If you’re familiar with fakeRICH you would know that it was started with three main guys. Mike, who I’m sure you see everywhere. He’s the heart of fakeRICH. It’s his baby. Mark. Well he is Mark…he is currently working on other projects which would probably make what you’re doing look amatuer. And then there’s me, Joe. I was the other guy. I handled all the real thinker type stuff.

However, you may have noticed that I’ve been pretty much non-existent lately. This letter that follows will explain why. Please read it if you have the time. Thanks guys. Love you! Not you, Mark.

=========================================================

Dear Friends,

Before you read this you should know that I have an ulterior motive. My goal with this letter is to get you to help me. I’ve been sick for nearly two years, and I have refused to ask for help from anyone outside of my immediate family. It’s become clear lately, that I will need more help and I hope you can lend me your support in some way. (I should mention, this is a long letter, if you already know my situation and would like to know how you can help just skip down to the bottom.)

About two years ago I had my first experience with Vertigo. Out of nowhere, my world felt like it was spinning, literally. I felt like I was on a rollercoaster or someone spun me around in an office chair and told me to walk. I was so overtaken with fear that I had a panic attack. It didn’t help that it occurred in a public place. My girlfriend at the time had to drive home her crying dizzy boyfriend who thought he was dying. It was the first time anyone has ever seen me like that.

Once I got home I did everything I could to find some way to stop the spinning, nothing worked. I ended up just crying all day and night as panic attacks came and went. That night I prayed for the first time in years. Asking God to stop the spinning. That day was easily the worst day of my life.

In the following weeks I was able to get a handle on the anxiety and panic attacks. The vertigo also seemed to be less severe, yet it was still there and nearly constant. I went and saw some doctors. Each one I went to didn’t seem too concerned and suggested I just wait it out. Their reasoning was that Vertigo itself is usually a symptom of something else and that whatever the underlying problem was, it would pass.

I was given some medications and told to setup appointments.

In the meantime, I tried to stay as active as possible. I had to quit my job. I wasn’t able to sit at a computer for too long anymore and my job required that I did. I also had to quit school for the same reason. I was working on transferring to a University with either a double-major in Economics and Computer Science or minoring in one or the other.

I put my life’s plan on hold for what I thought would be a temporary situation. It was extremely sad not to be at work or working towards my goals in life, but sometimes that’s what is needed in order to move on. So I took an unwanted break.

Well the break went on for a month, then two, then before I knew it half a year had past. My vertigo didn’t go away, in fact it seemed to be getting worse. However, I learned to deal with it enough that I wasn’t always stuck at home.

I got out and saw my friends every chance I had. I did my research on the causes of vertigo, which can range from a common cold to tumors to concussion syndromes to just about anything. Nothing really seemed to apply to me.

Now a year passes and I’m still not getting better. It’s getting worse. The anxiety has come back. Whenever I got severe bouts of vertigo the anxiety would follow. Like two bullies at school these guys would get together making it nearly impossible for me to have any confidence. I was leaving the house less and less. And now the bills were piling up. All the money I had saved had been slowly draining going to pay medical bills, living expenses, insurance. I didn’t expect this to last as long as it did, but it was looking more and more like it was never going to end.

Fast forward to today.

Today I didn’t leave my house at all. I didn’t even step outside. When I’m standing for too long I’ll get vertigo and have a panic attack. The attacks now no longer have to be associated with a severe bout of vertigo. Just leaving the house will cause it. Even getting out of bed to shower is an ordeal. When I lean my head back to rinse the shampoo out I start spinning. I fight through it, thinking maybe I just need to push through this one more time to force the vertigo away. It never goes away.

When I watch TV I get vertigo if the picture is moving too much. When I sit at a computer to type (like I am doing now) it takes me several sessions of starting and stopping, with laying down in between to finish (this letter had to be completed over the last two days). I’m only a shell of what I used to be. It’s made me very sad.

It’s so tough to fight through something when you don’t know what’s causing it. It’s akin to being in a room and then having someone shut off the lights. There’s that first moment of terror as you try to figure out why the lights went out. Then the fear lingers because you still dont know why the lights are out. However, if you walked into the same darkened room knowing that it was going to be dark you wouldn’t have that fear.

I’m stuck in a spinning world and I can’t stop it. Not being able to find an answer as to why this is occuring has left me completely broken. My days bleed into one long day, like the movie Groundhog Day. I Wake up, I do the same thing I did yesterday, I go back to sleep. It’s completely depressing especially when you consider that I was never one to do the same thing every day.

I used to go on bike rides and skateboard. I’d play basketball with my friends (though I’ll admit that I wasn’t any good. I went camping and would pretend I knew something about the outdoors. I had a job that offered different challenges each day. I joined the Military years ago just for the fun of it. I went to school everyday hating that I had homework but loving that I was learning something new everyday. And now I’m stuck.

I need to stop this cycle and I need your help to stop it. I need your help to become the person I could be. The smiling Joseph with big dreams and goals and the ability to achieve all those goals. I just turned 27. At this point I imagined myself attempting to help change the world, working towards my goals and being a good person.

I really need your help. I’m tired of doing nothing, I want to fight this with every part of my being and I would love if you came along for the journey.

My goal is to get well enough to get back to a more normal life again. While I don’t expect that I will ever fully recover, I know that I don’t need to fully recover to be functional and content.

Sitting in my room not doing anything and just waiting is not the way I want to spend my days. I am not this person who sits here and is victimized by some unknown illness. My life has always been one of action. I’ve sat on my hands long enough. I need the help of my friends and family and their friends and your friends.

I’ve had so much pride that I never wanted to ask for help. I always thought I could handle anything on my own and if I didn’t I was weak. But I’m learning that real weakness is fear. Asking for help may appear as a weakness to some, but the end result would make me stronger. I would be deeply grateful if you were a part of the help I need to make me strong again.

Below, I’ve listed some of the ways you could help. What I’ve written above is only the short story, if you need more details or would like to as me any questions please feel free to contact at the email address below. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely, Your Friend,

Joseph R. Garza

How You Can Help

Money: At the moment I have very little funds and very little access to getting more money. If you could help with money it would go towards my medical bills, past and upcoming, and living expenses (To help with bills at home and to get a phone. I have been without a phone for a couple months, and it makes keeping in touch with people extremely difficult).

The amount of debt I have is rather large, at least by my standards. If you need specifics let me know.

Regarding the phone; I am hoping to use a pay as you go plan via MetroPCS. If you have an old Verizon or Sprint CDMA phone that you would like to donate it would help a lot.

