Merry Christmas! I hope that yesterday was filled with fun, love and family!
Just a mini post to wish you a very Happy New Year filled with promise, hope and excitement! Have loved blogging, and will keep on doing so and hopefully a few of you will keep following my progress, it would be great to hear from those of you in the same boat! In the mean time, don’t eat too much left over turkey….oh well….go on then! Enjoy a rest and time off if you are fortunate to have time to think and space to breathe.
Happy New year in advanced…2010!! Mental, I thought I’d be living like the Jetsons when I thought about it in 1999! I can’t tell you how disappointed I am not to have a hover-board to get to work, be able to jet off to the Moon for a weekend break and talk on Skype to an alien race…maybe its the child in me, but I am GUTTED! hehe
2009 has been an incredible, eventful and fun year and I am guessing we’ve all have our challenges. But I am so glad to be alive, sometimes you are so aware of the simple things like life itself it puts every other struggle into perspective and helps you focus- I am genuinely astounded by how fortunate we are, with our families and friends, loves and relationships- to be able to have clean water, shelter and the luxury of being able to do everyday tasks such as turn on a tap, drive, vote, speak freely, worship without persecution and live everyday without the continued threat of death- we take it for granted. It makes you realise how rich we are and how much we can affect change in our world for those who aren’t so fortunate! Lets be less selfish and tunnel visioned next year, less about us and more about how we can help others, those abroad, those living next door to us, those at war, those who fight, campaign and campaign for the cause of peace and for what is right. To realise we can work to change the direction we are going in, in order to save our planet and to become aware of the damage being done to the beautiful places where we live.
Happy New year! Sit tight it’s going to be a great one, it involves us all!
Hello! Back again in the UK after a great time away in Australia, here are a few pictures to have a look at. Had an incredible time, it’s a different pace of life out there: the Aussies have got it down! Stepped off the plane at 6.30am last Sunday and then began the reintegration into Wintery England! Man, I forgot how cold it was here!
We stayed mainly in Brisbane with friends, such an incredible city! It’s always good for me to get away and see different places and broaden your mind- I love travelling. You see things differently and from different angles.
Havvy's
We went to Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world. You can only get around using 4X4s because it is literally ALL sand- even the roads and massive sandpits, so we travelled round on a 4X4 bus! Swam in the clearest water and walked along the purest, whitest sand! Saw kangaroos, incredible sunsets, BBQ’s on the beach, a 4 day trip to Sydney, went to the Sunshine Coast, made new friends for life, stroked a koala, avoided spiders and snakes, went on a boat on the Mary River and we went wakeboarding, had a roadtrip from Sydney to Brisbane, went to a wedding by the river, jumped into a freezing cold pool at the end of a waterfall, got a great tan (at the envy of the irish) relaxed, shopped, sang, went to great cafes, was educated on coffee and where to get the best flat white. Enjoyed company and friendships! What a trip.
Anyway, here are the pictures below, Enjoy!!
Adam on Trial Bay- campsite!
How to get around on Fraser
Adam on Trial Bay- campsite!
Havvy’s
Incredible views and the setting for the best BBQ ever experienced!
Maheno Wreck, Fraser Island
Lake Birrabeen, clear water!
Heidi in Rainforest on Fraser
Surfers Paradise, city AND a beach!
flat white…Di Bella Coffee- they’re all about educating not dictating!
Buy now on iTunes website, get it in the Top 100 albums!
Hi!
Back from Australia, I’ve got some photos lined up for you to see- I’ll put them up tomorrow with a little bit of detail to what I’ve done/been/travelled/seen- lets just say it was an amazing holiday and I didn’t want to leave! Anyway, what I wanted to do first before the happy snaps and stories was plug a new album called “Public Service” by the incredible band Starling.
You may remember me talking about a great bloke called Dan James who helped me record my show-reel: well, this is his band together with his wife Vanessa James, keyboards and string arrangement, bassist Keith Nixon and drummer John Pullan. Together they spend months of hard work and seclusion and came out the other side with “Public Service”
I am speaking now as someone who has seen their journey of creating their album. Helping out in the rain with their music video pressing play on a CD player, lending a hand (well…a voice) with gang vocals in the studio and hearing and seeing all their hard work coming together and becoming something they can be proud of.
Starling are trying to get their album into the Top 100 albums on iTunes, hence the reason for me plugging it. So between 1st December til the Saturday 12th get downloading! Those of you in the same boat or heading the same way as these guys, support them and all of us who are having to wrestle and get our music heard.
