(Jon Calder, Ryan Calder, Tamlyn Calder, Roberto Hemmero & Rudi Engelbrecht)The Ryan Calder Band (RCB) emerged as winners of the Best New Unsigned Artist and Best New Song competitions on weloveyoursongs.com, an international online competition for unsigned artists around the world. The South African five-piece entered the competition two months ago and emerged as the best new act with the most votes in both categories.
“Our success has more to do with the support of South Africans at home and overseas who engaged in the process with us,” said Calder. “They really came out in numbers and got us into first place.”
Independent artists from around the world, including Egypt, the UK and the U.S. all entered songs for the competition.
First prize for the RCB includes a €250 (R2,500) ticket to attend the Future Music Forum, hosted in Barcelona in September. "The good news is that we get to attend the conference free of charge," says Calder. "The bad news is that we have to make our own way there."
To that end, the band is selling albums online (www.ryancalder.co.za) in order to raise funds to travel within the next month. Fans can choose how much they want to pay for the album. "We think it's a pretty cool deal," says Calder. "Essentially it's a sponsorship endeavour, and in return donors get an album."
The first prize package also included an online promotion package from uPlaya and 100 customised printed T-shirts, which the band can design themselves. The band interacts regularly on social networking websites Facebook and Twitter and can be found at www.ryancalder.co.za
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