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Camilla Roman's New RomCom

Camilla Roman Fortysomething Interview Photo OnCamilla Roman, the Norwegian actress, screenwriter, director and producer is back with another fabulous short film and one that is very relatable to anyone who has used social media and also one that is very funny. The film Fortysomething, centers about ex-spouses, social media mistakes by Torbjorn and that implicate his wife (Susanne) and her mother Britt-Eva and develop into a big misunderstanding with Torbjorn inadvertently inviting Susanne and her mother to his wedding to Vanessa, which is to take place in Tuscany, Italy.

The film was inspired by a real-life situation experienced by one of Camilla Roman’s friends and the mishaps and misunderstandings that can happen on social media platforms.

Camilla Roman explains, “This is based on a true story and what sort of happened to one of my friends, the character that I play. When her ex-husband was going to get married there was a lot of confusion and stuff on Facebook with invitations. He invited her and her mom and that was a mistake. He deleted them and deleted whole events and people were what? Is it canceled? All of that happened and then there is a lot of fiction into the mix (in the film).

After she told me this story, I wrote it down a little bit. I thought maybe I can do this for something later. I took a year of filmmaking. I got into the final year and so I got my Bachelor (degree) in one year. I had to make a film (for my degree). I didn’t know what I was going to write. There were ten people in the class and my teacher said if some of you still don’t know what you are going to write and what your film is going to be about, now is the time to make a decision. You can’t just sit around and hope for an idea to pop into your head, which is exactly what I was doing (she laughs).

As short films go, this one could more properly be referred to as a longer short film, at twenty minutes in length. Without providing any spoilers, it is fair to say that Fortysomething leaves you wanting more. That is to say, those watching the film are left asking, what Read More  

 

 

 

 

Paul Rappaport - Behind the Curtain

Paul Rappaport Interview Photo Front Page by Mark SeligerFor thirty-three years Paul Rappaport promoted music icons and in the process he became an icon on the business side of music.  He started working for Columbia Records,  when he was in university and worked his way up through the ranks to eventually become Senior Vice-President of Rock Promotion. In April he will release his autobiography, Gliders Over Hollywood Airships, Airplay and the Art of Rock Promotion. Paul Rapport left Columbia Records in the early 2000s, but what is astounding about that is not how much time has passed in between then and his April release of the book (pre-order links at the bottom of this interview), but the clarity of his memory in terms of his personal memories and the events, circumstances and relationships that he experienced in the music business. The chapters of this book are not merely vague and scattered memories but rather play out like a streaming or television series where we are introduced to the colorful, creative and interesting artists and colleagues of Paul Rappaport.

“That is what I was trying to do. This was a very magical time, and I wanted to share these stories and for the readers to have fun, like I had fun. I wanted them to have the experience that I had. Somehow, I was (blessed) with a photographic memory, because as you know from reading this book, I am talking to Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and David Gilmour and all of these characters. I wanted it to be that and thankfully because of this memory I can recall conversations. I can envision where I had the conversations, what the room looked like, and I know what the backstage looked like. I have this capability. I wrote it that way, because I wanted people to experience as close to that (as possible) and I wanted to make it entertaining in that way, so that you would be right in the conversation with these people.

Nick Mason from Pink Floyd gave me a very nice quote (about that). He and David Gilmour are really great people. You don’t expect that kind of thing, but I reached out and he wrote something very nice. The small Read More

 

Electronic Firefly

Electronic Firefly cello 

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Noah Vonne - Heart Of It

Noah Vonne Interview Front Page PhotoNoah Vonne a native of Texas, who has called Nashville and Los Angeles home was our guest recently at Riveting Riffs Magazine and the reason we were excited about her joining us is her vocals remind us of a mix of Joss Stone, Amy Winehouse, and Taylor Dayne, not that she sounds like a clone of those singers, because she does not. We use those comparisons, because Noah Vonne’s vocals are powerful, soulful, and emotive and at a standard that already reflects the vocal abilities of those three artists. She is a splendid songwriter who can accompany herself on the guitar or keyboards and she has a knack for knowing what works best with her music videos.  

Most of her childhood and teenage years were spent growing up in New Braunfels nestled between Austin Texas and San Antonio, in a family with five older sisters. All of them were softball players, almost enough to form their own team.

When asked if she was spoiled, being the baby of the family, she says while laughing, “ It is true. All of my sisters would say one thousand percent. In comparison to some of my friends, maybe not so, because my parents were pretty strict for the most part. Compared to my sisters I was very spoiled.”