Open iTunes, type in Starling. The album is “Public Service” Download it today for a good listen! Do today, £7.99, you’ll be a happy chap!
Hi folks, terribly sorry! I am appalling at updating! So here is a little update with what I have been up to this last while!
I have recently moved house which is partly the reason for the delay in replying– there is just so much unpacking to do!! Anyway, finally all unpacked and settled into my new home- still living with the incredible Taryn.
So I have been a bit of an anti-social little bug the past month or so- have locked myself away with my song-writing and been honing that. Then I got disillusioned and panicked. Went into one of those internal naval gazing moments of, “My music sucks, I can’t do this! How the heck am I going to manage this!!” Had a little panic moment! And that my dear friends is the second reason for my lengthly silence: sear panic and fear! hehe.
Fortunately, I am over the worst of it now- with the help of great friends and encouragement from some incredible sources, and some honest moments shouting at God, “What the hell am I doing!!?” But picking myself up and encouraged myself too. At the end of the day, it all starts in my mind- if I think I won’t make it, I probably won’t.
So I’ve been telling myself I can do this, that this music is the reason behind my life. Bit of a big statement that kinda makes you think, “Flip, she better be good else she’ll be screwed!!” But I think you need to adopt that attitude if you are going to succeed in any endeavour. You have to get cocky and a bit arrogant, self assured and confident. After all, if you don’t believe it yourself how are you going to convince others that you mean what you say with your music.
So yeah, there is the honesty of the matter– I am back on track, I have a feeling I shall have a few wobbly moments along the way, but thats all good as long as you keep going.
I am off to Australia in two weeks for a three week trip! Cannot wait! Off for an adventure and a friends wedding, and have a gig on the 27th of November! I’ll keep you posted on that one,
My face in a state of shock/excitement after witnessing the welcome video for the first time!
The Mac has landed, and will be very useful indeed for my songwriting! Its a Macbook, complete with Snow Leopard! Took a while to save up for it and I think I maybe living off beans this month but all is well!
Looking forward to recording some tuuuunes! This means more posts, more pictures of gigs and songwriting in action and other exciting things! Yay! Only a mini post today- I’ll let you know more over the weekend.
Ok so this week so far has not been the most productive musically- they do happen every now and again even if you love writing- laziness kicks in!! Well, I did email and do some research about songwriting and publishers so that was something. Mostly this week I have battled the scariest of foes…….a massive spider!
So I was curled up on my sofa, feeling a bit poorly because of a cold that has rendered me pathetic for the past four days. I decided I need a good laugh, something to cheer me up and take my mind off the fact that my head feels like its made of lead! So I put on Ferris Buellers Day Off– what a film!! Incredible!
Quuuuuuuuuality!
So the agile Ferris was jumping fences, ducking suburban obstacles to try and get home before his parents, his sister AND Mr. Rooney discover he wasn’t sick but out in New York for the day…..when the spider fella scuttled from under my telly towards the cozy nest I had made for myself on the couch! He drove me to my bedroom and I didn’t see if Ferris made it!! Doh!
I woke up the next day, getting ready for work and he was there AGAIN! My nemesis! In the bath…I wasn’t going to pick him up and he was too big to wash down the plughole….! He beat me again and I had to wash my hair in the sink!!
I had the last laugh though as Taryn came hope from her jog and drowned him-
Sorry about that, nothing to do with music! That was the bizarre event of my week…until today!
So so so so excited! I am finally getting a Mac today! I saved up for so long and now it has finally paid off! This means I have decent equipment to record my songs on, so I can finally put some up for you to hear. It means all sorts of new and exciting possibilities including more regular blog posts so i can access the internet at home!! The joy!! Yay!
So that’s the news! See there is some musical content to this post– it is merely dwarfed by my spider experience.
So the good news is I have a brand new Mac on its way! The bad news is my intellectual equivalent and nemesis is a big hairy spider– one for the self-esteem!
Ok, wanted to talk more about lyrics on this stunning Friday! Yay! It’s Friday, time for the weekend and relaxation!! So I’ll jump off that tangent of what day of the week it is and get back to lyrics.
They are flipping hard sometimes and you can often just feel a bit stuck as to where do you start. I’ll try explain how I write my lyrics and in turn songs. If it helps, grand, glad to be of help. If it doesn’t ah well, this isn’t at all THE way to write songs there are many different approaches. Some people start with music, some with melody. I was reading an article in Q magazine the other day, it was one of those old copies you find randomly in your house and try to remember when you bought it and if you didn’t who is now magazine less!
