Liquid Liquid And Other Good Things

It's surprising how busy I have been recently. Busy and incredibly content with it all.

Last night I went to a meeting to discuss the future of Liquid Soap, a (now) student led soap opera hosted on our very own Internet TV channel. My initial plan was that I would be involved with the production of the soap by assisting with the sound recording and post production, however, due to a change in circumstances surrounding the running of both the show and its Internet channel, it looks like my involvement may become deeper if we are to be successful in producing a professional product.

I was sceptical of becoming too involved last night - I have been involved with committees before and they usually create more problems then they solve and and can be very unrewarding, however, chatting to some of the guys after the meeting, it seems like there is a really focused bunch of guys willing to put in the hard work to make this channel a success and the future of the show is looking incredibly positive.

Yesterday, I finally posted my completed proposal for The Appledore Arts Festival. Now I just have to sit and wait for their response which could come any time from now until January. I'm really pleased with how the proposal has shaped up and I've had some really encouraging feedback from those who have read it. I've decided that even if the Appledore people aren't interested, I am definitely going to produce the project in some form, either as the intended installation, or simply as a piece of audio work.

And in other news, I have been gathering some energy this week to tackle a new phase of production on the Tapper project. Having reviewed the demo tracks I had produced, I was unhappy with the quality of the production which I felt was stepping over and distracting from the songwriting. My plan is to take the ideas and sounds I like from the demos I have produced so far, and completely re-write the tracks.

I also feel that I rushed into the project a little, trying to produce too much with too little content. I'm setting myself a target to have this project up and running in it's most basic form by January/February next year.

And of course, I have a few acoustic shows lined up:

Nov 15th - Taunton

Dec 2nd - The Porter

Dec 28th - Mr Wolfes

More details on these events will be posted when appropriate. And I am going to try and post a little more frequently here too - so much going on at the moment to talk about.

Interactive

The songwriting/production/recording of my latest material is coming along really well. I'm actually surprised how organic the sessions are, ideas are just flowing out of me at the moment. Amazing what a change of direction can do for your creative spirit.

My only concern at the moment is how much will I actually be interacting with the technology at my hands whilst performing? And is this even important?

I want this new project to be cutting edge, to be utilising technology to the best of it's ability and pushing boundaries of what one man can do in a performance. At the same time though, I want to keep a traditional song format with vocals and guitar. What's actually happening is I'm creating the music before the performance, and then playing and singing along to a backing track, with only minor interaction when I play something on the MIDI keyboard.

I'm sure I can be doing more to be using the technology creatively, but at the same time, I don't want to draw focus away from the songs, and I wonder whether it really matters that the laptop is really just functioning live to play the backing track? The production is still all mine. I'm still creating and performing music using digital technology?

On a different note, I now have a new myspace profile where I will be promoting the Tapper project.

Social Networking - Now How Does That Make Me Feel?

I'm wondering how important social networking sites are for musicians. A few years ago, if you were a band or a singer-songwriter, you had to have one if you wanted to build a fan base and get work. Is that still that case though? Are people still using sites such as myspace to find and support local artists?

Over the last two years, I have been gigging as a solo acoustic musician, completely without the use of a social networking platform. I would say that I've done OK. People have heard my music through frequent live performances and through the exchanges of emails and face to face conversations, I've managed to get a fairly regular stream of gigs.

However, at almost every gig I play, someone asks me if they can find my music on myspace.

So the question is, should I be setting up a myspace page to promote my latest musical project - 'Tapper'?

I can't help thinking that the only people using these sites are other bands and musicians, all screaming for attention. Yes that could open interesting doors in terms of networking and collaboration but the fan base is what's important. People listening to your music, telling their friends about you and coming to see your gigs. And can this be done, perhaps with a greater sense of style and authenticity, by simply bypassing the whole social networking world?

Internet Connection

Thanks to the lack of internet connection in my flat, I have been unable to blog for about a week. Once again I would like to thank O2 for their fantastic mobile phone and internet service that they provide me with.

There is really two (maybe three) things that I have been meaning to get off my chest this last week.

Firstly, I want to talk about drum and bass DJ and producer, High Contrast. I went to a gig he was doing in Bath last week and had a minor epiphany. Normally in a club I will be pretty much worse for wear. I find myself in the same boat as everyone else on the dance floor - off my face and dancing like an idiot to music I can't really hear properly because of the level of drink I have consumed.

Well last week I went out and remained completely sober all night and had a fantastic time - I'm actually considering giving up drinking. After about 5 minutes I felt relaxed enough to begin dancing but there was a moment just as High Contrast was performing his first mix where things totally went off.

