My Life in Music

Looking Back To The Future

2012-01-08T09:50:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it's hard to remember that once you've stripped away the day job, the family, the friends and everything else in between, I am still essentially a musician. I don't know how hard I'm gripping on to that concept or whether I'm letting that very important part of me slip away.

I've been ill from work for the last couple of days, and had the weekend where I've not gone anywhere, seen anyone or really done anything. In those days I've read magazines and watched videos on music production and discovered some artists which look to be nestling into my various play lists. It has been a welcome submersion back into music and I'm refusing to let that go.

I've also listened back to a few pieces of music I've either written or been involved with in some way and I wanted to share one on my blog. I've included here a piano piece I wrote for my songwriting course at the institute of modern music. The idea was to create a backdrop and themes for an emotion driven film. It's recorded with synth pianos (because I'm not rich enough to own a grand piano and the various microphones needed to get a really good sound, not to mention the room!) and layered in various pieces.

I'm not a very good piano player so there is some loose quantising going on but all parts are played in separately.

The Melancholic Piano by MatthewParisi

I've decided that in order to make sure I don't lose writing and recording from my life, I'm going to challenge myself to writing one "beat" a day. This might be a four bar phrase or 16/32 bar progression and I will post it on my blog for any feedback.

I'm doing this, not only so I can keep in touch with that part of me that loves to do it, but also because the reason I took on the Business Consultant job was to earn enough money to set up my own studio and music business. I can't afford to lose sight of that and end up five years down the road earning plenty of money and being too comfortable and too unattached from music to follow my dream.

I also need to step up my game. There are some amazing producers out there creating some exceptional work. The moment I let myself slip is the moment that I will no longer be able to create music at a quality that people will even want to listen to, let alone want to pay me for or work with me.

I will try to post a new piece everyday. Any feedback is hugely appreciated :)

Another year, another expense. iPad 2.

2012-01-01T09:41:00.000-08:00

Another year, another era, another piece of technology.

I have given in to another apple craze and bought myself an iPad 2. After the iMac and iPhone it seems inevitable really that I should cave in and splash out on another piece of technology that will make my life easier, or essentially give me something extra to do.

No doubt I've bought the iPad at completely the wrong time as surely the guys at apple are literally rearing to go with the release of a third edition and slightly improved but ever so cleverly marketed iPad but I'm sure I don't need the added extras. Saying that, I'll probably buy the updated version anyway.

However, I am very happy to now be able to update my blog from the comfort of the living room settee whilst watching John Bishop rattle on nostalgicly about stuff that probably wasn't funny at the time and may not even be true. I will also be able to extend my office hours to 24/7 without restricting myself to the home office so it should pay for itself really....

That's what I keep telling myself anyway.

However, I am going to be redefining this blog and providing more updates now that I don't have to shut myself away in the room that seems to never heat up and it could even become quite interesting to read in 2012!

It Figures

2011-06-30T00:20:00.000-07:00

{EAV_BLOG_VER:b886104831527805}

Google Plus: The end of facebook?

2011-06-29T05:29:00.000-07:00

Google have launched Google+, their attempt to take on the social networking market. For those lucky few who have been given an invite (where's mine!!), they can experience a new way of networking with friends on a platform that seems similar to facebook.

It seems however to have a system whereby you can categorise friends and families into different circles. This seems like a great idea for those that have the admin time to do that, but I wonder how long it will take facebook to incorporate that idea.

You can sign up to try Google+ here https://plus.google.com/up/start/?sw=1&type=st

TED Talk: Jose Abreu on Kids transformed by Music

2011-06-29T02:34:00.000-07:00

Watching this bought up some of my own experience of my upbringing and music. I didn't come from a particularly musical family. I only found out later in life that my mother had been a singer and my dad dabbled at the guitar, but music wasn't an overly important thing to our family (besides the odd bit of Enya and Kate Bush being played whilst housework was being done).

It is strange how I got into music so passionately and how it has shaped my entire life. I agree with Jose Abreu when he says that music teaches children about social responsibility and the need to improve themselves, whatever background they're from. For me, music has been the inspiration I needed to focus my life into achieving goals, whether that was getting into the institute of modern music, or being able to make a career for myself that involves being surround by music.

Ted Talk: On Being Just Crazy Enough

2011-06-27T01:33:00.000-07:00

I don't often post other peoples stuff as it were, but I try to watch a TED video every day whilst I'm eating breakfast. I find them fascinating and inspiring.

I've decided to start including stuff in the blog that I read or watch, which makes a difference to the choices I make and the path I decide to go down, and maybe it will take the blogs focus off me and make it more interesting to other people!!

Final Term Thoughts

2011-06-25T06:49:00.001-07:00

I have finished all my Uni work?!?!?

So here's a tribute to all the nights I didn't go out on, all the union groups I didn't join, all the alcohol I didn't drink and all the drugs I didn't take. All those house parties I never went to, those drunken nights I never had with girls I never.... ahem... and all the clubs I've never stepped inside with all the music I never danced to.

When I went to University I had taken two years out of education to work in the music industry, mainly in teaching, so when I finally got to leave home and move to Brighton to study at BIMM, I was more than ready to fly the nest. I was hungry to experience and learn things about the music industry that books and a narrow sighted experience just wouldn't provide and over the three years, I certainly have.

I think mostly though, I learnt about myself. I learnt that I am a self starter and a highly motivated person, which was contrary to my previous belief that I was too laid back and didn't work hard enough (although sometimes I still think this even as my schedule gets busier and busier). I learnt that I'm quite a good networker and give a general good impression to people contrary to my previous belief that people didn't really like me all the much and I was a bit of a wall flower. I think importantly, I also learnt what it is I'm most capable of doing and that is risk taking.

As of Monday, I will have handed in the last of my University work and will start my new job of running my own publishing company. I'm not going to lie, this scares the hell out of me, but also excites me than anything I've ever done before. My heart races when I imagine the meetings I will have, the musicians I will get to meet and the fact that some short, skinny geek from Milton Keynes, who happened to be quite good at the guitar is going to have a global business by the age of 23 (all going to plan anyway).

For me, University has far more been about the experiences I had. I was allowed to go out and try to set up a business, whether that's through promoting live shows or setting up a production company. I have learnt many things, spoken to many great people and understood what it is I do and how I can do it better. I told my tutors a few weeks back that I wasn't interested in the grade I got. A music degree is barely going to help me get a high flying job in todays job market. What I'm interested in is applying the knowledge I've learnt and hopefully making a success of it in this crazy world that is the music industry.

Empire Avenue

2011-06-13T01:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I took the opportunity to have a break. I had been rushing to get University work in going from 10am to 3am everyday and my body, and mostly my mind was about to give. It was on this I discovered the most addictive game there is on the internet. Empire Avenue.

It's great. It's a stocks and shares game where you buy into people or businesses on the internet that use social media, then their stocks and shares increase according to their usage of sites like facebook and twitter. The game is good on two accounts. One, because it encourages you to use your social media sites mores and two, because it allows you to network with other likeminded people that you would never come across in your usual social (media) circles.

It was great to have a day off, especially discovering this game (I'm already hooked). I suggest on your next day off you get on it too and see how you are worth on the social media stock market

http://www.empireavenue.com

and make sure you invest in me!!

http://www.empireavenue.com/xs7

Some thoughts on Recording

2011-05-30T04:10:00.000-07:00

I was in the studio last saturday recording a charity single with some clients and it really struck me on how much of an experience it was for these people. For this single we were recording, my client had bought in a small gospel choir and for all of them, it was their first time in a studio. The client really made a day of it for them though. There was wine, there were snacks and for them, the day in the studio was just a really good, fun experience that they may or may not experience again. It was even being documented on a professional camera and their is some amazing footage from the day, but what made it more significant for me, was seeing nerves behind the microphone.

For me, being in a studio is the same as going to bed. It's nice, it's comforting and I would do it all the time if I could, but ultimately, it's very normal. Sometimes, I'll have something recorded, edited and mixed before getting dressed and showered and for me, it's really no big deal to record. I have been in and out of different studios since the age of fourteen and they have become somewhere I'm very comfortable to be in. I'm also very used to dealing with seasoned recording musicians who have been paying their dues for years, so I very rarely see or get nerves behind the microphone.

To see these nerves bought back memories of the first time I ever set foot in the studio. I was playing bass for some track at the age of fourteen and I don't ever remember feeling nervous, because the producer who then went on to mentor me did a very good job of making us feel like it was just another school lesson and I think as a kid, you don't really get nervous when you just think it's some kind of play time. I remember writing about how long it took for someone to get a four bar loop of an egg shaker and exclaiming that I could never have the patience needed to record. Although I wasn't nervous, the people singing behind the microphones were.

I feel genuinely blessed when clients ask me to work with them. To know that someone trusts my opinion and wants me to come in and shape their personal creation makes me feel truly honoured. There is nothing better than working with someone on their music, then getting a phone call a few weeks later because they want me to work on more stuff with them and even more so when people trust me to lead the musical direction on albums that could make or break their careers. However, last Saturday made me realise that it's more than the final product, although it's the final product that ensures I get more work. It's actually the experience of a professional studio, to which some of these people may never experience again.

I hope that I gave them more than a day of recording. I hope I can give them a day they remember and tell their kids about, much like the day my Mum sang at the Royal Albert Hall. She would show me the recording of the choir she sung in and proudly talk about her experience. Maybe one day the people in this choir will show the recording to their kids and talk about their experience at a studio being recorded by some guy they can't remember the name of.

The Problem with Honesty is....

2011-05-24T15:23:00.000-07:00

Working in the music industry, you get to hear a lot of music. That's sort of a given. I hear music on the radio, on the internet, at live gigs and being in Brighton, on the street. Most of the music I hear is the same music that any Joe Bloggs would hear which is nicely produced with well developed Artists that have gone through the many stages of honing down their craft enough for some music industry guys (and gals) to take a punt and promote it. However, being in the music industry as it were, I also hear all my mates work or recordings of people who are looking to work with me. Especially now that I have begun this publishing venture.

Before it was easy, I would say, "yeah that's great mate, sounds awesome, if you're looking for recordings, give me a shout and I'll sort you out a deal at the studio."

Simple and easy and sometimes I'd get work out of it.

Now I've started publishing, I'm getting music that the musicians consider "The finished product". Some of the work I've been listening to is incredible and blows me away enough for me to really want to work with these people. However, a lot of it really isn't to the quality any publisher would need to take it on and now I have to honest?!?

How do you tell someone that something they've put their heart and soul into, just isn't good enough. Sometimes the problems are rectifiable such as a bad mix or boring production yet there is still a song there that shines through. It's still hard to say but I just try to offer advice and hope they act on it and give me a ring when they've done so. The problem with this is that musicians are such a touchy breed and any criticism on their work is seen as a personal dig. It's no different to saying to a painter and decorator that he's done a great job but has missed a patch, but musicians won't take it that way. If some of these people knew me better, they'd know that if I'm even replying to them, I'm interested in working with them once it's right. That's not to sound egotistical, but I get over a hundred emails a day and I have to sift through them all. I don't have time to reply to anyone I'm not even considering working with.

It's bad enough when they're actually ok and could have some success once it's right, and if they're really bad, I can just ignore them, but as I'm sure most people get in any industry, you have lots of old friends who want to be in the same position you are. I quite often get messages on facebook from old friends who I haven't spoken to for years asking me to listen to their stuff. I dread this more than anything!

Sometimes I'm surprised and it's actually quite good, the recordings are good, the songs are good and sometimes I'll even want to work with it. A lot of time, it is just beyond bad. I know that sounds awful because they're very proud of their work, but in terms of something you would send to a publisher who would then sign a deal, it's almost offensive!

I obviously try be as nice and tactful as possible as it is when you're telling someone that something they're proud of is a little bit rubbish, but I can't help feeling a little bit cold and slightly evil after replying. I'm not a music snob, far from it, I listen to Lady Gaga far too often and wake up to Chris Moyles, but some music I receive is just not.... commercially viable.... in any market.... anywhere.

Dubstep Interview

2011-05-20T11:14:00.000-07:00

Around a month ago I did an interview about the rise of Dubstep. I was shown the finished article today. I don't look like too much of an idiot!

Coffee Shops and Cabin Fever

2011-05-17T04:32:00.000-07:00

I have an hour gap! Which my Blackberry has quite joyously declared "Free Time". I like this term, although the notion of the word free implies that it's not costing me anything to relax for an hour before my lecture and then an afternoon of updating sites, attempting to get all the information I need from some of acts I'm taking on to put on the website and planning out one of my Uni essays which I failed miserably to research last night.

My extortionate amount of free time today (1 hour) is great news mostly because the sheer amount of work that I've taken on this month (not that my bank balance is complaining) has left me stuck in my studio for the vast majority of my hours and at times has sent me stir crazy. I've been working with two clients this month that have been an absolute pleasure to work with, but when you've spent 10 hours just figuring out guitar parts or recording bass guitar in one little room every day, suicide becomes quite inviting.... Well ok, it's not quite that bad, and I could be stacking shelves for a living, but being creative and inventive (or at least trying to be) for that amount of time, as well as listening to the same piece of music for hours straight, does somewhat warp your perception of reality.

To combat this, coffee shops are becoming my favourites haunts. They signal a morning off, or just some time to be a bit human with a client. I have fallen in love with the Small Batch coffee shop in Hove. Superior coffee in a small, well decorated space close to the beach. I'm almost due a free coffee from there. I'm sure I should be given one for that plug right there! Coffee has become a tool of the trade and is my only vice in life, despite trying to have a relatively healthy diet.

Speaking of healthy living, I have recently taken on Tai Chi.... Ouch!

