IEEE Spectrum Story

Geek Rhythms is featured in Sept'06 issue of IEEE Spectrum magazine. The article was initiated by NPR news story on march 1, 2006, featuring "Geek Dreams" one of the songs in my album.

Overall, I think Tekla Perry, senior editor at the magazine, wrote a very good article. It captures the whole process of making this album, and the challenges in taking an idea to completion, very well . All independent music producers face the same challenges of finding the right production facility, marketing, distribution and an audience who likes the music. For me personally, it has been a learning experience at many levels as well.

One area that the article touches upon is "out sourcing" as in I outsourced my music production. That is not completely accurate. It was matter of finding the right people who were interested in working with me on this experiment of blending rap and engineering . Rikki has lot of experience with music in Engineering schools across India as a member of music band Euphoria and Jasz then was a EE freshman (now a Junior) at Delhi College of Engineering.

Photo shoot with Tim Achibald was a delight. I had lot of concerns about, how I would come across as "the rapper" - because I am not the rapper in my album - Jasz is the rapper. Tim listened to my concerns and explained ideas he had, and we went thru a 2 hr photo shoot with many juxtapositions of business, music and semiconductors. So thanks Tim - look forward to working with you again sometime.

Enjoy The Ride: Watch the Video

Full video can now be seen on Google video

Enjoy The Ride seeks venue (& audience) at Film Festivals

I have entered my music video "Enjoy The ride" into film festivals under short Animation category. As it turns out there are many avenues for independent producers to showcase their work and I am sure those in the know will find this information a repetetion, but I was glad to "discover" it.

So now the wait begins....with crossed fingers and some anticipation, first I am waiting to hear from Santa Cruz Film festival. They were supposed to have published the finalists around early March, but I have been told, the list should be out this week.

I.
santacruzfilmfestival
5 Annual from May 5, 2006 to May 13, 2006

II.
SouthSide Film Festival
3 Annual from June 15, 2006 to June 18, 2006

III.
Los Angeles Film Festival
12 Annual from June 22, 2006 to July 02, 2006

IV.
California International Animation Festival
1 Annual from July 15, 2006 to July 16, 2006

For those trying to find a showcase for their work, I highly recommend WITHOUT A BOX website. They have organized all the film festivals into different categories and the site allows you to submit your entry to these festivals. It will even check if your production qualifies.

NPR and Geek Rhythms

Geek Rhythms music was featured again last week, by NPR's Marketplace program. First story was Math and Science and came out March 1st.

Then on March 7th, as viewers wanted to know more about the song, Dear Marketplace segment of Marketplace carried update on viewer request about the song (Geek Dreams) played on March 1st.


Here is the link. Listen in...

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2006/03/07/PM200603076.html




And the beat goes on....

RLPK Records Releases 3D Animation Video: Enjoy The Ride

March 3, 2006: RLPK Records announces the release of its' much awaited 3D animation music video, based on the hit album Geek Rhythms, a unique mix of engineering and technology lyrics with rap, techno, rhythm and blues, and pop. The first of a series of music videos is based on the single Enjoy The Ride. This music video is an extension of the audio version and seeks to further expand on the vision of making engineering and sciences fun and desirable for our kids today. Helping to promote that message is GK a consummate engineer who loves his field.

The video weaves imagery across circuit board, CPU, transistors, modem, router, computer -terminal. Main setting for the video is the circuit board, which serves to provide a link between the computer terminal outside and the computer chips on it. Scenes move between describing the functioning of transistor and online ordering while showing how a sub-micron transistor is shrinking the world by interconnecting it.

Enjoy The Ride is being released thru online channels of Happi Skratch Inc and is available thru following online services Amazon, Target, Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, Borders and numerous other online channels starting April 4th, 2006. Copies can be pre-ordered thru these online retailers as well as from the RLPK Records website.

Featured Music: Public Radio Market Place Program - March 1, 2006

ok so I wanted to share this with you folks. My song Geek Dreams was played on NPR in news item Math and Science.

You can hear the program at


http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2006/03/01/PM200603018.html

Sneak Peek in to My Music Video Enjoy The Ride

Sit back and get ready to Enjoy The Ride !!!


This video expands upon songs in my album Geek Rhythms and brings a visual element to the lyrics. The backdrop for the song is a circuiboard where "astronauts" power up the circuitry and GK pans his lyrics. From thereon the video takes the viewer thru transistors, networks, online experience. This is GK in his natural habitat, his world of intergrated circuits, networks, computers ...

I chose 3-D animation for making the video, because 3D brings a whole new dimension to the art of animation; besides, for me personally, it was fascinating to learn - writing the script, developing story boards, characters, objects, environment, rendering, time sequencing, final compilation. Thanks to Neil Strudwick at Ohlone College, I learned about animation; we met most friday mornings - over most of 2005. By Sept 2005, working together with his students, we completed a short trailer based on the song "Geek Dreams". Due to Neil's time commitment with other projects, we could not complete the whole video.

Subhash Sidhu and his team at Animax-India did a great job in bringing to life, what I had conceived, as a visual rendering of the song "Enjoy The Ride". So I present to you my latest creation "Enjoy The Ride (the journey continues)" which closely reflects what I had wanted to share thru it's audio counterpart.




You can view the trailer at ....

Google video

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4290866599991964684

Download trailer

Windows Media File

and

MAC FILE


and the beat goes on....

Meet GK: The Engineer from Geek Rhythms

Meet GK. He is a fresh Engineering graduate and ready to take on the world. He likes to work on interesting problems and solve them. World is full of many possibilities and he has the skills to make them happen. He is a technophile who not only uses the latest gadgets, but also knows how they were created, how they work and has his own ideas on how to make newer ones.

GK likes music, travelling around the world and meeting people.



Preview GKs Music Video http://www.semiquestinc.com/GK.html



And the beat goes on......