Live!

I have my first solo set booked for September 5th at The Castle Grounds in Bridgnorth.

It is a free gig. 

I am playing a 30 minute set from 2:40 to 3:10.

Not sure how much solo material I will play, hopefully something.   So there will be some new cover versions (which I'm working on) and possibly one or two Hair Thieves tunes.

So that is a bit scary, given I haven't played live in two years, and very exciting.  So in August, I will try and play a couple open mic nights to get some practice in.

A winter's memory has now been recorded and is ready for mixing.  Given this is a piano led song, I don't think I can pull it off on guitar with any real justice.  Though I will at least try and work out an arrangement for guitar and try it.

Still not decided on the b-side yet.

The plan is to release it to coincide with the gig, so I suppose, the b-side should be something I play at the gig.  I'll decide in the next day or two.

Exciting times!



Later

Rollasoc

A Winter's Memory - A Mid Summers Problem

It has been a couple of months since the last update.

A lot of the time I have had for music has been taken up with finishing the writing for the new Hair Thieves EP.   This has now been done.  Though I have one song to mix for the EP, we are currently having a couple months off, due to festival season and house moves.

So I am hoping to finish A Winter's Memory this month.  Musically and lyrically it is complete.  I need to add one more part to the arrangement.  Re-record the vocals and it is ready for mixing. 

It isn't a million miles away from the demo. 



I have tweaked the piano, to add some variation.  Changed the tempo a bit.  Added a middle 16 (which is where I need the new part).  Just noticed the demo doesn't have the drop d guitar part in the choruses.  It was recorded before the bass part, so it should have been on the demo.

I was also hoping to re-record Tabanid, as the b-side, but I trawled all my songwriting notes and cannot find any notes on how to play it, nor the lyrics, so that does mean me revisiting the song from scratch. 

Essentially, I can see me ditching the music and starting again musically with this. 

So I am in two minds whether to ditch Tabanid for the moment and use Sour Grapes and Sweet Lemon Mechanism for the extra tracks on this release.

My thinking for that is also that Sweet lemon mechanism is quite electronic which at the moment might be out of place on an album.  But without finishing more of the album, it is too early to say.

So that is a problem for another day.

In the meantime, (whist looking for the Tabanid tab) I came across a set of chords. So I have started writing a new song.   So seventeen tunes on the go.  I may be sometime.

Sweet Lemons

Ok it has been a month since my last blog update.  I was hoping to get out the next blog in the ongoing musical history, but they are time consuming and I haven't had big blocks of time to do one.

So I will start the next one and save it as draft and chip away at it.

The last month, we reconvened on recording the new Hair Thieves EP.  So a lot of the time I have been doing music has been recording and writing for that.

As far as this project is going, I have gone through my archives and songs from this years FAWM and realised I have sixteen potential songs to work on for this album.   Most of it is music only, only a couple have completed lyrics.

So I have been playing with a pair of old Hair Thieves tunes, called "Sour Grapes" and "Sweet Lemon Mechanism".  These were going to be the start of the previously planned Hair Thieves album, but when we decided not to do an album, but only do EPs, they were dropped.

So I am trying to ressurect them.

The main problem with them, is in some cases, I don't have the VST instruments (like Groove Agent 2 plus some others) nor the effects pedals (Digitech Whammy) to rerecord sections of it again.

So I am struggling with getting new grooves I like to work with the tracks.   Stupidly, in the case of Groove Agent 2, I recorded the audio output of it and not the midi.   I have Groove Agent 4, but that doesn't have the kits from previous versions.

I think I have decided on the first tune to release.  "Persephone" was planned to be the first track released, but I have decided that "A Winters Memory" will be the first tune, since I think I have an idea brewing for the video.

This will be backed by a track called "Tabanid" which is another rejected Hair Thieves tune, with no chours.  This was almost finished, but I aim to re-record it in a slightly different style for this release.

So I am chipping away at this project, though not as fast as i would like.

More soon.