Blackberries, PC's, Logic and Macs

2011-05-09T15:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I sat down and decided to use my Blackberry for what it's actually meant to be used for... controlling my life. I worked out everything I need to do in the week, all the appointments I have and day to days tasks, organised them into iCal with alarms for each new appointment and synced them to my Blackberry. I have never worked so hard, and have managed to get quite a few bits and pieces done... though I've just realised I still need to send of a bounce of a track I mixed today to someone....

sent it now...

Logic has been frustrating me so much tonight. It took nearly two hours to bounce down three tracks after hearing clicks in the bounce, or a random triggered snare would go off at the beginning of the song or just plain old refusing to work. I've never had a problem like that with bouncing stuff down. Perhaps I need to look at upgrading... or just buying one of the new imacs. On top of that I've been trying to retrieve some files off my old laptop as I'm getting a friend to wipe it and load a new system on it. This has taken three hours so far... still not done. It takes five minutes for a mouse click to actually do anything...

Oh yeah... and my Kindle has frozen. This has upset me loads because it was a Birthday present from my girlfriend. It is possibly one of the most amazing presents I've ever received. Mainly because I now don't have to worry about shelf space. My shelving unit is rammed with books and the bedside table was a joke. Thankfully, Amazon have an amazing customer service. They phoned me about an hour after I had sent them an email and they have dispatched a new one for me today. WIN!

I've recently bought myself a new camera as well. I've wanted to do photography for so long and it's great to finally get my hands on a good practise camera. I did some gig photography last friday. For my first attempt I think I did ok. This is my favourite shot from the night

Getting the Figures right

2011-05-04T00:47:00.000-07:00

I have become obsessed by numbers. The phrases "monthly breakdowns" "Cash Flow" "Annual Targets" "Profit and Loss" etc have been floating around my head and it is all I can think about. I have graphs with monthly figures, graphs showing cash flow (to the penny!) and other breakdowns of costs divided into categories such as Direct Costs, Overheads, Staff, Vat, Loans, Loan Interest... it goes on... stuck all over my wall. Scraps of paper covered in numbers have plagued my office and I am obsessed by it.

A few months ago I was all about the words. I thought that to get interest from banks and investors I needed to give every detail of this vision of a business. I wrote about the client experience to great detail, the construction of the facilities to they type of carpet needed and long paragraphs to back up every single staffing choice ending up with a very thick document about quite a basic business structure. When I went to see my uncle who is acting as business advisor to me, he crossed out the vast majority of it, and what he didn't cross out, he told me to re-write as short and as concise as possible. For someone like me, who has always been able to write for England, this was no easy task.

More importantly though, he got me obsessed with numbers. We sat down and looked at my projections, and then proceeded to go into the tiniest details of start up costs, salaries, taxes, expenses, overheads, depreciation etc etc and it really excited me seeing these numbers initially plummet into the depths of business overdrafts and then slowly make a U-Turn and ending quite neatly with £20,000 worth of profit in the first year, and that was being incredibly tight on the turnover figures.

After speaking to some Major Label executives, I've actually decided to further develop an area of my current business that is doing very well and guess what... I get to do the figures all over again and it's been like a perfect mathematical orgasm. Only this time, I've created a series of charts on Edexcel whereby I can change any cost or income figure on the chart and it automatically does all the sums to work out my pre month balance and the figures after the month and my yearly total. So if if I was to change something in January, it automatically works out the cash flow figures for each month and the yearly total. I know it's not rocket science... but it's pleased me no end!

It's slowly becoming clearer that business is really a game of numbers and you need to be strong in two fields to succeed. You need the vision and the gut instinct to know whether a product or service will sell, and you need to know the figures to make sure it's a sustainable business. Although this is obvious, it's evidently not easy, else everyone would be doing it!!

Avalanche!!!

2011-04-28T07:13:00.000-07:00

The sun is shining and I'm stuck in the office with a warm cup of tea, because no matter how warm it is outside, this room seems to never heat up. I'm taking a bit of a break from mixing Seero's debut album and contemplating the next move from XS7 Music (note the change from XS-Seven: Music). Over the last few weeks the calibre of the people I've spoken to in the music industry has changed dramatically and it seems a few big timers are glancing over to see what I'm doing. So my strategy over the next couple of months has be speedy, concise and well thought out.

Im in the middle of redesigning the website, as well as redesigning my personal blog, which you may notice is in a state at the moment. Lots of links that lead to nowhere but it's getting there. The main XS7 website has been partially uploaded for the benefit of some potential investors/advisors but the full website will be up next week (fingers crossed I complete it in time and don't get ill again). I'm so excited about these changes and the momentum I'm slowly building.

On top of that I should be completing the finished touches for two albums that will be released late this year and my own EP which I've been writing with Peter Harwood of The Recoil. I've never written and released my own work, nor done anything in this genre before, so I'm quite excited to see the finished product. This should be finished by the end of May and released around December/January.

On top of this, I'm trying to finish a degree.... and it's proving to be quite difficult.

I started my degree three years ago at the institute of modern music and am on the last term of the last year. I have approx 18000 words to write over the next six weeks as well as complete some musical scores and recordings for some film work. I just got in my exam results for music business which came out as a 2:1. Not too bad and if I do well on my coursework, I can push that to a First. But part of me is a little disappointed that I'm not getting Firsts across the board, even though it was my choice not too.

When I started my degree I was all out for a First. In my first year I smashed every examination and left with a Distinction for the Professional Diploma. I got 94% for my theory and was hitting Distinctions across the board. However, in my second year I decided that I was going to sacrifice the high marks for experience. I was struggling to keep a promotion company I had started going and put more effort into that then my degree. The net result was a company that failed to get off the ground and a 2:1 for the second year.

Even more determined this year I have focused almost entirely on my Business and put the blinds up on the degree. What I have ended up with is a whole heap of work. The Business has got to the stage where people are taking notice, and with that comes a lot of work and dedication, and my degree has got the stage where if I don't start the coursework now, I'll end up rushing it and pushing my mark down. My Time Management skills are going to be worked to the max!

So forgive my lack on internet presence over the next two months, but at least you'll know why!

Back to reality?

2011-04-21T01:41:00.001-07:00

After a week of playing every night, going to bed at 3am and having a great laugh with friends, being woken up and forced out of bed by unexpected scaffolding going up at 8am was probably the greatest reminder of reality and the sheer magnitude of work and commitment I have come back to.

That asides, touring has been an incredible experience with four of my closest friends. We completely lucked out on the headlining band for the tour, who as well as having a great set of songs and being incredible live, were an amazing bunch of people who have made the adventure into an amazing memory to have. I would highly recommend checking out As Gods shows and keep posted on their album. The songs are incredible.

But now I'm back in sunny Brighton and my home studio, surrounded by letters from HMRC and a huge list of to do's. I have 18000 words to write for my Uni course over the next few months, as well as secure more clients and push XS-Seven into the world of music publishing by sheer brute force if I have to. I'm pretty determined to leave University already having my own company that I can take a wage from.

So here I am, about to get the coffee machine whirring, listening to the noisy builders outside, glancing at the daunting list of tasks and with an even more daunting prospect of the work ahead for the next two months or so, ready to take on the world from my IKEA office chair and my trustworthy iMac. If you want to find me, look under busy and I'll always be there, chipping away at this monumental task they call life and loving every second of it.

Tour Time

2011-04-21T01:40:00.001-07:00

Today I embark on Drown In Entropy's first tour. I have been looking forward to this for so long. Five days on the road with the boys. Different town every day and a different persons floor every night. No doubt we'll play a couple of good nights and a couple of crap ones but when you're touring that stuff doesn't really matter. I haven't toured for nearly three years and this is possibly the last one I'll ever get to do because in one terms time I finish Uni and join the real world.

I tend to stay in a lot and work. Mostly my days consist of early nights (and hours of insomnia) early starts and besides working, a general lack of anything interesting or exciting. For me, I guess this tour is my last chance to do something youthful and fun (no-one thinks the black-clad ageing rocker who plays in the little pub band is cool) before I grow up, work full time and look forward to the long summer holidays.

Fresh Leaf and other cliche’s

2011-04-21T01:39:00.001-07:00

I haven’t written a blog in a long time. For a number of reasons really. I’ve been busy, I’ve been lazy, I’ve not been sure on what to focus the blog on etc etc. For a while I tried to make this blog into a reviews and music business blog but it’s quite obvious that my heart isn’t in reviewing music and it’s so tiresome regurgitating industry news. If you want to know what’s going on, subscribe to music weekly… simples.

Ultimately when I started this blog, I was just going to write about my journey into the music industry. I started the blog when I was running a small fanzine and music promotion company. Now I’m running my own production company and am developing it into a publishing company. My hard work is starting to pay off and by the time I finish University I know I will have a nice little job as an MD of my own company… winner. So I’m going to get into the habit of writing about my favourite subject… ME!

I had a bit of a knock back last week, that was also a major boost of confidence. It’s so odd feeling a bit shit about yourself as well as glowing with confidence and pride… try it sometime. I had a meeting with a Vice Chairman of a very successful music company about an amazing job. I wanted that job so badly and I knew I’d be great at it. They were looking for someone entrepreneurial (I’ve been running my own businesses since I was 16), loves the internet and it’s marketing possibilities (big fan of twitter, facebook and blogging here and), someone to initiate creative marketing plans (ahem!!! ME) and someone who is happy to speak with confidence to very successful high fliers in the music industry (if any of you have seen or met me at twitter or biz meets, you’ll know I’ll happily talk to any of you on your level and not feel out of my depth).

I had a great interview. Started off nervous but relaxed into it. I was mostly leading the conversation. I felt comfortable with these people… they were my people and they’ve spent a lifetime doing what I’m embarking on now. At the end of the interview they said they were impressed… which has got to be great and the interview lasted longer than the allocated time so they were interested… I hope. But somehow I knew I didn’t get the job… and I didn’t.

What I did get though, was confirmation that I’m good. I know that might sound odd or egotistical, but I think everyone starts out in Business by blagging and hoping that no-one catches them out, so when someone really frikking high up in the industry tells you you’re good and you’re doing something great, it’s nice to get confirmation for what you’re doing. The meeting wasn’t a wasted one either, even during our conversation there were talks about some kind of business relationship rather than employment. I’ve opened the door to a world in the music industry that most people don’t even get a glimpse of and I’m running through it head first!

I’m so thankful for just the opportunity to speak to these people, because now they know who I am, they know what I do and most of all, they like it. Now is the time to capitalise on this, build some great business relationships, do something positive for the music industry, have lots of fun and hopefully even make a bit of cash

Brighton Recording Studio Pictures

2011-01-20T04:25:00.000-08:00

It's been a busy few weeks since coming back to Brighton after New Years. Have completed an album with Mitchell Taylor courtesy of StrummerVille, finished engineering the vocals for Seero's debut album, started layering Tom Cravens second album and finished a charity single for Louis Steadman-Bryce which is hopefully coming out for Beyonce's very own charity. Suffice to say, it's been slow on the blog because of this! However, that's me done for the month besides a few bits and pieces.

Over the last couple of weeks I updated the production companies website. Please check it out www.xs-seven.com

I've been recently getting into photography as a hobby so decided to take all the pictures for the website myself. I've posted them up here for you to take a look :)

Fall of the Giant - EMI loses court case

2010-11-09T09:38:00.000-08:00

Anyone that keeps their ear to the ground in the music business will probably have come across the lawsuit against Citigroup put forward by Guy Hands, after claiming that he was misled by Citigroup as they implied that there was another bidder after EMI. Now with four billion pounds of debt to Citigroup and the collapse of EMI becoming more and more inevitable as bands such as Queen and OK Go leave the Label that gave the world The Beatles, Pink Floyd and even one of this years most successful artists Tinie Tempah, what lies for the future of the UK's first Major Label.

Guy Hands was supposedly given false information from one of Citigroups representatives just 48 hours before putting forward his four billion pound bid from the investment company Terra Firma. After acquiring the company, it was apparent that there was no other investor interested but Guy Hands was now in debt to Citigroup for a failing Major Label and Citigroup were set to make a huge amount of interest from the multi billion pound loan.

After only four and a half hours, the Jury favoured Citigroup, saying that there was no documented proof that ever implied information of another bidder. Banks sighed a small relief as had Terra Firma won the case, this would sent repercussions around the world of investment banking. The loss of this trial would have opened up questions about the advice given to small companies and the benefits banks get from investing.

So what does this mean for EMI. In June Terra Firma will most likely have to pump another 100million to meet the loan covenants, of which it is now unlikely that Citibank will negotiate on. After the loss of profit EMI is making, and the fact that most investors in Terra Firma didn't want to pump the first 100million into EMI last June, just how likely is it that they can pay the loan interest. This can only really mean one thing. Terra Firma hands the keys over to Citigroup who will sell off the independents and copyrights held by EMI to the highest bidders in an attempt to cover most of the four billion pound loan.

Who said that illegal downloads won't hurt the record industry.

"I wanna see your Peacock"

2010-10-07T00:05:00.000-07:00

"Teenage Dream" was released in America on the 24th of August and worldwide on the 30th taking just four weeks to climb to the top of the album charts. After Katy Perry's failing career as a Gospel singer (under the monicker Katy Hudson) and a couple of unreleased pop albums on different labels, she is now set to be one of biggest pop artists of 2010. So what is the formula and do her impressive selling stats give us hope in the industries turmoil, or further concrete our fears that commercial pop music is the only genre that can really survive.

(not so innocent)

Depending on the company I'm with at the time, I'm either a hardcore fan of deeply technical heavy metal, utilising odd time signatures, seemingly impossible drumming and the strained vocal style that has become synonymous with genre, or I'm a massive fan of pop music, particularly female fronted pop acts. The first album I ever bought was Britney Spears "Ooops I did it again" and after I got over the snobby stage you go through as a teenager about music, I'm happy to be surrounded by acts such as Ellie Goulding, Lady Gaga, Pixie Lott, La Roux and Katie Perry (amongst others of course).

