Finally! The Battles EP is now out! It's available on iTunes, Bandcamp, Amazon mp3, GooglePlay, and some others that I don't have links for (i.e. Xbox, Deezer, Rdio etc)
Physical copies can also be bought from us at shows and (in a week or two) from Bandcamp also.
I'd just like to thank everyone that has been involved in getting it done. Harry, Naomi, Clare, and Christina Marie for lending their considerable musical skills to everything. Jack & Sam for their hard work and patience with regards to the sound of everything and Ian "King of Pixels" Skriczka for his always awesome artwork skills.
If you like it, then please share these links and/or like/follow the Facebook and Twitter pages etc. It's all these things that really help unsigned artists to further our careers!
So now it's tour time! Here are the dates and locations, so if you're anywhere near then come and say hi. :-)
Oct 4th - The Old bookshop, Bristol Oct 9th - The Jam cafe, Nottingham Oct 11th - The Silver bullet, London Oct 12th - The Convent, Stroud Oct 13th - Brewhouse, Cardiff Oct 14th - The Nest, Bath Oct 16th - The Taphouse, St Agnes Oct 17th - Bread & Roses, Plymouth Oct 19th - The Gylly Beach cafe, Falmouth.
Hope you like the EP and thanks to everyone that has shown an interest in it's development. Time to see how it does in the world all by itself. I feel a bit like a parent. ;-) Laters Aaron
I was hoping to write this blog very shortly after the last
one so (again) apologies for this one being so late. I’m currently putting plans together to make this a more regular
thing. For those of you that are reading these then thanks for bearing with it!
and a “looping lesson” for
Elixir so that might be on their website soon. I'm not going to lie, I wasn't entirely prepared and it's not something i've ever done before so i'm fairly certain i'm going to look like a right plonker. ;-) My parents also came up
to surprise me again. I met a guy called Darren at the show last year and he
was at this years show also and he tweeted me saying how nice my parents were
and how proud of me they are. I don’t say it enough but I really wouldn't be
able to do any of this if it wasn't for their support so there’s a “thanks” going
out to them now & always. I got to catch up with the guys from Hudson
Taylor again which was cool, and I met Scott Matthews and Tom Crouch (Gabrielle
Aplins guitarist). It’s great to meet all these guys and finding them so down
to earth and friendly especially given the levels they're at and hearing that the
music industry is supposed to be full of a-holes!
Scott Matthews & myself
If you pick up a copy of this months "Acoustic" magazine, you'll find a few nice words about me in their review of the show. Thanks chaps. :-)
Other gigs worthy of note in the last few months have been
the Little Apple Cyder Festival just outside Newquay. It was organised by a
good friend and old band mate and I he did a ruddy good job of it. I can see
heaps of potential with that one. Also similarly, Bicton Fest (put together in part by Adam Isaac) is another that I
can see getting bigger and better. The main stage is in front of a massive lake
which is at the bottom of a hill so it’s kind of like a natural amphitheatre.
Beautiful. I also supported Ryan Keen, twice. The first time was at the
Barrelhouse in Totnes which was amazing and it was great to see the Barrelhouse
absolutely jammed full of people. The second time was in good ‘ole Bristol at The Fleece.
Ryan had a tour support called Gavin James with him for that one and he’s one of
the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. And what a voice that man has. To be fair the
pair of them are just really nice guys, and bloody talented. I was gutted I
couldn't stick around after the show for longer as I had to fly to Newcastle very early the
next morning. Ryan and Gavin have both just released an album (Room for light)
and an EP (Remember me) respectively. Go get them. J
So at the end of the last blog I said that I’d be talking
about advertising this time around. As you may know I’m endorsed by Logarhythm
and they recently ran a campaign that featured their artists in magazines. My
creative genius friend Ian “King of Pixels” Skriczka came up with a great idea
for a photo with me levitating with the Prolog stomper. He’s a bit of a whizz
is Ian and the photo came out really well and as such was featured in the
September issue of Guitarist magazine as well as the August & September
issues of Acoustic magazine. Check it out below.
Speaking of endorsements I’ve now been added to the Lakewood
Guitars official artists list which I’m mega chuffed with as other names on
that list are Dave Matthews and Thom Yorke! Other than their guitars being
great the Lakewood
guys are super nice so it’s a real honour to be included in what they're doing.
I’m also very pleased to announce that I’m endorsing Heistercamp straps. These
guitar straps are hand made to order, are uber comfortable, and tough as nails.
