Amy Winehouse

It's been a few days since her passing, and I have been thinking about her death at age 27. This is my take on the matter: her story was told at a young age, and she had said what she wanted to say. Time for a new existence plane. Ditto Michael Jackson at age 50.

That's the primary reason why I want to live to 100 and make an impact that lasts even longer, because it has already taken so long to tell my story so far, and I feel like I haven't even started yet. I need time, baby! I am the tortoise, not the hare...

My most encouraging text messages

I've just got myself a Blackberry, and I'm busy transferring data over from my old phone. I was deleting messages and these are the messages I have found that I kept, because they were so encouraging! Thre are also a few Facebook messages and other electronic communiques I kept because they meant so much to me, and have reminded me how my music has made an impact on people:

"Hi Rob, wanted to let you know that I received your CD. Thank you for all your assistance. Will support you always." - Pranesh Daya, the very first person to buy one of my CDs.

"Hi my friend, I love your songs. I must listen more and talk on Sunday. The duo with that girl is my numero uno." - Flo/Tzipora, a great friend and fellow musician.

"Thanks my baby - Love Mom." - a message from my mom after I gave her a gift - yes I admit it, I'm a real mommy's boy!

"Awwwww... but I miss u... :) Thank u for everythin!!! Luv u lots.... :)" - Priya Singh, one of my singing students.

"You go! I attended... AWESOME!! You're great Rob!" - Sabrina, one of my Facebook friends, who sent this encouraging message after she attended the U2 concert in Johannesburg in Feb 2011. My friends had asked me why I wasn't attending, and I said because Bono hadn't asked me to sing with him. Sabrina agreed...

"Hey Rob, I still can't enough of your voice on Could This Be Love." - Cubique Deejay Cb, a DJ in Jozi who played the house remix of my song at clubs all over the city.

"Hope she sings and barks like her rock daddy. XXX Blessed Christmas to you and yours XXX." - Starr Veldsman, cool Facebook friend, on hearing we had got Kiri, a our new labrador pup, for Christmas 2010. Named after the New Zealand soprano Kiri te Kanawa, Kiri has been such a bundle of joy from Day 1. And she has just brought me a twig from outside and put her dirty wet paws all over my clothes! Love her to pieces...

"I'm rockin tha t-shirt 2nyt at catch up zone. Will b playin at 12. Peace Mr Rob!" - DJ Cuebur, Mr Talented, who turned my song into a house hit and made it popular in clubs. It was finally released on 15 April 2011 on the Candi Roots Album - two days after I found out about my SAMA nomination! Here's hoping it gets re-playlisted on radio, and that the album goes platinum...

"Rocking 'could this be luv' ryt now..." - DJ Cuebur, 17 December 2010, at a club in Mpumalanga.

"Yo Rob the song is submitted, just waiting 4 it 2 be aired, I played it at 4 clubs and already it's a hit, especially with the ladies. Will keep u posted." - Tshepo, DJ from Grahamstown, Eastern Cape.

"Ey Rob, listnd 2 da trak u made with Cuba... killer killer killer." - Tlhoni 'Nico' Dietsiso, Facebook friend & former Soul Candi student, 3 Dec 2010.

"Hey Rob, that's awesome news. Well done on that and I hope it opens many doors for you. What a great start to the year! X Kristel." - Kristel Birkholtz, super-talented violinist who has recorded on my albums, congratulating me on becoming the first person in the world to do my licentiate in singing through Rockschool - and passing with distinction...

"Hi my friend. Hope u well. Want 2 know if I can buy 2 of ur Christmas CD's 2 take 2 my sisters as Christmas presents?" - my brilliant friend Nan, who is my #1 fan in the world.

"Hey Rob, tk u 4 the personalised CD & 4 coming 2 the party. U were amazing & our friends loved your gr8 personality & being with u!" - Deirdre Randall, wonderfully warm wife of a former student of mine, Ken Randall, after I attended their son Matt's 21st birthday party in August 2009. I gave him an autographed copy of my first album as a birthday present.