Katy Perry's album "Teenage Dream" is a masterclass in pop writing. It knows its demographic well and aims her brand of bubblegum pop towards the 8-13 year old girls who buy her album (as well as the young male adults who secretly buy it). The cover image displays a sexy, but not sexual painting of Katy Perry in some pink cloud. The lyrics paint a picture of teenage life in a slightly glamorous way, something that most 13 year old girls are itching to be part of - kissing boys, going shopping and having drunken nights out. Regardless of whether this is morally correct to glamourise the kind of lifestyle Katy's own christian pastor parents (which is a whole different blog) would be shocked at, she has created an album that young girls can listen to and cheekily sing along with.

The song "Peacock" is no holds barred lyrically, Gwen Stefani styled pop tune that is perfectly aimed towards her demographic of young teenage girls, and the odd young man. It's the modern day equivalent of when as a kid we used to put our hands up in class and say "Can we Arse you a question" insisting that it was completely innocent. When I first heard this song I could instantly imagine my girlfriends younger sister and her friends singing this song in front of teachers and parents in an attempt to do something naughty without getting into trouble. This was later confirmed when I noticed that one of her friends had set her facebook status to "I wanna see your Peacock" on the very day I heard this song.

So the pop industry is still doing ok, even though the music industry has halved in value since 2010 (yet more people have more access to a wider variety of music and their collections are tenfold to what the average person would own 10-15 years ago). So what can this album teach people who are trying to sell records in their own genre. All I can say, is know your demographic and know it well. It's not selling out if you're still writing the same thing but market it different. As mentioned earlier, I enjoy and also write and play in a technical metal band and I also bear in mind the audience we are playing for, not in an attempt to sell out, but just to give people something to grasp onto when listening to us, whether it's a good hook or an anthemic chorus and you should do this whatever genre you write for. Very few people are going to be able to write exactly what they want and have millions of fans supporting and buying their albums. Unless you're the next Morrissey, you have to know your demographic. "Teenage Dream" is a perfect example of this.

Has Myspace Shot Themselves in the Foot?

2010-09-29T06:10:00.000-07:00

Myspace was born in August 2003 by employees of eUniverse and was managed by Brad Greenspan. By August 2006, it had over 100million members. The popularity of myspace was put down to it's user friendly controls and the ability it gave to people to completely re-invent themselves. It reenforced the belief that in this day and age, anyone can become famous, and quite a few people did. On top of that, it gave bands an opportunity to push their music to millions of potential fans in a way that could never really be achieved before.

Myspace boomed into it's Golden Age and for musicians and bands, it was the best thing on the web to promote their music. No longer did they have the hassle of setting up a website, paying for domains and servers, paying someone who could write html and SEO, then promoting the site to get a small amount of traffic. Within a day you could set up a site, upload your songs, create a good looking layout and invite 400 people to come and have a listen to your music. On top of that, you could directly message everyone who was a fan of your music on myspace, update them regularly and even start conversations with them. Within a couple of weeks you could have thousands of people listening to your music and within months labels would be calling you up, promoters would be falling over themselves to book your band and you could be selling your music worldwide.

This was a great time for up and coming musicians. Gone were the days of relying on radio coverage and doing tours that no-one would attend. Niche bands were getting more attention and radio stations were playing music that would otherwise have been deemed too weird for radio. Even in 2008 when more people were using facebook, bands were still utilising myspace to promote their music because of the ability to design their page in anyway they wanted.

Myspace have now launched profile 3.0 which is an attempt to give users more creativity without needing HTML or CSS. But has this been more negative than positive. The main pro of using myspace was having the ability to create an interesting site. Site designers would spend many hours moving boxes around, creating amazing layered headers and adding GIF moving pictures within the page to create something that stands above the competition. Now it seems myspace has decided to make this more difficult for users and making them stick to their template. Instead of promoting creativity, it's got rid of the flexibility of the layouts, the one saving grace about using myspace. It will be interesting to see how many bands will opt to use myspace in the future.

It's been a while!

2010-09-27T04:47:00.000-07:00

It's been some time since I've posted here for a variety of reasons. But XS-Seven hasn't been quiet, just really busy. Its been a long time coming but we finally have some tracks for you to listen to on the site. Check out the Recordings section to listen to Dalla Russia's "Whisper Fire" and Stuart Newman's "Feel The Temperature Rising".

The facebook page is going strength to strength and you can check out all the latest deals at http://www.facebook.com/xs7music

and remember to follow my account on twitter http://www.twitter.com/matthewparisi

I've also decided to give away a load of free mastering. To qualify for the free mastering please join our mailout at http://www.xs7music.fanbridge.com

I'm also going to get back on to the weekly reviews as they proved quite popular so keep checking the site every week for all the latest blogs and updates.

Artist Review - Sam Khan

2010-08-01T10:41:00.000-07:00

Sam Kahn has recently been making a stir in the industry after releasing the video for "I Love Your Lady" on youtube and hitting over 50,000 plays in three days. Produced by Zaheer of Zaheer music and featuring Charlie Sloth, this underground urban hit has singled out an already well credited rap artist amongst the large army of rappers trying to make their mark.

Sam Khan allegedly started writing lyrics when he was eight, and then through his early teens began to structure and form songs. As he start to took his career seriously, he took on the help of producers to turn those lyrics into some of the best Hip Hop tunes in the Asian and underground scene. His melody's, lyrics and music have been showcased regularly by DJ's on Kiss100FM, BBC1xtra and BBC Asian Network and his talent has been recognised by national competitions, awarding him JumpOff Rap championship seven times and twice became a finalist in the UK Songwriting Contest.

Sam Khan has played live with artists such as Chipmunk, Ironik and Kano and after his success over the current week, we can expect him to be supporting other chart topping artists. His "Only One Me" album (which is available for free download on his website) is full of intelligence, emotion and a groove in the vocal lines that keeps every tune fresh all the way through. Songs like "Spell My Name" prove that there are real concepts behind each song, not just a collection of lyrics that fit together rhythmically. The production on this album is of the kind of quality you would expect to hear on a major label artist, but Sam Khan has achieved this on a small budget and the determination to give his followers the best music he can.

Hoping to release "I Love Your Lady" digitally, Sam Khan has put together a Facebook group, urging people to buy his single in the first week of release to get it in the charts. Usually I would ignore these kind of requests, as they're usually from bands and artists chancing their luck, but no-one can say that Sam hasn't put in the work. With nearly fifty tracks on his website available to stream, showcasing the work that has gone into his music and the BSomebody brand, Sam Khan has proven that he deserves to get into the charts and I'll certainly be doing my part to get him there.

You can help him achieve this by clicking on the link and joining this Facebook Event Page

Check out these other links for information on Sam Khan

Website

Facebook

Twitter

Artist Reviews are a weekly feature on matthewparisi.co.uk. The Reviews are about seeking out the best up and coming acts in the music industry and are all 100% positive reviews, with the aim of exposing great music to hundreds more people. If you want your act or band to be reviewed, please send the following information to reviews@matthewparisi.co.uk

Short Bio

Links to Music

Picture(s) with full permission to publish

Future Plans

Links to site

and any information you would really like to be included the review.

The Reviews go up every Sunday so keep checking back for more great music and to see if you get up here too.

To Leak Or Not To Leak

2010-07-27T11:12:00.000-07:00

Musicians have faced this problem since the dawn of file sharing. After the major labels cooled down and put their thinking caps on, they decided that leaking music is a good way of promoting a release without actually promoting it. They began "accidentally" letting tracks out allowing fans to hear these little gems of music. But leaking music can have a huge negative impact.

Swedish House Mafia had the track "One" leaked onto the internet and it ended up on Radio One's playlist. Whilst ending up on this playlist is a bit of a goldmine for musicians and would usually serve as a great promotional tool, the track wasn't even finished yet, which inadvertently caused huge problems for the band.

The first version that leaked was an instrumental version, and then a version with vocals was also leaked. It was the vocal version that appeared on Fearne Cotton's show after being added to the Radio One playlist. So how did an illegal version of the song end up on Radio One's play list. It is thought that a copy was taken from the record labels computer and put onto the internet. It was then download by thousands of people, including a "third party" that distributes tracks to Radio One. This means that although millions of people own or have heard the song, the Label and band see only a small amount of royalties from the brief radio play of an illegal version. Not enough for a label that is being supported by it's Director's DJing jobs.

For major bands and musicians, the safeguarding of their music is paramount. Swedish House Mafia had to hit the studio to finish the final version of "One" and had to re-think the tracks for release. This has a surprising backlash on the band and label. However, this also has had a huge positive effect... people are talking about this band.

Artist Review - Stone Circle

2010-07-25T00:03:00.000-07:00

Stone Circle are a band that I have been personally following for a little while. They formed in 2004 under the name "Obsidian" and spent a good number of years experimenting with different styles to reach the epic death metal they now deliver. Dedicated to the progress of the band, all the members moved from Gloucestershire to Brighton and since then their career has climbed.

They released their album "Myth" early this year and since then have received a high amount of praise from critics writing for various metal magazines and blogs. "Myth" was recorded by ex-sikth sound engineer Neak, and is the perfect example of a metal band who are trying progress the genre they write for. They make no excuses for their death metal sound but take it further by adding hugely melodic interludes. Their lead singer Joe Ashwin's vocals suddenly change from the demonic metal screams to soaring clean melodies over almost folk-esque clean parts that remind me of bands like Solstice.

Having released their album, they are booked to play Bloodstock's unsigned stage and the South coasts brand new metal festival Mammothfest later this year as well as touring nationally. Having watched this band live a few times, I would highly recommend going to see them. Their live playing is as precise as their studio album with the added atmosphere created by their progressive and epic sounding music.

To check out Stone Circle check out these sites:

Facebook

Myspace

Spotify

Artist Reviews are a weekly feature on matthewparisi.co.uk. The Reviews aim to be about seeking out the best up and coming acts in the music industry and are all 100% positive reviews, with the aim of exposing great music to hundreds more people. If you want your act or band to be reviewed, please send the following information to reviews@matthewparisi.co.uk

Short Bio

Links to Music

Picture(s) with full permission to publish

Future Plans

Links to site

and any information you would really like to be included the review.

The Reviews go up every Sunday so keep checking back for more great music and to see if you get up here too.

Artist Review - Mr ShaoDow

2010-07-18T02:28:00.000-07:00

Mr ShaoDow is the perfect example of the dedication, graft and quality that needs to come from todays aspiring musicians. Mr ShaoDow's inspiration comes from the time he spent in China training in Shaolin Kung Fu and his musics shows the discipline skills he learnt through his experience out there. His "(C)opyright Infringement" EP (available for free download from his website) is full of high quality production, precise vocal deliverance and educated lyrics -something sorely missed by a lot of the rap scene.

What sets Mr ShaoDow aside from other rappers is the melody in his raps, something that gives him a commercial edge whilst his in depth lyrics provide the integrity rarely spotted in commercial rap. This isn't to say that he's producing commercial music, but maybe like an early Eminem, he's got the attitude, talent and ear for quality production that could easily push his music into a mainstream audience, whilst retaining the integrity that others Artists so quickly lose.

Mr ShaoDow is a grafter, working all hours to push his music. His debut song "Look Out There's A Black Man Coming" reached 4th in Oxfordshire's Top Twenty Chart. He now travels up and down the country selling his EP "That's Mr ShaoDow To You" and has received great response. Without any help from a label or management, he's got his singles for download on all major sites, recently appeared on Tim Westwoods BBC 1xtra show and headlined the O2 Academy in Oxford. He's also applied his talent to charitable organisations such as Love Music Hate Racism, The Mouth Cancer Foundation and Anti Bullying Campaigns with young people.

For me, Mr ShaoDow is the quintessential rap artist to look out for. He displays all the qualities of an Artist who will make it in the music industry and has honed down his talent, not only as a rap artist, but as a self-sufficient Musician and is becoming an unstoppable force in the music industry. Check out the links below to read more about Mr ShaoDow and listen to his music.

Mr ShaoDow:

Website

Myspace

Facebook

Artist Reviews are a weekly feature on matthewparisi.co.uk. The Reviews aim to be about seeking out the best up and coming acts in the music industry and are all 100% positive reviews, with the aim of exposing great music to hundreds more people. If you want your act or band to be reviewed, please send the following information to reviews@matthewparisi.co.uk

Short Bio

Links to Music

Picture(s) with full permission to publish

Future Plans

Links to site

and any information you would really like to be included the review.

The Reviews go up every Sunday so keep checking back for more great music and to see if you get up here too.

The Facebook Trap

2010-07-16T10:48:00.000-07:00

As social media becomes (according to some, discredited by others) the new marketing platform, promoting or advertisement has been changed into a whole different game. Whilst it's great that this form of marketing has given every business, musician, promoter etc an opportunity to advertise on a low budget, it is often mis-interpreted as a sure fire way of gaining the right attention.

Far too many promoters, bands and companies are falling into the facebook trap. They think that because they have thousands of "friends" or "likes" that they can sit back and wait for people to turn up to their gigs or buy their products. Social media marketing, like any other form of marketing, needs a clear strategy that has been well thought out. There have been a couple of examples that I've come across that I thought worked well. There have been some others that I believe are going to experience a cold and sharp shock when they find that their venture has failed due to their complacency.

Sitting on facebook, twitter or myspace and talking to as many people as possible is not going to bring you income. No matter how many hundreds of people say they are coming to your event, only about 10% are actually going to turn up unless you have got a clear direction of how, and who you are promoting to. Someone who has only 150 people following them twitter, but all 150 people are actually interested in following this person, is going to be more successful than someone with a thousand people following them, but only one or two percent of people are actually interested.

Sitting on facebook all day isn't going to make you successful. Social Media, if used properly can help you develop your music or brand but it needs to be combined with original thinking and a good strategy!