Fawm - Week 4 and Round up

Fawm (http://fawm.org) is an annual event to write an album in a month.  The idea is to write 14 songs in 28 days and release an album.

Week 4's plan was to wrap up the songs I had been working on and not necessarily write any new ones.  I'd always said I would be happy with nine songs.  So in order to not stress too much,

I ended up with ten songs / lyrics at the end of the month.  So I am more than happy.

On the Sunday of week four, I did my last skirmish.  Another title I really wasn't interested in writing lyrics for.

The title was "Because of You".

V1
Many words are spoken in jest
Because of you, I've feelings repressed
Can't state no fact
Without a third world war
Can't critique, just silence
Like I never was born

Chorus
And banging my head
Against the bedroom wall
Feels less painful than
talking to you some more
Because of you, our happiness left
Because of you our lives in a mess

V2
Many a lip bite, blood tastes raw
Because of you, my battles not won
Can't air a grivence
Without a denial of facr
Can't shout, just silence
like I'm caught in a trap.

Chorus
And Banging my head
Against the bedroom wall
Feels less painful than
talking to you some more
Because of you, our happiness left
Because of you our lives in a mess

Bridge
And my conscious is clear
This is not about sides
I'm always wrong and
You're always right
Oblivious to my feelings
Oblivious to my plight
And you won't heed this warning
as I sing this tonight

Bonus bridge.
Obnoxious and rude
Trumps the meek and hallow
A bully's no better than
the sh*t that you prattle
It's not a sign of strength
But a sign of the fear
Pity for you
and the things that you do

Now I like some of the lines, but this is probably not a keeper.  So I didn't bother writing music for it.

However, in week three, we (The Hair Thieves) started writing a new track.    This week, I have put some guitar to it and some lyrics.

The song is called "Love is Overdrive" and it is probably the most pop song we have ever recorded.

The vocals, need a lot of work and the lyrics need tweaking, but it is getting there.  (and nope it don't rhyme).

Been torched by love
Burnt and scarred
Drawn to a flame
My hearts desire
Never learnt
Always back for more

Heart on my sleeve
Love lies scorned
Cos when I fall
I fall so fast
Never learnt
Runing back for more

Love's infectious
Love is overdrive
Love is infectious
Love is over drive

Played the long game
Battles fought
Lost more than won
My soul devoured
Never learnt
Heading back for more

Love's infectious
Love is overdrive
Love is infectious
Love is over drive

Bridge / breakdown

Love's infectious
Love is overdrive
Love is infectious
Love is over drive
Love's infectious
Love is overdrive
Love is infectious
Love is over drive



The final song I worked on, was the one I started in week one.

It has ended up with a working title of "Beside Me".

Rivers of blind emotions
Tearing strips to the core
Lead me down, don't fear the dark might see
wilt and whither, the damage taught.

When all things pass
and dies are cast
Will you still walk beside me
When dreams are sold
and battles fought
Will you still walk beside me

Drown me in dark seductions
Smother me in warmer shores
Lead me down, don't fear that god might find
Things of value are seldom bought.

When all things pass
and dies are cast
Will you still walk beside me
When dreams are sold
and battles fought
Will you still walk beside me

I think it needs another verse and bridge to be written.  A better chorus (musically sped up) .  The vocals are terrible on this.  It was essentially a couple of takes and I haven't worked out the melody totally yet, (nor practiced it).  So it is all over the place. 

As someone else pointed out, the rhyming scheme for this is across verses, so the line ones rhyme etc and the rhymes are not within the verse.

Like most things done in great haste, I can't remember if this is intentional or not.  (it probably isn't).

But it is a promising start.



Finally, if you have been following this blog, you may recall, that I wrote a one minute instrumental for an Exquisite Corpse challenge.

Since the month is over, I will present the demo of it here.   I'm still waiting for the final piece to go live.  I will blog that when it turns up.




So that is it for Fawm 2015.  Ten songs in varying states of completion.

I might post a blog next week, with all eight demos that have music. 

