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British Sea Power has an unusual quirk. They are known for placing large stuffed birds on stage and wearing militaristic uniforms at their concerts. But weird idiosyncrasies aside, they are also known for being an inventive and edgy rock band, who sometimes sound a bit like Joy Division. In their new album, “Do You Like Rock Music?,” the Brighton based band does not disappoint. Even though a few of the songs are real duds, the album is overall a fun and exciting listen. The album’s opening and closing songs are almost identical. Like many young people, British Sea Power seems to feel a little bit disillusioned about the state of the world right now. On the opener “All In It” they creatively express this through an atmospheric track in which they repeat, “We are all in it/ And we close our eyes.” At the end of the album it takes them eight minutes to state the exact same two lines. This fruitless attempt at trying to express their discontent fails miserably. Their point was made at the beginning of the album, and they say absolutely nothing new with the closing track.British Sea Power’s ability to dampen a song’s power through excessive length is also demonstrated in, “Lights Out for Darker Skies.” The first three minutes of this song are wonderful, but the last three minutes feel listless and staid. Fortunately, this is not a repeated pattern. Most of the songs on “Do You Like Rock Music?,” are musically creative and display an impressive level of excitement and melody. British Sea Power’s ability to make political statements is not completely eradicated by “Close Our Eyes.” The song, “Waving Flags” is a great immigration anthem that convincingly expresses its position. But it is also just a great song. It is the strength of the band’s songwriting ability that carries the rest of the album. Tracks such as “Open the Door” and “Canvey Island” display a knack for pop song that few current bands display.British Sea Power’s ability to surprise the listener and not fall into a formulaic pattern helps strengthen the album. A perfect example is “Atom.” Initially a slow and indistinct tune, about a minute into the song, the band turns the energy up about five notches, and produces a fantastic song. On repeated listens, the slow intro no longer seems mediocre, but becomes a funky introduction. Treats like this that make “Do You Like Rock Music?” a fun and exciting album.Even though a few of the tracks are complete duds, the majority of British Sea Power’s new album is fresh, melodic and fun. It has already won the hearts of many fans in the UK, and will most likely do so here as well. Give it a listen and if you agree check them out for free at SLU’s Billiken Club on March 29. Check out http://thebillikenclub.wordpress.com/ for other free shows just a metro ride away.

Indeed they are. When the young musical trio rolls into the Fox Theatre for a pair of shows on Saturday, they’ll arrive riding a wave of explosive buzz — the sort of shriek-saturated hype made familiar by so many of their teen-pop predecessors.

And it’s only primed to get bigger: Last month, fresh off a breakout national tour with fellow Disney sensation Miley Cyrus (”Hannah Montana”), the group signed a multimillion-dollar touring deal with Live Nation that will put the brothers into more than 140 concert venues in the year ahead. The Jonases’ own Disney Channel series will debut this summer, along with a feature film called “Camp Rock.”

Signs that the brothers’ pop-star fantasy was transforming into big-time reality were obvious in December at the Palace, where the trio’s opening set elicited screams nearly as piercing as those for headliner Cyrus.

“It’s been an amazing journey the last couple of years,” says Kevin Jonas, 20, who as the eldest of the brothers serves as the de facto spokesman. He modestly recalls the group’s pre-poster-boy days, slogging away on promo tours through small clubs and amusement parks to play for listless crowds of several dozen people.

The brothers are still young enough to gush wide-eyed over the “couple of” Bruce Springsteen concerts they’ve attended, and to gleefully make Wiffle ball the backstage pastime of choice. But the New Jersey-bred Jonases — Kevin, Joe, 18, and Nick, 15 — are also wise beyond their years: three articulate guys, seemingly solid and well-grounded, carefully groomed under the tutelage of such music-biz veterans as John Fields and Steve Greenberg, who once guided Hanson along this same path.

That ’90s pop trio is frequently referenced by Jonas Brothers observers, perhaps more often than this threesome would like. But it fits. With their nods to vintage rock, their classic guitar-drums-bass setup, the Jonases have far more in common with the Hanson brothers than they do with the dance-pop groups — ‘N Sync, Backstreet Boys — who came in between.

“We think it’s really cool that we’re able to introduce, sort of, rock ‘n’ roll to our younger fans,” says Nick Jonas. “Even the parents get into it because it does sound like the things that they used to listen to when they were young. And, you know, we just really try to find really great music, and write songs like the really great music that we’re listening to. Because people love good music.”

For the Jonas Brothers, that means citing such touchstones as the Beatles and Prince when discussing the sound of their third album, recorded in part on their tour bus last year and scheduled for release in July. And it means learning their way through the catalog of Brit-pop icon Elvis Costello, whose “(I Don’t Want to Go To) Chelsea” was recently added to the Jonases’ live set list.

It’s another raising of the bar on the group’s headlining theater tour, which kicked off Jan. 31 in Arizona. The group has also tinkered with its own songs, toying with the arrangements and integrating new sounds into familiar material.

“You might hear something and not recognize it right away, but then all of a sudden realize that it’s a song we’ve been playing for five years now,” says Kevin Jonas. “Our fans will have a whole other way of listening to it.”

The brothers say they’re carefully heeding the advice of seasoned industry veterans, eager to avoid the personal pitfalls that have tripped up so many while navigating the fame game. And they respond patiently when confronted with the question that’s been posed to probably every young pop sensation in the half-century history of rock: Can you endure beyond flash-in-the-pan status?

“We would love to be a band that really does last,” says Joe Jonas. “And because we’re brothers, I think it really helps. Because we do write our own songs and we’re in the studio where they’re made, I think that will be a big part of it.”

“The fact is, we don’t want to ever be anything we’re not,” says Kevin Jonas, who describes the upcoming album as a natural evolution: “We grew up a little bit. We wrote some deeper songs and experimented with new instruments and things like that.

“So I think for us it’s really all about sticking to your fans and knowing that if you work with them, and play to them, then hopefully you’ll always be there.”

