The 3rd World Rocker

“Bex” is now out of the question… the #1 reason is when people hear me say it, they automatically say “the beer?”. Apparently there is a Beck’s (sp?) beer, and it sounds exactly the same. No good.
Also rob of ilyAIMY told me that he would have trouble finding me when adding shows in ReverbNation, because he would find more than one “Bex” and wouldn’t know which one is me.
So, it seem like “Mosno” has taken up #1 at the moment. I’ve searched Reverbnation and there are no other “mosno”s there, which is good?…I only hope there isn’t some kind of alcoholic beverdge with the same name.

My good man james tweeted me saying “it is Moss-no or Mozno” proving the point that no matter what name I choose, people will mis pronounce it. But as I replied to my good friend, I’d rather get “mozno” than “assraf”..yes, I’ve gotten “AssRaf” before. I’ll take my chances with mosno.

I’m sticking to my word, if I don’t find something cooler by the end of the month, then “Mosno” will be my stage name. Very exciting. well for me that is =)

Enjoy the rest of your day.
Salaam.

HonFest was a BLAST!. So many wonderful friends came out to see the show, the few tables infront of us were filled, and people started standing around listen to us. One lady actually called a friend on the phone and put it up in the air so her friend could hear us =). Awesome.

Everything went perfect, Meezo & I played the first 3 songs, then Seen joined us and we did 3 Owtar songs. Then Sharief came up and played bass with us for the rest of the set, followed by the lovely Heather backing me up as we did “Whole lotta love”, which was supposed to be our last song, but people started shouting “one more!”, it was flattering. So Eric & John of Umbrella Radio gave us the thumbs up for one more. At this point it was a full rocking band on stage. Sharief on Bass, Heather on Djembe and back up vocals, Meezo on the other Djembe, and I’m on guitar and vocals. It was AWESOME!!.

The weather was wonderful and hot, just the way I like it =), so many people were at the festival in general. We had a BLAST, and everyone had a good time. A lady came up to me afterwards and asked for my contacts, she said we have good music and she definatly wants to hear us again. Sweet.
Needless to say, I was on cloud 9, I kind of still am =).

Thank you so much to all the wonderful people who came out to the show, I really appreciate your support, and I’m glad to hear that we made it worth while for you.

awesome.
Alright, now for This week’s shows:
Wednesday 6/17 : Djembeing for Sahffi @ The Theater Project in Baltimore, MD. 7pm
Thursday 6/18: Guest hosting The Java Mammas open mic in Riesterstown, MD. 7-10pm
Friday 6/19: playing a show with Acacia Sears @ Teavolve in Baltimore, MD. 8pm

NEXT week’s shows:
Thursday 6/25: Guest hosting The Java Mammas open mic in Riesterstown, MD. 7-10pm
Friday 6/26: Playing a show with Teporah @ Fredrick Cellar in Fredrick, MD. 7:30
Saturday 6/27: Songs That Matter showcase @ Sweet Bakery in Ellicott City, MD. 5pm

I hope I get to see you there =)
Take care everyone, Salaam.

My Audiophile interview is uploaded for your listening pleasure, feel free to check it out and let me know what you think =)

My radio interview on “The Audiophile” will be streamed live on the UmbrellaRadio.org website.

The Date & Time:
Thursday 5/14/2009. 7 – 7:40pm

The site:
The Podcast section of the UmbrellaRadio.org website.
The show is called “The Audiophile”.

You will need Quicktime player to be able to tune in.
I hope you can all check it out =)

Salaam.

I got an email from John Fahres, he’s a local musician AND an online radio host of a podcast called “The Audiophile“, its one of the programs from UmbrellaRadio.org, they are a local free internet radio site, you can listen to many local programs, as well as local Baltimore artiest and what not.

I’m pretty sycked, its an hour show of him interviewing me, I’m going to be getting more info from him soon. I’m not sure yet if its going to be a live stream, or a live recording, but I guess we’ll find out soon won’t we =).

All I know is that Thursday 5/14/2009 I’m going to be interviewed for “The Audiophile”. So that brings up an important subject, my freakin stage name. I figured too many people already know me by “Ash” or “Ashraf”, so for me to change it now won’t be too smart (even thought I really REALLY want to). Also since my trip to Cali I have been giving my card to so many people, and my site is ReverbNation.com/ashrf … so in order to make this relevant, and not have to re-direct people to other sites and all that jazz..I’m thinking of using “Ash R.F.” that way the site stays relevant, I could still be called/introduced as “ASH” and well, its still my name..sort of.
I think I’m going to have to take a’tris’s advice and “Shut up & bite the bullet”.
There for…
Hello, I’m Ash R.F., and I will rockAfi your world =)

So I got contacted by Teporah (who happens to be the organizer of the BSA events), I was given a slot at Honfest..I’m very excited about this, she still asked to be have some kind of band to back me up, hmmm. I contacted my brother Meezo, and he’s interested in playing percussionist. I contacted Seeno, and he said he will check his schedule to see if he’ll be available, if so, then there is a chance that Owtar will be making a Festival appearance.
The date, stage, & time
Sunday 6/14/2009 – the Bicardi / BSA / Umberella Radio stage – 12:30 to 2pm.