However, read this blog for reasons why facebook is amazing ---> PaleGurl

Updates and New Features

2010-07-15T08:16:00.000-07:00

I returned from Spain yesterday after two weeks of sun at the pool side. It's amazing how refreshing a good holiday can be. I'm going to aim to do something like this every year. What I often find about people who run businesses is that they work solidly for about three months and then retreat somewhere for a few weeks to completely take their minds off of work. James Caan for example, has a yacht in the south of France where he will spend a month at a time completely away from his duties as an investor. I also read that Richard Branson would go on holiday to his island and only allow himself fifteen minutes a day to work, making sure he got the most out of those fifteen minutes.

But now I am back to work. XS-Seven is going well. I've been making contacts today and am starting to spread the word about the services that will be provided. Very happy with how it's going and the responses I've been receiving about some of the work I've already done.

This Sunday I will be starting a new feature on this blog. Every week I will review an artist or act that I think has the potential to make a big impact in the music industry. I have a few acts already lined up for review but will be setting up a way to contact me if you have or now an act that you think is going to make an impact. Something I learned about doing a reviews site before is that people can become quite shirty if you criticise their act too much, despite the fact that they actually may be awful. Taking that on mind, I'm filtering the acts out to high quality stuff only, and all the reviews will be 100% positive in an aim to give these acts much deserved recognition for the work they are doing.

Next week, I will be travelling back to Milton Keynes to visit my family. My dad was diagnosed with Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia whilst I was in Spain and has been in Hospital for quite some time. He is out now and recovering so I'm going to head down and make sure he's doing well. It was a bit of a shock hearing the news. When someone tells you that they have bad news, you mind races trying to figure out what it could be and who it has affected. Of all the times, it's never been the people I thought it would be. It just goes to show though, live every day to your fullest because you never know what is going to happen tomorrow.

Sunny Beaches and Bright Horizons

2010-06-29T02:30:00.000-07:00

Since the launch of XS-Seven on Sunday, things have gone quite well. It's had a massive reaction on facebook with a huge amount of support from family, friends and people I've worked with in the business. Got a few bands interested in recording and some mastering work in the pipeline. Quite excitingly, I have been working on some editing work for an mobile phone app coming out in the next few weeks. It has been very interesting to listen to stems from Artists on major labels. On top of this, XS-Seven will be the company used to record and produce "The Recoils" first album, being released on Revolver Records late this year. Also, in a few weeks I'll be dropping some big news for XS-Seven but until then, I'm keeping quiet.

So so so much going on, and hopefully a lot more to come, but as of tomorrow, I shall be relaxing on the sunny beaches of Spain. After two years of hard work, moving houses, getting qualified, promoting bands, recording, rehearsing, practising etc etc etc, I am actually going to take a break. I've never been to Spain before so I'm looking forward to experiencing the different cultures and foods it has to offer. I've been doing my best over the last day or so to pick up as much of the lingo as possible, but I imagine a lot of the holiday will be spent at the edge of or in the pool. I'm also looking forward to the fact that for two weeks, I don't have any work, I don't have any deadlines and I won't have any stress which surrounds my day to day life.

But most of all, I'm looking forward a whole lot of this....

Sangria!!! ;)

XS-Seven

2010-06-27T10:06:00.000-07:00

Today I have finally, after talking non-stop about it to many people for a very long time, opened the metaphorical doors on XS-Seven: Music Recording, Production, Editing, Mixing, Mastering... or just XS-Seven for short.

XS-Seven is starting off with the recording, mixing and mastering side and the recordings are taking place at AudioBeach studios in Hove. Today I have made the obligatory Facebook page where I will put all the best deals I'm offering on. I've spoken a few local people who deal with a lot of the local scene and will be spending the couple of days before I go to spain, building up some momentum and hopefully booking in the first bands.

I'm really excited about this as I've wanted to do this for a long time and I'm now at the right time and in the right place to do it. I have lot's of ideas of where this company can go and a lot of exciting things coming up, which you'll be sure to hear first here!

So for now, join my facebook page and make sure you're on my twitter to hear the latest news, developments and offers!

XS-Seven on Facebook

Me on Twitter

Social Media = Free Advertising?

2010-06-08T18:37:00.000-07:00

Over the next couple of months I shall be marketing very heavily my new position as a sound engineer at Audio Beach with an extremely low budget. Besides the normal ad's on internet advertising pages and the Friday-Ads etc there aren't many really effective places you can advertise without paying a fair bit of money for. With this in mind I will be looking at social media sites as a low cost way of advertising my services, but just how affective are they?

Its very easy these days to build up a high number of "fans" on Myspace and it's even getting easier to do on Facebook with the aid of virals and other marketing tools. Twitter too is fast becoming the platform for business to make people aware of there services. For a long time bands have used these social media sites along with others to quickly build up the perception of popularity and now with a bit of basic HTML knowledge and a few hours spare, becoming an internet rockstar can take little less than a couple of weeks. However, just how affective are these sites to actually bringing in an income, and is it actually free advertising?

When I first started this blog I was experimenting with running a promotion company, and with the use of myspace, the site and concept quickly took off with the appropriate target audience. However, it was less affective at actually getting people to come to the gigs I was putting on, so I started using Facebook and Twitter. I did however, shut down the promotion company before being able to use these platforms to their full advantage. What I learnt was that you could quite easily build up a following on the internet and some people would be quite happy to go to everything you put on, as long as it doesn't involve moving from their chair. But maybe I wasn't using it to it's full advantage, and I would fully admit that I wasn't putting in as much work as I needed to, to promote the gigs I was putting on. So there is a possibility that with the correct marketing plan, reaching the right audiences and putting in enough hours, social media could be an affective way for me to advertise my engineering services.

Which leads me on to the next question... is it actually free? The old phrase goes, "Time Equals Money" and with social networking, you certainly need a lot of time. Keeping a constant yet regulated stream of interesting Twitter updates is surprisingly hard work and extremely time consuming. However, you can opt now for a "Twitterbot" that will actually update your twitter at selected time intervals for you. This will cost you money but it will also save you time, but is it effective? Also, you need to get a good group of followers before investing in software so how do you get people to follow you in the first place? Myspace is very easy to get fans on, especially if you are primarily targeting musicians who are always going to accept "friendships requests". Facebook is a little harder, people actually have to have a genuine interest in you where as on myspace bands tend to "whore" themselves out. But it all takes so much time.

Social Media is free in the sense that you don't initially have to pay anything, however you do have to set aside hours everyday to really make it affective. For those who use it more professionally, buying software appears to be a worthwhile investment. The next thing to do is to then turn those "fans", "friends" and "followers" into paying clients.

So for those who aren't already, please follow me on www.twitter.com/matthewparisi :)

New Look

2010-06-07T01:36:00.000-07:00

I decided to spruce up my site and bring it a bit more up to date. Hope you like the new look. I'll be updating the information on all the pages due course as well as putting in a new page

Good News All Round

2010-05-24T09:02:00.000-07:00

I got an email from my manager yesterday that contained the news that "The Recoil" have a pre-approved licensing deal with a major label. Since we have had so much of a struggle trying to release the album which is still in the grasp of Right Bank Music Publishing, we have decided to record a new album with a few brand new songs and a few of the old ones bought up to date. This means that now, we control how successful this band gets. At the moment we're working on the pre-production for the album and then we'll be heading into the studios to record our second album... which you may actually get to hear.

Studio's lead me on to my next bit of good news. I will soon to be working at Audio Beach Studios in Hove as a sound engineer. I will offering some very good rates over the summer for recording sessions and since the studio is lottery funded I can offer some of the highest quality recordings for possibly the lowest price in Brighton. This is of course not including the sheer volumes of bedroom studios without a decent mixing console, a decent pair of monitors, soundproofing blah blah blah....

Also, my soon to be production partner Zaheer, has just had a couple of successes. His remix of Rip is to released on DefJam Records in the states and he has another remix "Kiss Me on The Lips" coming out on shed records. Good to see he's doing well. It will help bring a lot of exposure to the work we are going to do over the summer. More news on that coming soon!

Spotify, revolutionising the music industry?

2010-05-06T03:31:00.000-07:00

I learnt about Spotify last year after a lecture from "My Life Story's" Jake Shillingford. The idea of being able to stream music legally for free was very enticing and I quickly got myself a free account on the celestial music player that was supposedly going to solve all of the problems the industry has been facing.

For those who don't know how Spotify works, on free accounts advertisers pay for 15 to 30 seconds worth of advertisement to play in between every few songs. Premium account holders pay a small monthly subscription fee to listen to music at a higher bit rate, without the adverts and have the ability to listen to their favourite music offline. The income generated from these revenues are paid to the artists according to amount of plays their music has had. This seems like a simplistic yet genius business model that could very well save the industry from illegal downloaders. Unfortunately, it seems that this model is not quite working yet.

Reportedly, "Poker Face" by Lady Gaga is one of the most played tracks on Spotify getting over a million plays. To hit a million plays on the popular TV and Radio stations would earn an artist well over a million pounds. If we go by PRS' figures for a minute of radio play on BBC Radio One, a million plays would actually earn an artist in excess of £60million. So how much did our multi platinum artist earn from a million plays on Spotify? Lady Gaga in fact earned the grand total of $167.

So what does this means for Artists of a more moderate play count on Spotify. Swedish Artist Magnus Uggla received $3 after getting 55,000 hits even though his record company was actually a shareholder in Spotify. For us Musicians who thought that Spotify was going to be the answer to the problem of not being able to sell our music, it means that we are going to have to search for other ways for earning a living whilst being a musician.

I think that what Spotify set out to do is very commendable, but in practise it doesn't solve anything for the music industry. It just gives music "fans" a guilt free way to listen to music without paying the artists for it. Now that Spotify are reporting a huge loss, I think it's time that someone stepped up with a more forward way of thinking to either solve the major flaws in Spotify's business model, or totally rethink the ways that a musician can now get paid.

New photos's

2010-05-06T02:17:00.000-07:00

New photo's of the studio have been put up around the site. Very proud of my new workplace and hope it becomes a very productive place. Please have a look around the site to get an idea of the quality of my new studio.

Make It Your Business

2010-05-05T04:50:00.000-07:00

Trent Reznor Case Study

2010-05-04T10:30:00.000-07:00

The music business is changing and one artist who has embraced it is Trent Reznor... check out this case study from a lecture at Midem.

Carrot on a Stick!

2010-04-27T00:35:00.000-07:00

The music industry is a peculiar beast. An industry comprised of musicians and creative types, with the odd business shark thrown in, makes for a very disorganised, lazy and dysfunctional business. Some of the best music in the world will never be heard by the general public because of the laid back attitude of labels, managers and even the bands themselves. This apparent lack of need to do anything has been holding back The Recoil for far too long now.

The promise of a licensing contract has seemed to hang in front of us for far too long. The contract has been sitting the metaphorical table since I joined the band but who has been doing anything to push the signing. It seems that all interested parties are doing nothing, including ourselves.

A couple of weeks ago we decided to stop rehearsals for a month, save up the money that would have been spent, and record a brand new e.p in my studio, with our new songs and other songs that Right Bank music do not own copyrights to. It has seemed that for far too long we've focused on getting the signing for our old album to be released and have forgotten to look forward. We've already got a new publisher who seem to be making a lot of waves interested in signing our further recordings, and from the meetings we've had, seem to be much more on our wavelength than the more corporate attitudes of the larger publishers.

As it stands, apparently, our licensing contract has been re-written but unfortunately includes some copyrights that our publishing label shouldn't own. Another re-draft could take a couple more months because of the sheer lack of urgency by anyone to get anything done.

Hopefully now, we can look forward to our future recordings and a healthy relationship with a brand new publisher who are very keen to work with us. It seems that we can no longer work with the old school way of thinking and move on with the new approach to creating and marketing music.

New E.P, new publisher, new music and then I need to convince the rest of the band to go on tour!!

It seems that too much, we as musicians rely on the business to organise everything for us. We leave finding labels and publishers to our managers, rely on the labels for our promotion, and hire agencies to book our tours. More and more now musicians and bands need to take control of their business as well as their creativity. With the internet and networking sites, it has become a lot easier to get into contact with the people who can help you raise your profile, book your shows and more importantly, the people who buy your music.

Why go through the ordeal of relying and therefore blaming others for the success of your band or solo project when it is so much easier to do it yourself. The "Golden Age" of being able to rely on your label to bring in an income has gone, and it's time to actually take control of what you are owed. Obviously there should be a clear distinction between creativity and business, but for me, business is just another form of creativity. There are still ways of bringing in an income for your band and it's just a matter of being creative about the ways you go about it.

Exciting Times

2010-04-26T07:26:00.000-07:00

I am now in the new place and have finally got our internet sorted. Although the site has been quiet, a lot has gone on. Expect lot's of new blogs soon. I'm going to try and get into a habit of updating this site weekly.

More soon :)

A Fresh Start

2010-03-23T09:18:00.000-07:00

They say that every three years you should change either your job, your home or your partner to stay out of getting into a routine. Well this is my second major change this year... and it couldn't have come at a busier time.

A couple of weeks back I received a letter from my letting agent telling me that me and my partner (Jenni) were being evicted from our home, along with everyone else on the top floor of our flats. The reason being, that the landlord of the flats wants to convert them all into luxury apartments. For both personal reasons and business reasons, I think it's a bad idea on his part. I very much doubt he could get the income he's hoping for out of these flats, despite it's location, but that's another story.

So now, amongst the many other things I have to do at this point in my life, I had to find another place to live. Suffice to say, me and Jenni are not the type of people to sit on our lorrels and wait for everything to "work out", within a week we'd found a new place to live, paid the deposit and informed our letting agent that we were moving out earlier than their deadline.

What was a rather stressing ordeal has now turned into a rather positive and very exciting prospect. The new house we're renting is an edwardian mansion with ridiculously tall ceiling and very spacious rooms, which also means I get a much larger studio to record, teach and work in. I have already booked in my first client to record in the new studio and am looking forward to expanding my teaching clientele.