Healthcare: I am working on getting coverage through the VA, however I would like to be able to talk to someone regarding my issues outside of the VA or any Government program. I haven’t had much luck with doctors. In my experience they have brushed off my concerns without giving me proper explanations. It’s nerve-racking and disheartening when I can’t even have a decent conversation with a doctor because their next patient is waiting. I really think that if someone were willing to listen to my concerns fully I would be able to find an acceptable solution to some of my medical issues.

If you know a Doctor who would be willing to help me or that you would recommend I see I would greatly appreciate it.

Also, if you know of any programs I should look at please send me the info and I’ll be glad to take a look.

Legal: With all the problems I’ve had I haven’t been able to keep up on payments. Daily, I am getting voice-mails (I have a google voice phone number that accepts voicemail) about past due payments and other issues. In short, I just don’t know how to handle it. I need someone with the knowledge to deal with these issues.

It would also help to get my disability insurance going if I had lawyer in case I run into any problems.

This last thing may sound funny, but it’s important to me.

Computer Equipment: In order to maintain any sort of sanity I need to keep busy. Even though I am not able to work at the level I did before I am still very proficient when it comes to computers. What I have been trying to do is collect old or used computers and computer parts (Computers, LCD Screens, Keyboards, Networking Devices, Electronics and Miscellaneous Computer parts) to build working computer setups to give away or donate to organizations that could use them.

What I have been trying to do is take the parts I get and put together a full system; Computer, Monitor, Keyboard, and Mouse then load them with whatever OS I can legally install and any programs I can legally install. With the goal of giving the computers to people or groups who could use them and otherwise would not be able to get a system. It helps me keep busy and pass on the good by doing this. If you can help with this it would be great.

Finally, you can pass this message on to anyone who might have an idea or might be willing to help. Please retweet this, or re-post via facebook or myspace. Pass it on in e-mails. Please just help me work towards a resolution.

If you have any other ways you would like to help please feel free to do it. I am open to any and all suggestions. Also if you have any questions regarding anything here or would like some more details filled in feel free to e-mail me.

Ways To Contact Me

Email: joseph.r.garza@gmail.com

(If you e-mail me please put “Help Joe” as the subject. Wouldn’t want anyone going to the spam folder.)

Facebook

Twitter

In our own little world, Mike is always on the hunt for a legitimate job and myself, well I’ve been out of work for nearly two years. It gets difficult to run a lifestyle blog/magazine when you can’t even afford the gas in your car, or the car itself. And when you finally get to the club or venue you realize you might not have the gas to get home, or the lens on the camera is scratched and maybe worse, the camera itself isn’t working and you wonder, “What will I have to sell to get this thing fixed?”

Then you look at the site stats and you perk up. You see hits from around the world. In Austrailia, Japan, Europe, even Africa and South America, we have tons of repeat readers. In our local area we have a ridiculous amount of hits considering we don’t really promote outside of this site or Twitter. It’s always encouraging to know that people are seeing what you are doing.

Which has also lead to us meeting tons of interesting people.

In the few short years we’ve been around, we’ve had access to some of the biggest parties and artists in our niche. We’ve interviewed people we knew, people that just happened to be there, people we admired or in my case people with music so unbelievably catchy that no one will ride in the car with me.

We’ve also met tons of people behind the artists, the people behind the scenes doing a lot of the “grunt work”. And I know, putting parties together may not be the most important job, but what I think people fail to realize is the people who put parties together with the typical fakeRICH reader in mind as their main crowd don’t make much money and they do it for the love of music.

While other places, and other genres are very lucrative, we work in an genre that is usually a few steps ahead of the mainstream. I don’t want to use the word “tastemakers”, but I’ve seen first-hand how what I’ve heard in shitty (I say that with love) little clubs in Costa Mesa/LA/Santa Ana is now being played at bars and clubs for the more mainstream crowd in Huntington Beach, Newport Beach or any city ending with “Beach”, and also on the most mainstream radio stations in California.

When you’re ahead of the curve, like so many people are in this niche, you realize that the people doing this are doing it because they love what they do. The DJs, the artists, the venue owners, the promoters, the people at an online magazine who still have not broken even. We all are a part of this because it’s something we love and would like to share with others. Which makes it all the more sad when you see some of those people leave; either not able to make it, or moving on to other things, or are just gone.

This year some of what I considered to be mainstays of the “electro” world in Southern California closed their doors.

Avenue out in Riverside shut down. I only went to there once or twice, but I remember hearing about it every week. They always wanted us to come out and throw a party and when we did, it was an unforgettable evening. I only met the people behind Avenue in passing, Mike might have more words on them. That place was around for years, and if you wanted electro out in the I.E. that was the place to go.

Mute Fridays in Downtown Santa Ana also shut down this year. That place when it first started was nearly empty every week. However, over time the crowds grew and grew. I was always amazed that there was a place in Downtown Santa Ana drawing a crowd so big that people were willing to wait in line for it. They always brought the fun. In OC, besides every Wednesday in Costa Mesa (Busywork, which also shut down and Avalon), Mute was the only place to get real two-step worthy Electro.

And then there was LAX. The story of LAX goes hand in hand with someone we lost.

(Here’s a quick little background on me. Before I started with fakeRICH I really didn’t think DJs were anything more than highly advanced iTunes cyborgs. I just didn’t know what goes into it, nor did I care.)

The first time I heard of DJ AM was on TV when they were going on and on about him and Nicole Richie. I immediately thought “Why am I watching this?” So you can only imagine my excitement when Mike told me we were going to LAX and DJ AM was going to spin (heavy on the sarcasm here).

We get in, the place is packed. Everyone already sweating. I just wanted a drink. And then it gets quiet for a second and you can hear a murmur in the crowd. It was like everyone had a heart palpitation at the same time. The music changed. The crowd at the bar lightened up. I got my drink and headed outside. I couldn’t find Mike or my friends. So I did a walk-around and the guy DJing was playing some pretty good songs, obviously just warming up.

I looked into the dance floor and there was Mike with our beloved fakeRICH Canon 30D just snapping away with a stupid “I’m so happy right now Joe” look on his face. So I make my way out there.

It was like AM was waiting for me to walk out there. I don’t remember the songs, but the way he mixed them and the way he played the crowd was amazing. I never knew a DJ could do that. I still don’t have the words or know the correct vocabulary to technically describe what he was doing on the decks….All I knew was “This is what a DJ is.”

I never cared who was DJing before when I went out, but after that, I was able to see DJs in a new light.

What AM was able to do with a crowd is something most people can only dream of.

LAX was a success because of AM and the excitement he brought to same music we all listen to all day. So when he left us, it was only fitting that LAX was gone too.

In less than a month three of the biggest electro clubs around here were gone.

There are many more things that happened in our little world, but there isn’t enough time to go back and relive them.