I can’t see myself needing a replacement one of these unless I’m attacked by a
Wolverine on stage…..I fact I could probably beat said Wolverine with the strap
to save myself.
Finally, I’m now endorsed by
G7th capos too! They've got a whole heap of different capos including partial ones
so looking forward to trying them bad boys out with regards to new songs.
Speaking of new songs I’m
also hoping that I can actually get back to doing some writing as I finally caught up
with and completed Breaking Bad. ;-) That was some TV show……up there with The Wire.
(Family Guy joke) In all seriousness though, I did really enjoy that program.
Righto, that's how for now. Next Thursday I shall be off to watch Reef at the O2, and then the Friday is my day of birth so may have a few cheeky shandies. ;-)
For anyone that is in Totnes Saturday after next, i'll be supporting Dizraeli & The Smalls Gods at the Barrelhouse. Should be a cracker of a gig so pop your heads in if you're about. Then finally on the Sunday i'll be back in Bristol playing at The Shakespeare in Totterdown.
I'll let you know how it all goes in 2 weeks. So that'll be the 18th. Pinky promise. :-)
Till then, toodles.
Aaron
P.S. Hudson Taylor recently released their 3rd EP titled "Osea". This is my favourite track from it, check them out yo.
Aye up, hope you're all well and you've managed to get in some of the glorious sunshine (whilst it lasted that is!). This entry is going to cover arguably the biggest and most famous festival on this planet. Glastonbury. This year was my 3rd year at the festival and I have to say that this particular one was far and away the best one of the 3. In fact i'd almost go as far to say that it was one of the best weekends ever! Here's why.
I've always had a "thing" about Glastonbury. When I was a kid (and to a small degree now) I didn't like getting dirty. For me Glastonbury was always a proper "dirty" festival. As far as I was concerned it was always rainy and muddy. As such I decided that the first time I went to Glastonbury would be when I was playing it. This was in part a form of goal I was setting for myself, but mostly childishly thinking that I could turn up in a helicopter and have my own private toilet etc. ;-) 4 years ago I was asked to sound engineer on the street performer stages around the circus and theatre area. Realising that i'd made little effort to achieve my "dream" of playing, this felt like a close second and took it. Despite the weather being utterly gorgeous all weekend, I hated it. The hours we ended up doing were twice that of what we were told we'd be doing. I ended up seeing 2 bands over the whole weekend. Needless to say I was very grateful to be offered work as part of the stage crew for the Acoustic stage the next year. That year was way more laid back and having a better idea of the scale of the festival allowed me to be better equipped mentally in my approach to watching bands whilst also having a job to do. This year I was offered the position of team leader for one of the Acoustic stage crews. So point 1 of it being an awesome weekend: I was given a position of responsibility, I didn't screw it up and nobody died on my watch. Thumbs up then.
Delegating.
The other benefit from working on the Acoustic stage is that there were a number of acts performing on that stage that i'm a fan of that I got to meet and see/hear up close. One of the best performances I saw all weekend came from Mr Matt Corby. The guy has the most incredible voice, his band are amazing, plus he's a lovely chap. Obviously I hate him then...... ;-)
Legend
Other acts that I watched on the Acoustic stage were KT Tunstall, Steve Winwood, and Hudson Taylor. I'd been given a heads up by Janna (my new Glastonbury fwiend) about Hudson Taylor as i'd not heard of them. They were awesome, bought both EP's as soon as I got home. I was lucky enough to meet Harry from the band in the backstage bar after my gig there and it turned out he'd seen my set! He said he really liked it and there was a drunken conversation about supporting them in Bristol so may just have to give him a subtle reminder of this at the London Acoustic Guitar Show next month. ;-) There was another act performing on my stage that caused me the greatest amount of grief I had over the whole weekend. I really really wanted to see Glen Hansard however it transpired that he was playing at the same time as Lucy Rose (on the Avalon Stage). I'd seen Lucy at Dot to Dot festival and i'd not seen Glen without The Frames yet. Damn you Glastonbury clashes, inevitable as they may be, they still hurt. In the end I decided to go to the Avalon stage and see Lucy Rose. And super chuffed that I did too as I watched her from the side of stage and met her and the band afterwards!
