Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/556862
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 16 AUGUST 2015 This Week 31 Well, I can say that my fa- vourite musicians on the local scene are those from whichev- er genre, instrument and style who give up everything for music and leave the island for a professional working life in music elsewhere in the quest of learning and performing of music. Can you tell us a bit about your upcoming recordings? What can fans expect? We are definitely considering recording further music as et- nika as we have gathered a vast amount of material and ideas from the past and now which we would like to rearrange and document on record. Since the last etnika recording in 2003, Zifna, we have had a huge out- put of ideas which were only played once or twice through- out the years. So yes, we are actively look- ing for funds, even considering crowd-funding and local arts funds, so as to finance the new etnika chapter in recordings, hopefully by 2016. A long- awaited album, I'd say, hope- fully telling and indicative of the ideas and concepts of who etnika is today. Etinka's upcoming concert se- ries, 'Footnotes' will take place at Blue Box, M Space, Oscar Zammit Street, Msida on Au- gust 21 and 22. Doors open at 21:00. Tickets are at €15. More info: etnikamalta@gmail.com Luring musicians with sun, beach and pastizzi TEODOR RELJIC speaks to music journalist Shawn James, who will this year step out of his comfort zone to organise the Bewildered Music Festival – a Valletta 2018 supported indie music event incorporating both local and international acts Tell us a bit about your career trajectory. How did you go from being a music journalist to or- ganising a festival? Interesting question. Well I guess it all started during my time living in London. Working with Kemptation as a music contributor opened the doors for me to interview acts who I had seen per- form live. When seeing a number of big name indie acts perform, I always asked myself the question, "What If I can get these artists to perform in Malta?" A p p r o a c h i n g among the many, bands such as MONEY, Big Deal, Leave The Planet af- ter their gigs and just talking to them about Malta – sun, beach and pastizzi - kind of got them interested in playing here. However I have to say that it was Sofar Sounds that gave me the taste of organising events. Hav- ing organised gigs in liv- ing rooms, church halls, boutique hotels, and bars, I have to be honest that I started enjoying the feel- i n g of having bands play with audience seated in front of them. After the success of Sofar Sounds Malta, I said to myself that I need to try something dif- ferent, and that's where Bewildered Music Festival came into the fold. What would you say is the main raison d'etre for the festival? Do you think it addresses a par- ticular 'lack' in the Maltese scene, and how do you aim to keep the festival consistent? I wouldn't say I have a main reason, but many reasons I guess. Firstly having been to a number of alternative music festivals abroad and seeing how many Maltese people attend such festivals, I thought to myself, "Why don't we have one in our own backyard?" I mean in Malta there are some pretty amazing spaces/venues which can be used to host such a Music Festival, why not just do one here? The second reason was that most of the festivals here focus more on the mainstream/commercial acts and having always championed al- ternative music in Malta as there are so many talented and amaz- ing bands, I decided that its about time that the alternative acts of Malta should be given a bit more recognition. Another reason would be is that alternative organisations before me such as Hairyamp, Kinemas- tic and Alternative Malta had brought over big name alternative acts to Malta, and I wanted to continue that lineage, however with the intention of mixing it a bit by having diverse bands, trying my best to creating a bigger platform for al- ternative music and building a reputable festival that hopefully foreigners from abroad can attend along with more big name alternative artists. But this takes time and preparation, so I'll just take it one step at a time. How did you choose the line-up? What kind of criteria did you apply? Well having heard most of the alternative acts in Malta, I already had in mind which artist/s I want- ed for the Bewildered Music Festival. However it wasn't an easy process, as some of the bands that I had approached to perform at the festival had to refuse the opportunity for various reasons. So then I had to think of which other acts I could ap- proach to perform instead of the ones I had already in mind. I didn't apply any criteria except for that I wanted to have at least one or two acts perform in Maltese. Being a firm believer in our language, I de- cided that it's only right to have our language per- formed, along with the English language of course. What would you say each of the acts perform- ing in this year's edition brings to the festival? Each of the acts bring something – the Language, the genre of music, the instruments, the energy on stage, the music composed, the dynamics of the bands members, the image, the songs… these are all good factors that are brought out by all the art- ists who will perform at Bewildered Music Festival. Alternatively speaking… "there's a bit of everything for everyone!" The Bewildered Music Festival will take place on August 28 and 29 at Pjazza Teatru Rjal, Valletta. Doors open at 19:00. More info: http://bewildered- musicfestival.com/ Shawn James Big Deal