Gig tonight!

Now here's a pleasant surprise. The Buffalo Skinners will be playing at the Black Swan on Peasholme Green tonight and supporting them is the lovely Clare Quinn, who has asked Bessie and I to join her for some songs. Obviously we shall be doing this very thing. Doors at 8, £3 a shot, good beer, cheap at half the price ;¬)

How it's going to work (or Wait, what? Where?)

You may have noticed that I've recently started using soundcloud to post new songs rather than bandcamp, whilst still keeping the bandcamp site live.
What, you might ask, gives?
Well I was listening to a podcast by Steve Lawson where he talked about the various music hosting sites and their strengths and weaknesses with the conclusion (sorry, a conclusion) that soundcloud is good for single songs and demos, whereas Bandcamp is good for albums and finished, ready-for-sale works.
Having had a bit of a play with both sites I have concluded that in this, as in most matters, Mr Lawson knows what he's talking about.

So here's how it's going to work:
I'll be using bandcamp for fully completed stuff that's all ready for sale - at the moment that's the EP (Digging for Bones) and the album (A Driven Man). All there in PWYW* and a variety of formats.
I'll be using Soundcloud for drafts and works in process. It takes me a long time to complete a song; generally there's just me and I can be a bit of a perfectionist at times, so I get very into something and then get a bit too absorbed and hit a brick wall. At this point I'll generally park something for a while before going back to it. From now on I'll be loading these works-in-progress on soundcloud so you can have a listen and chip in any comments or suggestions. I don't care how much or how little you know about music, I'll always consider any opinions. :¬)

Whilst I'm explaining a few thought processes, here's a quick overview of my social-media web-presence.
Facebook Music site: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Drew-Stephenson-Music/168462393216571?ref=hl This is a site that just deals with my music (funnily enough). If you don't want amusing cat pictures, rants about courier companies and random links to various subjects scientific, just like this (and then be sure to do the whole "add notifications" thing that you have to do now as well).
Facebook personal site: https://www.facebook.com/drew.stephenson.92  for all the previously mentioned cat pictures etc that aren't included on the music site. There are a lot.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/blinddrew much the same as my facebook page but also has a few business-strategy and customer-service type thoughts in there as well.
Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/115421899490213383559/posts Similar to my facebook page but I don't use it very much. Not the best way to contact me really. Interestingly I can see no way of getting a hyperlink to my G+ profile. It's things like this that mean I don't use it so much.  Update: Thanks to Stew for finding that!
YAMDAC: http://yamdac.blogspot.co.uk/ My other blog for all kinds of stuff that doesn't directly relate to my music. Mostly copyright, cycling, design and other music stuff.
Myspace: ha! Just kidding.**

So there you have it, if you just like the music then keep an eye on this blog and the facebook music page, if you don't mind all the other inane stuff then add me into whatever stream is your poison of choice.


* PWYW = Pay What You Want, you set the price, from Zero up
** Actually I do still have a myspace page, if you're a time-traveller from 2001 and want to feel at home it's here: http://www.myspace.com/blindddrewsmusic

Trains (not plains or automobiles), new song up.

It seems that train travel is a very good way to stimulate my brain into creative activity. "A prologue" was written on the train last month and this week, coming back up from down south again, I wrote another song - a slightly more upbeat one this time so hopefully Hils will like it...
Scratch video embedded below and lyrics below that. What I haven't got yet is a proper title for it - other than "Curtis Stirling".

Curtis Stirling, so I’ve been told, built a flying machine in his back yard.

And after all the questions I’ve asked, it seems that this is where it starts.

This could be the middle of nowhere, if somewhere had ever cared.

And you can see three counties from that spot over there.

This is how the story starts. This is where legend begins.

And after all, after all, it all comes back to him.

People talking will make a king appear, sometimes all it takes is need.

Curtis shined a light into the dark, they sing a defiant hymn round these parts.

This is how the story starts. This is where legend begins.

And after all, after all, it all comes back to him.

Sometimes they hear trumpets. Sometimes they see wings.

Sometimes there come investigators, to tell them that they’re seeing things.

Curtis Stirling, so I’ve been told, took the flying machine from his back yard.

He’ll be coming back one of these days, wrestling bears when times get hard.

Curtis Stirling, so they say, didn’t die and he won’t fade away.

This is how the story starts. This is where legend begins.

And after all, after all, it all comes back to him.

It all comes back to him.

It all comes back to him.

New Song in draft form...

On the train down to Norwich last week I came up with some words.
Here they are:

A Prologue

There's a dead man in the back seat, but he's not my main concern.
There's a dead man in the back seat, and a lesson for someone to learn.
There's a dead man in the back seat, and there's a gap in my mind
between where he and i meet, and the evidence you find.

