Online Diary (December 2010)

Jan 2, 2011 Latest News
Posted by ryan

30/12/10

Well well well, hasn’t 2010 been eventful? Looking back I have been a busy gigger (roughly 170-180 performances not including acoustic nights) and have written a second albums worth of material (very slowly) with which to record in 2011. Song writing has never been a quick process for me but I know at least that by the time the song is finished I am happy with it. I’m glad that you have enjoyed listening to the songs too. I am currently sat in Loves Cafe W-s-M waiting for my hot chocolate and carbonara thinking about a little evaluation of the year and what to concentrate on in the year ahead.

Some of the highlights inclue (in no particular order)

• Winning the Slicethepie funding (Oct)
• Supporting the guys from Reef at The Orange Box in Yeovil (Oct)
• Performing with my band at STREETFEST in front of hundreds of people (Sept)
• Destiny winning demo of the month in Future Music magazine (Sept)
• Performing at MANNIFEST (Aug)
• This website being made possible by my friend Peter Fealey (also his amazing stag party in Latvia!! (Aug)
• Having been in the top 3 artists of www.Talentwatch.net since I joined in June (Currently at number 2!)
• Recording an awesome video with VTKTM (May)
• Finding his songwriting again in April (Wonderkid)
• All the amazing remixes of my songs by various talented guys out there. A big thankyou
• The pictures taken by KLEE photography which have been pivotal in putting a much more handsomer face on my music

First thing that comes to mind for 2011 is planning to do a SKYDIVE for FOOTPRINT MUSICIANS CHARITY. I intend to get 39 of my friends to do it with me and aim to raise close to £20,000. My reason for this amount is that is what Footprint have paid out over the past 7 years to young talented musicians in the North Somerset area and I would like to organise something that meets that target in one go… also coincidentally it is exactly the same amount that I would even consider jumping out of a plane for!! Falling is my biggest nightmare and before 2011 is done with I want to know I’ve tasted fear. I also want to say why I support Footprint as much as I do: I believe having a creative outlet is important to a healthy life… if at a young age you can be encouraged to excel in a creative art then I believe it leads to a potentially more productive and happy existence

Second is the recording of my (hopeful) masterpiece. With your help I have some serious money to spend on recording an album I hope you all can be as proud of as I will be. I have a great band behind me and lots of friends who will lend a hand along the way. I have big ideas for promotion and hope that I can keep up with some level of determination that it requires. I have it in my mind that I want to do things without a manager for the meantime because I am confident that there is so much that can be achieved on your own… I hope this doesn’t drive me crazy :-S

HERE ARE SOME OF THE IDEAS I INTEND TO DO FOR 2011

• I’m thinking of doing some guitar technique videos one a month to help gain some interest from the guitar playing demographic out there. I’ll record a little riff I have written along with some tablature and an explanation of what’s going on. One of those a month would be feasible and fun to do.
• Creating the odd ringtone here and there to get people hearing my little ditties regularly. I heard that things like this can spread very quickly and publicity is important (there is already one for you to help yourself to in the DOWNLOADS section)
• Tabbing out all the original material and having them available to download for those of you interested in learning my songs
• ENDORSEMENTS… I have already secured an amp endorsement but strings and potentially a guitar endorsement would be amazing
• Gigs abroad. I will be getting on the case to get my pasty white ass into some sunshine this year. I’ve been abroad once since I was 17 and that was for a friends stag do in August just gone. I really would like to get some international gig and meet some new people along the way.
• Less gigs, better quality: After playing a vast amount of times over the last couple of years I have realised a few things; playing regularly, although helpful for paying the bills, is detrimental for encouraging an audience to come and watch. Although it is important to play different places to gain more potential fans it is more important to play in the right places to the right people and to offer something special in return for the audience’s attention. I could quite happily play my acoustic guitar to room of 20 people at a time but I feel like it is time to start putting on a show and selling tickets to coordinated events. I have NEVER charged an audience to see me play as I’m either playing for free or the venue itself pays my wages. Doing things the other way round is where I would like to head this year. Filming the performances and creating live DVD’s as well as maybe streaming them live online for people in other countries to view…. there’s no point thinking small any more; I’ve done my apprenticeship, now it’s time to open the flood gates.
• Regular video blogs. I can’t promise that they will be very interesting all the time but regularly keeping you up to date with ideas, opportunities or achievements would be good for me in the sense that it would force me to be more productive on a day to day basis. Also they might be either informative enough or funny enough to encourage people to pass them around? One would hope so.
• Merchandise – like some t-shirts, stickers, underwear line etc (lol)
• To get really really really fit so I could, if I wanted to, run a whole marathon in a suit of armour
• MAINLY: make my investors proud and put some money back into their pockets. I am eternally grateful for the helping hand you have all given to me and want more than anything to make sure I do my best with it. It may take a little longer than others but I promise that I’m in this for the long term and I would like to think that you are to. With your help there is nothing that we cannot achieve – almost every good thing that has happened to me within my music career has been thanks to someone passing on a song to a friend or many of you voting on a video that I posted that someone else saw and offered me an opportunity. All of these acts are priceless and so thanks again for those of you who regularly do this.

