18/06/2012 – Monday – Poetry
Today I made a video about poetry for my GeorgeTown channel. I quote both Wordsworth and Molesworth, and discuss in particular the poetry of Arlene Corwin. She has recently published her seventh collection of poems, and this one is about music, broadly speaking. Here’s the video, to begin with:
It’s an intriguing collection for a number of reasons. It spans both time and style. Some of the poems date back decades, and although jazz is Arlene’s main tipple (discussions of Charlie Parker, Tony Fruscella and Michel Petrucciani are among the highlights) show-tunes and classical music are also among the subjects incisively dissected.
The style is refreshing. Never too formulaic, Arlene writes in half-lines with beat rhymes driving the meter rather than the other way around. It’s very raw, very honest and very pleasing to read.
It’s a joy most of all, though, because it’s so introspective and honest. It’s pretty rare to see into the true soul of an artist or a musician, especially when the analysis comes straight from the horse’s mouth. But Arlene is fearless in her self-assessment, finding and caressing a personal flaw in every other poem, talking herself into and out of neat little insights about what it is to be a musician, a poet and a person.
I’m not mucking around here – it really is great stuff – so check some of her work out. Click here or here or here.
15/06/2012 – Friday – Sleep
I saw my friend Alys today. She was fun. She’s the one who runs the brilliant theatre company I was talking about last week. Check them out here. We talked about what it is to be a person, and also about squirrels. As well as that I did a bunch of work on some boring things that you don’t want to hear about, and watched the football. I didn’t get anywhere near enough sleep last night though, so I’m going to have to catch up now by falling asleep mid-sent…
14/06/2012 – Thursday – Percussion
I enjoyed playing around with percussion today – I’m finishing off the track I started yesterday. I have a big bag full of stupid objects which make noises, and today I used lots of them. Everything from shakey-shakey eggs to a foamy promotional stress-ball hard-hat I got at a job fair once. I also used the sofa, and a tennis racket. And a little plastic pair of smiley-faced castanets I won in a Christmas cracker.
I don’t know if any big-wigs at Warner Music or Universal or Sony are reading this, but if you are, I’m having more fun than you. You’re welcome to pop over and join in some time.
Next, I looked at a few of the video responses we’ve had from the competition thing we’re doing. Here are two I like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8DhpMirzG4&feature=watch_response
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxddE4t56HU&feature=watch_response
13/06/2012 – Wednesday – The Grand Slambovians
I went to a gig tonight. I was supposed to go and see Alan Price, the Hammond organ player from the Animals, but is gig was cancelled so I went to see The Grand Slambovians instead. I had never heard of them before, but they were pretty cool. A bit shambolic, but good.
Now to sleep, because I have to be up early tomorrow to finish the work I didn’t get finished today. It was one of those days when you work really hard but everything just takes too long. So I’ll carry on in the a.m.
12/06/2012 – Tuesday – Messing With Other People’s Work
Today wasn’t as boring as I predicted yesterday, although I had a bunch of things all day distracting me from doing any work. Things like dog-walking, lunch-getting, guitar-string-buying and so forth made it hard to connect two thoughts, but I still got a march on a song I’m arranging, amongst other things. Recording tomorrow. It’s not for me – I’m recording a demo for another artist to work from – but I enjoy that just as much. You can look at things from a more objective viewpoint, and make bolder decisions. It’s easy to be precious and tentative about your own work, but when you’re working on something for someone else it’s much easier to say yes to zany ideas.
We’ve got a special day going on tomorrow. It’s called ‘introduce a friend’ day, I have just decided right now. The Imogen Records facebook page is going to be crammed full of cool stuff from cool artists over the summer, and we’d love to get some more likes, so more people can enjoy it. We’d like each of you to pick one or more of your facebook friends to introduce to Imogen Records. Send them a message, show them some videos, and most of all, invite them to ‘like’ our facebook page. We have 108 ‘likes’ at the moment. If we have 125 or more by the end of the day tomorrow I will upload an exclusive, never-before-released special-super-surprise track as a thank you and welcomey-type thing. Is that a good deal or what? (clue: yes)
Spread the word. See you tomorrow people!
11/06/2012 – Monday – Pie Videos
It was a busy and unusual day today revolving around pie. I’ve decided on a schedule for my absurd GeorgeTown videos. From now on you can expect at the very least a new video every Monday night. I might be doing more videos throughout the week, but if you go to the GeorgeTown channel on a Monday night you’ll get something new and silly to watch. Starting with this one today:
I’m excited about what we’ve got coming up music-wise as well. I mentioned Jordan Shaw last week, and the more I listen to the song we worked on together last week the more I think ya gonna love it! Benji Smedz has a new video on the way, and I’m recording again on Wednesday (which is the bestest). Tomorrow, however, is going to be boring. I can just feel it. I have a fifth sense about these things. Just you wait and see. Come back tomorrow and just see if I’m not right.
08/06/2012 – Friday – Real Work
So, the music video… Both Katy and I were lucky enough to be guests on the set of Harry Briggs’s I Can’t Believe music video, Katy as an actor. The director, editor and general genius behind the video George O’Regan has made an unbelievably good job of turning it around quickly, and you can see it here.
