Since focusing on Grumpy Kitty Boy, I’m now navigating an entirely different world that requires building project timelines; doing more admin work for my artistic life; writing grants (since I’m now eligible to do so as a new Permanent Resident of Canada–maybe this should warrant a different blog entry sometime in the future); getting acquainted with entirely different music scenes; reshaping my worldviews, practices, beliefs…all new stuff! I’ve gone back to performing and putting myself in a self-mounted spotlight again–I have to pull out my high school/college self after tucking them away since becoming the “behind-the-scenes” composer that I am now.
Throughout the months though, I wasn’t able to tell you that other Grumpy Kitty Boy media features came since initially being featured in the music blog Tinnitist! I’ll list them down:
- Grumpy Kitty Boy feature interview in the music magazine/blog Canadian Beats!
Interview: “Five Questions with Grumpy Kitty Boy” - Grumpy Kitty Boy features in Cashbox Canada, Record World Magazine, and Business Mirror Philippines!
Cashbox Canada feature: “Grumpy Kitty Boy Gets Authentic and Reflective in Debut Single, ‘Airplane Wings'”
Record World Magazine feature: “GRUMPY KITTY BOY Gets Authentic and Reflective in Debut Single, ‘Airplane Wings'”
Business Mirror PH feature: “Filipino-Canadian Grumpy Kitty Boy releases debut single” - Another interview with Tinnitist!
Interview: “20 Questions with Grumpy Kitty Boy”
(P. S. I honestly enjoyed answering all twenty questions! I recommend reading everything!) - Online radio spins with Cashbox Canada and PopCanRadio! (It was really nice recording these radio liners!)
“Airplane Wings” also got a shoutout from the music blog The Ark Of Music, who recently added the single in their “Gems From The Ark” Spotify playlist! Thank you so much for the shoutout!
And in collaboration with visual artist Yuna Kim, I finally released the official animated music video of the debut single “Airplane Wings!” We got 1.5K views on the first week of its release! (I tell you, as a contemporary classical composer, I’m not used to seeing those numbers in my regular content lolz). Take a look-see here:
Back in the homeland–specifically at General Santos City, Philippines–the weekly radio music program “Musikahan, Kantahan at Kwentuhan” under DXCP 585AM (Radyo Totoo) included the music video in its terrestrial radio + Facebook Live simulcast. Thank you very much to producer Ma Eden Leonida Bringier and Marie-Luise Calvero for giving Grumpy Kitty Boy a boost to local Filipino audiences!
I personally want to thank the wonderful people and institutions that made this music video release possible: Yuna Kim for the superb pencil sketch animation, Rojh Baquiran (The North Hit Project) and Sebastián Gómez Mancheno (mu-waves) for the mixing and mastering of the single, Prince Requino for the photography, The Scope at Ryerson (CJRU 1280AM) for giving Grumpy Kitty Boy a radio advertising grant, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts AND the Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts with the artist residencies that allowed Grumpy Kitty Boy to be born. More appreciation goes to Marie-Luise Calvero, Carolyn Fe, Astoria Felix, Joseph Glaser, Matthew Fava, and all GoFundMe donors who financially contributed to this music video project. Special mentions among them include the Filipino Canadian Artist Association of Quebec and MVL Productions.
SO! You’re wondering what happened to my contemporary classical work now. Well…I have good news too, but I think I’ll post a new blog entry regarding this one following this post to keep all things organized. It’s already crazy that I do multiple things at the same time.
So yeah, not everything looked bright. After producing the third episode/article of Nomadic Sound Worlds, I had to make a painful decision of discontinuing the last (fourth) episode of the series due to personal reasons (as with the contemporary classical career path I hoped to pursue since a decade ago). With the exception of ongoing commissioned work, I am now putting contemporary music on hold. There are personal reasons that I’m not ready to talk about yet, but maybe there will be a time when I would be the open book that I am again. I also hope that this artistic practice and career path could eventually co-exist with Grumpy Kitty Boy (GKBoy is kinda “possessive” with my time and attention nowadays, lolz).
In that, I would like to thank the Canadian Music Centre Ontario for giving (me) the opportunity to formulate a little bit of discourse regarding Canadian contemporary music and notions surrounding global migration through the Library Residency. I want to personally thank Matthew Fava for being patient, understanding, insightful, and for giving out resources, time, and effort to make Nomadic Sound Worlds possible.
That’s it for an update for now. Watch out for my next update after this post!
Juro Kim Feliz 