Meet Ellen Frazer-Jameson, Author

Ellen Frazer-Jameson is a journalist, published author, and former BBC broadcaster who hosted the largest late night radio audience program in Europe; she is also an experienced a life coach and theater professional. Ellen lives in Miami Beach and London, and she abides by her mission statement "to be part of the solution."

1. As an author of both fiction and nonfiction, how do you come up with the ideas for your books?

Writing almost every day since I was about seven years old--journals, short stories, essays--my mind is always buzzing. Some stories demand attention, forcing themselves to the front of the line. Much of the creative work I do in dream work, meditation, and reading opens up the imagination to characters, plot, and locations. I always carry a notebook and jot down unusual characters, dialogue, or situations. Writing is great therapy.

2. What inspired you to write your motivational book, Seven Steps to Fabulous?

Seven Steps to Fabulous was a labor of love and started as notes to inspire my god-daughter. Having been in the media and appeared on TV and stage, I believe, like Marlene Dietrich, "The show starts the minute you leave home." Opportunities come unexpectedly, so be dressed and ready for any invitation. Act fabulous.

3. How can writers learn from the theater and other forms of art?

Writers need to open themselves up to all art forms and culture. The imagination is stirred and the color and richness of life can be absorbed and transformed. Theater has all the elements of life on stage plus magic in the spotlight. Extraordinary and good theater always focuses on the great emotional experience that all writing should be striving to deliver to readers. Theater has the advantage of costumes, sets, and music--writers must draw their own pictures with words.

4. What projects are you planning to take on in the second half of 2015?

This year I publish my second novel. It is called Dark Hole in my Soul (4DSB Press). Set in Miami and New York, it follows the lives of three generations of women who display extraordinary courage in facing struggle, challenges, grief, and loss. The story is one of hope, redemption, and forgiveness. The message of the book is that only love heals. There is glamour, romance, and drama.

I will spend the summer in Europe researching my next novel, a follow-up to my first novel, Love Mother Love Daughter (Matador). Research is a very important part of the writing process and travel definitely broadens my mind. Life really is FABULOUS.

Thanks, Ellen!

Meet Ariel de Lion, Artist, Musician, and Entrepreneur

Ariel de Lion is an Israeli-American, Brooklyn based Artist, Musician, and Entrepreneur. As a conceptualist, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist, Ariel has led several musical and art projects most known by DE///LION, Punk hapoalim, Casino Ayalon, She Lion, and Hostel Ayalon. Best known for his multidisciplinary approach, he is also the creative force and founder of the start-up company and Brooklyn Art collective, Music Wagon. You may also know Ariel as the founder of the Lower East Side radio station, LES.FM at the Ludlow Studio and The founder of Hostel Ayalon, non-for-profit venue in Tel Aviv, Israel.

1. When did you first start playing music--what was the first instrument you learned?

8 years old, guitar and singing. I was awful and lazy, but I got better as the years went by. At year 11, I had my first band with Erez Moshe. It was a punk band, and we rocked the school holiday event, and everybody was terrified. The song was about a whore named Zippy and none of the words made any sense, but me and Erez convinced Assaf Efraim Weisman, a fat kid that was always shy, to come up and sing--he asked "but what should I do," and we told him just scream the words when we tell you. Assaf was standing with his back to the people, and once I gave him the key, he screamed so hard that it was terrifying, better than anything we could possibly imagine to the point that, me and Erez couldn't stop laughing in the show--it was painfully funny but yet so good! All the older kids in school where like, these young kids know how to Rock!

2. What does it mean to you to describe your work as conceptual?

It's a big word, but it doesn't mean anything but a fine way of saying weird. Besides being a musician, I am a writer, I curate weird events, and I'm always part of weird stuff. Calling it conceptualist is like calling a gardener a landscape architect.

3. How do you balance your time and your work between New York and Tel Aviv?

For the past 6 years, I have only been based in New York. In my 20s, I used to be all over the place, and I love Tel Aviv, Los Angeles, and Australia and what I've done there. But, I need the size of New York to focus and operate.

4. What are some projects you're working on right now?

Apart from She Lion, I am working now on a collection documentary and a record that will sum up the 2-3 years we lived in The Music Wagon StART up collective in Bushwick 2011-2013: 150 people, artists, DJ's, visionary preachers were living there along those 2 magical years and the Blue Bus. Emerging from the Lower East Side, The Living Theatre, LES.FM radio, the Ludlow studio, Mr. Bugsly present and the Rainbow gathering along with the House Of Yes across the street, Aldorado Afters with Burymeinbrooklyn under our shaking asses. I have so much material, and finally I got the time to work on something to remember, super excited. Gonna be super real s**t!