Although I have to finish a lot of University work and record my bands E.P in the next four weeks, I also have to move house. I will be burning the candle at both ends for a few weeks but I am very excited about the next month. you will be seeing lots of photos soon.

The Death of the Record Industry.

2010-03-08T07:10:00.000-08:00

So the Record Industry is dying. We live in the age of piracy and music is considered to be a valueless product where despite investments of sometimes Millions of pounds, people are no longer willing to pay for it. There is no money in music anymore and labels will now only invest in commercial bands that will guarantee a return. The death of the record industry will equal the death of creative music, or so the Record Labels would have us believe.

In 1887 , Emil Berliner invented the first gramophone. This was a revolution in the way that people could listen to music. Before, if you wanted to listen to a piece of music, you had to buy the notation and know how to play an instrument, or pay someone to play it for you. This new invention created a new industry. The Record Industry. The Industry evolved over time and during the fifties and sixties became huge, focusing on exploiting artists and earning millions, then billions of pounds.

This golden age has passed for the Record Industry and is being met by another revolution, Digital Downloads. People no longer have to buy music and record labels have not found a better alternative to the free MP3's anyone with internet access can download. But this doesn't mean that the Music Industry is dying.

The Music Industry is bigger and better than ever. The free distribution of music has meant that niche genres have a much higher exposure. As a result of this, more creative and forward thinking music is earning success. Consumers are spending more on live events than ever before and bands are enjoying rapid success on low budgets. In this age of piracy, we no longer need a Record Label to exploit musicians and make millions of pounds by unjustly offering musicians unfair deals, with the knowledge that these deals were the only chance for the musicians success.

An industry that was a result of a musical revolution is now gripping it's claws into nostalgia, refusing to move with the times. Trying to sell music is like trying to sell fresh air. You had better have a good reason for someone to buy it. I for one don't think this is a bad thing. Forward thinkers are finding a way to make business out of our love for music. A new model is being formed and it's one that is very reminiscent of the original way people consumed music. Remember, the Record Industry didn't even exist 130 years ago, the Music Industry has survived thousands of years. Now the Music Industry is more exciting than ever because Digital Distribution is just another tool in the belt. Not the threat that Record Labels would have you believe.

Thank you for reading. Please take two minutes to fill in one of these questionnaires.

Click here to take survey if you are not a musician

Click here to take survey if you are a musician

Fake It Until You Make It

2010-02-22T07:52:00.000-08:00

Right from the start of my music career, in an almost naive way I've always told people that I can do something, even if I have no idea if I could. When I was sixteen I was asked if I could teach one of my school staff's child the guitar. I had never taught before and had no idea how but I said yes anyway and stumbled my way into teaching. Finding that I quite liked getting paid for what I thought was not that much work I decided to put up a few adverts and see if anyone else was willing to pay me to fumble through some lessons with them.

I did much the same thing when it came to running a studio. I was volunteering at an arts centre when the man who was managing the music department and studio left for some other job. I turned around to the Committee of the art centre before the manager had even left and told them that they would need someone new and that person was me. After going to a couple of meetings and blagging my way through some presentations, I was chosen for the job and embarked on this massive learning curve. I was Eighteen at the time, had never ran anything in my life let alone a music studio. It wasn't very long after that I had convinced the arts centre to allow me to promote gigs in their auditorium as well as running summer courses for children and student courses for ACE and Connexions.

Since then I have focused this "gift of the blag" into getting jobs and joining bands, setting up promotion companies and generally stumbling into the music industry. As good as this was, it left me with the feeling that one day I would be, and maybe still will, "caught out.

Simon Woodroffe (British Entrepreneur who has set up Yo!Sushi and YOtel) has said he often worries that one day he'll be "found out". When he was looking for equity and negotiating deals for his first restaurant he blagged the whole meeting. He did this by acting like someone who knew what he was doing. This kind of attitude can help anyone in any career get by. Too often we don't take on challenges because we have no idea how to cope with them. However, the difference between an entrepreneur and everyone else is that they take on huge risks, and just act like someone who know's what they are doing.

If you can convince yourself that you can do something, it is a lot easier to convince other people the same thing. Despite all this, there is one big point to all this, if you're going to tell someone you can do something, you've got to be able to get results. Blagging a job is only the start of a successful career. Once you've talked the talk, you've got to walk the walk.

A Quick Catch Up.

2010-02-16T06:26:00.000-08:00

Last night I played my first gig with functions band "Husband, Wife and Robot" and well... I think it went really well. Watching over the footage this morning, I have decided that we are definitely ready to hit the market as a functions band. I've really enjoyed being part of this project and am amazed at how much we've achieved in three weeks. I'd say that putting together a functions band is a lot easier than putting together an original band.

Talking of original bands, things are looking up for both Drown In Entropy and The Recoil. As of yet, D.I.E's vocalist has not left and we've got two gigs in the pipeline. One of the gigs will be having national coverage and we'll be supporting some fantastic bands but more on that later. As far as The Recoil is concerned, we're still waiting for that signature but our manager assures us that from the meeting in Miden, they were all happy to sign the contract. The only reason they didn't at the time was because there were some mistakes in the contract with copyright issues that weren't meant to be there. So the amended contract has been sent and once again it's a waiting game.

With my electro project, I've had to put that on the back burner due to the sheer amount of Uni/functions and other work I've got on at the moment but will be resuming that in March. Hoping to release a couple of singles rather than an E.P. It's all about quality rather than quantity on this one. I still think I'm finding my sound so I wouldn't want to release anything prematurely.

It's nice to be busy again and although I think it has all caught up on me today (I've spent the day coughing my lungs out and being a horribly fluey mess) I'm really enjoying the running around.

Multi-Faced or Multi-Faceted?

2010-02-05T09:39:00.000-08:00

One of the curses/blessings of being a musician is that you get the opportunity to work on a variety of projects in a load of different genres and the job possibilities are endless. You could be a high end business person and work in music, you could be zeitgeist performer, you could be a producer, you could be a DJ, you could be a writer, a session musician, an engineer blah blah blah blah blah...

More and more these days people are having what is called a portfolio career in music and actually a little bit of a load of things. I find myself very much heading in this direction. My original intention when starting my degree was to play in a cool metal band and teach guitar at a college by day. I find myself now heading towards careers in producing, promoting, teaching, playing in totally conflicting genres, one band on an instrument I won't even claim to be any good at and hoping to start up my own management business after finishing my degree.

So much so in our "current economical climate" we have to take whatever opportunities that come our way. I never intended to get into some things that I do these days, but as is the way with the music industry, you have to leave your career plan open to change and have a pragmatic view. If you remain single-minded, you don't see the other opportunities, or more importantly, don't see their worth. I started off purely wanting to play in Heavy Metal, but it's not a wise career choice. So instead, I play in a heavy metal band and make that my hobby. It keeps me tuned in to that excitable feeling you get when you first discover music and decide to make it your life but not deluded into thinking that you can make it your living.

So I sold out.... well if you can call it that, but I still get to play in my band and do what I love. I also get to do other things, which I have grown to love and get just as excited about. Being part of a functions band, or producing club music, or promoting gigs (even if it's not necessarily the genre's you love) is a job. The difference being, I get to work with music. So I say, you can keep your "integrity" and work a boring nine to five office job and play your pub gigs. That kind of attitude to the music industry will keep you playing your pub gigs all of your life, and if that's what you want, then fine, keep on dreaming about your "big break"

Me, I'm gonna take every opportunity I can to work in the business that I love. I'll write for commercial genre's, I'll play in cheesy function bands, I'll record for bands that I'm not into and I'll be thankful for every second of it because I don't have to get a real job. So good luck with integrity and enjoy playing in front friends, family and a few drunk people at the local Dog and Duck. But if you want to succeed, then keep your mind open and take everything you can.

Balancing Creativity with Organisation.

2010-01-22T08:37:00.000-08:00

So I'm barely into the new year and I have so much work on it's unbelievable. I'm now fully committed to three bands of conflicting genres, producing my personal E.P for release in March, putting in all the hours for University work, collaborating with various people on production, teaching students, working a part time job, going to lectures and playing house husband. On top of this, struggling to take at least one day off a week to spend some time with my girlfriend, and it's a lot to fit in seven days.

So how do you organise such a workload. For a lot of people in different industries, this isn't such a problem. A good PA could do the job in about half an hour by giving you a detailed timetable of when to focus on different projects taking into consideration rehearsals and work. However, in a creative industry it's not quite as black and white. It's impossible to schedule in time for creativity because as anyone who is creative will know, when it happens, it just happens. It could last half an hour, two hours or an entire weekend but anyone in music knows that when it happens, you've got to just go with it else you'll lose it.

So at first you think, well I won't schedule in time for creativity and just let it happen when it happens. But if you want to keep on top of everything else, you've got to make sure that you account for time lost to creativity to catch up on otherwise scheduled work. My first thoughts would be to recommend a day for creativity and that day could happen at any point in the week. Then you reschedule anything that was initially planned for the free day of your week. However, deadlines put an end to that quite quickly, on top of meetings, rehearsals, lectures, students or work that you are bound to.

So instead you have to organise a series of two hour slots. I find in my schedule that I usually don't have more than two hours to work on an individual thing so swapping around those two hours wouldn't be as difficult as as swapping a day. But as a musician, I most certainly don't have those kind of organisational skills, or at least, not yet anyway.

However you do it, to keep on top of the game, you need some kind of method. Otherwise you end up waiting around for creativity to happen, do all your work last minute, start getting frustrated at unavoidable meetings or lectures and will ironically find that you become most creative the night before you need to hand in an essay or piece of work that you've left to the last minute.

My solution... don't sleep.

The Importance of Writing Things Down!

2010-01-02T03:58:00.000-08:00

Another decade has passed and it's shocking to see how much my life has changed since the year 2000. At the age of eleven I didn't even want to be a Musician, I wanted to be an Actor. In fact, I wasn't all that keen on music. I only took up guitar at fourteen as an attempt to cover up my social ineptness.

So it's the second day of the new year, everyone is intent to make this the best one, achieve everything they wanted to and lose that christmas podge. By February however, everyone has settled into the new year and all the well intentioned resolutions have been broken and forgotten. They've stopped using their gym membership, although they would visit every week in January, they've given up their dietary plan and those that haven't broken their resolutions by now, probably made those weak self-fulfilling or easily forgotten ones that require no real effort to keep. So how do we make this the best and most productive year?

Today, I wrote down everything I wanted to achieve this year on top of the obligatory Uni course requirement. Every time I talk about what I want to achieve, it sounds like there is a lot on my mind and there's too much to actually achieve. By writing it all down, I found it actually only surmounted to five different things that I want to achieve, all of them easily obtainable with a little effort. Also, by writing down tangible goals, I've made a record of what I want to achieve and can refer to it through out the year, to give me a kick up the arse if needed.

On top of just writing things down, I outlined a brief timeline of when I want to achieve a few of the things that are more in my control. By doing this, I stop myself from diving into everything at once and only giving each goal a small bit of my attention. Instead now, I have two months to work solidly on one thing, and then three to work on another etc... It wasn't a well constructed timeline and to most people the record of my goals look like random scribble, but it makes sense to me which is the most important thing.

It's not hard to do and I think everyone should it. Make sure it's written down somewhere that you use a lot, for instance I used my main notebook where I write down all of my career based ideas and notes, but this will keep the goals in the conscious. Also, make the goals achievable, a year is not that long a time, be ambitious but realistic.

A timeline is important for two things. Firstly write a year timeline of what you want to achieve month by month. Secondly write an interim timeline for all the individual goals. The timeline allows you to focus on things individually and helps you compartmentalise each aspect of your career or life. Secondly, it keeps you on target to achieve goals by clearing defining the time period in which you need to reach your next goal.

An old tutor of mine once said that he has a friend who he phones up every week and tells them what he's going to do during the week. The friend then phones him up at the end of the weeks and tells him off if he hasn't achieved what he set out to do. Although this sounds like a giving yourself someone else to answer to, this tutor doesn't work for less then £80 an hour. Maybe it's something worth thinking about, though I would advise that you don't make that person your partner, you can row with your partner, not your friend.

So whatever your new years resolution is, whatever your goals, write it down! You won't achieve it by just writing it down, but you will be more likely to actually do it!

Simple is Best

2009-12-23T04:50:00.000-08:00

I've been struggling on the chorus of an Electro/Disco song I've been writing. For some reason it just doesn't sound full enough. I've added synths, added chords, tried different rhythms, added more drums, taken away drum and it still didn't sound big.

The problem was that I was cluttering it up and forget that essentially the most important part of the chorus is the vocal line or melody. What I was doing was trying to fill up all the space I could without putting in the melody which essentially I wasn't leaving any room for it. This left me with a messy chorus which drained any sense of musicality from it.

I listened to a few bits and piece of some electro artists I like and realised that a lot of the time their choruses aren't too different from the actual verses. In some cases, exactly the same. It was just a backing for the all important melody line. Feeling inspired, I ripped out a load of the drum parts, took away a load of synths and left it bare with a bass line, a drum line and the riff which outlines the chords. The track now sounds fresher and more authentic with enough room for vocals.

Sometimes, simplicity is the answer.

Save, Save, Save....

2009-12-21T09:01:00.000-08:00

I was writing a string section sample today which is now being used in an RnB song. After bouncing it down and sending off the midi to another producer my mac crashed. Take a minute to read that again.... yes my -->MAC<-- crashed. That just doesn't happen... does it.

The most frustrating thing was that I hadn't saved the sample. I had the midi, I had the AIFF but I didn't actually have the programmed synth sounds, the EQ or the mix track. The one time my iMac crashes (and it was a spectacular crash) is the one time I hadn't been obsessively saving my work every minute or so. Luckily I just imported the midi back in and carried on working to get the synth sounds again but what a waste of time.