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John Vianney Nsimbe

Don’t take things for granted! Not everyone who sings in Uganda today will be famous. While Reggae/Ragga, RnB, Afro-beat and Kadongo-Kamu continue to garner a following domestically, Hip-Hop music or rap is stagnant.

Apart from Klear Kut and Lyrical G, you’ll hardly hear Hip-Hop music on the airwaves. More still, while the other music genres are showcased at concerts such as Ekitobeero or Ekiggunda, even the free Hip-Hop night that was held every Tuesday evening at Sabrina’s pub collapsed because there were hardly any fans or sponsors.

Sirkumstance, a Hip-Hop artiste said that most music lovers are still locked into the Western Hip-Hop, while Eddie Okila a music promoter said that the radios here don’t play Ugandan Hip-Hop, which is why it is not popular.

Sanyu FM goes by the slogan Today’s best music. They don’t play a lot of indigenous rap music, yet their target audience is the urban Ugandan including the youth.

The youth are fans of rap music around the world because of the lifestyle it embraces: break-dance, the American accent and youth fashion of sneakers and jeans.

Timothy Lwanga, Sanyu FM’s Music Director told The Weekly Observer: "From our research, domestic rap is always scoring close to zero. We play what the listeners want."

Lwanga added: "Some rappers’ music we play definitely, say, Klear Kut but most rappers don’t have quality music that can be played on Sanyu."

He said most rappers sing hardcore style that is too loud and non-mellow for listeners.

Albert Twesigye, a rap music producer said the quality of music isn’t so good because many are into quick production. According to Lwanga, Kenyan and Tanzanian rappers are appreciated for the quality music.

"Even here, we play a lot of Kenya and Tanzania rap music because it is smooth, mellow, harmonious and cuts across generations; for example No-Nini (Kenya) and Professor Jay (Tanzania)."

Fat Boy, a presenter on Sanyu FM has a rap music background. He reasoned: "Our rappers lack identity. They instead imitate American rappers, whose lifestyles are different from ours." He added that Ugandan rappers need to sing about issues like corruption, poverty, education and insecurity.

"Instead they concentrate on polishing their American accents and portray themselves as ghetto people, yet many of them are from rich or middle class families. A ghetto was a thing that Tupac Shakur used to represent because he lived in one."

Fat Boy gave an example of how attached Ugandans are to their Kadongo-Kamu because it identifies with them. "Singing in local dialects can be the start like the Kenyan and Tanzanian rappers do - rap in Kiswahili. But even in English, it must sound Ugandan not American."

Lwanga said rap music should adopt a fusion with, say, afro-beat styles if it is to survive. Singer Bebe Cool thinks that rap music has got to be blended with beats that the public can dance to like Rocky Giant did. "Also, rap music must cut across to the generation that has money to buy music too," said Bebe Cool.

Notably, Ugandan rap still lacks originality. Twesigye said: "Some Hip-Hop singers get foreign beats and place their lyrics over them." Lwanga argued that the Kenyan rappers have adopted styles they call Genge and Kapuka, which are originally theirs and get a lot of airplay."

"If Ugandans promote something like Luga-flow, then I think they’ll progress," he said. Bebe Cool said Hip-Hop music hasn’t been marketed well. "When do they have concerts?" Bebe Cool asked. It is usually at events organised by Alliance Francaise and the Uganda German Cultural Society that Hip-Hop singers will show up yet these events don’t host thousands of revelers like other shows.

Also, like the Bataka Squad, they don’t hold concerts and Krazy Nativ said that the size of fans doesn’t matter to him, so he won’t be hunting for shows to perform at in order to be popular.

He believes what is meant to be will be; well, not without effort.

Navio from Klear Kut told The Weekly Observer that Ugandan Hip-Hop being a new phenomenon needs solidarity to promote it.

"Instead", Navio said, "There has been a lot of divisions in the industry based on singing style - vernacular or English." Another Klear Kut member The Mith added: "Our friend Babaluku of the Bataka Squad who raps in Luganda (Luga-flow) insulted us in his songs making insinuations that because we sing in English, we aren’t really Ugandan. Though we are now reconciled, this set us aback in trying to forge progress as a family despite diversity."

The divisions go deeper. Some rappers said Krazy Nativ a.k.a Saba-saba, a founder member of the now defunct Hip-Hop Foundation, told other rappers in 2005 that he was doing a documentary about Ugandan Hip-Hop dubbed: Diamonds in the Rough (Uganda Hip-Hop evolution). Many Hip-Hop musicians were interviewed and recorded to showcase Hip-Hop in Uganda and secure opportunities for rappers.

However, Krazy Nativ edited other rappers not in his group (Bataka Squad) out of the documentary. This angered many though Krazy Nativ argues it was a Bataka Squad project.

In 2005, the Hip-Hop Foundation was vibrant. They secured Sabrina’s Pub free every Tuesday for the Hip-Hop night to showcase their talent. But in 2006, the pub’s owner, Hope Mukasa asked them to start paying for the venue, but they weren’t attracting many revelers, so they left.

Without radio play, Hip-Hop will remain in the shadow. But like Fat Boy said, they must realise that original quality music is important to get airplay.

