Easy Listening or Punk?
Been chatting to the other band members about the mixes from the recording studio. They aren’t very good. Yes we’ve got the instruments and vocals all laid down, but the mix has managed to make the songs all completely void of life. The vocals are fine, I’d even say that they have done a good job on them, unfortunately you can’t hear anything else. The drums, bass, guitar and keyboards are all there somewhere, but it’s just a quietish noise in the background. Not really punk at all, in fact I’d go as far as to say that the studio have managed to make our lively, noisy edgy punk songs easy listening! Somebody at a party suggested that this might…
Doing The Right Thing
After speaking to people involved in writing on a writers forum, I have decided not to go with the offer of publication, because as one of them put it, “you might get 60% of the royalties from sales, but 60% of nothing is still nothing.” So I have been encouraged to hold out for a better publisher, who will push my book more. Now that I have rationalised all this, I am feeling a lot better about it, and I have reasoned that I am now getting some interest in my novel, so perhaps somebody will bite. I’ve also just started sending queries directly to publishers. All this time I thought that you couldn’t as they all say “no unsolicited…
Book Publishing Offer Or Scam?
A few weeks back I entered a twitter competition, where you tweet about your book. People from the publishing world sift through the tweets and ‘like’ anything they are interested in. If you are liked you can sent them a query of your novel. So I was liked and duly sent off a query. A few days later I am asked for a full manuscript, this is the first time this has happened for me, so naturally I was quite excited. It was at this stage that I realised that I was being asked for my manuscript by a publisher and not an agent. It came as a great surprise when a few days later I received an offer of…
Book Publishing Offer Or Scam?
A few weeks back I entered a twitter competition, where you tweet about your book. People from the publishing world sift through the tweets and ‘like’ anything they are interested in. If you are liked you can sent them a query of your novel. So I was liked and duly sent off a query. A few days later I am asked for a full manuscript, this is the first time this has happened for me, so naturally I was quite excited. It was at this stage that I realised that I was being asked for my manuscript by a publisher and not an agent. It came as a great surprise when a few days later I received an offer of…
Two Steps Forward One Step Back
We managed to get three more songs laid down yesterday, but then discovered that Tim is going to be on holiday for the rest of the month. As Northbook college term ends by then, we won’t be able to use the students to do our recording until next term. So, we have got six tracks laid down, but are three short for the album. So, unfortunately the release date will have to be postponed until Octoberish. I also learned that once we have had it recorded by the studio, we will have to have it mastered. Don’t really understand this, but it’s about making the noise levels of the instruments the same apparently. We wouldn’t have been able to do…
Book Blog
I’ve decided that this blog can’t just be my band blog, I think it has to be a writing blog as well. There’s no point my having separate blogs for band and writing, so it’s all getting mashed into one. With the writing, I’ve just had my first two requests for a full manuscript. This is a bit of a red letter day, as to date I’ve done over 150 submissions. One thing I did do just before the latest bunch, was change my Query letter. Then a few weeks after I get my first requests for the full manuscript. Is this concidence, or have I now hit the right tone with my Query letter? Let’s hope it’s the latter…
Recording Studio
Found the place eventually, after driving round in circles, why wouldn’t Northbrook college be signposted? Anyway spent 3 ½ hours laying down three songs; Boogie Woogie, Let’s Party! and Paper Cuts. Strange thing is that, because they are all so familiar, I couldn’t tell if the recordings are any good. Do they need to be rockier, rougher, more punk, I just couldn’t tell. Maybe it was because we had just been absorbed in the songs for over 3 hours. So perhaps when we next hear them we will be able to tell. A thing that we are learning through this process, is that we need to be firm on our ideas for the songs. It’s too easy to get talked…
Music Networking
Went to a thing yesterday evening, it was called a music networking event. Found myself in a concrete basement under the Brunswick tavern with 50 or so other muso types. Wasn’t sure what to expect, but as introductions were made it became clear that most of the people were from local bands, and we all wanted the same thing. Namely gigs, promotion, radio play, and there weren’t many people offering it. There were a few people who were offering services, but everything felt very local, and once again Brighton felt very full of music people wanting things and not many opportunitites. There were people from hospital radio, a new podcast, a photographer who is trying to break into video, someone…
Brunswick Gig
Okay so it went well last night. Perhaps thirty people, but really pleased we didn’t know most of the audience and they really seemed to like what we were doing. I was so nervous before going on, that’s probably because the set up was the most professional that we have done yet and it wasn’t a crowd we knew. But in the circumstances we did a good job, even though I managed to switch off my microphone as we were rocking out. I faffed around until the engineer rescued me saying, “what have you done…you switched the microphone off.” Yes I felt like a twat, but carried straight on singing. We are still learning, we are going to do stupid…
Getting Gigs
I’ve been working hard to get gigs, but this isn’t easy in a band heavy city like Brighton and Hove. So we are getting the odd gig here and there, many venues don’t even bother to respond, they don’t have to, as there is a plethora of wannabe bands out there. We did have a gig lined up for Patchfest, but our guitarist will be away on holiday. Shame I fancied a sunny outdoor gig with a big crowd. As I can’t find a guitarist, and the stress of getting them up to speed on ten songs, I’ve decided to cancel. So I won’t get stressed and won’t end up looking like a twat. Good decision, although Mikey is…