Listening with your eyes closed

  One of the more amazing things about music is the work and effort that go into making something that is relatively easy to listen to.  (Seriously, it's one of the easiest things you can do, it's even easier than watching stuff.  Listening you can do with your eyes closed.  I mean wow!  All you have to do is make sure your ears are open and your brain does the rest.  It's brilliant, isn't it?)  For example, this weekend I have bought two Radiohead albums ('Kid A' & 'Hail To The Thief') and Lisa Hannigan's second album, 'Passenger'.  I listened to them yesterday & today, and they made for great listening and exciting inspirational nuggets, and after I'd finished them, I thought about how much work must have gone into making them.  Records like those mentioned, and, well, anything really, if you listen closely enough, are fascinating because as well as the whole sound, you hear every tiny component of what makes it (sometimes, it can be on your 19th listen that you spot an instrument or melody line that you never knew was there, those moments are fun).  You hear them and you wonder whether those parts were planned, or whether during the recording process, someone chucked in a line on a glockenspiel, or keyboard riff, purely on a whim.


  I am in a similar spot myself now, thinking of aspects to throw into my songs, for after several months of telling you all that I want to record new songs for you all to hear, I am on the path to making the first EP.  The first job (making programmed drum sequences as a recording guideline) is a relatively simple one, and yet it has taken me weeks to even start (and I've almost finished it).  I often think that when you have a task or project standing directly in front of you, it's the most daunting thing.  So many variables you won't have planned for, wondering if you've made a mistake in the preliminary stages, not knowing what you're going to do within the framework of the song, and you're committing to a path of action, which is, at times, a scary thing.


  That has been one of the reasons I have taken so long to start, the second being not having a clearly defined route to take with regards what songs to put where.  For many a week, when talking these things over with people, either at gigs or nights out, I have said "I have a list of songs as long as my arm that I'm ready to record," etc etc ad nauseum.  This is true, but I realise now that I had been missing something vital.  Something to string the songs together, like a beaded necklace.  For a long time, I was including songs that now appear on the 'You've Been Lovely' EPs, with the intention of making a handful of EPs, then a full-length record, with some songs appearing on both.  I had, in my mind, made a right mess, and I had pages of notes that resembled a sicked-up dog's breakfast* more than it did a series of recordings.


  I then put the You've Been Lovely' EPs together, which did a good job of clearing them out of my head and allowing me to think in more focused terms about what it was I wanted to be doing.  There then followed a peculiar few weeks, which gave me a lot to sort out, mentally, and produced more songs which I could hear in my head with such clarity that I knew they needed to be included in my big recording project.**  These new songs also connected the dots with several other "new" songs (ie songs that I haven't done anything with yet but date back a year or two), and altogether, they give a good, healthy shape to a potential album, to the point where I can plot out its running order, and then free up other songs for recording on the EP.  I've even found myself writing a new song this week, as one of the EP songs needed to be on the Big Project, and so a song tentatively entitled 'Half As Lucky' has appeared, and should add a touch of jaunt to the proceedings.


  So, in all the procrastinating & dilly-dallying, I feel I can safely say that what I was actually doing was fermenting ideas and waiting for the moment when I had enough songs with the right plotlines, if you will, before committing to a project that wouldn't have made enough sense otherwise.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.


  I leave you for now with a performance of a song that can't fail to swell your hearts & souls with joy, and that's what music's been doing to me for the last few weeks.  Enjoy.

Be good,
Love,
John xx


*You have no idea how close this phrase was to being the title of this blog entry.
**Which I will start once I've recorded this here EP. 

"It's never going to happen for you, you know, unless you change a few things..."

  Just a quick post - I listened to a thing this evening that was in turn funny & jaw-dropping.  To me, it's indicative of the way some people see music as a business, and don't understand what music truly is to people.  It's a skill that musicians develop, a form of expression, a part of who we are, and those who are lucky enough to make any kind of living at it at all are pretty aware of how lucky they are to do what they want, they way they want to do it.

