Online Diary (October 2011)

Nov 16, 2011 Latest News
Posted by ryan

31/10/11

Well October has been a little bit of a stumbling block for me; still waiting for Tony to mix the tracks (Arrrggh) and to be honest I’ve been feeling a little down and unfocused. I’m hoping I can get things moving again in the new month of November and will try to remain centred. I think a band meeting is in order and a plan of action. More than anything else we really need to find another studio to record the rest of the album which is fully rehearsed and ready to go. I would prefer to continue working with Kris Burton at the tracking stage so will need to chase him up about what he thinks would be the best course of action. Songs left to record are My Weakness, For You, Fear, Sea Of Tranquility & we are thinking of including The Bigger Picture as a piano track. I am left with a whole host of other songs that I would love to include but don’t think some work with the band at the moment. I’m still toying with the idea of releasing a second ‘acoustic’ album but have decided to stay focused on a main album rather than a 2 parter since speaking to a few of you investors to get your input. More than anything else I would like this whole process to have taken much less time but the amount of work that went into Secret meant the other work had to wait and obviously life gets in the way as well as everyone else having their own stuff to do.

A few things I have been up to though include recording a demo with Vin Goodwin whom I met at The Bedford in London. He sent me a piano version of one of his new songs and asked if I would put some guitar on it. I ended up recording a complete acoustic version for him which you can hear here:

We Call Love – Vin Goodwin

The guitar was recorded at home and I sent the audio file to Vin who then layed his vocals on top at his studio in London. Vin is a very nice guy who was kind enough to put me up for a couple of nights in London last month… also he is a great contact to have in London as he is linked with The Bedford, The Troubadour and The Regal Rooms. I am hoping to get some more exposure in the big smoke but from my experience at The Dublin Castle I need to play places where there is already a large audience to play to rather than rely on people buying tickets since no one has heard of me.

I’ve been running a ‘lick of the day’ for the past week or so (missed out a couple of days due to travelling though) and will continue to post little 20 second snippets of guitar in the hope that they might trigger some interest from other guitarists. You can see all the entries done so far by clicking this LINK. Also I am working on a new song called ‘New Beginning‘ which is causing me some difficulty in places as I am not entirely happy with some aspects of the melody. It is a pretty cool track though that I look forward to completing. About 1/3 of the way through so far.

I will be doing some more collaborations over the coming weeks to get the creative juices flowing. VTKTM rehearsals are on Weds now and as I said before I’m very much up for getting stuck right in to the band again & see what happens but it’s not gonna get in the way of my own album so fear ye not.

The remaining physical copies of the single should be finally finished by the end of today or tomorrow so I need to get back on the ‘go to lots of local businesses and ask them nicely to sell them from there’ mode. Also need to give 100 copies to each band member to sell from their end as to be honest it’s quite hard selling them on me own… If you would like to purchase one you can order via PayPal on the home page to which I will then post it to you personally

I have a meeting today with The Music Service again with regards to teaching in schools. It should take up my daytime hours until Christmas so I should be able to make enough money to keep afloat over the festive seaon and see me through to January. It’s gonna be a new little challenge to get stuck into – I hope I can do a good job of it. Teaching is something I definitely see myself doing in the future and it’s great to gain as much experience as possible. My guitar course that I am half way through should see a little kick start too as a friend has offered to be my first guinea pig; I need to make sure the lesson plans are concise and manageable. It would be a massive achievement should I finally turn it into an online lesson service or DVD/Book. No harm in trying eh?.. also I heard that I can get the course approved by the college and turned into an official BTEC. That would be AMAZING!! Must keep the momentum going with that.

Not much else to wittle on about at the moment – Some documentaries are on the way and I would like to record a live video of new song Fear which is proving quite popular. I’m hoping I can gather some interest in the song before a possible single release of it in 2012.

Finally, I read a great quote by John Lennon today “When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.” It really made me realise that I am actually very lucky to have the chance to work on music full time and it does genuinely make me happy I hope you are leading the life of your dreams too

19/10/11

Ok, so this month has been the quietest blog month so far… there really hasn’t been anything of worth to mention daily so I will fill you in on what has been going on since the last entry.

I was invited to Bay FM in Exmouth to do an interview and play some tracks which you can hear here: BAY FM INTERVIEW it about an hour long including If I Fall, Wonderkid, One Step At A Time, Secret & a live version of Fear. It was my longest interview to date and I think I got a few things off my chest and really went into some detail about what I am up to at the moment. I hope you find the time to listen all the way through.

Lots of gigs have been keeping me busy too; going up and down and over to London. Last night I was at The Louisiana in Bristol with a fine young singer/songwriter playing before me by the name of Jorden Lindsay. He has a great percussive technique that I was trying to work out and he has an outstanding voice. Hopefully he will get in the studio soon and record his songs to a level he is happy with. I think so far he has mostly demo recordings. He certainly deserves some attention and if you get a chance to see him live then please make your way there!

