#10 Single

Forgive me father for I have sinned, it's been over a month since my last blog and it should be weekly. Apologies. ;-)

The reason for this is that my first ever single "Shipwrecks" is going to be released next Monday (March 3rd)! As such it's been quite mental getting everything ready in time. We filmed a video to accompany it which will be going up on Youtube this Friday (Feb 28th). I've already talked about the video in previous blogs so I won't go on about it too much here but I would like to display again my thanks and appreciation to all the people that were involved in making it. It was an awesome weekend and I couldn't be happier with the end result. Round of applause for the guys please. :-)

Artwork courtesy of The King of Pixels

So Shipwrecks is going to be available by digital download via my Bandcamp page on March 3rd and also will be available to download via iTunes shortly after (if not the same day). We're also having a launch gig at The Birdcage in Bristol on March 7th. I'll be playing the gig with my trio (the awesome Harry Harding & Naomi Holmes), plus support from Chris Woods Groove and Lukas Drinkwater, not to mention a few special guests! 

Other things worthy of note this month, I have a gig supporting the really rather good James Bay at The Louisiana this Wednesday (Feb 26th), on Friday my good friend Mr Albert Jones is playing for and supporting the disgustingly talented Martin Harley Band on their UK tour. They'll be at The Fleece on Friday so I shall be down there showing my support and in exchange getting to listen to some ruddy good music! You should check them both out! And if that wasn't enough on Saturday i'll be going to watch Bonobo at the Colston Hall! Looking forward to the week ahead fa sho! ;-)

On Sunday 9th March the trio will be performing at The Exchange in Bristol supporting the mighty Brother & Bones! I remember seeing them a few years ago at a festival called Ivylive and thinking "I'd like to be in that band" so really looking forward to sharing a stage with them. Again if you haven't already done so, check 'em out!

And finally, we've got a London gig coming up! Wahoo! Harry, Naomi and myself shall be busting out some tunes on March 22nd at Proud Camden. Times to be confirmed so keep an eye out on the facebook page/twitter for details.

I'll leave you with a little "behind the scenes" video of our time making the Shipwrecks video. Hope you like, see you round the bend! :-)

Laters
Aaron

#9 New year, new music........

Happy new year folks. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and NYE. My Christmas was fairly quiet which was nice. Gave me time to thoroughly batter my writers block into submission! ;-) The days around NYE I headed to Cornwall to do a few gigs with my old band AlBenAza. It was nice to catch up with a few faces i've not seen in a while and play some music not entirely seriously!

It was pretty amazing to see/hear/sleep through some of the storms down that way too.....in a slightly scary way. Two venues/pubs that we've played in are situated on or very close the beach and were literally metres from being washed away! Pretty mad.

Well it's 2014 now so time to get back on it! I've been looking at venues and festivals to play so if any of you that are reading this can think of any then feel free to leave comments. There's a large number of both so it's difficult to play them all........doesn't mean i'm not going to try though! I don't tend to make resolutions as I think if you're going to wait until January 1st to make some "life changing decision" then it either isn't that important or you're probably not going to do it anyway. That said I do see the importance of setting yourself goals. This year mine is simple. Play WAY more gigs than I did last year.

Last night I had my first gig of the year at The Birdcage in Bristol. It was a leaving do "music all dayer" for a friend called Tom Mousey who's off travelling. Since moving to Bristol 2 years ago he's become a very popular face within the music scene and has been responsible for a few very good regular nights and one off gigs alike. Safe travels brother! I also got to catch up with a few mates that i've not seen in a while, one of which had just been on the TV an hour earlier. Christina Marie is currently on the TV program "The Voice". She has simply one of the best voices i've ever heard in real life. Everytime i've heard her sing the room stops what it's doing and listens.......EVERY SINGLE TIME!!! We did a little duet of one of my songs last night and I don't think i've lost myself inside one of my own songs like that in a while. Her passion for music is other worldly and whilst I don't believe her (or anyones) entire career rests in the hands of programs like "The Voice" (she's going to be a star no matter what happens!) I wish her all the best of luck! :-)

Back to gigs (sorry about the tangent!) i've been very lucky to have had the talents of Mr Harry Harding & Miss Naomi Holmes helping me out with my EP over the last few months and this Tuesday (tomorrow) we have our first gig as a trio. Both Harry & Naomi are awesome musicians and complete legends so i'm really looking forward to sharing a stage with them and debuting some of the EP tracks. The gig is at The Exchange in Bristol and we're on at 8pm. For any of you that are in the area and want to come then just add your names to the comments section at the bottom of the blog and i'll add you to the cheap list.

Speaking of the EP, we're back in the studio today and fingers crossed may have the final mixes by the end of the day! I'll let you know how we get on next time.

Till then, toodle pip!

Aaron

P.S. I've been listening to Snarky Puppy A LOT recently. If you're even remotely into any kind of jazz/funk/instrumental music you owe it to yourself to give them a listen. Utter awesomeness. There are better quality clips on Youtube (they did a live DVD) but the energy of this video is so so good. Also if you want to hear the most disgustingly good keyboard solo ever go to part 3 of this video series.