Whatchoo readin' fawr?

For this reason! Learnin me some proper production and mastering ting. It's all a bit of grey fog, still. No more, I tells ya.

Mel did a fantastic FANTASTIC job with "Echo", and she's mastering "Below The Sea" as we speak. Her ear is impeccable, clear as day when you listen to her own music too.

She's based in Brighton now with her fella Herv. Keep an eye and an ear peeled for the two of them.

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.

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.

Machinedrum-dum-dum

And still, she will not shut up about it...! The Elektron Machinedrum is just savage. Savage savage savage. So intuitive, so fast to work with, so diverse-sounding. There are limitations, of course (a two bar loop length, for one, on the model that I have), but limitations make you work imaginatively. I'm just delighted that I have a means of making (proper) beats without having to fiddle with a mouse.
I'd attempted other ways before, using the mad bass of the cello and sharp filter cuts to get a nice sub sound, but definition was always a problem and a lot of the time the vague rumble produced was more in the way than an element in its own right. Likewise, heavily treating a vocal channel, and (very not properly) beatboxing produced interesting effects but it just wasn't enough.
I listen to a lot of dance music (the good stuff, obviously. Obviously, as well, what I say is good is good. Obviously!), but that wasn't represented really before. "Oh look, it's a winsome gerl singing nice songs, we'd better sit down the better to gaze up at her."

Out with the old

On Friday, I had my first taste of what Ed called "the curse of playing last". Sitting around denying myself pints that I can't afford isn't that much of a hardship, but, having my set lopped off three songs before the end, is. We were only allowed play until 1 a.m., so there was nothing to be done about it, but I didn't get a chance to play the new songs (avec Machinedrum), or "Dwell" my current favourite.

Of course, this was also caused by having some dead wood in the form of older songs. I read a lovely article yesterday in a Sunday supplement (it just fell open! After all my bitching about Sunday supplements too!) about felling trees, clearing and managing woodland. It seemed quite apt given what I'd spent most of Saturday thinking about. Much as I love the songs off the EP, enough already! They came about last summer from having to write stuff under time pressure for upcoming gigs, whereas recently I was a bit easier on myself in that regard. Surfing on old waves. So, for the gig in Block T on the 30th (Melodica Deathship's album launch), I'll try for a (mostly) new(-ish) set. I can't churn it out that quickly.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/oct/17/tobias-jones-a-life-less-ordinary

The tyranny of choice

Well,
January was a bit of a damp squib. Quel surprise. Wrote feck all music, due in part to my desire to "change direction", and also the fact that I got loads of new toys. The desire to change direction and the acquisition of new toys is a chicken and egg scenario, but stems from an innate dissatisfaction with what you're doing (I find). "I wish I was more edgy/dancey/experimental/abstract/fun/etc etc etc."

Found a lovely quote by a chap called Rabbi Zusya that both summed up and eradicated my fretting. "In the world to come, I shall not be asked, 'Why were you not Moses?' I shall be asked, 'Why were you not Zusya?'" Tis a very simple realisation (once you've realised it!), but very hard to see when you're in the middle of it.

It's fierce distracting as well to get a field recorder, new keyboard, and a rake of plug-ins and soft synths. And Reaktor. As well as trying to learn more about Ableton Live, my primary tool, which I've thus far only used on the most simple level.

Well, small steps. I'm glad the collywobbles are gone for the meantime though.

Bye bye Christmas!

The bad workman blames his tools, they say. They (all-seeing, all-knowing, talk like your ma) don't realise that the bad workman can find ANYTHING to blame. My favourite these last few weeks has been Christmas.
"There's no point! I'll only get started and then I'll have to stop for a few weeks. The parties, the socialising, the inevitable, obligatory hangovers!!" Et-bleedin-cetera.

Well, no more!