  Gemma Hayes is one such musician.  I have been listening to her records since about 2002, when her debut album 'Night On My Side' was released, and since then, when said debut was nominated for a Mercury Music Prize, she has grown over four albums, producing excellent songs and becoming more & more respected and independent as an artist.  Not only that, her live shows are a joy to attend.  Also, I'd give my eye teeth to be in such a position, career-wise.  If you look below, you will see her four album covers.

           

There are a further three EPs and nine singles.  Mark of quite a substantial career, wouldn't you say?

Enter Louis Walsh, stage left (literally), in the words of Gemma Hayes on BBC 6music:

"Louis Walsh - this is such a great story - I actually first met him for the first time, maybe two years ago, three years ago?  He saw me play at a show, and he was at the side of the stage, and once I got off the stage he said "We have to talk," and he said "I would love to work with you, Gemma, I think you've got loads of potential, ahm, but, you know, it's just never gonna happen for you, you know, unless you change a few things."  So I said "Well, give me some pointers," and he said "Well first off, you have to stop writing songs."

And I'm like, "Okay," scratching my head, [thinking] "Well, what's left?"  And he said "You don't need to do it anymore, if you work with me, I'll employ someone to write songs for you, and the second thing you need to do is date a celebrity.  If you're not in the magazines, you don't exist."  So he was like: "Are you in?" and I was like: "I'm out.""

  Can anyone else see why the music business needs taking apart & putting back together again, only without cultural morons in it?

Cheers,

J xx

These times in which we live...

Good evenink,


  When most people begin a blog with the words "I'm taking a risk writing this..." it's because they are writing something controversial, possibly about a potentially 'hot topic'.  I am indeed taking a risk in writing this, although purely because tonight I am hosting an open mic night in about an hour and a half, and I have yet to book train tickets for my gig in Leeds tomorrow, cook dinner, think a little bit about my set, perhaps (I am still umming and ahhing over whether to take my DADGAD-tuned acoustic as well as my standard-tuning guitar, it would be a difficulty to say the least, travelling, as I am, alone, so I'm erring on the side of not taking it - I actually made that decision whilst typing this, so thanks for being there with me).  In short, I've got a lot on and so shouldn't really be sitting down to write a blog.  But here I am.  Writing.


  I shall tell you for why, dear readers - happiness.  As many of you will be all too painfully aware, I follow Twitter.  I like to be aware of the tides of it, the moods of it, the general feel of the people whom I follow.  At times like this, when our government is doing everything they pretty much can to systematically dismantle the things which we hold dear (pausing only to attempt charge us through the nose for things that we essentially need as functioning people in the 21st century), at times when openly racist attitudes are being uncovered in parts of both in America during the presidential election campaigns, or in the UK through hostile tweets from unthinking fools as a young footballer is resuscitated during a televised match (some of the most amazingly regressive attitudes have been shown to me this week - apalling), and at times when we have had as much as we can take from all sides, I'll be honest, the mood is low.


  Twitter often shines, it is a lifeline through the darkness when I am feeling down (and there has been a fair bit of that as we've emerged from winter), and it still is.  But a shadow has fallen across some of it as the Conservatives privatise everything and the Lords & Lib-Dems, against all odds, vote in favour, and as the press decide not to say much about things such as the NHS Bill but focus on instead on royal visits (I'm not against them, but y'know, priorities?).  I see a darker gallows wit currently, and it weighs heavy.  I still love Twitter, and speaking to all the people therein, it is a comfort, especially during long evenings & weekends of alone time, I have made friends that I value and many that I would love to meet in an actual room & shake hands with/cuddle.  I did such a thing yesterday with a really nice chap, who is embarking on a meet/greet/photography project, and we spent yesterday afternoon shooting the breeze, talking about our respective pasts,views and interests, and by the time we'd finished eating dinner, we realised it had turned 10pm (not the 8-ish we were expecting), and hadn't taken a single photograph.  (We did get some photos done in the end, and I look forward to seeing them, and seeing how his project develops, if you'll pardon the pun.)