I don't tend to get star struck around people as I think we're all the same. No one person is any more important than the next (unless they've got super powers or something..). Despite this I did feel like some sort of school boy with a crush when I met her. "Like I used to" was my favourite album of last year, so getting to hear some of my favourite tracks from it live as well as her new stuff was awesome. Then to top it off she's utterly adorable. I try not to outstay my welcome with things like that so after I got a picture taken with her and the band (also lovely people) and a little chat I left her to it. Before she left the compound she actually made the effort to say goodbye to me. She didn't have to and I wouldn't have thought any less of her had she not have so that was nice........................I don't mind saying I think I fancy her a little bit. ;-)
What a babe. :-)
This year also marked my first performance at Glastonbury. I played in the backstage bar of the Acoustic stage and although it was quite a short set it went down really well so fingers crossed same again next year!
Other things worthy of note, despite Glastonbury Festival being the 3rd biggest population centre in the South west of england when it's on (allegedly) you should never underestimate how easy it is to bump into people you've not arranged to see there. Within the first hour on me being there i'd bumped into about 7 people i've not seen in ages and whom I didn't even realise were going to be there. Similarly you should also never underestimate how difficult it can be to find someone you've actually arranged to meet up with! I should also give a shout out to Mr Ruarri Joseph. I've only met him a few times (from hanging around in Cornwall, my old band pal Albert being his guitarist, and my bass player Harry being his drummer), but he seems like a nice fellow and it was really nice to see him get a standing ovation from a full Avalon Cafe and to find out he had a TV slot on the BBC the next day.
I could probably go on about Glastonbury for the next couple of blog posts however I don't want to rub it in for anyone that wanted to go but couldn't. If it's any consolation to those of you that relates to then count yourself lucky you didn't have to drag this lot across a bunch of hilly fields for about an hour and a half.
These trolleys are rubbish.
Finally here's some EP news. We're going into the studio next week to start it! Fingers crossed it'll all be tracked and recorded by the end of next week. Here's a little question actually. What do you think of purely digital distribution i.e just downloads instead of CD's? Anyone still buying hard copies? Feel free to answer in the comments etc.
At the moment the title for the EP is "A lot to answer for". And here's an acoustic version of the song that was recorded during a photoshoot at the Birdcage in Bristol.
Hope you like it (if you do give it a "share" please!). Next time, we'll talk about a subject close to the heart of the late Bill Hicks. Advertising. ;-)
Till then, toodleoo.
P.S. Whilst typing this I've been listening to "Eavesdrop" from the new Civil Wars Album on repeat. What a tune! Check it out. :-)
So the last blog established that there were a few rubbish moments over the last few months. HOWEVER! It certainly was not all bad. I'll try and catch up to where I am now so I won't blabber on too much detail about everything that's happened for the constant fear of turning this into a dissertation. :-)
In April I attended Musikmesse in Frankfurt. For those that don't know, Musikmesse is basically a massive music trade fair. And when I say massive I mean MASSIVE. Pretty much every company that makes anything to do with music or musical instruments attends this show. I was lucky enough to play on the Lakewood, Elixir and Logarhythm stands and what an amazing experience it was too.
Yamaha had the entire right hand building to themselves!
Unfortunately the side effects from the medication I was on (see blog 2) had just taken hold whilst I was on the trip so i'll be honest, I did not feel 100%. The gig I played on the Lakewood stand was amazing/petrifying and although I didn't feel like I played anywhere close to my best the Lakewood guys (some of the nicest people you'll ever meet might I add) and the crowd seemed to enjoy it. I even sold some CD's! ;-)
I also got to meet Jonathan Kluth and Wallis Bird whom are fellow Lakewood players. And it's from them that I think I took the biggest influence for my own performances.
When I first started playing guitar I taught myself not to make silly faces or move around too much as I didn't want to look stupid. Now i'm older I don't care. Also I realised that holding that back was also preventing the performance from ever being a just process of playing the correct notes in the correct order, at the correct time. Watching Jonathan and Wallis play with such energy and passion made me take a good look at what I do. Don't get me wrong it's not like i'd play like the guys below but there's always room for improvement eh!? ;-)
The Elixir stand was another amazing experience. My first ever silent gig. The Elixir stand was in the same hall as most of the electric guitars and amps etc so try to imagine hundreds of guitar shops in one place all with people playing.......loud. To avoid joining the volume war Elixir put together a system so that everyone was on headphones. A cunning plan and pretty essential for being heard in such a loud environment. Again I met some lovely people on the stand and I got a chance to hang out with the Elixir guys after the show which was very funny indeed.
I should probably mention that Frankfurt is a beautiful city too! I got a chance to take a little walk down the river and take a few pics. Definitely want to go back and play some gigs there!
That's how for now, next up is Glastonbury, adverts, and the new EP.
