#1 & #38 Songs, Choreo, First Show... Gettin busy!

With my album out and songs doing well on Starfleet charts a lot has happened in the last few weeks. Cut To The Chase hit #1 with more than 4,000 club and mixshow DJs worldwide, All Night Long just moved up to #38 on the Top 40 Indie Urban R&B chart and I've been hearing from so many great people in so many countries through Jango (mentioned my last post). And through it all, I’ve been focusing on my upcoming performances and choreography. The whole process of getting a show together is pretty interesting (and intense!), so I want to share this experience and keep ya’ll updated!

My choreographer, Darkie, is an awesome artist who created Dark Edge dance company. He’s created original routines for me and my back-up dancers for songs including All Night Long, Cut To The Chase and Not Stoppin’. I’ve been humbled to see how much practice and endurance it takes to learn these moves! Practices can last 3+ hours and sometimes we’re there past midnight… But, it’s making me get in even better shape which is great for my endurance to be able to sing and dance well at the same time. In all, this process has really made me respect performing artists more than I ever did before. I’m seeing first-hand the physical, mental and emotional energy that goes into performances that’s so easy to take for granted. It’s fun, but draining for sure!

I love how pairing the visual and audio aspects make the music more real, and seeing the visual interpretation that Darkie brings to my music makes it more than just a song…it makes it possible for me to really try and share through a live performance all that I hoped the song might be when I wrote it.

My first show is March 5th in San Clemente (details below). While the larger show continues to come together, since fans have been asking we decided to go with a smaller venue for an initial performance of a few of my songs from the Juggernaut album with the rest of my team - Dark Edge dancers and DJ Noel, San Diego’s hottest.

Ok well this was a long one, but I’m glad to be keepin’ you in the know about how the whole process is going!

By the way, if you haven’t been to free Jango online radio yet, check it out, it’s kewl!

Peace,
Krys

Show Details:
Krys Justice Live
March 5, 2010

9pm, 21+
OC Tavern

2369 South El Camino Real
San Clemente, CA

Check out Krys Website, free online radio channel, or get the album CD or iTunes

CTTC Hits # 2 on DJ Charts

This week CTTC (Cut To The Chase) charted #2 (behind only Jay Sean’s song Down) on the #1 DJ charts in the nation, after entering the chart straight into the #6 position last week. Starfleet handles about 1,300 top songs at any given time, and more than 10,000 in 2009 alone. So while it’s not Billboard yet, it is a great start and exciting to see my music resonating with so many others.

It makes the whole experience more than worth it and I’m stoked about getting even more of my music out there. I’m getting messages from fans all over the world every day and I read and am grateful for every one of them. Please, keep them coming, I really want to hear from you!

And if you haven't checked out my Jango channel yet give it a try. It's kewl! Free streaming commercial free radio where you'll hear me and your top favorite artists 24/7, can check out other people's channels, or really easily customize your own. And of course follow me on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace... whatever works for you!

From here, to get KJ on the Billboard charts my great team and I are going to keep pushing forward with further development of my live performance, announcing shows soon, and touching more and more listeners with the help of all outlets and most importantly my fans that I appreciate SO much. We’ll do this journey together, and I couldn’t ask for better fans to do it with. Thank you!!!

Peace,
Krys

Check out Krys' website here.

Make Life Richer

I think many of us take a look back at the previous year around this time, and I have to say I am so excited with all the amazing things that happened here at KJE.

We completed Juggernaut, had an HMMA nomination for This Life, had the first experience of hearing my music played on the radio, got great media coverage with more coming, and have had Juggernaut songs heard by people in at least 101 countries so far.

Things keep moving forward. We are working on creating a show to bring life to the music, looking forward to announcing live appearances soon, and are already playing with new songs ideas for the next album. With all that's happened in 2009, I am truly excited to think of what's to come in 2010.

But the best part of everything that has happened thus far is being able to share it all with those closest to me, part of what makes any experience special being able to share it with someone else. Without that it’s almost a wasted moment.

So I think for this New Years it will be my new goal, and I invite anyone else to try as well, to make sure to involve those closest in every special moment. It makes life that much richer.

