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Shardul Pandey Talks To K.C. Loy

K.C. Loy

Shardul Pandey: I welcome you K.C.at SANGKRIT.net, please tell our netizens about yourself.

K.C. Loy: I always remember choosing paths least traveled. Usually for the adventure it promised, but mostly ‘cos the rest seemed so boring. Yes! ‘Boring’ is one disease I’ve tried to avoid like a plague. Music, Dancing & Performing came naturally. I felt at home on the stage, even at the age of 5.

I think I can still remember the audience, my parents and of course my teacher, by the pews, all waiting with bated breath. I loved it when they broke into smiles and applause. That little flame kept the embers in my heart, glowing, soft & warm up until the day I realized, long after I’d chosen this path, “This is where I am supposed to be! Dreaming – Creating – Performing!”

I started off as a Composer of music for Advertisements & Television, moving on to Bollywood with the Hindi feature I.Proud to be Indian.

I Co-produced a Marathi feature  film “Pak Pak Pakaak” along with Composing the songs, I also assisted in the Story development & Screenplay. “Pak Pak Pakaak” went on to win 8 of The Maharashtra State awards including Outstanding Music, of course.

Well, awards are all nice but I was still missing out on something… direct audience.
All my works have all been, innocently, goading me towards performing my originals to a live audience and of course publishing them.

So, here I stand, Mic ready and Band all tuned up, to sing for you something Raw and Earthy.

Shardul Pandey TalksShardul Pandey: Please briefly explain your sound to our netizens who have yet not heard your music?

K.C. Loy: I am an indie singer-songwriter. So naturally my songs are Lyric and melody based. I love to perform my songs Raw, Organic and straight from the heart. There’s a story in every one of them and of course, they’re sing-able and fun.

Shardul Pandey: What keep your endeavors unique?

K.C. Loy: My compositions are straight from my heart to your heart and nothing in between. Every one of my gigs, is like my first and last gig… I just go all out. My audiences reciprocate with such great vibe, it makes me more powerful, creating an electric atmosphere.

Shardul Pandey: On what musical projects you are working one? What can we expect from you in the next few years? Any long-term goals?

K.C. Loy: Right now I’m working on releasing my first single LIFE IS… it’s a ‘Baul’ (songs sung by minstrels/ fakirs of Bengal) influenced song. It’s simple and yet deeply philosophical. The melody is infectious and just keeps ringing in your head. Making the video is fun but also the hardest part. However it’s promising to be colourful!

I plan to release more songs in the following months. I want to take my Sound all around India… and then the world. My long-term goal would be to hear strangers sing my songs, that would be like receiving a Grammy or whatever great music award exists.

Shardul Pandey: Would you like to share the experience of your first performance?

K.C. Loy: I remember each one of my first performances, however there’s one particular performance that changed my life. Some years ago, at Rang Bhavan, we were performing originals for “The Concert for Freedom”. The first row of “rockers” wanted to listen to Iron maiden, etc. and kept hooting/ swearing at us. We were furious and some of us wanted to break their skulls. Just then my girlfriend(when I peeped off stage) whispered “sing for those who want to listen to you!” And that hit me like… BOOM! I then focused on the 500 odd, behind the guys in the first row. I realized, they were singing along and cheering for us. Wow! That day on, I never lost my cool on stage.

Shardul Pandey: What is your foremost experience as an artist? Any favorite moment you would like to share?

K.C. Loy: Life as an artist is made up of great moments and terrible ones. From the moment you get an interesting idea that has great potential, to the moment you’ve completed the song, is one big buzz. Now, this buzz, gets to its highest point when the audience shows its love. If, however, the audience hates it, the buzz goes down but it somehow, doesn’t usually die. It’s like your baby, your own flesh and blood. I’ve had all these moments many a times over.

Shardul Pandey: What other creative mediums you like working in?

K.C. Loy: I love writing short stories (mostly because I never actually had the patience to write a ‘long’ one). I have a bunch of them that I intend to publish sometime next year. Professionally, I have written screenplays for two Marathi films and many thriller TV shows. I love capturing faces in the sun with a DSLR. I work with a 500D and hope to upgrade soon.

Shardul Pandey: How do you best describe what music is to you?

K.C. Loy: Music is a ‘Miracle’ for me. I never can guess when I’m going to compose a tune or write a song. It just hits me when I least expect and flows till I’m all out. Then I look at it and wonder “Why” I wrote it? And the reason, if I find one, never answers the “How”.

Shardul Pandey: Who were your biggest musical influences?

