Eddie Lam Music

An in-depth look at my musical shenanigans including my bands, my gear, and YouTube videos

[eddielammusic]

A Farewell to the Fairview Pub

I remember when I played a show at the Fairview Pub in Vancouver a few years ago with the Chris Newton Band, it was on a Saturday afternoon at 4pm. My personal initial reaction was "who in heck's gonna come to a show on a Saturday afternoon??? It's already hard enough bringing people out during the evenings!" Well, I was proven wrong...that Saturday afternoon was jam-packed with seniors who LOVE to dance to live bands and appreciate live music in general. The minute we hit our first note, the dance floor was already filled. I was on lead vocals for "Get Down Tonight" by KC and the Sunshine Band and the most memorable thing I did was jump into the audience and dance with them during the instrumental break. I was the youngest dude in the building and got a few awesome "you remind me of my grandson" remarks.

It's unfortunate that the Fairview has closed its doors indefinitely due to our global situation. I've had many great moments there both as a performer and attendee. I had a blast checking out other talented local bands from every genre especially when your friends' bands were rocking out. It was also a pleasure playing the open mic nights, and overall just being there with the local music community for the love of live music.

I just want to conclude by saying big thanks to all the hard-working staff and musicians who have worked their butts off for years to make that place happening.

[eddielammusic]

Going Beyond My Canadian Music Scene Circle - Chatting With American Podcasters

Despite what’s been going around in 2020 since Spring, musically it has been quite the change for me, BUT with some positive outcomes. For most of my musical career, I’ve been only focusing on things like playing live shows locally, and during that time I’ve dibble-dabbled on my YouTube channel on some occasions. Ever since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, all live shows have apparently been put on hold for now, and that may be a thing for a while. However, the cancellation of live in-person shows have pushed me to be more creative to showcase myself through the power of the world wide web (originally had only 65 subscribers on YouTube, but now I have over 150 which is pretty sweet). Instead of creating a buzz through my usual live local shows, I’ve decided to connect with podcasters around the world (well,...specifically in America) and tell them about my musical journey. I was so fortunate that a few American-based podcasters were willing to sit down with me an chat online about all my accomplishments. Because of that, it gave me more confidence, motivation, and excitement to reach out to more music lovers outside of Vancouver, Canada. I’ll tell you a story in another post about how I’ve befriended some amazing people who live in the east coast of America. In the meantime, please check out the Instagram Link below, I was interviewed by a cool music enthusiast named EJ Saftner from The Spill, talking about my musical life.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CEFCVRXJ_ds/

[eddielammusic]

Here’s my DOUBLE-GENRE (acoustic and metal) cover of “5 Days in May” by Canadian folk band Blue Rodeo! ENJOY!

[eddielammusic]

Learning Hit Songs On Guitar In Under a Minute: It’s Do-able

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A post shared by Eddie Lam | The Musician Dude (@eddielammusic) on Aug 31, 2020 at 11:32pm PDT

So you’d be surprised how many hit songs don’t require a lot of effort to learn. When it comes to songs from our Top 40 charts, there’s a whole lot of them that only have either 4 chords, maybe 3, sometimes even just 2. Regardless, after playing in cover bands for so many years, I feel like it’s time to reveal to you all how to play certain tunes that we’re all familiar with that are easy to learn on acoustic guitar. This kinda series is perfect for all of you performing musicians looking for more song ideas to learn for future shows. Back in November of 2019, I’ve joined the cult that we call Tik Tok just to goof around and post random tomfoolery. This Summer I’ve decided to make my account more productive, educational, and entertaining by providing “how to” tutorials in under a minute (Tik Tok’s videos are only a minute max, just like that old app Vine). From Tom Petty to Shawn Mendes, you’ll be able to learn their songs quickly and show off to your friends, family, and fans. You can also find these videos on my Instagram! Have at it, everyone...check out my Instagram and Tik Tok to learn some songs in just under one minute! :)

[eddielammusic]

