End of 2010 type thing

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When the year commenced my two aims (artistically) were to do less gigs and concentrate on getting more recording done. These aims were accomplished but no way near as succecfully as I would have wanted to, so here are my thoughts on this.

RECORDING

I did two studio sessions and two village hall sessions as well as trying loads of different recordings set ups at home. And I learnt this. When going into a studio, if after half an hour you feel that the engineer’s overall attitude is not to your liking – you should maybe mention the 40 mile round trip you’ve had to use the facilities he’s marketed as being ‘unique’ are somewhere short of the mark and that if he expects to be paid £20 an hour for these he should maybe rethink his operating procedures.

I ditched analogue recording (again – give me 6 months before I go out and buy a cassette recorder again) and bought a Zoom H4n. It’s a great machine. Not quite small enough to make field recordings for me (i’m still using my phone for this) but it has lent itself very well to everything else. Now I’ve discovered it will work as an audio I/O with the ipad, I’m pretty much over joyed with it!!

The experimenting I’ve done with recording this year has laid out the possibilities for me, so, once again, I hope to be able to record something properly in the first part of the New Year.

GIGS

What a bunch of eye openers they’ve been this year. First gig of the year was to a rammed Musician crowd supporting Free Control. I don’t think anyone played the blindest bit of attention to what I did. Or to Free Control. Everyone sat there chatting away, I couldn’t hear myself on stage the ambient noise was that loud. I played Summer Sundae too, which was ace but what I learned from that is that playing outside at a festival is no place for subtlety. You are fighting with generators from food vans and several other stages and as a consequence trying to loop birdsong and delicate finger picking is somewhat lost amongst the general background noise of festival life.

But when it goes right, ahhh.
Playing at The Y with maybeshewill was wonderful. I was afforded the space and the time to explore and reveled in the luxury. I also played as a duo with Misterlee which brought back to me the power of improvisation. We had no rehearsals just a couple of emails and a vague direction of how I would play. Lee turned up 5 minutes before we were due to play and we just played. And it was wonderful. As was making new friends from all over the place, the real joy of doing gigs – making a connection with people.

As for 2011, vague plans are forming. The one definite plan is this – the Myspace account is going to be deleted New Years day. It’s time.

Here’s to the New Year.
Px

A wonderful sound (post no.1)

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I wanted to write about some wonderful sounds. Not the ‘ I remember the first time I heard Joy Division and it totally blew my mind’ type post (though I can do that if you want me to) but the times I’ve heard a sound or noise that’s caught me totally unaware and stops me to try and take it in. And this is the first one.

We were at a roller disco party for one of my eldest daughter’s friends in a large sports hall, like a school/college gymnasium. The basic idea is the kids (and grown ups!) strap on a pair of skates and go round and round in circles whilst some music plays. It finishes, there’s cake, you go home happy. A boy in his late teens doles out the skates to everyone then sits in a plastic chair, texting his mates whilst an ipod plays chart hits through a little portable speaker.

The last time I went to a roller disco, indeed was on rollerskates, was 25 years ago but I was keen to put on a pair and slowly made my way around whilst my eldest and her friends (and their parents) went around with the utmost of skill. There is something to be said about how great skating can make you feel – gliding along inches above the floor with the minimum of effort is somewhat akin to the feeling of flying. And it was whilst I was slowly glding around the periphery of the hall I became aware of the sound around me.

The little speaker and ipod were playing Katy Perry‘s Teenage Dream but I could only just faintly hear it as the sound that was filling the hall was that of twenty or so 8 and 9 year olds singing along to the chorus at the top of their voices. As they were skating around the hall their voices filled up the reverbarent space of the large room and each word took on this incredible air of joy as it was sung out, hanging in the massive space above their heads, their shoulders moving from side to side as they coasted across the floor.

It really was a wonderful sound and I found myself marvelling at it and was caught up in their bliss – you could only smile at how happy, how free it felt. As a parent, you understand that there is no greater sound than that of your children laughing. Thinking about it now, I just feel totally taken away by how incredible it was and I’m not sure why. Whether it was the energy or the power of their joy or just the sound itself.

monorama

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I’m not sure where the idea came from but the other night I decided I’d drag that whammo Behringer Condensor mic from the back of the wardrobe and try recording with it and using some headphones to monitor. I’m not a big fan of monitoring with headphones for many reasons – it’s hard to get the balance right; it shreds my ears pretty quickly; it’s just not the same as playing in a room in front of an amp. In the process of doing this I learnt three things.

