously unreleased Rolling Stones track called ‘Scarlet’, featuring Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page. Their most recent album, A Deeper Understanding, came out in 2017.
Jerry Jeff Walker, the outlaw country singer and songwriter best known for penning ‘Mr. Bojangles’, has died at the age of 78. He passed away on Friday, October 23 following a long battle with throat cancer. “He was at home until an hour before his passing,” his wife of 46 years, Susan Walker, told the Austin American-Statesman. “He went very peacefully, which we were extremely grateful for.”
Walker was born Ronald Clyde Crosby in Oneonta, New York. He played guitar in a few local bands growing up before going on to pursue a full-time music career after graduating high school in 1960. While travelling across America, he was inspired by the folk music scene of Greenwich Village in the mid-’60s and co-founded a band with Bob Bruno called Circus Maximus, which put out two albums. His 1968 song ‘Mr. Bojangles’, which was inspired by a character he met during a night in a New Orleans drunk tank, became his first and most popular hit, and was later covered by many artists including Bob Dylan, Nina Simone, Harry Belafonte, Sammy Davis Jr., and others.
In the 1970s, Walker settled in Austin, Texas and became associated with the outlaw country scene that also featured artists such as Willi Nelson and Townes Van Zandt. ”I’m a Texan,” the singer-songwriter later told The New York Times. ”Some of me is still nestled up there in the Catskill Mountains; the summers I spent with my grandfather on the farm, and the guys I played basketball with in high school. But then that was it. High school ended, and Ron Crosby ended and Jerry Jeff began. Texas is where I found my musical self.”
In 1974, Walker married Susan Streit. Following a series of records for MCA and Elektra, including the beloved 1973 live album Viva Terlingua and 1975’s Ridin’ High, he founded his own independent music label, Tried & True Music, in 1986, with his wife as president and manager. He released a total of 36 albums during his 51-year recording career; his final album, 2018’s It’s About Time, was his first in almost a decade.
“I’ve been putting them in there one at a time, choosing my way as good as I can,” Walker said in a 2018 interview with the Statesman, reflecting on his musical output over the years. “And they fit me. So when it’s all done, and that goes away, I’m still me.”
Drake has revealed the release date of his upcoming album Certified Lover Boy. In an announcement posted yesterday (October 24) to coincide with his 34th birthday, the Toronto rapper revealed his sixth studio album is set to come out in January 2021. Check out a short teaser below.
Certified Lover Boy marks the follow-up to 2018’s Scorpion. Earlier this year, Drake released the Dark Lane Demo Tapes. In addition to sharing the single ‘Laugh Now Cry Later’ with Lil Durk back in August, he also teamed up with DJ Khaled and Popcaan for two songs each, and jumped on a freestyle with Headie One.
Adele was the host on last night’s episode of Saturday Night Live (October 24). It marked the singer’s first time as host, and her first time appearing on the show since 2015. H.E.R. was the night’s musical guest, performing her new tracks ‘Damage’ and ‘Hold On’.
Adele began her opening monologue by crediting SNL with her breakthrough in the United States, after she made her debut on the show in 2012 on an episode featuring Tina Fey as Sarah Palin. She also explained that she wasn’t also musical host last night because her album “is not yet finished,” adding, “I’m too scared to be both. I’d rather put on some wigs, have a glass of wine or six and just see what happens!” Addressing her weight loss, she joked, “I know I look really, really different since you last saw me, but, actually, because of all the COVID restrictions and the travel bans, I had to travel light and only bring half of me, and this is the half I chose.”
The singer also appeared in six sketches over the course of the 90-minute episode. First, she played a a woman visiting a psychic in 2019, with the psychic making chilling predictions about the following year. She then played a ghost opposite Pete Davidson’s ‘Chad’ character, and later appeared as herself during a Bachelor spoof where she sang parts of her songs ‘Someone Like You’, ‘When We Were Young’, ‘Hello’, and ‘Rolling in the Deep’. Elsewhere in the episode, Adele starred in a PSA with Kate McKinnon advocating for divorced women to move to Africa; played a woman making a socially distanced visit to her grandmother (Maya Rudolph) at a nursing home; and appeared with Maya Rudolph once again in a fake ad for “Ass Angel” jeans.
Skrillex has released a new song called ‘Kliptown Empyrean’. According to an Instagram post, the track was produced and released on the same day. Listen to it below.
Skrillex also said that he’s “still finishing this main body of work”, which would be the follow-up to his 2015 solo album Recess. He recently contributed to Ty Dolla $ign’s new album Featuring Ty Dolla $ign, co-producing the song ‘Temptations’ with Hit-Boy. The two producers also teamed up on ‘Ego Death’ featuring Kanye West and FKA twigs.
Ariana Grande has revealed the tracklist for her new album positions, which comes out next Friday (October 30). The 14-song LP will feature guest spots from The Weeknd, Doja Cat, and Ty Dolla $ign. Check out the full tracklist below.
Sharing the tracklist on Twitter, Grande wrote: “i don’t have a top three or anything! everything goes hand in hand. this project is my favorite for many reasons and i really can’t wait for it to be yours. thank u for your love and excitement, it means the world to me.”
Earlier this week, Ariana Grande shared the album’s lead single and title track, along with a music video starring the singer as President of the United States. Her last album was 2019’s thank u, next. Back in May of 2020, she teamed up with Lady Gaga on ‘Rain on Me’ and collaborated with Justin Bieber on ‘Stuck with U’.
i don’t have a top three or anything ! everything goes hand in hand. this project is my favorite for many reasons and i really can’t wait for it to be yours. thank u for your love and excitement, it means the world to me. 🤍
