June Schedule

June Schedule of Shows

June 6th - Aqus Cafe, Petaluma - Blues Trash Duo Featuring Derek Irving & Sky O'Banion
June 14th - Russian River Brewing, Santa Rosa - The Aces
June 26 - The Filling Station, Santa Rosa - Blues Trash Duo Featuring Derek Irving & Sky O'Banion

Got some new happenings going on. My first "Lo Fi Explosion #1" has been booked on July 30th at The Last Day Saloon in Santa Rosa. This will be a night of burlesque, garage and blues trash. Also looking to have some local aritists / crafts on hand too.

Check out some new "Blues Trash Duo Featuring Derek Irving and Sky O'Banion" recordings. We recorded these in Sky's living room with low wattage amps, lo fi gear and lots of soul. The only thing needed was some mastering on my part and here you go - enjoy. Blues Trash Duo 5 new songs

Lo Fi Explosion #1

I'm putting together a killer show in Santa Rosa on July 30 at The Last Day Saloon. The night will feature The Aces, Huge LARGE and a burlesque act. It is a show I'm presenting as "Lo Fi Explosion #1" an evening of Burlesque, Garage, Blues Trash and FUZZ..... Stay tuned..... Also The Aces are planning a trip down to LA in July as well to play the legendary Redwood Bar/Grill. Details on this show will come soon as well. And the last shameless promotion is The Aces doing a community TV show called The Beat. We're filming next week for an Aug premiere. Be sure to check out the El Toro Records family www.eltororecords.com, shop local when you can and be green :) – Derek Irving

Lights, Camera, Action

I’ve always had a few pipe dreams and today I made one happen. I’ve always had some sort of interest in doing film / acting. Not theater but film or video. Today I was cast in a winery training video and I’ve got to say it was pretty fun. I was very nervous and almost backed out at the last minute. But then I thought, you know what I’m bigger than this and jumped right in. Not only did my fears go away quickly, but I made it a point to step up and introduce myself to the other cast members too. Normally I’ve always been somewhat shy around people especially when not on stage, but I felt I made personal steps today to better my career and allow me to get over the fear of failure. The scene was pretty easy, no lines or anything. Just stand with another actor and enjoy wine and speak with the guy pooring the wine. The whole shoot took about 3 ½ hours, got paid and a light lunch. Plus I got done in time to pick up my daughter from school. I think I’m going to pursue this more. I need something to help supplement my music career you know !

When the lights go down in the city (SF).....

Yesterday I went to the SF Music Tech Summit in San Francisco. There were about 700 people there and
I'd say it was 60% technologist and 40% musicians. There were tree different tracks every hour. I decided to go to the following tracks "Reaching Fans", "Social Networking", "Doing Deals", "Marketing your Brand" and "Future of the Music Industry". There were other interesting sessions but these seemed to speak to me the most. I'd say the ones that blew my mind were "Reaching Fans", "Marketing/Branding" and "Future of the Music Industry". I anticipated that I'd love the Social Networking session, but it just did not fit what I was looking for. I'd prefer someone from Facebook or Twitter there to discuss how to use their platform to promote and/or market music or even artists who successfully use these tools. The session was ok but just did not have the BAM I was looking for. The "doing deals" session was ok too but a panel of lawyers can only be so exciting. The Reaching Fans and Marketing ones were very inspiring and educational. In fact the Reaching Fans and Marketing/Branding go hand in hand. The more marketable you are, the more fans you have a potently of reaching. Also the panel pointed out that every band, every member is a brand. From the music to the image it's all a brand. Everyone was in agreement if you're going after a sponsorship or if a company is going to use your brand, Music is the most important. Music must connect on lots of levels but primarily emotionally. This is why music fans are so passionate about their bands. - derek irving

A naked .......

Here is what the sound stage looks like naked.



Last night Mike, Sky, my wife and I headed over to the community access TV station where we'll be shooting "The Beat" in june. We're pretty execited at the opportunitye not to mention this is FREE publicity for the band. I'm also expecting this will be used for promoational materail as well. The only think I'm thinking is if I can convinence them to allow 15-20 people there so we have a crowd to play too. I'm afraid it will be a bit static/stale without a crowd. We're not the most enthistic musicians when it comes to practice, but when the lights go on it's "show time" baby !

Podcasts, SF Music Summit and more....

Be sure to check out podcasts from CDBaby. Also I'm heading to the SF Music Tech Summit on monday. Looking forward to this. Also I'm now on the board at Sonoma Country Day School as Communications Director. It's a volunteer position for my daughters school. Feeling good that I can contribute !

How about open file sharing for all music ?

Two points of view for music industry business models. Which one would you choose? I lean towards open file sharing. http://bit.ly/HCUTj

In any event artists will need to diversify their revenue stream. You can no longer think all you need to do is sell music and play gig's. You're going to need to be more involved with your fans and look for other ways for involvement. Your fan is your customer. What are you doing to make them return customers?

Big Kahuna Burger

Aces just got done opening for Tommy Castro at the Mystic in Petaluma. The band sounded great. Actually the Mystic is a great room for live music. It was a live theater back in the early 30's so the acoustics are fabulous. We play all the hits off our upcoming record. On the way home to replenish we stopped at In and Out for a few burgers.. While the crowd was more mature, we had a good reception. I attached a photo of a few of the band mates doing sound check. Our next gig will be a local TV show called The Beat. Expect to see some of this posted in Aug. Before that, we have some local shows too. Check our calendar and join us on facebook and twitter. - derek

New tunings from the devil

Devil made me do it

Here is a new tuning I've been messing around with.  Kind of haunting sounding (at least to me) - derek

The Aces ( Derek Irving & Sky O'Banion on iLike - Add iLike to your MySpace