I have really enjoyed this month.  It has been very productive.  I can see me  finishing up the three Sineglider tunes.  Both the Hair Thieves songs and probably two of the others for my solo project, (unless E wants them as Hair Thieves songs).

I am looking forward to Fawm in 2016.  I am going to go for the 14 songs.  You heard it here first!

Fawm - Week 3 Summary

Fawm (http://fawm.org) is an annual event to write an album in a month.  The idea is to write 14 songs in 28 days and release an album.

Musically a mixed bag this week.

I decided I didn't want to put any effort into writing music for Sunday's skirmish, entitled "I found my happy place".  

I decided I would try and finish the song I started in week one.  The one in 5/4 time.  So I have spent some time re-working it, so now the verse music is the chorus and the chorus the verse.

As a demo I am happy with it.  I just need to write some lyrics for it.  I tried yesterday, but my muse wasn't having none of it.

During the week, I met up with Ian, the other half of The Hair Thieves.  He had started working on a synthy instrumental for Ep7.  Even though we already have a instrumental for the EP.

I had a listen.  There was a part of it, which was screaming out CHORUS to me.  So we re-arranged and recorded a few bits, until we had a proper song structure.

I have worked out a vocal melody.  Added some guitars since.  I just need to write some lyrics. Again, I tried yesterday, but my muse wasn't having none of it.

I have however started a new Sineglider instrumental.  Called Onionhead.



It still needs a bit of work, possibly a lead guitar, more synths, in the intro / breakdown.

But I'm quite pleased with it so far.  A bit more upbeat than my normal songs.   Plus I got to use the new bass guitar I bought during the week.

So current state of play.
6 songs Demo'd
1 set of lyrics I probably won't use.
2 songs with music needing some lyrics.
1 week to go, until FAWM finishes.

There is a skirmish, I believe tonight.  So I will have a go at that.

At the start of the month, I was never really planning to have fourteen songs at the end of it.  I believed I would get at least six and really would be happy if I could get nine songs done.

So with a week to go, I am very close to achieving that.

Then I can concentrate back on which of these new songs will make it on the solo album and crack on and get the first single out sometime before the summer.

I want to get the album released before March 2016.  So much more work to be done (as well as Hair Thieves EP7 / EP8 to complete and a Sineglider EP in 2015).

I'm excited.

Fawm - Week 2 Summary. (and a bit of week 3)

Fawm (http://fawm.org) is an annual event to write an album in a month.  The idea is to write 14 songs in 28 days and release an album.

Mixed week this week.  I was happy to have done three songs in the first week (after only managing six during Fawm 2014).

So week 2 should have started with an instrumental on Sunday morning as part of an exquisite corpse game (each participant writes a one minute tune.  The first person writes there and sends the last 10 seconds to the next person, who carries on the tune. etc.  When the last person finishes, it is all stitched back together into one long song).

However, the person in the list before me, didn't manage to do theres.


So on sunday, I finished the demo for "A Winter's Memory".



Starting to really like this.  There is more guitar parts recorded than ended up here. I will re-work this after February.


On the sunday there was another skirmish.  This time the title was "The Devil's Highway".

So I wrote a quick song about my love affair with the M6 motorway.  So glad I don't have to drive down that each day (like I did for 5 years).


Originally, I wasn't going to put this to music, buy some people on the forum said they wanted to hear it.  So here it is.  The demo was made using EZKeys to come up with something really quick.

I'm quite happy with how it turned out.  Not sure if I will re-record this for use later.  Maybe it will be a b-side or bonus track.

During the rest of the week, I struggled with starting a song from the drums upwards.  Spent far too many hours trying to import some .rex files into Cubase.  Cubase seems intent on importing files that are in 5/4 or 7/4 in 4/4 time, regardless as to what the song's time signature is.

After several nights of trying, I gave up and went back to using Ezdrummer.  

On Friday, I was told to start the Exquisite corpse song.  So in three hours, I wrote a one minute instrumental called "Lorana".   I have sent the last ten seconds off to a chap called Tim in Australia to carry it on.