Right, so there is not a lot else I can think of for the meantime other than going out and enjoying my last social evening of 2010. I have a gig tomo at a private function so won’t know anyone there and will no doubt see in the New Year chimes with just a little sip of water and a drive home in the small hours. I hope you all have an amazing time this weekend and I’ll see you soon.

Since you made it this far through the essay you deserve a little something in return. Check out this amazing guy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjbX6mDnMwM

24/12/10

Um.. a slightly lax week and a half in relation to keeping up to date on here but nothing has been worth reporting as such. Been very busy with gigs and xmas shopping and all kinds of pedestrian activities that isn’t worth mentioning. All I wanted to say tonight before I go to sleep is that I wish whoever may be reading this a fantastic Christmas and thankyou for your support in 2010. I have $15,000 to start using in 2011 and lots of exciting ideas to realise. I’m intending to jump out of a plane at somepoint to raise money for charity and get some nice new videos up online to get the word moving around.

All in all I am a very happy and lucky boy who has lots of cool things to get done in the next 12 months. Thanks for your support x

14/12/10

Ok, so… been a very busy few days. The gig at Uphill Village Hall was awesome fun and The Royal Hotel was a surprisingly good night; usually it is quite hard to please the few people that are there but the audience were really great and very appreciative which was wonderful. Saturday was basically a non-stop gig to gig and then out for some fun with friends. 12th (Sunday) was all about Footprint Musicians Charity and we managed to put on a day of live music featuring some great local original talent such as:

Rob Phillips, Oli Sillick, Lenny Savage, James MacLucas, Saving Mary, Emily & Harrisen Larner-Main, Jethro Wilkinson, CJ & Lucille, Lorna Thomas, Lucas Thomas, Roy Glover, Dave Gibson, Ben Fletcher and Tom Conibear (Roshambo) For info on the night and pics and vids keep an eye on the facebook page. In a nut shell we put on events to raise money for the local musical community. We have given out around £20,000 since 2003 to help original music in various forms and I love being part of the process

Today was mostly a catch up with laundry, house tidying and admin as well as an evening of band rehearsal which was great. Laura (Heathcote) got to grips with some of the melody lines I had in mind for the songs and will add a very awesome dimension that I’ve always wanted to hear on my tracks. Harmonies were worked on too and I have been sorting out getting invoices ready for the studio time in late January. Going to have a photograher there to take pics through the day (KLEE Kate Lee) as well as plenty of empty video tapes to get some footage to use for a promo vid.

Got some advice from Tom (GOMEZ) and it seems a very good idea to use the majority of the money on promotion whilst keeping the recording costs down. This makes sense as you could record the best album in the world but if no one knows its there then it gets left behind. So I’m definitely going down that route but the single (Secret) will be done to a high standard to get the ball rolling. Night night for now – more later today when I’m up and about

11/12/10

Well last night was fun My housemate Tom had his 29th birthday and we all went in fancy dress… the theme was ‘band names’ and I will post a picture of what I went as sometime tomo when they are copied onto the computer. Also played at Illusions Magic Bar and The Colston Hall last night in Bristol. I should say a massive thankyou to Kall Kwik in W-s-M for helping me out with a new batch of beer mats – absolute legend, thankyou Stuart.

I have 3 gigs today! firstly playing at Uphill Village Hall for a charity event involving burlesque dancers. Gonna be a real drag after that I will be playing for an hour at my favourite cafe in the world Loves Cafe and then later from 9pm I will be at the Royal Hotel on the seafront playing to the locals and residents.