My Linkin Park Cover of “One More Light” and My Love for the Band

Linkin Park is one of the many bands that will forever be engraved in my collection of favourite rock bands the 2000′s. When I first listened to “One Step Closer” from the “Hybrid Theory” album, I knew it was gonna be a massive success; especially to the point where you’re hearing non-rock Top 40 stations putting their songs on heavy rotation. I think what really drew me into Linkin Park was the fact that I can hear and feel each member of the band contribute their signature elements, bringing a unique sound to their songs. Whether it’s Chester’s aggressive yet beautiful vocals, Mike Shinoda’s rapping, Joseph Hahn’s turntables and other neat DJ gear, or Brad’s guitar, etc. I could tell this band functioned as a unit to create something special. It was quite the journey to see how much the band has grown from each album, especially when you hear tracks that don’t require heavy distorted guitars but you can still easily identify that it’s a solid tune written by Linkin Park. Even for the Transformers movie soundtracks, Linkin Park was THE perfect band to have their tunes contribute to the Autobots’ epic adventures. I decided to do a cover of Linkin Park’s ballad “One More Light” recently. Originally, they used only clean electric guitar and synth strings, but I decided to do more of a “full rock band” sound adding other instruments though at the same time trying my best to compliment the same ballad feeling of what the boys had in mind. Even though Chester is no longer with us, his energy still lives on in Linkin Park’s music forever. Thank you Linkin Park for over 20 years of an adventure that we will never forget. If you enjoy my cover of “One More Light”, please feel free to share as much as you can!

[eddielammusic]

My Experience Opening for Famous Artists From the Philippines - Part One: Bamboo

One of the things I feel so blessed to have is a great connection with the Filipino community in the local Vancouver music scene. Having Filipino members in my band Cry of Silence gave me such a great experiences in performing to a different audience to expand the fanbase and make new connections.

In Fall of 2014, our former Cry of Silence member Dan Roxas helped us score one of our biggest gigs we have ever done, probably even bigger than our Commodore Ballroom show; we had the opportunity to open for the Philippines’ pop rock sensation Bamboo at the Massey Theatre, located in New Westminster Secondary in Vancouver, Canada. At first I had no idea who this Bamboo fellow was, but after doing some research, I learned that he is a legendary pop rock icon in the Filipino music industry.

That gig was honestly one of my favourite ones that year; all the seats were filled up, the sound system was amazing, and I even had the chance to chat with Bamboo hours before showtime. He’s honestly one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met, and I’ll never forget him.

During this year, I was totally into WWE wrestler Daniel Bryan. I think during this time he was still world champion and his signature “Yes” chant has been one of the hottest things for wrestling fans. So I created and made copies of “Yes” signs and gave them away to audience members, including my friends who showed up so we could all do the “Yes” chants during our performance. I also showed the “Yes” signs to Bamboo during our conversation backstage. Our set was short, but it was a huge success. Later on during Bamboo’s set, however, he saw an audience member holding one of the “Yes” signs and he lead everyone in a short but sweet “Yes” chant during one of his songs! Here’s one of the YouTube videos below, fast forward to 3:03 to see everyone “yes’ing”.

And check this fan video out, you can clearly see an audience member holding up the “Yes” sign at 0:52. I honestly thought it was so awesome people were making good use of it during Bamboo’s set. I wanted the Vancouver audience to be unique and memorable, so I figure “why not spice things up a bit?” :)

Overall, the boys and I from Cry of Silence were so glad we did this show. We played in an auditorium full of people who’ve never heard our music, we made some new friends along the way to expand our local music community, and of course, I got to meet one of the coolest rock stars from the Philippines! Big thanks of course to our old bandmate and amazing buddy Dan for helping us big time to be a part of the show. I always say to myself that if I could go back in time to relive that moment, I would...BUT, in 2019, another experience happened; however, I’ll leave that for another story in PART 2!

I’ll conclude this blog by showing you below this amazing highlight video of the whole concert, put together by YouTube user Choy Palacio. The boys and I from Cry of Silence are at 0:45.

Thanks for reading, and as always...keep playing! :)

-Ed-

[eddielammusic]

