I haven’t blogged in over a month. What gives?

Well, I’ve been insanely busy. Between more recording for the new Swami album and embarking on the "Sugarless Tour 2010" with the band, my solo project and blog has been on the backburner. Make sure you check out swamimusic.com for all the latest on what we have been up to.

But, now the tour is over and I can start paying a bit more attention and not neglect my own blog. I’ve had a redesign for s-endz.com planned for a while and I’m going to start working on that too. Those of you who follow me on Twitter (@CaseyRain) can stay up to date more frequently with what I’m up to, but expect some more activity around this place soon!

Peace & Be Wild!

cross-posted from swamimusic.com

On the 25th June 2009, Swami were on tour in Toronto when the unthinkable happened. The world lost an icon. Being huge fans, Swami were able to start their performance the following day with an acoustic cover of one of MJ’s many classics – "The Way You Make Me Feel".

We’ve obtained some footage from a fan who was there. Enjoy…… RIP MICHAEL JACKSON.

I made sure we dropped a quick video blog whilst recording a session for the new album last month. Enjoy!

Here, as promised, is the scan of the article/interview with me that ran in last week’s (Nov 6th ’09) issue of Eastern Eye newspaper here in the UK. Hope you managed to grab a copy!

Click on the picture to see the full size version. Enjoy!

Peace…

S-Endz

xx

Neofunk Vlog #1: Filmed on Android G1 Phone….S-Endz talks about ‘Outer Space’ and show you a newly published interview he did with the UK’s ‘Eastern Eye’ newspaper – scan of that interview coming soon!

Hello friends, fans, groupies, lovers, family, music lovers, neofunkers,

My new EP ‘Outer Space’ is out now – click the picture to the right or here for your download.

I’m offering it for free, but if you choose to pay for it you may pay any amount you choose. To get your free download, simply enter ’0′ when asked for a price, and then choose your format (MP3, WAV, FLAC, etc)

Thanks for the support, I hope you enjoy the music…..this is the introduction to neofunk!

Peaceloveandbewild,

S-Endz

xxx

If you don’t know who Martin Atkins is, go and do your homework. From Public Image Ltd with Johnny Rotten, to Killing Joke, to Nine Inch Nails, to his industrial supergroup Pigface, to his legendary label Invisible Records to teaching music industry strategies at some of the mos prestigious universities and music industry events around the world,  to pioneering DIY music business industry models, when Martin talks, you better listen if you wanna learn something from someone who’s been there….done it….and LITERALLY wrote the book (If you’re in a band, his book TOUR:SMART is ESSENTIAL reading).

Andrew Dubber is another man to be taken seriously. A music industry expert and the man behind the website newmusicstrategies.com and the infamous "20 Things You Must Know About Music Online" e-book (also essential reading for anyone in the music industry).

And if you don’t know who I am, just hit the "About" button at the top of the page and figure it out. But suffice it to say, I’m an artist who is proactive and vocal about the nature of the new music model online, who strives to stay three steps ahead of the game. If you’re familiar with the band I am in, Swami, then chances are you’ll have noticed and been impressed by our vociferous attention to social music media.

Check the video and learn something.

Peace. S-Endz

The CD’s have been pressed, the record company has sent the stock to the distributors, and all systems are go for the UK/India physical release of ‘53431‘ on the 17th August!

Here’s the tracklist:

1. Electro Jugni
2. Sugarless
3. DesiRock
4. Mehbooba
5. Turn It Up
6. Hey Hey
7. Tonight
8. Don’t Hold Back
9. Shakedown
10. Homage
11. Ching
12. Disciples
13. Big Beat Thumbi
14. Ching (Shiva Soundsystem’s Mo-Flo Remix)
15. DesiRock (Shiva Soundsystem’s Radio Remix)

‘Sugarless‘ has blown up on radio worldwide, and we’re incredibly happy with all the love you guys have shown for the song. We’ve shot a performance video for the song and we hope to have it completed within the next few weeks. For all you club DJ’s, don’t sleep on the hard-hitting dancefloor-targeted "New Desi Generation" remix of ‘Sugarless‘ – if you’re on Facebook, you can listen to it here – get in touch with us for your copy!

If you’re in the UK or India, you’ll be able to pick up ‘53431‘ in stores from the 17th. If not, we will have some stock on our digital store  – where you can also grab your own ‘DesiRock‘ or ‘53431‘ T-Shirts which have been flying off the merch tables at Swami shows this summer! Get yours now cos stock is extremely limited!

We’re currently finalizing details for the digital release of ‘53431‘ which will be in early-to-mid September.

Are you ready for ’53431′?

Peace!!

