At a Big Blue X live show, people listen, how often do you hear a singer that stands up to the best, as good as your favorite bands?
Multi-dimensional songs provide a journey beyond known reality. Textures of Piano, 70's keyboards, Acoustic & Electric Guitar and Tabla drums allow Brian to sing like a Rocker a Soul crooner, Country & Blues man with the sounds of smooth Reggae all in a single note.
It's a near impossible feat to get the right band members together, where the individual chemistry of each player is a catalyst for music that has the power to inspire a generation. There will only ever be one U2, one Led Zeppelin and one Big Blue X.
Meet The Band
Brian & Carl started working on music together back in 1999, initially we had a full band, with a drummer and bass player. Getting everyone on the same page wasn't happening, so after going through the usual band drama and revolving drummers we decided to keep things simple.
Brian & Carl focused on writing songs on the acoustic guitar, the years rolled by without finding the right band members, many songs were written and scrapped until we knew deep in our hearts the time was right. But we still couldn't find a band, until finally, in January 2011, John answered a musicians wanted AD and joined Big Blue X as the bass player with John's close friend Bobbyji joining shortly after on Tabla drums.
Here's a video of Brian in the studio and some live shots.
The name Big Blue X comes from our planet, the blue oceans that look like a big blue ball when seen from outer space. Your Light Pulses took a defining moment after working on a few different versions, trying it with a piano & the Tabla drums launched the song into the stratosphere.
Brian built a practice studio in his garage where we rehearse most of the time, it's also given him an 'isolation tank' where he can write songs between band practices. Brian took piano lessons growing up as a kid, before getting into football, worked as a commercial deep sea diver for a while and ended up in Big Blue X.
Bass is John’s 1st instrument, he just left a full time band that was playing over 200 gigs a year. After 5 years he needed an outlet for the more than 70 original songs he’s written and joined the Big Blue X team. John also plays acoustic guitar and sings with his solo project. John's personal site is here.
The percussion / drum slot is taken by Bobbyji who's main instrument is the Tabla drums. Bobbyji was introduced to Big Blue X by John, who met Bobbyji during his travels working on solo projects and Kirtan music. Bobbyji's personal page is here. John & Bobbyji also play improvised music together in Yoga studio's keeping them open to new ideas, which they bring to Big Blue X.
Carl plays the acoustic guitar, sometimes picking up an electric guitar or writing songs on the piano. He initially started out playing the drums, then picked up the bass and after recording a few independent albums (98DA, Mugwump) and producing & engineering friends’ projects before he decided to focus more on the raw basics of good old song writing on an acoustic guitar or piano. Carl spends a lot of time hiking in wild forests to get away from pre-set routines, and un-think new song ideas. Carl on Twitter.
Work It Out
Early on Big Blue X decided to be selective about playing live gigs so we could concentrate our time on writing the best songs. Most gig's we played were opening sets and we didn't get a sound check, it's a bit of a crazy experience when we can't hear ourselves on stage, yet it helped work out the butterflies and test things out in front of a live crowd.
At first practicing covers was taking away from the focus we needed to finish our own songs. Now that we have a few years of songwriting and gigging under our belt we're looking forward to hitting the bars and festival gigs, playing a mix of covers and our own songs. Some of the cover songs we play are Bob Marley's "Redemption Song", Pink Floyd's "Time", "Everlong" by The Foo Fighters, and "Hey Jude" by The Beatles.
In December 2008 Brian & Carl went into a pro studio, recorded live off the floor acoustic tracks for 10 songs including Escapism Generation. The demo's we did helped get our game together, and the opportunity to work with a producer opened us up to more possibilities with our song writing and the recording process. "Escapism Generation Waste" was released digitally online, our 1st single in April 2009.
We don't play Escapism live anymore, we can't wait for the new songs to get recorded to showcase the new direction Big Blue X has taken with a full band and the sonic sounds of the new members John & Bobbyji.
Don't forget to tell your friends about Big Blue X, and make sure they know about our free song downloads. Hope to see you at a gig sometime soon.
Thanks,
Big Blue X
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