Spotlight on Music: Dale Katscher

Our second spotlight in this series focuses, like the first, on an artist from Eastern Canada. Dale Katscher is a guitarist/singer/songwriter from Nova Scotia who has toured throughout Canada and on the eastern seaboard of the United States. He plays acoustic guitar on the Grid and doesn't use backing tracks at all, preferring the "pure approach of just a guitar and nothing else," finding that approach exhilarating. Dale took some time to discuss his background and experience of playing on the Grid.

Mikalis Karas: Who have been your main influences in your musical life and how long have you been creating music?

Dale Katscher: My first and biggest influence was definitely my Dad, as I grew up in a very musical family. As for first artists I heard, my parents listened to Elvis, Charlie Pride and Johnny Cash. I always drifted toward blues-infused pop such as Clapton and Hendrix. Now i listen to pretty much everything I can get my ears on. Right now, I'm huge into Ray Lamontagne, Greg Laswell and Meiko. My music is like a car crash of everything I listen to and love.

Mikalis Karas: Is there any type of music that you'd consider your specialty and which instruments do you play?

Dale Katscher: Specialty..hmmm...Maybe folk-acoustic-pop...whatever that is? My main instrument is guitar but I also play bass, drums and a bit of piano...only guitar in SL though.

Mikalis Karas: What brought you to perform music in Second Life and why do you keep performing there.

Dale Katscher: My friends made me try it at first...then I got hooked. It's a great space to create and share art in.

Mikalis Karas: Who are some of the other musical artists you enjoy in Second Life?

Dale Katscher: Harper Messmer, Damian Carbenell, Phemie Alcott.

Mikalis Karas: If there was something you could do to better promote artists and venues in Second Life what would that be?

Dale Katscher: I think it would be to have a website that is just for SL music promotion...instead of searching through live events. Then, each performance could link to artist websites, etc.

Dale Katscher on the Web: MySpace | Twitter | Plurk