Dive

I did a gig with Annie in the Providence again last night. The Providence is such a dive! Loud, shitty music before the bands came on, pissed old men laughing at nothing... As soon as I got there I just wanted to be somewhere else... anywhere else. The gig went well and neither of us made obvious fluffs. I think because I wasn't expecting it to be a good gig I just did it without worrying about it.

I'm meant to be collaborating with some people off my songwriting class but it sounds like it's all gone pear-shaped already. The three girls I'm collaborating with met up without me because I couldn't make it (had to watch Lost!) and couldn't agree on anything. Songwriting class tonight will be interesting.

Anyway, I'm so excited by this video I found the other day:

Job

I've found the advert for my perfect job!

Scrabble

Apologies for my absence... work is crazy. (As if anyone cares!)

I've started another songwriting class. And I've just written a new song called "Grace is Just Her Middle Name". Listen to it on my myspace page. I wrote it by this method:

I had a game of scrabble with my girlf. At the end I wrote down all the four or more letter words. Then I picked every other one. I then tried to include as many of these as I could in a song lyric.

For this exercise, 'grace' was the strongest word that I came up with so I based it around this. Once I came up with the phrase "Grace is just her middle name" I had the idea for the song. I was trying to write a new melody for it but I found myself singing it to a harmony I'd written the week before. So I followed that through to it's conclusion.

I debuted it at the songwriting class on Friday. The feedback I got was good. One person suggested leaving more gaps in there. I changed the arrangement a little and added bars here and there which have stretched it out a bit and actually made it easier to sing and to remember the lyrics.

I'm quite please with this one. I wrote it all within the space of a week too.

Low-key

Last night I did an open mic night. The Brunswick in Holland Road, Brighton.

I was trying to think of it as a low-key performance. I dressed down and told myself I was going to make mistakes. I was telling myself anything that would take the pressure of performance off so that I could just get up and knock out a couple of songs. This all changed when my girlfriend invited a few friends, who then invited other friends, and then there were about ten people round our table waiting for me to go on!

The acts started and I was feeling nervous. My heart was racing and no matter how much I tried to rationalise things I couldn't control it. Then a guy came on who was doing all twiddly rock guitar stuff, his fingers moving up and down the fretboard at a lightning pace. I knew instinctively that I would be next and sure enough I was asked to get ready to go on.

"Great", I said sarcastically down the boomy microphone, "That was a great act to follow. Thanks". I got a laugh. Hope the guitar guy didn't take it the wrong way!

I started playing The Junior Architect. Heart pounding. I looked down at my fingers picking out the notes but they didn't seem to be hitting the strings properly. They wouldn't relax enough to play properly. I struggled on and started singing. Jesus my voice sounded loud! My voice sounded okay but my guitar picking was awful... every note was wrong, some notes weren't coming out. I abandoned my picking half way through and strummed it instead. This was better even though I had never strummed it before.

I got through that song. Not too bad except I was annoyed that I couldn't have picked the tune. My fingers had just turned to mush. I made a quick decision and rather than try to pick another tune I opted for an easily strummed song: Down the Line. I know this really well so I could relax a bit more and I think I got through it okay.

I got some good feedback. My friends said it was good and congratulated me. Obviously they would, but it was nice none the less.

I waited around and played guitar with Annie for a couple of songs, one of which Annie dedicated to my girlfriend. I really enjoyed playing this time. It felt like all the pressure was off because I'd done my songs. I fluffed it a couple of times but it didn't matter to me. I was just having fun.

Anyway, I did it! I knew I would make mistakes, and I did, but I'm just thinking that this was the first of many open mics so it doesn't really matter. Adopt, adapt and improve.