  See what I did there?  That paragraph started horribly, but ended on something good.  I want to write good things, happy things, things that when you read them, remind you that the world essentially is a good place, with good people in it, that barely hear about on news/current affairs, because by heavens, it doesn't make for proper reporting or keep the nation in check under a tarpaulin of misery.  If you're reading this and nodding, then you are a wonderful, positive person who can see the good in things and move forwards in your life with that in mind, because as long as you're breathing, there is no way that you can let yourself be beaten down by people who ain't too bothered so long as there's money coming in.  Yes it's unfair, yes it's unjust, but the only thing that'll keep them banging in coffin nails is darkness.


  I don't talk about "current affairs" that often, because intellectually, I don't feel qualified to, I lose the confidence to talk about such things in any kind of way, but the thing I can do is be positive, be there for people, and make them smile.  Which is what I'll continue to do.


Erm, right.  This blog is perhaps a bit short, perhaps a bit nonsensical in places, and I'm sure there was more I wanted to say, but this has taken half an hour to write, and I have a powerful need to eat before being massively late to an event I'm supposed to be running (I won't be late really, just so long as I stop typi

Acoustic Music Jolliness

Good evening, O watchers of Blog,

As is often my way, I am yet to do a dinner and am, constantly, thinking about writing to you lot.  It's a blessing and a curse, really, because it means I end up with a rumbly tummy and a heady surprise when I stand up, but it does mean you get a big nuggety chunk of info to read, which you then have a glorious task of finding amid the nonsense about tea, Chunky KitKats, and the funny noises I just heard outside my window.  (My street is generally quiet, or at least doesn't let outside noise in - next door, it has a ball with, but that's another issue - but every so often, golden moments happen.  For instance, last night I was tweeting to my friend Josie, just as someone parked their car, got out of it and tripped over some bins.  Or this morning, when a postie delivered a special package to next door, but when he knocked on, the sound travelled something mighty & three other people came out to ask if it was their door he was knocking on.  Such is the joy of terraced houses.)

The gist of this ramble is that I am a bit hungry, despite a very filling pub lunch with my family in a bid to beat the Mother's Day rush that would ensue if we had gone out tomorrow.  My family is cunning.  One cup of tea, a BBQ Chicken burger & chips, a half of Guiness (happy St. Patrick's Day, I'm having a quiet Bailey's later, on my own, with the DVD of my choosing), and eight hours later, I'm ready for another scoff.

I feel a bit bad that my last blog to you, while full of witter, bamboozlement and nonsense, was, really, a big advert for my EPs in disguise.  So this one is about nothing in particular.  Actually, before that, I have concertedly not looked at my EP sales this week, as it was all I did in the first week I put them out, and that could drive one mad.  I have looked just now, and I can confirm that there have definitely been some sales.  This makes me happy.  All of you who have purchased my early efforts at songmaking, I cannot thank you enough.  Slap yourselves on the back and give yourself a chocolate (or, if you can't eat chocolate, or are off them for Lent, pick the most appropriate treat that it is possible to award yourself and consume it heartily).  If you haven't perused my EPs yet, there they stand, timeless, suspended in digital downloadery, patiently awaiting your attention.  Go for it.  There's no rush, but there's no time like the present either, so hotfoot it over.  I shan't type the linkage again though, I've done enough of that to last me a lifetime thankyouverymuch, all the information you need is on the blog previous to this one.