Obviously, I can't yet spoil it for everyone, by posting the song.  I will post the song once the Exquisite corpse is finished.
So Saturday I was home alone.  I re-recorded the devil's highway vocals, since the original second verse didn't work for the melody I wrote for verse one.  Added the music to the bridge (which I thinks needs an instrumental adding before the final chorus.

I then had a go at the failed song.  So far I have some chorus music in 5/4 time, with a guitar riff.  I then proceeded to write a verse chord progression in 4/4 time, that seems far too happy.

So this needs re-working further and lyrics writing.

So the scores at the end of the week are five songs demoed.   One song on the go.


So this is the start of week 3,  I wrote some cliched lyrics for a skirmish entitled "I found my happy place".

Really insistant that I won't write music for this and will use the rest of the time to finish the other song in progress.

"I found my happy place".

In a world of fears and regrets
Wars and famine
Children distressed
All of the illness
and all the duress
I've found my happy place

In a world where we ain't equal
race and creed
hatred begats evil
All of the pain
And all of the suffering
I've found my happy place

Because
In you, I see a shining sun
In you, I see love for everyone
In you I see hope and a reason to be
In you I see courage and the will to be free

I've found my happy place

In a world of rich verses poor
Terror, disorder
Banks rotton core
In all of the sadness
And all this disease
I've found my happy place.

Because
In you, I see a shining sun
In you, I see love for everyone
In you I see hope and a reason to be
In you I see courage and the will to be free

I've found my happy place


So at the end of Sunday at the start of the third week.  I have five songs, one set of lyrics (not) needing music and a partial song musically.

So with two weeks left, I think I will improve on last years total of six songs written.  

So happy with how February is progressing so far.

Fawm - Week 1 Summary

Fawm (http://fawm.org) is an annual event to write an album in a month.  The idea is to write 14 songs in 28 days and release an album.

It is now the start of day eight, so I thought I would update my progress so far (given in 2013 I managed 3 songs and 2014 I manged 6).

Well, the scores on the door is currently sitting as 2.5.

I started off on February 1st, whilst everyone else in the house was asleep.   So it was headphones on, leave the noisy guitars alone and work on a new tune for my Sineglider instrumental project.


This is based around the Alchemy plugin by the recently defunct Camel Audio.  Shame, given I like their plugins.



As with all songs I am going to demo this month, it will be very rough and will be re-worked over the coming months.

In the afternoon, I went to visit E from my band The Hair Thieves. I challenged him to come up with a song in the three hours we had.  

To speed things up, we used Toontrack's EZKeys piano plugin.   So over the course of three hours, we chose some piano patches, re-worked the chords.   Sorted out a rough beat and started the lyrics.

At the end of the day we had a rough tune and some partial lyrics.

On the Monday I recorded the lyrics, before reconvening back at E's on the Tuesday to finish the demo.

So after deleting the vocals for lines that didn't work (either melodically or scan).  We reworked the lyrics, added bridge lyrics and recorded some more vocals.

We then called it quits in the demo and released it onto the world.

This song will probably be on The Hair Thieves EP8, so we will rework this sometime later in the year. We will possibly throw away the piano and using the chord structure re-write for guitar.

Overall we are pretty pleased with the song.

The third song that was started is called "A winter's memory" the title was given as a skirmish (where you have one hour to write and record a song, with a given title or subject).

I managed to write the lyrics in under an hour, but never finished the music.

Idea came from a conversation I had with a friend at Uni.
We was talking about his girlfriend and he said something along the lines of,

"I love her, but sometimes, I wake up and look at her and just want to punch her in the face."


A Winter's Memory

Waking from a long sleep
A vision of you
Head under a pillow
I was never so cruel
It was so easy
though I'm not thinking straight
Why is it love, comes with such hate

And the winter remembers
The ghost of you
The coldness, the darkness
The screams and untruths
And the memory sparkles
as the nights draw near
Into my silence
you're worshiped and revered.