K.C. Loy: SD & RD Burman, Salil Choudhary, Hridaynath mangeshkar, Beatles, Cliff Richards, Pearljam, Ian Anderson and so many more.

Shardul Pandey: What songs get you moving?

K.C. Loy: Simple songs with lyrics, usually get me moving and tracks with large symphonies.

Shardul Pandey: Any plans for an international tour on your horizon?

K.C. Loy: Nothing planned but of course… as I mentioned earlier, I intend to take my songs to world.

Shardul Pandey: What you feel is your strength as a musician and how would you like to be remembered ?

K.C. Loy: My melodies and my lyrics are my strength. I would like to be remembered as a person who spread hope through his songs.

Shardul Pandey: What advice would you give to newbie musicians?

K.C. Loy: Follow your heart!

Shardul Pandey: What is your web address, do you own a domain ? Where netizens can find latest news feed about you and your music ?

K.C. Loy: Yes, www.kcloy.com. I am also on:

Shardul Pandey: What you do for fun & entertainment? Any peculiar interests?

K.C. Loy: I love to trek, find a spot in the mountains and read a book. Or watch movies at home.

Shardul Pandey: What is your ultimate message for netizens ?

K.C. Loy: Go on and check out all the songs on youtube/vimeo as you like, but ‘Don’t’ forget to BUY indie music online ‘cos that’s the only way you make sure the artist survives and keeps creating songs for you.

Changing Frontend Admin Bar Color As Per New Admin Color Schemes In WordPress

Now new WordPress version provides you 8 different color schemes, few days back we have also discussed about Adding Some More Admin Area Color Schemes and how you can Randomly Change WordPress Admin With Various Colors Schemes. You can select your favorite color scheme from Dashboard -> Users -> Your Profile page but that doesn’t changes the color of admin barin the front-end, it remains same on all color schemes. This tutorial is on new WordPress plugin that one thing automatically, it simply changes the color of admin bar in front-end on the basis of selected color scheme.

Continue reading Changing Frontend Admin Bar Color As Per New Admin Color Schemes In WordPress

Tweak Twenty Fourteen WordPress Theme, Make It Full Width, Center Aligned, Change Colors And Much More

The new default WordPress theme, Twenty Fourteen has an awesome layout but there are few things some bloggers are not liking. For example: Twenty Fourteen theme floats to left by deafult and in big screens it shows some empty space on the right side. The theme is left align so the background color shows up only next to right sidebar. Theme’s primary menu floats to right, you cannot modify all theme colors by default etc etc.

Continue reading Tweak Twenty Fourteen WordPress Theme, Make It Full Width, Center Aligned, Change Colors And Much More

Enable Facebook Style Activity Privacy Settings In BuddyPress

With BuddyPress Activity Privacy plugin you can add Facebook type activity privacy options in BuddyPress so that while posting anything new or while updating status your network users can set the privacy and make that content available for limited users. Just like Facebook’s ‘Who can see’ small icon you can add ability to restrict who can see individual activity posts shared by your BuddyPress community site members.

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How To Hide Selected Posts From Home Page In WordPress?

Hidden Posts, a new WordPress plugin from Automattic lets you hide a limited number of posts from home page. The plugin is lightweight and very easy to use. Simply install and activate the plugin and upon activation the plugin adds a hide post check box in ‘Publish; metabox present in add new and edit post page.

Hidden WordPress Posts

You simply need to tick that ‘Hide Post’ check box and your post will be kept hidden from the home page.

How To Give Manual Handcrafted Excerpts To Posts In WordPress?

Manual WordPress Excerpts are the hand-crafted summaries of your content that can be used in your theme. It is unlike to automatic excerpt or you can say teaser which is actually the part of your post used before more tag. Manual excerpts have some advantages over automatic excerpts and the biggest advantage is that here you get full control of explaining what is your post is all about and that becomes very useful specially in the search results.

Most WordPres themes provides you functionality of manual excerpts. By default Manual Excerpt meta box is hidden from Add New & Edit post pages. So if you want to give manual excerpts to your blog posts then first visit your admin area Dashboard -> Posts -> Add New page.

WordPress post excerpts

Now second step is to click ‘Screen Options’ present in the top right corner, just below the Howdy text. Now tick ‘Excerpt’ checkbox present in ‘Show on screen’ section.

WordPress screen options for post

That’s all. Close ‘Screen Options’ and scroll down, you will be seeing a new meta box for the excerpt is added. Use this metabox for writing manual excerpts for your posts.