She was the trailblazer in her family as far as someone having artistic leanings and says, “What I was going after was very Read More 
Macartney Reinhardt Says "Hey Girl"

Macartney Reinhardt Interview Photo Front PageMacartney Reinhardt is four years into her Country music career, but here is the thing, she is still only eighteen years old. She grew up in a small town forty-five minutes from Atlanta, Georgia, before moving with her parents to Nashville when she was fifteen, after travelling back and forth between Georgia and Nashville for a year. Spending a week in a hotel each trip gets expensive. Now if venues want to book her for gigs as she says, “I wouldn’t have to say I am in Georgia, sorry I can’t do it.”

She continues, “We moved so I could be in the midst of the music scene here.

“It was hard, because I was still in school Then I went to virtual (school) the last two years of high school. That was the main adjustment. It wasn’t bad getting adjusted to living in a different state, because we had been here so much, and we had stayed in hotels for a week every month. That wasn’t very hard for me. It was harder for me not going to public school and just sitting at home and doing school. That is when I started playing out multiple times per week.”

Now Nashville feels like home and as a nod to the city, Macartney Reinhardt co-wrote the song “Coming Home,” with Read More  

Kat Violin On the Prowl

Kat Violin Interview Photo Thumbnail SixYou want Classical music; she has that covered. You want Rock or Pop she can deliver that too. Now Beatrix Lőw-Beer who doubles as Kat Violin for those of you who crave a little mystery with your music, has taken classic music by highly regarded composers and blended them with original modern beats and just like Cat Woman transforms herself into Kat Violin the DJ and violinist. Meow. Do not try and label Beatrix Lőw-Beer however, because while the one we have dubbed the Lady Gaga of the violin, for her often breathtaking wardrobe selections can just as easily purr as she can hiss, while playing edgier songs.  

Well, she can describe her new persona much better than we can, “I am producing my own music, and it is a combination of Classical music and electronic beats. For instance, music from Classical composers. It is 2.0 and it is transported to the electronic music. The (goal) is to perform it live at festivals or bigger events.

It is not so easy doing my own music versus covers. I thought it would be much faster to get reach, but when you make your own music, it is like you have to convince everybody first. Even the followers you gained over the years, don’t follow you (when you branch out), because it is yours. I think it will be a lot of work to make this successful, but I will try my best. I love the idea, the concept and the character. It is all about the cat identity, but not like the animal cat, but it is about the character of the cat and the behavior and Read More

Paula Parducz - Actress

Paula Parducz Photo front pageThis seems like a good place to begin when talking about film and theater actor Paula Parducz, her stage name and you will understand why we clarified that in a few moments. She was born in the state of Kansas (United States), grew up in Costa Rica, lived in the London (U.K.) for five years, lived part of her adult life in Asturias, Spain and now is her eighth year living in Budapest, Hungary. Now you understand.  

She is cerebral, talented, at home in comedy or dramatic productions, but leans more to drama as a preference, which we will explain in a bit and she shared some insight to that side of her acting while discussing the role she played in the theater production Beauty, directed by Carna Krsul.

“My favorite role is Annabel in Beauty. I liked it because it allowed me to (get into) a vulnerability that I really had not explored before, because in a way it touched a part that I really had not dug into (previously).

She (Annabel) stepped out of her own shell. She is afraid of going out (Annabel is agoraphobic), but she is masking that by looking young and  pretty. It was very powerful on stage and it was always interesting to feel the reaction of the people when they could see the mask dropping,” she says.

We wondered about the dynamic of an actor performing in front of an audience and in the role of a character who had difficulty with mixing with others and certainly Annabel would never have performed Read More

Jesse and Noah Leave Love Alone

Jesse and Noah Photo 2024 front pageJesse and Noah Bellamy who perform and record simply and Jesse and Noah, visited with Riveting Riffs Magazine recently to talk about their new EP Leave Love Alone, which derives its name from the titular song and to ring in the holiday season with two Christmas songs, one a cover tune and the other an original.  

We jokingly asked them about the song “Leave Love Alone,” and if it was a reference to a relationship that went sideways.

Jesse replied, “That is an older song, so I don’t even remember. I started that song with Simon Bruce, an Australian singer and songwriter who lived here in Nashville for a while. We halfway finished it and he and Daniel Tashian finished it and then it came back to me. Daniel was going to put it out and then I didn’t hear anything for a while and so I thought I would just throw it into this mix of songs that we were doing for our next session. We thought we could do a pretty good job on it. We recorded it, got it ready to go and he ended up putting his out around the same time or maybe a couple of weeks before or something like that.