Having no decent mic pre to hand I had to use the Zoom H4n as the mic pre then put the signal through the pedals. Then the output of those went through my Samson S-Mix and into a Minidisc (YAY!) to record ‘the action’.

First thing I learned? The mic preamps on the Zoom are pretty rough. They’re really noisy and only slightly better than those on the S-mix (which when using a phantom powered mic are awful). So a dedicated mic pre or a mixer with a decent gain section would have been most useful.

Second thing. All though the sound that came out the other end was quite natural sounding there is, as you’d expect, little movement in the audio field, which makes it a bit dull to listen to. On a psychological note – I did notice that when I heard a picked chord being played, the notes going low to high did feel as if they were moving in the sound field. Here’s how some of it came out.

The third thing? In this modern age, possibly the most important instrument any musician can have is a mixer. Any mixer with a couple of mic inputs, an aux send and a couple of outputs is the most versatile tool you could ever own. If I only I didn’t just sell mine. Doh!

cycling in the snow

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I haven’t posted about bikes in ages so now seems like a good time to mention it….

I love bikes and at the moment the particular bike I ride is coming into it’s own. It’s really snowy and cold (and a little bit icy in places). I ride a single speed 29er – a Haro Mary. Having the one gear and big fat tyres on MASSIVE wheels just means you roll along at your own pace, crunching through the snow, riding along the grassy verges when it gets a bit too hairy and genuinely enjoying the ride. You still have to look out for tools in cars but I wouldn’t want to swap the bike for one.

on sunny days

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I was thinking about school. How on sunny days the light through the windows would catch my watch casing and throw a tiny star of light against the classroom walls. How I’d play with it, tilting and angling my wrist to make this bright speck dance and move around the room, travel slowly, quickly, with purpose, intent. Sometimes it would disappear and I would move my hand around until it would be back and would slowly start again. The utter magic of it all.

That’s what playing music feels like.

Can I have a little more squeaky chair in my monitor, please?

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Have paintbrush, will travel
(Photo by the lovely David Wilson Clarke)

More action from the Y theatre show last month. I recorded the whole thing from the stage with my Zoom H4n and it did a pretty good job. Including picking up the squeaking drum throne that I was sitting on! See below for a section of the set. This piece has come togther from the improv’d gig I did with Misterlee Lee Allatson at The musician with Diane Cluck. Enjoy!

a view from here (30th Oct 2010 0949)

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Saturday morning at my children’s gymnastics class. Cold wooden floor. Their voices and the teacher’s bounce around the hall, reverberant reflections underpinned by rhythmic footsteps soon to launch somersaults across worn blue mats. Closer to me a wall heater rattles, other parents talk to one another,a phone call is made and the pages of a ‘true lives’ women’s weekly are turned.
A slight draft blows through the hall’s open door and makes small piles of grey dust and lint perform circular dances along the edges and in corners of the room. Through the windows a grey squinty light is making the climbing ladders a block of black squares as the class and morning slowly clop along.

In praise of……Robert A.A. Lowe

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As I sit down to write this Mr Robert A.A Lowe is about to take the stage at the Nook Cafe at the Fishmarket, Northampton some 40 miles or so down the road. Were I able to be there, I would be. As I’m not, I’m writing this.

I first saw Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe playing bass with 90 Day Men at The Charlotte in Leicester some time in 2002-4. They were unlike any band I’d seen before and he was a most charismatic man on stage. A few years later I saw a picture of him in Dream magazine and an article about his Lichens project. The article fascinated me and I made a note to try and checkout what he was doing. A month or so later, I saw this video on You Tube.

It took my head off. I sat there in complete shock. Amazed. He seemed to hint at the possibilties of where music can go when you just close your eyes and let it. Something that happens when you listen. Something I’ve been trying to do for years. It was an inspiration. It could be done.

I got the chance to see him play and chat to him the following year. He was so polite and nice, a real pleasure to talk with and friendly to everyone. He has a lovely smile.

Heres to Robert A.A. Lowe. To Lichens. To the beautiful spirit. Mistakeisms and letting go.