Music students will showcase the skills they have learned in their classes for a midterm grade next week. It is a mandatory grade for students enrolled in ensemble music classes to perform and attend these concerts in the auditorium of McAllister Fine Arts Center.Music Professor Alice Gomez will direct the Latin jazz percussion ensemble class in performing Latin jazz style compositions at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday. The group will perform compositions from Stevie Wonder, Duke Ellington and a Latin version of “Flight of the Bumble Bee.”The Latin jazz percussion ensemble consists of 10 members.”We practice for this a lot to see how they pull it off onstage,” Gomez said.In a departure from the calendar of concerts for the music department, music Professor Peter Kline will direct the brass ensemble class instead of a band concert at 2 p.m. Wednesday. The ensemble will perform compositions by Richard Wagner and play a march usually played by a band. The instruments include french violins, trombones, baritones and tuba. “This is the first brass ensemble concert in a while,” Kline said.Music Professor Stephen Gollihar, will direct a jazz ensemble performance with a variety of famous jazz and Latin jazz compositions at 2 p.m. Thursday.The compositions include “Easy Groove” by Bob Mintzer, “A Child’s Blues” by Phil Woods, “A Riff in Time” by Jack Feierman, “Just Foolin” by Sammy Nestico, “Coral Reef” by Neal Hefti, “Moving Right Along,” “Powder Blue” and “Contessa” by Lennie Niehaus.The instruments used will be four saxophones, four drums, four trumpets, three trombones, two guitars, two bass guitars, and one piano, Gollihar said.Voice Professor Cynthia Sanchez will direct a choral pop concert at 1 p.m. Feb. 29. Students will sing selections from “West Side Story” and Richard Rogers pieces. The chamber singers will perform pieces from The Manhattan Transfer, an American vocal group from New York famous for mixing jazz, big band and popular styles of music, and Take 6, an African-American a cappella gospel music sextet.”We don’t do pop music often. These compositions will not be quite so serious,” Sanchez said.All concerts are free.

Like most men, I love pop music. Listening to it is OK, but whatreally floats my boat is learning a new, deeply obscure fact aboutthe people who recorded my favourite songs.

Music factoids are hard currency to the average man. We tradethem like football cards and use them to trump each other at thepub/pool table/tennis court.

For example: Man A observes that Ozzy Osbourne bit the head offa bat during a concert in Des Moines in 1982. “Oh yeah,” says ManB, “but he thought it was a stage prop and needed a rabies shotbecause the bat bit him back”.

Man C yawns and prepares to deliver his coup de grace. “My dadwas in jail with him in the late ’60s,” he says. “That’s when hegot the letters O-Z-Z-Y tattooed across his left knuckles and happyfaces on both knees.”

It’s game over. Men A and B grip their beers - they are dyinginside.

As a general rule, women are not as fascinated as men by theminutiae of Ozzy Osbourne’s life; they are less thrilled to learnthat Keith Richards routinely removes the bottom E string on hisguitars. Perhaps this discrepancy is explained by remarks made thisweek by Lesley Douglas, the co-ordinator of popular music at theBBC.

“For women, there tends to be a more emotional reaction tomusic,” she said. “Men tend to be more interested in theintellectual side: the tracks, where albums have been made, thatsort of thing.”

The remarks prompted howls of outrage from both sexes. Meninsisted that they too felt a lump in their throat when ArtGarfunkel sings “When you’re weary, feeling small” at the start ofBridge Over Troubled Water. Aggrieved women pointed out thatthey were quite capable of appreciating Jimi Hendrix’s use of theminor seventh chord and a wah-wah pedal on Foxy Lady.

Well, yes, of course. But as Nick Hornby and his New Ladacolytes have pointed out, the music “anoraks” - the kind that likethe smell of vinyl and keep back copies of Mojo magazineunder their bed - are almost always male. Many men would ratherdiscuss their Top 5 albums, Brian Jones’s mysterious death or theHoodoo Gurus shifting line-up, than their feelings. It’s a cliche,but that doesn’t make it any less true.

And surely, if we accept that women are generally more relaxedabout discussing their feelings, doesn’t it follow that they arelikely to be more open to music aimed squarely at the emotions?This, after all, would explain the success of James Blunt, aphenomenon many men find as appealing as male pattern baldness.

Certain women of my acquaintance love it when Blunt sings “Weshared a moment that will last till the end”. They wonder who he’ssinging about. I wonder if he shot anyone in Kosovo.

If Lesley Douglas is right, men and women can hear the same songin very different ways. This is certainly true.

When I hear Lionel Richie’s All Night Long I hear awell-crafted, but rather soppy pop song. My female friends hear apersonal invitation to join Lionel on his private jet for a nightof passion spanning two time zones. Their hips start to wiggle whenhe sings “We’re going to party” and they smile knowing smiles at”Let the music take control”.

Oddly, the same women struggle to understand the glory of JimmyPage’s guitar work on Kashmir. But let’s not get carriedaway. Look at the photographs of the front row at the Big Day Out:they show men and women equally gripped by the ecstasy of loud,hard music. One nation under a groove.

IN today’s culture of sampling in hip-hop and electronic music,fans are accustomed to producers “disguising” or hiding samplesthat they have lifted from other recordings. Artists such as DJShadow, The Avalanches and Nightmares on Wax have made sampling afine art. Usually all attempts are made at concealing the origin ofthe sample by distorting it, burying it deep in the new track orlifting samples from more obscure records.

Not South Rakkas Crew. On their latest release, TheMix-Up, the duo of Dennis “Dow Jones” Shaw and Alex “Alex G”Greggs lift from a range of iconic classics: The Jacksons’ CanYou Feel It, Saturday Night Fever staple If I Can’tHave You, Barrington Levy’s dancehall anthem Under MiSensi and even Sesame Street. On other productions, theybrazenly sample Madonna, Frankie Valli, Norman Greenbaum, ChakaKhan and more.

“I guess it’s just going after stuff that will make the biggestimpact,” shrugs Shaw. “Personally, I grew up on a lot of Top 40stuff. Those are the songs that have a big impact on me. If I’m ina club and I hear a Jackson Five song come on, I know it. I comefrom a hip-hop background, so I’m going to pick out stuff that’sreally going to make people move.”

Shaw was born in Jamaica and moved to Canada when he was sixyears old. As a youngster, he loved reggae but in his teenage yearshe became a convert to the harder-edged dancehall of Buju Banton,Shabba Ranks, Beenie Man, Eek-A-Mouse and Sister Nancy.

“Dancehall is the younger, brasher brother of reggae,” Shawexplains. “Dancehall, to me, is a form of rap music. It’s younger,hipper and faster-moving; the content is more controversial, it’sabout having fun, it’s about dancing. The beats are usually muchrawer; it’s not as melodic.”