He released it mostly in Australia. I guess it is worldwide, because of streaming.

The songs ended up being so different and with different audiences, so they didn’t really clash.”

Produced by Pino Squillace, engineered by Brandon Henegar and recorded at the House Of David Studios in Nashville the song is a Country song, with Rock influences and excellent musicianship. Those who have followed Jesse and Noah over the years, should not be Read More

 

 

 

Lisa Hilton Lucky All Along

Lisa Hilton Interview 2025 Photo Front Page“If you listen to the entire album it takes you through your life. I hope that gets communicated to people when they listen to it,” says pianist and composer Lisa Hilton about her current album, Lucky All Along. A friend of Riveting Riffs Magazine for almost all of the twenty-one years that we have been publishing the affable, internationally, critically acclaimed artist, composed, played and produced one of the most beautiful musical gems you will hear this year or any other year.   

Lisa Hilton set aside an hour of her time and spoke to us from her Malibu home, from which she can watch the dolphins play and where she composed this, her 30 th album. It has both a missive about finding our way, even through dark times, through struggles and emerging on the other side intact and still pursuing our dreams. It also pays homage to women in music, to those who perform, to those who compose and in some instances to those who do both.

Not just with this album, but with previous ones, Lisa Hilton has nodded in the direction of Joni Mitchell, Janis Joplin, Ann Ronell and Lana Del Rey. For Lucky All Along, she arranged “Snow On the Beach,” written by Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey and Jack Antonoff.

“It is a gross imbalance (lack of representation of women in music) and I only recognized this about five years ago. That has got to change. At amazing Opera houses around the world, they are only presenting one creative point of view and that really has to change. It really does. It also has to change, not just for Opera or Classical composers, but at Jazz clubs and on the radio. Women are not getting paid for Read More

 

Diane Marino - New Album

Diane Marino 2024 Interview Photo Front PageJazz vocalist and pianist Diane Marino spoke to us recently from her home just outside of Nashville, Tennessee, about her current album Romance In the Dark, a collection of six remixed songs from some of her previous records and four recently recorded songs. The album’s theme, as the title suggests is romance and the songs feature some of the most prolific lyricists and composers, such as, Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer (Out of this World), Cole Porter (So In Love), Lillian Green with the titular song (Romance In the Dark), and Al Kooper (I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know).  

“Four tracks were recorded when I recorded, I Hear Music. I just had too many songs to go on it, so we put those tracks aside. I had not yet done the vocals and I did them sometime after that. When it came time to release something else, we went to those songs. The rest of the tracks are all remastered from several CDs that I have (previously) recorded and fit the mood of this album. That is why you see so many musicians (in the credits),” Diane Marino explains.  

The songs, as one might suspect, since they span several years, were recorded at three different studios. The ColeMine, owned by Brad Cole (Phil Collins), The Piano Den and Mastermind Studios, and released on M&M Records / Barking Dog Productions. All arrangements are by Diane Marino, with string orchestrations by Brad Cole (tracks 1, 2 and 6) and Jeff Steinberg (tracks 7 and 10).

Noting that co-producer Doug Holmquist has worked on several of her albums, Diane Marino says, “He lives in the same neighborhood here. He has done all the mixing Read More  

Electronic Firefly From Spain

Electronic Firefly 2024 Interview Photo Front PageThis story begins in Spain during the year 2017, when violinist Silvia Carbajal Sanchez was asked to organize ten musicians and to be the artistic director for a big New Year’s event in 2017.  

Silvia explains what happened next, “That was not when I met Charlie (Perez-Íñigo now her husband). I needed an electric cello for the project and another person recommended that I call him.

It was a difficult time in my life and Charlie became my friend and he helped me in many aspects of my life. At the time I was living in a small village called Villarejo (located in La Rioja, Spain) and he started to visit me often.

He also recommended me for a show called “Music Has No Limits,” and that is when we started to work together. We toured with them, and we started our relationship. We have been together ever since. It was after we left “Music Has No Limits,” that we started Electronic Firefly.”

In 2023 their daughter was born and for two performing musicians that has brought its own challenges, but more on that later.