2009 will be remembered mainly for things we lost. Michael Jackson; will you ever forget where you were when you heard about that? Money; I can’t think of one person who wasn’t affected by the near-collapse of the financial system.

Another thing we lost was our unbridled optimism. It was only a year ago that the chants of “Yes we can” were echoing in towns across the country, on our way to electing our first Black President. Though, today you won’t go far without hearing a cynical voice, saying, “He’s not doing enough.” That hope isn’t enough.

It’s nearly impossible to go anywhere and not hear people being negative about something. We’ve lost our innocence and our confidence and a lot of people are scared, but I won’t let that bring me down.

2009 for me is a great year. It is the year that things were once again put into perspective. Yes we lost many things and people we’ve loved and cherished. We lost some of our hope and unending confidence, but HOPEfully we’ve gained a more realistic view of the world around us. Hopefully we will finally see what is truly important and work harder to achieve those goals. I don’t mean to be a cheeseball, but maybe in losing so much we’ve gained a sense of who we really could be, or should be. 2009 should not only be a reminder of just how fragile life is, but how fragile our way of life is.

I’ll look back on 2009 without the fondness I have for 2002 (My best year), but I’ll still have a smile. Because it is times like this that we find out what we still have.

We have our friends and family. We have our music, and the influence of those who made music before us. We have each other. And most importanly we have today.

For any of you non-geeks out there; Google Wave is Google’s next attempt at trying to change the way we communicate with each other online. Think of it as a Chatroom, E-mail, Forum, Twitter, Facebook (Minus the profile crap), and Collaboration tool all in one.

Even though that sounds overwhelming. Once they work out the kinks it should be pretty amazing. (Note: I pretty much love everything Google. I’ve worked with computers for a long time, and just like Apple, Google is all about the user experience and making it easier to access your information anywhere, which makes my job easier. However, there is a good chance Google will one day take over the world and replace all humans with robots which have our memories based on all the information they have been gathering on us over the years. This may or may not be a bad thing. There are rumors that once they take over the world they will digitize the Earth in its entirety then destroy it and make a new planet like the Death Star. They will call this planet… “The Googleopolis”. It will be all white, with some blue, and there will be advertisements everywhere.)

I have 15 invites for Google Wave, but we are not just giving them away. Because that’s lame, and then the title of the post wouldn’t have included “scavenger hunt”.

There are two ways to win an invite.

The first is to tell me why each of the following images is related to Google Wave:

The first image should be obvious, but they get harder as you go along. For this part only the first commenter to correctly point out the relevance of all the photos will get an invite.

I’ll even give you a suggested answer: In the first photo, they are waving. Obviously this is related to Google Wave because they are waving.

That would be an acceptable answer, now you would have to provide me with answers for the three other photos. Leave your replies in the comments, only the first person to get them all right will get an invite.

The second way to win has two parts:

First, you must find a misspelled word (capitalization and intentionally misspelled words excluded) in any of our posts, repost the misspelled word in a comment in this post with a link to the post so we can verify (if your answer is a duplicate of another commenter’s answer you will not be given credit).

Second, you must leave us one suggestion for the site. This could be anything from “change the colors or the layout (but be specific)” to “i would like to see an interview with (insert artist name here).” You could also suggest something you might want to see covered, some event, a certain topic. Only serious suggestions will be considered to get an invite.

We will be giving away 1 invite to each of the first 14 people who finish this second part (minus the people who give us retarded responses or suggestions).

So there you go. If you have any questions let me know. I’ll be happy to answer them.

HAPPY HUNTING! oh and don’t forget to follow fakeRICH on Twitter. We are working on getting more invites and will announce them via Tweet.

 

JAMIROQUAI – CANNED HEAT (CALVIN HARRIS REMIX) (via SHEENABEASTON)

Until we are able to work out all the kinks you may notice some media missing, some photos may not show up, and some songs may not play. We are working as hard as we can.

We had to move the website to a new host, which is a difficult thing to do even when you plan. Our move was very unexpected and as such we had little time to plan. This is a first for all of us.

At this moment e-mails seem to be working fine, however if you feel like your message isn’t getting through, feel free to send a DM via Twitter over at Twitter.com/fakeRICH. Yes I know, not the most professional way to go but it will have to do for now.

So we will leave with this…and we hope sooner rather than later things will be business as usual…You see what I did there? I found an album cover that not only describes us now, because we are “Men at Work”, I also found one that described where we want to be “Business as Usual”…At least we haven’t lost our wit.

As a contributor we would expect that you post at least 1 to 2 times a week, more if you would like, on almost any topic without forgetting who our audience is. You would need to be able to write a post of at least 1000 words (though not necessarily every time), and create original content, no re-posting of other stuff you find on other blogs everytime you post. You would also need to help with the promotion of fakeRICH.com within your social network, whether that be online or off. We are not looking for bloggers, we want writers, photographers, musicians, artists, or fans who would like to share their experiences, views, ideas on a website with a decent sized fan base. And we want people who can articulate those ideas in a fun engaging way. (We will ask for a sample of your work)

Compensation would be minimal to none. Right now, we make zero money on this site, the ads you see pay for the site itself and all the work we do, we are doing to keep the site going. However, you would receive credit for the work you do, an official fakeRICH.com e-mail, we will list you and your site in our contributors list, you gain access to our network of friends and fans (twitter, facebook, myspace), you will have the platform of fakeRICH.com to spread your ideas, musings, opinions, rants, videos, musics, etc… and you will help fakeRICH.com grow from a blog to an online magazine.

Here are some topics we would like to cover:

Music
Reviews (albums, songs, videos, shows)
Movies
Print Art
Street Art
Fashion
Food
Lifestyle
Tech
Politics (without getting to serious, but if its good we’ll post it anyway)
And just about anything else that people would be willing to look at…

You would not be limited to covering only one topic, but if you prefer it that way that’s fine with us.

When we are talking contributors we are talking photographers and videographers too. There are simply too many parties and events for us to be at all of them.

And if you can please pass this on to your friends and anyone else who may …or may not be interested.

If you think you have the chops to be part of the fakeRICH family or have any questions contact: Joe Garza at joseph@fakeRICHcom or Mykal at mykal@fakeRICH.com

Thanks

With Love,
fakeRICH.com

MUNK – DOWN IN LA (SHAZAM VOCAL REMIX)

The Pendulum show at the Nokia Club (which is not the Nokia Theater, thank you very much random lady standing around the entrance of the Theater and letting us know we are in the wrong place) was the first time I was going to see a band perform live drum and bass. According to our in-house Drum and Bass expert, Noel, we were in for a good show.