"Hi Rob, u guys did a great job on your CD. Which one did you think I liked best? It was the 4th track, Could This Be Love. Great song!" - great friend Bridget Devine, after the release of my first album, back in 2008. I always knew that song was a good one - sometimes you just know... Maybe it's the intensity with which you write it, when you really have something to say...

"Music is schedules in synchronicity." - Beyers Bresler, my BodyTalk therapist, who has heard me rant & rave about my music career while he's trying to align my body. I love the overlap between what he says & the teachings of John Demartini, the coolest human behavioural specialist on the planet.

"I just bought your book! Sign it!!!" - Noelle Baroody, the coolest American chick in South Africa, now back in the US, in Arizona. She bought my book 'Flip Simon the Finger.' Check it out here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Flip-Simon-The-Finger/dp/B004NIFWEY

"Do not do it again! It was perfect this time!!! Love Mom" - my wonderful mom again, with a text message she sent me after one of my very first live radio interviews back in 2008.

"Hey RR. Tx u 4 such an amazing evening last nyt. U have an amazing voice. I was privileged 2 b there 2 celebrate with u. A big congrats! NK." - My #1 fan again, Nan Kramer, the night after our first album launch back in September 2008.

"Hi Rob - well done for the other night! Great CD!" - Jody de Reuck, my former therapist (she HAS to like my stuff!)

"Hmmm, not too bad at all... and I am quite discerning... I wouldn't say fussy, though :)" - Jacqui Tasker, one of the most beautiful - and difficult - women I have ever met. That she likes my stuff is testimony to the fact that it has SOME quality at least, since she has such high standards...

"Thank u. U have my admiration & respect." - Andrea Crystal, my academic supervisor, when I was busy finishing up my master's degree. I always say that the 3 most difficult things I ever had to do was learn how to sing properly, release my first album, and finish my master's degree. Andrea was brilliant in the way she helped me, pushing me to new heights in my academic career... My D Litt et Phil is about the music industry, so I'll always be grateful to Andrea.

"Ate your triple choc pud - sorry - not!" - A cheeky message from my mom again...

I'm a SAMA Nominee!!!!!!!

Just a quick post. Tonight I was nominated for a South African Music Award (SAMA) - the local equivalent of the Grammys! I'm thrilled to bits! It's such an honour.

Keep you posted...

it's raining crazy in my life...

The year is already almost in April, and I have barely scratched the surface. The most wonderfully significant news at the moment is that my house remix track done by Cuebur and Shimza is to be released on the Candi Roots album under the Soul Candi Records label. They're brilliant with house, they know what they're doing with releases, and they are damn good when it comes to promotion and marketing. I so appreciate the extra pair of hands...

Potentially sadly, there is a good chance I will need to go back into corporate marketing to be able to make ends meet. Hey, such is life. I must say, I welcome the financial stability, there are still 120 hours in the week to move my music career forward, and I think the big salary will help ease the pain...

"Viva! Amandla!" as they would say here in Africa...

What an amazing year!

2010 has been an amazing year, and I'm so grateful to be alive, and to be doing what I love.

This year I made some of the biggest money I have ever made from music, so it just goes to show you that it's true - if you follow your passion, the money will find you. Not that it was easy or always pleasant, but as John Demartini says, you will endure both pain and pleasure in the pursuit of your highest values, which are determined by your biggest voids.

Aside from getting Kiri now at the end of the year - our new beautiful little Labrador puppy to add to our 13 other dogs - one of my highlights this year was the remix of one of my songs by a really talented producer and a well-connected DJ, which was playlisted on a major radio station in Johannesburg. Bring on more of that in 2011!!!

Some of my goals for the new year:

1. Write some amazing music that really serves people.
2. Finish and release more albums - and have greater success getting some CDs into stores.
3. Sell some downloads!
4. Get heaps more radio airplay.
5. Do a stint on radio as a presenter.
6. Get onto TV so that I can shamelessly self-promote my brand.
7. Make some amazing award-winning music videos.
8. Increase my international connections.

Whatever you wish for yourself in 2011, may all your dreams and goals come true.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

A nice gig...

So my very good friend Kevin, who works at Aramis at Edgars in Eastgate (think JC Penney at Mall of America) arranged for me to come and perform Christmas carols at the Aramis counter in-store.