The two world class musicians have also expanded their music careers and in addition to performing sometimes as a duo and other times for solo gigs, they now  Read More

 Actor Ruben Yuste

Ruben Yuste May 2024

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Raised On TV

Raised On TV Interview Photo Front PageOn the last day of May this year (2024)the California Rock band with the funky name Raised On TV released their eight record Make Time To Make Time, and Keaton Rogers, who formed the band with his brother Kacey Greenwood in 2016, walked the walk, by making time to make time to sit down with Riveting Riffs Magazine.  

The album opens with “Just Wanted To Tell You,” from whose lines the album takes its title, a song that will have you dancing from the first few beats. The brothers Rogers and Greenwood are joined on electric bass by Blaine Billingsley.  

“(The song) is about my wife. The lyrics, particularly the chorus is a love letter to my wife. It is a sentiment that is good to get across and to say. It is not strictly on one narrow path the whole time. I wrote the verses, while we were on the road. I think we were pulled over at a coffee shop or something and we were taking a minute. I had the chorus about my wife, and I liked that. I wanted to say that, and it was truthful. The verses I was still trying to figure out and the words just came. The verses have a story behind them, but the chorus is about my wife,” says Keaton Rogers, providing us with some insight about the song.

Historically bands from California, going back to the 1950s, has had a distinct flavor and we talked about that, before digging deeper into the sound of Raised On TV, “I would say it still does (have a distinct California sound), maybe not as much as it once did, if you go back to the Beach Boys and Surf Rock and The Ventures or the Laurel Canyon scene in the seventies. I think those times were more distinctly Californian, but I think if you fast forward to the ‘90s and the early 2000s there was a lot of Punk music and Rock Punk that was coming out of California. Green Day was one of the bigger bands. They had a California Punk sound that still kind of carries on. I would say there is still a California sound, but it can be hard to put your finger on it sometimes. It is definitely a thing, and it is definitely real,” he says.

He then muses if Raised On TV’s music has a California flavor, “Yes. I would say in some ways it does. I don’t strive for that, but I feel in some ways it is unavoidable. I have been told the way I play my guitar and that our (sound) has a California beachy sound for some of our stuff, not all of our music. Maybe a psychedelic sound in some ways that reminds people of California. I don’t know exactly why that is. Obviously, I grew up here and I am from here, so maybe there is this thing in our upbringing and our nature that comes out in the art that we make that we don’t fully understand, but it is there.”

Continuing Keaton Rogers notes, “Our music is eclectic, and it all comes down to Rock ‘N’ Roll. It definitely is not one style of Rock. It is Indie Rock or alternative Rock. I write the music for the most part. It reflects my life and my influences. I go back to The Beatles in some ways. As a kid they were among my favorites, as they were for so many people. Read More

 

 

 

 

 

Grace Pettis - Being Personal

Grace 2024 Interview Photo Front PageSinger / Songwriters usually prefer enough ambiguity with their lyrics that the listener has a lot of latitude in terms of interpreting the meaning, but with the new album Down To The Letter, Grace Pettis makes it clear that this a deeply personal collection of songs.

Talking about the song, “I Take Care Of Me Now,” she says,  “It is completely autobiographical. It is one of those first songs that I wrote after I left my marriage of eleven years and a relationship of fourteen years. It was something I really didn’t believe yet, because I had been in that relationship since I was a teenager and I couldn’t really conceive of what it would be like to take care of myself and be alone in the world, because I had been part of a couple for so long. I remembered thinking that I was going to be okay, and I could put myself first and take care of myself. I wrote it as a mantra that I could grow into.

It was like when you are a kid, and your parents buy shoes that are a little too big for you and you grow into them. It is a song that I wrote for myself. It is my anti-codependency (song).

The words are emotive and at times poignant, “I take care of me now / Since I made up my mind / I’m gonna be just fine / Every day gets better and / I got bruises, but the good news is / I take care of me now…” They are words that describe the scars that may still remain from a relationship that has ended, but learning to love yourself, which is of more importance.

Grace Pettis elaborates, “You don’t come out of something like that unscathed. Where there has been love and betrayal there are going to be scars. I don’t need to make them go away for me to love myself. In fact, they are a part of what helped me to become the person who I am. I think it is acceptance of your own story and learning to fully embrace the person that you are.”

The song “Rain,” chronicles a heart breaking, both through the words and tone of the vocals. There is the packing up of suitcases to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, to Limerick a city in Ireland. It is the raw beginning of a new journey in life, but first there needs to be healing.

