New Material (Part 2)

Well progress of sorts has been made!
Following the recent live debut of Glen Brielle (and surviving my ice bucket challenge), I have managed to demo record 2 new tracks - "Where Is The Laughter" and "Invisible".

Where Is The Laughter is a very light acoustic and synthy type feel with some lovely sound clips loaded in at the intro - a bit like Steve Hackett's "Carry On Up The Vicarage". Invisible is much darker but sounds awesome even in its demo format - programmed drums, fretless bass, nylon string acoustic and Hammond organ sounds.

Next up, I've now completed the first draft of lyrics for "Misty Mountain" - now called "Mystic Mountain" - and "Night Perfume". So far I think the lyrics are quite strong but they may change as I start to put them to music. The concept of "Mystic Mountain" includes an instrumental mid section which, hopefully, may feature some of the gorgeous clarsach playing of the brilliant Pippa Reid-Foster. Perhaps even a debut of my flute playing!

Next up is "The Source" in which the theme is in my head - and which may feature electric sitar and pan pipes!

Watch this space for further updates.....

FURTHER UPDATE (28.8.14)

Another lyric written today, the concept came together for "The Source". Strangely this one just seemed to flow, to write itself, in about half an hour! It was never intended to have any darkness of feel but has ended up being quite a positive message but includes some wee stabs at both organised religion and politics.

I also tweaked a track I'd written called "Dead World" and have decided to reclaim "Her Ghost In The Fog" and include this as mine (I wrote it anyway) in the future project.

It's all coming together quite nicely!

Well that was fun!

Well, that was a pretty awesome weekend - in fact a pretty awesome few weeks! Since the summer holidays I've been rehearsing with the amazing Hugh Carter & Pippa Reid-Foster weekly on the Glen Brielle project. Huge mileage on the car as I trekked from Dunfermline to Glasgow & Paisley to work on material. Boy did it work out!

 

The ultimate goal was to have 2 of Hugh's new tracks (Leaving Woodside & Slumber Sweetly) along with the Carter penned "Gullible's Travels" reworked for the launch of the brand new Abel Ganz album at the Centre For Contemporary Arts (CCA) in Glasgow on Friday 15th August 2014. Glen Brielle opened the show to a very welcome and actually very appreciative audience! With Hugh on guitar, vocals and flute and Pippa doing a gorgeous job on harp it was left to me to produce various non-guitar sounds from an electric guitar! The Roland GR-20 really has now earned it's corn!

 

Whilst normally I'm power chording to oblivion with The Shine, Glen Brielle gave me the chance to explore the softer and more melodic side - and I have to say it's a side I like! I sincerely hope Hugh continues with the Glen Brielle project and that I can continue as his left hand hired gun (or preferably part of the Glen Brielle nucleus....)

So, following on from this, I was inspired to revisit and complete a couple of my own demos this weekend - on the basis that the guitar synth was still out. The momentum continued through Sunday and I managed to complete both tracks which had been written and were gathering a wee bit of dust - "Where Is The Laughter" and "Invisible". Again harking back to "Gullible's Travels", Invisible is now almost like Dreamaway revisited - all moody fretless bass, nylon acoustic guitar, Hammond organ and even the radio news announcer.

 

A successful weekend all in all and here's to, hopefully, a continuation of Glen Brielle! Back to work tomorrow with a spring in my step - OK, that's maybe pushing it a bit....

 

Finally, huge thanks to Nigel & Helen Reid-Foster for the stunning photos from Friday night both on this page and on my Facebook. The video of the set is my own recorded from the gantry. Equally, to Hugh & Pippa for being stunning musicians and making me very happy with the creation of something really quite special!

 



New Material (Part 1)

As I always write from song titles, always have done, here's a selection I'll be working on :-

Where Is The Laughter - already written and rough demoed. Just need to refine it.
Misty Mountain - working title, no shortage of inspiration around where I live
Rat On A Wheel - thoughts of how people spend too much time working and not enough living.
Freakshow - how the internet has bred a generation of people looking for more and more freakish things, much like Victorian freakshows.
Night Perfume - inspired by walks at night with dogs where the faintest whiffs of perfume are caught on the air. Are they night scented flowers or are they ladies retiring for the night wearing nothing but Chanel and a smile!
The Source - The source of all true power lies within us. We need to embrace this, culture it and use it...

More to come as I think of themes... Probably about another 2 needed.

One thing I've learned very recently from Hugh Carter is that songs don't need a constant "crash boom bang" from start to finish and that the simple structures are sometimes the most beautiful.

And people thought Spinal Tap was fictional?

Just reading "Pigs Might Fly - The Inside Story Of Pink Floyd" and this bit appealed to me.... (The Shine would do this if we had similar budgets)

"...to quote the projectionist, 'the biggest, loudest, fuck-off explosion ever' to accompany the Floyd's 'crashing plane'. The explosion was suitably dramatic and, with the gig over, the crew began stripping down the stage. 'That was when I realised a couple of bins hadn't gone off' says Pete Revell. 'We had four sticks of dynamite, flash powder and detonators left over, all out of their tins, that we had to get rid of somehow. I said, "Stand back, I'll set this lot off". What we didn't realise is there was more in these bins than had gone off during the gig'. The resulting explosion blew out half of the stadium's back wall and windows in some of the nearby houses. 'One bin went up in the air and we never saw it again. Above us was one of those scoreboards surrounded by light bulbs. The explosion went through the bottom and blew the front out, sending glass and aluminium everywhere. I was in shock for two hours'..."

Going Native Is Obviously Good For The Soul!

It's amazing what a short break can do for you....

Fiona persuaded me to try camping for the very first time as a short break during our summer holidays and, despite our tent being pretty small for 2 adults and Scott for 4 nights, I had an awesome time! Off we popped to The Hideaway at Baxby Manor (www.thehideawayatbaxbymanor.co.uk) in North Yorkshire.

First off, the site was incredible - so peaceful and eco-friendly. There is even an 11pm noise curfew which, despite the fact I like my late nights, actually encouraged me to call it a night at a respectable time - and drink faster! :-)

As a base, The Hideaway was fantastic - about 14 miles from York, 4 from Thirsk and central to everything we wanted to do.

One of the places we visited touched me deeply. I'd always wanted to see Mother Shipton's Cave in Knaresborough so this was a "must visit". I was expecting to be impressed by the story and the famous petrifying well but I have to say I felt a real affinity with the place. Strange I know but as well as being fascinated by the Mother Shipton story, I found myself revisiting the cave of her birth 4 times. Also, not sure if it's recommended, in addition to leaving a few coins in the wishing well (actually a natural pool formed in the rock structure) I drank some of the water. It just seemed right to me.

Now that we're back home, I feel a strange kind of epiphany that there's actually more to life than the mundane 9 to 5. Perhaps this is the natural quietness of the Hideaway, perhaps it's the Mother Shipton influence but one thing's for certain - the trip has done me the world of good and given me a bit of a spur to think about my own life direction.