After some running around trying to figure out where to get our press passes and tickets for the show we finally get inside. And by we, I mean Mike, because Noel, Byron, and I went back to the car to calm our nerves a bit. Noel and Byron did it by drinking more alcohol and I did it by deep-breathing. Mike was getting a little lonely in there all by himself and keeps texting us updates. I’m sure if you follow us on our fakeRICH twitter you saw Mike’s almost second by second account of what was going on that night (or any night).

Finally we get a text saying “Pendulum is on!” Byron and Noel stumble on over to the club. I follow eventually. Now this is cool. My ticket gets me into the VIP section. At the Nokia Club this entails the use of a separate side door and two, not just one, but two, private elevators. Stairs? No. VIPs don’t use stairs. In my elevator, I named it Elle, there was this nice lady operating the elevator. VIPs don’t push buttons either. The lady was very nice, we joked, we laughed, we shared some moments, and then the elevator, Elle, came to a full and complete stop and the elevator operator said, “Welcome to the Nokia Club VIP Sir.” Apparently VIPs get everything announced for them too. I parted ways with Elle and the nicest elevator operator I ever met.

After all that I expected the VIP area to be amazing. Beuaitful girls, long legs, free stuff. It was nothing like that. So I went to the first level to go see The Glitch Mob, because Mike, apparently lonely, lied about Pendulum being on. Well my VIP wristband wouldn’t allow me to get on the floor of the club, so I had to go back up to the seating on the upper levels. Now here’s a note about the Nokia Club, by no choice of my own, I found out that there is not a bad seat in the house.

Well I finally catch up with Noel and Byron up in the nosebleeds and The Glitch Mob is just killing it. The crowd loves them. It was my first time seeing them live and they were great. I wouldn’t mind seeing them again. Since I got there a bit late I am only able to catch the end of their show.

Next was Pendulum.

I was never a big fan of Drum and Bass. I lived overseas for a couple years and I heard tons of it then. The driving drums and the non-stop bass always rubbed me the wrong way. But this was different. It was live. Live musicians playing this ridiculously fast music.

It was more fun than I imagined. I looked around and everyone else was loving it. The fat goth chick was jumping up and down and the whole world seemed to shake with her. The WoW nerd down the aisle was swinging an imaginary sword to the beat of the music, he was gonna kill that dragon. The kids dressed in their best raver gear were tripping on E, or so it seemed, but I think it was just a sugar rush.

All the while Pendulum was going and going and going.

Eventually it all came to an end. And I was pleasantly surprised by the band. They had tons of energy and the Affliction shirts they were wearing meant they meant business. They were here to rock our socks off…And wouldn’t you know it, my socks fell down just a bit by the end of the night. But that could have been from the elevator rides.

I wanted to say thank you to Derek from GoldenVoice and Danny from MediaContender for hooking up the show…you guys are our heros.

PENDULUM – PROPANE NIGHTMARES

EVIL NINE – ALL THE CASH FEAT EL P (THE GLITCH MOB REMIX)

http://picasaweb.google.com/mikesabounchi/PENDULUMGLITHMOBNOKIA#

Yesterday, before the House in D.C. he argued that songwriters should not be the only people paid when a song is played on the radio. He wants the band or the artist performing the song to be paid as well.

Since the 50’s the only people the radio stations had to compensate when they played music on their stations were the songwriters. The band or the artist who performed the song are never paid, unless they are the song’s writers as well. As an example, The Beatles song “Help!”, was written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Though Ringo and George played on the recording they are not credited as songwriters and are never compensated when the song plays on the radio.

This particular way of payment has its roots in those days when radio actually reached a wider more willing audience and also a time when radio was the easiest way to hear new music.  People would find out about bands like The Beatles, The Stones, Hendrix, and many many others primarily by radio. In essence the radio stations were doing the bands a favor by playing their music. A compromise made was to only pay the songwriters. It’s an old tradition.

But even as I write this, the question isn’t whether these artists/bands deserve their money, the question is: who cares? Most people get their music from the internet now. Tons of internet only radio stations have been popping up. Satellite radio has its own deals with bands and songwriters. Music blogs keep us abreast of what is and isn’t the music you should be listening to.

If you listen to the radio today how many new and upcoming bands do you really hear? Not many. The bands and artists that are making the most noise about this payment scheme are mainly the established acts. Just more of the same.

SMASHING PUMPKINS – ZERO (LIVE)

Anyhow over at Variety.com you can read an article on yesterday’s hearings.

Directed by Tim Pope (The Cure, David Bowie, Kaiser Chiefs) the video uses projection on a shirtless Vincent Frank as the screen in some parts of the video. The song itself is another solid pop gem. Its such a refreshing take on pop music I’m excited to hear the rest of the album.

The single is due out on April 13 (album due out sometime this summer), you can get it from iTunes when it does.

Here’s the vid,  make sure you check out his website, www.FrankMusik.com

——————-

Also check out our interview of Vincent Frank (FrankMusik) from a couple months ago.

FRANKMUSIK – BETTER OFF AS TWO (FRANKMUSIK REMIX)

However, with all the articles we post and all the photos you see, there are tons of stories behind them…So here is a recent one from a couple weeks ago…

The Cambroghini is a black 2006 Toyota Camry. It is the latest in a line of fakeRICH vehicles that have taken us on many adventures and crusades. Mykal is usually driving; its just the way it happened. When we first started this I was usually drunk by the time it came to go out, so Mykal had to drive, and now its just the way it is.

Anyhow, two Thursdays ago Myke pulls up in the Cambroghini. He has his hat on, hooded jacket, and is freshly shaved (somewhat). I get in. A typical start to the night. We go pick up Adam Frankel out in Orange and hit the 5 North. We just recently started doing Crimson on Thursdays out in Hollywood which is where we are headed.

We get to Crimson and do our thing. Take photos, talk, enjoy the music; it’s a blast as always, but we leave a bit early. Steve Aoki is spinning at The Heist down the street and we want to get there to meet up with Paul, a fellow fakeRICH cohort, who happens to be doing some video work for Hyphy Crunk.

Here is the problem: The Heist is at capacity, and even with all the Blackberry and texting skills we have, getting in is near impossible. So while we walk to the Cambroghini Adam decides he may as well get a little more Crunk Juice in him. Unfortunately we don’t have any Crunk Juice and Adam has to make do with some good ole Jack Daniels that happens to be waiting in the trunk of the car.

Adam takes the bottle, shrugs, and takes a nice swig. Myke abstains from the enjoyment of that delicious beverage, since he is the driver, and I, well I don’t drink anymore (if you’re a cute chick and wanna know why, feel free to ask, anyone else [fat chicks], you don’t need to worry about it).

Right then we get the text “I can get you in but you have to come now! where are you?” Adam texts back, “On Hollywood.”

This is where it gets fun.

