Blog

22 February 2026

In Progress

People who know me well, know that the music never stops really. There’s always something that I’m pursuing towards the next song or the next instrumental, whether that’s learning a new plugin, getting to grips with a new piece of recording equipment, just practicing a tricky new piece of music ready to record or play live, or simply just all of the above.

On the recording front, I’ve been putting together the next new release, which is a compilation of four songs from the partnership with my friend, the late John Ward Helliwell. These are very near finished now, just some sleeve notes and visuals to sign off with John’s family, and to release them out into the world as an EP.

John wrote the words in the late 80s, when we both worked in Huddersfield, and we used to commute to town on the same bus from our digs near Denby Dale. Here our discussions began about music and my songs in progress, and it was here that he offered to take on some of my more ‘difficult’ pieces.

The saddest part of this though, is that I can’t talk to John and include his version of events on the sleeve notes, and perhaps gain more insight into the deeper meanings behind each of the songs he wrote. I have interpreted them, of course, when I came up with the music, and so they stand up for themselves, to some extent, but it would have been good to hear his back-story also.

Coming very very soon…

30 May 2025

(Don’t Hurry) Slow Down

‘(Don’t Hurry) Slow Down’ started it’s life instrumentally in 1986. I had in mind a two-part guitar piece and it progressed out of jam sessions with a friend I’d met whilst working at Huddersfield’s Electronic Arts Workshop, Colin Ramsden, who I was trying to start a band with at the time. I came up with the claw-and-slap guitar riff, and at one point he jammed along with a little repeating section using some picked harmonics, which appealed to me.

I can’t remember now what Colin’s version was like, we made no recordings of those little jam sessions, and so when I did get chance to do my own recording of the track some time later at Rick Cocker’s home-studio, I had worked out my own version of the picked harmonic, but for me, it was a finger-picked pattern.

Having recorded the backing tracks, and adding a synth bass-line and drum machine, I had little idea where to take this. I had a melody, and a hook for the chorus: ‘Don’t hurry, slow down, slow down,’ but little else for the rest of the song. I played a few of my demo tracks to my old college friend and writer, John Helliwell, including ‘Slow Down’, and he was keen to have a go at helping me finish it. Within a week or two he had something, and the verses were formed. I used my hook and added a pre-chorus, and we had the song.

Over the years, I’ve had two or three versions of ‘(Don’t Hurry) Slow Down’ in demo form, either on cassette, as it was originally, and then later on CD and digitally, but nothing made it beyond this point.

Fast forward 37 years or so…

I knew I wanted to do something with the song, but it was my daughter Amy who sparked it all off again. She came across to us in December 2023 for Christmas, and I did a little set for friends at a gathering at home. Amy said she’d been working on a harmony for ‘(Don’t Hurry) Slow Down’, and could we have a go at singing it. We played and sang it for our small audience unrehearsed, and it went down a storm. It was then I realised it was ready to do another, more polished version.

I had already part-recorded a slimmed-down version of the song, with two acoustic guitars, and added a bass-line and percussion in Spring 2024. Amy agreed then to come across for an early Summer break in late June/early July and did her vocal for me during that week.

What astounded me was that Amy took to recording very easily. She hadn’t used a studio mic before, or recorded using DAW software either, but adapted very quickly, wasn’t phased by any of the repetitiveness of the comping process, and could stay on pitch like a pro. It made the whole session very enjoyable.

If anything, other issues got in the way of my finishing the song. I released ‘Wry Smile’ back in October ’24, and then we had family health issues to deal with. Claire lost her Dad in December, a long journey with Alzheimer’s and dementia, and then her Mum was seriously ill too. We went back to the UK for Christmas and to support the family through crisis, and so my planned releases went on hold for a while.

On the 29th December Amy and I did get chance to shoot video scenes in Ealand for ‘(Don’t Hurry) Slow Down’. I had this idea to try and portray the ‘slow’ and ‘fast’ themes of the song using slow-and-fast frame videoing. It was difficult but fun filming all my scenes singing at double-speed, and Amy’s at half-speed. The result you’ll see for yourself on the video.

Our test-shots originally were made indoors with a plain-background, which just didn’t work. It was only when we shot outdoors, with the Ealand sea of wind-turbines behind us, did it help and I think aided the fast and slow element of it.

The sad conclusion to this story though is that we learned in early January that our good friend and collaborator on this song, John Helliwell, died on December 31st, after a short battle with cancer. Our song therefore has become a tribute to him and his generous and creative spirit.

We miss you, John.

There are a few more songs that John and I collaborated on, which I intend to release sometime in the near future. More news about this soon.

‘(Don’t Hurry) Slow Down’ is out NOW.

25 October 2024

What’s behind the… WRY SMILE?

I wrote Wry Smile in 2017, after I’d seen enough of the antics of a certain Donald Trump who was in the White House at the time.

To be honest, I was more than a little concerned as to why he’d been elected in the first place. Then, I saw such a parallel with our own situation in the UK at that time: incompetent right-wing leaders, too guided by lining their own pockets and those of their friends, than that of the welfare of the average person.

That certainly showed itself in the few years that followed. Especially when covid-19 hit the UK shores. Especially when Britain decided to leave the European Union, fueled by propaganda that preyed on racist fears and not looking at the reasons why the EU was set up in the first place: to bring about Peace in Europe.

As Trump began putting the walls up, so Britain retreated from the strength of a united Europe, and used it’s island seaboard as it’s wall. And so both America and Britain became weaker as a result.

I didn’t use names in this song, but it was directed at ALL politicians, that misuse the powers of the positions they’re elected to, and use their office to further their own selfish interests and not those of the people.

And Donald Trump, Wry Smile speaks directly to YOU.

I sincerely hope that the US electorate votes for the Voice of Reason, and not for the self-serving billionaire, you know what I mean?

Good luck, America. The World is watching.

Wry Smile is out NOW. Have a listen, or watch it here

ADDENDUM:

It’s Nov. 26th. Trump has been re-elected. It beggars belief as to why the voting public in America would support such a man, but he’s there, and I’m sure soon enough we’re going to see – again – what kind of a President he is.

For the song Wry Smile, I guess it has another four years of validity. I should be grateful, but I was rather hoping Kamala Harris would be the first Female U.S. President. America clearly isn’t ready to advance that much – yet.

Yes, Donald Trump can soon enough sit smug and smiling as he wreaks his own brand of havoc from behind the desk in Washington’s Oval Office.

And what’s behind the Wry Smile?

28 April 2024

With the Sky

With the Sky was written in 2011, just after I checked out as a pilot. It’s had various tweaks and changes to the lyrics since then, but essentially the tune has remained the same.

I wrote it as a nod to the ballooning community, especially for those people who gave up their time for free and helped me to train to be a pilot. The majority of these belong to the British Balloon and Airship Club (BBAC), and for people in the UK, if you want to get involved with ballooning, then that’s a good place to start in terms of finding people near to you who will help you take part.

It’s very much a “pay-it-forward” community, in that it’s best to find a balloon team, help out with being part of the chase-crew, whilst you decide whether ballooning as a sport is really for you. Claire and I got involved in ballooning in 2001, and we were crew members for a number of teams until late 2007, when Claire ‘checked out’ as a pilot, and then we bought our first balloon, enabling me to train afterwards.

Essentially then, it took me nearly 4 years to train as a pilot. Partly due to the fact that I was sharing balloon time with Claire, who was still a novice pilot herself.

What I hoped to convey in the song, was life as a balloonist (or is it a “loonist?”). The fact we’re always watching the sky, looking at weather forecasts, checking out the wind speed, looking toward the tops of the trees even, in the sheer hope that the winds will be calm enough for us to fly. A lot of the time, especially when we lived in the UK (and we were up North as well….), those hopes were often dashed by turbulence, fog, and, more often, rain.