I am working on a new song called New Beginning which is VERY Jamiroquai influenced but I wanted to write something nice and funky with the use of some augmented and seventh chords. It’s a song that was inspired by my friend Zoe Williams who was recently made redundant but she decided to go forward as a self employed accountant and is therefore entering a nice new phase of her life where she has much more control but the safety nets have been removed – to a certain degree; she has lots of support and will do great. I wanted to write something to put across the idea that if your life seems stale that you can change things with a fresh start. The chorus so far goes “Knowing where to go, is the new beginning of tomorrow. The colour in their eyes my change to green as they see you living the dream and those seeds of doubt become trees of certainty” So I’m hoping it will end up being a very upbeat track.

I was thinking of doing a ‘making of‘ for one of my latest tracks to show you guys the process from beginning to end. I have some initial recordings I took on my phone when first coming up with the newest ideas so might be cool.

The physical copies of Secret are, I’m afraid to say and a little disappointed, not selling very well. I had the sales figures from iTunes too at the beginning of the month which showed a total of $437.56. This roughly equates to 550 single sales – a far shot from the 2,500 I was aiming for but it IS a good start. I am thinking it may be better to drip feed the tracks over the next few months and sell the album in 2 parts to keep things under £5. I think people are more likely to buy them if it’s cheaper. I can’t really do anything until the remaining tracks recorded at Abbey Road are mixed and produced further by Karl G. Unfortunately I am working to their schedules and things don’t get done straight away. I will be pondering my next moves over the coming weeks but I’m almost certain about releasing the first 5 tracks as an ALBUM pt1 before christmas. Starlight will hopefully be the next single and the music video will be made up of Max Shillinglaw’s friends and family filming themselves singing along to the track… I think this is the most appropriate way to do the music video for it as well as the cheapest; I need to budget the funds that are left carefully. I still have about 2/3 of the funding left to record and finalise the ALBUM pt2 and possibly another acoustic album. Going by the Ed Sheeran school of thought; giving people lots of options and selling tracks in various ways may hopefully lead to more revenue and a higher chance of the tracks getting out there to the right ears; some acoustic, some with the band etc… anyway as I said in a message I sent to investors I look forward to hearing your advice on the matter.

2 students from Weston College have decided to do a documentary for their media studies coursework on me and my music as well as the Footprint charity. I am so honoured by this and here is the first video they passed onto me as part of their research. Here Tony Hobden (the man mixing the tracks) talks about his experience in working with me.

I went for a job interview with North Somerset Music Service about getting some daytime work teaching guitar in schools and thankfully got offered the work!:) This means I will be working 20+ hours a week in various schools across the North Somerset area. This of course means much needed income but also a little less time working on promoting/writing/recording etc for the next couple of months. If I had a bottomless pot of money I could get things done so much faster and promote myself to the world effectively – but of course this is not the case and I have to be careful, thoughtful and most of all patient.

For now I shall continue to walk this path I am on, safe in the knowledge it is the right one. It may take a while before the people walking past me turn their heads and see what I’m doing but I am living a happy and fulfilling life of music… with your help which is more valuable than you know Peace out x

04/10/11

Welcome to a nice hot October! seems very strange to say the least… I’m gonna need to speak to Grace at STP and get some advice on my next steps. I will post more details once I have had some words of wisdom but will need your input too as investors you have the right to have a say on what goes on.

A documentary is being made by some media studies students at Weston College about me, my music and the footprint charity I work for. This is very cool and I look forward to sharing it with you once it is finished. I’m still waiting on the Skydive documentary and a ‘making of’ Secret which includes footage from the studio as well as the first time i put the guitar intro to video; I usually document any ideas I come up with on my digital camera so I remember them later down the line. It would be good to let you see a bit more of the process that went on to get the finished product. I am thinking of doing a step by step video on one of my new songs. I have been making short vids and audio recordings of the writing process as well as the initial lyric ideas as they come. I’m hoping this will be of interest and you can get a little closer to understanding my writing style and creative process.

Feel Any Feeling has been mixed and now in the hands of Karl G. Will be seeing what he has done so far within the week hopefully. The other 3 tracks recorded so far should be mixed soon too. Just got to get hold of the ever elusive Tony Hobden

Rehearsal with VTKTM went well and I’m very much looking forward to getting it up to scratch again. Such a change to what I normally play but it’s just so damn fun! here is a track for you to have for free… It’sone of the first ones we ever arranged and I hope you like the vibe of it. All the tracks are pretty hard and they do contain a few swear words for good measure

VTKTM – It’s A Stick Up

This month is mostly about getting tracks mixed and ready for single #2, gigging as much as possible to get some dollar and tweaking new songs that I have demoed at home. It’s been 1 year since I recieved finance. I am hoping to make you money and prove you made a sound investment. I can only hope my best is good enough and that the time it takes is well spent. Hope this entry finds you well.