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
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.
There was a small part of me that was worried that I might not really have anything to say in this post. As Christmas gets closer things start to slow down to an eventual halt. If i'm honest that's one thing I do dislike about Christmas. I don't like doing nothing. I've recently learnt to find time to read so i'll probably spend most of Christmas doing that and making a stern effort to punch my writers block square in the face. There's not a whole lot to say about the EP or single yet as even though they are further along than when I wrote my last blog, there's no major "new" developments. The down time does give me a good amount of time to look for gigs however and it was last week that I found the inspiration for this particular blog.......Venues & promoters.
Some of you might have seen the posts going round on social media in which a musician (or creative type) writes a witty letter to a venue owner/promoter arguing/explaining that they should be getting paid for what they do, or a sarcastic analogy as to why they think the amount they've been offered is borderline insulting. Something occurred to me the other day when I was the receiving end of one such insulting offer.
Why do you never see a post or letter from venue owners/promoters to musicians? Is it because they don't need to defend themselves as there's plenty of gullible bands/artists that will take the offer if you say no. Is it because they don't care or don't know that artists feel this way? One of the posts that I've seen breaks down how much it actually costs to go out and gig. Now to be honest I think that one is aimed more at people that might not necessarily have ANY idea about what a musician does. It broke down fuel, rehearsal space rental, instrument care, etc. I'd like to see a similar breakdown for "opening a venue". As the Flight of the Conchords famously once sang "What are your overheads!?". I'm not naive. I know bar staff, sound engineers, door staff etc need paying. Electricity, alcohol, general maintenance and upkeep all require money. I just wonder why it's the musician (from what I can see) who ends up getting the short straw.
To put it into context here's one of the "offers" I got last week. Tickets are sold for £5. Once you gotten 10 people to buy tickets you then get paid £1 per ticket sold to someone that is there to see you. If you're lucky (or well known enough) to bring 50 people then additional sales get you £2 per ticket. If you sell less than 10 tickets you get nothing and may not be invited back. Now bearing in mind that there are 4 other acts (with the same deal) on this particular bill.
I did once say how crap I thought this all was to a promoter once and his argument was that doing it this way meant that the bands make an effort to bring a crowd and the venue isn't empty. Although I can see the point he was trying to make this doesn't create a scene. If you could have a venue that people knew was going to have good live music on certain nights, then you've got a crowd of people that are loyal to your venue instead a crowd of people that will just follow a band around to other places. Imagine if you had a group of loyal customers in every weekend and then you book a band that has got a large following! Oh! It'd be like Christmas! ;-)
It is possible. Chris who works at The Barrelhouse in Totnes has proved it to be true. When you get there you get sorted out with a meal, there's a place for you to stay, and you even get a bit of booze! Then there's the PA. It's epically good. Unless there's some sort of heinous catastrophe, it'll probably be one of the best sounding gigs you'll play in a venue of it's size (150 cap). And then you get paid a reasonable amount! The whole experience is so pleasurable that I look forward to playing there and more importantly I look at Chris as a friend, not "the promoter at the Barrelhouse". The venues i've played in Europe have a similar attitude so why is it that a large number of UK venues don't? You'll be lucky to get a free drink in most places.
Anyway, it's close to Christmas so i'm not going to get too ranty but if anyone that reads this is a promoter or venue owner (or knows one) i'd be interested to hear what your thoughts are. Especially if you're involved in "£1 per ticket sold" type shenanigans.
Finally, I mentioned a while back that I played a song for Elixir Strings when I was at the London Acoustic Guitar show and here it is! This is going to be the title track of the next EP. Feel free to give it a share if you like it.
That's it for now, hope you all have a shplendid festive season and remember.........support your local music scene. It needs your help more than the X-factor does. :-)