Ghosts

At the end of last year I wrote another song for my songwriting class. The theme was 'ghosts'. I wrote a kind of historical murder ballad. Here are the unfinished lyrics:

The Ghost of Frederick Isaac Gold

Wandering...
Down the dusty, disused line
Crumbling...
Down the bridges over time
And time didn't register
In the field where he was thrown
Left to crawl back on his own
He never made it home
Oh no

Shimmering...
Over streams like Damselflys
Wallowing...
Under cloudless late July
He hit the ground struggling
Tried to keep his timepiece gold
Left a childless widow cold
Poor Frederick Isaac Gold
Oh no

Sleeping his way through the tunnel
Shot to the floor with a tumble
Thrown from the carriage a bundle of bones

Stumbling...
Cause his feet won't touch the ground
Hollering...
Though his cries don't make a sound
And people walk through him now
In the street where he was born
Worked the chandlers for their corn
But now that it's all gone
Oh no

Hovering...
Over cornfields dressed in gold
Wondering...
What the next life's gonna hold

It's loosely based on a story I read about that happened close to Brighton in the 1890s. A petty criminal shot a wealthy, somewhat miserly gentleman on the train from London. He put up a struggle but was eventually pushed from the train in Balcombe Tunnel. It was in the middle of the summer.

My idea was to tell the story of a ghost haunting summer fields where he was pretty ineffectual, the same as he was when he was alive. But I don't really think this comes across in the lyrics I've written. I don't know... I'm just not happy with it. Maybe some tweaks would make it come alive a bit.

Eve

Happy Christmas. It's New years eve and I've had a nice break over Christmas in which to formulate my resolutions for 2009. Of course, getting to Portland is high on the list. But I've also promised myself that whenever anyone suggests playing my songs then I will. I haven't got time for this false modesty any more! My girlfriend asked/told me to perform three songs for her at home as if it was at an open mic night. This is just the kind of encouragement I need (thanks Helen). I got nervous even in front of her but I still managed to sing the songs all the way through.

So with this pre-New years eve resolution in mind, I played 'Junior Architect' in front of my family at Christmas. It was a bit of a sad song to play for Christmas - especially as there were two children there (my nieces) - but I was asked and so I did it. My Dad, in his typical Black-country way, said "That's a bit self-deprecating isn't it?". But still, I did it and I didn't get too nervous. I just wanted to show off a bit. I think it's partly to prove that I'm not one of them any more - by showing that there's more to my life than what's on telly. None of my family learnt an instrument. All my brother had to talk about over Christmas was what TV he was going to buy in the sales.

Anyway, to start off 2009, I've been asked to do a gig in Hastings at the Rooms. I'll be playing guitar with Annie but I'm hoping to do some of my songs to start off the night with. It'll be with my friends Adam and Jayne playing the main slot. Can't wait!

Happy new year!

Jumping

I went to see I'm From Barcelona last night. They were amazing! It was a cross between a rock gig, a rave and a kiddies party. Their frontman was unbelievable... jumping around, getting the crowd going, running around the stage, climbing on the monitor speakers. I was willing him to do it and he eventually did... he stage dived. I've never seen anyone do that before. Fantastic!

Again, it just proves to me what different things music can be. Music doesn't have to be all po-faced and quiet, or cool and up its own arse. It can be just pure elation.

Two

For God's sake! No Sharp Objects are at number two in the Latest Magazine music chart. Who the hell listens to this crap!

Hooks

I showcased my new song, Junior Architect to my songwriting class on Friday. Here's what the tutor, Heidi Berry, wrote:

Simon gave a strong performance on guitar and vocals of a song based on ‘back to the drawing board’. This used a wide variety of imagery (e.g. the architects and his plans) and the group felt this was a strong song. I suggested playing some open mic nights to gain confidence in performing live.

She also asked me if she could have a recording of it!

I was so nervous when I was playing it! I managed to keep my voice under control, even though I could hear it wobbling and I was running out of breath very easily. But my guitar playing was awful! It felt like I had hooks for hands. I think my tutor's suggestion of playing open mic nights is a good one.

Only thing is there's a film festival on in Brighton at the moment so I'm too busy to be doing much else. (Excuses!)