These days, he and Greggs reside in Orlando, Florida and SouthRakkas Crew are among the rising stars of contemporary dancehall.They record with the scene’s biggest names and have remixed tracksfor DJ Shadow, Beck and Lily Allen.

Initially producing pop acts such as *NSYNC and even Britney,South Rakkas turned their side project into a full-time concernwhen their four albums of “rhythms” (variations of the sameinstrumental track fronted by different vocalists) all sold out. InAustralia, South Rakkas’ music is part of the Rio deJaneiro-inspired Favela Rock parties. The music is a melting pot ofhip-hop, reggae, dancehall, pop, electro, Baltimore funk, Miamibass and house.

South Rakkas Crew play Miss Libertine on March 1 andGolden Plains Festival on March 8. The Mix-Up is out on MadDecent/Inertia.

A collection of playground equipment, including a seesaw, a slide, and some jungle gym pieces, forms the unlikely set for the twisted dance/rock opera “Games of Steel.”

“We started with the idea of using Archimedes’s simple machines,” says Michele de la Reza, co-artistic director of Pittsburgh-based Attack Theatre, which brings “Games of Steel” to the Cutler Majestic Theatre tonight through Sunday. “Then we gathered our musicians and dancers together to brainstorm. Our neighbor here is Red Star Ironworks, and we thought we might work with them on props. Our philosopher in residence [University of Pittsburgh history and philosophy of science professor Peter Machamer] was explaining game theory to us, which he says is not about who wins, but about who loses the least. Suddenly that became a great metaphor for a story about a game show, for relationships, everything.”

Whoa. A dance company with a philosopher in residence? Choreography that involves Archimedes’s simple machines and uses heavy steel pieces as props? A game-show story? Who are these people?

“Ideally, we’re a mix of theater, dance, and rock music,” says de la Reza on the phone from her studio before heading to Boston for a residency at Emerson College. “In our company’s 14-year evolution we’ve leaned toward what we like to call an image narrative. We have 20 versions of a script for a work that has no words, but the music’s lyrics help lead the story for the dancers.”

In “Games of Steel,” three contestants compete in games involving a ring toss, a lever, an inclined plane, and a balancing act on a seesaw. Peter Kope, Attack Theatre’s co-artistic director and de la Reza’s husband, plays the manipulative show host, with support from a four-piece rock band, in a game that’s been described as “Mad Max meets urban ‘Survivor.’ “

“I didn’t expect the Mad Max comparison,” Kope says with a laugh, “although we were going for a kind of end-of-time look, and with my spiked hair I was thinking more like Billy Idol or the Heat Miser [from the animated film ‘The Year Without a Santa Claus’].”

Attack Theatre is part of a dance/music theatrical wave that includes Blue Man Group, “Stomp,” “De La Guarda,” and “Squonk,” for which de la Reza and Kope created the choreography. But Kope says the company’s interest in grounding music and dance in a story makes it a little different.

“I think it’s important to anchor the audience in a level of narrative,” says Kope. “Not that it’s crystal clear. Everyone sees different things, but the story line, the dance, and the music all have to work together to create a dangerous edge,” he says. “The games have that gladiator perspective where the stakes are high and if you lose, you die.”

Charting the tracks of their years

Feb 22 2008by Karen Price, Western Mail

Most songs evoke strong feelings in us all – whether they transport us back to our school days, remind us of a loved one or make us want to switch off the radio. Karen Price asks a number of familiar faces about the tracks which mean something to them

Peter Florence is director of the Hay Literary Festival

I sing along in the shower/bath to…Nina Simone Feeling Good or Wishing She Knew How To Be Free – or anything that’ll take my mind off being heavy and hurried

I always want to switch off… People doing crossover stuff (from either direction) and Lesley Garrett doing anything.

I like driving along to… Whatever my sons are into. Isaac, 10, DJs the school run with a Beach Boys, Elvis, Gorillaz playlist, while seven-year-old Ru brings us home to Hot Chip’s Over And Over and a heady mix of Fatboy Slim and the Beatles.

I’m transported back to my youth when I hear… The Beatles, Bowie and Led Zeppelin seemed to be most of what I remember from school, and the songs remain the same.

I am embarrassed to admit liking… Meatloaf – so uncool he’s cool all over again, or will be one day.

I’m always guaranteed to be cheered up by…

Paul Simon’s Graceland, which came out one summer in the ‘80s when my father, who’d been raised in Cape Town, and I were driving around Britain. We township-jived all summer and I think I know all his songs by heart and soul. He’s the great poet of divorce and separation and his love songs are all written to his children.

I like chilling out to… A great Tunisian musician called Anouar Brahem who fuses jazz with Arabic classical oud playing. I walked past Tom’s Records in Hay one day last year and heard this beautiful sound and fell in love with it. Try his album Le Pas du Chat Noir.

The track that sums me up…I wish I could say it was kd lang singing Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. The version on her covers album, 49th Parallel, is good but the live recording from the Juno Awards ceremony is stupendous – the single most played track on my iPod and gifted to all my mates in itunes.

Matthew Rhys, 33, is the Cardiff-born actor who stars in Hollywood drama Brothers & Sisters

I sing along in the shower/bath to…American Trilogy by Elvis – for some reason the acoustics in there always make everything sound better, especially when you’re belting out the chorus. It’s also about five minutes long which is just right.

I always want to switch off… Anything hardcore like trance, jungle or any heavy house music. It reminds me of bad nights in sweaty clubs where you find yourself saying things like, “I just want something with a tune.”

I like driving along to…The soundtrack of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid by Bob Dylan. It chills you out on long car journeys. It works especially well on the A470 between Cardiff and mid Wales as the music and the scenery seem to go together.

I’m transported back to my youth when I hear… Any Adam Ant song as Prince Charming was the first single I bought. Although I never dressed up or wore make-up like he did, I did try to replicate his “chandelier swing” from my settee.

