Casey Rain

This post originally appeared on Medium on March 10th, 2016.

So SXSW starts tomorrow, and like every year before it, bands and creatives with gather, and tech startups will be vying to see what the hottest new app of 2016 is! Last year it was Meerkat, who recently pivoted after facing tough competition from Twitter’s Periscope. And I remember all the way back in 2007 it was Twitter itself.

This year I believe the hottest app is going to be Peach. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a mobile only social network for Android and iOS. It reminds me of what Twitter might be if it was just invented, with splashes of Instagram, Vine and Tumblr.

The unique aspect is it’s “magic words” — a list of interactive functions that appear when you type a specific word. For example, typing the word “here” pops up with a list of your nearby locations so you can quickly post where you are. “gif” allows you to quickly search for a relevant gif, “mood” will pop up with a list of moods and their matching emojis, “throwback” will pick a completely random picture from your photo library, and there’s many more. You can even type “play” to play a quick built in game and post your score! (on iOS it’s Peachball, where you throw a ball into a target, on Android it’s Peachup, a difficult Flappy Bird clone).

It’s these magic words that make the app addictive and fun. It creates a far more playful vibe than Twitter, and users are signing up in droves. (plug : Follow me on Peach, I’m CaseyRain on there)

In what’s definitely a good sign, brands are noticing too. Rolling Stone have an account, and so do MTV. Somewhat inexplicably, so do MerriamWebster the dictionary, and to their credit they are a shining example of how much fun you can have with the app. Kudos to whoever Merriam hired to run their social networks!

The key to any app’s success is it’s “stickiness”, or how engaging the app is. I’m happy to say that both myself and my girlfriend have been using the app multiple times a day for the last month and are well and truly addicted. For all the press that Snapchat is getting, we are definitely using Peach a lot more at this point and that’s a great win for Peach.

Install it now, and see for yourself! And feel free to add me (CaseyRain) as your first friend on there.

Oh, and to all the folks at SXSW who might be reading this, I’m totally not jealous of you or anything……. Lies. I am. Have a blast, and let me know about the best bands you see there!

Peach out, people (see what I did there?)

At the end of 2014, I set myself a New Year's Resolution for 2015 - that I would read 52 books in 2015 - that's one per week. Here we are at the beginning of 2016 and I'm extremely proud to say that I managed to read 60 books in 2015.

It's a shame that for many people, reading simply isn't a high priority these days. In fact, a few years back I was perhaps one of those people. At the end of 2013, I was shocked to discover I had only read 11 books that year - less than one a month. I first attempted the challenge in 2014, but only managed to hit 40 books that year, so tried again in 2015, and this time I did it! A lot of people have expressed admiration at my hitting the challenge, so I thought I'd write a blog and tell you all a few things that helped along the way.

1) Tracking your progress This is a must! I use Goodreads.com - a sort of social network for reading. They have a fantastic website as well as beautiful apps for both Android and iOS that allow you to keep track of where you are, arrange shelves such as "to read" and "read", and the site will even analyse the books you've read and recommend you things you may like.

2) Make it a habit. Make sure you carve out some time every single day to do a little bit of reading. Even on a busy day, it's still usually possible to find 5 or 10 minutes. If you're having trouble falling asleep at night, put down your smartphone, and read some fiction for 10 minutes. This will take your mind away from the events of the day and is proven to help you relax. But whatever you do, don't read non-fiction before you go to bed, that will just activate your mind even more! You'll be surprised how much you can read in a small amount of time. Imagine if you simply read 10% of a book every day - that's already 3 books a month, which is 36 a year!

3) Don't get hung up on lengths nor continuing things you aren't really enjoying. Some books you read might be really short, others might be long, but they'll probably balance each other out in the end :) Also, if you're a couple of chapters in and the book isn't grabbing you, then don't feel like you need to keep reading it..... just move on and find something else you enjoy.

4) Mix e-books and physical books. This is a contentious one, as many people feel very strongly about this one. I found that what worked for me was mixing e-books and physical ones. I pretty much always have my phone and sometimes tablet with me, so if you're like me, you can never claim to not have books available. But sometimes, we can get burned out looking at screens too much. So pop into a bookshop sometime and maybe grab a few physical books too!

Currently about halfway through my 56th book of 2015. Lots of people ask how I “have the time”.

This is the wrong attitude. You don’t have time, you make time to achieve the goals you set out for. When you say you “don’t have time”, what you’re actually saying is “That’s not a priority for me”, but for some reason you feel the need to assert that your life is busy. But we all have 24 hours in a day and everybody understands that we all as individuals have different commitments and tasks. Saying that you “don’t have time” is actually quite condescending when you think about it in that sense.

So let’s not pretend that you would do it if you “had more time”. If you want to do it, then set yourself the target and go for it. If you only read 10% of a book every day, that would still be 36 books a year. How many of you have read 36 books or more this year?

2015 has been pretty weird and wonderful so far. I have an agent now for acting, modelling, and promo work - shoutout to the wonderful folks at Alan Sharman. We also have a new agent for all Swami live performances, the awesome folks at Asian Arts Agency. Tour dates are in the pipeline, so if you’re been patiently waiting for Swami live shows, then you won’t have to wait much longer! All will be revealed before too long. Without going into specifics, at the moment it seems like UK, Europe and India dates are all on the cards.  Since the start of the year, we’ve been doing a weekly video series called Swami Sunday. So far we’ve done 15 episodes and we’re having a lot of fun with it! Go and watch them if you haven’t already - you’ll see behind the scenes laughs on our travels, cover versions of songs we love, news updates on our next single (it’s called “We Are”) and much more.  Other things I’m excited about : I’m seeing The Jacksons headline the BBC Proms in September! Janet’s got a new album on the way too - it’s about time. And as a songwriter, I’m working with my cousins Simon & Diamond on a set of songs that we’ll be working on with different vocalists and other songwriters, both here in Birmingham and out in LA later in the year.  I set myself a 2015 reading challenge, and that’s to read 52 books this year. I’ve read 30 so far, so I’m well on the way. Judging from past years, my pace tends to slow down over the summer, but I still think I’ll hit that number. If you’re interested, you can follow my progress on Goodreads. Let me know if you have any book recommendations!  Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and Instagram. You an also add me on Snapchat if you wish, my username is caseyrain on there.  Peace and be wild! Casey