[JPL] Peter Gabriel starts website to sort entertainment wheat from chaff

[Jazz Promo Services]

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5h6AQsDQOnerMNFwd3037r8e8rZww
Peter Gabriel starts website to sort entertainment wheat from chaff

LOS ANGELES ‹ While the Internet may be a great place for entertainment, not
everyone has the tech savvy - or the patience - to search seemingly infinite
websites to discover something new.
But rocker Peter Gabriel thinks he has found a way to help with his site,
appropriately titled The Filter, debuting Tuesday.
"The Internet, which I think is an amazing creation, provides access to an
ocean of limitless information, but without filtering it's easy to drown,"
Gabriel, 58, said by phone from England.
"But if you have this little friend on your shoulder, that can pick out
music to listen to and films to look it, it's something I would use provided
I could steer it a little."
The site, which will provide users with daily recommendations, was founded
by Gabriel and Martin Hopkins, a huge jazz fan. Hopkins first came up with
the notion of filtering content to discover new or forgotten music according
to one's individual mood.
Users who visit The Filter will initially be asked to fill out basic
information and rate different genres of music and film, and also different
acts and movies as well. The website uses that information to figure out
what kind of suggestions to make and the more a fan uses the site, the more
accurate the recommendations, according to the site's developers.
Gabriel recently had soul music and Nick Drake on his own Filter page. He
also likes Radiohead and Icelandic band Sigur Ros.
"It's the attraction of being still in touch with interesting and new things
without having to make the effort to research them all the time," said
Gabriel, laughingly pointing out the "inherent laziness in my nature."
"I'm a tired thumb person, I'm a channel clicker. Maybe it's a male thing. I
know there's good stuff I'd love to watch out there but I don't want to
search all the time," Gabriel added.
He also doesn't have the time, in general.
The singer has a six-year-old son and another son on the way with his second
wife. He also has two adult daughters.
"I'm very fascist about family time nowadays. I don't work weekends. That's
very important," Gabriel said. "Being a dad is still the thing that has
given me the most pleasure in life."
Gabriel has also been multitasking projects, from a song for the
Pixar-Disney animation movie "Wall-E" to recording at his expansive Real
World Studios a few hours from London. He has also been working on a Web
site to be called TheMemory.com that he dubs "the first social network for
the dead," a way to store memories and remember loved ones.
But he still loves touring, although he says he won't do yearlong tours
anymore because of family.
"It's balancing life with any other life. Nothing beats the experience of
playing live music with great musicians," Gabriel said.
The Filter is not the former Genesis frontman's first foray into technology.
He also founded Real World, a group of companies including a multimedia
outlet. In 2000, he co-founded online British music distributor On Demand
Distribution (OD2), which sold for millions to a Seattle company in 2004.