I don’t think that there’s been another song written about ballooning as such since Fifth Dimension’s “Up, Up and Away” in the 1960s. So, it’s really a modern slant on ballooning, from a pilot’s perspective. There’s no doubt in my mind, and I’ve seen significant changes in the weather since 2001, that the weather patterns are worsening. There are far less calm flyable winds since we began ballooning in the. early noughties. Some of our ballooning colleagues who’ve been flying since the 60s, 70s and 80s have said that those weather changes are even more significant since they began flying even.

So the “Give me another window in the weather” line in the song is a plea for just the chance to fly, which is becoming more and more the balloonist’s anthem, I think.

With the Sky was released on March 8th.

It’s on Spotify:

You can find the video here:

1 February 2024

Released…!

So… finally, they’re out there!

At least three songs released so far:

Only the Good Ones Go First, made sense to me to release it first, despite my initial reservations. Although the root of the song is about loss, it’s bouncy and it’s positive, and it sends a message that – more than anything – the people close to you are the most important. Click the image to view.

Watching the Rain, is a moodier song. It’s about many things: about living in your head; about the struggle to communicate outside of that; about losing someone because of the breakdown of communication and being able to explain your actions. Select the image if you haven’t seen it yet.

On the Rise, is getting more positive. It’s typical me I suppose, always there’s an aside questioning the good stuff, always; but it’s also projecting the positive above the negative. On the Rise is literally about manifesting a good future in your mind, and if there only was a bit more ‘light’ in everybody, then things would be better…. wouldn’t they? Click the image to see and hear it.

It’s been a lot of work: the videos, the graphics, the ads, contacting playlist curators, radio, media… some bits worked, some didn’t… I had the intention of getting one song released per month. This was too much. I still have a day job as such, so I’ve settled at aiming for one song every two months. If I can get the marketing periphery more streamlined, then I’ll get them out quicker.

I’m surprised as to the response – all of it is positive – and in the most unusual places. Brazil likes it a lot (way to go, Brazil!); then the UK, then France, U.S. and then… Israel, are the top 5 countries. Quite an unusual spread. The numbers are growing track by track – that’s positive I think – and I assume this trend is continuing upward as people get to know who I am, and my music. Huge gratitude to each and every one of you who have played my songs and especially those who have liked them, shared them, and saved them to your playlists.

There’s more to come.

Craig x

7 April 2023

Life, the Universe + Music…

Leading up to the release of my first few songs, I’ve decided to make some informative short documentary videos about the journey so far. Starting with the decision to make a serious effort to improve and get the music ‘out there’ that I made in early 2016.

Look out for Life, the Universe + Music on YouTube… Episode One is out NOW!

Screenshot-2023-04-27-at-17.13.51-2048x1150

10 September 2022

Making videos…

This Summer of 2022 I’ve been concentrating on filming some videos to go with the songs I’ve recorded, mixed and had mastered.

The first one I’d started with was Whispers of Home, which involved the use of some discreet footage I shot from a train window on my way to King’s Cross in London, actually at the beginning of my trip to Los Angeles, after I’d won the All Guitar Vero Contest.

I decided that I’d look at some creative and cost-effective ways of making my music videos, so I have some very different ideas for all of them, some a little more ambitious than others!

The next video to have a go at has been Only the Good Ones Go First. I’ve had this idea for a long time to have a posterised approach and to make it a lyric video too with cartoon bubble text. As it looks and sounds at the moment, it’s got all the energy I was expecting, and I think it’s going to look great…

5 April 2021

Building a New Studio – Part 2

It’s been a busy few weeks. The first issue with the new space was removing some rotten carpet that was falling apart.

On taking this up, I found a tensioning bar for the roof which had pushed its way up through the screed in the floor. Thanks to my friend Steve, we got this sorted pretty quickly, and I could think about what I wanted on the floor.

Screeded by Steve – Great job!

Studio – Grade Flooring

Acoustic-grade carpet was my first choice, but finding a fitter who was prepared to come out during covid restrictions was difficult. Firstly – carpets aren’t very popular in France, they prefer tiled flooring, due to the warmer conditions here and the need for cool floors in Summer.

I found an English-speaking carpet fitter about 3 hours away, but his quotation was ridiculously high. He was still trying to get his carpets from the UK. Problems with UK suppliers now they’ve left the EU means there are hold ups at the ports, and a hefty tax is now put on imports. Thank you again Brexit. This will ultimately kill UK exports into Europe.

The lead time he was giving me was also 3 months until he could fit the carpet, which was way too long, and mostly I think due to the supply problems I’d already mentioned.

In the end, I decided to order some acoustic grade carpet tiles from a French supplier online, and opted to fit them myself. This was going to be far quicker. the tiles arrived in a few days, and I could get started.

In the meantime, I’d already removed curtains and fittings and painted the walls.

10 January 2021

Building a New Studio – Part 1

Buying a house in France that has been vacant for four years has had its issues. Happily most of them are superficial, and involve mostly decorating and some minor refurbishment to get the house to what we we’d like.

The first issue is that I’m here on my own. Problems with Claire’s Dad’s failing health has meant that she has wanted to be with her parents in the UK. Though originally she talked about coming out of teaching by December, she has now decided she wants to stay on for another year and a half until she is 55.

So – I’m working on the things I can… especially the studio. The space I’ve got is interesting, but not everything is practical…

3 January 2021

Moving to France…

The long-suffering nightmare that has been Brexit (often renamed Brex-shit by many) really pushed Claire and I to reconsider our future options, and the decision was, if UK wouldn’t stay in Europe, then we would physically move there instead.

We’ve always loved France. We started visiting for holidays in the late 1990s, and, especially once we became balloonists, kept wanting to go back, and often wondered what it would be like to live there. We’ve made many friends there, and simply love the countryside, the food, the wine, the lifestyle. If we were going to get out of the rat race and the “grind-the-worker-down” environment that is so typical of the United Kingdom, then it would have to be soon. Brexit just made us decide to go sooner.

We started looking at houses in 2019, rather tentatively at first, with the help of our friends Pete and Alison, who live in France. But in March 2020 we found a lovely house that suited our requirements.

Then, everything went into lockdown.

This made the house buying process a whole lot slower. Firstly, we couldn’t view the house. Once the isolation restrictions were lifted in France, though the borders were still closed, Pete and Alison could go and view the house, and kindly videoed it for us. We loved what we saw, and we bought it subject to being able to view in person as soon as the borders were open again. We eventually went out in August to finalise the deal.

Though we sold our UK house within a week, moving house during a pandemic also posed its problems. We had a few months wait from August until the legals processed, and we completed on the house via video in early December. We had already briefed a removals company and had a date in mind, again amidst rumours of another lockdown imminent. Luckily we were able to move finally on the 18th December. I drove across with Sophie, our dog, and arrived on the 19th to let the removal guys in. Claire came on later with our balloon in tow on the 20th. We’d made it!

Now all the hard work begins. Music-wise, I have a studio to build. While I originally thought our cellar and garage space would be best for creating a new studio, now I’ve been there a while it’s not the best spot sonically for recordings, as there’s too much pipework and a large boiler in the next room.

Instead, I’ve chosen a mezzanine space on the first floor, which again needs work, but could be great for recording and even has a space suitable for performance and video-making.

26 September 2020

Thinking On Your Own – Part 2

For a while now I’ve been a (somewhat quiet) member of a community called “Produce Like a Pro“, run by the Los Angeles-based producer Warren Huart. I joined PLAP (as it’s affectionately known) primarily to continue to improve my recording and mixing, and thus end up with a set of quality songs for my first album.

After the upload of my song ‘Thinking On Your Own’ onto YouTube and Facebook, I was contacted by fellow PLAP-er Tim Ellifritz, based out in Johnsburg, NY, who loved the song and asked if we could collaborate and he would produce and release it. Well…. what do you say to that!

Of course, it was “yes!”

In just one day, Tim had a group of guys ready to record and work on the song, and by then, Tim’s selected drummer, Patrick Peeters, in Belgium, had made a guide track from my Youtube video, all set to 162bpm for the rest of the guys to record in their DAWs.