I did some recording and production work today, which is almost like a proper job. I felt… well, not grown-up, but at least hard-working. Then it was more hard work on some plans for future videos and things. This stuff doesn’t just happen you know…! Actually sometimes it does. Some of the best things I’ve ever done rather more just happened to me than anything else. There’s a lesson in there somewhere.
07/06/2012 – Thursday – National Gallery Music Video
So shattered tonight that you’re not going to get much sense out of me (not that you usually do or anything… just saying). I will just say that I played all of the songs I mentioned on Tuesday tonight at the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. Big, big, big fun. I also ate a sandwich.
Big old shout out to Harry Bri Bro Briggs and George O’Regan who were both good fun today. Good work guys, and looking forward to seeing the finished product – I was on their video shoot today, for anyone who doesn’t know (which is presumably everyone else). See. Nonsense. I told you. I’m going to bed. xx
06/06/2012 – Wednesday – Jordan ‘JayDawg’ Shaw
I spent the day with my sister Katy (aka Reece – http://www.youtube.com/user/JJandReece) and our thoroughly talented new artist Jordan Shaw – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jordan-Shaw/130494123753978. We made some ‘online presence’ happen, made an excellent start on a massively swaggy new song (Jordan’s words, not mine) and took some photos too. Busy busy. We’ve got big ideas for Jordan though – he’s a genuine musician who plays his own instruments and writes his own stuff, and we hope he’ll be involved in some exciting collaborations with our other artists alongside his own work.
Jordan Shaw
Tomorrow a couple of cool things are going on. My gig-which-isn’t-a-gig at the National Gallery, which I mentioned yesterday or something, and also Katy and I are visiting the set of someone else’s music video, which will make a nice change. More info anon.
05/06/2012 – Tuesday – Jubilee Rehearsing
I spent all of today (apart from the brief few minutes I spent outside in the rain at a street party) rehearsing songs for my gig at the National Gallery on Thursday. I may be playing some, all or none of the following:
Here’s the facebook event page – http://www.facebook.com/events/249098748523528/ – Everyone’s notionally invited, but it’s not a proper concert or anything, so don’t get your hopes up. It’s more of a sit down, have a drink and some scones, enjoy piano music whilst eating dinner kind of thing. More or less my favourite thing to do.
04/06/2012 – Monday – Call For Videos and Viscera Theatre Co.
Imogen Records is looking for talent. Take a look at this video if you don’t believe me:
Until the end of this month we’re inviting video submissions. We’re looking for audition videos in which you play one song (original or cover) live. We’ll go through all the submissions at the end of the month and if we like yours we’ll be in touch and you could be taking a big step towards your dreams. So please, make a video response if you are a solo artist or if you are in a band or group. We’re open to all styles – literally anything. Even if you’re not a musician yourself, please share the video round on your facebook or whatever (here’s the url – [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT7TM_eKZVc]). We want as many submissions as possible, and a friend of a friend might really appreciate the opportunity. You never know!
Next, let me tell you what I’ve been up to this evening. If I said I’d spent two hours in a dark damp tunnel under a train line during which time a man threw some orange peel at me and another man tied up a girl he’d only just met with a skipping rope, you’d probably think you were pretty glad you weren’t there. But you can unclench and take your finger off the panic alarm. A friend of mine, Alys Metcalf, runs a theatre company, Viscera Theatre Co., which celebrated the opening night of its inaugural production tonight, a collection of five short original plays performed in the Old Vic Tunnels under Waterloo Station.
In all honesty, and with the greatest of respect to my old pal, I was expecting to leave the production unmentioned in this blog. It’s such a huge thing she and her partner Roxy Dunn have undertaken – starting a theatre company straight out of drama school and in this economic climate – and even though I know how talented, hard-working and capable Alys is I can’t honestly say I was confident that it would be good. I was half-expecting to have to invoke the ‘if you can’t say anything nice’ rule if I am to be truly candid.
Turns out it was brilliant though, and I am an idiot for worrying. The writing was strong, the performances from a diverse and energised cast ranged from very good to truly outstanding and the staging was both efficient and effective. It was an excellent, highly polished production from a company who frankly could have been forgiven for putting on something half as good. I strongly urge you to take your opportunity to see it if you’re in London this week – the show runs until Friday. It’s an extremely unusual night out and a rare chance to see theatre of a genuinely high standard. Here’s some links and things:
http://oldvictunnels.com/whats-on-now/
http://www.facebook.com/events/405852366101377/
02/06/2012 – Saturday – It Don’t Matter To Me
So the wait is over – my brand new single and music video, It Don’t Matter To Me, is out now. The video was directed by my very talented sister Katy, and came out a treat. Check it out here, and please copy-paste the link to your facebook or anywhere else you want to put it [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98IY0GFXSKQ] to help spread the good word.
I also think this is the coolest thumbnail YouTube has ever given us. Thanks guys.
You can download the single for just $0.99 by following this link.
In other news, my career as a serious musical educator began with a bang last night, when I uploaded the following video to my GeorgeTown channel:
If you found that video helpful, please send a cheque to Room 4, Sunnyview Institute for the Criminally Insane, Wigan. I’ll spend it on fruit.
We also uploaded our June newsletter yesterday, so check that out as well if you are cool enough. Here’s the link.
Grosses bises to you all.
Diary of an Incurable Musician 