ThaWilsonBlock Magazine Issue10 "King of My Own Country"

Sparkydog & Friends exclusive interview

Rest In Peace Nelson Mandela

Artist Development – Business Marketing – Social Awareness

On January 19th, 2014, Pasadena artist & former foster kid Bing Bing will be walking from West Hollywood through Watts to Compton in attempt to End Gang Violence while representing Foster Kids & Widows. The March will be in remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. the day before his parade. This walk is also pre-cursor to Bing Bing’s entry in the 2014 Los Angeles Marathon. Click the map to view the official route.

“When you're playing a show late at night, say 3:07 a.m., and the audience is drunk and throwing bottles and food and sharp things at the stage, and when the microphones are feeding back because the sound guy is hitting on the waitress who was supposed to bring us "complimentary" sodas and fries….well…nothing is better than that :-)”

-Sparkydog

Mistah Wilson: So, first off I just want to say Sparkydog.com is amazing! For our audiences reading this, can you give us a quick summary of Sparkydog & Friends and a little bit about what you guys have set out to do?

Sparkydog: Thank you for digging sparkydog.com! We're a wonky pop rock n' roll band that travels across space and time in our heavily hacked and modded space bus/spaceship, the Star Streamer. We roll from gig to gig - some cool, some crappy - our pseudo-manager the Cosmic Castaway can be a bit flakey but sometimes he pulls off minor miracles. We mostly play music, write songs, visit cool planets, hang out on Earth every so often, build robots, and play with virtual reality bits and bobs. We pass in and out of many realities - that is one of the coolest parts of what we do. People think that we're a virtual band but we're just as real as you. We like hacking reality.

Mistah Wilson: When I read up on Sparkydog & friends, I actually learned a few things myself. Like the meaning of Nefarious lol. How did the idea of creating a comic book around your journey come to manifestation and is there a series?

Sparkydog: The comic book is part of our universe where we actually live. We don't create the comic book - we are living in it. Our lives make it real. However we do get to create another kind of comic, which is the world in which you live in. The comic is really a portal for us to shift in and out of this universe. It's how we get to hang out with all of the coolest bands and people in rock history. Think about Lothar and the Hand People - could that band really exist if we had not dropped them off here in the '60s as we journeyed from another planet. Think about Hendrix. We wish we could have done more about the '80s - we're still trying to fix that (how can one undo Falco?)

Mistah Wilson: I've listened to the entire "People of the World" EP and I'm really feelin' "Red Light." What inspired the meaning behind the title of your soon-to-be released LP and where can we get it at?

Sparkydog: Thank you for checking out our EP - and very buzzed that you liked "Red Light" :-) We're putting the final bits on the LP (art, track arrangement). Everything is recorded and mastered. The working title for the LP is "People Of The World" - it may shift, but we kind of like it.

The idea behind "People Of The World" was about all of us getting together (people that is, and also maybe Shaggles).

It's our world and we live in it - and when you get to see the Earth from space it is sad and awesome at the same time.

We're all (except for us traveling through space most of the time) just stuck on this little blue planet. We need to make the most if it and be cool to each other. We have one little world and we need to keep it together.

Please check www.sparkydog.com for info on our upcoming LP release date and were to get it - it will be coming at you (like a comet) in early 2014.

Mistah Wilson: Do you have any encouraging words for aspiring bands out there?

Sparkydog: Stay in college, start a tech company, move to Palo Alto, make a few hundred million dollars creating some social viral app thing (Tumblr meets Waze meets Vine meets Call Of Duty), build a dream studio, get a cool van‌.even better write really freaking good songs.

That is the whole of it. Great songs will always stand out and get you somewhere. Become great at your instrument (you need to become way better than us) and fully commit to writing great songs. Learn how to record your songs - anyone with a computer and microphone and Abelton Live or ProTools can get something going. The most important thing: you really need to love music. You also need to be really, really good. Practice like your life depends on it. Of course we are total slackers - so you can ignore everything I just said

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ThaWilsonBlock Magazine