April 11, 2013

Alex Kapranos from Franz Ferdinand gets a Loog Guitar

Alex Kapranos with a Loog Guitar - Picture by Nicolás Lejtreger

Photo: Nicolás Lejtreger

Last week we got one of those tweets no one expects on our Twitter feed. You might have seen it – even though it was in Spanish we retweeted it and even offered a translation:

@MeniniNicola: Alex Kapranos was just here. He looked at the furniture, played the Loog for a little while and left… and we just realized it was him.

Menini Nicola is the industrial design shop that worked with us designing the Loog (they’re also awesome – you should really check them out). Alex Kapranos is, of course, the lead singer and guitarist of Franz Ferdinand.

This is how the guys at Menini Nicola describe the encounter on their Facebook page:

Tuesday afternoon, a Scottish musician drops by the studio. He liked the building so he went up a couple of stairs and started looking at the furniture. We invited him in, had a quick chat, showed him our work, thought about how we could send it to the UK and then talked about the Loog Guitar, even asking him to tune one for us. Just like that we parted ways and he left. Little did we know this was Alex Kapranos from Franz Ferdinand.

After an entire afternoon of just sending emails with “!!!!” in them we finally got back to our senses and thought: we need to get Alex a Loog Guitar. And that’s exactly what we did :-)

Alex Kapranos with a Loog Guitar - Nicolás Lejtreger

Photo credit: Nicolás Lejtreger

We got in touch with PopArt, the company producing the show Franz Ferdinand was playing, and they invited us to the show and then backstage so we could give Alex his own guitar (which was, of course, incredibly nice of them). Awesome moments ensued (plus the best photobomb ever in the last pic):

Alex Kapranos with a Loog Guitar - Nicolás Lejtreger

Photo credit: Nicolás Lejtreger

The Loog Guitar - Picture by Nicolás Lejtreger

Photo credit: Nicolás Lejtreger

Alex Kapranos and Rafael Atijas - Picture by Nicolás Lejtreger

Photo credit: Nicolás Lejtreger

Turns out both Alex and the band are not only great musicians but really nice guys. We were already huge fans of Franz Ferdinand and we can’t even put into words how incredibly honored and amazed we are at everything that happened. To be honest, we still haven’t fully recovered from the entire thing. So thank you Agustín and Carlo from Menini Nicola, thank you Danilo from PopArt Uruguay, thank you Nicolás Lejtreger for the amazing pictures and a huge thank you to Alex for being such a cool dude!

Tweet from Alex Kapranos - Loog Guitar

P.S: !!!!

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March 20, 2013

Writing Songs on a Loog

Pip Blom - Loog BlogMeet Pip Blom, a really awesome 16 year-old from Amsterdam that is learning about the world of rock and pop, wants to start a band and dreams about playing her own EP live. (You should really listen to her SoundCloud, her low-key covers are great for a day like today. We especially loved her cover of Gorillaz’s Feel Good Inc.)

We’re telling you about her not just because her last video features Pip playing a Loog and singing a song she wrote herself. We also want to show you the blog post presenting the song. It’s obviously in Dutch but here’s what we got from several translations and some help from our friends:

My fingertips are petrified by the thick calluses from playing the guitar and every free minute I have I spend making songs, playing songs, practicing songs or writing lyrics.

I’ve decided that all my songs should be under the sacred three-minute boundary. And love it when they’re even less than 2 minutes long. Seems fit for a child raised by punk parents :-) Plus I’m also playing the Loog guitar, a three-string guitar, as well as a regular guitar.

After a lot of hard work, I already have several songs. It’s no surprise that I do not want to share them all with you. But one occasional little song cannot hurt.

This is, therefore, the first one.

It’s called: I wanna go right now

Yes, she’s writing songs on a Loog. But the reason we loved this? It’s so relatable. Remember when you were a teenager infatuated with music, proud of those songs that you could finally call your own? Every long-time guitar player has been there at some point, dreaming of bands and EPs and feeling utterly proud of the thick calluses on their fingertips.