On the 28th March I had my first Zoom meeting call with Tim, and his fellow American Dave Merkel from Billings, MT. We got on really well, and a ‘lockdown project’ was formed. Tim had managed to recruit Dave, then Patrick, and a bass player from the Netherlands, Peter Süoss. We became a band of producers.

This just shows the power of the internet and the fact that you can work with a bunch of guys you’ve never met in person, and come up with something incredible.

Over the lockdown period, each of us went to work on our respective parts: I recorded two acoustic guitar parts for a stereo mix and five vocal tracks – one lead and two-part stereo backing vocals, plus some keyboard vocal ‘ooooohs’; Patrick recorded several tracks of drums; Peter’s track used his fretless bass; Tim provided lead guitar and a rhythm electric track, plus a low vocal; then Dave provided an organ track and some strings also.

We each decided at the outset to film our performances, for the video to follow.

Building the song involved a couple of drafts from each of us, then discussion via Zoom. We shared our tracks on the cloud, and each of us could mix according to taste and add things on top for the band to hear and review. What was most fascinating to me was how different each of our mixes were. Here we had five different versions of the same song.

By July we had the song finished. We decided that we’d ask another PLAP-er, Sara Carter, to do the final mix from our tracks. Sara had years of prior experience with the BBC, and had recently started her own mixing business ‘Music Mix Pro‘, and the result was amazing.

Release date was July 31st. We spent a great deal of time building up to the release, with the creation of a Facebook group, and a number of promo ‘reminders’ that appeared on both Facebook, and our other respective channels elsewhere. I produced a load of graphics and visuals for the release, and the other guys worked on video material too for our new fans. In the 11 day build up to release day, we’d got over 300 followers.

Thinking on Your Own - All band members assembled

We’ve enjoyed the entire process so much, from start to finish, that we are determined to have a go at some more music together. We’ve also started a P.ii video channel with an episode each Friday, called ‘Friday is P.ii-Day’. I’m not sure how long we can sustain this series, but we’re certainly going to give it our best shot.

23 July 2020

Thinking On Your Own – Part 1

March 19th. The UK was going into lockdown with rising cases of Covid-19 being reported. The media frenzy at the time was on how people were panic-buying in the shops, with various photos and video footage of people stockpiling shopping trolleys full of toilet roll, pasta, bread, milk and other groceries, and in doing so, depriving the most vulnerable in our society.

I was angry at what I saw, and I felt I had to write a song about it. Sure, people were scared, none of us really knew how Covid was going to affect or change our lives. But, depriving others at a time of real need, was selfish and unnecessary. Global crises really show us how base and primitive the human race can still be.

It didn’t really matter to me that the song was probably just going to be labelled as ‘another from the glut of songs written in lockdown’; it was heartfelt, and I felt strongly about its message. I wanted to get across that, in isolation, we are still able to think of others and should be concentrating on them, not thinking on our own. It was asking people to consider: “Who else can I help?”

If, in listening to this song, it makes one person think again, and decide not to act selfishly, giving the more vulnerable person a chance – just for once – then it will have done it’s job.

I posted it on Facebook. I wasn’t sure what to expect really, but I asked people to like and share, and a few people did. Thank you to those who did, because what happened next was a complete surprise.

15 November 2019

All Guitar Vero Contest, Part 3

Day 3 of our trip was a drive to El Cajon, near San Diego, and a visit to Taylor Guitars.

Kendall and Nikke picked us up at the hotel quite early, and it was a good two hour drive to El Cajon.

A personal highlight for me was just the music and the chat on that trip, in both directions. We talked about many things, Kendall knew a lot about the area, and pointed out many landmarks as he drove; and Nikke played us some really good music, across a variety of genres, quite a lot I wasn’t familiar with, and definitely stuff I will investigate later. We talked a lot about Vero too, and where they see things are going for this relatively new social network.

When we arrived at El Cajon, it was 10 degrees hotter than Santa Monica. Just getting out of the car hit you with a sheer wall of heat. I was very grateful that day for the car’s air conditioning. We’d arranged to meet Tim Godwin, another of the contest judges and artist (development) director at Taylor Guitars, for lunch. An interesting fact I learned about Tim is that he knew another Yorkshire Brit, and as he explained that he was singing in a Joe Cocker tribute band, aptly named (if you know Joe Cocker’s material) ‘Mad Dogs and an Englishman’, I realised at once he was talking about Jason Feddy, an ex-pat, now living in Laguna Beach, that my friends and I used to go and watch play regularly in Harrogate Blues Bar. Small world, innit?

A lovely touch to the welcome at Taylor Guitars, was to see my name on the notice board as we entered. Pete went to work setting up his camera, and filmed a great deal around the factory as the tour progressed. The tour runs across two buildings on the plot at El Cajon. Now and again, as we ventured outside to look at the raw wood store, and as we crossed between one building and another, we walked back into that wall of heat. Phew!

A warm welcome from Taylor Guitars - pic: Pete Bennett

Our tour guide took us around the factory and explained every stage in the development of guitars, from the raw material, to the finished products. I will save the rest for a later post, when I get chance to show some of Pete’s video footage too, I hope. I understand that Taylor run these tours daily, so, I f you are ever visiting the San Diego area, and want to know more about Taylor, how they make guitars, their processes end-to-end, and their sustainability ethos, I would highly recommend this tour, and especially so, if you’re a Taylor Guitars geek like me (link here)*.

*Update – Since the Covid-19 pandemic, Taylor Guitars has been forced to suspend its tours for the time being. I hope this resumes soon.

The last stage of the tour was a look at the ‘Guitar Gallery’. Taylor actively invite guests to take guitars off the wall, and try out as many as they want. I have to say, I immediately fell in love with a PS14, and had a jam with Kendall, who’d got himself one of the other V-Series guitars to play. My choice was a beautiful instrument, lovely to play, and certainly one for the wish list!

Trying out a rare Taylor acoustic - pic: Pete Bennett

A scenic trip back to Santa Monica and dinner with Nikke and Kendall en route made up yet another amazing day. Sadly, it was the end of our time with our hosts from Vero, though we had another couple of days to roam and explore L.A.. What superb hosts, and I feel mighty privileged to have had their exclusive company for such a time. A trip I will always treasure.

Nicki, Craig, Kendall and Pete, in Santa Monica

Lastly, there are so many people to thank: Nikke and Kendall, our amazing hosts at Vero; Tim Godwin and the staff at Taylor Guitars; Norman Harris, Michael Lemmo, Nick Dias, and the rest of the staff at Norman’s Rare Guitars; Mark Rivett and Dylan at the All Guitar Network; plus the ever-helpful and friendly staff at the Wyndham Hotel, Santa Monica On the Pier. Last but not least, my good buddy Pete Bennett, of Bigworld Productions, whose knowledge and good company were so invaluable, and our partners Claire and Alison, who keenly organised us both via FaceTime at strange times of the day and night.

Fondest memories made.

"I've not quite got over the jetlag..." on the sofa at Norman's Rare Guitars, with Michael Lemmo. Pic: from the video by Jen Manalo Angkahan

11 November 2019

All Guitar Vero Contest, Part 2

As my poor wife Claire was unable to come on this trip (long story), my friend Pete, who we were staying with in France at the time, was free. As he’s also an independent film-maker, he kindly offered to document the trip.

I didn’t sleep much on the flight across to Los Angeles. Aircraft seats are just not comfortable, despite the ability to electronically dim the windows on a 787. We landed at LAX around 3:30 pm, spent a little bit of time getting through passport checks, and then some more time, waiting for a driver to appear, who I think was waiting the wrong side of the airport, and then we were on our way.