Tonight, I’ll be playing Djembe for Teporah, also musing with us tonight will be Rob of ilyAIMY, Andy & Ben of The Microphone Sex. Should be a nice evening of music and fun. It’ll be at Tyson’s Tavern in Canton, MD.

Tomorrow is a full musical day, but I won’t be able to participate in all of it. My friend will be helping me pick-up a Loveseat for my apartment during the afternoon, but at night, I’m planning on going to see Heather of ilyAIMY play a solo set at Joe Squared.

Later this month I have a few gigs of my own actually =)
May 16 (has not be confirmed): Playing at an art gallerey in Baltimore.
May 24: a brunch show at Joe Squared Noon – 2pm
May 25: Songwriter’s showcase at the Jammin Java in Vienna, VA.

And a bunch of shows in June as well, so make sure to check my MySpace page & my ReverbNation page for more details and dates.

Have a great Friday everyone, I hope your weekend goes well.
Salaam.

Alright, so here is some exciting news about my next few days.
Tonight, I meet up with Teporah & the Baltimore Songwriter’s Association (BSA) board memebers, I’m being “discussed”, there is a chance I might end up being a board member in the BSA, which would be really awesome.

HonFest is coming up in a couple of months, I had received the email which basically asked who would like to play, the only problem is, it has to be a “band”, no solo acts are allowed = (. So I’m in a bit of a pickle, either I gather up friends to put together a “band” in order to play at HonFest, or actually peruse putting together a REAL band…but it’s such a short time, and I don’t want to blow it. I hear that HonFest has a nicely sized crowd, around 2 thousand or so, which could be great. That topic will also be brought up at the board meeting tonight.

Tomorrow I’m planning to make an appearance at the Java Mammas, it’s been a couple of weeks already, and I honestly just miss being there and seeing all my cool friends. I shall make the effort to go there tomorrow; also the fact that I’ve fixed my car’s low-light problem does help, now that I can actually SEE the road when driving at night.

I have been corresponding with the owner of a Bakery/Cafe in Ellicott City; hopefully a gig or few will come out it. He’s new to the whole “live music” thing, and asked me to kind of explain it to him, so I did. Now I await a reply (hopefully with dates) and then it’ll be one more venue to add to our resume, and of course cake. =)

In other news, John Hopkins Healthcare has offered the Tech position, I start with them on May 18 Insha Allah (God Willing), which means, pretty soon soon soon, I would make my official move to Baltimore, sweet =).

There you have it.
I’ll catch up with you all again soon.
Salaam.

My good friend of about 7 years approached me about 3 weeks back, he had started his Indie Label/Production company, and have been going strong for a few months now. They even won “Best Video” at the DMV Awards late 2008.

Here is the deal, they are willing to invest time, product, & marketing, up-front. In return we would split profits 50/50.
What that means is, they would get me professional studio time (for free), make me a music video (for free), make me a website (for free), and help market my sound through their audience and connections (for free). At any time one of us sells a CD, we split it 50/50. That way, everyone gets paid from the very beginning.
I would have complete control over the production of the CD, which means the songs I want, the way I want it. And I still have the rights to the songs, which means I can also sell the CD or any of my songs, in which ever way I like, not forgetting to give them 50%.

There is another option, which is they still do all the above for free, but instead of 50/50, once I start selling CDs, I would only get paid after they’ve made the money they invested in me.

He tells me that there main goal is to get me signed to a major label, and when that happens, it would be a different ball game.
So at this point, I’m simply thinking about the Pros & Cons of the situation. I have not made any decisions yet, but wanted to share the core of the conversation I had with my friend’s Indie Record label.

Check’em out, keep in mind they started this recently =)
NasJota Records.

So this weekend has been a musical weekend, of some sort. =)

Friday, I took Meezo & we saw K’naan perform live at the Bourbon Street Ballroom in Baltimore, MD. One thing I didn’t like about the show was the fact that they opened the doors at 8pm, but K’naan didn’t get up on stage until freakin 10pm. There was no opening act, just some DJ spinning music for 2 damn hours. Aside from that, the show was really nice, Meezo took some photos (as well as videos) so his Facebook should be very entertaining the coming few weeks. =)

Saturday, Meezo & I drove up to Rockville to watch Keegan Corbey perform at the Austin Grill. It was freakin packed, and aparantley they didn’t have a sound guy there either. Hmmm this seems to happen a LOT at the Grill. The one in Silver Spring also doesn’t have a sound guy, they need to fix this issue, pronto, especially since they ALWAYS have some kind of live performance.

Saturday night I was a little inspired to write a song about Sudan, but nothing came out, I guess I’m going through a block again, I also have another idea in my head surrounding haunted homes & spirit communicators, but again, nothing is coming out.

Today is Monday, and I can’t wait for the weekend already, I don’t have any major shows happening this week, so I’m either going to lay low, or hit a few open mics to promote my next apperance in Fredrick, MD 4/13, for Teporah’s CD release party.

I wish you all a good week.
Salaam.