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Have you ever dared to dream big?
In May this year, I decided to move to London. I quit my job in music publishing, moved back to my hometown and worked as a freelancer over the summer to save as much money as possible so I could move to London in October. It was never about having enough money to move (because that is impossible); it was simply a decision to do my best and take chances. The only thing I knew for certain is that I needed to pursue my dreams and that by staying in Croatia I was wasting precious time I would never get back.
During the summer, good old-fashioned grind started. I needed to find a job, a place to live when I get there and meet as much Londoners as I can along the way. I worked on 8 festivals in 3 months, along a couple of other jobs, enrolled a dozen educational courses and met an awesome crew from London. By the time I realized October was just around the corner, things simply fell into place – I found a job, a place to live and amazing people to hang out with. I guess, when you don’t have an alternative, you have to persevere. There is no safety net, only a huge chance of soiling your undies in public without the option of buying new ones any time soon.
In order to reduce the chances of that happening to me, the first thing I have done here was registering on Daisie, a social app for talent discovery and collaboration, launched by the Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams. This app allows musicians and other players in the industry to get together and embark on new business adventures that would ignite their creativity and potentially leave a mark on their bank accounts.
So, here I am- writing this on my fifth day in London, after attending two awesome concerts and running around people working on new releases, watching them play and simply enjoying the music. And the music venues!
Every club or concert hall in London has a certain appeal that makes you gasp in weird, unfiltered ways. My first blessing came in the form of O2 Academy, Brixton, one of London’s leading music venues which hosted everyone from Sex Pistols to Madonna. I had an opportunity to hear live a beautiful jazzy funk band called Vulfpeck. The star of the band is the eccentric Jack Stratton, who is allegedly the creator of the infamous Spotify stunt, when they decided to upload a release that did not contain any audible music, but only 10 roughly 30-second-long tracks of silence, and encourage their fans to play the album on loop while they slept. In return, royalties from playback of the “album” were to be used to crowdfund a free concert tour by the band. And so they went on tour, playing awesome music for all the funky ducks out there!
My second blessing happened in The Prince of Wales club, also in Brixton. This place has a mind-blowing rooftop from which you can enjoy the view of London. Unfortunately, I arrived in October on the Terrace Closing Party, and it was too cold to hang out there (even for Brits) so I went downstairs to a more tropical climate created by a latin/afro band called The Cracked, who describe themselves as a “fusion without pretension” and “Santana without Carlos”. They released 2 albums so far, but the reason I was there was that one Croatian musician plays in the band, Viktor Volaric-Horvat.
Viktor was also member of a very interesting Croatian funk and soul band called Soul Radio, so it was a good thing knowing I was not the only person from Croatia ready to take on London! All in all, it was a great show, and I am looking forward to seeing them again!
While I concentrate my weekly efforts on trying to find great music here and interesting facts to keep you entertained, I bid you farewell until next Monday! Keep your positive vibes on the rise and enjoy my tune of this week.
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Jeste li se ikada usudili sanjati velike snove?
U svibnju ove godine odlučila sam se preseliti u London. Napustila sam posao u glazbenoj industriji, vratila se u rodni grad i radila kao freelancer tijekom ljeta kako bi uštedila što više novca kako bih u listopadu mogla za London. Nikad se nije radilo o tome da trebam imati dovoljno novca da bih se preselila (to je nemoguće), nego sam jednostavno odlučila dati sve od sebe i pokušati. Jedina stvar koju sam znala za sigurno jest da sam trebala slijediti snove i da sam ostankom u Hrvatskoj gubila dragocjeno vrijeme koje nikada više neću moći vratiti.
