It’s been tough but I’ve decided that I’m happy enough with Human Imperfections that I would like for you all to take a listen. It’s also available for FREE.
The idea behind this EP for me was to give you an idea of me as a drummer, for those who haven’t seen me play live, I play live acoustic drums alongside anything I’ve released, this is my way of giving you an idea of what that can be like live.
So enjoy…
So, March was the last time I posted something here.
What have I been doing? Well, a whole lot of nothing, and a whole lot of everything.
I’ve played a couple of shows, but mostly been trying to keep my head down around the day job to get my next release sorted, and now I’m finished, and I’m happy.
It’s been tough, probably one of the toughest processes I’ve been through. I had planned to release this at the start of the year but just couldn’t get it done. When I thought it was finished I asked for feedback from friends and colleagues. All the feedback was positive, with one home truth: “You can do better”
I agreed whole heartily, and decided to stick at it. It’s frustrating when your brain thinks something is finished, but you heart says no. I was simply being lazy.
I gave it a rest for a week, a month, I think that then turned into 4 months, then came back to it. I started adding new sections, cutting the tracks down in size, deleting whole sections and sounds, re-arranging, re-arranging, re-arranging, recording new parts. Everything.
Throughout this process I had a gig to prepare for, my second headline show. I decided that half of the stuff had to be new material. I was playing in Cardiff with the mindset that everyone who had seen me play had heard it all before. I was glad I chose to do this. The comments were outstanding. Positive vibes all around about the new material, and people really seemed to engage and enjoy it more than previously. This was another push in the right direction.
Life got in the way again, motivation quickly disappeared, procrastination kicked in. The struggle that every creative battles with.
I finally got myself back into it a few weeks ago, nailed it within a few days, and guess what. Today it’s been uploaded. I’ve decided to hold off on it until the 7th Oct, but I wanted to just get it up into the ether ready to be distributed across all the platforms as close together as possible.
One final thing I would like to add. Being a musician is about being a musician. I’m an electronic musician, yet this album is relatively organic. I’ve never been about trying to make new sounds with the fanciest synth out there, in fact I’ve found that often to be tedious. For me it’s about getting an idea ‘down on paper’, and going with it. This whole album is just that. Electronic sounds do feature, but most of it is about me finding a bit of a voice, in both production style and melody creation (something I’ve struggled with for a long time).
This release is truly a stepping stone for myself, and I’m only looking forward to carrying on with writing new material having learned so much from what I’ve just achieved.
So guys, keep an eye out. Year Two is coming.
I’m getting itchy feet… Is that the expression?
2016 has been very busy. The day job is doing it’s thing, and when I can I sit down in the studio and bash my head against a brick wall to see what comes out (Brains, hair, dust, paint… You know) I will.
So before Christmas I sat down for a week and got a bunch of ideas going. My project was a mess of loops playing over and over again, whilst I drank coffee, nodded along and tried to consider what their end result might sound like.
Well, they were all buried into my hard drive. There’s me thinking “none of this is good enough, I hate it all… blah blah blah”. A few months ago I came across some inspiration sitting in the studio of Nick Harrison (drummer of Sous Les Paves). Nick was wanting to talk about how to play live, and how we both work in the studio. We threw ideas back and forth, and then I though “screw it, the best way for me to show you is this project file with all the new ideas I’m never going to use”. One by one we flicked through each idea “crap… crap… crap… oh wait… I like this”.
So it began. I discovered around 8 out of 20+ ideas that I wanted to work on. Standard. I got rid of all of the junk that was holding me back in the project, and kept the stuff that would keep me sane.
Since then I have been popping into the studio every now and then to sit down and arrange everything. Of course I’m still banging my head against a brick wall, but I’m getting somewhere, and I really like what I’ve got to show you.
To go along side this, I’ve decided to try and push my noise further afield. In this day and age, most people are using streaming services such as Spotify to listen to music, so even with stuff uploaded for free on bandcamp, most people won’t listen to it, others still don’t know what soundcloud is…
So within the next month or so (hopefully), Year One and Imperfections EP should be released on Spotify and other streaming services for you all to enjoy.
There is however a catch.
There is this well known dilemma that the music industry is failing. People aren’t wanting to pay for stuff, I’m exactly the same. It’s why I originally posted my stuff for free. This isn’t good. It’s come to my attention that people like myself, offering stuff for free, essentially means that people might not want to pay for the proper good stuff (I’ve said stuff a lot). I sit and watch interviews with people I aspire to be like, and what they’re saying is true. The internet is full of free stuff, that’s free for a reason. I’m beginning to believe in myself enough to put a price tag on what I create, to set an example and to try and encourage others to do so.
My releases will no longer be free through Bandcamp, but they will be free to stream from services such as Spotify etc, and available for purchase on Itunes, Amazon and Googleplay etc.
Onwards and upwards aye…
x
5th Spear 