We weren’t on Hollywood, in fact we still weren’t in the car. We were on Schraeder which is about a mile or so from The Heist…

Now here is something some people don’t know about Mykal. He can drive. Not like drive, how you and I do it. Myke, can drive the shit out of a car. If you need to get somewhere fast, Myke is who you want driving. Gone in 60 Seconds type shit.

So we hop in the car and Myke starts up the Cambroghini. We are out of the parking lot before I can snap in my seatbelt. He makes a right, makes another right, I hear cars honking, people screaming and I swear I heard someone yell “Stay off my lawn you stinkin kids!”, but I could be wrong…

In just a few blurry seconds we’re gunning it down Hollywood Blvd. He’s weaving left and right. I’m just enjoying the ride. And BAM! He hits the breaks. Adam takes another swig as if this is normal. I wonder if Adam looked around for cops.

Adam gets another text: “Hey I can’t get you in. They are being stupid at the door.”

Adam reads it out to us; we deflate, like a bounce house that was over loaded. In the last 20 seconds we covered almost half a mile, hit 80 MPH (I know this because Myke was making a point of announcing his speed “30, 40, 50….70! EIGHTY MILES PER HOUR!” Screaming like only Myke could), and now it was for nothing. Adam throws the bottle of Jack down behind the driver’s seat, “No need for that anymore,” is what that action implied, though he didn’t say it.

Adam, though somewhat deflated, didn’t give up completely and kept working the phone. At this point I’m thinking of places to eat. Myke is making his way to the right lane to get on the 101 South…On our left side I see The Heist pass by. “Little 16 year old cute Mexican chick, I’ll see you next week,” I think to myself.

“Hey. He said he can get us in but we have to go RIGHT NOW,” Adam says with just the slightest hint of a slur.

Myke, in all his driving glory, and with the confidence of an English Professor in competition at a Spelling Bee where his only opponents are the “special” kids who pick up trash during lunch says, “OK.”

I just smile.

I know what that “OK.” means. It means much more than just OK. It isn’t the OK you give to your parents when they ask how you’re doing. It was not the OK you give during a conversation you’re not really listening to. It was more like the “OK” you give to a girl who you just had sex with and is now getting dressed in your room; she is about to leave your house because even though you didn’t ask her to stay over it’s obvious you don’t want her to stay and she says, “Sooo… I guess… I’mmmm gonna go home now?” and you answer, “OK.” with ever so slight a smirk. It was an OK with a hint of joy, mixed with contempt for anyone that thinks that what you are about to do is completely ludicrous. If I know Myke, and I doo, he loves any challenge that has to do with the ridiculous.

So Myke said “OK.” And I just held on.

A u-turn at this point is impossible, not that he couldn’t pull it off, but there are cops everywhere. So he gets in the left turn lane and pulls in the last side street on Hollywood, where Tommy’s is, right before the 101. With our heads on swivels we scan for cops, there are none.

Adam: “Dude, he said we have to be there right now, just drop me off in front and I’ll wait for you guys to park.”

Me: “Sounds good.”

Myke: “Alright.”

Now we’re flying down this street and we come up on this intersection. I know Myke is driving way too fast to make the u-turn. The pedestrians to our left are just a blur.

Then I hear “crrr.” It’s the sound of Myke pulling the e-brake.

I feel myself being pushed back into my seat by the centrifugal force of the e-brake u-turn. I hear the cheap tires squealing, secretly I’m waiting for them to burst. I see both Myke’s and Adam’s heads leaning towards the left as their bodies try to compensate for the turn. After only what could have been only a half a second their heads snap back as Myke completes a flawless e-brake maneuver. And he floors it; tires barely getting traction.

I hear the cambroghini engine roaring. We come up to a stop light. Myke stops hard again. Looks left. Looks right. Then floors it again, making a right hand turn. And we’re in a missile to The Heist.

We are flying to the venue and there is parking up front at the curb. Myke pulls the e-brake again and slides almost perfectly into a spot behind the last car. Adam throws his door open and books it toward the entrance of The Heist while Myke fine tunes his parking. And I gather my senses.

I check my phone.

I didn’t hear any sirens. I didn’t see any blue or red lights besides the LED indicator on my Blackberry, but I noticed something else. A stillness in Myke; Myke is never still. One of the things I had to learn when I first met Myke was that he was always going, talking, doing…Always. When he’s excited it shows, and I knew he had to be excited because he just drove the shit out of a ‘06 Camry with shitty tires. But he was quiet, so I looked up.

I see lights, the red and blue. The flashing. The headlights pointing straight into the back of the car. Only assholes shine their high beams when its not necessary.

“Are those cops?” I asked, monotone.

“Yeah, I’m being pulled over,” the joy was gone from his voice.

I chuckled. I was nervous. Myke was nervous.

The bottle of Jack.

I moved quickly to conceal the bottle as far under the driver seat as possible. I tried using my legs, but I’m short (even on my best days) and I was sitting behind the front passenger seat. So I had to reach down and push the bottle under the seat. Trying not to be obvious, hoping they didn’t see me.

We have a friend, a cop friend, and I have asked about a situation like this before. Cops aren’t allowed to search the vehicle without consent, or probable cause. If they can’t see the bottle they may not have probable cause to search… Yeah, I really thought about that.

After I moved the bottle I sat up, put my hands on my lap and waited for instructions.

With a fist in a black leather glove the cop knocks hard on the driver-side window.

“Get outta there!”

Myke opens the door.

“What…what the hell were you doing back there!?”

I keep looking straight ahead. The cop’s partner strolls up on the rear passenger side, my side. Opens my door.

“What were you hiding down there,” he asks me while motioning towards the drivers seat with his chin.

“Nothing, just picking up my camera sir,” I say with no emotion in my voice or face.

“Get outta the car,” he says, with no hint of amusement, and a very large dose of annoyance.

I do. I look over at Myke, he’s scared and frustrated. We both know the implications of what an open bottle in the car can mean. DUI.

It’s a serious moment in one’s life, especially in Southern California, when you realize that you may lose your permission to drive. And I was pretty….”Haha,” I let out a little laugh.

The cops were motorcycle cops. The cop questioning Myke was easily 300 lbs. of pure slob. I glance over at the motorcycles, and I could tell which bike belonged to each cop. The fat cop’s bike look depressed, literally and …psychologically (poor bike).

The fat cop goes into a tirade about how unsafe Myke’s driving was.

“But sir, I really think I had enough room to perform that kind of u-turn,” said Myke, completely believing what he was saying.

The cop was perplexed. His face contorted in a look of surprise, resembling what I imagine a surprised pillow might look like. Myke was literally trying to justify his driving. I held in another laugh.

Then the fat cop looks at me.

“Come here,” he says with a clenched jaw.

I get as close as I can, he’s a big guy.