This week I have been readying myself for next week, for I shall be a bit busy.  It's a week which I have, mostly, booked off from my day-job, and will be songifying.  Tomorrow I am playing at a pub in my hometown, 'The Old Brown Jug', for an event that has been named 'Song Club' - a night of acoustic music jolliness.  On Tuesday I am meeting a friend from Twitter & pouting/batting my eyelashes in order to assist him in a photography project upon which he is embarking.  He's an ace chap, and it will be lovely to meet him.  Wednesday night will see me hosting the open mic at The Rigger while the manager/host is on holiday, which will make for an interesting evening.  Thursday I will be journeying to Leeds to play a set once again at the Verve Bar.  It was a hoot last November, and this time around I won't be dashing from work in order to get there.  I am very much looking forward to playing again, and also not getting lost/traipsing the city for what seems like hours/being misdirected by ridiculous hotel staff.  I'd like a fun gig, to meet nice people, to wander the city unhampered, and then to come home un-knackered on Friday.  Please.

What I should follow that up with (apart from the inevitable "Details on my website! www.wix.com/mrjohnmacleod/music!") is that if ANY of you are in or near the Leeds area, I would love to meet you, so do get awn down to this Leeds gig if you can.  Likewise for the gigs in Staffordshire.  I would love you to be in the crowd for a gig, it's my natural habitat (apart from chattering like a gibbon on here like I'm doing now - that comes worryingly easily, I've noticed).  So yes.  Gigs.  Please come. 'Twould be lovely.

As I continue to type, I see that time marches on like a homeward-bound drunk being lead by the forward momentum of his ever-heavying skull.  As it does this, I am reminded of my rumbling tummy, and I just know that standing up will make me realise how hungry I am [swipes at stars circling head], so I had better go.  I will speak to you all soon, blogwatchers, and let you all know how the gigs went.  Although if you're there for them, I won't have to, will I? ;~P

Take care, be good & speak soon,

Love,

John xx

EP Releases Imminent - Important Info!

Good day to you, blog-watchers!

  As you're all no doubt painfully aware by now, my EPs are out tomorrow!  That's right.  I can't let you folks go unrewarded for being all nice and reading my blogs/tweets/posts, and so, as you've taken the time to read this, when the EPs are out tomorrow, I have made a couple of discount codes available for you.  There is NO expiry date on these codes, so if you can't get them tomorrow, you can buy them whenever and still get the discount (so long as you still have the code, obvs).  These discount codes will give you 10% off each EP, and when you come to purchase, you should (all being well) see this screen:

Now - see where it says "have a discount code?"  That's where you will enter the following codes:

Volume 1 - avidreader

Volume 2 - keenlistener

That should give you 10% of the price of each EP.  If you experience any problems with any process, let me know and I will get on the case.

Also, I know I said I was hoping to arrange a deal for getting both EPs at once, but I can't seem to find an option for that, despite extensive searching.  I did try.  In the meantime, thank you for your support, and I hope you enjoy these releases.


They will be available at http://mrjohnmacleod.bandcamp.com

I hope you enjoy them, thank you in advance.

Love,

John xx

"You've Been Lovely, Volumes 1 & 2" to be released through Bandcamp!

Hello, gentlefolk.


  I come today with a special announcement.  If you have a CD with fanfare music, whooping crowds, or the sound of people armed with pitchforks & lighted torches, marching on a lonely castle atop a craggy hill, now is not the time to play it.  Just grab a cup of tea, sit down, and read.  Ta.


  Time was, I would travel from open mic night to open mic night, armed only with my guitar, a handful of CDs I'd made in my flat, and a sturdy sense of humour.  The CDs used to sell quite well, as I recall.  One or two a night was, for me, "quite well", at the very least.  Well worth all the hours spent sitting up until half one in the morning, printing out inlays and cutting them into shape with a small guillotine (I often wished for a tiny crowd of French peasants, cheering me on as I worked, but that may have just been tiredness).


  I stopped musicking for a wee while, although some songs were written and recorded in the three years I wasn't gigging or 'selling myself', and since I've come back to music, the songs just haven't stopped writing themselves.  What this has resulted in is me asking everyone to "bear with me!", "keep your eyes peeled!" or, in my more desperate hours, "don't leave me!" while I get myself together.


