Flickr set from Monday's gig

Thanks to Cees Van de Ven for this.

Thanks also to John Thomas and Mark Dijkstra, AxesJazzPower's organisers, and thanks to my collaborators Sean Bergin and Alan "Gunga" Purves.

November news

The Eindhoven gig is approaching now - Monday the 28th of November is the date. I went up to Amsterdam last week to have a jam with Sean (Bergin, my collaborator for part of the show). My first ever electronic jam! He played sax, flute, whistles, concertina, and a banjo he made out of an oil-can, which I then sampled, processed, looped etc. It was mad interesting, I've never really done something like that before, and neither had he. We had a buzz though, and I think he got a kick out of it. It's very transparent, after all, "Oh, I just played that and now I can hear it play back again."

On the night, we'll be joined by Alan "Gunga" Purves, an instrument-maker extraordinaire. 'Sgonna be fun!

A few releases coming up soon too. I met Morphamish up at Rathlin, what a gent! He runs a great net label called Black Lantern Music, and asked me to make an EP for them. Which I am. Yay! Hope to have it finished by Christmas (I ALWAYS want to have things finished by Christmas. Ha!).

The wonderful Meljoann, she who mastered the album, runs a label called Boy Scout Audio. Making a track for a compilation of Irish-tinged but contemporary music. It started simple, then it got very complicated, but.... I hope to have it finished by Christmas. Hweh hweh.

The Machinedrum finally came back three weeks ago. Yes, three months being repaired. Three months to the day. Eeeek. I need an alternative in case that happens again, it's just too disruptive. For the time being though, it's all about catch up catch up.

Amsterdam Gig this Monday

This nice opportunity came up just a few days ago. And any excuse to visit Amsterdam is always welcome!

Learn discipline, learn focus, learn the meaning of PAIN - Learn Piano

Not really.

I picked up a piano last week (been workin out, wha!) in one of Eindhoven's swell second-hand shops. Cheap as chips too. It'll cost as much again to get it tuned, but then it'll be good to go. I might even try and teach it a bit.

There's something special about the piano. Maybe the size, the range, the wash of sound, wiggin out for a few hours, white-water rafting on a piano-y river. So to speak. And the really nice symmetrical feeling of playing with both hands in the same way (although you don't really. But damn, scales are satisfying.)

Piano Roles is a collection of writing by various people about the piano - both "the grip it has on the popular imagination" and historical essays about the modern piano and how it got to be the beast it is. And some lovely technical drawings of piano mechanisms, and kerrazy karikatures of 19th-century virtuosos (or is it virtuosi?). But anyway, a grip on my imagination the piano surely has.

This isn't straight piano by any means (dig those bonkers synths!!), but Stevie Wonder has this gem from 1976 - All Day Sucker.

This is news though

Hello from Patience Bootcamp! I'm not very patient, you see. This notwithstanding, it's been a bit of a slow few months. But the demo CDs are back from the pressing plant, be-artworked and mastered and all those professional things. I start sending them out next week, yeow!!

My first Eindhovinian gig is on at the end of November. Yip yip! AxesJazzPower is an Eindhoven-based promotions group and "stage for adventurous new music". Their programmes range from jazz to contemporary classical, theatre, electronica, and pretty much anything else interesting. I see that Andy Moor (guitarist from the legendary Dutch punk band, The Ex) is playing in a few weeks with Yannis Kyriakides, a Cypriot composer living in Amsterdam. Seeya down the front, hweh!

But anyway, yeah, their shows are always interesting, and for the gig in November, they're setting up a collaboration between an upcoming artist (that'd be me) and an old, wise, lion with years of experience. So, I'll be going to Amsterdam in a few weeks to meet up with Sean Bergin, we'll have an aul jam together, and see what happens. It's really exciting though, obviously a very different set-up to Ireland. Slightly more (this word again) professional. But it is though.

It's not News...

By this stage, it's Olds, but nonetheless -

London Burning.

Rathlin Wish-List

Ha! Every year, the same thing. "I wonder will I get over to the puffin sanctuary..." Past experience says noooooooo. Can't let the dream die though.

I've got a bad case of the Christmas Eve excitements - hyper since yesterday, completely not with it in work this evening. I imagine tonight will be a winkless night of sleep.

Video from last Friday

Jimmy put up a video from the Bierhaus gig on Youtube. The track is "Jump Don't Jump", and it's on the album. Which is being released....some time???? Need to get the house in order in that regard.

The Show Must Go On

That's the buzz at Rathlin - "So, the tent's blown away, the generator keeps cutting out, and half the stage has collapsed because of a hurricane... But why have you stopped playing?"