The Story Behind My Piano Karaoke Night

Piano Karaoke Night is one of my few musical projects I’m incredibly proud to call my baby! It’s basically a piano lounge spin-off of my cover band’s Live Band Karaoke experience; you get the same songs (and more), but with a piano twist. So instead of having you come up on stage and sing like a rock star, you sing like a lounge star. One of the main inspirations that helped make Piano Karaoke come to life was when I went to check out Dueling Piano nights in America. I was exposed to this for the first time in Seattle when my wife and I visited venues Keys on Main and 88 Keys. The pianists did such an incredible job engaging with the audience in an enthusiastic and humourous way, and it would definitely be a great way to spend the weekend. People would write down requests and pay tips to the performers and see if they’re able to pull of playing that song or not. Excellent concept, it’d be something I would be a part of...BUT something was missing...and that missing part was having an audience member to come up and actually take LEAD in singing. Thus, I came up with the idea of Piano Karaoke Night, where it’s like dueling pianos combined with live band karaoke (mind you, by coincidence, there was a cool episode in “Friends” where Phoebe’s boyfriend played by Paul Rudd did something like that). In April 2016, the first night for Piano Karaoke Night debuted at Cafe Deux Soleils, right in the heart of Commercial Drive in Vancouver. It was a successful night as the venue was packed and we had a great deal of singers who came up and serenaded us with great choices of tunes. The list of songs grew after each show all thanks to audience requests and the event started generating a local buzz. Somewhere between mid 2018 to 2019, the incredible Cafe Deux Soleils staff allowed me to host Piano Karaoke Night almost every month! We continue to have both regular attendees/singers as well as new folks including visitors from out of town and other singers I’ve never met. I always looked forward to each show like this to kick off the weekend on a Friday night which shows that all of us felt something really special about Piano Karaoke; and that special something was bringing together a community of music lovers! Our 2020 global pandemic may be putting shows on pause for now, but once we return, we’ll look forward to the days of being around with each other and enjoy our favourite songs live once again! Below is a promo video of my piano karaoke night! 

Thanks for reading, and remember to keep playing!

[eddielammusic]

A Look Back at Summer 2018 and 2019 - The Best Musical Opportunities

The summer of 2018 and 2019 gig-wise were such amazing years. 2020 has been such a challenging time for a lot of us, especially us musicians who miss doing outdoor summer gigs. It didn’t matter if it was the Farmers Market, a medium-sized community festival, or something as big as our Canada Day celebrations...summer time was THE ultimate opportunity to play outside, musically and it brings a different level of excitement. Summer 2018 was a start of that fun era playing outdoor gigs. I played at the Car Free Day festival with Cry of Silence in the West End area of downtown Vancouver. We did a mixture of both our original songs and a handful of familiar rock covers. I remember how hot that day was; at the end of our set, I ran across the street to a local cafe and chugged cold water to hydrate myself (good piece of advice, always bring water with you DURING your performance). That same summer, I recruited my friends Jarrett and Spider as my rhythm section, playing the annual “Fridays at Front” block party in the New Westminster area (probably one of the most fun events hosted by the New Westminster Arts Council). This was when I really started to improve my setlist adding fun rock songs that rarely get covered live in Vancouver. I felt the need to add a bit of edge to my set, and thankfully people responded well to our selection. Fast forward to Summer of 2019, I’ve had a great number of highlights. I formed a unique, collaborative team of Isaac Feng (my guitar player from Cry of Silence) and long-time musician friend Thomas Beckman on viola, playing some Cry of Silence songs and the rest, some acoustic covers. But one part that blew me away during that gig was when Thomas performed an original piece consisting his weapons of choice...his viola and a really incredible pedal to add different effects. Another fun festival I did was playing at the Main Street version of the Car-Free Day festival, hitting the PRIME TIME location of Main and King Edward St (featuring Jarrett Plett on drums and Warren Broc on bass). Our set was highly praised, and I should mention that my last two songs were “Breaking the Law” by Judas Priest and “We’re Not Gonna Take It” by Twisted Sister...amazing hair rock classics! But THE best gig I’ve done in 2019 is the annual Dock Dance festival in Bowen Island with The Naturals. We were headlining the evening. It looked like there was over 300 people, though I was told there were actually over 1,000 people. The crowd went insane from start to finish, and I honestly don’t remember when was the last time I truly felt like a rock star like that. Right now as we’re finishing off our Summer of 2020, it’s been quite the adjustment for all of us musicians. We’re always so used to feeding off the energy of the crowd while we gave our best to perform on stage, but this year we have to use our imagination (nothing wrong with that). While I’m making the best of showcasing my music in a different way, I’m brainstorming opportunities for next year, Summer of 2021. Whether it’d be playing with my cover band at PNE, return to Car Free Day festivities or even a backyard party, I’ll be rocking out in full force and make it THE best year ever! In the meantime, follow my social media (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube @eddielammusic) and my website at www.eddielammusic.ca Thank you, and keep playing! Eddie Lam

[eddielammusic]

My Cover of “Gang-Plank Galleon” and Behind the Scenes of My Donkey Kong Country Cover Series