Redirecting Image Attachment Pages To Parent Posts In WordPress

A new page is created by WordPress for each file attachment (like images, videos, audio, PDFs etc) you have on your WordPress site. The feature is good for some but not for all site site owners. Sometimes accidentally bloggers link images to attachment pages and then they don’t like the layout and look of the attachment page. Here we are discussing how you can easily disable the image attachment pages in your WordPress site.

WordPress SEO by Yoast plugin users can do this by visiting Dashboard -> SEO -> Permalinks page and then under the Permalink Settings section, tick ‘Redirect attachment URL’s to parent post URL.’ and save the new settings.

Alternatively, you can disable image attachment pages and redirect them to their parent post pages using another plugin called Attachment Pages Redirect. Simply install and activate the plugin. After activation the plugin automatically starts its work and if in-case no parent post is found the the attachment page is directed to home.

Bump BuddyPresss Activity Streams To Top After New Comments

Like in Facebook as soon any new comment is made, the activity automatically comes to top on the homepage of your friends. Here, we will be doing similar thing by making BuddyPress activity stream bump to top as soon any new comment reply is made.

Buddypress Bump Activity Streams To Top is a BuddyPress plugin by Gladwinput.com originally based on the OLD BuddyPress Activity Stream Bump to Top plugin which has been left unsupported. So what all you need to do is install, activate and forget Buddypress Bump Activity Streams To Top.

Integrating BuddyPress Pages & Profile With WordPress Menus

By default WordPress menus are not compatible with BuddyPress account menus but now you can add real menu items and make them go directly to Buddypress pages. You can add a profile dropdown with avatar, message counts, and more- fully customizable.

BP Direct Menus is an awesome plugin that completely integrates with the WordPress menu system so your theme’s menu menu styling is used.

It provides you awesome custom menu item type that lets you link to any page that requires the username as part of the url (example.com/members//messages).

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The meta box in nav menu admin page

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An example of a custom profile menu

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The admin view of the above profile menu

Tons of tags can be used to customize the menu text: * User Info: username, firstname, lastname, displayname * BuddyPress counts: unreadmessagecount, friendcount, groupcount * BuddyPress counts that hide when zero: (unreadmessagecount), (friendcount), (groupcount) * BuddyPress/WordPress avatar: avatar, avatar-thumb, avatar-mini.

Easily Enable Facebook Style Notifications In BuddyPress

FB like notification for buddypress plugin simply updates notifications list and browser window title in BuddyPress powered network while user is away. Install and activate it. Upon activation the plugin repeatedly checks for new notifications for the logged-in user and if any new notification is found, it does 2 things:

1) Updates the browser window title( e.g: ‘members|mydomain.com’ becomes ‘(2) members|mydomain.com’ ) and blinks/switches repeatedly between the old and new title

2) Updates the notification menu:  Adds new notification(if any) items to the list and updates the existing ones(if any). E.g: from ‘You have 1 new message’ to ‘You have 2 new messages’

Enable Facebook Style On Profile Private Messages In BuddyPress

Like in Facebook, when you click ‘Message’ button present on the profile page, a pop-up appears from where you can message to the person without leaving his/her profile. Whereas by default in BuddyPress as soon you click ‘Message’ button you get redirected to your message compose box for creating and sending message to the person.

This tutorial explains you how you can easily replaces the functionality for Public Message and Private Message buttons on profile pages so that you can send messages without leaving the profile page.

BP Profile Message UX Free plugin lets you replace the functionality for those message buttons.  Using this plugin you can make things go fast, you can stay on a profile page and send private or public messages to member.

This plugin uses default WordPress ‘thickbox’ code, so it is very difficult to style. In-case you need ability to style the overlay or adjust the javascript then checkout its premium version: http://www.philopress.com/products/buddymessageux/

Randomly Change WordPress Admin With Various Colors Schemes

From 3.8 update WordPress provides you six awesome admin area color schemes and now Admin Color Schemes plugin has also been updated so you get many extra color schemes for your WordPress dashboard. Now this tutorial is on new, light weight but very interesting free plugin called Color Schemes Roulette, the plugin is made for changing your admin colors in random and yes it is compatible with Admin Color Schemes plugin.

Continue reading Randomly Change WordPress Admin With Various Colors Schemes

Adding Some More Admin Area Color Schemes In WordPress

Admin Color Schemes, the plugin that brings new extra color schemes in WordPress admin area dashboard has been updated for new 3.8 update of WordPress. Likewise now WordPress already provides you six different admin color schems, now you can add up some more simply by using this WordPress plugin.

admin-color-schemes screenshot 1

Aubergine, by Kate Whitley & Kelly Dwan

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Flat, by Mel Choyce

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Vineyard, by Kate & Dave Whitley

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All your awesome color choices

So first of all install and activate Admin Color Schemes plugin. Upon activation the plugin adds new color schemes which can be managed from same old user profile page using the color scheme selector radio buttons.