S-Endz

So here I am, standing in Heathrow Airport waiting for the rest of Swami to check in, and I begin to think about all the humorous airport and plane experiences we’ve shared as a band, and on my own too!

I’m gonna share a couple of anecdotes with you today

The first one comes from the Swami tour of India in 2007. We were on a Kingfisher Airlines flight from Delhi to Hyderabad (the only airline in the world sponsored by a beer company?) and got to our seats when we noticed something hilarious. A little perspective first – I’m mixed race, half Indian (Punjabi), but on my mothers site, so I have an English surname. Liana from the band is English with Irish roots and our manager Luc is French. When we got to our seats, me, Liana and Luc were sat together, and there were 2 white tourists in the same row…..and the rest of the plane was Indians!! So they had put all the people with non-Indian names together! Here’s the best part – this was obviously standard practice on this airline, so when the staff/crew walked past, they saw all the white folks, and then me sat with them! (Although I’m half English, my skin tone and features are clearly not “white”). So they were all looking at me with confused expressions! It was hilarious!

The second story I’ll share today is from when I flew to LA with DJ Semtex and his producer Julie to make the 2Pac documentary for BBC 1xtra. Myself and Julie were in the queue to board the plane, when her phone beeps. She pulls out her phone and has gotten a text from Sem, and loudly exclaims, right in the middle of the airport, “Oh! Semtex is on the plane!”. After she said it she realized how that sounded to everyone else!!! (For those who might not know – Semtex is a type of plastic explosive!)

Haha….

Anyway, flights about to take off, so I’m outty!

Peace!!

S

Hello neofunkateers. Just wanted to give you all an update of what’s going down with me and the band at the moment!

We’re set for a very hectic few weeks. Next Wednesday (the 17th) we will be performing a set on an outdoor stage outside the BBC White City complex in London, it’s for BBC World and is being recorded for later playback and is hosted by Bobby Friction and Nihal. Straight after that we fly to Toronto for a short but busy tour of Canada.

On Friday the 19th, folks in Mississauga will be able to see an exclusive S-ENDZ solo performance at Rock The Coliseum 2009.

I will be premiering selected tracks from my album live for the first time including She’s Like My Shadow, Electric Man, and the forthcoming single Do U Wanna Come? It’s a free event and I’ll be performing at 4PM, so hopefully I’ll see some of you guys there.

The next day, Sat 20th, get yourself to Mississauga for the Swami headline performance at Mosaic Festival 2009. I think we’ll be performing at about 8 or 9PM, but the festival has stuff going on all weekend (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) so show up whenever you want to and have some fun, just don’t miss our performance, it’s going to be something special. The line-up for that event is Diamond on decks and guitar, myself and Sups on vocals, Liana on keyboard and vocals, Az on bass and Pravin on the drums, it is going to be a killer set with classic and new material, all performed fully live. Both of those performances (the Swami performance and my own solo set) are free entry, so if can get there there’s no excuse for not coming!

If you’re in Toronto and you can’t make it to Mississauga, we’ll be performing in Yunge-Dundas Square in downtown T-Dot at 4PM on Sunday 21st as part of North By Northeast Festival. Check out the site for more information on ticketing etc. There’s some very cool acts performing there including GZA of Wu-Tang Clan and Cool Kidz, so it should be pretty awesome. This will be a special show as it isn’t just a Swami set, but a Swami/Fell On Deaf Ears set. If you haven’t heard, Fell On Deaf Ears is Diamond (DJ Swami)’s new alternative rock project with Florida based rock singer Josh Lyons and we’ll be doing a collaborative set, with Diamond on guitar, Pravin on drums, Az on bass, myself and Sups on vocals (for the Swami half) and Josh on vocals (for the Fell On Deaf Ears part). It’s going to be a sick show. Those of you interested might like to know that some of the Fell On Deaf Ears tracks of course started out as Swami songs with myself, Sups and Diamond. After determining that the direction of those songs didn’t match with the direction of Swami as an existing band, they were re-shaped and re-written by Diamond and Josh for their new project. (The Fell On Deaf Ears material is incredible, btw). So if any of you guys can make it out to this show, you’ll witness history in the making.

The following Friday (the 26th), we’ll be doing another Swami performance in Yunge-Dundas Square as part of the Global Grooves event. That will be a more electronic set with Diamond on decks, and myself, Liana and Sups on vocals. Come check it out and get down the with the equalizin desirockin grooves!

Keep checking out my Twitter and the band Twitter account for live updates, pics, and maybe even videos from on the road!

What else…….oh yeah, a brand new Swami song, called ‘Sugarless’ will be premiering on desihits.com very soon…..so keep checking for it!

Peace……

S-Endz