“I wrote “Rain,” in November of 2021 and it was maybe a week into having packed up a couple of suitcases and going to Ireland to move in with my mom, because I was ending my marriage. I went with a really good friend of mine Natalie, who is also a singer and songwriter. We were in Nashville, a night or two before the flight. We had dinner with a really nice guy, a friend of hers and he is kind of a big deal in the publishing industry. He was really helpful and sweet. He bought us dinner and gave us a lot of great tips and advice on how to write commercially successful music.

One of the pieces of advice was there are a lot of commercially successful songs with the word sunshine in them, so maybe try to write a song with the word sunshine Read More

Eva Gamallo - Exciting Times

Eva Gamallo Interview 2024 Front Page PhotoIt was in September 2019 when I last had the opportunity to sit down with actress, screenwriter, director, and producer Eva Gamallo. On this occasion, we discussed several projects she is currently working on, including a fiction short film ÁFRICA S.A., a video podcast focused on artists and professionals from Granada working in the audiovisual industry, Granada es Cine, and a video podcast in which, alongside her husband Marcos Mas (creator, director, and screenwriter of the show) and Dani Niño, they approach the paranormal from a humorous perspective, La Hora Fenomena.

Eva, tell us about your short film África S.A. “It is fiction based about a mistake I made in Gambia, Africa. In 2012, I was working with an NGO in Gambia, and when I returned to Spain, I realized that I had fallen into the “white savior complex.” Through humor, I reflect on how this complex contributes to a distorted view of the African continent and our own identity as white people, who often perceive ourselves as “saviors.” It’s a form of self-criticism because I made this mistake, and when I realized it, I was so angry and ashamed of myself that I needed to do something about it. That’s where this project, África S.A., comes from.” One of the common mistakes people make about Africa is referring to the entire continent as a single country, without acknowledging its cultural diversity. 

Eva reflects on this, “Africa is not just one country, but a continent with fifty-four countries and more than 1,500 different languages. The cultural and traditional diversity of Africa is enormous. From Morocco to South Africa, customs and languages vary deeply. To reduce the continent to a single vision and a single country is a mistake that only serves to diminish it.” 

Eva started producing the short film on her own, “but now I have two producers who are also part of the project. The short film is about seven minutes long and features three generations of African actresses.” It’s a topic with international reach, so Eva hopes the short film will travel the world, be shown at festivals, in schools, and other spaces. “With this project, Read More

 

 

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Ciara Grace - Earthy and Edgy

Ciara Grace Interview Photo Front PageA few months back, a publicist friend of mine Mike Farley sent me some information updating me on the artists he represents. I scrolled through the list, some names familiar, others less so and I happened upon the name of Ciara Grace. I was intrigued by the release of an album, Write It Down, that at that time was still three months away. I gave a listen to the music of the blonde, blue-eyed young woman, who I guessed to be late teens or very early twenties and found I was pretty close.  

Ciara Grace’s music is earthy, edgy with some of the vocals and music being staccato in nature. The themes we want to say mostly dealt with relationships, but that would not be true, because the songs were all about relationships! Even though they were written between her high school years and the summer immediately prior to entering college, whether you are sixteen years old, twenty years old or forty-two years old, there is something here for everybody to sink their teeth into, both musically and lyrically. Yes, we are hearing the expression of feelings from what was then a teenage songwriter, and from a female perspective, but we think we are correct in saying that many women out there are going to listen and say, ‘I knew a guy just like that!” or ‘I remember that guy who treated me poorly,” and “I can’t believe I fell for that guy.’ Now, just so we do not give you the wrong impression, while some of these lyrics do bear the signs of feeling jaded or angry at the time, it is important to note that these are not angry songs, at least in our view. There are enough images and metaphors that keep this from becoming a dark brooding album and you can sink your teeth into the uneven beats and vocals.

We requested an interview and Ciara Grace was gracious enough to accept our invitation. Sitting on opposite ends of a phone, thousands of miles apart Ciara Grace proved to be a woman wise beyond her years, very poised and very affable. Although the musical styles are different her sense of knowing who she is, being comfortable with who she is and being professional reminds us a lot of actor, singer, songwriter Maya Hawke at the same age. We wondered if that comes from both young women growing up with parents in the entertainment scene. Maya is the daughter of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman and Ciara is the daughter of singer and songwriter Lizanne Knott and well-respected producer and sound engineer Glenn Barratt. Alas, we are getting a bit ahead of ourselves, so we will revisit Ciara Grace’s musical connections in a minute or two.

The first single released from the album is “Lost Cause,” and well we will let Ciara tell us about this song, “Oh god he was awful. He was a boy I met in detention. You  Read More

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