I'll be singing, but he has also arranged that one of my Christmas CDs will be sold as a gift-with-purchase as part of Aramis: if you buy R1000 (about $150) of stock from the counter, you get the CD free. It's probably the biggest and most prominent promotional event I've done so far in my music career, and I'm just thrilled about it! I'm gonna use the opportunity to grow my brand. After all, I didn't study marketing communications up to doctoral level for nothing...

Thanks Kev - you're a great friend.

House Music!!!

So much has happened since my last blog, and I have been so busy (or lazy) that I haven't blogged nearly as much as I would have wanted to. Not that I'm complaining, but I feel perennially tired... My mom says I need a good dose of vitamin B, so that's what I'm OD'ing on at the moment...

But I'm happy and I'm grateful. September/October have been great months for me. Even though I felt a bit strange that I was being too Madonna-esque, trying to do too many music things at once and being involved in too many genres (this "too many irons in the fire" syndrome, as my mom calls it, has always been a problem for me), I feel like at least I'm moving forward. I have been reading up on other musicians and songwriters lately, and I see a lot of people multi-tasking their careers. For example, I didn't know that indie film producer Gus Van Sant had released a few CDs of his own music! I was also surprised to read that Rupert Holmes (the Pina Colada song guy) has written musicals for Broadway and has written TV scripts. Suddenly I don't feel quite so strange!

Let me etch this in stone, this MOMENTOUS event: on Saturday 11 September, Stapura, a student of mine at Soul Candi and a prominent DJ on YFM, a Gauteng-based radio station, phoned me to try and let me know that the house remix of my song, Could This Be Love, was being played on Metro FM, one of the largest radio stations in my native South Africa. What a kick to be watching your music performed live at a theatre at the same time as it's being played on national radio!

Then, to my utter delight (I have to admit that when I found out I squealed like a little girl), Stapura contacted me this past Tuesday, 5 October, to let me know that the same track had been playlisted on YFM, which is a very popular youth radio station broadcasting out of Johannesburg to the province of Gauteng. Does it get any better than this????? AFTER TWENTY YEARS, I FINALLY HAVE AIRPLAY ON MAJOR RADIO!!!!! YIPPPPPPEEEEEE!!!!!! A huge thank you to Stapura, Cuebur the producer, and DJ Shimza, for helping me make one of my dreams come true - airplay... Now let's just hope it becomes a massive, smash hit!

I must say, though, in all the years I've been doing music, I never dreamed that I'd be doing house. I researched it a bit on Wikipedia. It has its roots in Chicago, in disco, stemming from the early 1980s. From there it spread to Detroit, New York, Los Angeles and Miami, before crossing the Atlantic to Europe and the Med and the Sahara Desert to Johannesburg, my home town, where it has hugely taken root and flourished. My foray into house is thanks to my connections at Soul Candi, the music school where I lecture, that is linked to a record label. I have access to all these young students who are eager to churn out music, and so I asked some of them if they would work with me. These new tracks, seemingly a million miles away from my own Josh Groban influence, are the fruits of my (and their) labour...

I'm thrilled and I'm very pleased, and on the inside looking out, my career feels like a big fat mess, a mish-mash of all sorts of genres and styles. But this is how new music is born, and if there's one thing I've learnt in all my marketing studies, it's that being different is a good thing. Well, it's been a while since someone with a classically-trained voice has forged ahead into contemporary music. Talk about a culture clash! It's like Josh Groban and David Guetta having a baby! You gotta laugh at that!

So, I'm tired, but very happy. Not making zillions yet, but I fully intend to use my brain to move me forward in the finance department too. And that's one thing that I have also realised about myself: I have incredibly high standards, and I have set the bar really, really high for myself. It means being uncomfortable often, but I still think it's been worth it...

It's ironic that I find myself writing about this today, the 9th of October. It was this day 12 years ago that my father died. He was one of my biggest fans, and he would have been hugely proud of me. Everybody would have known that "my son has a song on radio!" Well Dad, wherever you are, floating around in the universe, I still think of you.

And Mom, I'm so glad you're still around to guide me through the muddy waters of life. What are we without the people we love and those who love us?