For older / archived blog news, please check my MySpace site.
Just to let you know - my final live outing of the year is coming up this Thursday evening (16th October)...
I'll be playing at The Lower Ground Bar in West Hampstead (check out the gig dates links from the front page for details) sometime after 9:30pm. It'll be the usual 30 minute set, and as well as me you'll be able to hear a bunch of other talented artists:
Steve Mayne: www.stevemayne.co.uk
Amelia Tucker: www.ameliatucker.com
The Sound Of The Ladies: www.thesoundoftheladies.com
Please come down if you're free - would be great to see you there...
S.
As the world slowly descends into a melting pot of pandemonium, with the 4 Horsemen of the Financial Apolocalypse galloping over the horizon to seize all your assets... this is, ironically, an auspicious time of year for me - the annual reminder of the formation of my first band (named after this very month).
If my mathematics and memories are correct, the deed was done 14 years ago in a Manchester kebab shop, after a pile of drinking and musical ranting had been satisfactorily achieved. Then followed 2 years where I was convinced we'd rule the world, but didn't bother to learn to a) sing in tune / without losing my voice each night, or b) play the guitar properly - which was something of a hindrance to the whole world-domination thing. Some would say... no change there, then... ;-)
But it was all good fun and we wrote some cracking songs, which were of course the main objectives at the time. I learned a lot about song-writing from that time and certainly wouldn't be where I am today (OK, that's still nowhere) without that experience. So they were happy times - and sometimes, at night - if you listen very carefully - you can still hear me playing those songs.... to the accompaniment of a can of Boddingtons being downed in one.
Realising it's mid-September has however thrown me into something of a state of shock, since the year appears to be racing to its climax already. Creatively, it's been a good one so far - a CD completed, lots of gigs played, with lots of new friends made. If you're one of the people who's said nice things about the album - thank you, I really appreciate the support. If you haven't heard it yet then check out the songs on my MySpace page to get a taster. They're really great! Honest.
I'm also manfully ploughing my way through the first draft of what I hope I'll soon be able to describe as a novel - something else I tried (and failed) to achieve all those years ago in Manchester. With over 100,000 words written now, all that remains is to organise them into coherent sentences and add some punctuation in the right places. Should be easy, right? But obviously not - writing turns out to be a disarmingly long-winded business, especially when you're a novice like me.
So with the intention of trying to finish the year in a burst of productivity, I've decided that I need to concentrate on this for what's left of it, rather than spreading myself too thin - and unfortunately one of the things which will be giving way is playing live. I'm not giving up gigging completely: I've a night in Hampstead planned for October 16th (details to be posted soon) and a fun-sounding night of chaos with Sour Mash Daddy in December to look forward to. But that will be it for 2008. The plan is then to start up again in the new year, with a new loop pedal, some exciting backing accompaniment, and (hopefully) a completed draft of my first novel behind me.
The other thing I'm up to is more knob-twiddling - this time for Adrian, whose album I'm helping to produce. It's early days yet but we have the beginnings of a few cool-sounding tracks. Hopefully we'll be able to share the results with you on his MySpace site before too long, so watch this space.
Oh yeah, and you know how I said I wasn't intending to write any more songs this year now that the CD was finished? Well, that's out the window. Pesky musical-side of my brain that I can't shut down... :-) I'll keep you posted on progress. If you're lucky, you might just get one for Christmas.
I'm tempted to go on and have a few hugely enjoyable rants about the impending global economic meltdown / the horrifying march of teaching creationism in schools / the absolute lunacy of building more coal-fired power stations... but you've all left now anyway, so for now I'll leave these for a rainy day (i.e. one when I'm supposed to be writing "proper" stuff).
Peace, love and financial stability within a green and constantly evolving planet to you all.
S.
Finally...
It's probably 2 years since I first started thinking about recording another CD. There was a different prime minister then, and the only "inconvenient truth" Al Gore was facing up to was that he still wasn't president... Like the First World War, there was going to be a strong push to get it over with quickly, and it would all over by Christmas.
Yeah, right... ;-)
I obviously forgot how long it takes me to do these things. Even when I have a pile of songs “written”, it's only the start - they almost always mutate somewhat in the process of being recorded, turning themselves into something I hadn't quite seen at the beginning, but which ultimately sounds a lot better, or at least more interesting, than the original version.
Sometimes it's necessity being the mother of invention... for instance because I don't have the instruments or effects to get the sound I'd originally heard in my head, and when that happens it's a case of just using what I have available and learning to love the sound I do have. Or other times, it's the act of making a mistake in the recording process, which either somehow sounds good when re-played, or which would just be too hard to remove from the mix or re-record. There are plenty of examples of both happening in the songs on the CD - and hopefully they’re all unnoticeable - because after a while they just become part of the song.