I am embarrassed to admit liking… Kylie – not just Kylie herself but her music. It’s fine to say to your mates that you like Kylie but I realised I over-stepped the mark at Christmas when I said “Isn’t 2 Hearts great?” Deathly silence.

I’m always guaranteed to be cheered up by… Brimful of Asha by Cornershop for all the obvious reasons – it’s so up-beat and toe-tapping. It also reminds me of my time in New Zealand. It was playing everywhere and the sun was always shining so I associate both.

I like chilling out to… Heim by Sigur Ros. They’re really mellow. My mother hates it – she thinks it’s depressing. She came into my room once and said, “They didn’t even change key in that last one.”

The track that sums me up…I think it’s impossible to sum yourself up with one piece of music. I would say my last seven answers are a fair indication of who I am.

Soprano Elin Manahan Thomas, 30, is from Gorseinon and has signed a record deal with Universal. She will be performing at the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod this year

I sing along in the shower/bath to…Whatever I’m learning. I have an irritating inability to switch off tunes and I’m often woken in the middle of the night by a snippet of Handel, Mozart or Britten. I’ve just done a concert of really tricky 20th Century music – I wasn’t humming along to that in the mornings.

I always want to switch off…Country and western of any type. I once spent six hours on a wooden seat on a Czechoslovakian bus behind a driver with a penchant for country and western. When the travel sickness and the country and western music kicked in together there was only ever one inevitable outcome.

I like driving along to…The Foo Fighters. I saw them at the O2 Arena in November and was blown away. I’m definitely a rock chick at heart and there’s nothing like the blast of rock guitar.

I’m transported back to my youth when I hear… Anything by Queen, especially Friends Will Be Friends as it reminds me of my school days and of annoying my dad in the car with endless Freddie Mercury.

I am embarrassed to admit liking…Take That. The stuff on their comeback album took me by surprise and I found myself belting some of their songs along with the radio.

I’m always guaranteed to be cheered up by… The Feeling. I’m training for the London Marathon at the moment, for the Parkinson’s Disease Society, and I smile whenever one of their songs comes on my iPod – and run a little faster.

I like chilling out to… Mika – what a brilliant guy, and a genius of a singer. He makes me laugh in his songs and I can always lie back and listen to him. And sing along, of course.

The track that sums me up…Anything by The Divine Comedy. I discovered them while I was at the Royal College of Music and instantly felt they had written all their songs for me.

Jonathan Owen, 36, is from Merthyr Tydfil. He is an actor and also presents and produces Soccer Sunday for ITV Wales

I sing along in the shower/bath to…The Stone Roses. The first album is still one of the great albums of all time and I Am The Resurrection is perfect to get you ready for the day ahead.

I always want to switch off… Anything by the Spice Girls. Whoever asked them to come out of retirement deserves to be punished for crimes against humanity.

I like driving along to… There’s A Light by the wonderful Smiths. It’s all about driving away from your problems with someone you love. Appeals to the dreamer in all of us I suppose.

I’m transported back to my youth when I hear… Going Underground by The Jam. They were the first proper band I got into seriously. I had every album and single, right up to Beat Surrender when Paul Weller famously broke them up. Just the opening riff makes me feel 12 again, hanging around street corners in Merthyr with my mates.

I am embarrassed to admit liking… Young Hearts by Candy Stanton. It’s a great disco anthem, but just about one of the campest songs in musical history.

I’m always guaranteed to be cheered up by… Tighten Up by Archie Bell and Drells is always guaranteed to cheer me up. It’s got this great soul guitar and ‘60s backbeat that just automatically makes you smile and want to get up and dance.

I like chilling out to… Stalafur by Sigur Ros. It’s the atmosphere they have managed to create in the song, the sense of intimacy, it’s extraordinary. I’ve used them on programmes I’ve made and I’ve had so many emails asking who they were and saying how much they loved the music.

The track that sums me up…You’re So Vain by Carly Simon. Enough said! But my mates might say Shaddup Your Face.

Grammy Award-winning soprano Rebecca Evans, 44, lives in Penarth and is currently touring in Welsh National Opera’s The Magic Flute

I sing along in the shower/bath to… Usually arias I am learning or about to perform. I’m currently learning Liszt for recording in London so the shower has been used for a rehearsal.

I always want to switch off… Most traditional Christmas carols as personally I find them so sad and depressing. Away In A Manger is top of my list.

I like driving along to… Mika singing Grace Kelly. My son William and I met Mika at a wedding in France last September and he was so nice to William. We then bought his album and we play Grace Kelly at full volume while singing along in the car.

I’m transported back to my youth when I hear… Dancing Queen by Abba. My best friend Jayne Daniels and I would go to Harpers in Swansea each Wednesday night and we would look forward to Dancing Queen so much and dance the night away, of course.

I am embarrassed to admit liking… Puppy Love by Donny Osmond. I loved it but I didn’t think I would be seen as cool when it came out in 1975 – so I never did admit liking it. Now I love everything by Donny and am proud to say so. Also he is a newly discovered Welshman!

I’m always guaranteed to be cheered up by… Defo Notte by Handel from the opera Ariodante.This just totally brightens my spirits each time I listen to it. It gives me real sparkle – it is just genius composing.

I like chilling out to… Fix You by Coldplay. I just love the lyrics and the mellow rock music and Chris Martin’s voice is so wonderful and relaxing. I often chill out with my iPod in my music room with Coldplay.

The track that sums me up…Thank You For The Music by Abba. I’ll leave it to you to decide if I’m “nothing special” and perhaps a “bit of a bore” but on the whole this wonderful song pretty well sums me up.

BBC Wales presenter Claire Summers, 32, is from Cowbridge

I sing along in the shower/bath to… I usually like peace and quiet, and love to read in the bath.

I always want to switch off…Garage and hip-hop – they are not really my thing.

I like driving along to…Songs that I can sing to – I love the Killers’ Sam’s Town album, although it does make me feel like I can drive really fast, or any Counting Crows or a bit of Blondie.