The Wyndham Santa Monica is literally a minute’s walk from Santa Monica pier. A lovely spot. Nikke and Kendall from Vero had arranged to meet us, and just give us a little guided walking tour of the Pier, and the surrounding area. Then they suggested we stop and have a bite to eat and a beer at one of the restaurants on the roadside facing the beach, where we got to know each other, and watched the sunset behind the roadside palm trees. Then Kendall and Nikke left us to ur own devices for the evening, as we wanted to explore a bit further, and stave off the jet lag at least until bedtime, where we hoped we might sleep better, ready for our trip to Norman’s the following day.

Anyway, despite all good intentions, and a good strategy to combat the jet lag, I think I had about 3 hours sleep. The body clock is a complicated system, and this had thoroughly messed up my circadian rhythm. Pete on the other hand, having been in New York a few weeks prior to this, and much more used to travelling than me, had had a better night. We walked up to Santa Monica boulevard and grabbed a pavement-side breakfast. Coffee was the most important wake-me-up component.

Kendall and Nikke picked us up at the hotel and Kendall drove us down to Ventura Boulevard, Tarzana, where the famous Norman’s Rare Guitars store is situated.

Norm’s, as it’s now affectionately called, was established in the mid 70s by Norman Harris, who made his name as a musician forging connections with guitarists through the buying and selling of rare and highly sought after guitars. His store has been frequented by many A-list guitarists, including Joe Bonamassa, T-Bone Burnett, Slash, Mike Campbell, Joe Walsh, and the late Tom Petty, to name but a few, and Norman himself is now considered to be one of the guitar industry’s foremost experts on vintage guitars. A few years ago, Norman’s Rare Guitars launched its own YouTube channel, and now has a following of well over 380,000 subscribers, myself included, broadcasting their featured guitars of the day, with resident and guest performers who turn up to play these amazing and interesting guitars, acoustic and electric, giving the store such a refreshing and unique perspective on the world of guitars, and upon the LA guitar scene as well.

Next door to the left of Norman’s Rare Guitars, is the more recently launched All Guitar Network, another project of Norm’s, and the perfect partner to the store, in that it has access to the store’s guitar collection, but it also is taking the subject of guitars to a whole new level.

Hosted and co-ordinated by musician and composer Mark Rivett, AGN has a greater focus on learning, it is establishing itself as the go-to channel for guitar news, views, tutorials, and features with guest musicians, such as Joe Bonamassa, Tim Pierce, Josh Smith and David Becker, as well as the resident store musicians and presenters: Michael Lemmo, Nick Dias and Norman himself, who are also a focal part of the AGN network too.

As the All Guitar Vero Contest is a partnership prize of Vero, Norman’s, the All Guitar Network, and Taylor Guitars, there’s a lot of people behind this for me to thank. Anyway, the prize involved me picking up my new signed Taylor 717 Grand Pacific Builder’s Edition Guitar, and so we called in to AGN first to meet Mark, where he introduced me to the guitar, though the formal presentation was to be next door at Norman’s. I was immediately struck by the quality of the case itself.

I had a little time to open it up, revealing the guitar in all it’s glory. Signed by many, including the Contest judges Tim Pierce and Michael Lemmo, I was keen to take it out and examine it further. But the waiting area at AGN wasn’t the place, besides, they were keen to shoot the presentation and a little ‘jam session’ with Michael before the store opened at 11. So, we all ventured next door. Tim Pierce, I was sad to hear, wasn’t able to make it, so it was just going to be Michael and me.

I’m 6 feet tall, but Michael is about 6ft 3” or 4”. My son Tom is 6’ 5”, so I’m getting used to this younger generation getting progressively taller. Fortunately we were sat on the famous sofa at Norman’s, so I don’t look too short on the video that Dylan shot from the All Guitar Network. Rather than detune and play the winning piece, I opted for standard tuning, and another song: “Watching The Rain’, so typically English for the scorching heat of L.A.:

Maybe it was the sheer over-tiredness, but I really didn’t feel at all nervous. Listening back, I’m not only pleased with my own performance, but I’m still impressed by the talent of Michael Lemmo, that he could listen once to me playing a couple of verses and choruses, and then pull off a complete accompaniment like that. Awesome!

Next off, we went next door, for me to be interviewed by Mark for the AGN channel. I pre-warned Mark of my tendency to suffer from the “Dreaded Erms”, or hesitation, on camera, and I must say that, like Michael, he put me completely at ease, though you’ll see there are a number of jump-cuts in the interview. I really haven’t mastered talking on camera yet, and I really do prefer a script. They did a superb edit on it though, I think. They really did make me look almost a natural… Great work, guys!

Vero – True Social

Norman’s Rare Guitars

All Guitar Network

Taylor Guitars

28 September 2019

All Guitar Vero Contest, Part 1

I joined the Vero network back in late January/early February as I saw KT Tunstall announce the first #VeroGreatGuitarGiveaway contest, and I thought I might give it a shot. I then got ridiculously busy with other work, and the contest – and the networking – just got put on hold.

I have been following Norman’s Rare Guitars for a good while, more than a year if not two, as I follow quite a number of musicians and creatives now on YouTube, and other channels too. One cannot learn about musicianship, performance and the music business alone, and it’s worth finding inspiration from people you like on YouTube, as well as other social media.

I could devote an entire blog (or two) just to the people I follow, and why, but that’s for another time. Suffice it to say that Norm’s ‘Guitar of the Day’ features had become regular viewing for me, and particularly the very talented presenters were already familiar: Michael Lemmo, Jen (behind the camera), Todd, Nick, and of course, Norman Harris himself, plus guest players that over time have included: Joe Bonamassa, session-man Tim Pierce, actor and guitarist Frank Stallone (Sylvester’s brother), Marc Mann and Steve Postell, to name but a handful.

So when I saw Norman’s Rare Guitars announcing a second #AllGuitarVeroContest, with Tim Pierce (another YouTuber that I follow) and Michael Lemmo as judges, I have to say it awakened my interest again. As I’m already a fan of Taylor Guitars, the main prize of a Taylor 717 Grand Pacific was really appealing, as well as the four runner up prizes of Taylor Academy Series guitars too. The entry: a one-minute guitar piece of my own composition, seemed do-able, and I thought I might stand a chance of winning maybe a runner-up prize, but I’m no flashy lead guitarist, so I didn’t expect much, more a chance of making a few new friends on Vero if it caught someone’s ears.

Previously, I had posted short clips of a new song in progress: ‘Whispers of Home’, onto Instagram, and showed its progress from simple ‘noodled’ idea to recorded song, called: ‘Anatomy of a New Song’, and so I knew the end-sequence could fit nicely into just under a minute. I recorded it in one take on the 20th June, and submitted it off to Vero, and their competition partners the All Guitar Network, Taylor Guitars, and Norm’s, with a little tongue-in-cheek intro, from ‘Westy’s Cabin’ (my garage-studio really). And then got busy again…

As one or two of you readers might know, my wife Claire and I have a strange hobby (to some, anyway) in that we fly hot air balloons. In particular, once the Summer season begins we can be away quite a bit, in particular late-July-early-August time we head off to France for our favourite mass European gathering of flying ‘loonies in Chambley, Lorraine region, officially now the largest line-up and launch of hot-air balloons in the World.

We had just completed our ten-day tour of Chambley and were visiting friends elsewhere in France, when, by chance, I had interrupted sleep one night (after one too many cognacs…), and was sat up in bed at 3am looking at my phone messages. Lucky that I did, because one of them was a chat text from Nikke at Vero, saying that I had won the All Guitar Vero Contest, and that she had been trying to contact me!

and the winner is…….???

1 July 2019

Playing Live Again

It’s so nice to be getting out again after so long. I can’t express how much my upper arm injury had limited my goals, and, although I could just switch emphasis and concentrate on other stuff, having to protect the arm really did put a dampener on my enthusiasm.

That said, it’s easy to fall into bad habits. Although the arm has been recovering for a while now, it was easy to tell myself to “protect the arm, protect the arm!” as an excuse to not go back to playing regularly too early.

