As some of you may know I have decided to slightly change how I write my blog. I have decided to make every other post more about what I’m doing with my life regarding music and keep the other half for my general ideas that I have been blurting out for a while now. It seems like this time has come now as I think I have recorded my key ideas and also I have started to get a few questions from readers about what I am up to beyond all the ‘theory’ stuff.
So, this week’s update will set out where I am with various projects at the moment…
My main musical endeavour has to be Lunar Rising and we are currently auditioning violin players. However, this does not mean that the band are static at the moment as there are various things that need to be sorted. In a few weeks we will be going back into the studio to record another four songs. These will be Embrace, Late Nights, Into Bloom and Just Living. At the moment, the plan is to still offer the current songs for free to anybody that wants them but once we have a full set of songs we will create an album that can be sold whilst we still give away the half-length version. This should also include some special acoustic recordings of the band to add even more value. The band is also currently still gigging once a month (with Alex acting as our temporary violin player) and we are preparing demos to be sent out to blogs and magazines for review. If you are associated with a blog or fanzine, etc and are interested in reviewing our music/gigs please do get in touch! On top of the usual venue gigs we would also like to play acoustic gigs so we are currently working on this idea too. This year will also see the band applying for next year’s music festivals as well as developing some more experimental ideas regarding gigs and playing live….
Henry Spencer Project have been taking a little break while I remix our demo songs ready to be mastered after a bit of disastrous file-losing! It turns out that they are sounding much better than before though so all is good and lessons have been learnt… Pia is using the opportunity to work on her other projects but we will be ready to churn some more stuff out shortly… The demos are pretty much done so they will be ready for mastering soon. We’ll then be sending them off to various magazines and blogs to be reviewed and we’ll offer these improved songs up for sale alongside special extras whilst still giving away the original versions. We’ll also be keeping up getting a new song online every 6 weeks or so enabling our on-line audience to see us develop.
Bedtime Nursery Rhymes is now ready and available to buy as a download or physical CD. I am currently ordering CDs to send off to various reviewers throughout the world so hopefully some reviews should start to trickle through in around a month. Once I get my sales data through around that time I’ll be in a position to make better plans for marketing etc. If things go well here I would like to make a follow-up album which could even include original music devised to have the same relaxing effects.
Finally, this week I have purchased the Roland GR-55 guitar synth which I hope to use as a midi controller in conjunction with the synths I already own as well as the EWQL Symphonic Orchestra and QL Ra software instruments I have bought. These place stunningly realistic orchestral and ethnic instruments at my disposal and I will be able to play them all with the instrument I play (guitar!) rather than struggling with playing the keyboard! With the more experimental ideas for Lunar Rising being formed in my head, some guitar synth may even be accompanying me on stage too at some point…. All of this equipment will also be vital to my audio/visual work with photographer with Lesley Flower; as I said, I’ll no longer have to rely on synth being played using an instrument I am not trained on meaning I can translate my ideas far more accurately. On top of all this, I will want to have a venture into the world of making music for the moving image too….
Until next time….