Wired and Unplugged

SARAH COLOSOWe talk to one of Scotlands hottests musicians on image, dreams and playing at the Paralympics.

What makes an artists?Music photographer Linsey Barnes talks about Scotlands talent. OPEN MIC

Find out the best Open Mics and acoustic acts visiting Scotland!

Wired And Unplugged

ellebeephotography.com

Wired And Unplugged

ContentsSarah Coloso

InterviewPAGE 1-4

Elle Bee Interview

Page 5-6

Open Mic and Gig Info

Page 7

Sarah Coloso

We caught up with Sarah Coloso. She has just won the prize for favorite online artists and is not long back from playing at the paralympics.

Sarah, you played a set at the London 2012 Paralympics, how was it?

Amazing! I am so honoured to have been given the chance to do it. I played on a markee tent style stage to thousands! I have recieved so much positive feedback from it and I met so many amazing people. I played with another guitar-ist and a bass play-er and we just had a blast!

How did the Paralympics gig come about?

After winning Best Online Artists I recieved a lot of publicity. I did a big gig in Glas-gow for a charity event, and one of the event team for the Paralympics was there. It was com-plete luck! We got talking and we

really got on! He said he loved my music and he bought my EP Un-der the Stars. A few weeks later I got an e-mail from him asking if I was in-terested in travel-ling down to Lon-don with my band to play a set of my original songs at the Paralympics. I was so happy and shocked. The whole experience was life changing.

You also host Acoustic Nights at a bar in Dun-dee called Tonic. How long have you been do-ing that for?

I started hosting the Tonic Acous-tic Nights over four years ago in August 2008. Before that is was hosted by Mari Mao, a local Dun-dee singer. When she moved to London she asked me to take over as I was already a regular there.

Tell us a bit about your new EP Under The Stars.

It came out in September. It’s my fourth EP and by far the one, which I’m proudest of. It’s more piano led where my last 3 ......

EP’s were all more guitar led. I have been experiencing really bad writ-ers block before I wrote the six tracks which are on it. An old friend suggest-ed that I switch in-struments. I thought he was crazy be-cause I always write with my guiar. An-yway I decided to give it a go, and it really worked. Every song on Un-der The Starts start-ed with Piano.

Your image, EP art-work and music videos all fit perfectly with your sound. Has some-one professional put these different aspects togetrher for you?

I have spent a lot of time designing my image than I used to. Everything is largely down to me, but I’, always open to input. My image is an exag-gerated version of who I am. I nor-mally wear quite bright colours but

on stage I rfeal-ly vamp it up. The more sparkly, the more feathersthe better! I did the EP artwork myself in Photoshop. I have an art background from college so that has really helped with the al-bum designing. The design of the video was a collaberation between myself and Kerr (a.k.a Breaking Point Flix) the di-rector. We are keen..

for the video to reflect the songs heavy musical influemce, so we pay homage to “Chicago” and “Car-baret”. Given our tiny budget I think we did rather well.

You have been per-forming in the Dundee music scene for years now, how do you rate the local talent in this area compaired to oth-er parts of Scotland?

The Dundee scene tends to fluetuate, but given the size of the city I think there is a great

deal of talent. I have giged all around Scotland but Dundee has a very special music scene. Especially acoustic acts, there are so many that if they had the right pub-licity they could go really far. It’s all just luck really. I think I have a great band behind me and we’re working really hard togeth-er but at the end of the day that is just a very small part of what it takes. All you need is the

right person to hear you at the right time and be in the right mood. It is a big shame but talent isn’t everything. My advice to any-one who is start-ing out is just to get yourself out there! All you need is the right person to hear you!

ELLE BEELinsey Barnes, or Elle Bee as her pho-tography company is called, is a mu-sic photographer. At only 22 years old Linsey has made a real name for herself by shoot-ing the hottest up and coming acts in Scotland. We have a quick catch-up with Linsey to find out just how she has got to where she is today and what she thinks makes an artist a star.

Linsey, how have you managed to build up such an amazing career and only be 22?

I have been really lucky to be honest! All the way through school I have hung out with musicians and most of my friends are mu-sicians! I went to drama school with The Bygones and Matthew Tomlinson and when thy de-cided to make mu-sic their career I photographed them! And when they got publicity, so did I.

How much imput do you have when pho-tographing a band or artist?

It just depends really. I sometimes have one band who will tell me exact-ly what they want and have a stone-set image in their mind of what they want and other bands are clueless. I personally pre-fer to work with people who know what they want but are open to other options too. Artists who don’t listen are a nightmare!

What makes a band catch your eye?

Individuality. First and foremost! I have done so much band photogra-phy recently that you would think it would all start to look the same, but it never does! Every band is so different. Of course you get

stereotypical bands who are hungry tigers for fame but the ma-jority of people I photograph are completely differ-ent. Image is one, if not the most important factor in today’s media. Anyone can pose nicely for the camera but it

takes something really different to catch an au-dience. You need to think outside the box and come up with someone no-one has ever done or thought of before.

Ed Sheeran - 15th November 2012 - Barrowlands Glas-gow

Ben Howard - 17th November 2012- Aberdeen Music Hall

Keane - 19th No-vember 2012 - Edin-burgh Usher Hall

Frank Turner - 10th December 2012 - Fat Sams Dundee

Gig Guide