The crash itself was wonderful. A little black box of death telling me that my computer had crashed. Yes, my computer, not mac, because macs don't crash. Then a little veil of darkness crept down my screen signalling the tragic loss of everything I was working on, and hadn't saved. I have been informed that when a mac crashed it means there's quite a significant underlying problem with the Ram, so I've finally load on Mac OS X Snow Leopard and hopefully that'll sort out any CPU problems.

If something is going wrong though I'd be gutted. Luckily I bought the Applecare protection plan.

So the moral of the story is, save, save, save bloody save. Even if it's a mac!

A little Dash of Insomnia

2009-12-19T17:54:00.000-08:00

Thankfully my insomnia is not as often as it used to be but every now and then I just have to leave the bed and occupy my mind. I decided to finish off a club remix of my latest piece of production. I'm very happy with all the synths in this piece and it's my favourite beat to date. Since embarking on this electro crusade I have found that with every song I create, I learn more and become more creative. I am getting better at creating the sounds I hear in my head and feel that I'm starting to get that polished sound.

I'm hoping for a five or six track E.P to be done by March which will have some amazing collaborations on there. I need to thank Zaheer for putting me contact with some amazing up and coming artists. I've also talked to Leigh (CyberCrime) about getting a collaboration going and we're gonna meet up sometimes this week for a ChipTune infested jam. Looking forward to that. Leigh and I need a major catch up as well.

Tomorrow I'm going to be recording a guitar solo onto a track by Zaheer and myself, for the ultra-talented Mr Shaodow. I'm addicted to his songs on myspace and very honoured to be part of that track. I'll put up a video of me doing the recordings for that as well. I'm getting the old floyd rose out for this one. It's gonna be mental!

I feel like things are coming together with my music career. I'm going to be looking for a business partner in the new to start a new promotion company. When running Brighton Metal Scene I definitely needed help from other people but couldn't find the commitment for a project like that. Hopefully, if I find the right, like-minded person we can get on with promoting some big club/DJ and Live events.

I'm looking forward to 2010. I've decided that my new years resolution won't be about music. I think that would be too much of a cop out. I'm going to start working out!

Listen to the latest club remix on my myspace

This is the last preview until the E.P.

Back, Refreshed and Inspired

2009-12-18T09:09:00.000-08:00

I was on strict orders last week to not touch the internet or do any work whatsoever and if I'm honest, I quite enjoyed it. However, by day seven I was starting to crack and went online to research touring agencies. Oh well, six out of seven days isn't bad when I'm a workaholic. I spent the week in Bolton and Manchester with Jenni's parent to celebrate an early Christmas. We visited the Christmas marked in Manchester, met up with various people and drank wine almost every day.

We arrived back last night and it had started to snow. This morning we woke up quite early and this was our view

One of the perks of being top floor!

This was the view when the sun came out.

So I've been back one day and have been working hard. Almost finished a track today. Will listen to it in a few days to see what needs changing but I'm pretty happy with the sounds. Also heard that Mr Shaedow wants to use a track that me and Zaheer wrote. You should check him out on myspace and youtube. He's actually one of those up and coming artists (not like the ones that just say they are). Sam Khan is also hard at work with a trance/electro track I produced a little while back. You can hear a sample of that on my myspace. It's looking like I may be able to release the E.P about March time and will have some very exciting names on the record. I thinking about putting an E.P of Hip Hops that I've worked on with Zaheer.

The licensing deal between Revolver and Right Bank is still being bounced around so although I'm still hopeful of it getting signed, I'm less hopeful of a release date before March/April time for The Recoils album. We may just release it ourselves at this rate.

Busy Busy Busy

2009-12-02T02:39:00.000-08:00

I haven't been able to write anything up for a little while. I have been busy networking and getting myself involved in various projects which has meant I've been very busy in the studio. Obviously a great thing. The collaberation between me and Zaheer is flying off full speed. It seems that we've both been pushing each other to create tracks faster. What's great about collaberations is that everything you do just comes out better. Zaheer's a real pro when it comes to the Hip Hop and Electro stuff. He takes my ideas and gives them real authenticity and hopefully the samples and ideas I send him spark off a little inspiration. Maybe together we can capture the Zeitgeist as it were.

I had another meeting the publishers the other day who are still very interested in working with The Recoil. We were talking about possibility that we can get out of our old contract which would be very helpful. I also found out that we may be able to self release the album. We may not be able to keep all the money from it but if we can get it out there, at least we can actually start work on really promoting ourselves. As it stands, as long as we can self release, we should have a new myspace and website, as well the twitters and facebooks and whatever other promotional websites there are, we should release the album after christmas and hopefully tour it in the summer. It'll be a lot of work but it seems that they've not been able to do anything with the album so far and it'll be nice to see all that hard work go to somewhere good.

I also, unfortunately recieved some bad news over the weekend. Our vocalist has decided to leave Drown In Entropy. This was such a blow after all the positive comments we recieved from the industry pro's. We were ready to finish the recordings and release and E.P and sort out a tour for early next year. Now we're back to square one. Leigh has the idea of him taking vocals for now and playing to drum tracks and although the rest of the band seem to like that idea, I can't stand the thought of it. It just doesn't seem like we can play at our full potential like that and it feels a little like cheating. I'm very disappointed about this whole situation as this my own personal project and I just haven't been able to get it out to people in a way that I would want. I think I would just like to finish the E.P between us and then talk about touring it with a pro vocalist. I'm not really sure what I can do with this project at the moment.

On a lighter note, Jenni and I have decorate our flat for christmas and we enjoyed Mince Pies and Mulled wine last night. It was nice to have a bit of an evening off and just relax for a little while.

Audition Time

2009-11-26T03:09:00.000-08:00

Last tuesday I had two auditions to get onto the Institute of Modern Music's end of term gig. Every term BIMM hold a gig filled with performances from bands that their students have formed and every term I have not got on for one reason or another. The first piece I auditioned was with a band set up by Rachel Farrer doing a cover of Kelly Clarkson's "Because of you". When Rachel first came to me with the idea I had assumed we were doing an acoustic cover so I set about learning the chords and memorizing the song. Then I was told we were doing a full band version with added strings and full backing vocals which I was very excited by.

I have worked in large bands like this before as well as working in a full Theatre Orchestra and the sound you get is amazing. We did a couple of rehearsals at Rachel's house and I was feeling very positive about the audition. It got to audition time and I wasn't too nervous about getting onstage. I've done so many gigs now you lose that feeling when it comes to session type stuff. We were all tuned up, well rehearsed and ready to play when all the negative aspects of setting up such a large band came into play.

We were a logistical nightmare. A ten piece band needing four vocal mics, a cello mic, a violin DI, a bass DI, an acoustic DI, a Keyboard DI and however many countless mics needed for a live Drum set up was a logistical nightmare for the sound engineers. After about fifteen minutes of setting up we got to play. Performance wise, I think we sounded good. We were tight but flowed naturally, the string section worked well with the backing vocals and as far as I could tell, no mistakes were made. However, I don't think we'll be getting onto the gig just because of the amount of time needed to set up.

The second band I auditioned was my own project Drown In Entropy with an original piece. This was the first time we were onstage with our new vocalist and the first time we would hear what our vocalist has written for that song. It was a bit nerve wrecking and I was getting wave after wave of adrenaline rush's. I got up on stage, set up the amps. heard the count in and dug into some polyrhythm metal glory.

"I think you guys could do with a few more practices... I'm joking that was ridiculously tight!" were the words of Jason Knight, BIMM Tutor and professional Keyboardist. We've auditioned the band before but never got onto the gig. Maybe we just weren't ready but judging the tutors comments and looks on their faces, we may stand a chance of getting to perform at the Concorde2 in front of our class mates, tutors and industry guests that attend.

However, if we don't get onto the gig I can at least feel happy that it isn't because we're not good enough. It's just that our polyrhythmic madness was not suitable for the gig. At least now I'm happy with the positive comments made and I can start booking gigs for early next year, confident with the fact that if we can please BIMM tutors and judge's, probably harder to please than Mr Simon Cowell, we're definitely ready to gig and take on the British tech scene.

Productive, Efficient.... Musician??

2009-11-20T03:35:00.000-08:00

At the time of writing, it's not even midday and so far I have had an incredibly productive day. I got up at about six thirty this morning, which I can assure you is not a regular occurrence but maybe something I shall make a habit of. Unable to sleep because of a decade long stint of insomnia, I got up, made some strong coffee and spent about two or three hours networking. I researched some PR companies that deal with music, looked up some management companies, sent emails to various companies for information, added approximately four hundred "friends" on my new myspace page updated my twitter and still managed to catch up with current events.

Then at about half nine I started working on the rough vocal mix for The Recoils new demo to send to our new publisher, of whom I am very hopeful of. I also added the new drum mix to Drown In Entropy's teaser track which will be available for you to listen to soon and sorted out the peaking problems I was having with putting in a huge sub drop. All this before lunch and well... a shower actually.

I like this kind of productivity and I'm going to make a habit of waking up early. I'll also get into the much needed habit of making lists of things I need to complete in the day or week. I have a rehearsal at two until four and then can use the rest of the day working on either the Drum and Bass track I've been scratching my head about or work on a new concept I've come up with. I should also be receiving a new track from Zaheer soon to work on. Good times.

In an industry this competitive, productivity, efficiency and using every waking hour to either being creative, networking or simply researching your next step is key to actually making money and surviving. Not everyone can afford a PA but by simply keeping a diary of important meetings, writing in things that you did but weren't planned and making sure you have specific time slots in which you can complete your tasks can keep you ahead of the game.

Slowly Perfecting Perfectionism

2009-11-15T16:37:00.000-08:00

Writing music used to be so easy when I was young. I could scribble down pages of lyrics in a day, write countless amounts of songs using the only five chords I knew and would believe that every one of them was the greatest song on the planet. That was all very well when I was fifteen years old but now it's taken me nearly three days just to work out what direction I want a song to take, and even now I'm doubting it.

For the last few days I've been writing a Drum and Bass Dance tune which has both frustrated and pleased me no end. I think coming from a background of writing predominantly tech metal I've got into the habit of over complicating things. In this one, three minute song alone I have included and mashed at least three genres. I've put together DnB, Dub and trance and although it works, I can't help but feel it's too much. However, maybe I'm just doing something different to everyone else, and if it works, then work it I say.

The problem with writing music for me has always been getting that sound. I get a particular sound in my head and being rather new to working with synths I go on a massive journey to try and emulate that. Sometimes I get something similar, sometimes I cannot work it out and sometimes I have these little happy accidents that result in a sound that I hadn't thought of but sounds great. Although it pays to be a perfectionist, I think you miss those wonderful bits of spontaneity in creating if you remain so single minded on what it is you want.

Another problem with recording and writing at home is, when is it done? Having the ability to tweak mixes at my whim and spend hours upon hours recording can often be detrimental to the song writing process. However it's very downfall is also it's greatest asset. When you're in the studio you have a time to finish by and you make sure you've got something done by that time. However, it may not be what you actually wanted. I've also come to realise why so many songwriters and producers can rack up thousands of pounds of equipment to get that certain sound. There is so much equipment I would buy if I could afford it just to create that perfect sound.

It'll probably be another week or so until I'm happy with the sounds, the mix and ultimately the song. Then I have to think about lyrics, melody and vocal stylings which is a whole other can of worms. What I must remember though, is keep it simple! Listening to the radio today I could hear that most of the elecronica songs consisted of two or three instruments, simples changes in the chorus and great melody on the vocals. Perhaps on this track I am overcompensating as there are no vocals for it. Who knows?

Songwriting is long process but when it's done and you've got that perfect few minutes of musical goodness, the back ache, sleepless nights and endless frustration totally pays off.

Do it young, Do it in Huggies!

2009-11-13T13:52:00.000-08:00

I have just got back from Recipease after doing a Knife Skills lesson. The Chef that taught me and Jenni was probably around the age of 25/26 and had worked with Gordan Ramsey and now works with Jamie Oliver. It was obvious that firstly this guy has a real passion and drive for the work he does, and more importantly he knew what he wanted to do at a very young age. This got me thinking about people who are that successful so young. This youthful success often leads to jealousy amongst peers and eldars as they assume it's something that has just fallen into this persons lap. However, I don't believe that's the case. I think it's a matter really knowing what you want to do before you leave school and having the drive and determination that an awful lot of teenagers simply don't have.

At the age of 14 I knew that I loved music and wanted to be in a rock band. I got a saturday job earning £15 a week and saved up for my first guitar. I then dedicated myself to learning. However, I still didn't think I could actually be a full time musician and was studying to go into psychology. I joined a local music project for kids and was mentored by a man called Steve MacDaniel (of Solcist). He taught me my most valuable lesson which was that if I work hard enough, I could actually be a full time musician.

When I left school at 18 I had already put in four years of my life volunteering at the local Arts Centre and got to take over running their music project and studio. This meant free studio access for me learn my craft. People would probably have considered me extremely lucky to get that position but the way I thought about it was that I had put in four years of my life as a volunteer. I wasn't paid to run the project and I was technically still a volunteer. But being so young, I could afford to do it.

I'm now 21 and on the brink of releasing an album on a quite a large Record label and striking a new pubishing deal. I'm working with some fantastic musicians and am now in the great position to be able to be a full time musician. Something else that a lot of people envy. However, my point is this. Had I not spent so much of my time as a 14 year old boy learning the guitar, annoying my parents and generally skipping any form of a social life I would not be where I am now.

To have success at young age, no matter how big or small, you have to know what you waont to do at an even younger age. You have to dedicate yourself to it and get involved with anything to do with your passion whilst you can afford to do things for free. If I decided I wanted to be musician at 21, judging by how long it's taken me to get this far, I would be 28 before I started to see anything from it and could consider actually doing. However, being 21 I would have not been able to volunteer myself for anything due to paying the rent. I would not be willing to do some of the work I did for free, as you gain some kind of ego when you grow and believe that some jobs are below you and most importantly I probably wouldn't have the kind of drive and blind belief that you have a young teenager.