List

I'm coming to realise I've got quite a lot to do. Here's my online to-do list:

• Write several more songs
  
• Record songs (Jayne and Adam at Blue Eyed Sounds should be doing this with me - hooray!)
• Design artwork for CD cover and label
• Duplicate 50 CDs with printed label
• Print artwork on to gorgeous Arigato Paks (maybe do it myself at BIP)
  
• Design/produce and print CD inlay (I want it to be a nice product)
  
• Do a week of open mic nights
• Get some singing lessons from Annie
  
• Finish my songwriting class
• Album launch/Portland warm-up gig
  
• Buy plane ticket to Portland
• Find accommodation in Portland
• Find excursions around Oregon
• Find gigs to play in Portland
• Find people to come to gigs

I'm sure each one of these could be broken down further too but at least it's a start.

Week

I've come up with a side-project that will help me in my goal of getting to Portland. I'm going to do a whole week of open mic nights. Sunday to Friday (I try to avoid Brighton on Saturday nights). There are so many open mics in Brighton that I'm sure it would be possible to do two every night of the week. Especially seeing as Brighton has reputedly got a pub for every day of the year.

I went to an open mic night at The Brunswick last night and played guitar with Annie Whittingham. It was a really nice place to play.

Here's my list of Brighton open mic nights that I'll update until I fill all the days:

Sunday: The Globe (though you have to register online to do this one)
Monday: The Roundhill (pub at the end of my street)
Tuesday: The Brunswick
Wednesday:
Thursday: The Druids
Friday:

Toy

I've written a new song! I'm quite chuffed with it actually. I finished it last night, did a quick recording and then had it going round in my head all night - which, I think, is a good sign.

I quite like the recording (it's on my MySpace). It's very rough and I get a lot of it wrong but you can hear my girlfriend getting ready for bed in the background and it's a nice record of about the second time I played it all the way through.

It's called Junior Architect and I got the idea from the songwriting class that I'm going to. We had to think of an everyday saying that is a metaphor, then write a letter to someone using imagery from that metaphor without using the actual words it. It had to be about a relationship and it had to be in the first person. We were asked to write it in a verse/chorus structure and to write at least 2 verses. Quite a specific brief, but I found it's actually easier to have something to work to like this.

What I found most useful was writing lots in the letter before I started to write the actual song. I wrote pages and pages of thoughts and phrases, sometimes repeating sentences - just writing them out again - before song lines started to pop out. I'll definitely use this technique again.

I used the metaphor "back to the drawing board" as it made me think of a lowly architect, working away, getting things wrong and always having his plans rejected. I thought there were some good meanings to be gleaned from that.

I still managed to torture myself over the writing of this song though. The day before yesterday I was trying really hard to write the song and it just wouldn't come and everything I wrote sounded contrived and meaningless and I thought I wouldn't be able to do it and I went to bed in a foul mood.

But last night I just calmly sat down with my guitar and my notes and wrote it.

I feel very pleased to have written something I'm happy with again. It's like having a new toy. I was excited all night to go and listen to it again.

Now I just need to keep this momentum up!

Appreciation

I went to a house-gig in Brighton last night. My friend, Sharon Lewis, was playing. She was amazing as always, but what really made her something special last night was that another friend, Anjuli, was singing backing vocals with her. They sounded great together but, no offence to Sharon, I was just waiting for Anjuli's vocals in every song they did together. It just gave it that soulful edge without overpowering Sharon's beautiful voice. I was really wowed.

I want to see more music like this in settings like this. It was great sitting in someone's front room listening to great music. Everyone was quiet and paid full attention to the singers. I think that's all I want from an audience, a bit of attention and appreciation.

I met a singer last night who I instantly didn't like. I'd seen videos of him on YouTube before then and knew I wasn't going to like him. He sat next to me and I didn't like him. He sang and I didn't like him. He called me Si when I'd introduced myself as Simon which made me like him even less. And finally he said "Is it different weather up there, Si?", in a cheap jibe about my height (I'm 6 foot 7) which pretty much put the final nail in the coffin.

I thought I never had a problem about whether people called me Si or Simon. But I realised it's my oldest friends and family and people who are really close to me who abbreviate my name to Si. It feels like a liberty when people use Si when they don't know me. Especially when they're middle class, jumped up, public school boy, Damien Rice wannabes.

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.