Friday 31 October 2008

Stadium

I agree with Stephen Merchant's Stadium Test regarding band names. His theory is that to test whether a band name will work or not you announce it in the style of a rock stadium announcer: "Ladies and gentlemen, please, welcome to the stage, LED ZEPPELIN!!!". It works, it sounds like a great band before they come on stage. Another example: "Ladies and gentlemen, please, welcome to the stage, U2!!!".

Okay, now let's try it with the band I saw last night: "Ladies and gentlemen, please, welcome to the stage:

NO SHARP OBJECTS!!!"

USP

I played guitar and bass with Annie Whittingham last night. (Or Amy Whittingham as it said on the poster. Or Annie Whittington as the host announced us.) The gig didn't go too well in my opinion. We sounded awful on stage, I'm just hoping it sounded a bit better in the audience.

But I did get something out of it, because, while I was listening to the other bands it made me think about what kind of an artist I might be. There was one guy who'd obviously been to Brighton Institute of Modern Music. He had a very trained voice. Robbie Williams clone. I'm not having a go because he was good, but I realised that I can't compete with singing like that. I don't want to. But that doesn't mean that my music's no good.

I think my Unique Selling Point, paarticularly when I listen to my song The Lepidopterist, is my unique songwriting. That's the one song that I'm really proud of. I think it's very me in that it tries to use big words to explain something that could be said much easier and it captures some really specific moments in previous relationships that I probably would have forgotten about otherwise.

And I think this is what I should focus on. There's no point me doing vocal gymnastics on stage because it would sound awful and it's not me and I'm setting myself up to fail. But if I can write some heartfelt, unique, quirky little songs like The Lepidopterist then I can go on stage with something I'm proud of.

Thursday 30 October 2008

Honest

I want this blog to be an honest account of my mission to get to Portland. It would be all too easy to make it into a fluffy diatribe about 'submitting a wish list of ambitions to the cosmos'. But I'm not Noel Edmonds and I'm not Dave Gorman out on some nerdish whim. So, in order to be frank, I have to mention days like today...

I don't give a shit about getting to Portland! I've just had a massive tax bill posted by the accountants who also posted a massive bill for their services in sending me a massive tax bill; I was out at a gig last night and I was pretty much the oldest person in there; the performer I saw there (Johnny Flynn) was much younger and much better looking and much more talented than me; my dog's taken up barking when I'm not there so I've been made a prisoner to her... and, I'm just in a bad mood.

Friday 24 October 2008

Extraordinarily

Well that happened extraordinarily quickly... Gerry from Oregon has kindly offered to let me play at one of his gigs next summer! Let me tell you: by the sound of his music, I'm honoured!

Thursday 23 October 2008

Real

Ha ha! This is great... I left a quick message on the Portland CraigsList, (the US version of GumTree) about my Portland mission and I've had responses already! Thanks for getting in touch guys, I appreciate it.

I also told my girlfriend about my plans last night and she was totally cool about me wanting to leave for the US for a couple of weeks. A bit too cool actually... she said I should go for as long as I like!

This is starting to feel more real now. I'm very excited, but I have this nagging, underlying feeling... It's all very well day dreaming about being on stage in Portland but I still haven't written that many songs. And I'm still a quite rubbish singer and performer. I had a go at singing some of my old songs last night and I managed about one of them all the way through. But I suppose it's just a reminder that I've still got a lot to do before I get to perform in Portland.

I'm going to songwriting class on Friday nights and we're going to be set our first songwriting homework at the next lesson. Maybe I'll come up with something I'm happy with after that.

What has been proved to me again and again is that the more you do something the better you get, so I shouldn't expect so much from my first songs. I should just keep writing them and I'll hopefully get better at writing them, singing them, playing them and performing them.

Wednesday 22 October 2008

Booming

I was rehearsing with Annie Whittingham last night as we've got a gig next week. I've started doing some singing with her so next Thursday will be the first gig I sing backing vocals at. I thought I sounded alright last night, but God knows what I'm going to sound like when I have to sing down a microphone. I'm dreading the soundcheck where I'll have to hear my booming voice isolated in a rowdy pub.

Tuesday 21 October 2008

Caravan

That's funny... the same day that I decide I'm going to set myself this challenge of gigging in Portland my Mom phoned and said that her and my Dad are going to try and find a static caravan to buy as a holiday home.

The same as me, my Mom thought, well, why not. This is so unlike my Mom. But then – I've never heard her so excited on the phone.

I too feel excited about my plans. This is the third post I've written today – that's how excited I am! It's an excitement I've been craving for a while. I've been lost in my head all day, thinking about this Portland gig actually happening. Thinking about how I could do it; what I need to do to get there; what people I can email so I can meet up with some musicians over there.

Now, when I say musicians, I'm still not sure if I apply in this category. I've played in a few bands now and I know my Delorean mode (no, that's a car isn't it? It's lydian isn't it?) but I still think musicians are the ones who sit very upright and have sheet music in front of them. I should make it clear, I'm under no pretences and I'm not being modest: my music is very amateur. My singing voice is very limited and often strays out of my control on a whim. I've written about eight songs in my life, about two of which I'm truly happy with. I'm not a regular gigging musician and I find the whole gigging experience extremely nerve-wracking. I'm still very much a beginner.

But I suppose I just see these as things I need to overcome if I'm to acheive my dream. It's like an argument with myself. I've always been a stubborn sod and if someone tells me to do something I won't do it on principle. But in this case it's me telling myself I can't do something and me stubbornly refusing to do as I say.

Arigato

I know this is a kind of backwards way of doing things but I've just ordered some CD packaging. You would have thought it would be better to write and record some songs first.

I've ordered 50 Arigato Paks from Portland-based Stumptown Printers. I found Stumptown when I got the Blankets soundtrack by Tracker, another Portland outfit. I don't want to bang on about the Portland connections, but this soundtrack was for the beautiful comic novel Blankets, by Portland-based Craig Thompson.

The Arigato Paks are gorgeous, self-assembly CD packs made of thick, recycled card. There's a window at the front so that you can insert your own artwork on a slip of paper. I went to a Laura Gibson (Portland-based singer/songwriter) gig in Brighton and she was selling a little EP of covers that she'd done, called Six White Horses, sold in these Arigato Paks.

Anyway, my idea is that I'll write and record a CD of songs to put in these packs. It feels like the right thing to do to buy Portland packaging. Not least because the packaging looks and feels so God-damn good!

Maybe I should do the whole thing backwards... I could finish this blog first, then perform the gig, fly to Portland, record the songs and finally write them.

Why

Oh no, I've started yet another blog! Another site to maintain, more comments to check, more junkmail to get rid of. So why bother?

I've had a dream for a long time. It's one of my very specific ambitions that I have from time to time. It's to visit Portland, Oregon.

Why Portland, Oregon? I first heard about this place when I downloaded The Decemberists song "Red Right Ankle" after hearing about it on a random blog and finding out that they were from Portland. Further research led me to Hush Records and their catalogue. I've been mildly obsessed with Portland ever since as I imagine it to be a place that sweats musicians from the cracks in its pavements.

Since hearing that Decemberists song I've got heavily into music – joining bands; writing and recording my own songs; playing in a carnival band; playing bass... I love it.

So, today, I've decided... I'm not only going to go to Portland, Oregon. I'm going to perform a small gig there. There I've said it.

Now that I've said it I want this blog to be my account of how I go about doing it. I'm not a great musician by any standards... I'm actually a self-employed graphic designer from Brighton, UK. I don't believe in manifest destiny or anything like that. I think I just thrive on having obscure ambitions and this is one that I don't want to let go.