For this CD, I've also been lucky enough to be able to "road-test" a lot of these songs while I've been playing live, which has been another vital source of energy and inspiration. In writing songs to play live I've made a deliberate attempt to be more varied and even - whisper it - more upbeat...;-) Certainly I'm ever conscious of the need to engage the people good enough to come and listen to me play with songs which are (hopefully) interesting and beautiful, as well as memorable. If upon listening to them you think even one of them is any of these things, then hopefully I'm doing OK.
On many live performances now I've been ably supported by Adrian Taylor, to whom I owe, as ever, huge thanks for his sensitive accompaniment, feedback and suggestions (musically as well as over the bar) - all of which have fed significantly into my melting pot of influences. It's also safe to say that if he hadn't got me listening to Ryan Adams and The Byrds several years back then this CD (if it had ever been recorded) would sound very different...
I had no grand plan when I started to write this collection of songs, but as time went on I realised that more and more seemed - at least to me - to be about a couple of main themes (neither of which are particularly profound, but which hopefully have some sort of substance behind them). They are: how people deal with, and are affected by, their hopes and dreams of the life and “the bright lights”; and how (as the writers of Doctor Who keep reminding us), there is something dark and sinister lurking just behind, never quite seen or understood, but always there. I’ve been asked a few times to explain more fully what the songs are about - but one of the nicest (and strangest!) things about other people hearing your songs is that whenever you try to explain what you were trying to get over in them, it's often the complete opposite to what the person listening got out of it.
So... now the CD’s finished, hopefully you’ll enjoy listening to it, and will come up with whatever interpretations you think seem to fit the songs best.
No doubt you're now chomping at the bit to know how to buy the damn thing. If not, don't worry: I'll be flogging it mercilessly for the next 3 years so I guarantee there won’t be many of you who will remain ignorant...
However - for those of you who can't wait - there are a couple of ways to get hold of a copy. You can buy it online here - click on the "Buy CDs" link on the left hand menu. Or, you can come to a gig and ask me! In which, case you get to listen to the songs played live into the bargain.
And if you want to try before you buy, there are still previews of some of the songs on the mySpace page for you to listen to.
I really hope you enjoy the music – I had a lot of fun making it, and I think it’s definitely the best thing I’ve recorded.
I think I’ll have a rest for a bit now. Maybe... ;-)
See you at the next gig!
Fellow insomniacs...
This is another brief post as it's been a long day and my one working eye is currently propped open by matchsticks...
However - I'm pretty happy tonight, having spent most of the last week in a frenzy of recording and mixing to try to get the songs done for the next CD. And I'm nearly there. I've got mixes for all 10 songs and have just uploaded a bunch of new ones onto this site for you to listen to. The completely new ones are "She Lights Up" (if you have a good memory and came to a gig at The Slaughtered Lamb about 2 years ago you MIGHT remember this one - it was the only time it's been aired so far!); "Sixes and Sevens" and "Fireworks", both of which are more recent compositions. There's also a new mix of "The Truth Lies Here" which is (I think) a vast improvment on the one I posted a few months ago. Anyway, I hope you like them - over the next week I'll be trying to polish up any last glitches and generally tinkering when I should leave well alone, but right now I'm fairly happy with them.
For those of you now salivating with excitement, the full track listing of the CD will be:
The Truth Lies Here, Icarus, Sixes and Sevens, Underwater, Dreams Of Light, She Lights Up, Scarecrows, Lines, Withering Rose, Fireworks.
Let me know which are your favourites...
Sleep well!
It's Saturday and spring has arrived with the sun is singing its way through the cherry blossoms. Despite all the misery safely lodged in my bones like a squirrel's acorn stash, I can't help but be lifted by the prospect of all the brightness of the summer on its way - and by the fact that I think I've finally cracked one of the more troublesome songs which I've been trying to record for a few months now. I first started on "Lines" sometime before Christmas, and it's taken this long to figure out what I wanted to do with it. But I'm pretty happy with what I've come up with - check it out on the profile page and let me know what you think.
Over the last week I've played two very enjoyable gigs, too - at the Perseverance (Marylebone) and the Christ Church (Gipsy Hill). Both were notable for all the amazingly talented other artists who came down - I'm constantly amazed and humbled by how many other talented artists there are out there - so it was a pleasure to be playing in their midst. Thank you to all who came to watch or checked in view online - as always, your support makes it worth playing.
Set lists for the archives were:
Perseverance: Help, Icarus, Angels and Demons, Underwater, Scarecrows, Withering Rose.
Christ Church: The Truth Lies Here, Borderline, Angels and Demons, Icarus, Withering Rose.
Both gigs are also still available to view on the Ustream TV page (here) for anyone who wants to re-live the night or see what they missed.
I've no gigs for a few weeks now (although if I can arrange it I may slip in a local north London one sometime) - so the main work will be to finish this bloody CD. I have a list of stuff to do now goddamit, so I mean business. I might even laminate it and put it on the wall. With a dagger. So watch this space... there's a dust cloud gathering.
Love to you all.