I’m transported back to my youth when I hear… So many songs – music was always playing really loud at home. Every time I hear Rod Stewart it reminds me of being young and my dad singing really loud! I knew every word to Pipes of Peace by Paul McCartney. I also loved The Bangles hit Manic Monday, Bon Jovi’s Living On A Prayer and lots of Madonna – I had a whole netball routine worked out to La Isla Bonita!

I’m embarrassed to admit liking…. A few Abba tunes and a bit of Dolly Parton. Here You Come Again is on my iPod along with a bit of Neil Diamond.

I’m always guaranteed to be cheered up by… Midnight Train To Georgia by Gladys Knight or Michael Buble singing Everything.

I like chilling out to…On my iPod I have a real mix of old and new tunes – I go from very sad to very cool in a matter of seconds!

The track that sums me up… Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life by Eric Idle, simply because I’m an eternal optimist.

Local hip-hop artist Boaz could be the next star to rise out of Pittsburgh and into the mainstream.

He released his third mixtape CD this week at Time Bomb Spot in East Liberty, a long-time promoter of local hip-hop, and will debut his first album in May.

“I’ve been working so hard this last year, and that’s why I really wanted to name this ‘Monumental Music,’ just to put the stamp on what we’re doing,” said Boaz, 22, of Larimer, whose full name is Boaz Bey.

If his debut album takes off, Boaz could lend more credence to a local hip-hop scene that’s already gaining national attention thanks to Wiz Khalifa.

“(Boaz) always rose to the top when I was checking out the local scene,” said Artie Pitt, spokesman for East End-based Point Blank Productions, which produced the album. “His future is limitless.”

Boaz has been rapping for years, but he gained citywide attention at 19, when one of his songs — “It’s Alright” — won 106.7-FM WAMO’s Battle of the Beats contest for eight consecutive weeks.

“He’s not a basement rapper or some garbage hip-hop,” said Ashley Woodson, CEO of Brotha Ash Productions, a company that promotes events for the black community in Pittsburgh. “Boaz is the next thing to rise up out of Pittsburgh.”

Boaz grew up in a single-parent household — his father died when he was a child — and he is the second-youngest of five children.

He sometimes strayed while attending Westinghouse High School, becoming involved in some “negative things,” he said without elaborating. But he graduated, he said, insisting never to let living in the inner city be an excuse.

He continues to carry that attitude and hopes to pass it on to his 1-year-old son, Boaz said.

“It’s about how you’ve been groomed and whether you had a positive influence,” he said.

Time Bomb owner Brian Brick said Boaz is a hit with music fans. Brick said he’s been selling local hip-hop “since cassettes” and is a fan of Boaz’s original lyrics.

“None of my music is premeditated,” Boaz said. “I go into the studio and it comes together, as I get to thinking about things I’ve seen and different things I’ve done throughout the day.”

Last month, the rhymes that come so easily won him lyricist of the year at the Pittsburgh Hip-Hop Awards.

“He’s very versatile with his lyrics,” said Dwayne Muhammad, the event’s CEO. “To win that award, they have to be thought-provoking. Other artists’ lyrics are one-dimensional.”

Brick said he believes it’s just the beginning.

“There’s not a hip-hop group out there,” he said, “that doesn’t respect or know who Boaz is.”

