My first question was simple, I wanted to know how long Raspbury had been on SL before he began performing. He told me he had been here around 5 months before he even knew there was a live music scene! His first experience came at the hands of Keiko Takamura, a great SL musician. Rasp was hooked and began using search to find more music. It was at least another month before he would stream his own music and even then it was on a friends lawn just for fun. Despite the numerous offers, Rasp didn't actually book his first show til he had been in world 9 or 10 months. I asked him if he also performed in RL and he let me know that while he does go to the occasional open mic, the bulk of his performing is on SL. He performs on SL as a hobby, to have fun.."If it wasn't fun, I wouldn't do it"
Raspbury does a lot of originals during his shows, and many of them are collaborations between him and other awesome SL musicians. I was curious to learn more about how it all works and his take on it. We talked about how sometimes words come to him, ideas for songs that might not fit him per se, so he might send them off to one of his friends to see if it clicks with them. He has co written songs with Mimi Carpenter and Amforte to name just a few. He said that sometimes it's just him goofing off and the song writes itself. He told me how he and Amforte were just talking, messing around playing music and he started singing what he called an "Amf" song....she came back later and said..."Hey I finished that song we started"...she had loved it...Took it Away can be heard by both of them during sets...
I recalled hearing both Raspbury and AMFORTE perform the song together and it made me wonder about dual streaming, so I asked Rasp who he would like to dual stream with next. He said he would like to do more dual streaming with a lot of people, has feelers out, but the one he thinks he would most like to dual with is Rara Destiny. They have played together in the past and feels that their voices and styles blend well together. We talked about how he hounded Rara to learn a certain song and how well it turned out. He said he likes to make covers of songs interesting, to take them in a different direction. "Music in itself is a universal language." he said, and followed with "I love to take something familiar, change it, and then perform it totally out of context" You never know what you might hear at one of his shows....but you know it will be fun!
Speaking of fun...I thought it would be fun to tease Rasp a bit so I asked him why people call him the SOUND NAZI! He laughed and said Rara gave him that nickname. He isn't afraid to tell someone if their sound is off, because he thinks it only helps people get better. You can often find Rasp in someones IM box helping to fix their sound. We talked about how for the most part the musicians in SL have formed a very supportive community and he is proud to be a part of it. "SL does nothing to promote the live music aspect so we as performers have an obligation to promote each other" Rasp does his part by volunteering his time to new musicians to tweak their sound and by giving shout outs to the musicians in the audience at his shows.
For those of you that don't know, Kasbah has a birthday coming up, and Raspbury will be performing for the celebration. I asked him for a few thoughts on Kasbah and he had lots to say! "I often don't play more than once in a place, but Kasbah is different" He mentioned how great the crowds are there, how he likes to be the last act, getting the carry over guests from previous shows. He told me how great he thinks it is that Kasbah is now on the Studio Genre sim, mixing art and music for a unique experience. "It's really cool because you can park there for the night, knowing it's going to be 4 hours of quality music" He also mentioned that he felt the shows were well run and organized and how friendly the staff is to work with too.
TIme was running short, but I had to ask Rasp about his fans. He has this extremely strong and loyal core of fans that come to every show. They will fight til the death for him....believe me, I have seen them do it....and I was curious how he felt about it. He said he thinks it's because he doesn't look at his performances as shows, more like..."Hey, I wanna play, you wanna listen? that's when it's fun." Rasp explained to me that he shares a lot of himself during his sets, doesn't matter if it is a 30 strong group or an intimate concert of 2 or 3, he chats about his life between songs and that he really feels like he is hanging out with his friends rather than performing. He told me that he is amazed by the support from his friends, fans and the music community in general and wanted to thank everyone for making SL what it is for him. I asked if he had a message for his fans and he said..."thanks again and next time, when you are scanning search, pick a name you have never seen before and go catch a few minutes....you might be surprised! It was great fun to talk with Raspbury, check out his weekly gig at Kasbah! That's all for now, Tessa1 Beck
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