Mini trouble in paradise the other day though, and this in the comfort and safety of my own home. I plugged in my gear, post-Galway, and the Machinedrum, well, she sings no more. So I dunno, the plucky little drum machine that could is probably going to have to go to hospital in Sweden, leaving me sad, bereft, and (most importantly) mildly stuck for Sunday's gig. No cello either, that's been "sick" since my last trip back to Ireland.

I really need to sort out a better way of travelling with gear. In the meantime, though, this could work out even better - just a laptop, midi controller, and soundcard. Less hassle, less worry, less things that could go missing/be smashed to bits/be abducted by aliens, the usual crack.

G-g-g-Galway!

Just had a lovely few days out west. And back in Ireland. Ah yes, killing the planet, one Ryanair flight at a time. But yeah, it was a lovely trip out to Connemara and Galway city. I was recording a few songs for Ceol ar an Imeall, a weekly music programme on TG4. On Friday night, I was lucky enough to play in the Bierhaus in Galway. It was a Community Skratch gig that I kind of muscled in on. The music sandwich had a glorious landscape filling - we drove off out into the wilds, climbed The Diamond in Letterfrack (well, I'm a bit starved for slopes in The Netherlands), and went around Lough Mask and Lough Corrib. Great fun altogether.

Not so much fun, however, the 2 a.m. bus from Galway to Dublin airport for a 7 a.m. flight. I swore I'd never say "I'm getting old" but it fairly knocked the stuffing out of me. Getting ready for more of the same this weekend though.

RATHLIN!!!!!!

Today I have mostly been obsessively listening to...

The O6 Census by Botched Fairytale

It's like being fifteen again! Just gorgeous.

Meljoann

So, the album's getting mastered by the excellent Mel Ryan, also known as Meljoann. She makes deadly weird R'n'B, that manages to be accessible, interesting, melodic, unique, and wonky. She sang in the choir I got together for the EP launch, and I'm told she plays the flute too... The production on her songs is great, and I trust her to preserve the balance in my stuff. Electronic while not mad bangin, vocal while not swamped in Over Compressed Vocals.

Here's the record label she set up - checkit!

Demodemodemo de Mode du Monde

As we say On The Continent. So I've been getting my internet on, researching labels all over the world. All over the world, says she!

My cunning plan is to get the album released in as many countries as I can, or even just get talking to people who may be in a position to have us over for an aul gig. An aul gig, says she!

The UK, the Americas, Africa, Yerp, Australasia, Asia, I'm only limited by my reserves of patience. Philips' School Atlas on my lap, and away we go. Virtually speaking....

I've been fascinated by the island of Saint Helena since I read about it. On one side, the wind never blows, and on the other, it never stops. The only way to get there is on a Royal Mail boat, and it takes two weeks to get there (did somebody say "Hen Party"!!??). Maybe I'll leave Saint Helena for the time being, but I'll get there eventually.

More from the talented Mr Quinn

Barry put up a post on his blog about the artwork for the album. I like the hexagonal shape of the case, kinda mirrors the star/sky/geometry formation. It looks handy out to make the case too, just a couple of folds in a piece of paper. I'm going to hunt out different types of black paper, and the many shades of black. A nod to the magpies...

Gig this Saturday, more waffle

I'm playing in SARC in Belfast this Saturday. Yeow! First gig of 2011. Back to the old sod for a week and a bit too. I'm getting a loan of an electric cello for the night.

On Tuesday, I've one last day in the studio (I hope!) to dot all the I's and cross all the T's. As for the release, in the words of Homer Simpson, "Can't somebody else do it?" So I'm making some demo CDs with partial artwork, and away they fly to "the most eligible record labels". Whoever and wherever they are.

2FM Session, Bandcamp, trips to the shop, and "Echo"

I went into 2FM there a few weeks back and recorded some songs. Got to play a piano on one of them, which was great, a Steinway grand, no less. I suppose this means I'll have to make my peace with the TV licence fee.

Dropped in to Ed on Monday and he told me that there is real-live hard cold cash money in the Bandcamp ether from sales of the EP. Will wonders never cease? Paying for a download? Whoever you are, thank you so so so so much, lovely people! Thus heartened, I betook myself to Freebird (in the Secret Book & Record Store), The R.A.G.E., and Tower here in Dublin and stuck in some copies. Even to have them on a shelf somewhere is good.

But the biiig biiiig news is that yesterday we finished mixing the album.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Big huge thanks to Joe, not only for all the help, advice, amazing mics to record on and all that... To leave with a bit of a beginner's knowledge of Protools, and a rake of beautiful new plug-ins, well, that's the cherry on top of the seven-tier cake.

Sprrrring Cycle

Spring-cleaning and packing with the windows open and the sun streaming in. Listening to Morphamish and a gem from last December by Redmonk (which I can't find a download link to now. Boo! But check out this and An Dord is Mó on Raidió na Life. Always a treat.)