Tijekom ljeta počelo je staro dobro nerviranje i planiranje. Trebala sam pronaći posao, mjesto za život kad se preselim tamo i upoznati usput što više Londonaca. Radila sam na osam festivala u tri mjeseca, uz nekoliko usputnih poslova, završila dosta edukacija i tečajeva te upoznala nevjerojatnu ekipu iz Londona. Do trenutka kad sam shvatila da je listopad doslovno iza ugla, stvari su se doslovno počele slagali jedna za drugom. Pronašla sam posao, mjesto za život i sjajne ljude s kojima se mogu družiti. Valjda tako mora biti. Kad nemaš neki drugi izbor, moraš ustrajati na onome što si prvotno planirao. Ništa nije sigurno i jednostavno, ali treba se uhvatiti za veliku slamku u nadi da će što dulje potrajati.
Kako bih smanjila mogućnost da se takvo što i dogodi, prva stvar koju sam morala napraviti jest registracija na Daisie, društvenu aplikaciju za otkrivanje talenata i suradnju, a koju je pokrenula zvijezda „Igara prijestolja“, Maisie Williams. Ova aplikacija omogućuje glazbenicima i ostalim ljudima u industriji da se zajedno odvaže na nove poslovne avanture koje bi ojačale njihovu kreativnost, a time i ostavile poveći iznos na njihovim bankovnim računima.
I eto me, pišem ove riječi svojeg petog dana u Londonu, nakon što sam pohodila dva izvanredna koncerta i trčala za ljudima koji su radili na novim izdanjima, gledajući kako sviraju i jednostavno uživaju u glazbi. I glazbenim prostorima!
Svaki klub ili koncertni prostor u Londonu imaju nešto što će vas privući i zbog kojih ćete ostati bez daha na jedan čudan i nepatvoren način. Moje prvo vatreno krštenje došlo je u obliku O2 Academy u Brixtonu, jednom od vodećih glazbenih prostora u Londonu koji je ugostio sve žive i nežive, od Sex Pistolsa do Madonne. Imala sam priliku čuti prekrasni jazz funk bend pod nazivom Vulfpeck. Zvijezda ove grupe je ekscentrični Jack Stratton, koji je navodno kreator ozloglašenog poteza na Spotifyju kad je odlučio uploadati izdanje koje nije sadržavalo niti jednu melodiju, nego samo 10 „pjesama“ koje su se sastojale od 30 ekundi tišine kako bi obožavatelji mogli preslušavati album u loopu dok spavaju. Zauzvrat, sredstva od reproduciranja „albuma“ korištena su za crowdfund kampanju besplatne koncertne turneje benda. I krenuli su na turneju te sviraju nevjerojatnu glazbu za sve ljubitelje funka, gdje god bili.
Drugo vatreno krštenje dogodilo se u The Prince of Wales clubu, također u Brixtonu. Ovo mjesto ima fenomenalan krov koji će vas ostaviti bez daha jer s njega možete uživati u pogledu na London. Nažalost, stigla sam u listopadu na Terrace Closing Party i bilo je prehladno za ovu avanturu, čak i za Britance, tako da sam sišla u prihvatljiviju, tropsku klimu koju su širili članovi latino afro benda The Cracked, koji sebe opisuju kao “fuziju bez pretencioznosti” i “Santanu bez Carlosa”. Objavili su do sada dva albuma, ali razlog zbog kojeg sam bila tamo je taj što u njemu svira i jedan hrvatski glazbenik, Viktor Volarić – Horvat.
Viktor je bio i član vrlo zanimljivog hrvatskog funk i soul benda Soul Radio, tako da je bilo zgodno znati da nisam jedina osoba iz Hrvatske koja je spremna na osvajanje Londona. Sve u svemu, koncert je bio odličan i radujem se novom susretu.
Dok se usredotočavam na nastojanja da svakog tjedna ovdje pronalazim odličnu glazbu i zanimljive činjenice s kojima bih vas upoznavala i zabavljala, pozdravljam vas do sljedećeg ponedjeljka. Držite svoju pozitivnu vibru na vrhuncu i uživajte u mojoj pjesmi tjedna:
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