Anyway, the theme was songwriters and they looked in depth at a range of songwriters and also screenwriters and got inside their heads for a short while. My favourite was Bjork; she’s incredible and totally unique! She said she often starts with the melody, sings it into her digital recorder and then leaves it, doesn’t re-record or retouch it. For her the process of the song taking shape starts with the melody and everything else that she needs for that song fits around the melody. For her the melody is the skeleton for her music.
What is that for you?
Is it melody, concept say a painting you saw, a dream you had, a phrase , lyrics, chord progression, a beat or rhythm, a riff.
What will be the frame of your song that you can hang the rest of your ideas off?
For me it’s a concept or lyric. An idea I had which had its roots in something I saw and it inspired me. This is why it is so important for me to watch films, plays, listen to music I’ve never really “been in to” before, art galleries, music videos, fonts and designers. Another big one is travel; I find that it’s a big source of inspiration for me- a new culture, a new take and a new perspective.
It is your role as a songwriter to write a song that scoops up what’s going on inside humanity. Hard, yep! We go through a varying amount of emotions but actually when it comes down to it they all boil down to the same few- Love, hurt, betrayal, happiness etc.
So how do you write a love song? The oldest emotion on the face of the earth. How do you get a fresh approach on love? How do you write a song from a different angle about love? Masters of expression dating as far back as the sonnets of Shakespeare have captured love in poetry and prose, in song and screenplay.
How can you grab someone’s attention with you 3 and a half minute take on love?
So I haven’t updated in a while, sorry again- empty promises unfulfilled! So by popular demand- (Maxxy!) I shall update again.
songwriting squirrel..ahh think of the money I'd make!!
I’ve been squirreling away writing and a few other projects too.
The one thing I am not holding back on is my songwriting, that I decided I cannot slow the pace on! I’ve written three songs in the past 5 days and am excited to just do what I love. Some of these will not be commercial enough but I just love to sculpt something, anything! The pleasure is in writing a line that is destined to be written– a line that cannot be phrased any other way and grabs your attention. My writing has become more relaxed and not as flowery as before.
Here is what I’ve been struggling with: my style is often quite poetic and I love to paint a picture with the words I sing- this however isn’t always approachable for the listener. Here’s my battle for example; when writing a song that expresses emotion from the human heart, pain, anger, betrayal, intense love, friendship etc its good to use metaphors and analogies to give words to the unexplainable. But in when it comes down to it, when you’re in love or hurt and betrayed by someone unexpected you aren’t going to take time to gather your similes, you splurge out of emotion and you keep it plain.
So how do you retain your individuality and not lose the way you write that makes the songs yours and still give it credence that the listener can relate?
hmmmmm, well I reckon this is the sneaky way I get you to come back and read my blog and say “Join us after the break!”
So since the gig last Saturday….I haven’t blogged. Sorry about that! It gets hard to update sometimes, I have a lack of computer & Internet access currently and so updating blogs can be few and far between! Sorry about that! So what have I been up to in the past week, if you are bothered that is hehe.
I’ve been writing songs, trying to get better- am still on a high from the gig and have been hanging out and chatting with some incredibly inspiring people in my life- it has been good! Wrote a cracking song last night which I’ll hopefully get recorded in rough this weekend- I’m saving up for a Mac, not far away from my total. I don’t want to take out a loan of borrow or put it on the credit card so I am doing it the old fashioned way! hehe. So in the absence of my Mac to be I am borrow Adams when I have the chance…which isn’t often- can you see my dilemma and the growing bane of my life!! Grrr. Not long to wait, thank goodness!
Off to hang out with Vanessa this weekend to go off and record some sounds and see what we come up with- tea, walks, music, beautiful countryside- all good! hehe.
anyway, speak soon- I’ll do it more regularly now I promise!
So the gig the gig the gig at the Vm Lounge! Went so well, I had a great time. Feel so excited now!!! Want to continue on with this excitement!!
Me and the lovely Laura did two one hour sets, around 24 songs in total so I sounded like Barry White the next day! Love it, was so much fun and what I love to do!!
First of many gigs
Did one of my songs too called “Aim High” the first time I have performed any of my songs in public– that got me even more pumped! Spend the rest of the weekend nattering with Jo who came over to visit from Ireland about songs, writing, styles, themes– we both were gathering momentum and felt like we needed to write else we’d burst!!
Was a great night, had one random slightly tipsy man deduced that I was talented, beautiful and intelligent after an in depth 2 minute conversation and numerous handshaking! he then kept telling me to go to university and/or join the army…..okay then!!
Can’t say enough how much I enjoyed myself and how inspired I feel now! I’ll update you on the next one!!