5. How do your strengths as an entrepreneur help you as a musician--would you tell us more about your work as an entrepreneur?

I was always interested with hosting--being modest, I am a great host. So it started with me having always the best houses, where all the kids hang, and later on it became venues with my bed somewhere under a guitar amp.

Then, in 2005 I opened my first real venue, Hostel Ayalon in Tel Aviv, a non-for-profit venue that hosts art events and music shows, and we recorded a bunch of albums there, too.

In 2011, I got offered to open a radio station in the lower east side at a mythologic rehearsal space from the 90s, where Blondie, David Bowie, and the Ramones used to practice. I opened there the LES.FM, the Lower East Side Radio, with the help of the neighborhood legends such as Clyton Paterson, Judith Malina, The Living theatre, John Zorn, The stone, Max Fish, Pink pony and Pianos. They were the main reason of the radio station's success. We gained 1000s of simultaneous listeners in three months.

But as usual in New York, they sold the building, and we all moved to our next entrepreneurship, The Music Wagon. The radio crew and the Living Theatre crew combined forces at a warehouse in Bushwick in 2012. We bought an old prison bus and converted it to a mobile radio station, and I went to Israel for several months to cut a deal with a development company that built for us an app for broadcasting, and we opened up a start-up art collective. In 2014, the start-up got nominated for the top 40 start-ups of the year by Tech Weak, sponsored by American Airlines.

These days we are working on a documentary, collection record that will sum up those magical 2-3 years, and we will have something to remember.

Thanks, Ariel!

How Can Radio Benefit You?

If you are a music artist, how do you get your work out to listeners? I've seen a lot of stories about artists who've hit it big via YouTube, but we can't forget the importance of radio. A lot of people listen to radio every day, and it continues to be a great way to get your work out there.

Radio is still a primary tool for breaking music to the mainstream audience. The biggest acts, even those in electronic music, push cross-over records to the radio in order to reach the charts because chart notations are the true drivers of record sales. Also, internet radio & FM radio pay royalties to artists for a bit of extra income.

But how do you get your music on the radio? One way is to get the help of experts who have experience in working with artists to push their work to the next level of exposure. Swerrrdmedia is one such group of experts dedicated to helping independent musicians.

Swerrrdmedia offers radio promotion & radio airplay to independent and major artists on FM (Mediabase & BDS Monitoring), Sirius Satellite, College, Yahoo, MTV, Music Choice, On Demand, VH1, Shoutcast, Pandora, Europe, BBC, UK, Canada, Russia, Australia, and China Radio. Their team networks with Program Directors, Station Managers, DJs, and radio affiliates to achieve national radio airplay, radio promotion, charting, interviews, publishing, label contracts, world tours, and exposure. In addition, they add each track for digital accessibility and review by thousands of radio stations, DJs, music supervisors, music producers, and publications in over 60 countries.

The company has made a reputation out of customer service, and you can learn more by calling them directly at 631-704-5749 or visiting www.swerrrdmedia.com.

Meet Josey Milner, Country Singer and Anti-Bullying Spokesperson

Josey Milner is part small town teen, part road-worthy country starlet, and starting at only 17 years old, she turned heads and changed hearts with her debut US single, "Not Pretty Enough." The song thrust Josey into the country music spotlight, launching her anti-bullying campaign with Angels and Doves, and earning her a 2013 Independent Country Music Award nomination for Promising Young Artist, a Top 10 Hottest New Artist designation, and a Number One single on the world’s first independent country music chart, Indie World. Now, 19 and a recent Magna Cum Laude high school graduate, this CMT.com Top 20 Artist has taken her initial successes to greater heights with "Cowgirls."

Learn more about Josey by visiting her website, www.JoseyMilnerMusic.com, and by following her on Facebook, Twitter, and especially YouTube where you can check out her latest music videos.

1. How did you first become interested in singing, and what's it been like to have gained so many fans for your music at such a young age?

Growing up, I've always loved music. I was constantly listening to the radio, asking for CDs/artist merchandise as gifts, and singing whenever I could. It's just something I always caught myself doing. Before my music, I would sing the National Anthem at rodeos, and that led to me being invited to sing at the National Steel Guitar Convention in St. Louis in 2010. From being heard on stage, I was then advised that I should try out the career. Since then, it has been this incredible journey with so much support. I could never thank my family, friends, and fans enough for everything they have done to help out with my music and just supporting me through it all. I am truly humbled. 

2. You're finding some great success with the release of your first singles. Do you have an album in the works?

I do not necessarily have an album, but I do have an EP that we are working on that will have five or six songs. 

