Australian band SpaceJunky follows path from Tibet to Virtual Reality to the Next Big Thing

Tunes Island, SecondLife, (Jan 24, 2008) – This Thursday through the weekend millions of viewers around the world will have a chance to learn about an Australian band whose efforts to reach the public have taken the road less traveled, to say the least. Digress a few years: Tania Smith (known in SL as Shakti Cianci), lead singer and founder of Australian cosmic pop/rock band SpaceJunky traveled to Tibet and asked a Tibetan oracle in his temple if her band would ever be heard by the world. After rolling the dice an unusual four times and pondering for some moments he looked at her and simply said “yes”.

Flash forward to a year ago: Tania was searching the internet for an ancient Tibetan symbol that scholars like Robert Thurman of Tibet House were unable to decipher, and her search returned a link to a virtual online world she had never heard of before called SecondLife.

Tania then decides to re-create her band members in SL, eventually recruiting the help of a virtual publicist, stage manager and lighting designer, photographer, and other supporters on her team, with the intention of creating a virtual experience of a SpaceJunky concert in SL.

Now to the present: SpaceJunky’s shows are always packed and through their growing popularity they have gained fans around the world, sold cds, gotten real-world radio play and magazine covers, YouTube fan videos, offers to air their upcoming video and real life product endorsements….just like in real life.

So this week SpaceJunky are being featured in a CNN interview called the Next Big Thing with CNN Chief Technology and Environment correspondent Miles O’Brien whose attention was caught by their innovative use of cutting edge technology to promote their band. O’Brien has also long wanted to be the first news correspondent in space, so SpaceJunky had a virtual spaceship built in space for the interview, which will be aired on CNN and CNN International Jan 24 through the 27th.

All this is made more important by the fact that Tania and bandmates Luke Mason and Dan Harris live separately in the USA, Malaysia and Australia.
“Our dilemma is that our band members now live on three continents in three time zones on opposite sides of the planet, so being a band in Second Life allows us to promote our music and stay connected through the internet. Hopefully it will allow us to do what we really do, which is play live in real life too.” As professional musicians who have worked with large touring bands such as Kylie Minogue and stood on some of the world’s largest stages, they find it ironic that recognition might come to them as an animated virtual act.