No more.  You deserve a bit better than that, really, don't you?


I present to you two EPs, entitled "You've Been Lovely, Volumes 1 & 2".  They are a thankyou for being so supportive as I attempt to flaunt myself to thems that'll listen to me, and might hopefully like my music.  They are also a sort of catch-up, to bring you up to speed on what I've been doing since 2003.  The songs on here span recordings made in 2003/2004, from a CD I made called "You Don't Care So Why Should I?", through to "Win Your Name In Lights" (2006), through to recordings made in the hope of forming a demo that never got made.  All these songs are songs I really loved making, but alas don't fit in quite so much to things I'm doing now.  That's not to say they won't one day, but for now, this is their home.

You've Been Lovely Volume 1

Apology From A Distance

Dirty Badger

September

F

Enjoy The Wonderful

Wound-Up Toy

I've Still Got Your Blood On My Curtains

You've Been Lovely Volume 2

Happy (Theme For Kitten in D)

Precious

Curable Season

I Didn't Mean To Fall For You

Nesting Birds

Smile, It Might Never Happen

Perfect Fit

(Oh yes,  There may also be a hidden track or two floating across these two volumes, but I'll leave those for you to discover...)

A big thanks to Will Sherratt, who suggested the name of these EPs, and to everyone on my mailing list who came up with some brilliant ideas for them,  there were some lovely ideas & I didn't want to have to pick just one title, but alas I had to, and this one, to me, really fitted the bill.


"You've Been Lovely" is priced at £4 per volume, or (and I'm hoping I will be able to make this deal work on the site, so cross-fingers) £6.50 for the two of them, should you wish to get them both, and can be purchased from http://www.mrjohnmacleod.bandcamp.com from Monday, March 5th.

You Gotta Have Faith ... But In What?

  Many years ago, my family & I attended church, regularly.  One thing that happened one Christmas morning, was that the vicar encouraged the children of the congregation to bring in a toy that they had received for Christmas.  I was about five or so, maybe a little older, and had, this particular year, been given He-Man's trusty steed, Battle-Cat, and his opposite number, Panthor, upon whom Skeletor was wont to ride around Eternia.  (Just typing that felt weird, given that I have not mentioned He-Man, or much else of my childhood toy collections, in many a long year.) This is what the Panthor toy of the time looked like:

  The idea was that the children would line up, and the vicar, armed with his trusty little microphone, would go along the line and ask the children what they had been given for Christmas, and to say a little bit about it.  I presume there may even have been some higher purpose to this incongruous Q&A, or maybe it was really just a community thing.  I'll never know.  Anyway - I plonked my Skeletor action figure in the saddle and stood in line.  I seem to remember a boy with an Action Man helicoptery kind of thing - just imagine the range of toys from the eighties divided between about ten kids, really - and the vicar eventually got around to me.

"And what do we have here?" said the vicar.

"It's Panthor, from He-Man," says I, proffering the toy.

The vicar puts his finger in the jaw, between the teeth, and says "I bet he could give me quite a nasty bite!"

[pause]

"It's only a toy," I say into the radio mic, and the congregation burst out laughing.

ZING!  Take that, Christianity!

  That really is one of two stories I can think of involving my time at church.  The other one was my last visit to church as a member, a few years later.  Someone was talking to us about boy scouts, I don't know why because  I may have zoned out at the start, and I never heard the end of his talk, as at one point the fellow removed the woggle and neckerchief of a nearby scout, and was holding the piece of cloth up to show us, and I whispered to my father, "Is he doing a magic trick, Dad?" at which point he decided to sneak us out and never look back, and I think that was our last Sunday morning as good honest Christians.  It was an easy mistake to make, because the way this scout was on hand to lend his neckerchief, could have made him a glamourous assistant, had his boy scout jumper been a bit more glittery.