Anyway – it was time… blow off the cobwebs, and get back out into the unsuspecting world.

My first plan was to aim to play at least once a week… somewhere.

Straight off the bat I have the offer of a gig from Scott Doonican of The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican at the Old School House in Barnsley. Good on yer, mate, and thank you. It’s now been pushed back till January due to a scheduling issue on our original date, but I’m looking forward to it.

Then I literally went onto the Open Mic Finder site (link) and made a list of all the nearby open mics, and made contact by email/facebook.

Small Seeds' stage in Huddersfield. Very Rustic!

Next, I contacted a total unknown… A venue known simply as Small Seeds, in Huddersfield. I did wait a few days to get a response from the email, but they were very encouraging. They invite all musicians locally, as well as poets, to come on down and play/read their material at the aptly titled Acoustic Club every Tuesday evening after 9pm.

It’s a lovely spot, very rustic looking stage, and there’s no mics or amplification, so this REALLY IS acoustic only. The nice thing too is they provide an acoustic guitar for those who simply want to turn up and play; and there’s an upright piano there as well if you want to play that too.

Next up I contacted Pete Long, whom I’d met through Andrew when he ran the Acoustic Circus open mics at the Taproom in Batley. He’s moved on from the Taproom, and is now hosting Acoustic Circus open mics once monthly from the West End pub in Gomersal. He also runs another Acoustic Circus Session once a month in St Mary’s Church in Gomersall too.

Pete himself is a really good guitarist and songwriter by the way, just check out VanRay on Spotify or iTunes…

Anyway – as soon as I made contact, Pete offered me a half-hour guest slot at the West End. This kinda threw me in the deep end, but I was glad of it. It blew out the cobwebs and got me thinking about a set again, rather than just the usual two or three odd songs that you get to do at a ‘normal’ open mic.

One thing I have realised though: playing ‘Whispers of Home’ with its drop tuning is a difficult song to put in the set, wherever you put it. I’ve tried retuning the guitar mid-set, and, unless you’re a good raconteur whilst you’re re-tuning, you’re asking a lot of patience from the audience whilst you mess about. The only alternative is to swap guitars. Here’s where my poor old EKO E20 lets me down, as the old Barcus Berry piezo bridge pickup I fitted 25+ years ago really isn’t up to it any more. Feedback from the audience is that it just wasn’t as good sounding as my Taylor 214. So – at some point, to do this justice, I’m going to need to change the E20 for something better, or just get better at re-tuning the 214 mid-set.

26 March 2019

Update

It’s been a while since I posted, and I have no real excuse… Folks that have been following on Instagram have been getting the most spoils, and there’s a column feature from my instagram feed on the right of the blog page (or scroll down if you’re looking at this on a mobile phone).

Basically, I decided I wanted to try and master one platform at a time, and specifically Instagram, though I’m beginning to conclude that social media probably is better tackled en-masse with more automated tools. I didn’t want to succumb to the ‘bots’ just yet, and wanted to try and engage with my audience, which with IG has been quite successful, I think.

Anyway, with my upper arm injury taking a while to heal properly, I’ve had to kerb the gigging for a while and it felt better therefore to concentrate on recording songs. This is something I can do in short bursts, and I can rest the arm if it’s beginning to cause problems.

Just this last week or so I have been recording a new song, called Whispers of Home. It’s a bit of a homecoming song, with my guitar tuned to a weird drop C ‘Joni-style’ with some lovely ‘sus’ chords I haven’t the brain to figure out yet (!!). I’ve enlisted the services of Emily Dolan Davies again, who’s come back to me with a really superb set of drum stems…. 46 in all… including layers of percussion with every shaker she could find, tambourines, and some over-dubbed brush snare parts too! Fantastic work, and I can’t wait to get this one out there. I’m still looking for a bass player for this, and will keep you posted on when this happens.

Toodle-pip. Stay creative, folks!

11 September 2018

Pickles Fest

This was a long standing invite from old friends ‘Red’ and Heather Pryce, for their Annual festival in Cenarth, near Cardigan, in West Wales. Because of the overly hot summer, this had been cancelled from it’s original July date, because fire-risk (and lack of water supplies in case of fire) had prevented the Festival from going ahead.

Anyway, on the back of my successful gig at Electric Cabaret, Claire and I planned to do the five hour drive South West-wards, plus dog Sophie, as we were going to stay with Pat and Chris, Heather’s parents, afterwards. I’d planned for an early start, as this would give us plenty of time for stops, dog walks, and chance to stop at Pat and Chris’s, freshen-up, and upload some of the gear from the car. At least, that was the plan…

First of all, as I went to fill up the car, I noticed we had a puncture. “No worries,” I thought, as there’s a tyre repair station in our village. Luckily, it opens at 8am, and it was just 8:02. Anyway, within just over half an hour, I was filling up with fuel, but also, having to re-pressurise my tyres, as the repairers had more-than over-inflated my newly fixed tyre…

It was now 9am. I get home to find Sophie has diarrhoea, and won’t eat. We have a ritual where I give her dog treats to encourage her to eat something, and then, after her stomach settles, she’ll eat something. Today it wasn’t going to work. So, by 9:45, we decide to set off, wondering if we were due for ‘doggie accidents’ on the way. Fortunately for us, she settled.

Driving rain for most of the journey made this trip arduous, as well as slow. We find out after ringing Chris, that my set has been brought forward to 15:50, and I’m first on stage. We finally arrived at 15:25. Enough time for me to carry gear to the stage, to do a quick sound check, and then start playing.

Again I kept my set short, and though I could have had 45 minutes I ended at 35. My arm had had enough, what with all of the driving as well. Lovely to catch up with our friends and watch the other acts, some very talented performers, including Big Joe Bone, and of course Red’s own band: Red and the Hogweeds.

2 September 2018

Electric Cabaret

Despite the injury, the physiotherapy is helping enough for me to continue to do short sets like the 30 minute one at Electric Cabaret at the Old School House, Barnsley, an extension of ‘Cabaret Doonican’, run by the enigmatic Scott Doonican of the Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican. Usually, the night is split to allow four acts to perform a half hour set each, and a donations box provided fro the audience to contribute towards their appreciation of the acts performing, which is divided up at the end.

All I can say is, I’m pleased the set wasn’t any longer. By the end of the last song, my upper arm was extremely painful and stiffening up. But enough moaning… I’m happy I can still play at all!

Very grateful to those who turned up to support me, including my wife Claire, who took some video (coming soon), and Dave Wilde of Wilde Sammon, and grateful too for all the help and encouragement with my set, including Scott, and Marcus, who really does a great job behind the mixing desk, making everyone sound as good as can be, plus a shout out to Amanda (Scott’s other half) for divvying-up the proceeds at the end.

Hope to do another one soon!

9 August 2018

Arm Injury

With Cabaret Doonican next on my schedule, and an invite to Pickles Fest in Cardigan, Wales, soon after, I go and injure my right arm…

Caused (I think) by my overexcited Old English Sheepdog, Sophie, tugging a bit too hard on the lead one day, the arm has steadily been getting worse and worse. Just pain and stiffness in the arm and shoulder, especially at night. So, interrupted sleep, and just the general fatigue that goes with any lingering pain or injury.

It’s now so bad, I’ve had to not play guitar at one concert, where instead I just sang over some backing tracks, and though this went down pretty well, I’m now concerned about how long I will need to rest the arm in order to heal properly.

My GP says it’s classic ‘tennis elbow’, which I had four years ago, and gave me some basic tennis elbow exercises. They worked to a point. However, to me, this is different. Most of my pain is in the upper arm, and not just on and below the elbow joint like before. This has been extremely aggravated by my ‘percussive’ style of strumming, together with the tendon-strain of fingerpicking.

Anyway, after suffering with this for three weeks, I’ve booked some private physiotherapy sessions to try and sort the problem. I’ve seen my new physio coach, Shane, and he’s given me some exercises for the muscles and tendons to perform that will hopefully sort this out. Day three now and it’s already eased it enough for me to get a good night’s sleep.

