Tag: Music

Blackberry Jam is Jammin’ on Song Writing

BlackberryJam 2013Adrian & Julian “Blackberry Jam”

BlackberryJamRedChair

 School could not end fast enough for Adrian and Julian, 16 year old identical twin singing duo who prefer to spend their time making music.  

After Rivenmaster announced  a chance to win a scholarship to the 2013 Prodigy Camp Project, a summer program that brings together 20 of the most promising teenage songwriters and filmmakers to hone their craft, they actually got a call from the camp encouraging us to apply.  Julian said,

“The chance to collaborate with other artists from around the world was really exciting to us.”

 

Blackberry Jam has come a long way since third grade where they got their start entertaining their classmates with comedic singing routines at “Lunchbox Special”. This past year, as high school sophomores they took a songwriting class and spent 90 minutes each day writing music and lyrics. For 6 weeks the twins work through the creative process, trying out different lyrics and riffs on their new song Seven Seas.  Adrian said,

“Songwriting is hard! The music part is easy, but the lyrics just don’t sound right.”

A breakthrough came when their teacher suggested they collaborate with Desiree Hazleton, a classmate who was particularly skilled at writing lyrics.  

“In the first session we had an entire verse and chorus written. Desiree would just crank out the lyric and it was so easy to put the music and vocals behind her words.”

Within a few sessions they had an entire song, and ideas for 4 more projects. Collaboration was the key to success.  By the end of the semester, their latest song, “End of the Night”, was finished.

End of the Night“End of the Night” Original By Blackberry Jam

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Nic Neufeld Rocketing to Success!

” Nic Neufeld is one of the hardest working up and coming recording artists I’ve seen in a long time …. he has definitely been paying his dues!!” – Manny Streetz

Nic Neufeld More Than A Crush

“Nic has what it takes to go to the next level excited to see what the future brings to him!” -  Steve Battey (Jackie Boyz)

“Nic is a very driven Kid knows what he wants and goes for it!”           – Los Battey (Jackie Boyz)

Nic Neufeld Window
Nic Neufeld

Nic Neufeld was first introduced here on Rivenmaster’s Place on February 8th of this year.  Shortly after his article was published it was read by Joel Greenberg an executive for a new company in Los Angeles who called Nic and extended an exciting invitation to come to California and record a song/jingle for them.  Nic was going to be the face of Twistflix. While his parents were a little apprehensive at first they soon realized that this was a legitimate offer and decided to head down to LA to meet the team of professionals.

It was the first week of March when they arrived at the studio without really knowing what to expect as Nic hadn’t heard the lyrics or music for the commercial yet. The writers and producers of the jingle are Nathaniel Levingston and Christian Lopez, A&R for The Jackie Boyz.

“Knowing this ahead of time was a little nerve-wracking, Nic’s Mother said; but as I watched Nic when he heard the beat and read the lyrics I knew we had made the right decision.”

 The first line into the commercial Nate & Christian kind of stopped and shook their heads, auto tune wasn’t needed and it was then that they asked if they could work with Nic.

During the recording of Nic’s first song, Nic was surprised by a visit from the Jackie Boyz who dropped by the studio to see how things were going. They had not yet heard Nic sing and wanted to hear and meet him. Nic asked if he could sing for them and chose the song “Love Me” which they had written for Justin Bieber, and proceeded to sing it acappella.  After leaving the studio they later phoned Nate saying that they would love to work with Nic and write a song for him.

Nic Neufeld Treasure Video Nic performs “Treasure” by Bruno Mars

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