“Can you seriously tell me you feel safe with the way this knucklehead, your friend, was driving,” he asks with a hint of a Spanish accent and, knowing that I will agree with him, nodding.

“Officer, in all honesty,” at this point I knew what the right answer was. All I had to do was agree, but, I couldn’t. Myke’s my friend and I hate fat cops. So …

“….I felt completely safe with the way he was driving. I’ve been riding wi..”

Fat bastard: “You’re an idiot too! Get back over there.”

The other cop, like a persistent bout of sneezing that just won’t go away, keeps looking in the car for any signs of what I might have pushed under the seat. I know there is no way he will be able to see the bottle without opening and searching the car. So what does he do? He searches the car.

“Look what we have here,” he says in that just higher than normal taunting voice you used on your smaller siblings when you found what they were hiding from you, as he waves the bottle in front of us.

“Who’s is this,” he asks.

I stay silent. I know its not mine, but, until I know what they want to get Myke for I don’t want to take the rap. If they try to give him a DUI I’ll make some noise and claim it’s mine.

“I don’t know,” says Myke.

The cop decides to give Myke a short sobriety test. Myke passes without a problem and the cop knows he’s not drunk. While continuing to ramble on about Myke not having nearly the same amount of driving training as the himself, the cop is writing out a ticket. He lets Myke off with a fix it ticket for not having proof of insurance.

I’m still standing there freezing, wondering what they are going to do about the bottle. And then it becomes clear. While I was trying to stay warm and listening to the junk spewing out of the fat cop’s mouth, his partner was busy writing another ticket.

“Sign here,” the not fat cop says to me.

Without looking at the cop I ask, “What am I signing for?”

“For open container in a motor vehicle,” he sounds like a bad actor auditioning for a part in a hallmark movie. He seems the type to have stood in front of his mirror practicing his cop voice.

I sign.

Myke gives me a “that’s shitty” look. By this time, Adam has made his way back.

He says, “That’s shitty.”

I say, “Yep.”

The cops get back on their bikes. When the fat cop gets on his, I half-expect the bike to somehow hydraulically put down extra wheels; like you see on dump trucks. No wheels popped out.

Myke, Adam and I get back in the Cambroghini. We soak up a couple more seconds of that Hollywood silence, listening to the sirens that are almost constant on Hollywood Blvd. Myke starts up the car and we drive back home.

2009 Coachella Line-up

We will have more info shortly.

FrankMusik – 3 Little Words

I sit myself at my desk put on “3 Little Words” and pull up some research material and interview questions, I can see the light grey sunrise trying to shine through my blinds. I pull up some information on FrankMusik and see that he self-describes his music as “Blade Runner Pop”, his take on the music of 80’s with an infusion of modern pop and electro. He also provides all his own vocals; in a time when most Electro/Digital acts just want to be in the shadows and hide behind their equipment, FrankMusik wants to be upfront, poppy, accessible and is not afraid to admit as much.

Its 6am now. Using Skype I call his phone. I forgot that some mobile phone companies let you choose a song instead of a typical phone ringer.

I hear “hit me on my beeper, hit me on my beeper, beeper, beeper, beeper, beeper…”
I can’t help but laugh just a bit. He’s now on a major label, working with a major producer on his first album and it seems he still doesn’t take himself too seriously.

He answers.

“Hello,” he says with a definite, though not heavy, London accent.

I give him my name and information, and he asks me to hold on. He’s in the middle of helping out his mom with something. I figure it’s just the typical stuff a son would help a mom with. I picture this guy with this fashionably forward haircut in slim jeans and some bright shirt just standing there helping his mom with some groceries. He starts talking, I realize I’m not recording the conversation, so I cut him off, and ask if I can call back. He says yes.

I call back, but this time he asks me to call back in 2 minutes. He’s still helping his mom. There must be a lot of groceries.

I call back in 6 minutes and after the initial introductions we get the interview started:

I was very surprised from when I first heard your music; to me it seems like something we out here (fakeRICH is based out of LA/OC) needed to hear.

I’ve been to LA a lot. LA is the only place I’ve been to in America and I’ve got my business partner who lives out there. He lives off Santa Monica and Fairfax, so I know LA really well, and the music scene over there is quite influential in what I do. There’s a lot of good parties and the people are not so stuck up like they are in New York… the Westcoast is a little bit more laidback, and the Hispanic crowd is just completely nuts when it comes to parties as well, so yeah, LA is a good place for me.

They just don’t care. They just don’t have any hang ups and it’s just the best thing. It’s absolutely so refreshing. Like in London, everyone is kind of just looking at everyone else. You can just go anywhere in LA to a party, apart from like near Hollywood and stuff—there’s still a few pretentious parts you can get anywhere, but on the whole, people just have it much better, looks like they are having much more fun out there. One of the best nights of my life I actually had in LA at this club called Heist, which is down in Lincoln Heights, not far from the Staples Center, and that was awesome, absolutely awesome.

It’s funny that you mention Heist; we just did a party there for Halloween. I was surprised. They packed this place called Florentine Gardens, its a huge venue and they packed it. There was a line just wrapped around the building and I thought it was amazing.

That’s what I’m talking about man. Its just one of the most exciting things. I couldn’t live there but I can just go there and party for two weeks, like I did last year. I could do it for the rest of my life and it will always feel as good I think, just like the first time.

What about you, you were born and raised out there correct?

Yep, that’s right. I’m still living in the house that I’ve lived all my life, and my studio is here and everything so… South London. Yeah it’s in the Suburbs, its good here though because it’s quite a good place to kind of escape from the bustle that is London and the general idiots that inhabit London as well.

How much of the music that you play is really influenced from where you’re from?

I’m kind of influenced by the sort of music that came to my life at an early age. A lot of my mom’s 80’s 7-inch records had a big influence now kind of thing, I didn’t really appreciate them at the time, but I’ve gone back to similar sounds to what was going on in the 80’s and stuff, but I wouldn’t say it’s the only influence—I’ve got a lot of influences… mostly from electronic based music. I’m not really into guitar based music. So it’s anything from drum and bass to electronic music really. Sort of Daft Punk and stuff like that, so varying tempos and varying sorts of technologies to use. I just love electronic music really. It’s in everything nowadays anyways; boundaries are limitless to what isn’t and is electronic music.

Yeah, every band or group these days needs to have at least some understanding of electronic music.

I mean you look at Nine-Inch Nails, they are like techno freaks, I mean their studio is one of the most tech studios in the world. It’s not about having a band anymore. The only reason you can make it in this industry—major label or indie—is about having everything locked down on every front. I mean if you have a computer, you’ve got no excuse not to be able to do that.

