Saturday, March 14th, 2014 Time: 6:30pm – 10:00pm
Red Room’s eighth exclusive event, where these artists share their most imaginative, courageous and inspiring performances.
DAN O’SHEA
ACOUSTIC SINGER SONGWRITER
ACOUSTIC FOLK/ROCK/CLASSICAL
Bio:
Born in Oxford in 1983 and brought up in York for the next twenty years. For Christmas and birthday’s I didn’t get presents, but musical instruments – that’s how it is when you come from a large Irish family. I tried the piano, the trumpet, the violin, the harp, several other instruments and eventually at 16 I took up the guitar – I have now been playing for fifteen years. I have travelled around the world playing venues in Chicago, Havana, Paris, Prague, London, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and now Taiwan.
I have entered various competitions around the UK. I enjoy writing original material about lost love and life’s little quirks and mishaps as well as interpreting others’ songs in my own view. I love music and I believe it’s all about the soul and passion you put into it – that’s what makes it so real.
I’m currently living in Taipei – after I finished travelling the world playing in various bars, restaurants, music venues I relocated to London, but unfortunately couldn’t live with the novelties of being barged into and the noisy silence. I still love to visit and playing gigs there. It is one of the most challenging places to play. I am not competitive, I do it all for fun. That way I get to do whatever this is that makes me happy.
In the future I hope to earn a career from music – be it writing or performing. I’m happy staying away from the limelight so I do dream that I’ll survive on being a teacher and performing music. I have played in a few bands – my rhythm is in my own timing so drummers and bass players don’t like playing with me. The only unique style I change the song each time I play it. It’s all about how you feel in the moment..
I have played the same guitar my whole life – it’s customised to how I play and although a little pretentious I do believe because of the abuse I have subjected to my guitar it’s got my soul inside it. I believe real art comes from pain and if you read, everything will become so much easier.
Performance:
I will be playing songs that have shaped who I am.
They’re all mine and were written over the last fifteen years. Some have been written in 3 minutes, some have taken years to write.
The songs will be about all of my personalities; The Good, The Bad and the Mischievous.
I hope you enjoy the songs, please feel free to ask questions. If you
like, there is a radio show where I perform live and talk about my songs.
The link to that is here:
PaulSecklowSessions/secklow-sessions-featuring-daniel-oshea/
dan@danoshea.net
www.facebook.com/danosheamusic
DAVID GENTILE
Bio:
David Gentile came to Taiwan years ago to study Chinese and Kung Fu, then ended up graduating from the Chinese Dept. at NTNU this past Summer. He traveled throughout the US before coming to Taiwan, and has always enjoyed coming up with little one-two line rhymes about the strange, beautiful, or troubling people, places, and things he encountered along the way.
“The poems started to become a way for me to impermanently document my experiences and even influenced the way I saw the world. Places became references to epic lines with names like “The Dog-Rocket House” or “The Dust Palace” that echoed the feeling of the abandoned hotel in the Lost Boys. People around me started to have nicknames so colorful and fitting that they sounded like the cast of Dick Tracy villains, and even the simplest of tasks were a mix between everyone’s own unique dog commands and rhyming slang. Basically, we got in there like swimwear, and now I have a whole new time zone…”
RED ROOM RADIO REDUX
Bio:
As part of the Red Room community “dedicated to listening”, the mission at Red Room Radio Redux (R4) is to bring selections from the canon of Western literature to wide audience using simple techniques of readers’ theater and radio drama. We seek to re-kindle an appreciation for Western literary tradition and to find common purpose through a shared, re-imagined experience of these great works. R4 performs in English, in adaptations that draw extensively on the original language of the story or poem. Participants are auditioned and cast on the basis of their vocal abilities and willingness to contribute to an ensemble theatre production. Carefully chosen background music and live sound effects enhance the listening experience as we recreate the story in the minds of the audience.
In addition to live public performances, R4 also records voice dramas for broadcast in partnership with ICRT-FM100. We have also been in contact with educational institutions in Taipei and look forward to sharing our passion for the spoken word and Western literature with their students. Our repertoire includes: Macbeth, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, The War of the Worlds, Treasure Island and Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. A not-for-profit organization, R4 is always grateful for support in any form. We welcome fresh talent, technical assistance off & onstage online and off, gifts in kind and, of course, sponsorship. Our progress as art-makers would not be possible without the generous support of Red Room Volunteers, ICRT-FM100 and The Ripplemaker Foundation.
Performance:
The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party
Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is the story of a young girl who finds herself in a world where nothing is as it seems. It was quite revolutionary for its time, in that it was written for enjoyment, rather than for educational and character-building purposes. It also helped to make the fantasy genre a popular and reputable way to tell a story for children, as well as adults. It is full of poems, songs, and verses that don’t make sense and fantastic and slightly disturbing characters, all seen through the eyes of a intelligent child who is full of curiosity.
Our Radio Redux presentation MAD TEA was extracted from Chapter 7: “The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party” with faithful attention to the original text.
Along with Alice, you’ll meet several of the most fun, and yes, craziest characters in literature: the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, and the Dormouse. This is your invitation to come to a tea party where you discover that “we’re all mad here,” in the best way.
Red room Radio Redux: r4.radioredux@gmail.com
Facebook: R4radioredux
TINA MA
Bio:
Like most artists, in younger days Tina was a Taiwanese hippy, rebelling against anything that interfered with her free will. She loved playing the guitar and learned American music while participating in all the social movements when Taiwan was seeking its identity in the early 80s.
After 30 years, she knows that the voice and sound must come from her own ground and soil now.
Having explored different art forms, she has finally chosen telling Taiwanese stories through songs from the ancient Chinese to current days, and to follow her bliss…
She likes to see herself as someone who uses this ancient musical instrument – moon guitar, to share shamanic spirits from nature and folklore of the mother earth. The instrument is two stringed, but says a lot in a simple ways, as most of life’s wisdom does.
taiwanteama@gmail.com
Facebook: Tina Ma
ROSE GOOSSEN
Bio:
Rose Goossen is the inventor of the Gypsy Jukebox and the Turkish Kanadiano. She was born in the Great White North, but quickly left for warmer climes and rhapsodic adventures. She makes the sound of music with her lovely wife, Madame Le Guitare. Together they have recorded four live albums of original songs and multilingual covers.
Synopsis: She will play original songs that were born of necessity while traveling the world and tell the top-secret stories behind the music.
MYSTERY PERFORMER
SOPHIE CHEN
Bio:
Sophie Chen, our mystery guest for Red Room Aside, brought a moving musical performance of strong vocals with fun live electronica to the evening. We loved the fresh experimental vibe.
Currently signed to Full Entertainment Marketing Company, based in Taipei, Taiwan.
Born December 26, 1992, in Montreal Canada, CHEN, or Sophie Chen, is singer-songwriter-producer that is fluent in French, Mandarin and English.
She has been performing since the age of 6, starting in her hometown, and later doing performances in big cities such as Toronto, Beijing, Shenzhen, Xiangtan. Invited by tv channels such as Shenzhen TV and Hunan TV, she often travels to China.
In 2010, Sophie sang the official theme song of the Chinese blockbuster ‘Flirting Scholar 2’ and for another independent movie for whom she has written the theme song. Songwriting is also one of her passions, and she writes in French, English, and Mandarin.
http://www.chenmusiconline.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CHENmusiconline?fref=photo
