Carl Durant's Belgian Connection

During Belgian singer-songwriter Milow’s February residency at Hotel Cafe in Hollywood (which ends February 29), he performed at a February 9 pre-Grammy party at the Belgian consul’s residence in L.A., along with local singer/guitarist Carl Durant (himself a former Belgian who moved to San Diego in 2002).

“Before his set, my wife and I had a long conversation with Milow about living in San Diego. He was here as an exchange student in the Bishop’s School, about nine years ago. I promoted Lestat’s as much as possible with Milow’s manager, since it didn’t sound like he’s drawing lots of people yet at Hotel Cafe.” Milow is best known to U.S. audiences for his YouTube spoof of the 50 Cent/Justin Timberlake/Timbaland song “Ayo Technology,” which has earned over 45 million plays, though he’s a chart-topping artist in Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Switzerland, and Sweden.

“Milow and his team left straight after playing, without saying goodbye. Not to my wife, or me, or the Belgian press I invited, so I don’t think he saw my set. Just mentioning that to point out that I wasn’t able to get a true connection with him, his manager, or his assistant, although we talked easily for half an hour throughout the evening.

“Milow’s manager did not want him to be streamed, so they took down the live-stream setup and left before I played my set,” he says. However, “During sound check, I jammed with Ted Perlman, who now wants to get me in his studio to record. He congratulated me on my song quality and sound of my voice. I had to Google him, but apparently he played with a lot of big names, Whitney Houston, for example.”

Carl Durant appears March 9 at Escondido Joe’s and March 11 at Brick by Brick.