3. What do you see as the importance of social media for musicians, and how do you decide what to post on your different social media accounts?

Social media plays a huge role in the music industry today. It allows you to stay better connected with your fans, and it also allows you to keep everyone updated of what you're working on. I run my social media as if I were talking to friends or family. I keep it clean and post some personal stuff, such as pictures, just to show that I do everyday life things as well. Just reassures people that I'm human, too. :)

4. You've been working with some really talented people in country music. Could you tell us a bit about the role of collaboration in your work when it comes to writing, performing, and recording music?

I have not collaborated with anyone yet, but it is definitely something I plan on doing. I think it is so cool when artists do music together because it allows the artists to reach out to other fan bases and sometimes even other genres. I have worked with some pretty amazing people in the studio, though, and that is always exciting! 

5. Finally, would you tell us a little bit about Angels & Doves and your role in working with this organization?

Angels and Doves is an anti-bullying organization that is focused on preventing bullying-related suicides. They go around and talk to schools about bullying and what you can do to help. Being a spokesperson for them, I spread the message about trying to end bullying and to talk to people if you ever need anyone to talk to. They're a really great organization, and I am extremely grateful to be a part of the group. 

Thanks, Josey!

Meet Ed Roman, Musician and Songwriter

Ed Roman is an award-winning singer/songwriter, performer, and multi-instrumentalist from Shelburne, Ontario, Canada. Blurring the lines between pop, rock, folk, and country music genres, Ed's uniquely crafted songs have received regular rotation on more than 100 terrestrial radio stations across North America. Ed is a 2014 Artists Music Guild Award Nominee and a 2014 Artists In Music Award Nominee. He is also a 2014 International Music and Entertainment Association Award Winner. His current album, Letters From High Latitudes (an homage to his Ontario home) is a critically-acclaimed vehicle for Ed's socio-political, earthly-conscious, and globally-aware messages. This earthy, funky, and magical mix of music has earned Ed Roman airplay chart recognition and won over legions of fans around the world, known as Ed Heads. Learn more about Ed by checking out his website, EdRoman.net.

1. What inspires you to write a song, and did anything in particular inspire you as you worked on your latest album?

First off, let me say thank you for having me today, and it's a pleasure to speak with you.

It's really hard to pinpoint what inspires you to write a song as there are so many things that propel us into an emotional framework of thinking. I'm continually inspired, moved, and enlightened by so many things I see from day-to-day. Not only other people's lives but my own. I am greatly inspired by things that affect our habits of living, the things we do and don't understand about other people including ourselves. I'm very passionate about politics, agriculture, and the state of the human condition. In the day and age that we live in, it is essential to feel passionate about the circumstances that we love and the things that bring us to anger, then to take action. These two extremes are like a melting pot of emotional thinking.

A song like "I Told You So" on my new album Letters From High Latitudes is posing metaphors that are asking questions about where the commodities that we consume come from and how they are manufactured, to the political discourse and state of corporate federal politics that overrides, in many cases, civilian rights and freedoms. Because I study politics and come from a very political background, I can understand how these subtle changes have occurred over a long period of time and yet in our existence of human civilization, a blink of an eye. I feel most connected to my music when I'm singing and playing about things that matter not only to me but to my fellow brothers and sisters.

2. Considering that you play 90% of the instruments on Letters From High Latitudes, would you tell us what your recording process was like?

That's true, and on much of the music or songs, I play a little bit of everything. Of course, I play bass because that's my primary instrument, but also drums, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, Hammond organ, Fender Rhodes, and the multitude of squeaks and whistles that are more like icing on the cake.

I played with so many wonderful musicians, including Chris Taggart, Antony Cook, David Patel, Michael Freedman, and Tobias Tinker. In our own right, we have created some incredible recordings, but at the same time, music is more like a candy store of limitless possibilities. So many musicians I know, including the ones that I've mentioned, all dabble on different instruments, and it's a really healthy way for you to release yourself from the things you're always working on with your principal instrument.

As I have my own studio, Area 51, it's very easy for me, day-to-day, to experiment with different instruments in my audio laboratory, more like a mad scientist hidden in an old airplane hangar on some distant field in a forgotten forest. As I'm writing the songs, they themselves are the ones that tell me how the music needs to unfold in the recording process. As I am a composer, I can start to see how music needs to be painted, so to speak. Some of the music, because of its construction, requires a band in a live off the floor process. It's important to try to capture these electric moments as they happen as opposed to a sound on sound recording that you can build over the course of the day or period of time. I always love interacting with other musicians and love getting other people's opinions on the flow, rhythm, and textural colors that make up the overall tapestry of the song.