Snow falls on the landscape
On coats of blue
Ice breaks and dredgers
Still looking for truths
It was so easy
To make them understand
The love of a woman, can melt a man.

And the winter remembers
The ghost of you
The coldness, the darkness
The screams and untruths
And the memory sparkles
as the nights draw near
Into my silence
you're worshiped and revered.


I have started the music for this.  Initially, using EZKeys again.  I am currently in the process of replacing the piano with guitar and bass.  A the moment, this is in the tuning of DGDGBD since that was the guitar to hand.   So this will be a song for the Rollasoc project.

I will try and finish the demo in the coming days.

So on to week two.   I have signed up for an exquisite corpse game.   This involves several people, with the first person writing a minute of music and then sending the last ten seconds to the next person.  This process repeats until the end of the line is reached.   The first person then stitches all the snippets together into one long song.

I did this last year and got the Sineglider tune Foxtrot 4 out of it.


So another one minute Sineglider tune will be on the way this week, given I am second in line in my corpse.

Until next week's update, I'd best crack on and write a couple of new songs.

Fawm - Day 1

Fawm (http://fawm.org) is an annual.  Write an album in a month.  The idea is to write 14 songs in 28 days and release an album.

It is a great way of kick starting a project, collaborating with people and generally being challanged to come up with songs under tight deadlines.

Now given, my primary concern is writing for The Hair Thieves, then for my solo "Rollasoc" album as well as my instrumental persona "Sineglider".  I'd be happy for one or two songs for each of my musical personalities.

I attempted this in 2013 and managed three parts of songs. I have just listened to two of the songs and think they might need resurecting, since I really like them.  (One will be a Sineglider tune in retrospect)

In 2014, I attempted it again.  This time I managed six songs. A few of which have been released into the world.




One made it on to the last Hair Thieves EP.

Original Demo
The final released version.



The others are in various states of completion / abandonment.

So I thought I would attempt Fawm again in 2015.  The aim this year, is for possibly nine new songs at the end of February.  One every three days.

So at the end of day.   How am I getting on.


Well,I started the day at 9am.  With everyone else in my house asleep, I felt it best to put the headphones on and write an instrumental.   This will be a Sineglider tune.   I wanted to use my Alchemy synth, since the company has recently stopped trading.  So it is synthy.  It started as an ambient tune, but got a bit noisy towards the end.

I'd arranged to meet with E from the Hair Thieves in the afternoon, with the intention of thrashing out an entire song.   We pretty much managed to write a song in four hours.  It will need a little work to finish the demo, later in the week.

Finally, I did the first skirmish tonight.  A Fawm skirmish, is,  given a topic, write and record a song in an hour.  The pigs (demo) above was from a Fawm skirmish.

Tonight's topic was "A winter's memory".  Which is a title I liked.   I managed to write two verses and a chorus in 31 minutes.  Which is pretty fast for me.   But I failed to finish the demo in time to post it at the end of the hour.

So at the end of day one.  I have three songs on the go.    So I need to get them demoed by Friday, if I am going for 14 songs this month, or just over a week, if I'm not.

So expect some demo links over the coming week.

End of Year Round Up.

Well, the good news is, I thought I started this blog in January 2014, so my lack of progress, was really a wasted year and quite depressing.   Then looking at the blog, I see I started it in June.   So that made me feel better.

I started with great intentions and dreams and got sidetracked by the day job, The Hair Thieves EP6 and EP7, the world cup, the Xbox and me temporarily killing my music PC whilst trying to upgrade it.

I'm glad to report the PC is now fine and back up and running, so no excuses for 2015.


I have been through some of my backlog of abandoned and rejected tunes and done rough mixes of everything so far.  I think I probably have ten songs (in various states of completion) I could work on, with about 25 minutes of music so far (the shortest idea is about a minute. The longest about 5.  Only one has complete music and lyrics).

So I am going to set some targets with dates. as per week one of the Ariel Hyatt book that is now somewhere on my Kindle at about page 8.  I haven't given this any thought, I'm just going to type five things and see how it goes, whilst trying to make them achievable.