I saw Laura Sheeran play in Tower last Friday, just beeeeeaaautiful. Harp, accordion, ukele, double bass, guitar, live electronics, and herself. Two "proper" launch gigs will be on later in the month, in Galway on the 17th, and Dublin on the 18th. Worth a look and a listen! I'll be outta the country by then, alas.

The Life of a Song

Little did I think when I named a song "Dwell" that it'd take so long to finish (touch wood - it's not mixed yet). But there you go. Took a few months to write, from initial earworm stage to being finished, and it's the oldest song on the album. Recorded and re-recorded over three days (as opposed to an hour or two for all the others), edited, re-edited, synths tuned up and tuned back down. I suppose it's very dear to my heart, so I want it to be propah propah, but it's ironic too, given that it's about eeehh not dwelling and all those Buddhist etceteras.

Echo progress

Barry put up a lovely video on his blog - a time lapse of etching he's doing, possibly for the album cover: I might as well finish

I still haven't thought too much about what to do with the beast once it's finished, but I've decided to call it "Echo" anyway. For an echo is a lovely thing, and where would I be at all without reverb?

Up in the studio this week for a few days again, four tracks mixed now. Saweet! There was some re-recording on a few of them, but it's all still going to plan. Cracking weather as well. It's so nice to get out of the city, and be up overlooking it all. The studio shares a side wall with the big shed where all the ewes are lambing now, so they're all doing their cute thing in there. The lambs, I mean; the ewes all remind me of hard-livin', hard-lovin' barmaids, with their dirty blonde perms and 40-fag-a-day "mmmeeeeehhhh"s.

Recording!

So, this evening I finished (I hope!!!!) recording all the vocal and cello parts for the album. Now a fortnight of editing lies ahead (shouldn't take that long, but you never know), and then back up to the studio for mixing.

Joe's great to work with. Amazing as the studio is, the real pleasure is in working with someone so open and helpful, who shares his (impressive!) knowledge freely, while giving you space so that your eeehhh "true voice" can emerge. Not to mention him and MT giving me a room to sleep in while I'm up there. And getting lunch off his Ma too! Very big ups!

The XX-Chromosome Question

A few weeks ago, Kathleen Lynch, Professor of Equality Studies Department in UCD, went onto Vincent Browne's night-time talk-show. In the course of the programme, she made some not-too-out-there comments about the lack of critical journalism in this country and the general conservative/right-wing slant in the media in Ireland, a slant that is so endemic and ingrained that it has become accepted as objective truth. She was subjected to a torrent of abuse on Twitter, some of it overtly sexist.

Transcript of the exchange on Vincent Browne, and the ensuing distastefulness.

She was interviewed on Mediabite last week, and part of the interview touched on the events of the week before.

Quite a long interview, but worth the read.

I got asked recently to take part in a gig organised by The Irish Feminist Network on the 8th of March. By the time I got back to them, the bill had been filled, but it still got me to thinking. A gig on International Women's Day, consisting of a solely female line-up - how do I feel about that? Eehhh, fine, no problem there. Sometimes a quota, or favourable discrimination, is needed to assist a minority group (especially if the minority includes 50% of the population). Will the sound engineer be a woman too?

The Women's Audio Mission are a San Francisco-based organisation that provide training, support, and general "you can do it!" for women and girls looking to work in production and recording. Hmm, I wonder about starting such a thing here. A few years in the future, but there's no harm in thinking about it now.

There is, of course, a wider issue here. As ever, eh. More chewing on this bone will follow.

Rekids, innit!

How long does it take to plug in a record player? Ten months, if you're me. And counting... But oh, those big shiny black records! And my computer and its fan off!

Dinternet is many things, and it's great for music - listening, passing it around, etc etc, we've all heard it, and it's all true. Soundcloud is a wonderful thing, Mixcloud too, but. But. But oh, the ever-shrinking attention span. And the computer as the focal point of the room, the jack-of-all-trades. And those beautiful records weeping, abandoned, in their beautiful big sleeves, with their lovely artwork. As for mixing....!! (Yes - records, on the internet.)

Having said that, tonight I was listening to Ilex on Soundcloud. Great stuff!

Just an aul link

http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2011/02/09/so-mr-kenny-how-did-that-town-hall-meeting-go/

Pump Up The Jams

Read this! An antidote to all that on the telly and in the news. Some fine, thought-provoking writing to be read there.

Album To-Do List

- Write two more songs by the end of February.
- Think of a name.
- Record it (with a lorrah lorrah help from Joe).
- Mix it.
- Master it (or get it mastered, as a sound engineer I am not).
- The cover is in Barry's capable hands, so no worries there.