Tomo I will be working on the Footprint event all day at The London Inn so will be back on the case with my pop career after that in the week. Cheers for now.

09/12/10

Good day to you all… started the day with a meeting with Richard Browne (eventcastmedia) with regards to the continuation of ideas regarding the documentary. It was decided that the first three steps should be as follows:

• 1) Record a live gig to high quality including professionnal lighting/sound and visuals which can be used for promotion as well as getting the ball rolling on content for the documentary. Interviews before and after the gig as well as audience feedback with be included. These videos will be streamed live over the internet also so people who do not live locally will be able to watch from home – also after the editing it will be available to watch on YouTube and Muzo as well as other video channels online.
• 2) Once the main gig (for the forthcoming live DVD) is announced and the venue has been decided upon I will be looking to go steps further with regards to improving the first video, which could be seen as a test run, as well as gaining as much media attention as possible. The venue that I have in my sites is a very well known place in Weston-super-Mare and as such could potentially draw a fair sized crowd. Meeting with regards to this are likely to be early in the new year.
• 3) Once the album itself (or indeed the first single) is ready for release we will be looking to film a week solid of doing as many interviews on radio and filling 7 days with as much action as possible. Ideas such as playing in HMV or some Schools or Universities perhaps. Alongside this will be an online campagin to get as many single sales from fans within the week to try to achieve a chart entry.

The timeline of events so far is to record the single in late Jan and then get it mixed, produced and mastered by early/mid February. Once the single is completed and the band is fully rehearsed and ready for a gig we will do the first one – maybe late Feb/early March. The videos from that will have a month or so of circulation to create a buzz and in the meantime more rehearsing/writing will be going on. The BIG gig will be maybe in April/June time giving hopefully enough time to record the majority of the rest of the album. The single release will coincide with the big gig and hopefully enough listeners will be on borasd to make a few sales and then the 7 days of interviews and cramming will commence. Once the single has done the rounds a possible second single followed by the entire album (including live DVD of BIG gig) for general release. Obviously a lot of other things need to be considered in between but all will come clear when the time is right.

On another good note the guitar amp endorsement is confirmed which means added money to the investment total with which to spend on the album and also a free amp worth thousands of pounds to use in my live shows and in my videos this is AMAZING!!! more details to follow

Having a meeting tonight with a stylist who works with bands in the Bristol area and has worked in London too to get something underway with regards to moulding myself and my band into a cohesive and pleasurable style that will suit the music. Nothing strange or over the top, just an embelishment of our normal clothing with some tweaks I should imagine.

Other than that I will be in Yates’s (W-s-M) tonight hosting the open mic night.

07/12/10

Up at 8:30am!!!! WTF?! yes it is true and I have already had 2 meetings today. One with someone who deals in video editing who has offered to help with software I need as well as the possibility of recording some new live videos before the year is done. Also spoken to the sales representative of Tanglewood to ask about the possibility of sponsorship through them – unfortunately Tanglewood never endorse or sponsor artists but he said he would get me in touch with someone from Takamine which would make much more sense as I predominantly use their guitars. Apparently they are under the umbrella of Fender who also deal in most of the top makes and so as the saying goes, if you don’t ask you don’t get. No harm in trying is there.

I have to collect my next batch of beer mats as well as getting some new posters made for promotional useage as well as find some spare time in my diary to get a new nut fitted to my beautiful guitar. I have ordered a bone nut for best results followed by a set of Martin 12′s (acoustic strings) for that nice tone I like so much from the wonderful skills of Sian from Emarty Academy in Weston-super-Mare

Will be trying to get another quick meeting with Paul Raymond today to get his advice on my budget as well as hopefully getting a reply from Tom (Gomez) apart from that I will be spending today getting birthday supplies for friends, tabbing out my original material on guitar pro, editing more live recordings, making a start on a demo for Senses and catching up with gig invoices. Oh yeah and band rehearsal is tonight too!! better get my little skates on!

