Studio 7 and Jimmy Nevis: a match made in musical heaven

I feel as if I have been living under a rock, on mars, whilst blindfolded and gagged… that’s how disappointed I am that until this week, I didn’t know about the Studio 7 concert venue in Seapoint. At least, ‘concert venue’ is what appears at the top of the Studio 7 Facebook page as the one-liner description.

But as an avid concert-hater, I have to say that this place couldn’t be further removed from my definition of a concert. Concerts are loud, overcrowded, incredibly expensive, uncomfortable and the audio quality is mostly as appealing as a pig snorting.

Studio 7 is the antithesis of all of that. The venue really is “intimate and exclusive”, as promised. At the Jimmy Nevis unplugged performance I attended last night, only 49 other people shared the experience with me, and it is this exclusivity that makes it really special.

Back to the very definition of unplugged music, a music reviewer by the name of Craig Conley summed it up perfectly: “When music is labelled acoustic, unplugged, or unwired, the assumption seems to be that other types of music are cluttered by technology and overproduction and therefore aren’t as pure.”

And without the distraction of screaming fans, instruments that drown out the singer’s voice, unpredictable weather that also negatively affects the voice of any singer or ostentatious dancers / set design, Studio 7 makes it easy for the artist to just “be”, and for you to literally just sit back and enjoy.

At Jimmy’s session last night, the audio quality was absolutely crystal clear, allowing everyone to really take in how powerful his vocals are. I don’t think the guy missed a single note, despite throwing in a few covers and doing a few very creative takes on the tracks from his album, Subliminal. Three back-up singers, a guitar-player and Jimmy occasionally making use of the keyboard and a big, blue tambourine, were the only ‘extras’ required to bring his music to life.

Going back to the setting, Studio 7 is actually a house (a nice one, it must be said), with large, puffy couches and a few quaint wooden benches rearranged closely around the performance area. For those who arrive a bit later and have perhaps struggled to manoeuvre their vehicles into the constricted Seapoint streets that surround the venue, a few scatter cushions on the floor is where they will sit – but it is exactly this impression of chilling in your own living room that makes you feel so relaxed. The mood lighting is spot-on, and while there wasn’t an indoor fireplace crackling away in the corner of the room, it genuinely felt as if there could have been...

The few speakers that are necessary in such a small space are also thoughtfully arranged. You won’t miss a single detail in the reproduction of the audio, and you also won’t go home with your ears zinging uncontrollably. 

Thank you, Studio 7 and Jimmy Nevis for an unforgettable evening. I will definitely be back to experience real music in the kind of setting and space it deserves.

Some useful links:

Studio 7 on Twitter: @Studio7_SA

Studio 7 Website

Studio 7 Facebook page

Jimmy Nevis on Twitter: @JimmyNevis

Jimmy Nevis Facebook page

Are we work-obsessed?

“Great minds talk about ideas. Small minds talk about people.”

I don’t know who said it or where the above quote originated from, but it has certainly been doing the rounds on Twitter feeds everywhere.

And I must say, I beg to differ. When did we become a society so obsessed with big ideas, big deals and big clients that we regard these topics of conversation as more interesting than our fellow human beings?

Every piece of communication I see is crammed full of business-speak, with people either advertising their work or commending another on his or her achievements. In fact, these conversations dominate dinners out with friends and social gatherings with complete strangers alike. If you haven’t achieved something worth an aggressively-written tweet or status update in the last month, you’re probably not going to be very interesting to the next person.

Of course, a career-driven society has become quite necessary, spurring on the conversations I just mentioned – we need to be multi-skilled, ambitious, outspoken and bursting with ideas to make it anywhere. This is fantastic for the more outgoing personalities out there, but a nightmare for those (yes, like me), who value days and long periods of time spent “switched-off”.

Switched-off doesn’t mean lazy; it means placing importance upon reflecting on life, spending time with friends and family and engaging in quiet activities or hobbies that stimulate the mind in ways that work never could.

A few minutes online and I honestly sometimes feel as though I can’t keep up. I seriously question whether I am a complete nobody, or a total layabout, for not constantly seeking out ways to do more. So many people are doing an absurd amount of things, or working several jobs, and are constantly busy. I absolutely admire these people for their energy, drive, tenacity and ability to blur the line between business and pleasure, but that’s not me.

The unfortunate consequence of this busy individual is that this person is perceived as more successful, attractive and appealing than those of us who shy away from the limelight and the constant activity - or ‘hustle’ - as they like to call it. Many of us most certainly have goals and are achieving them, but place equal emphasis on the less glamorous aspects of our lives – for us, admitting that we’re spending a typical Sunday doing absolutely nothing besides buying an ice-cream and going for a short drive is not an admission of time wasted.

Going back to the quote that set me off on this mild outburst, wouldn’t it be great to see and hear more conversations about PEOPLE? Where has the emotion in our lives gone? It all seems to be an endless and highly calculated process of ticking off the right boxes, and then sharing those ticked boxes with the world, and then being patted on the back for it… repeatedly.

Let’s work hard, and fulfil our dreams, but not get so engrossed in it all that we lose sight of the people in our lives and the parts of them we appreciate outside of their careers or skillset. When we think of our very best friends, or those that have made a real impression upon us, it’s more often than not those little nuances about them that we remember first – their ability to crack jokes at the drop of a hat, their OCD tendencies or their knack for bringing a sense of calm to a tense situation.

Let’s go back to “how are you doing?” being just that, and not a veiled version of “how’s work?”

It’s the people in our lives, and not the work they do, that make us go out and spend unnecessary amounts of money on half-price sushi and cocktails. There are simply far more people in the world than there are jobs, and I feel as though we have lost sight of that, in our endless pursuit of ultimate success.

Without the people we share our lives with, the successes we achieve in wealth are empty. Let’s go back to paying equal attention to both.