Peace to all in 2010,
Krys

Check out Krys's website, hear him on free online radio, Friend Krys on MySpace, Download any Juggernaut album tracks or the entire album from iTunes or Amazon, and check out Krys on YouTube.

Music That Moves You

So earlier this month I talked about Real Work and being told that making the music was the easy part and once the album was finished the real work would begin. I never truly knew what was meant by that until now, so here's another blogpost on it having moved from album creation to promo and show development - fun but hard work.

This week we met with choreographers to start to bring the music to life and give breath to what I have envisioned all along as the visuals to my songs.

It is extremely exciting for me personally because I am curious to see how a professional choreographer interprets my music into dance moves and how the music moves them.

At the same time we are also debating which song from the album we should be creating our first video for. I am leaning towards All Night Long but Not Stoppin', and Dream Your Life Away are contenders too. Maybe even This Life since it's so different from the others. I would love to hear from you... which do you think?

By the way, the photo is me being interviewed on the red carpet at the HMMAs last week. Totally unrelated to this post but just what else is going on!

Happy Thanksgiving and Peace,

Krys

Check out Krys Justice website.

My First Time

No, not that! I'm talking about Friday morning when I was headed over to the studio to work on show prep and a friend texted me and said 'hey you're on the radio!' San Diego's Star 94.1 played All Night Long from the Juggernaut album and then had listeners call in. They were the FIRST to play me on the air, and for a recording artist it's like, well, you know ;)

I texted my manager Grant who was already at the studio and grinning ear to ear when I got there. After two years of pulling something together like Juggernaut from nothing, it meant an awful lot to me getting AJ, Hula, Geena and Delana's feedback and hearing listeners call in saying they liked it.

I really took the the team's feedback to heart - AJ's right on the pan flute being in the intro, and hopefully he'll also like other album songs like Dream Your Life Away, This Life and Juggernaut that aren't about girls and clubs; I'm glad All Night Long brought Delana to her feet like I hope, say, CTTC (Cut To The Chase) will; Hula made me feel like I was on Oprah (how cool is that?); and Geena was right on about the intro that's already being reworked to be even more radio play friendly.

I'm headed to the HMMA awards in Hollywood this week for This Life and working hard pulling together my show to support the album - and feeling great thanks to my awesome fans writing to me from all over the world and now Star 94.1. Thanks guys!

Peace,
Krys

Check out Krys Justice website.

Fan Questions

A couple of conversations with fans lately made me think about things.

On the lighter side, I was asked today by a fan in Minnesota about the Juggernaut cover photo and what it means. Mostly it's just a play on the definition of the word 'Juggernaut' but some say it's Superman, and sure it's a play on that too. I welcome opinions cuz every one of them will be right! As for whether it's 'me' (ya, it's actually 100% me), the other way to answer this is that there's probably this hero character in all of us. But the photo for This Life, say, is probably just as much who I am.

Speaking of heroes, I was inspired by someone else yesterday, one of our nation's defenders who happens to be from San Diego, too, but is in New York now preparing to go to Afghanistan to help protect us here at home. He said to me "I'm under a lot of stress... but just like your song said 'so many questions inside, what do we do with this life'. Well I figured out what to do with this life and that's fight for this country." I don't know whether This Life will play much on the radio or in clubs like All Night Long, Not Stoppin' or CTTC, but his words are much greater reward. Keep safe, bro, and thanks for what YOU do.

Peace,
Krys

Check out Krys Justice website.

Real Work

For a recording artist, they say that the real work begins once the album is completed. Well I can tell you first hand this is no joke. Creating the album, although difficult in itself, seems easy now compared to everything else. I will admit every step is as exciting as the last and with every new achievement the momentum keeps building and building.

They also say “the calm comes before the storm”, and if this is the calm than there is a colossal storm coming. With the HMMAs this month on the heals of a great interview with DYSMD emag, and the launching of Krys Justice singles on online radio (Krys & Top Artists - Free Online Streaming Radio Channel) with growing fan support I'm truly honored by, I know it is the foreshadowing of much more to come.

And I know with the help of my management team at KJE, Inc. and all my amazing fans around the world Mr. Justice aka Juggernaut is up for the challenge. So stay tuned cause the show is just getting started.

Peace,
Krys

Check out Krys Justice website.