I’ll keep you posted.

9 June 2018

Cabaret Doonican – 2nd Outing

Thanks to Dave Wilde, of the band ‘Wilde Sammon’, and a good mate, he reminded me about Cabaret Doonican at the Old School House in Barnsley on Thursday, and, despite being full of hay fever at the moment (yuk), I decided I’d dose up on the antihistamines and go on over.

When I arrived, I saw a rather worried Scott Doonican, who told me that despite getting a huge number of acts on my last visit two months ago, for last month’s open mic, the one I couldn’t attend due to a chest infection, only one act turned up. This catastrophic lack of support almost cancelled the show for good, and Scott was under threat that if the show didn’t attract enough performers and punters this week, it’d be the last.

Fortunately I was one of five acts that put on a show, including two bands, Wilde Sammon, and Indecision, and that was enough to let this great little venue keep running live music.

Scott has videoed ‘Ebbs and Flows’ from my set, and some from the other guys too. Link here to Cabaret Doonican’s Facebook page

Any one in the area thinking of playing at an open mic, or just like watching live music, try out Cabaret Doonican… It’s a great setup, with it’s own stage, lighting, and where performers aren’t talked-over during the set (one of my pet hates). And a great Team with Marcus on sound, Scott as Host, and Amanda, who takes a lot of photos on the night. Huge gratitude to the work they put in behind the scenes, making us look and sound good.

Cabaret Doonican is stopping for the Summer break, and resumes first Thursday in September.

Scott’s other event: ‘Electric Cabaret’ is on a Thursday towards the end of the month. I’m booked in to do a set on 30th August (re-scheduled from July because of the World Cup footy). Same Venue.

30 April 2018

Mixing

Since getting my files back from Matthew I find myself back to the solo act of mixing my own music.

This is versus the frustration of trying to communicate to an engineer what I want from a mix, which just proved to be less productive than I thought it was going to be. Everyone has their own version of what they want to achieve musically, and Matthew’s was obviously very different from mine. As I’ve said before, I’m very much a hands-on kind of guy, and now the responsibility comes back on me. This, I have to say, I very much prefer, despite the extra work involved.

The 360 AD experience, despite it’s obvious disappointments (see previous blogs), has taught me a few things: one of which is how to get a better mix, and how to better prepare my music for mastering, which is the part that I was less aware of before beginning this journey 2 years back.

This last weekend I’ve spent some time on getting Wry Smile and Only the Good Ones Go First to a good level where they can be mastered. I’m still thinking about whether to add some backing vocals to the bridge of Wry Smile, and whether to re-do the main vocal on Good Ones, to add the tiny tweaks to the verse that I now sing in the live set. I was so happy with the performance of the Guide vocal on Good Ones that I’m reluctant to bin it just yet. The beauty of digital recording is that it can be cloned, so we may have two versions to contend with eventually.

Anyway, I left this decision until Sunday where I started coming down with cold/flu shivers and a chesty cough (again… thought I’d got rid of that a fortnight ago!), which put paid to the whole session. For the moment, I’ll have to stick with the old vocal.

11 April 2018

Cabaret Doonican – 1st Outing

Great shot from Cabaret Doonican, April 5th

I’d been meaning to go and join in the open mics at The Old School House in Barnsley for a while, at the invitation of my friend Dave Wilde of ‘Wilde Sammon’, as he and bandmate Chris Sammon are pretty regular visitors there. I’ve attended a couple of charity fundraisers there already, purely as a spectator, and I was really impressed with the stage and the set up.

Cabaret Doonican is hosted every first Thursday of the month, and run by Scott Doonican, a guitarist and singer/performer himself, who literally races around most of the evening making sure the acts are informed of the running order and explaining the set up. This takes place in the back room at Old School House, which has a permanent stage setup with really good lighting and p.a..

For Cabaret Doonican there are tables arranged for acts and visitors to sit and watch, a bar open in a room at the side which keeps bar noise away from the stage. Talking during the performances is discouraged, out of respect to the performers, and if someone is talking too loudly, they’ll politely be asked to go into the other (main) bar away from the music. Result! There’s nothing worse than playing to a bar full of people who really aren’t interested, or watching the faces of an audience who want to listen to you but can’t hear much because of the noise of others. Either way, this set up gets rid of the disinterested.

As there were so many acts crammed into the evening, I was asked to perform just three songs, all I must say went down really well. A couple of the other performers came across to me afterwards to say how much they enjoyed my set. It was so nice to feel welcomed.

Scott’s wife (Amanda) was taking photos of all the performances and took some cracking shots of my set, one of which I’m using here, and on social media right now… Very grateful for the share!

All in all a great evening, and a fabulous venue for performers of all genres wanting a polite, respectful and encouraging audience. I definitely will be going back again!

5 April 2018

Progress at Last

I finally am beginning to make progress with the album, after a long stall.

Basically, and I guess because my contract with 360 Artist Development had come to an end, and he’d lost interest in progressing my tracks, I wasn’t getting anywhere fast with Matthew and was waiting for months to get studio time to mix the tracks that I had.

In the end, I’ve come away with very little: five tracks, none that I’m completely happy with, and none of them ready to master (as was promised) in the contract.

I arranged one final session in Matthew’s now finished full studio, originally to finalise the five tracks, but instead, I took along an SSD drive and just asked him to give me all of the stems from the Cubase files, and then after this the Cubase files themselves. So the rest of the two-hour session was Matthew exporting tracks for me to take away.

Many of these stems are painfully quiet, so I’m unsure how much of them I can use. I’m left with the decision to get hold of a copy of Cubase to re-export the tracks again. I’m happier though that the tracks are under my control, and I believe that I’ll make better progress with them than under the control of someone who didn’t really have my interests at heart.

As I write this, it’s 2 years since I began seeking help in developing my songs into product. And a frustrating road it has been.

I was due back in the studio yesterday with Andrew, which has been postponed, as his daughter is ill.

7 February 2018

Open Mics

These have been such a great way of building confidence, that I would recommend open mics to anyone wanting to get into performing their own material. I’ve been very fortunate to have the support of Andrew organising a great many of these.

Just lately these have been once a week at least, having at least a half-hour slot (and sometimes a whole hour) at the Dandy Lion in Heckmondwike. It’s got a great atmosphere there, and the audience are pretty polite most of the time, and will listen, and not just talk or shout over you (not that playing over a loud chatty audience isn’t a good learning experience in itself!).

The news this week is that the Dandy Lion Acoustic Sessions are maybe coming to a close, and that would be a shame. I’ve been looking forward to Monday nights. That’s been quite a change from the pre-stage nerves I used to get, not so long ago.

There’s still a once-a-month session at the Cross Keys in Liversedge to look forward to. But it looks like I need to go and seek out a few more to attend…

I’ll keep you posted.

12 January 2018

2017… A Look Back

Well… Things didn’t quite go according to plan in 2017. Losing my Mum in May was indeed a big blow. It’s one of those moments in life that really made me stop and take stock of things. A lot of my momentum since 2016 had been motivated by Mum, wanting to assist with her care, and wanting her to have the best she could have out of the rest of her time on this planet. Little did I know how short that time would be.

My progression with my tracks with Matthew at 360, and other aspects of my life and business stood still for a while. Consequently, my hopes to release some of the songs in the studio have not yet got there. I am hopeful for 2018 though. I’m continuing to work with Andrew now he has set up his own company AB Music, and I’m close now to having a complete set to play live.

Now the REAL work begins…

6 November 2017

Songwriting Update

Recently I’ve been concentrating on getting some more songs ready for the studio. I tend to use an iPad/iPhone app at the moment called Songwriter’s Pad, which is a very handy tool to be able to write songs on the move, and wherever/whenever the mood takes me.