This by the end of March.

Then to release it. Releasing it is the hard part, two issues there.
The release itself - physical, digital, both? Pledge Music, Bandcamp...? Do I just go nuts altogether and release it on vinyl as I'd like to? Or make CDs to sell at the launch gig and as promo copies? CDs are a bit...hmmm....but still...hmmmm.....thinking aloud.

And the launch gig, and promotion thereof.

It's not so daunting when it's all written like that.

The Chequered Life of Michel Thomas

I've been learning Dutch these last few weeks, listening to Michel Thomas. It's a great way of learning; the nice Dutch lady with the calm voice and the terrible puns gives small building blocks of sentences, and then there's the "how would you say 'they don't want to stay here tomorrow because they want to go there today'?" part where I say stuff in Dutch and hope none of my housemates can hear me. Still though, it's quick, and it gives you a real sense of familiarity with structure and word order.

But as for Michel Thomas' life! Colourful, to say the least. In and out of concentration camps like a yo-yo, in the French Resistance, involved in a sting operation where he posed as "Dr Frundsberg" to root out SS officers. Michel's wartime experiences, particularly his torture by the French Milice (Gestapo) when he discovered the ability to block out pain, made Michel Thomas aware of the untapped potential of the human mind.

No messin with that.

What is Social Partnership?

A big fat euphemism.

A means by which gouty, be-combovered auld fellas in pinstriped suits can breeze in and out of the Dáil with impunity while a savage Finance Bill is being "debated", scuttling past a mere handful of (very polite) protesters for evening drinks in Buswell's. A means by which citizens and voters are completely disenfranchised and alienated by the political system, made feel that their actions mean nothing and their views mean less. To the point that, as a citizen, taking action or having a view is considered a complete waste of time.
"Sure what can we do? Sure aren't they all the same? Sure wouldn't we all do the same in that position? Now, let's stop thinking about this, indulge in some retail therapy, and spend our way outta this mess!!"

There are many things that cause me to seethe, but shamfakery freedomspeak has to be one of the worst. Adam Curtis describes it wonderfully in The Trap (watch it! It's blemmin great!!), but to sum it up - "be free to indulge all the you's that you can be, with Lenor fabric softener". As a freedom agnostic (I believe it might exist, but I don't know anyone who's ever experienced it. Chief Gaoler, of course, being that brain there up inside your own head), I take massive issue with this fragile, all-but-unattainable wonder being used to sell me a load of shit I don't want or need, be it fabric softener, a satellite TV subscription, a stupid-looking car, or a fizzy drink.

It's most insidious in financial institution advertising land, that grimmest of the grim. Because there is a frisson of....maybe...just maybe....when I'm in my sixties, lightly tanned, a jersey knotted around my shoulders...on my yacht...a bouncy golden retriever chasing a bright red ball... "More money," they whisper at you from behind the pot plants in the bank, "and more money again, and you'll be sooo freeeeee..."

He's a world away from Adam Curtis's indepth analysis and measured delivery, but Michael Moore is another one for this. Capitalism - A Love Story has a short sequence of "be all the free you's and me's that we all want to be free to be - together with Bank X" ads, followed by people being booted out of their homes, victims of the vagaries of a stock market they'd invested in of their own free will. The stock market, that sentient, surprisingly jittery being, presumably took a notion that it didn't want to finance the dreams of thousands of throwing a bright red ball for a bouncy labrador on a yacht (or, yknow, having a pension to retire on, or still living in the house they'd bought to grow old in. Whatever). It can be a bit moody sometimes, that stock market.

Which brings us back to the gouty auld fellas nipping across the road to Buswell's. "Sure won't you have that mortgage for the plasterboard house outside Athlone paid off in thirty years now? Things might be a bit tighter with the pay-cuts and all, but your kids will emigrate as soon as they can so there'll be less mouths to feed anyway." Gentlemen, another job done with aplomb!

Addendum: Big ups to Eadaoin for freedomspeak pointers!

Nederlands!

The countdown begins now for the move over to Eindhoven. Eeekkk. Oh yes, it's exciting (what, living in the same country as my boyfriend!?), but new language, new country, new home, finding work, the prospect of a lotta push push push before there's a whiff of a gig or anything of the sort. "Comfort-zone" is one of these snappy buzz-phrases all the rage these days, or rather, one's removal of oneself from said cosy place. "Get out of your comfort-zone, ye big lummock!" And I'm a sucker, a proud, proud sucker, confidently striding over the Discomfort Frontier, with a big knot in my belly and an icy lump in my chest. No looking back though! T minus two months or thereabouts.

Addendum: Make that two and a half months. I have to get cracking on the album in the meantime.