Sweet Relief Musicians Fund has qualified for the Pepsi Refresh Project. During the month of June they will be competing for one of ten $50,000 grants with the winners being determined by number of votes.

You can help by visiting the Pepsi Refresh Project website and vote to help preserve one of the few resources that a professional musician can turn to for support when there is no place else to go. Participants can vote once per day until June 30th.

TheBuzz recently caught up with singer Tanner Howe of  Disco Curtis for our new weekly interview feature, TheBuzz-By. Get to know various artists with a short list of random questions.

Disco Curtis just released their EP, “Play with Fire Get Burned,” and have a video out for their single, “Ashley.”

The band is gearing up to hit the road on the 2010 Van’s Warped Tour.

KH: If you weren’t a musician what other career would you pursue?

TH: Underwear model

KH: Do you have any celebrity crushes?

James Pew gives us the scoop on Studio 2.0.

At GigHive, we’re always interested in those folks out there who are taking an active roll in building alternatives to the mainstream music industry. In Toronto, James Pew is an musician/technician well worth watching. Over the last decade, Pew has created Euphonic Sound, a vibrant and diverse community of artists who are currently hard at work building models for the future of the music industry. And psst, guess what? It’s totally indie.

Recently, we had the opportunity to speak to Pew about what he does and why he does it. Here’s what he had to say:

GH: Clearly, you’re a busy guy. You run Euphonic Sound Studio in Toronto, you’ve got the Broken Window label, you run the Studio Manifesto blog, you’re involved with Origin Audio Electronics, and you’re a musician. How did this whole indie empire get started?

JP: Roughly ten years ago I researched recording studios in the GTA that I could potentially record some of my music at. At this point I had already been through an audio engineering course at Humber College and had done hundreds of demo recordings on 4 and 8-track – all of which sounded awful, hence the need for a professional studio with qualified engineers. The best price I found for a pro studio was $900 per day back then.

Osaru is a multi-talented musician, composer and vocalist who lives and works in the heart of the Piedmont Triad in North Carolina, USA. He also works full time as a Physician.

His debut CD, ‘home’ released in September 2008 was a work of art. It took you on a journey through his early adult years to the present day. It celebrated life, love and long term commitment. He used powerful vocals filled with soulful melodies to complement punchy bass lines, hip hop chants, jazzy undertones and ‘head bobbing’ percussive rhythms. The result was his amazing musical story.

Home with the keys is a follow up to Osaru’s debut album. It is smooth jazz at its best. From silky soprano phrases in “last night” to funky tenor sax lines in ‘let’s begin’, he manages to express the story behind each song using his keyboards, a breath controller and his wind controller. His background training as a physician is many a time evident in the meticulous craftsmanship of his songs and bedside manner in which he delivers his message.

First of all, I am not saying that you should go and join a “networking group” (although Meetup.com is a great place to do that). I’m pointing out that simply leaving your house can be looked at as a networking opportunity.

There Are 3 Reasons Why We Network

To find a direct target or a customer. For example, a fan who will buy tickets, music, or merch and support you.

To gain a sphere of influence, and therefore a source for referrals (i.e. the people who like the people who know & support your band).

Support and help can be a funny thing. If some one offers to help someone, most would hope that they are helping to get that person moving forward to a better place, closer to success. Or perhaps delivering some of the tools or resources (including, yes, money) that will lead to bigger and better things. However, there are those that become enablers. Their intentions are good, but they may end up hurting more than they help.

Everyone has heard the old joke, “what do you call a drummer with no girlfriend? Homeless!” It’s funny but also, in a number of cases, true. There are numerous aspiring musicians that are supported by their family, their girlfriends, their boyfriends and plenty of others when it comes to money. That is not always a bad thing. If communication is good, if expectations are clear, and the guidelines for support are set in place before a dollar changes hands, that help can be worth its weight in gold. That help can bring the artist to the next level if they are struggling. It can make things a little easier. It’s not a golden ticket, it’s not a back door from paying dues and learning invaluable lessons. It simply makes a long hard road a little easier for a few miles.