This is my latest (and probably final) installment of the Donkey Kong Country cover series. Ever since the pandemic life, I’ve been spending more time upgrading my YouTube channel posting content frequently (either every week or every other week, latest once a month). I was playing Donkey Kong Country on my Super Nintendo during the first few months of Lockdown. Boy, I tell you...playing the game every time reminded me how amazing the soundtrack was. Everything David Wise composed was golden and complimented the game so well. So what did I do after completing the game? I went ahead and did instrumental covers of the game’s soundtrack. So far my covers have received some great responses, and will keep promoting the heck out of my tracks. At first it started off with my cover of “Life in the Mines”, which has an incredible awesome melody hook. Did an epic metal version of it and a bunch of my friends on my social network who are gamers shared my cover like crazy. Then by popular demand, I covered the ever-so-critically-acclaimed “Aquatic Ambience”. Finally, (or so I thought it was the final installment), I covered “Fear Factory”, giving it a horror movie synth metal atmosphere. Welp, after ongoing requests from certain people, I couldn’t say “no” to the opportunity of covering that music from the final boss stage fighting King K. Rool...”GANG-PLANK GALLEON”. THIS was an interesting experience because covering that specific track could go to so many different directions. So I decided to go outside the box and amalgamate the genres of Polka, Punk, and Metal all in one mix. Overall I’m really proud that I stepped out of my comfort zone and did something like this. So with that being said, here’s my take on Donkey Kong Country’s soundtrack for the final boss fight...”GANG-PLANK GALLEON”.

[eddielammusic]

About My Band - The Naturals: Vancouver’s Live Band On Demand That Knows Over 500 Songs

Aaah The Naturals! Now THERE’S a band that has taken me through many adventures. It all started over 8 years ago on August 2012. Like all bands, we came from humble beginnings. Both myself and long-time friend/bandmate Jarrett started the Live Band Karaoke event through a very awesome Irish friend who pitched us the idea for his previous bar. He told us it’d be a neat idea because Jarrett and I knew loads of songs. The whole live band karaoke experience has already been a thing in places like Vegas, but we felt it would be a great idea to get something right in our own town, giving the people of Vancouver THE ultimate rock star experience. Thus, our event “Rockaoke” and The Naturals were born!

When Jarrett and I, along with previous members from the first lineup of Rockaoke, ran our first few months of this live band karaoke event at our first venue, we started off with a catalogue of 75 songs. I remember how stressful it was learning a bunch of songs, but each week we pushed through and do our best to do better. Each week, our catalogue started building up when our regular attendees put in requests of new tunes for us to learn.

Fast forward months later, we moved our way up the venue ladder, playing at a much larger establishment called the Vancouver Fanclub (R.I.P). We were spoiled with a large stage, a house drumkit, guitar amps, and a professional sound guy. By this time, our show has evolved to more unique formats. Our member lineup by this time has already changed, including having Justin P. Brown on bass and Joel “Dr. Goulet” Flynn on vocals, acoustic guitar, and playing the role as official host. One of our unique formats include having special-themed catalogues each month, starting off with “Zepptember”, paying tribute to Led Zeppelin. It then lead to other themes including “Ozztober” for Ozzy Osbourbe/Black Sabbath, “Nirvember” for Nirvana, and “AC/DCember” for AC/DC. Other themes you can find on our website at www.rockaokelive.com

Unfortunately the Vancouver Fanclub shut down after we played there for two years, but we moved on to the legendary Railway Club in the heart of downtown (now called Railway Stage and Beer Cafe). By that time, our musical catalogue was at over FIVE-HUNDRED songs (again, all thanks to bandmates and regular attendees for building the list). Though we only had a run at Railway for just a few years, it was, without a doubt, still a fun and interactive community-building musical experience.

Aside from our live weekly shows, The Naturals and I have also brought both traditional performances and the live band karaoke experience to private functions including birthday parties, weddings, corporate events, and conferences. However, my favourite and most memorable gig on that scale was travelling to Prince George, BC (a small town that’s over 780km from Vancouver) to play for the Canadian Winter Games festivities. THAT was without a doubt my first experience ever playing music out of town. We even played through the hot summers of Vancouver Island and the extremely cold storms of Edmonton, Alberta.

Another gig that stood out for me personally was doing a traditional live performance at our iconic, historic pub called The Cambie, located in the Gastown area of downtown Vancouver. I luckily scored that gig as they were looking for a cover band to perform the theme of 70′s night, which was THE perfect gig considering our catalogue consisted of classic rock, disco, and funk (Stevie Wonder, Zeppelin, Sabbath, AC/DC, Parliament, and much more). Our friend Spider was playing bass with us that night, and he can tell you today how much of a great time he had that evening (during “Superstition”, there was a fun dance-off between two members in the crowd).