We love hearing about Loog Guitars being there for kids and adults who are learning to play. We love watching adults pamper their inner kids with just-for-fun jam sessions. We even have songs recorded using a Loog. But this is a first: it’s an honor to see the Loog being part of a song-writing dream. It’s what we hoped to see as Loog-sporting kids grew older. We never thought we’d be able to presence it this soon.

Here’s the video:

So thanks Pip for this. And keep working toward your dream! We’ll do our part by listening to your song and covers for all of today (which we really do love!).

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March 15, 2013

Introducing the Loog Strap

We said we had several things for you in store this year and well, the time to unveil the first of them has finally arrived. It might come as no surprise if you already follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook (we got too excited and dropped a sneak peek there) but, lo and behold… we’re now making a Loog strap!

No rocker who really deserves the title should refrain of playing standing up and this little strap will help all kids do just that. Manufactured in Canada by Levy’s Leathers, the 1.5″ polypropylene strap with leather ends will add comfort and stablity to impromptu home concerts and it’s tri-glide adjustment (adjustable to 39″) makes joining in possible even for adults. Best thing? It makes dropping the Loog while playing almost impossible.

The Loog strap will be available in late March / early April but, meanwhile, here are some pictures to oooh and ahhh* at:

The Loog Strap - Close-up

The Loog Strap

*Oooh and ahhh-ing not guaranteed, but it was our general reaction when seeing the pictures for the first time ;-)

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February 27, 2013

Loog Guitars Best in Play at Toy Fair NY

January and February are commonly known as “Award Season” in the US and, while we didn’t get our hands on any Oscars, we still feel like Jennifer Lawrence (trip and all, because we’re also clumsy and heart JLaw).

The first month of the year was all about the NAMM Show and our Best Tools Award from SOB Magazine. And February came along with the NY Toy Fair and a much unexpected award from Parenting Magazine, naming Loog Guitars Best in Play at the show. You’ve probably already seen this pic all over the place but please humor us:

Loog Guitars - Best in Play at Toy Fair 2013 by Parenting Magazine

The numbers are now out and we’ve found out the Loog was chosen as one of the 26 best playthings in over 150,000 toys. That’s like… whoa. Not bad!

Here’s what Parenting Magazine had to say about our little three-string:

Most musical instruments for kids aren’t all that musical. (Try tuning those cheap plastic guitar strings.) The Loog is the real deal. This sturdy instrument, made of real wood and using real guitar strings, is totally DIY: you assemble it yourself. (Translation: great bonding activity.) Think of it as a Washburn acoustic with training wheels.

Check out the full slideshow on Parenting Magazine to see other toys that received the same distinction.

Meanwhile, excuse us while we go jump and down on our beds and wear different colored socks from sheer mind-numbing excitement while getting dressed. The only thing that even comes close to actually expressing how we feel is this video, featuring a three year-old girl named Madeline and a train:

But, above all, a huge thank you to every one who made and is making all of this possible! We hope this year has many more Madeline-like moments in store for all of us.

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February 21, 2013

New videos of Kids Playing Loog Guitar from David Mills and the Neighborhood Music School!

Guess what we just got in our inbox? David Mills, our favorite music teacher from the Neighborhood Music School in New Haven, CT, has two new videos of his students rocking out on Loog Guitars for the world to see.

The first one -”Sitting and Watching the Sea”- is written by Steven Worthy, an old friend of David’s. The second one is none other than Bruno Mars’ “Count on Me”. Both songs are part of David’s DoSo™ Guitar class, where kids use the Loog as a way to learn music fundamentals.

But enough talk and just let the videos do their magic:

Thanks David and a huge thank you to all the kids who were part of these videos. You rock! Plus, who knows… watching kids playing Loog Guitar can also encourage you to try it out for yourself. We promise it’s as easy as it looks ;-)

David’s class is also part of our Loog for School program. If you’re interested in learning more about our program, drop us a line. We’d love to help you out!

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