So the immediate plan.
1) Finish and preview new song March 2015.  (This will probably be called Persephone).
2) Do Fawm 2015
I did Fawm 2014 and managed five new songs.

Fawm is an annual attempt to write 14 songs in 28 days.

Of the five songs I wrote in 2014, one made it onto the Hair Thieves EP6.  Another of which is about Bacon.  Another of which I stole for an instrumental project. Least said about that last two the better

Oh go on then.  Here is a song about bacon!



And here is the instrumental.



So we shall see what next February brings to the mix.

3) Launch website March 2015.
4) Start practicing guitar / singing with aim to start playing open mics in Spring 2015.
5) Release EP (or possibly album) September 2015.   (ideally an album. Must be finished by 6th March 2016....)

bonus task
6) Finish '80s musical journey blogpost Jan 2015
7) Finish '90s musical journey blogpost Feb 2015
8) Finish '00s musical journey blogpost March 2015
9) Finish this decades musical journey April 2015.


So that is a rough plan, that I now need to stick to!  (I will finish this and update my task management system appropriately)

At the top of the page is a video of me messing about with a synth.  It is by no way an indication of where I am going with this project.  I just stumbled across it on my phone today and have no recollection of actually recording it.

Hope you all had a wonderful 2014 and hope you get a better 2015.   I'm off to practice my guitar....  

Life is wearing me thin.

Sorry for not blogging for the last month or so.    Work commitments, Hair Thieves commitments, family commitmments, holidays and festivals have left little time for writing and recording.

The image above is of me at last weekends Mansun Convention in Chester, playing one of the Chad's guitars.

Work is progressing on the first solo tune.   Lyrics are 75% complete.  Some music has been recorded but a lot of time has been spent playing with the music software and hardware trying to get guitar sounds that I'm happy with.

Hopefully, the lyrics will be finished in the next week, so I can start putting the music together, whilst learning chord shapes in DADGBD tuning.

I've not looked at the branding task from week two in the marketing book.  Until I have written a few tunes, I don't know what the overall package will sound like.  Well that is my excuse!

Month One report.

One month into the solo album and things haven't gone totally to plan.

I'm blaming this on the World Cup, (which I didn't take into account for) and also me complicating the Hair Thieves latest release by adding another song and signing us up to record a cover song for a Mansun tribute album.

However, as I stated in the intial post, I have done some planning based on on Music Success In Nine Weeks by Ariel Hyatt.

I failed to do the 5 victories thing each day.  Mostly because I have a pretty good task system, so I can see the progress of things ticked off, each day!


So I have set myself a end target to release the album in March 2015, which will coincide with my birthday.

Before then, I need to set up a website (which won't be needed until I have something for people to listen to).  set up distribution, social media and start playing local open mic nights and find some support slots.  So much to think about, plan and do.

I have started work on the first song, however.  So far I have some music and some lyrics.  It has the working title of Persephone.   I rejected it from being a Hair Thieves tune on the basis that it is in DADGBD tuning.    So I will see what I can do with it in the next week or so.

I have also dragged out my old amp.  I bought this amp in 1990 (around the time I bought the B.C. Rich Warlock).  I used it to gig throughout the 1990's.   Eventually selling it, before buying it back again since I missed it.

I am contemplating recording some of the material with it, given in the past, I have used V-amps. PODs and Amplitude plugin for guitar sounds, so it might be nice to record a proper amp for once.

This does, obviously, subconciously assume that this is no longer the planned acoustic album I envisaged.  Plus with different tunings, this might make playing the songs live acoustically tricky.

So to Ariels, week two tasks (or months task in my case).   Branding.   I will write a separate blog entry on this and my problems with it.  And try and do part one of my '80s musical heritage!

Later

Rollasoc

Week 1 - Getting Mentally prepared.

It is the first of June 2014.

The start of the the journey into creating some music and blogging about the process.

