keytarman

I am excited to present the amazing voice of the talented Svetlana Feodulova in this epic track we just made together. Have a listen!

Check out these awesome videos by Johanna-Mai Vihalem! Had a little jam on Yamaha cp-33 this afternoon. She managed to capture the moment and make it look quite special.

Live at Western Pub Baku - photo by Emin Mathers

The last month was pretty quiet on this website, however, a lot of stuff happened whilst I was on holiday.At first I spent three lovely weeks in Baku enjoying the sun, sea, delicious food and a very welcoming audience on my solo concert in the newly opened Western Pub.

Also had a great get together the next day at the Keytarman’s Jam Session. It was cool to get back on stage with some hot players from the old gang. The host band consisted of me, Zaur Ahmed-Zadeh on Bass and Emilio Aliev on drums.

Here is one of the songs I played on my solo gig. It is called “Out of the blue” and is going to be featured on my solo album, that is coming up quite soon. Yep, this is finally going to happen. More than that, I will be releasing some videos on the process along the way so watch out for updates!

Next stop – Estonia, where I went to see the Viljandi Folk Music Festival. LOADS of music, with some really cool performers from round the world. The big festival area contained 5 different concert stages, plus a lot of buskers varying from two hippies one darbuka bands to really professional and nicely sounding singers songwriters. It was a bit complicated to set up the keytar for the street performance, but thanks to a very friendly Ice Cream Truck crew I managed to plug the computer speakers that I borrowed from a friend into electricity.  Even though I started playing quite late there were still loads of people stopping by to listen. Unfortunately , after about an hour I had to stop, as amplification was prohibited by the festival rules. To be honest I can understand these guys. This restriction surely helps keeping anauthorised musicians in a certain order, making sure that they will not disturb the main concert program.  However it was quite a pity having to stop because of that restriction.

Playing in "Bonifacius Guild", Viljandi. Photo by Johanna-Mai Vihalem

The next night however was even better, as I played a two set show at the little bar next  to the festival area. Pretty much bumped into an advert saying they are looking for a performer for the next night. Oh sure.:) The venue owner was uber nice, even though we did not share a language, with the help of JM we managed to agree on the gig, without even a demo show (which might have turned quite unlucky for the venue.) The next day it had some very nice PA set up and ready for me, as well as some absolutely stunning background on stage With all these dragons, castles and fairies in the back it felt very natural to play my medieval ballads, with the keytar, “the unicorn of musical instruments” in my hands I should once again say that Estonians are from now on one of my favorite audiences ever. They gave me a very warm welcome, and were listening to the songs through in silence which is very unusual for this kind of a small pub setting. Great show! I will definitely use any next opportunity to play in Estonia again. Or even further in the Nordics? If you run a venue in the area and want to accomodate a Keytarman for a friday night – let me know, as I am slowly starting to book the dates for the next season.

Rocking in my hometown

Time runs fast as hell…

It’s been nearly 3 years since I moved to Europe, but it is always a pleasure to come back to my home town for a gig or two every once in a while.  At the end of April I managed to spend a very intense weekend in Baku (2 days, 3 hour time difference and ALL THESE COOL PEOPLE TO MEET AND SAY HI TO).  But I still managed to squeeze in a lovely gig.  A cozy little club right in the center of the city (which has unfor

With Sabir Najafli

tunately closed down a few days ago as I just read up online ) has accommodated a relatively small but very friendly audience. It was a great couple of hours I spent chatting with my friends (can’t really call these people fans, sounds too pretentious)  and played a lot.

I feel very grateful to the Rockzone.az team and especially Sabir Najafli for organising and promoting one of the most friendly shows I ever had. These guys really made me feel like a rockstar! I think I will come back for another few gigs there later on this summer and I will be very happy to work with those guys again!

You can find more photos from the gig  by Nargiz  here. And there will be a full video version uploaded soon as well!

Over the years I wrote quite a few songs . Some of them were released, played on the gigs or on radio.Some of them got big, some of them did not go too far. And there is a very special category of the songs I wrote. I call them songs that never happened. They are there, they have melody, lyrics, emotions… But somehow they were not lucky enough to be heard. Like some people get stuck in their life and struggle to get through. So tonight, on the magical Zoroastrian  Novruz eve (celebrated particularly in Azerbaijan, where I am from)  I decided to give them a chance to reach you.

Please, give them songs a chance and let them happen and exist!

I wrote this tune a few years ago but never managed to make any sort of recording until last night. Now as I am done with the first run of our big theatrical project, I have some spare time to invest in new videos.So, expect more uploaded this week, subscribe, follow and share!

If You are in Prague this week you should DEFINITELY come check out this show that we are  doing in collaboration with Dare To Light! A comedy about the life and survival of a lighting designer in theater.

Though the concept does sound a bit geeky this is actually a very lite and easygoing play.  It is an approximately 1 hour long performance written by Johanna-Mai Vihalem from  Dare to Light   and Mel Rada from  Akanda.  Story? A setting rather. There are 5 scenes, each representing an episode from the everyday theater routine. A rehearsal within a play. In the spotlight is the lighting designer. A DESIGNER. Not a trained monkey to follow the orders of the slightly “coo-coo”ish Director, a very excited scenographer with BIG ideas and a zero budget, or the very DRAMATIC actor. She needs to be treated with respect. She needs to be heard.

Apart from the entertaining part, the play has some great educational value, opening your mind to the fact that the world of light bulbs is not that much of a rocket science.  All you need is the taste and creativity.  And Light Up Your Life inspires you to be,  with some really awesome visual art elements created by Johanna-Mai, with projections, lights, shadows and holograms, and even a rapping sock puppet.   On the music side, the show is accompanied by the original score by the keytarman, varying from orchestral compositions to halogen-blues recitals.

Light Up Your Life has  premiered successfully at Divadlo Kampa last night. There is still a chance to get a reservation for tonight, February 17th , accepted by email on lightupyourlife@daretolight.com

The show is coming back on 1st of June, to the Prague Fringe Festival , and is also scheduled for a DVD box release sometime this spring.