I already had a system for writing, and I’ve had to modify (a little) what I’m doing to make this app work for me. But, it really does mean that I can carry my ideas around with me. Now, if I have an idea on guitar, I can also record it and attach it (in fact, several recordings) to the song, which really is an advantage. Then, I can upload songs to the cloud, and be able to access them on all of my connected devices.

It has certainly enabled me to become a more efficient songwriter, and I can switch sections of a song with ease as it develops. It has handy hint tools which can get you around writer’s block, if you need them. The one I find very useful particularly is the rhyme option, which can offer you a few alternative rhyming words if you’re stuck on one particular line of a song.

There is a Mac/Windows version also, but as far as I know, there isn’t an Android version yet.

22 August 2017

Songs and Instrumentals

I decided I’d have a count-up of all my demo recordings, past and present, that have some potential:

Songs: 77
(and there are some more unrecorded songs in development, potentially another 10-12).

Instrumentals: 102.

More songs than I thought I had… Fewer instrumentals. Enough to keep me going for a while though, don’t you think?

22 August 2017

Vocals complete (I think)…

Audacity is finally completed. Had a great session over at Matthew’s last Friday afternoon, and the final double-tracked vocals slotted into place after our usual warm-up beforehand.

We had a bit of time to review a couple of the other songs too, in particular I wanted to add more seriousness and weight to the arrangement on Daytime. I’m concerned that because I’d chopped it and speeded it up slightly (to make it shorter, on Matthew’s advice, and more commercial) that it’s lost it’s impact. My original ‘demo’ version, recorded at Rick’s (Rooster’s) used a droning synth bass (Rick’s Yamaha TX81Z), that I’d like to try and recapture somehow. I have a TX81Z, so I’ve asked Matthew to send me a mix track without acoustic bass to try out the TX with the new arrangement.

Reviewing all the mixed material at home, I’m still wanting to tweak the backing vocals on Nonsense Song. Again I’ve asked Matthew to send over a mix with an isolated track of the backing vocal so I can try some ideas out over here.

11 August 2017

Still recording…

I was over at Matthew’s yesterday, putting the backing vocals onto Audacity. I had elected to multi-track the backing vocals, a three-part harmony that I’d worked out, but to double-up each vocal to add some fullness to the backing, and to add more potential for a wider stereo spread in the final mix.

We got most of these done in the hour-long session, though my voice was straining a bit towards the end, and I’ve had to defer the last harmony to another session next week, as my throat was getting really raspy by the end of the hour. Seems I’d left the hardest part till last, the middle harmony, which just touches upon that part in my range where it begins to go into falsetto.

19 June 2017

Acoustic Solstice

A great all-day event, with three stages going on what turned out to be the hottest day of the year so far…

Hosted and organised by Pete Long, who does the Acoustic Circus open mics on Sundays, it had a great atmosphere with a pretty full pub, and plenty of drinks flowing!

My set began around 6:30 in the end, a little later than scheduled, and though we had a few feedback issues to begin with, and lost most of the impact of the first song, Audacity, the rest of the set went down ok I think. With the temperature at 34 degrees outside, and even hotter inside, for the blokes, shorts and T-shirt was the only way to perform without melting!

Thanks to Andrew, who watched on and lent a hand on the mixing desk when the guitar started to feedback, and got me sorted for the rest of my set. Once my set was done, we walked through to the main bar stage where firstly Francesca “Frankie” Turton was playing her songs, and straight after that, Zoe Beech. Great to see two other 360 acts gaining more strength with their songs.

Zoe and Andrew play their set

5 May 2017

Shocking News…

Mixing course

A couple of weeks ago I tried logging onto the mixing course website to complete my final module of the course. The site returned a 404 (site not there) error. I texted Matthew to get the reply that that part of the business has closed. Anyway, after messaging back my disappointment that day, Matthew, some 3 days later, did send me the assignment files so I could at least complete the final assessment mix. I’ve not had chance yet, with having to re-arrange my studio-space recently, but I will do this as soon as the audio equipment is re-wired.

Performance

I have also been chasing Andrew all week about getting one more live coaching session before the Batley Taproom night in June. I sent him a text requesting a meeting with both him and Matthew, to find out what was going on. Within a few minutes he rang me to tell me that his partnership with Matthew has dissolved, and that Matthew is now running 360 on his own. This was quite a shock. I had some slight vibe that things weren’t right here, you know, just a few little things that had cropped up in conversation, but the lack of communication was obvious. Andrew now is still working with 360, but as a subcontractor, so all bookings now are handled by Matthew.

This is a relief, as I was thinking for a while that the whole company had ceased.

So – now that my year’s contract has come to it’s end, I was perhaps fearing the worst, that I wasn’t going to have anything to show for the year’s investment.

While the experience gained this last year has been life-changing, until the major part of the contract is fulfilled, i.e. the five tracks, then I have no reason to renew my contract with 360, as their commitment is still incomplete.

I have since spoken with Matthew, and he still seems determined to complete the mixes and mastering as soon as possible. He is building a new studio, and though it’s possibly a month or two away from completion, and it would be a benefit to have final mixes done in it, I would rather be in possession of my five tracks now to market and progress the music further and have something to show for my efforts. We’ve also talked about getting a photographer to do some promo shots.

The story continues…

17 April 2017

Studio Session

Had a longer than usual session in Matthew’s studio today… In particular, I wanted to tackle the horns section in Nonsense Song which, once the instrumentation had been swapped in favour of Matthew’s superb horns set, the dynamics had altered, and I needed to tweak nearly every phrase. Although Matthew had done a stirling job of trying to interpret my crude instructions, it was more efficient to give me hands-on and let me tweak the piano roll, as I just knew the ‘feel’ of the track, and it was something I just couldn’t articulate, much as I tried. Anyway, he took this photo (above) of me getting my hands on Cubase, for the first time in many years.

We also went through this, and the other four tracks, and Matthew made notes as we played them through and commented on overall sound, and corrections to be made to the mix. They are all coming together I feel, and the changes needed now are fairly minor.

3 March 2017

Daytime – Studio Session

Another really good session at Matthew’s yesterday. Hampered a little by the traffic getting across, and it was an interesting detour getting there and avoiding the tailbacks on the M62. Anyway, we got two takes of guitar (pictured) and two vocal takes also in the time that remained. There’s nothing like a bit of time pressure to bring out a tight performance!

We’re doing a new version of Daytime, almost 30 years old (for me), but a murder story, quite dark really. I’m looking forward to hearing it come together, with some real drums (360’s guy in Nashville again), and bass.

Keep watching this space…

20 February 2017

Acoustic Circus Session

Nice pic from Andrew’s perspective… Me with Purple Hair!

Acoustic Circus Session is the title of the Open Mic event run regularly at the Taproom in Batley. Hosted by guitarist and singer Pete Long, the Taproom is a great little venue with nice acoustics which will hold about 80 when full. I was impressed with the sound quality when listening to the other acts singing and performing, though I had a couple of issues on the last bit of my second set when a dirty volume ‘pot’ on the P.A. started to crackle out. I just soldiered on and kept playing while Pete did his best to sort things out, which was done fairly quickly, but it definitely needs a clean up for next time.

Feedback from Andrew was very good. He was pleased with the way which I coped, even with the technical issues, and he had no complaints with my playing or my confidence on stage. I have a couple of things to work on in terms of the dynamics of one or two of the songs, which we can work on over the next few weeks. But as we’re coming to the end of our contract, I am now mindful of the fact that we still have 5 songs to complete, mix and master by April.

Lots to do. Watch this space…

13 February 2017

Recording Session

Went across to Matthew’s today for the first time since early December, being ill for most of December, and since my recovery he’s been away most of January on holiday.

We played and reviewed all the tracks so far: Watching the Rain, Nonsense Song, Get Out of This and a bit of Audacity.