What about vocally though? Not a lot of people in the electronic music genre really do a lot of vocals, and your music is awesome in the vocals that you use.

That’s the thing. Without sounding like a prick, most electro acts are just happy to be in the background kind of thing, you know getting singers in or whatever because there’s really good programs or something, but tell me how many electronic acts you know and you can put a face to them. Daft punk goes complete opposite and they hide their identity.

Most electronic acts don’t want to be the front person, they just want to make music and that’s that. But I make pop music really and I want to be the front man, and I want to be the performer and entertainer. Because I do everything and the only way I can really prove to be people that I do this is because I’m at the front and singing my heart out kind of thing. I don’t want to be the face of this project. I want to shine through really.

You do have people like Daft Punk. Actually Daft Punk was at this club called Cinespace in LA a couple of weeks ago. Even if you got into the VIP room to see them, you still don’t know who they are because there’s no face to them and a lot of other electronic acts are the same way…

Yeah it’s just very odd, but whatever. That’s just what comes with the scenery generally, I like try my hardest in everything I do to oppose most things… the norm if it were.

Your vocal style is not the typical male vocal style you hear anymore.

The way I sing, yeah I sing quite high, I think that’s sort of shock factor for some people, that I can sing this high. I think I do it within reason. I think I don’t want to sing everything high but I’d like to show there’s a range to what I do. [Coughs] I’m losing my voice right because I’ve been singing so much today. [Clears throat] What’s crucial in anything that anyone tries to do in pop music is to be different, and I try to be different in a sort of selfless way. I don’t want to prove to be different. I just want to naturally do things in a different way instead of forcing it, and that vocal style is something that just came out naturally.

I know FrankMusik is pretty recent, about a year to two years max.

Year and half pretty much.

What were you doing before that?

I was bumming around University. And then I quit University and I got job in my local town, selling jeans, which is lame. While I was doing that I was trying to really make sure that I was writing and producing for myself and going to any night club to meet people who would also wanted to work and I would work with them, and network. Then the myspace kind of started going crazy and people started taking interest.

I went to your myspace. You’re even connected, even with your website.

Yeah the thing is I haven’t gotten that many fans. I’ve got about 13,887 fans at the moment, but the proportion to how many plays I have to how many people I have actually in my friend network is really good you know. I don’t have thousands and thousands of fans compared to other bands. The thing is, the fans I do have, they get it. There’s plenty of people who check out my page and they don’t get it, but anyone that’s a fan on a page… I highly recommend adding anyone that’s friends with me because they have good taste in music. They can see past the normal shit you hear and they’re willing to embrace something that is pop that is still new.

I saw you recently posted the vocal track for “3 Little Words” and asked anyone to make a remix and send it to you. How is that going?

We have about ten in so far which has been great, so it’s just a matter about getting in a few more in, I know there’s a deadline soon, but hopefully we’ll just get some good ones. I know we got a few good ones already. Yeah it’s awesome!

You’re working with Stewart Price in the new LP correct?

Yep, I was. We’re finished now.

Oh you are? When do you plan on getting that out?

I think it’s going to come out in March. Depends on what the single’s going to be because we have a few ideas. Depending on what the single is, it either will be released a month after March or the month before… for reasons I cant go into… more marketing reasons than anything else. It’s just choosing the right time to release whatever single it is going to be. There’s reasons; [there’s] multiple reasons to why certain singles to be release at certain points. It’s all crappy label stuff… [Laughs] but it makes sense once you’re sitting in the middle of the situation.

How was it working with a producer rather than being the producer yourself?

Well he didn’t really get in the way and that what was crucial if anything in working with anyone else—that I’d still have free reign over everything in creating and it was nearly Stewarts job to come in and pick up the bits that he thought would fit with a pop record that we’re trying to create rather than saying “we’re going to do it my way,” he said “were going to do it your way and I’m going to say whether it works or not.” And that’s pretty much how the whole thing went.

Is the LP going to sound similar to what you have already or is it going to be a big change?

It’s going to sound a lot more pleasing to the ear. It’s shinier, but it needs to be able to hit broader audience… I mean I could have kept it really low-fi and sort of “cool.” I think “cool” is a really dangerous word. “Cool” is the kind of word that actually ruins people’s career. People strive so hard to be cool that they actually forget why they are doing it in the first place. The reason why I’m doing this is to get as many people in the world to hear it as possible, and if that means I have to embrace making the record not sound so ‘cool’ and more ‘pop’, I don’t mind doing that. Because if it means that people are going to listen to it, that’s good to me, and I’m not ashamed to admit that.

That’s awesome to hear. So many people are too worried about “not selling out” as they put it, but I don’t see anything wrong–

Hipsters… Whenever anyone says to me that “You’re selling out,” I just say, “No I’m getting ahead…”
You’re doing what you’re planning to do, that’s what it sounds like. Not a lot of people get that opportunity, or when they do, they just pretty much go squander it.
Yeah I’ve got plenty of mistakes to make, but for now while I have as much as control as I do, I’m going to try to make sure I’ll make as little mistakes as possible.

The way I heard about you, my friend sent me videos via YouTube.

Yeah, which particular videos?

“When You’re Around”, [See Video Here] that’s the first video I saw. I was wondering how much input you have on the videos.

Yeah I created it. I got the director. I got the film crew, I got the venue. I got the makeup artists. I got the hair. I got sponsorships from clothing designers. I got the people and I coordinated everything… And it was one of the most stressful points in my life. [Laughs] And I did it all for nothing.

The video seems to go perfectly with the music. Did you do the same thing for “3 Little Words” and “In Step”?

“In Step” had a different director as did “3 Little Words”. You can see with “3 Little Words” there was budget thrown at it, but I chose the video treatment as most artists do, but I like that idea the most because of its relevance to the movie Big—and of course that was of the time when a lot of my musical influence was coming out. The “In Step” video was another video treatment I chose but it was so minimal and so stripped back I thought it was perfect. I just like keeping the videos quite simple and saving as much money as possible too. “3 Little Words” was quite expensive but it looks great.

It’s great. “3 Little Words” is probably my favorite out of the ones you put out so far. When I saw “In Step”, it was so ridiculously simple, how can you not like it.

It was quite genius because it was done in one take. I mean we did six takes but it was all done in one go. There was no edits—that’s what the most awesome thing about it was for me.

Remixes—did you start off doing remixes?

No, remixes is something I started getting into while I started producing. I used to do mashups where I used to put up random tracks like Moby or Beastie Boys or something… and it was quite an easy way to learn how to edit and time stretch and things like that. But what remixes have become for me is a way in which to explore different production techniques without worrying about the record label thinking that I’m being too avant-garde with my production. I can remix something and go nuts and it won’t make a difference or harm what I do. From that, I can take certain ideas and sort of hone them down and tame them slightly. Yeah remixes is a great way for me to experiment and get away with murder.