If you want to do anything in life, do it now, before it really does becoming impossible!

I am a URL!

2009-11-10T14:16:00.000-08:00

I have spent all last night, morning and evening (including all bits of spare time) redesigning a blog, coming up with a logo, redesigning my twitter, buying a domain name and it's finally done. I am quite happy with my blog design at the moment and have now begun the process of designing a myspace. I think it's about time for some shameless self-promotion and I don't think it could have come at a better time.

It looks like Revolver and Right Bank have finally sorted out a licensing deal which means we can now talk about putting The Recoil's first album into shops, so I expect you all to go out and buy it as soon as it does! We're also having a meeting with a publisher tomorrow to talk about further recordings and perhaps a sub-publishing contract. Not sure where it could lead to but it will be interesting nonetheless.

I am also liking more and more the idea of trying to get a publishing deal for the electronica stuff I'm working on at the moment. That way I wouldn't have to worry about releasing it and selling it. Just creating some good music for adverts and programmes etc. It seems like in the current climate of the music industry, you can't expect people to buy music that you've spent days, weeks, months and sometimes years of your life creating so publishing is the only way forward. But I'll leave that discussion for another blog!

I am looking forward to friday of this week. It will be the first day that I've got nothing to do for so long. I can get back to writing some tracks or finishing off the Drown In Entropy recordings. I almost wish I could show you how it sounds. I can't wait to release it.

2009-11-06T15:32:00.000-08:00

Just got back from a catch up with Zaheer. I haven't spoken that guy in person for years. I've had a really good night out and it's good to know that someone I'm hopefully going to be working with a lot musically I can get on with on a personal level really well. It's also good to hear how he's progressed with music to hear how although we're both they types of people that would be thought of to only work in certain genres of music, we both work in things that no-one would expect. I've travelled up to Milton Keynes for the weekend so I'm hoping to catch up with some other people whilst I'm here. I'm going to my annual family firework party tomorrow. I'm looking forward to that a lot. It's a good opportunity to catch up with family that I don't see during the year as we're all at University and live in various parts of England.

Next week I'm meeting up with a publisher who's interested in working with The Recoil. We'll also be having a meeting afterwards about my promo ideas. Might be able to get a few remixes done as well if our current publishing label allow us to do so. Seems a funny thing to have to get permission like that off of a publishing company but I'm not sure of the contracts that were signed before I joined the band. It'll be interesting to see what happens at this meeting though.

The final instrumental mix is nearly done for Drown In Entropy's teaser track. I'm very happy with the sound and can't wait for the track to come out for people to listen to. I'm probably going to get our new vocalist round at some point to work through his lyric ideas and start getting vocals down. It's been a year in the making but it's finally coming together.

Apart from that, I'm working a lot on the electro, dance and D'n'B stuff. I want to have an E.P done by christmas and get it distributed on iTunes and Spotify etc. I'll see if I can do that with the company I'm working as an A&R agent for.

2009-11-01T01:26:00.000-07:00

The rain is absolutely pouring it down today in Brighton. It's the 1st of November and Winter is making itself known to all. I've had the in-laws round for the weekend which has been nice. I think I'm in one of those weird relationships where I actually get on with my in-laws and Jenni gets on with hers. It's nice that its worked out that way but the only problem is... where do we spend christmas?!?

I spent Halloween at a suspension event a friend and local piercer was putting on. I can dare say that my halloween was way more hardcore than yours. Spending my Samhain watching friends getting meat hooks pierced in their backs or chest and getting suspended off of them is probably more fear provoking than any costume you could come up with! I got speaking to a friend there about running websites and events and it does seem that their are only a few genres of music that really spark interest. He runs a gaming website and forum, and with about 600 members, he only breaks even. I don't think there are even 600 metal fans in Brighton so I think I made the right choice by letting that go.

I've been quite busy this week, hence the lack of blogs. I've recorded all the guitars parts to "Drown In Entropy's" teaser track. I've sent off a mastered version of that to our drummer (Leigh Grey, also of CyberCrime) who is programming all the kit as I type. I'm looking forward to hearing the new drum sounds. He's picked up a drum programming plug in called Addictive which is kind of the Daddy of drum synths. I'm looking forward to finally releasing some stuff with "Drown In Entropy". It's been a long time coming but it seems to have all come together now. Should be touring next year with that.

Another thing that's been a long time coming is my collaboration with a producer and old friend of mine called Zaheer. Zaheer has produced a number tracks that have ended up on various BBC radio stations including BBC1, been heard on American airwaves with various rap artists and produced healthy sales on iTunes. I'm quite excited to be working with him on some projects. This week I recorded a solo guitar part for an Electro Dance tune he's producing for a rapper called Sam Khan who's an up and coming artist. His management are talking about putting together a live band for him and I've been asked to be part of it. I may even be the one putting the whole thing together. I know a lot of really good musicians so that'll be easy enough to do.

Surprisingly, the only project thats not making as much progress right now is "The Recoil". We've yet to have this meeting about our promo campaign but I'm still holding out for it. I've got a lot of ideas on how to do it but I can't really start anything until I know that we're all the same wavelength and I have certain permissions granted to launch recordings etc.. However, the Revolver records deal is looking to set in place by the end of the year. Apparently there has been some issues with our publisher over the rights but they're being smoothed out at the moment.

I've also started writing some electro dance music myself. Thinking about getting a singer to put some parts down and doing a little dance E.P. just to see where it goes. It could be an interesting direction...

2009-10-25T01:33:00.000-07:00

I've had an amazingly productive week. Finally got my head around Pro Tools and have started recording the Drown In Entropy release track for myspace. The number of students I've got is rising slowly, I've done my final gig with BMS and I've got into contact with an old friend who is a Hip Hop producer. We're going to work on some stuff together, I'm going to be providing samples and stuff for him to use, however I'll tell you more about that soon.

I think I've won over The Recoil guys with some of my ideas for promoting the band and we're going to have a meeting this week about how we can do this successfully. I'm going to try and tempt them into doing a tour. I haven't toured for ages and it will be good fun to get out on the road again. All I need to do now though is buy another bass guitar. I'm looking to get a fender Jazz so I'll be selling some bits of old equipment to get the money for that.

It's so good to be able to write and record again. Its been so frustrating to not be able to do it for the last year. I've had so many missed opportunities it's unreal but now hopefully I can rekindle some of them and start getting to work with some people. I'd like to get in the sample thing, writing bits for Hip Hop and Drum and Bass artists to use. It'll be a nice contrast to all the other stuff I do. May even look into Hip Hop producing myself for some local Artists - If there are any, Brighton, as far as I'm aware doesn't have the biggest Hip Hop community. I used to record loads of rappers and MC's back in Milton Keynes so I've got a lot of experience in that. It'll be fun to actually write the music. See if I'm any good at it?

2009-10-21T11:30:00.000-07:00

Bit of an update on what has been happening. My last post seemed a bit negative about my promo company but I have come to a decision on what to do. I'm going to shut down the BMS website and call it a day on the whole project. Tomorrow is the last gig with BMS and then that will be everything done. I'm not too attached to the project so I don't feel too much of a loss for it. However, I will not be giving up on promoting. After Christmas I will re-evaluate what exactly I want to promote and how I can go about putting on some killer gigs. I just feel that Brighton is not the right place for something like BMS.

Over the weekend my friend Connor came to stay. He plays guitar for Lions and Borneo Function, you should check them out. I was showing him around Brighton and may well have convinced him to try out for the Institute of Modern Music. I've also agreed to do some recordings for Lions. It'll be good to put my new studio equipment through it's paces. I finally bought my iMac this weekend and bought a Sound card and Pro Tools to go with it. I'm very excited about this because it means I can finally start working on all the projects that I've been holding off for so long. I can also start on my band Drown In Entropy's recordings. I can't wait to get our music out in the open.

Things with the Recoil are going fine, if not a little slow. We've cancelled our gigs to focus on writing and building up a good presence. I'm trying to convince the rest of them to release a new song on the myspace to help get the buzz going. We've nearly finished a new song which sounded fantastic in the studio. By the end of it, I was shattered though. We got out of the studio at twelve and it had been a pretty hectic day, but worth it.

I've also had my first proper rehearsal with Rachel on acoustic guitar. At the moment we're working on a Kelly Clarkson cover. She's hired a full band including a violinist so I'm looking forward to rehearsing that together. It's been a long time since I've done anything in a female fronted band.

So, so, so I'm trying to get my head around Pro Tools and wondering why it apparently doesn't want to save to my hard drive. that'll be really annoying if it doesn't work. I'm probably going to have to set up my iMac properly and have a good Geek out session. So here's my new toy...

2009-10-17T15:35:00.000-07:00

I often can't get to sleep for various reasons. Usually I have thoughts and idea whirling around my head and these stop me from relaxing enough to actually fall asleep. Tonight, I'm wondering whether it's time to put a project I've started to bed. It's been a project that i've put a lot of time into, but I'm not sure if my heart is in it anymore, mainly due to the lack of support I've had from the people I intended to help by setting up this project. In hindsight, maybe I should have spent some time learning about the scene I was trying to promote and see whether it was a big enough scene with enough integrity to promote. Perhaps, I should have worked out that if the scene needed so much work to promote, it wasn't a scene worth promoting in the first place... who knows. What I am beginning to wonder is that even if it is worth promoting, I'm the person to do it. I know that I started off the project strong, but due to various reasons, mainly myself to blame, I didn't deliver everything I intended to do so and maybe as a result, lost the attention of some people who were supportive of my project.

I am still indecisive of what will happen to this project. I recently asked someone I have a lot of faith in to partner up in the project and help me take it to the place I intended it to. With this partnership, I would feel a lot more confident in the combined abilities and can see the project getting the success it deserves. However, if this doesn't come into fruition, I don't feel I can continue it.

If it is the case that I call it a day, I can at least take a huge learning curve from it. I can know that once I leave University and start up a full time business in music management and promotion, that I've made enough mistakes to be able to plan ahead enough to counter the consequences of these. I also know that I need to do a lot more market research into my areas of promotion and have day by day planning of what needs to happen. I'm quite lucky to have a girlfriend who is absolutely incredible with time management. I know one day that she'll be either running the smoothest business in the planet, or she'll be showing someone how to... hopefully me. I can also take away with me that phone calls are better than emails, I should say if I'm not going to be able to do something, instead of promising (with full intention) to do something and not be able to fit it in and with this in mind, keep regular contact with the people I'm working with. I think the most important thing I have learned, is to not be too precious and allow myself to work with other people. Building a group of people to work with means that you discuss ideas and bounce them around, it means you work harder to meet targets and most of all, you don't try to take on the mammoth task of doing everything yourself. I have to trust in other peoples abilities and accept that sometimes other people are more talented than me in certain fields. It's humbling, but in the long run, the most important attribute I should learn to have.

I think that I am thinking about this now because I have some new opportunities and the ability to rekindle some old ones. I am at the position I have been looking forward to getting too for the last year. I also know that i have one person to thank for that... so thank you Jenni. She has made some huge sacrifices for me, not even including moving to the other side of the country just to be with me. I owe to her, if anything, to make sure I work hard and be successful and take these opportunities with full force. By the end of the week I will have a a very good home studio set up which not only enables me to record my own work, it allows me collaborate with producers and artists that have been asking to work with me for some time. It also allows me to start recording other people, of which I already have the first few projects lined up. I am very excited to be in this position as it was where I was just over a year ago, but I didn't take all the opportunities that were given to me. It was a huge mistake in my life but I've learnt enough from it to know not to do it again.

In conclusion, life is about learning. We're all going to make mistakes, take wrong paths and fall flat on our faces. The successful people are the ones who never give up. They see that goal and they aim straight for it and every time there's an obstacle, they work out how to see past it. I think it's important to have goals, and if you're going to have goals, to think big. It's better to aim high and miss, then aim low and hit. I'm aiming high, and no doubt I've still got a few more mistakes to make, but to quote Trent Reznor (completely out of context "Nothing can stop me now"

2009-10-15T13:36:00.000-07:00

So I've been offered the position of A&R Agent for an online music distribution company. This'll be an exciting opportunity because I can now look for new, up and coming bands and be able to offer them something trully exciting in the form of distribution.

Asides from that, I've been chatting to Pete from The Recoil and hopefully there should be some exciting things happening for The Recoil in a few months. We're waiting for our publishing company to come back with a renewed contract and we should have our license deal in place very soon. It'll be nice to finally do that trip to London and sign the contract. We will be having a meeting next week to discuss online promotion. I'm excited about it but at the same time, know it's going to be one hell of a long drawn out process!

I'm fairly new to the band so although it doesn't affect me that much, I can imagine how frustrating it is for the other guys to have worked so hard on an album that's just sitting there waiting for some promotion and to be distributed. If it was me, I'd be wanting things to move a lot faster. When I set up my PR and Management company, I'm going to make it my aim to not only work closely with the bands and discussing on a regular basis what it is they want, but also to make sure that things move fast and chase up people for contracts etc. I want to make a company that bands would want to be part of, and the bands that are part of it have nothing but praise for it. So many bands I've met and talked to are just not satisfied with their management or label.

We're having enough rehearsal for Drown In Entropy tomorrow. We have a bit of work to do get as tight as we were a little while back. I've also got a lot of writing to do with that band. We've got a set, but I think we can pull off some better, more intense and crazier music. I'm starting some intense studying into Allan Holdsworth. His work is mental and it'll be nice to write some really esotoric music to contrast the stuff I do with The Recoil.

I also have a friend coming over for the weekend which I'm looking forward to. It's always nice to see friends from Milton Keynes. If I get up to anything crazy, I'll let you know.