Some of this will partially be based on Music Success In Nine Weeks by Ariel Hyatt, for no other reason than I need a plan.

Given, my musical priority is and will be The Hair Thieves nine weeks is a little ambitious.  So I will spread the nine weeks out over many months.

I will assume Arial thinks I might already have material written, gigs on the go and what not.

I am starting from near scratch.  Just a collection a few under developed ideas and lyric snippets. Song is different tunings and time signatures.

At the moment I only have two rules for this project.

1. If the song starts sounding like it should be a Hair Thieves song, then it should be and I will show it to E to say if we should use it.
2. Given the The Hair Thieves brand tag is"An eclectic mix of ambient indie pop rock punk jazz soundtracks", this project should have a focus and not be eclectic. I have an inkling as to what I want to do.  More about that soon.

  So, back to Ariel's book.

The tasks this weekis to set some goals and set some dates for those goals.

Apparantly, only 3% of people have their long term goals written down and it has been proven that people who track their goals are more likely to achieve them.

I have been a been advocate of David Allen's Getting Things Done: How to Achieve Stress-free Productivity methodology. I have had a system in place for about eight years now.

It mostly works, for me. I will blog more about my time management system in the future.

So I already have a working task tracking system in place.

The bit of Getting Things done that I have always struggled with is the big picture.

What are my life goals?

I don't have issues with goals for individual projects, but what is my life goal.  I really don't know.  Ariel also iterates the need for lifetime goals.  I'm still unconvinced.

So for the purposes of this experiment.  I will limit my goals to twelve months and this one project and reserve the right to change them whenever!

So this weeks task are to

1. Write down each day. 5 victories.   (Now I used to do that years ago, so I will start again)
2. Write down six Focus areas for the next twelve months
1. with dates
2. that involve me only
3. are realistically achievable

In the book, Ariel mentions money goals.   I'm slightly uncomfortable with that.  I would be happy to make enough money to sustain my musical hobby.   I have no ambition to be a full time musician.  I love my day job enough to want to carry that on as a career.

Right, so whilst I get my mind thinking of what I want to achieve for this project.   I have some immediate tasks to get on with namely :-

1. Name the project
2. Get the domain name
3. Get the social media names for it
4. Create project structure on my music PC for it
5. Create a project structure in my lyric writing system.

So let's begin and get all of this into my task management system.

later

Rollasoc

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog.

For those that don't know me, I am a hobbyist musician, a photographer, a writer and a software engineer.

I am in a band called The Hair Thieves, who record an eclectic mix of EPs. This is mostly indie pop rock songs with a smattering of ambient soundtracks, rock, punk and jazz twinges.

Within this blog I aim to document the writing, recording and marketing of my first solo CD.

As of today.  May 17th 2014,  this exists only as a series of song parts, nothing has been finalised, I have no list of tunes nor completed lyrics to work on.

All I have is some ideas, that are either in weird tunings, weird timings (or both) or have been rejected as songs for The Hair Thieves.

So this might end up a album, or an EP or an EP and an album.   I don't know yet.

The Hair Thieves is still my primary focus, so working on the new EPs for that will take precedence over any solo material I write, so I am envisaging that a solo album may take a year or two to complete.

 So this blog aims to be informative on

• My writing progress
• Tools I use to write music
• The progress of demos
• The recording process
• Tools I use to record.
• Occasional dodgy cover versions
• How to market a band.  Starting from scratch.
• Online courses I have partaken in.
• Reviews of useful blogs for musicians.
• My take on posts from other musicians.

From the marketing point of view, I aim to base the steps on Music Success In Nine Weeks by Ariel Hyatt.

Obviously, since I am starting from scratch and have other priorities,  I aim to do this in nine months not nine weeks.

This will be supplemented by various books from Bob Baker like, Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook (in which my name is mentioned!) as well as other blogs and books.




So there it is a start, or at least a line in the sand.  To be honest it is a little bit scary!

I am to blog every couple of weeks.    Starting the week June 1st.   Wish me luck!