3. How does your connection to Ontario influence your work as an artist?

Ontario is the birth canal of my life. I was fortunate enough to have a rural childhood which included long summer days spent by creeks, catching fish, and taking endless bike rides without the worry and troubles of an inner-city whether it was building tree forts in the woods or building tightly woven constructions of corn to make fortresses in our fields. We lived symbiotically on our farm with our animals in our environment on almost 1500 acres.

Ontario breathes more like an abundant basket of life, energy, and hard work. As kids we pushed ourselves in every environment when it came to art and being creative: music coursed through Ontario and us. It was infectious to the point of a complete embrace. So many people that I knew in late grade school and all through high school all played instruments of some kind. Whether it was Sadie Hawkins dances, battle of the bands, assemblies, or hours on a frozen pond at local carnivals or fall fairs, music was a part of our DNA and Ontario. Its abundance of freedoms and abilities to create at whim is what fueled us as young artists.

Today once again in Ontario and the country of Canada, all those things which I just mentioned that I hold so dear need to be protected and preserved for all Canadians and Ontario's people to enjoy once again. It propels me to take action in my language and lyrics and music that I write to try and reinvigorate people's emotions and passions when it comes to the things that we are most concerned about. I write about pharmacological acts, bills, and Parliament that affect the civil rights and freedoms of not only people in Ontario but in this country. My guitar is the greatest and most powerful weapon that I can wield in a passionate and pure way towards these concepts every day of my life.

4. How would you describe your music to someone who hasn't heard it before?

That's a great question, and as I'm always being asked by so many people who have not heard my music, you need to be able to explain what that is in very few words. I could say my music is thought-provoking and has elements of satire and humor. I could say my music has a bulky and funky edge that is reminiscent of things of the past yet the same time has a new and innovative feel. I could say my music is political commentary on the day and age that we live in. I could say my music has elements of folk, rock, jazz, country, progressive, or even funk; but if I had to say in a few words, it's like a 57 Chevy blowing up in your kitchen.

5. What projects are you planning to work on over the next year or so?

Letters From High Latitudes has been doing extremely well over the last year, and as I've been doing interviews, TV appearances, and a whole whack of radio, I also have been releasing videos the whole time. The latest video for the track "I Found God" has been doing extremely well and getting a lot of plays as well as being embraced in social networking by a great a deal of socially consciously active people.

I'm planning a trip to the island of Jamaica to record my next video. Letters From High Latitudes features the song "Jamaica," and as I have a godchild and incredible amount of friends and newfound family, I plan to shoot a video and release it sometime in the month of May or early June. At the same time, I've also been doing a lot of writing, and I'm planning to embark on a new recording project for a new album that will be released sometime in late 2015.

I'm also headed down to Austin, Texas to play at the Red Gorilla Music Festival, running parallel to SXSW. The band and I will be at the Thirsty Nickel on 6th street in the heart of beautiful downtown Austin, smack dab in the middle of the festival. We will be on at 7 PM. Then we're down in New Jersey in Cape May on 27th of March for the Cape May Music Folk Festival. I'll be playing at the beautiful old Alethea's at the Inn of Cape May.

Once again, thank you so much for having me, and it's a pleasure to be able to speak with you today. If you're listening to Ed, then you are an Ed Head. Come by and check me out anytime at www.edroman.net. Over and out.

Thanks, Ed!

Introducing VStream for Streaming TV, Movies, and More

Have you ever thought about doing a "digital audit" and looking at how much money you spend for everything you use digitally, such as cable TV, streaming services like Netflix, music services like iTunes, your internet provider, and more? Cable TV is one of those things that just hasn't gotten any cheaper, and in some respects, it feels like they're pricing themselves out of the market, with people choosing to drop cable in favor of streaming services.

If you're interested in reducing your bills and shifting to a streaming service, you might want to check out VStream. You get over a thousand channels, access to thousands of movies and TV shows, international movies and TV, radio stations, and more.

It's a portable system that works with any TV; basically it's a small box. The system is easy to use and runs Android 4.4 KitKat. It has built-in wifi with an external antenna, and the manufacturers promote it as having stable receiving. Plus, you can deal with just one remote control instead of a zillion of them.

And if you're looking for a business opportunity, you can become a VStream Licensed Media Consultant and set other people up with the system. In my opinion, this is one of those products where if you try it yourself and love it, you'll be a natural at selling it, too. After all, who doesn't want to save money on their digital media bills? For more info, contact http://www.tvcableguy.com/.