I expect that most people in the club were too drunk to notice or care, but as he gradually introduced his next track, you could actually feel the atmosphere rise - it was such a bizarre sensation. And has he finally dropped in his next track I just felt a huge rush of energy that I could only communicate through dancing harder and faster.

We all know that music can affect the way we feel, it alters our emotions and can cause us to react in particular ways, but I think when that's happening to hundreds of people at once, in one single space, it actually creates another energy, one that can be felt by everyone in the room.

The next thing I need to talk about is my personal musical journey. It must be that time of month again where I get fed up with what I'm doing, I doubt the quality of my output and start thinking of different directions to pursue. Well here we go again, except that this time, I actually think I'm going to follow it through.

Yesterday I started working on some music to be performed live using laptop, synthesizer and electric guitar and the music has an alternative minimal disco pop sound. I've briefly experimented with doing this before but what I did yesterday, it actually worked.

I've got ideas for another two songs, lyrics and all, and I'm feeling really excited about getting this new project out of my head, into the studio and onto the stage.

Which leads me to my third topic - Myspace.

Is anyone still using it? Is it really a useful tool for a musician looking to get work?

Just An Update

When I sit down and think about it, I actually have a few things going on at the moment.

Last night I sent my article to the culture sub-editor of Bath Spas student magazine. I'm not holding out any hopes that they will print it or even think it's worth reading but you never know - we all have to start somewhere. And I'm actually quite proud of the article so I guess that's all that matters really.

Work on my proposal for The Appledore Arts festival has been on the back burner this last week. I think I added a few paragraphs the other day and I have collected some examples of my work to put on a CD for them to see what my music sounds like. I actually think it's a pretty strong collection of music - fingers crossed, they will as well.

I also have a gig on November the 15th in Taunton. There will be a stage set up in the town centre with bands playing throughout the afternoon (I think) and then in the evening the Christmas lights will be switched on throughout the town. Yep it's that time already.

From somewhere, deep inside me, the urge to pick up the acoustic and play has started to appear again. Last night I had a little play and I plan to really get myself back up to performance standard over the next few weeks. I've been lazy for too long.

Interesting Point From A Conversation Last Night

In the article posted below, I comment on the mainstream music industries failure to provide us, or point us in the direction of, new and ground-breaking music. They do, however, like to recycle sounds and styles from a decade or so ago, and then spend lots of money trying to convince us that we havn't heard anything like it before.

The article isn't really about me getting up on my soapbox or anything - just food for thought maybe.

An interesting point that was raised last night (in a discussion about the war we are currently involved in) was that all the information we need, including all the music we wish to listen to, is instantly available to us. Arguments of whether the media are providing us with the correct information, or again music (if we want to keep this relevant to the topic), are completely unneccesary. With the resources and technology available in every home, it is down to us to find our own truths, our own information or even - music.

Still, shouldn't stop you from having a rant every now and then should it?

The Music Industry - Doing Its Bit For The Environment?

The music industry is always trying to focus our attention on how new a particular piece of music, sound, or band is. It helps them to sell things to us, after all, if they were to clearly point out to us that La Roux is in actual fact, just a more modern yet banal version of Eurythmics, we probably wouldn’t go out and buy her album. I’d probably be more inclined to nick my mums cassette copy of ‘Sweet Dreams’ instead.

It would appear, and most of us have probably suspected this for a long time, that the music industry really is just recycling music from times they thought we had forgotten, sorting through the platform shoes, the glittered flares, the humongous mobiles, and finding those little gems in the cultural dumping ground, dusting them off and putting them back onto the shelves of HMV.

Of course the exact same thing happened in the 90s. Bands such as Suede, Supergrass and Oasis took the country by storm. For some, a golden age of music, for others, lots of bands sounding like The Kinks but louder, with less Ray Davies and not dressed quite as sharply.

Recycling the styles of bygone eras has been a popular and reliable money making tool of both the music and fashion industry for quite some time, and generally, I think were happy with that. So long as the music coming our way sounds good and allows us to forget our meaningless existence (for some of us anyway) we don’t mind how original or groundbreaking it is.

But is now the time, I wonder, for us to ask ourselves, are we not being short changed? The music industry knows that we have a hunger for new music, for fresh, exciting and original sounds, and they respond with what? Synth pop? And what about the artists out there who are pushing boundaries, artists who are utilising the very latest technologies, rethinking how we compose, deliver and consume music, why aren’t they on the cover of The NME?

From sound artists, challenging our perceptions of sound and of music, pushing the boundaries of performance and what technology can do, through to dance music pioneers, exploring new worlds of texture and connecting with audiences through ever expanding mediums.

These artists are out there, working in what we call the underground, but don’t they deserve a little more attention from our mainstream music media? A little more credit perhaps? And we, the music buying public, don’t we deserve a little more?