First was Nonsense Song. In general I thought the vocals were too harsh, and I had to tell Matthew how unhappy I was with my performance of it. I think it was at the beginnings of my throat virus, and it showed in the performance. Hard to put my finger on it, but anyway, we’ve re-recorded the main vocal again, and I think it is sounding a bit ‘sweeter’, and doesn’t detract from the light-heartedness of the song.

I sat with Matthew while he mixed Watching the Rain. There were certain parts that were clashing for me, and these I’ve just made sure that he was aware of these parts in the production. Not huge changes, but a couple of subtle things that weren’t sitting right. He didn’t go on to complete the mix, but just saved the changes, so I’ve yet to hear the completed mix with those changes in place.

Lastly, we recorded the vocal and backing vocal for Get Out of This. We’ve recorded three ‘takes’ of the main vocal, so that Matthew has three performances he can select to get the best out of the performance. Then we did a couple of overdubs, recording short phrases that allowed me to experiment and vary the phrasing on these, and then the little backing vocal phrase to finish. It’s now up to Matthew to come up with his ‘best cuts’.

6 February 2017

Adding ‘live’ drums to your tracks…

It’s been a while since I last posted. Many things going off in my life at the moment, and the music being just a part of it. Anyway, the story so far…

We’ve recorded Watching the Rain. The mix is progressing, but it’s not quite there yet. There’s a couple of little bits that I’d like to improve, so Matthew’s letting me sit with him in the studio to go through the parts I’m not happy with.

We’ve recorded Nonsense Song. The vocal is too harsh on it, this is because I recorded it at a point in time when I was coming down with a throat virus, that ended up taking me out for 4 weeks or more (and right over Christmas too…). The throaty vocals have made it sound to me like it’s an attempt at a punk record. I’m not sure at this point what we can do with it.

We’ve begun recording Get Out of This, and one of two new songs: Audacity.

For both of these we’ve recorded guitar at Andrew’s place this time, while Matthew was away, and then afterwards Andrew has commissioned a drummer who’s got a drum-studio setup in Nashville. He’s put a number of tracks down now for Get Out of This. We’ve had to go to 3 takes over this one, and that’s more due to my having a 30 year old song. When you’ve had 30 years to think about it, it kind of goes a certain way in your head, and it’s difficult to imagine a different drum pattern. I wanted real drums on the track, but the ‘virtual drums’ I had were pretty much what I wanted to be played; I just wanted the ‘robotic’ element (that all drum machines have) to be removed.

There is no doubt to me that, despite the repeats and the re-work, having a real drummer really adds something to the mix. I can’t wait to hear the track completed. We still have vocals and keyboard instrumentation to do yet.

16 November 2016

Performance Session

A really great session today with Andrew. I’ve introduced another three songs to the set: Taken to Another, and new songs Waiting on the World and Till the Day is Done, the latter having literally been written last week. I’ve suggested a slide guitar approach with this last one to Andrew. The improvised accompaniment he’s done today really works, I think, and it’s down to formalising this in the next few weeks before we perform it. Thanks Andrew for the pic.

7 November 2016

Half-way point review

Actually, it’s a little more than half-way now on the Artist Development Course, but I felt as if Matthew, Andrew and I needed to get our heads together and plan the next period and be a bit more productive. Anyway, I called a meeting…

Where we are right now: Recording Course complete; Watching the Rain in progress; The Nonsense Song in progress; Mixing course is now underway on week one after some delays.

General feedback from my close friends on hearing the new version of Watching the Rain has meant that we need to take some practical steps to improve the song. Last week I’d sent across a list of changes, which, I understand, Matthew’s worked on.

The coaching so far has been an enjoyable and liberating process. Who would have thought that I would even be able to get up on a stage and perform my work six months ago? Certainly not me. Big praise for Andrew particularly here, but also for Matthew, who has equipped me with vocal warm-ups and a way of pulling a bit more out of the vocal chords than I ever expected. Credit also for Matthew, who has shown me tips and tracks in recording and mixing during the recording sessions we’ve had, and some tips as to which plugins he uses in his DAW.

I thought it was necessary for the meeting to re-focus on my goals and aims here, and so I mentioned that although we are looking to produce five songs to mastered level here, my aim is beyond that…. to an album. I’ve chosen to put more into performance coaching now, moving forward, as it’s the live side of things that needs to improve and grow.

I also wanted to discuss which five tracks to record… The fact is, since beginning this process my songwriting has become more frequent, to the point now where I’d say I’m writing at least one song a week. My enthusiasm is always for the newer stuff, but, as Matthew rightly pointed out as we spoke, to everyone else, ALL of my songs are new! That is, except perhaps for my ‘inner circle’ of friends who have been good enough to listen to the older stuff and give me feedback and encouragement.

Anyway – I’m tasked this week with providing a third song for Matthew to begin work on. I’ve chosen Get Out of This, perhaps one of my favourite of the ‘old set’. Lastly, we’ve still to decide on the remainder, but there are a couple of songs I’d like to explore which maybe weren’t on the list of five to begin with.

7 September 2016

Recording Course

I haven’t really written anything about this yet, but I’ve just completed the final week 8 of the Songwriting School’s Recording Course. Now, I already have a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) in Apple’s Logic Pro, and I have a few key pieces of recording gear to go with this, but in light of previous feedback from Matthew and other music producers, there were real gaps in my knowledge and this needed addressing. Matthew thus recommended the course that he runs on the Songwriting School website.

Now I have to say, that the first three weeks of the course were very familiar to me, simply because they covered the basics: how to set up your studio for recording; speakers and microphones; and recording MIDI in particular. Anyway, I dutifully went through these weeks, and where there were testing questions, I answered them confidently…. and got a couple wrong, I admit. This is the disadvantage of being self-taught. So by the end of this I feel it filled in the gaps nicely. The real eye-opening part of the course for me was the guitar recording part, and this really got me thinking again about the way I’ve been recording my guitars up until now. The great advantage of having an acoustic guitar with transducing pick-ups is it’s immediacy in being able to just plug it in and record away; the disadvantage of this is the quality of sound it produces is limited to the quality of the pick-up, and this can never match the quality of a good high-end condenser microphone, placed correctly to get the whole spectrum of sound of the guitar, not just the electronic signal from the pick-up.

Week 7 was really the key part of the project: the practical. It was my chance to show what I’d learned and put my new skills and knowledge into practice. I decided it was worth doing a new piece, as there was no point in going over old ground and making it too easy for myself; these needed to be real problems and not things I’d faced before. This posed me a new set of challenges for every instrument I recorded. In the end I picked new song Waiting on the World to try and give it some of the new guitar recording techniques I’d been studying.

Here’s Matthew’s comments:

Final Project:

Craig, this is an outstanding effort and you should be very proud of what you have achieved.

You have a lovely use of stereo in the guitar recording and the guitars are full sounding and shows that your mic placement was well thought out and successful. There are no phase issues that I can hear. The drums come in musically and the use of cymbal is well placed. It is difficult to hear the drums generally and you may wish to consider whether the kick drum sound would benefit from layering, or some more compression to make it ‘kick’ better. You have followed the instructions of setting up the virtual instruments well.

The recording is clean and your fades are perfect.

The use of compression and reverb is appropriate for the musical style. Perhaps not for this track but generally speaking don’t be afraid to experiment with effects – sometimes you can do something crazy and get a really excellent effect from it and the more you use your plugins the more you will gain confidence at knowing exactly how to get the sound you have in your head each time.

Your backing vocals really lift the track at the right point and nicely compliment the main vocal.

This is the best final project I have had the pleasure of marking. Because I know how you have recorded in the past, I can hear that you have really taken on board everything from this course and put it into practise in a way that has vastly improved your recording skill. I thoroughly look forward to your work on the mixing course.

Anyway – I’m really encouraged by the feedback. It’s given me a real positive look forward to the mixing course coming next. Again, I think some of the knowledge will already be there, but again I’m feeling confident that the gaps in my knowledge and some of my inherited ‘bad habits’ will hopefully be addressed.