In my interview with Tech N9ne, he describes himself as inside out, and when you talk to him, it’s easy to see what he’s talking about. He’s raw, real, and very, very honest. In his career, he’s collaborated with some of the biggest names in hip-hop. He also helped put together a lot of the music in Alpha Dog. Needless to say, Tech N9ne is not afraid to try out anything in the music business. In my interview with Tech N9ne, we talked about his career, Kansas City, American Idol, and a whole lot more.When I set out to do this Tech N9ne thing, I planned for it to be for the whole world. I wanted it to be a style that everybody could feel. I wanted it to be for everybody, and that’s what the name means. And I have expectations that supersede where I am right now, because the object is to get it to the rest of the world. And we’ve been doing it. It’s speeding up rapidly, and it’s growing like a forest fire, but if I went to Japan right now, they wouldn’t be in a frenzy. And that’s what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to do this globally. So, when I started this, yes, I wanted to get it to the rest of the people. It’s not a cocky thing … it’s just that I feel like I have a story, and over the years as I’ve grown wiser, a lot of my stories have matured. I really feel like they need to hear my stories now. I just wrote a song last night called Hope for a Higher Power . And everybody’s always been questioning the bible, but if people find out that the laws are bogus, what’s gonna keep law and order? My stories have matured, and I really want to get them to the rest of the world now.Kansas City is my comfort zone. My mother is here, my whole family is here, and this is what I know like the back of my hand. I have a place in L.A. and I’ve been there for years, but it’s nothing like the feeling that I feel when I’m in Kansas City. And I don’t feel like I’m at home in LA. I feel like this is home, and I can come to Kansas City and visit my aunts, uncles, and cousins and mother. And before my grandmother passed, she was here. We migrated from Texas, years ago, before I was born I guess, and this is where we stay, this is where we lay, and this is my comfort zone. And that’s why I speak on Kansas City so highly, because I’m totally comfortable here. People say I shouldn’t be, because they call it killer city … everybody’s dying like crazy, and I’m high profile, but this is my comfort zone, and I have no worries, because I have a lot of love here .. just as well as hate, but not as much hate as love. This is my family, this is my love, and this is my comfort zone.In the past couple of years, we’ve been hearing an awful lot about the Kansas City entertainment scene. I mean, you’re from Kansas City and so is the director of the Saw films. Do you think Kansas City is starting to finally get some respect?I think so, man. A lot more people are starting to look toward us. I think that Tech N9ne makes ‘em see something different, but when Nelly and Chingy and all those people popped from St. Louis, which is just three hours away from Kansas City, that made people open their eyes a lot, because those were big numbers coming from those places. And then when they see Tech N9ne and they see something totally different, they’re like, “Wow. What the hell is going on in Missouri?” So, yeah, I think it’s making a lot of people look toward Missouri.The beats. I am not a producer when it comes to beats. Of course I have beats in my head, like the beat Riotmaker came out of my head in a dream that I had, and I conveyed that to a producer. But the beats mean everything to me, man. If there’s no pulse, there’s no life. What I mean by that is the beat has to bang and you have to be able to feel that beat. The beats are the things that inspire me to write when I write. When I first heard this beat that I heard last night for Hope for a Higher Power, as soon as I heard it, I knew that that was what I was gonna call it. The beats, they talk to me, man. It’s crazy. I’m gonna tell you the process really quick: I’m speaking on this beat that I just wrote last night, Hope for a Higher Power for my new album Killer, and Travis, I came by the office and he gave me some new beat Cd’s and said, “I want you to listen to these.” So, I got in the car on my way to the studio, and he called me and said, “You gotta listen to number two, man.” Travis has been around me for years, so he pretty much knows what I love, and I played number two, and I lost it. I called Travis up and said, “Travis, lock that in for me. I’m calling it Hope for a Higher Power.” As soon as I heard it, that’s what it told me to write. And that’s how it happens to me. The beats talk to me. And if the beats don’t talk to me, I won’t choose it. They had this one called King, and it had the same sample that Puffy used for You Can Hate Me Now, and they just thought I would love it. And I’m like, “No, that’s so me four years ago.” And everybody was like, “How come you’re not picking this beat?” But it didn’t speak to me. And the beats have to speak to me. If there’s no pulse and no life, people will not listen if that shit don’t bang.I really do. I think that’s why a lot of rappers when they say they’re gonna retire, they come right back, because it’s in your blood. Jay-Z can take a hiatus, Too Short can take a hiatus, Tech N9ne can take a hiatus, but it’s in your blood, man. You see everybody else doing it, and you’re like, “I’m a showoff, man.” I can tell you a story in a weird ass style to make you wanna listen. And I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to stop doing that. I’m writing Killer like it’s my last rap album, because I wanna do this rock ‘n’ roll thing called Kabosh. But, think about it, I’m gonna be doing the rap and then Kabosh. I’m not gonna be able to shake that. It’s in your blood, and I think that goes for a lot of artists who consider themselves artists.The thing about the live show, man, is I had schooling. I went to Ice Cube concerts, LL Cool J concerts, Public Enemy concerts, N.W.A concerts. I’ve been to all those concerts. I mean, I saw James Brown, Roger Troutman. I haven’t seen Michael Jackson at all, and I hate that I missed the Victory tour back then, but I got a lot of schooling in hip-hop from watching Public Enemy, N.W.A , so on and so forth. And that stuck with me. And I think that’s why our fan base will come back to see us four times a year if they have to, because the shows keep changing. It’s so important for an MC to be able to command a crowd. And a lot of MC’s don’t know that, because a lot of MC’s probably don’t look at themselves as MC’s. They probably look at themselves like, “Ok, I made a hit, so I gotta go out here and get on this stage and do thirty minutes and then go.” A lot of ‘em don’t know any better, so you can’t hate them for that, because a lot of these cats are young and they don’t know what it means to really perform and really captivate a crowed, because a lot of these people you see on television, they don’t tour as much as we do, and they don’t tour as much as they should with hits like they have. And the labels, you think they would help them with that, but a lot of these youngsters, they don’t know that they have to captivate a crowd. And people walk away saying, “Eh, I like the song, but the show was horrible.” So a lot of them don’t have that schooling that I was lucky to have. And I think it’s very important to know how to captivate a crowd. And I do.You mentioned earlier that you always look for beats when it comes to music, but what do you look for in a collaboration? If you’re going to collaborate with someone and be their partner, what needs to stand out?When I choose somebody for my albums, it’s because I adore their music. It’s not because, “Ohh, I’ll get these big names on my album and maybe their fans will buy it.” When I seek out to go get Ice Cube, when I seek out to go get Scarface, when I seek out to go get D-12 or Eminem, it’s because I’m a fan of their music. I would love to do a song with Outkast, because I adore their music. I would love to do songs with Slipknot or System of a Down, because I love their music. Shinedown, I love their music. So, the people I reach out to are people that I know can do what I do or can hang with what I do, or I really respect what they do. Shawnna, the female rapper from DTP, I reached out to hear this time, because she is treacherous on the mic. When I choose somebody, I don’t choose them for name recognition … I choose them for what they can do, because I adore what they do.You have to stand by your beliefs, because … it’s a song called Hip-Hop by Dead Prez that Dave Chappelle walked out to every night on his show. In that song, they say something like, “But then if you a liar-liar, pants on