[Laughing]

I’ve read in other places that you describe your music as “blade-runner pop.”

Yeah that’s right.

Do you still plan to keep describing it that way once the new LP comes out?

Yeah, definitely, I mean Blade Runner was filmed in LA… and it’s supposed to be Downtown LA in the future and LA is a huge influence. You know “Blade Runner Pop”, the idea with that is that it’s supposed to be the future. It was a futuristic film but it was made in the eighties. And all I’m doing is trying to make futuristic sounding pop music but massively looking back at the decade that I was born in. But not selling out on nostalgia but rather embracing the best parts of it and exploiting them in its full potential.

When do you plan to tour again?

Not sure yet. I’ve been trying to get a supporting tour for next year, I think, but there’s nothing concrete as it were.

So there’s no chance you’ll be out in LA anytime soon?

I’m not sure at the moment. It’s such a fucking trip, but I’d love to come out there. I’d really like to spend more time in San Fran as well when I do come out. So hopefully soon. I think I’ll do a round trip. What I’ll do is start in New York and then I’ll jet to LA and then I’ll fly back.

I don’t think I’ve been able to find any live videos of you yet.

No, we’re holding back. But the live show is amazing.

[At this point we talk over each other, but I went on about his music could be hard to replicate live and how he planned to showcase it live]

I think what you’re going to ask me is “How are you doing that,” and the answer is that we got these things called receptors where you can actually sample things from tracks and assign them to keys on keyboards or drum pads. It’s like a really advance sampler. Instead of having to recreate them, we can actually use the original parts from the record. All you’re hearing is the record that played live… and we got a live bassist and we got some decent crew guys. A lot of keyboards stuff is live. All the drums are live. And you can give the vibe that it’s live. So yeah it’s all great, and it’s really good. We did a couple of shows and it’s been really well received.

How do you like working with the session guys?

Whenever I work with anyone in the live realm, I always avoid the word “session” because I like to think that they are my band as well, rather than I paid them to be there type of thing. I always make sure they get people in who I thoroughly get along with and like the music because I think it’s quite bad for us to get people who get paid to show type of thing because you’ll never get the right spirit or the right delivery from them if they are in it for the wrong reasons.

If you had the opportunity to perform with any 5 artists, who would you perform with and where would you perform it?

The venue would have to be different with each artist…

Okay, if you don’t mind explaining…

Right okay… I’d love to do a gig with Busta Rhymes. That would be amazing. I’d love to do a gig with Busta Rhymes in the most gritty, New York hip hop night club there is and just completely blow people away with something completely different and get Busta Rhymes to do a cameo appearance during my set. [Laughs] That would be awesome… Actually, I couldn’t think of anything I’d rather do other than that. I don’t think there’s anyone else I’d rather work with other than him. I think he’s amazing. He’s like the best rapper in the world.

Really?

Oh yeah. [Laughs] Never mind those Little Wayne bullocks.

That’s funny. [Laughing] I’ve never heard of anybody say that about Busta Rhymes.

Yeah, “Extinction Level Event” was like the album of my teens when it came to urban music. I was never into Eminem and stuff… I always thought he was a bit of fraud the fact that he was white. But Busta Rhymes, he’s just gritty.

There’s one thing that I like about him the most is the fact that he never seems to really take himself that seriously. He’s like a nutter. He’s a complete crazy bun. In all his videos, he’s weird, you know. He’s never just upfront nasty. He’s nasty, but it’s like he’ll just pull out an inflatable hammer and hit you in the head with this inflatable hammer. [Laughs]

Exactly! Like if you saw him in the street, you’d be afraid of him for a second. He’d come up and he’d pull out a gun and pull the trigger, like the Joker or somebody, and it’ll just say “bang,” and a little flag comes out and that’s it. And he’ll just laugh at you, slap you on the back and keep on walking.

[Laughs] Exactly! It’s like you just don’t get that kind of amazing sort of thing anymore in urban music. I think urban music is dying. It’s died over here quite badly. So yeah, I think it’s good to keep things quite playful.

Do you have a favorite artist? Like someone you’d absolutely…

Yeah this is always a weird because people never know who this is. There’s only one singer I want to work with in the near future and it’s this woman called Julia Fordham. No one knows of her but she is one of the best singers I’ve ever heard. She’s kind of old school, like early nineties… But yes, Julia Fordham.

With that we ended the interview. We said our goodbyes and then I remembered one more question. Where did the name FrankMusik come from?

My grandfather, who’s passed away, his name was Frank. FrankMusik is kind of an homage to him. It keeps me in check if things ever get too wild.
==================================
His new EP “3 Little Words” comes out today.

Here is the tracklist:
1. 3 Little Words
2. 3 Little Words (Paper Faces Mix)
3. 3 Little Words (Blackstrobe Mix)
4. Run Away From Trouble
5. 3 Little Words (Black Gardenia Version)

You can pick it up on iTunes or Amazon

Here are a few more tracks to listen to:
FrankMusik – Fall From It All
FrankMusik – Flatliner

And you can catch up with more FrankMusik info on his MySpace or his Website.

And check out his videos HERE

They put out a new album in September. “Lightbulbs” is the name of the album. So I do a little research and I come up with the video for their first single, “Kinckerbocker”. The video is as catchy as the song…check it:

KNICKERBOCKER – FUJIYA & MIYAGI

Also I found another video, “Butterfingers” This is a track from Bomb the Bass ft. Fujiya & Miyagi off the album “Future Chaos”:

BUTTERFINGERS – BOMB THE BASS FT. FUJIYA & MIYAGI
[audio:Butterfingers.mp3]

Check em out. They’ll be playing the Troubadour on the 30th.

DJ AM and Travis Barker are the only survivors of a plane crash outside Columbia, South Carolina. There were six people on board. Both AM and Travis are in critical condition with burns to their bodies.

This kind of hits home for us at fakeRICH considering we’ve done quite a bit of coverage for any event DJ AM does around here, mainly at LAX on Sundays, and not to mention, I got this news this morning on my way home from Long Beach Airport where I just dropped off Mykal.

The other four people on the flight were two passengers; Charles Still, 25, and Chris Baker, 29 and two flight crew; Sarah Lemmon, 31, and James Bland, 52.

It goes without saying that our hearts and prayers go out to the family and friends of those who died, and to the two survivors. We hope that they recover soon.

More Info can be found Here at Yahoo News.

We will update once we get more info.

Updates: More Information can be found at MTV News

AND (though I hate to do it) at TMZ

Also there is a Wikipedia Entry on the Crash.

This LA Times article has a little more information on the others in the plane crash.

A video from MSNBC