Shortcode To Easily Embed Facebook Posts In WordPress

Earlier we discussed about embedding any Facebook post on any website, weblog or simple HTML page. Just like YouTube, Twitter and Flickr etc, Facebook also provides you an embed code which can be copied from Facebook post drop down options itself, the code simply embeds that specific Facebook post with all its like and comments into your website.

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App To Discover New Band With Free Music & Videos Everyday

Bandofthedayapp.com, a free web service that delivers a new artist every single day with free full-play songs, videos, and more. It displays bands from a range of music genres and locations world-wide are carefully selected and arranged by a team of expert music geeks working for this free web service. They sift through the sludge to uncover the hidden gems and deliver them daily.

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Viewster To Watch Free Movies On Cloud, No SignUp Required

VIEWSTER is a free cloud video on demand service that provides you an awesome selection of up-to-date movies, series and also star interviews. Everything is easily viewable from anywhere at any time on up to five different devices of your choice. You can also login to VIEWSTER.com right from your internet connected TV, BluRay, Tablet or from your smart phone and then choose a movie and and press the play button.

viewster - 2

Some of its main features are:

  1. Free Video-on-demand application
  2. Free to watch movies, TV shows and clips
  3. Easy-to-use interface for fast and smart browsing
  4. Newly released shows, movies, interviews etc are added continuously
  5. Genres: action, comedy, horror, thriller, romance, drama, classics, western
  6. Provides you movies app for your Chrome web browser and also for Android, WebOS, AppStore, bada.
  7. Categories: Hollywood movies, Bollywood movies, independent movies, Oscar award winning movies, Golden Globe award winning movies, German movies
  8. Top quality minority content: Turkish Movies, Russian Movies and Arabic movies and drama shows

viewster -1

Best Plugins For Uploading Avatars Locally In WordPress

Unlike to Gravatar which works universally on all WordPress sites showing one common avatar by email address you can add avatars of your choice for your WordPress site authors, editors and subscribers etc. There are several good WordPress plugins that allows you to upload avatars locally on your blog right from the user profile page. Following are some free plugins ordered by their popularity and downloads.

Add Local Avatar

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WP User Avatar

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Simple Local Avatars

How To Visually Modify Any WordPress Theme Colors?

Theme Tweaker grabs all your existing theme colors and allows you to modify them either by typing the color codes or by using color picker. The plugin offers you another feature to change theme colors in bulk, like you can invert all colors, use grey scale, sepia style colors or you can generate random colors in a click etc.

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How To Change Default Running Programs In Ubuntu?

Many new Ubuntu users spend hours in look up for settings to change default Ubuntu programs. For example: Suppose you want to change default video player from ‘Movie Player’ to ‘VLC Player’. For setting up default running programs in Ubuntu 12.04, first thing you need to do is click the settings icon present on the top left corner and select ‘System Settings’ option.

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Colorblendy: Instantly Multiply A Couple Of Colors Offline In Chrome

Colorblendy is an offline Google Chrome extension which quickly installs in your Chrome browser and lets you mix two different colors and obtain the code of third color just like you do in Photoshop but here the app is made only for mixing up two different colors and nothing else.

To start simply add Colorblendy app in your Chrome. As soon it installs, the extension adds a new icon in Chrome’s App’s home. You just need to click that icon and Colorblendy opens up its page where you can very easily mix up colors both by codes or color picker.

Transform Your Google Chrome Home & New Tab Page With 3D Speed Dial Bookmarker

Speed Dial [FVD] – 3D New Tab Page is a speedial app for Chrome that also syncs between your Chrome and Firebox browsers. The extension transforms Chrome’s New Tab with new FVD Speed Dial which is a beautiful bookmarking manager, you can add the URLs and it will automatically retrieve the thumbnails and beautifully organizes your bookmarks, with Custom backgrounds, custom dials, organized groups, and most visited websites. It transforms the Apps page into a sidebar which you can manually show or hide on new tab’s speed dial page.

The app is easy to use and configure. Simply add it in your Chrome browser and as soon you add it, it itself transforms everything and your get a whole new ‘New Tab’ page with faster web browsing experience. Note: Your Chrome might restart several times after this app is installed. If you also use Mozilla Firefox the you can install FVD Speed Dial with Full Online Syn and do online synchronization between Google Chrome & Firefox. Other than this you can change background color, image, use Widgets for FVD Speed Dial, Themes for FVD Speed Dial and more.