There's a natural explanation, there's some history hiding.
I'm sure I can find some kind of truth if I just keep on driving.

There's a dead man in the back seat, and we're running low on fuel.
He and i are going to have to figure out exactly what we're going to do.
See I'm not short on ideas but it's preying on my mind
that, one way or another, we're running out of time.

There's a natural explanation, there's some history hiding.
I'm sure I can find some kind of truth if I just keep on driving.

Someone's father? Someone's son. 
Some wrong punished or some wrong done?
A straight road to the coast to dump a bag of bones?

There's a dead man in the back seat, and only he and i know
how this came to pass and how it's going to go.

There's a natural explanation, there's some history hiding.
I'm sure I can find some kind of truth if I just keep on driving.




Rather than going to work early this morning, I came up with a tune.
Here it is:


But does it need some drums? I'm thinking yes...

A job offer

Now then, I'm assuming that if you're reading this blog then you're at least interested in, or even a fan of, our music. If so you might be wondering when we're next playing and / or why we play so rarely at the moment. You might even have thought about whether you could get involved in some capacity.


Well, maybe you can.


So what's this about a job offer then?

Those of you who've known me for a while will be well aware that I am possibly the world's worst self-publicist (just writing blogs like this causes me hours of angst - I kid you not) and this extends into my ability / willingness / fear of booking gigs and events as well. Combine this with my skills as one of the world's foremost prevaricators and you have a gig list as bare as Old Mother Hubbard's cupboard.

To cut to the chase, I'm looking for a manager / promoter. If you think this might be something you'd be interested in drop me a line on info@drewstephenson.com

There will be a financial reward, but this will be a percentage cut of our income it will be dependent on what you put in. The only real pre-requisite is an interest in our music and a willingness to give it a go.

Ok, the only two pre-requisites are an interest in our music and a willingness to give it a go and a fanatical dedication to the pope...

Late Notice Gig in York!

Tonight, that's sunday night 5th August, to celebrate the pub's 10th birthday, I will be playing at the Rook and Gaskill along with a whole host of other folks.
Free to enter, full line up below:
11ish Mr Pants and the Spectacles

10.00 David Ward Maclean

9.15 Aimie J Ryan

8.30 Lee Parry

7.45 Drew Stephenson

7.00 Chris Barnes

4.45 Rookoustic 120, two hours of the world's best open mic.

4.15 Zack Ford

3.30 Liberty Hutchinson

2.45 Amy Greene

2.00 Jane Stockdale

1.20 Adrian Spendlow

Furhter details for Facebookie types: https://www.facebook.com/events/387352334652242/393858404001635/?notif_t=plan_mall_activity

Sorry about the late notice, was expecting to be working this weekend but find myself unexpectedly free.

A little help please

I'm going to try and do a bit of an experiment in making my music available for wider use. You can already download the songs on a pay what you want basis, but that's not what I'm thinking about.
My plan is to make all the original multitracks for those songs available.
I have three challenges to this though:

1) the sheer amount of time it's going to take me to upload 55Gb of 88.2 24bit files.

2) Choosing where it should be uploaded to. I'm thinking a torrent site but with the pirate bay now being blocked in the UK (and not being particularly techy and not knowing how to get around that)  the obvious target has gone.

3) Getting word out that it's there. Back to the old obscurity problem.

Now obviously no-one can help me on the first one, but any advice or suggestions on the second two would be greatly welcomed.

Thanks

Debris, or What's left behind

New song, Debris, up on you tube here: 

It fuses two of my usual themes, death and space hardware.
I'm pitching it well within my personal niche...


I think this is another song that really needs to be done on an electric guitar with a full arrangement behind it, I'm not convinced it works on its own. Whaddyareckon?


This afternoon I have learnt some things.
1) Making the time to write new songs is good, I should do more of it
2) When squeezing seventeen syllables into a line it's best to actually learn the line before trying to sing it.
3) I need a haircut
4) Chocolate tart is good. *


Here are the unmangled lyrics:

And I can see the headlights on the road as we pass by overhead

Some distant automaton calls numbers into the atmosphere

And they are lost, they are all just lost

And who's going to find us now? Who's going to help us now?

so we keep sending out a few hundred letters to the dead

all the while wondering if some of the signal's messing with our head

So when you find that we're falling this far

Who's going to help us now? Who's going to want to help us now?

I don’t want to rot, I don’t want to burn

Spare me from the sea

Send me up with the silent satellites, One more piece of space debris

So we settle into circles behind the wheels of dying cars.