2009-10-12T05:11:00.000-07:00

I had quite a late night last night. Kirsty is staying round whilst she's flat hunting in Brighton. Kirsty is an artist from Kent - you should check out her website http://www.crystoth.co.uk/ and http://www.psyren.me.uk/

We were woken up earlier than we had wanted by the cable guy so we decided to go to starbucks and get some free muffins. Sid Owen was sat across from us and I was so tempted to shout at "Riiiicky!!" but I'm sure he's heard it a million times before. I also got a phone call from Pete (lead singer for The Recoil). He's recently had a minor operation and had to cancel rehearsal tonight but we had a chat about our promotion campaign. We're going to have a proper meeting about it sometime this week. I've got a lot of ideas of how to get a bit of hype going. We've got an album that's ready to release so it would be nice to get that out around Christmas.

I was overhearing a conversation from someone I know is in a local metal band. It was interesting to hear how much of a struggle it is for metal bands to get people to their gigs. I'm beginning to wonder how much of a "Scene" for metal there is in Brighton. I probably know or at least know of the vast majority of people in Brighton who work in the metal side of the music industry, and there isn't that many of them. There are one or two bands who do well, but only because they tour. Where I came from before brighton, the metal scene was really good. My old band could sell out a 450 capacity venue yet in Brighton, bands are lucky to sell out a 50 capacity venue. It's a shame for the bands and even worse for the promoters. Promoters can't experiment with new bands but instead have to play it safe with bands they know are going to pull a crowd, and that's not many when it comes to the metal scene in Brighton.

What puts us promoters in a difficult position is that we can't put on gigs that cost two or three quid to put on. We either have to put on free gigs at pub venues where the sound is rubbish, we have no real way of earning any decent money from it, which means we can't pay for decent bands, which means there is no real reason for people to come to the gigs. Or the other option is to hire out a venue, which is quite expensive, so we then have to charge five or six quid on the door. To warrent that kind of ticket price we have to book a good band that will bring a crowd, which usually comes with a price, so this pushes the ticket price up further still. To promote these kind of gigs it then costs even more money to promote the gig and then you're in competition with all the other gigs that are going on that night, and if it's a weekend, there's going to be a lot of them. You then have to hope that at least 25 people come to the gig to cover the costs, which in Brighton is an absolute nightmare when there is a approximately... 25 metal fans.

Ok I'm exaggerating, there's obviously more. But if so, they either don't want to go to metal gigs, don't have any money (which is no excuse when most of the metal gigs going on in Brighton are free) or Brighton metal bands aren't doing enough to reach there target audience. This leads us to the second problem of promoting metal bands in Brighton. Because it is so easy to get a gig in Brighton, bands don't have any respect for the promoters and won't do anything themselves to promote their gigs. Where I came from, if a band got a gig, everyone within a twenty five radius would know that gig is happening and would be bombarded with posters, flyers, myspace events, facebook events, text messages and much more. Gigs were special because they happening once or twice a week in about three different venues. As a promoter, if you put on a gig and weren't trying to keep it a secret, you would get a crowd. I put on a private gig for my birthday and had to turn people away who weren't invited because they heard that there was a gig happening.

I wonder if this is perhaps because the scene was younger and therefor more enthusiastic. They would all go to see their friends playing at The Pitz and were genuinely excited about their bands getting to support some of the bigger bands from that area. The band I was in previous were pretty big in Milton Keynes and we played a lot of shows to a lot of people who would go absolutely mental. This is what you want from a metal crowd and is something you don't often see in Brighton. I've seen bands who came from Brighton and struggle to get a crowd there, headline in Milton Keynes to about 450 people who would do practically anything the band wanted them to. This is every promoters and bands dream crowd. So where are these people in Brighton... well they're going to all the indie gigs. Apparently metal is uncool in Brighton and there is even a severe lack of scene kids.

So what is a promoter to do... well the only option is to promote indie nights for profit and then metal nights for fun because it sure isn't worthwhile putting on metal nights on for any other reason than wanting to support the scene (or there lack of). My solution... I'm going to have one last crack at making metal gigs something special in Brighton but the only way I can make this work is with the support of local bands, the support of local venues, the support of local promoters and most importantly, the support of local metal fans. Wish me luck...

2009-10-11T09:23:00.000-07:00

So I thought I would treat you to a little tour of my studio. My studio is where I sit most of my days either practising, writing or blogging. I also run my promotion business from here so this room is pretty much my world right now.

First of all, this is me and my monkey. He sits by my desk and inspires me. He makes me remember that working for this industry is fun when I want to give in and get a nine to five job. I searched in everywhere for a picture to hang in my studio and after literally days of searching (yes whole days) I found this wonderful thing and I like it!

This is my desk, and my "hard earned" awards/qualifications on the wall. Hopefully, in a couple of weeks, my laptop will be replace with a nice and shiney iMac. I'm also hoping to get a pair of active tannoy reveals. I used to work with them in the studio I was managing before moving to Brighton and I've grown accustomed to mixing on them.

This is some of my musical equipment. What you can see here is my Peavey Valveking and Crate Shockwave with Peavey Cabs. I mainly use the Valveking and the Line6 Podxt for my guitar sound. On top of the Crate you can see my Gallien-Krueger 800RB which I use in The Recoil. From time to time I also use my Crate Powerblock when I don't want to lug around huge amounts of equipment. The Guitars you see are my Handbuilt Raimundo Spanish guitar and my shecter Omen 7. I love both guitars and I tend to use either one for everything I play and record. Most people think of the Omen as being a very metal guitar, but I have proved on a number of occassions that it's very versatile and is an excellent substitute for the usual choice of a Strat.

So that is the central nerve station of my creational thinking...

Oh, and this is my view ;)

2009-10-09T10:59:00.000-07:00

I got in quite late after the gig last night. Jenni had decided come along and support me so we got a late bus together, laughed at all the freshers, got a Grubbs Burger (which are amazing) and watched late night crap on TV. The gig went fairly well last night. I was a bit annoyed that the people who had come to watch the opening act left after they had finished. Who goes to a gig and only watches the opening act?!? Other than that, it went really smoothly, the bands played great and there was a good crowd. I've got two more gigs at the Lectern and then I'm going to have to think about how I can put on bigger and better gigs. I'm not sure that the Lectern is the best venue for Brighton Metal Scene's gigs. However, I was talking to the sound guy/barman who works there (Beats) and we have the beginnings of an awesome, underground drum and bass night. I won't say too much until things start happening with it, but if it goes ahead, it will be amazing!

I didn't really do any work today. I decided to have the day off and spend it in Brighton with Jenni. We went to an Indian Restaurant for lunch which was awesome because I haven't eaten Indian food before that for over a year! I then proceeded to spend about £100 on clothes. Being a poor student, moments like that seem amazing. So much of me can't wait to finish my degree and start doing my business full time. At the same time, I love going to the institute of modern music and don't want to wish it away.

I think now, I should enjoy my lazy day by eating bad food and watching bad TV, then spend the weekend working hard.

2009-10-08T07:52:00.000-07:00

I've just got back from my lecture at Bimm's new mac suite. 18 imacs in one room, enough to make anyone cream with geeky, technological delight. I'm getting my own in a few weeks. Exciting times. I've been waiting over a year to get one but for one reason or another haven't been able to acquire a lovely, shiny mac. Mmmmmmmm...

Anyway, the sun is shining and I'm sitting in my new study/studio. I can see the sea, I'm listening to La Roux on Spotify (www.spotify.com) and drinking a Frappachino Mocha whilst building up the energy to put on another gig tonight. For the past two months I've been running bi-weekly gigs at the Lectern which is a pub/venue in Brighton. I've ran gigs in the past before moving to Brighton but this is the first time I've put them on on a regular basis. It's a lot of work and every time it gets to about this time I assure myself that no-one is going to come, the bands will be late and the whole ordeal will be an embarrassing shamble. Every gig I am proved wrong. There has been a reasonable crowd for every gig, the bands have come and played amazingly and I have come out of the whole night looking like a golden boy promoter. Today however, I'm certain it won't be the case.

For interest sake, here's the flyer I've designed for it. I'm quite proud of it as I'm slowly getting better at the whole photoshop thing.

I'm hoping to up my game after christmas and start promoting at some bigger venues, perhaps doing a gig every month or so with some more heavyweight bands. It's scary when you start risking your own money though, but business is a game of risk I guess. After Uni is finished, I will have to start promoting other genres besides metal so that I can actually earn enough money to promote as a full time job. Although I love the metal, it's not the best genre for generating income, but whilst the government is paying for my rent....

My Band, Drown In Entropy, auditioned a vocalist the other night and I think we may be on to a winner. I think we all had a really good feeling about him. The guy looked the part, sounded the part and fitted in quite well with all of us. We're doing a second audition as it were and then we'll confirm his place in the band. I lost a bit of faith in this project a little while back, but now we're back on it I am confident we can be touring next year! We'll probably have our E.P out before christmas so I will keep you posted :)

I started work on promoting The Recoil and I shall be designing a new myspace this weekend. Once the band are happy with my proposals for the new design I can throw them into a state of cyber fame. It may make the labels that are looking at us take us a bit more seriously. I think the band is tired of things taking forever to happen so since I'm in a position to be quite hands on with the promoting side of things, I'm quite happy to take that on. Though it does mean spending literally hours on myspace, facebook, twitter etc....

I'm looking forward to tomorrow, it's the first time Jenni has had a day off for a little while and I should be getting my deposit back from my old house. It's been such a hassle getting that money back. I think Agents and Landlords assume all students are mugs to be ripped off. We left that house in a much better condition than it was given to us and they still want to take money off of our deposit. Landlords... If you supply a dump of a place for your tenants to live in, expect it to still be a dump when you get it back!! But anyway, we're getting our money back tomorrow so I think I shall go and do some much needed clothes shopping with my girlfriend.

2009-10-06T01:56:00.000-07:00

I had a really productive day yesterday. I would have blogged it all but I didn't get in till after midnight and all I really wanted to do was cuddle up to my girlfriend and go to sleep.

I was in the studio with The Recoil last night. We were working on some new material. It's interesting to be in a band that jams stuff out rather then pre-writes materials like all the other bands I've worked in. We were also talking about the release of the new album and future touring prospects. I'm not sure how much I can talk about it online, but I am going to be doing a lot of internet promo work with the band. I've always been quite good at promoting stuff via the internet so I'm going to dedicate some time on this band. Get ready to be bombarded!!

My Student loan came in yesterday so like the reckless rockstar I am, I went and paid for a few months rent. Fun times. However, I did get myself some new shoes. I also had my first lecture of the year at Uni. The Lecturer is Jon Stewart, who may remember from the Brit pop band Sleeper. He also writes articles for Guitarist and I found an interesting one for you to check out

http://vu.morrissey-solo.com/sleeper/2000/news/030311.htm

So besides all that, I updated all the BMS sites, did an epic and much needed two hour guitar practise and taught one of my students half of the solo to Another Brick in the Wall II.

I also got my nose pierced last Sunday. I thought I'd mention it because I can constantly see it out of the corner of my eye. I have to stop myself looking at it whilst I'm walking down the street. People look at me funny because I'm plodding along all cross eyed. Anyone planning to get their nostril pierced, don't, it's bloody painful! However, I am very pleased that I finally got it done (thanks to Terri-Sian and Rob for giving me the piercing for free) and I think I've finished my collection of piercings. Six bits of metal dotted around my head is enough for me, until the next one of course.

So, so, so I'm off to start on the promo work for The Recoil. I also must practise some Drown in Entropy bits as we're auditioning some vocalists tonight. I shall let you know how that goes shortly.

2009-10-04T01:40:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome to my blog. I'm Matthew and I'm a Musician. Somehow it seems that admitting you're a musician is like admitting that you're a slacker with no real direction in life. You drift from pillar to post and earn the majority of your money from a fast food or coffee chain. It's almost a bit of a dirty word to be associated with, but I am, and I do associate with them, and for the most part, it's a lot of fun, but also lot of work and a fair bit of your soul.

So this is me...

...and this is what I do. Currently I play for the band The Recoil. It's a lot of fun and quite interesting to join a band who have been going for quite a number of years. A little while back they struck a publishing deal with Los Angeles label, Right Bank Music. It sounds really glamourous and I like saying it because it inflates my ego, but the reality is the label have seemingly forgotten us. However, we should be signing a licensing deal with a UK label soon and releasing our debut album! Not that you will hear any of my playing or writing on there, but if you come to our shows, I'll be on the bass.

I've also spent the past year of my life setting up the band Drown in Entropy with a guy who has since become my favourite person to work with. Leigh Gray is this man and you should check out his ultra geeky music project called Cyber Crime. He makes Nintendo music sound cool so please go check him out and say hi. I was inspired to start Drown in Entropy last year as the previous year I played with a band called Envision. We were a tech metal band and got to play various places around the country, support some wicked bands including Malefice, Fell Silent and Nato and make some wicked music. When I moved to the Brighton, the band split up and I wanted to start something off in the same vein but incoporate a lot more of my writing style into it. So, i've spent the last year searching for the right musicians and I'm glad to say that this week we're auditioning some vocalists to complete our line up.

As for other things I do, I promote the fanzine Brighton Metal Scene www.brightonmetalscene.com - go check it out. I put on gigs, interview and review bands etc etc. I started it last December and have been testing the waters since then, however, I think it's about time to start taking it seriously. I think the potential is there for a really cool website. I also play acoustic guitar for a local musician called Rachel Sian-Farrer and teach guitar to a few students. Btw, if you want guitar lessons, email me m.parisi@live.co.uk (shameless self-promotion). I am also studying a Professional Musicianship Degree at the Institute of Modern Music. I get to be taught by rockstars!!

So I am a musician and it does define me, but I don't think I fall into that stereotype... I hope.