BAND Rehearsal was fantastic and lots of things to talk about but will post them tomo as I am now gonna relax with some TV and a well earned nap… You may also have noticed I posted a little ‘ringtone’ for your phones earlier in the DOWNLOADS section. Will probably make a few more here and there because it is fun and hopefully some good exposure. Night all

06/12/10

At currently 4:30am I have been staying awake until the early hours for about a week now. Got a lot of incidental things done though… It’s been great to consolidate my life into neat folders and finished tasks and this is all in order to clear my focus for the job at hand that demands my creative mind not my logical one. I have a meeting tomo with Malcolm Ray who is gonna help me with promotion and possibly further investment opportunities, also still looking for help sorting out my budget to divide the $15,000 into workable sections so I know what I can afford I go along.

Been gigging the last 4 days and had today off with which I used the time to sort my life, editing live recordings I needed to catch up on, tab new songs and go shopping for birthday presents and cards for friends. Here is the tab for One Step At A Time

Saturdays gig at Illusions was great fun; a group of girls asked to have a picture taken with me and one of them sat on my lap mid gig. Highly smile making It was also Steve Hattons (bass player) birthday so a few were out and the atmosphere was the best. Actually had 3 gigs on the Saturday which is quite hard on the throat but easy on the wallet and lord knows I could use the extra pennies. Tuesday is next band rehearsal which after last week we are all very much looking forward too. Laura added on violin is gonna rock my world!! can’t wait. Looking to get all songs up to scratch and then record them all as demos within a day as a live setup – after that it’s gonna be serious studio time and production heaven. As I have a clear idea of what I want to achieve the production duties are pretty much gonna be in mine and the bands hands with input from people around such as Karl G, Tony Hobden and possibly a couple fo others I have in mind… Not to confuse and dilute the clarity of the production but to keep an open mind to what is available and which directions to head in with more confidence. Also I read something very interesting by Chad Price on Slicethepie with regards to investor repayment and royalty agreements which I will need to look further into but I believe very much the same as Chad that you should at the very least get your original investment back (with some work from your side required also) have a read here: LINK

As always if you wanna get in touch to ask me anything or suggest something I may be missing just send a msg and I will get back to you. I’d better get some sleep before tomo’s ‘to do list’ day gets underway. Cheers

Had a meeting this evening with Malcolm Ray and his business partner and things are looking good. I can’t go into much detail but I can say that as well as working within the public sector on energy efficient lighting they also deal withb guitar amps and have many VERY useful contacts in the music industry as well as contacts who may be able to help in some way (some Asian and some local)

2 main things came from the meeting; one being that they are willing to provide me with a guitar amp of very high quality to record and perform with (endorsement) as well as being able to help me with video/documentary making, printing and CD production as well as sourcing a very awesome live venue to record the live DVD of the pre-album launch gig. My plan is to record a high quality DVD of a gig to include all the songs that will appear on the forthcoming album. This should be ready for realease at the same time as the album and will definitely help with promotion when the time comes; everyone loves something to watch… now my evening will be spent eating with friends, installing my printer and promoting the FOOTPRINT EVENT (12th December)

03/12/10

Welcome to December everybody! The last two days have bee fairly standard with acoustic night on the Weds (with some performances from new faces and a busy bar for a change) and a gig last night with Jo Williams at Unwined. I have not slept yet as I have been up all night, the same as the last three days, just doing stuff and organising my new laptop and consolidating all my music files and writing my new to do list… which at the moment has 26 items of which I need to get sorted asap. I feel that I will be more productive if I can de-clutter my day to day life. Unfortunately it’s something that needs doing all too frequently.

I have a wedding gig tonight with Lorna, only for an hour, and then most likely gonna have some social time with some friends not involving spending a lot of money – and hopefully laughing so hard I can’t breathe which I miss. Tomo I have 2 gigs (Loves & Illusions) followed by a few drinks with the bass player (Steve Hatton) for his birthday… these next couple of weeks are choca-bloc with musicial related shinanegans so should have some interesting pics and vids to post soon.

Been tabbing out the guitar parts to ‘Ready Babe‘ which was written by Lorna & myself a few years back as Lorna’s son Lucas was interested in learning it. It would be great to get the 3 songs that Lorna and I wrote together recorded for prosperity (Ready Babe, Waiting and Breaking Bridges) so will hopefully book sometime privately with Tony Hobden to get them done sometime in the new year. You can check out the tab here but it is still to be worked on – Ready Babe itself has about 17 different distinguishable guitar parts to score out!

I am currently also watching possibly every episode of QI on YouTube at the moment.. addictive stuff; it’s great to have on in the background as well while I’m tapping away on the keyboard like this.