The right help

(January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977)

Raised in the 60s by free-spirited artists living like gypsies in picturesque locations like Cheyene Walk, Chelsea or Cornwall, Klay D-C (AKA Klay Dumas-Copas) is a master of creating musical tapestries that are full of flavor and life. His latest solo release, Ritmo, is a magical musical journey that combines technical prowess with an ear for colorful melodies.

A natural story-teller, the first track, “Mungabunga,” introduces us to a soft acoustic piano before blossoming into a wiggy, upbeat number garnished with salsa rhythms. The totally unexpected arrangement dances between the acoustic piano and electric instruments (guitar and bass) in a melodic tease that excites and intoxicates.

The typical musician spends much of their time being musically creative and so a lot of musicians that should be using Twitter to market their music just aren’t sure where to start or how to use it to its full potential.

So, to help out those that could be using Twitter more effectively I’ve listed some things you could be doing to market your music, whether you are a DJ, band, music producer, promoter or even if you have a podcast to promote.

Luckily, Twitter is simple and easy. The only work that really needs putting in is a little thought and some time on a regular basis. Hopefully that makes you feel a little better.

Imagine Joe Hisaishi’s piano combined with Sigur Rós’s crescendo and the images by Hayao Miyazaki running in the background. This is “She Goes To France…” by japanese solo project American Green, in exclusive for Bad Panda.

American Green – She Goes to France… [mp3] [ogg]

There are a lot of musicians and groups that artistically want to stretch people’s minds and make people think, figure out and really dive deep in to the meanings of their songs, their name, their image, different elements of their marketing and other underlining elements that many artists think will add that hip or cool edge to them. The problem that can occur though is flat out confusion or actually deterring more people away from your music and you than helping bringing them to listen to you and want to find out more about you.

Don’t get me wrong, adding elements of stretching the mind and being creative is a great thing, but think about it as a later step or being placed a little deeper in your marketing rather than right there where people get their first impressions. Make it something that fans will have to dig in to as opposed to overly confusing the new listener or first time visitor to one of your social networking sites or website.

Wild stories, confusing bios, songs that make no sense or tie in to the more experimental side of you can be red lights for many people to not want to dig deeper. For example, if you are a grunge/industrial type band with fast loops, dirty guitars and in your face samples with brash harmonies and powerful hooks, having song sample number one on your site be one of the tunes that is least like your sound or one of your more experimental and say softer and more trancesque tune that you use right in between two powerhouse tracks, you may loose the interest right off the bat of the listener that happens to pop on to your website for a minute.

Description: Music podcast based out of Detroit, but playing music from all over the globe! With over 200 episodes and over 40 band/musician interviews – this is a long running podcast with no signs of stopping!

Q) Tell us a little bit about your podcast. What initially inspired you to start it?

A) I started my podcast back in March of 2005. I wanted to do a music based podcast, as i’m a huge music fan. So, after hearing another Detroit podcaster (Digital Detroit Radio) do his podcast for a few months, I thought to myself – “I can do this!” So, Zaldor’s World was born. I now have over 280 episodes, and am poised to hit episode 300 on Thanksgiving.

Q) What characteristics make a great holiday song?

As the holiday season approaches, and we get in to that thing about good will to all, all those other quips about being better people for a moment—which personally, I think should go through out the whole year and not just the shopping season (sorry, holiday season), I wanted to put out a quick rant (speaking of Good Will) that I’ll call Ten Tips that Every Musician Should Apply to Their Career. These apply to both the music and business sides of he equation. Many apply to those who are not musicians but work in the music business.

Hell, a few apply to anyone working in any business. So, New title: Ten Tips for Everyone Alive on the Planet.

Number 1. – Answer your emails.

Show a little respect and answer your emails. If you can’t respond at that moment, then acknowledge that you received it, let the sender know you’re backed up and when you hope to get back to them. Then, either list the email as unread, flag it, or mark a little notch in your calendar to respond to the sender when you promised. This is one of my biggest pet peeves. I respond to every email. Sometimes it takes a while, but I get back to everyone I can that has a direct question or is requesting something. It is a common courtesy that I am sure you would want when you send out an email, so do the same.