Dear indie friends,

What a week this has been. No time to breathe, barely time to think, just playing, playing, and playing.

First on stage with my brand new adventure, SEVEN Rock Opera. Lights, stories, guitars, and that strange electricity that only happens when musicians and audience suddenly become one single pulse. From there, the week accelerated like a race car on the last lap.

And yet… here we are again.

Seventy-seven weeks in a row.
Seven, like Seven.
Seven, like 77.
Seven, like the strange little miracle that keeps this weekly alive.

Somehow, every week, this letter finds its way into your inbox, waiting only for a bit of curiosity, a bit of music, and maybe a small click on the ad below to help me keep building this indie corner of the universe.
(Just one click. I truly don’t ask for more.)

Later today, I’ll see many of you on Discord, and of course on OTAT247 inside my Salon Indie. (24…SEVEEEEEN, again)
And don’t run away too fast after the show, because right after that, we’ll celebrate the first anniversary of Great Lake Effects together.

Music, friends, voices from everywhere.

Stay tuned.
And much love to every indie soul reading this. ❤️

Let’s go.

Mitxoda

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Some evenings are just concerts.

And some evenings feel like the birth of a universe.

This one belonged to the second category.

Last weekend, Seven Rock Opera stepped on stage for the very first time. A project that, until recently, existed only in rehearsals, sketches of songs, fragments of dialogue and long conversations about what the story could become.

And suddenly, there it was, alive.

In front of 120 people, packed into the room, ready for something they didn’t quite know yet. What they received was 24 songs, one after another, forming a complete narrative arc, not just a concert, but a journey.

Because Seven Rock Opera is not simply a band.

It is a story told through rock.

Before the story even began, the evening was already off to a powerful start.

The opening act was the Belgian band The Electrozixx, and they absolutely set the room on fire. Their energy, their sound, their presence on stage, everything worked. It was the perfect way to warm up the audience before the rock opera unfolded.

For me, it was also something special on a personal level.

It was the first time I met them in person, and it’s always a great feeling when musicians you hear about or see online suddenly become real people you can talk to backstage, share a laugh with, and watch performing live. Moments like that are part of what makes the whole music community feel alive.

And the room held another familiar presence.

A lot of friends were in the audience, which made the evening even more special. Seeing friends and fellow artists there adds a different kind of energy, the sense that this isn’t just a concert, but a shared moment between people who love creating music and stories.

At the heart of the opera lies an encounter that feels both futuristic and strangely human.

N1N4, (pronounced Nina), a robot who has lost parts of her memory.
A machine trying to understand fragments of who she once was.

She is brought to life on stage by Alix, whose performance constantly shifts between fragility and mechanical precision, a being suspended somewhere between code and emotion.

Opposite her stands SEVEN, the general of the human rebel forces.
A man shaped by conflict, responsibility, and survival.

Elmo, who embodies SEVEN, brings that tension to the stage: authority mixed with doubt, determination slowly confronting something unexpected.

Because this dystopian world, where humans and artificial intelligence exist in uneasy opposition, hides a strange possibility.

Connection.

And perhaps even love.

Not the comfortable kind.
Not the predictable kind.

But the fragile possibility that something deeply human might still emerge between a rebel leader and a machine searching for lost memories.

The concert unfolded like a cinematic narrative.

Each song a scene.
Each riff another piece of the puzzle.

Across 24 titles, the audience followed the evolution of this strange relationship, from suspicion to curiosity, from confrontation to fragile understanding.

Some moments exploded in pure rock energy.

Others slowed the room down, creating spaces where the story could breathe.

And the audience followed every turn.

You could feel it in the silence between songs.
In the sudden eruptions of applause.
In the way people leaned forward when the story reached its emotional peaks.

By the end, the line between concert and theatre had completely disappeared.

Stories need characters.

But they also need propulsion.

And SEVEN Rock Opera runs on a band that plays with remarkable intensity.

Morgan drives everything from the drums, setting the pulse of the entire show with a power that pushes each scene forward.

On guitars, Marc and Régis build the sonic architecture, sometimes sharp and aggressive, sometimes atmospheric, creating the landscapes in which the story unfolds.

And somewhere in the middle of that storm sits the bass.

That’s where I stand.

Holding the ground between rhythm and melody, trying to give the whole structure the weight it needs to carry a story of this scale.

Because when you tell a narrative through rock music, every instrument becomes part of the storytelling.

Not just the voices.

Everything.

What made this night special wasn’t just the performance.

It was the feeling that this was only the beginning.

Seven Rock Opera is still young.
I joined the project less than a year ago.

And yet, standing there on stage, with 120 people sharing that moment, it felt like the first real breath of something much larger.

A universe that had just opened its eyes.

There will be more chapters.
More concerts. The next one in May, 30, in Beersel (close to Brussels)
More evolutions in the story between N1N4 and SEVEN.

But that first show will always remain unique.

Because that’s the night when fiction became sound.
When characters stepped out of imagination and onto a stage.

And when a dystopian story about memory, rebellion, and unexpected love found its very first audience..

More info on www.sevenrockopera.com

Episode 4: Playlists - What Actually Helps

Mostly Blue (Denis Hulett) is a singer/songwriter from California and Rob Bennett is a Canadian indie artist (now living in Delaware, USA). These guys believe in the power of indie artists supporting indie artists. The Speaking to the Algorithms series is an attempt to share what they are learning about the ways we can support each other to get our music heard on streaming platforms.

This week’s Top 10 isn’t about winning prizes, it’s about love, support, and staying in it together.

Listen Back to the last Friday Salon Indie de Mitxoda here.

I’ll see you all later today at 4:00 PM (Brussels time) for the 46th episode of Le Salon Indie de Mitxoda, live at salon.mitxoda.be, see you very soon.

Thank you for being here, week after week, keeping this little universe alive with your music, your curiosity, and your presence.

Whether you’re listening, creating, voting in the Indie Top 100, or simply discovering new sounds in these pages, you are part of the pulse that keeps indie music breathing.

Enjoy the reading, the discoveries, and the stories hidden between the notes.

And if you feel like it, come join us later on OTAT247 and on Discord.

The door of the Salon Indie is always open. ❤️
🖤 Mitxoda

END 😆