fire, wolf-crier, agent wit’ a wire, I’m gon’ know it when I play it.” And the fans know fraudulent. So, if you contradict yourself in your song, people will know that you’re fraudulent. My family raised me Christian and my mom married a Muslim when I was 12, so I had to stop eating pork, stop having Christmas, and it was hard on a kid. One thing that Islam taught me while I was there from 12-17 before I ran away, man, it taught me to always back up what you say, because people will dissect that. And I always have to rap what I know, and I always have to explain what I’m saying. And it’s very important to have that self respect. When I say something in Absolute Power, I’ll refer to it in later albums so people will know. And I’m not that meticulous where I can tell a lie and keep it going, because if you tell a lie, sooner or later, you’re going to run into a brick wall. But it’s very important to write what you know and mean what you say, because people are listening.The thing I really admire about you is the fact that you express so much of yourself in your lyrics. When I listen to your music, I feel like I really know you. As an artist, how rewarding is that?I’m inside out. I always tell the fans I’m inside out, and I think that’s what they appreciate. What I mean by inside out is my insides are out here and I don’t hide anything. Quincy Jones told me years ago, “Tech, always rap what you know, because people will forever respect you.” What do I know better than anything? Myself. So, I’m inside out. If I go through some shit with my wife, I put it out there and talk about it. She hates it, she says people party to her pain, but I can’t help it. I have to rap what I know and to be inside out, I think that’s what made Tech N9ne. And human beings are the same people, which is different at the same time, but we all eat, drink, spit, shit, piss, cry. So, if I write something that’s sentimental, a gang of people are gonna feel it, because they feel the same way and because we’re so similar. I think it’s wonderful that I chose to be the one that’s inside out and open up to my fans. I’m not afraid to show my vulnerable side, and I’m not afraid to talk about how much I would love to cry. I have a song on my new album called One Good Time, where I’m talking about how I haven’t been able to shed a tear since I was 14. And all the funerals I’ve been to, through the gang banging shit and everything, and all the deaths I’ve witnessed, which is the reason I don’t go to funerals anymore, not being able to cry, and I’m not afraid to tell my fans, “If I could cry one good time, I could wash away my pain and maybe free my mind.” I’m just inside out, man, and I can’t think of any other way to be, bro.Life. Living life. I write my life, so, with that said, I write about the things I go through daily, or the things I went through in the past. Life. That’s the one thing that drives me. I always tell people there’s no such thing as writer’s block. You can cure writer’s block by reading a book or going out and having something happen to your ass. I can talk to my people, because I’m out there partying with them. Life is what teaches me what to write, and as my life progresses, that means I have more to talk about. I mean, think about it, this time I’m doing 32 songs, and I told my people on the website the other day, “I write my life, so if I’m doing 32 songs, that means I been living a hella life.” I’m doing a lot of living. So I’m out here on tour, I’m out here with the fans, and I’m out here in the clubs. I’m everywhere, man, you know what I mean? Life teaches me what to write, and I go out there and have it happen to me. And that’s what I think it is that drives me.What do you think about shows like American Idol? Does it ever bother you that certain musicians have this golden opportunity that maybe you never had?I thought about it back when it first started, but that’s their thing, so I love that they’re doing their thing to the fullest. But the thing is … rap is one of the biggest forms of music in America, and they have nothing to do with rap. It’s collaborated with country artists … it’s collaborated with rock n’ roll. I mean, think of Aerosmith and Run DMC, Public Enemy and Anthrax, System of a Down and Wu-Tang, Nelly and Tim Mcgraw, you know what I mean, man? So, my only problem with American Idol is where is hip-hop? If this is American, everybody is influenced by hip-hop, whether it be commercials, Coca-Cola, Sprite, basketball, everything. If it’s so American, where is the hip-hop? And if they had hip-hop, a lot of these singers wouldn’t win. I don’t hate on American Idol, I let them do their thing, they’ve produced some wonderful artists, but if it’s so American, where’s rap?It’s so important to have a presence on the Internet. You had a lot of people that were against downloading, and we were the only people that told people to download Absolute Power for free, and then we guaranteed they would go buy it. And we won. No matter what the RIAA was saying at the time, we still did it, and if it wasn’t for Myspace and all the Internet sites, we wouldn’t have fans in Denmark or Australia, and we wouldn’t be going to Canada on this next run we’re doing with Paul Wall. It’s very important for an artist to have a presence on the Internet, man, because I’ve gotten a lot of fans from that source, and it’s growing like a forest fire. And I talk to them as much as I can to let them know that I’m right there with them, and I think it’s very important for an artist, because it means record sales, merchandise sales, and longevityTalk to me a little bit about some of your favorite collaborations. You have worked with so many great musicians, so I’m sure it’s hard to pinpoint certain talent.Roger Troutman, rest his soul. I listened to his music since I was a little boy, and I was able to do Twisted with him right here in Kansas City in my home boy’s basement, and he was a really cool guy before he died. I look back on that. I look back on Detroit when D-12 took me in and showed me a lot of love. I look back when I did the Anthem with Eminem. And Rizza and Xzibit. The list goes on, man. It’s a lot of high points in my life, but unfortunately the song that I did with 2pac, I wasn’t able to be in the studio with him, because we were gonna do it when he was alive and then he died, and they called me asked me if I still wanted to do it and sent the track to me, so I didn’t get to actually be in the studio with him, but I met him a couple times from 1992-1993. I ran into him at clubs and talked to him, but I didn’t get to really work with him in the studio together. But that was a huge opportunity for me. There’s a lot things I can say. MC Ren from N.W.A, we did a song with Yukmouth together, and I was a big N.W.A fan, man. I’ve had a full life when it comes to collaboration, man, and I have a long road ahead of me. Who’s to say if I’ll ever get to do something with System of a Down and Slipknot and so on and so forth. And I’m looking forward to it, man.When Nick Cassavetes called the number on the back of our CD, Absolute Power, he loved my music so much, him and his wife, that they called us … he’s Italian, and he said, “I fucking love your music. I would really love for you to do my movie.” So, we went out to L.A. to meet him, and he gave me the damn movie. He gave me this million dollar movie and had me fly it back to Kansas City to where I was scared to put it through the little thing at the airport, because I thought it would erase. I got back to Kansas City and I had no idea, I didn’t tell him I didn’t know how to score a movie, but I had friends like QD3, that’s what they do, so when I got the movie, I called Quincy and said, “I just got this job with Nick Cassavetes, and I have no idea how to do it.” And he was like, “Tech, it’s easy .. it’s Pro Tolls. Once you learn it, you’re gonna love it.” So he taught me how to do it, me and my boy, and we put a lot of that music into the movie, man. And it’s about looking at the screen, feeling the scene, and creating music around it, man, and it was a weird thing how we did it. There’s a lot of music in there that I did with the composers, where you don’t even know it’s me, because we did a lot of stuff for that movie, man, that a lot of people don’t know we did. And the process is just looking at the scenery, and if you feel like you know music, you can place it there. Caribou Lou seemed like a perfect song to have at a party where the Skinhead guy came through looking for Johnny Truelove. And Slither, when they were in the hotel hiding, Truelove and his girl, and they’re about to have sex, it was perfect for Slither. I can keep going, but it’s all about the scenery. If you feel like you know music, you’ll do it well. And I think we did it well.