To all you musicians out there in Vancouver and all around the world who play in cover bands, I salute each and every one of you for learning thousands of songs, especially if they’re tunes that are before your time, way after your time, and dare I say it...not your line of musical taste. To those who host live band karaoke or something similar...my hats off to you also, especially if you’re dealing with a wild crowd and singers who may not have the highest musical expertise (but able to help make them look like rock stars).

The Naturals and I evolved as musicians over the years. We continue to think outside the box, grab every possible opportunity to entertain people, and even expand our talent roster with local special guests, whether it’d be lead guitar, bass, vocals, or any other instruments people were willing to bring to the table. Without this amazingly talented bunch (and previous helpers who contributed so much along the way), I honestly wouldn’t know where I’d be today as a musician. Despite our pandemic, we have been doing some socially-distant gigs to entertain people in a safe way for now. But there’s no better way to make our days better than playing our favourite songs while we strive to recover. 

Thank you for reading, and keep playing! :)

-Ed-

[eddielammusic]

About My Band - Cry of Silence

Time to share about one of my musical projects. So for those who are NOT from Vancouver, Canada...I play in an all-Asian rock group called Cry of Silence. We combine a good variety of genres including grunge, pop punk, emo rock, nu metal, and more. We have two releases which happen to be our first full-length album “Influence” released in 2011, and our 2018 EP entitled “Community”. “Community” is a special one to us personally as it’s what we call a community-based EP. We collabbed with various producers and musicians, and at the same time most of the lyrics were written about friends and experiences in our local music scene here in Vancouver. We had some amazing highlights including (but not limited to) the following: -Opened for a few big-name Asian acts - The Slants (Portland, OR) and Bamboo (Philippines) -Played some amazing local festivals including Make Music Vancouver, Car-Free Day, Wetfoot Festival, and much more! -Two of our songs from our first album “Influence” were featured on some American TV shows. Our song “Old Habits Die” was featured in a scene for a TV movie called “Mother of All Lies”, and “My So-Called Life” was featured in an episode of a drama called “Ties That Bind”. We also take pride in organizing our own shows in order for us to have not only more creative control, but to also give other local bands a chance to play on stage. We’ve had a bunch of amazing shows, especially ones with fun themes to make the shows more unique and of course we made a lot of new friends along the way. Our most recent show we did was back in Feb 1st 2020, over a month before quarantine life. The theme was Hats, Wigs, and Helmets night, and of course self-made head gear was highly encouraged. With our current global situation due to COVID19 we are not doing live shows at the moment, BUT we were still able to entertain our audience members online. I’m proud to say that we have a cool new song called “Don’t Want You Near”, and you can find our lyric video for that song on YouTube. Click on the link below: Cry of Silence - Don’t Want You Near This project has been my baby for many years, but I couldn’t have done it without the help of all my bandmates and all our listeners, concert attendees, etc. both past and present. If you are curious about who we are, we have an official website at www.cryofsilencemusic.com

I’m so excited to continue making new music for you all. Please keep following me as you’ll be showered with amazing upcoming musical content.

[eddielammusic]

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A post shared by SPILL. (@spill.ej) on Aug 19, 2020 at 10:07am PDT

2020 may be year full of challenges, but for us musicians, we’ve been trying to figure out creative ways to get ourselves out there. Though we miss playing to our local following here in Vancouver, Canada, the idea came to me thinking “well dang,...maybe it’s about time I go beyond my local following and start going international virtually”. And boy, I’m so glad I did! One of the things that has been happening lately is I’ve been interviewed by American podcasters. I was honoured to be a guest on The Spill interview series, conducted by the amazing EJ Saftner who has a passion for music around the globe! With all that being said, enjoy the interview and don’t forget to support her website at https://www.spill-ej.com

[eddielammusic]

Aaaaand here we are! The new platform to share and discuss everything related to music has officially begun! So what makes this different from all my other social media platforms? I’ll be giving more in-depth discussions about all things related to my bands and my recordings, plus some talks here and there about my gear. Want to know more about music and check out more about me? Head on down to my website at www.eddielammusic.ca. If you never heard of me, look no further as I’ll give you the shortest form about my life in a nutshell! Born and raised in Vancouver, Canada; I’m of Chinese heritage; I write, play, and record music; I usually play gigs including public shows, corporate events, and private parties. Be sure to check out my bands Cry of Silence (www.instagram.com/cryofsilencemusic), The Naturals live band karaoke (www.rockaoke.com) and my personal website at www.eddielammusic.ca