There’s always time for one more drink before it gets dark

And we are lost. We are all so lost.

And who's going to find us now? Who's going to help us now?

And who's going to find us now? Who's going to help us now?

Hold on steady, stay strong, see the light, here’s the dawn,

Hold on steady, stay strong, see the light, here’s the dawn,

Hold on steady, stay strong, see the light, here’s the dawn,

Hold on steady, stay strong, see the light, here’s the dawn,

I don’t want to rot, I don’t want to burn

Spare me from the sea

Send me up with the silent satellites, One more piece of space debris

Last night I dreamt of blood.

I dreamt of a man with a gun and a time when that wasn't enough.

And he was lost, he was still so lost

And who's going to help him now? How’re you going to help him now?

I don’t want to rot, I don’t want to burn

Spare me from the sea

Send me up with the silent satellites, One more piece of space debris

Hold on steady, stay strong, see the light, here’s the dawn,

Hold on steady, stay strong, see the light, here’s the dawn,

Hold on steady, stay strong, see the light, here’s the dawn,

Hold on steady, stay strong, see the light, here’s the dawn,

* To be fair, I knew this before and it's really not related to the rest of the blog.

A gig, a beast and some progress

Long time no write. Hope everyone's well and the year is treating you well.
Here at Morbid Towers we've had a slow start to the year but things are chugging along now and I have a couple of updates to share with you.
Firstly I have excellent gig news. A couple of years ago the good Doctor and I opened the Limetree Festival and, amongst the various ska and reggae acts, the band of the weekend was a group from London called A.h.a.b. I'm very happy to report that I was asked to open for them at Stereo on May 10th. Sadly Hils can't make it for this one so if anyone has any requests for any of my older or solo stuff, stick it in the comments and I'll add it to the set list. Logistical details in the gigs link to the right.
Secondly (and sequeing (is that even a word) neatly on) the chap who got me this gig is a very talented singer / multi-instrumentalist named Phil Simpson. He runs the really fun jam session at The Habit on monday night where I have been lugging my beast of a double bass for the last few weeks. So if you fancy a sing-along and you're at a loose end on a monday night come down and laugh as I try to wrestle with four strings instead of six.
Finally, for the moment, having finally got all the boxes unpacked after the house move I've got all the gubbins set up for recording and have started putting some tracks down. You can hear a couple of the first drafts on my bandcamp site but the next step is to get Hils over and apply her genius and then I'll have to work out how to do some pseudo-mastering-type-stuff.
It's going to take a while...

So that's been the year for me so far, well, the interesting bit at any rate. Sadly the bit between 9-5 on a weekday has been extending its reach a bit too much, but, meh, these things happen.

Of swings and roundabouts

So I've been off work this week, partly because i've not had a proper break since the end of september, and partly so I could do some recording.
The first part of this has been achieved.
The second part, partially so.
It's been an education; I haven't used cubase for about 4 years (why bother when I had free access to the studio and an excellent engineer?) and I've got a new input box that has its own software. So a lot of time has been spent looking at screen a swearing in perplexity.
But we have made some progress so I thought I'd share a couple of rough drafts with you:
http://drewstephenson.bandcamp.com/track/goodnight
http://drewstephenson.bandcamp.com/track/the-song-of-the-henchman
The first is a track that owes a massive influence to Tom McRae's A Summer of John Wayne. I didn't set out to rip it off, I had the cd in the car, had listened to it once, wrote this a fair bit later, and then it came round again (I don't use the car much and it has a 6-cd changer) and I realised how similar it was. So call this a homage if you like, to one of my all time favourite musicians. I hope he doesn't sue.
The second one is an attempt to address a balance in popular fiction whereby the henchman traditionally gets it in the shorts whilst the hero gets the girl. Terry Pratchett started it with his book Guards! Guards!, Mike Myers continued it in the movie Austin Powers and now it has life in the form of song. I suspect it will have less exposure...
Anyway, both of these tracks are just rough drafts, they haven't been mastered so you'll need to crank the volume up, and, most importantly, they haven't had any of Hilary's genius applied.
So enjoy, but bear in mind there's much improvement to be wrought.

Of course all my positive feeling about this has been completely undermined by sitting here listening to Anais Mitchell's Young Man in America which just makes me feel completely useless.

New Music Coming Soon

Well, trying to get a gig at the moment is not easy when you play our kind of music. And especially not when the day job is readying up to eat your life.
Fortunately I have a week of holiday coming up wherein I shall be recording some music and posting it online to share with you.
I don't know what I shall be recording yet, or even how far i will get with it. But something will be recorded and something will be shared.
Any requests?