  This service, I should mention, was not the reason we stopped going to church.  There had been undercurrents boiling up about this with my parents, to which my sister & I were completely unaware, and I think at its heart, lots of things about Christianity weren't sitting comfortably with them, and it came to a point where they decided that the juxtaposition of their personal beliefs and religious leanings finally collided in a Big Bang of revelation for them.  But, I'm not here to write about my parents' beliefs (or lack thereof), as it's not my place to go into any further detail than that.  No, there's something I wish to tackle.  Maybe in a fishing kind of a way, maybe in a rugby kind of a way, but seeing as I've never been fond of rugby, and I can't fish, we're just going to have to assume I mean with words.  In a "deal with something verbally" kind of a way.

Fast forward more years than I'd like to openly admit, until we get to three weeks or so ago.  I'm in my kitchen, listening to the radio.  I'm doing toast, drinking tea, I've just listened to 'The News Quiz' repeat on Radio 4, and the previous night's 'Any Questions?' is now being repeated.  A question is raised about the laws on assisted suicide in relation to terminal illness, and a politician, Constance Briscoe said:

"...Well I have a major problem with this one, because of course, I'm a Catholic ... and as you know, one of the things that we are against is taking your own life.  I was brought up to believe that if you take your own life, you're certainly not going to go to Heaven, and that's the end of that, you go to some other place ...  against that, can I tell you that I started to work in a hospice, before I went to university, when I was 16, and I continued to work on a voluntary basis up until 2005, on a Sunday, just sitting with some of the patients in the hospice, who were dying, and it really did break my heart, so many of them died in great pain, sometimes on their own, and sometimes I'm absolutely certain, that if they had been given a choice, they would have chosen to go slightly earlier when things were a little bit better for them.

So I am in two minds, my faith tells me, as a Catholic, that this is quite wrong - I'll never see my God if I take my own life (I'm not quite sure I want to see him 'cause I've got quite a few issues with him, but that's another matter).  Having said that, it's not for me to dictate to others, so the jury is out on that one."

For me, hearing this, the jury was not out.  This actually cemented some of the things that flit through my mind whenever people "talk beliefs".  Here's why:

  This is what I believe a moral dilemma is, if you know something is right or wrong, in your heart-of-hearts, and your religion tells you the exact opposite, it creates a paradox in you.  Your "beliefs" are telling you to do something that is on the other end of the spectrum from what you know to be a good, honest way of being a human being.  It's like your body urging you to jump into a skip full of broken glass, razor wire and nettles while your brain is shouting "Nooo!"

  Now I should, at this point, say - I have no problem with faith as a concept.  It can make people stronger, and that little bit more able to get through the hardest of times.  If your belief in something can help you & give you strength, then it absolutely should and I will not contest that for a second.  In the above quote from Constance Briscoe, the things that keep her from fully believing that the right thing for the people she sat with in the hospice are things that had been drilled into her whilst growing up.  A religion whose apparent message is one of threats and fear - "do this or you won't get this" - as opposed to the best interests of people in pain.  (Mercy is a virtue, right?  Just checking.)

  I will tell you what I believe in - the faith I have that keeps me strong in the hardest of times.  Life.  People.  Laughter.  Kindness.  Love.  The things that people can do that are inherently good are fantastic.  Every day I see some small act of kindness that makes me smile for the rest of the day.  I believe in treating people the way you want to be treated, I believe in expressing myself and using the skills for which I appear to have a knack to express myself as best I can.

  Maybe there is a higher omnipotent entity, maybe it's made up of all our collective consciousnesses?  Who knows?  We are definitely on a spinning rock in the middle of nothingness, and it is indeed miraculous that we are here at all, much more so that we are able to make music, drama, words, comedy, sausages, lighthouses and boats.  There is so much in life that is bad, that is scary, and that is man-made evilness, but there is so much good, too!  We don't necessarily need a God/some Gods to thank, or to put on a pedestal in order to ask for guidance.

If you do believe in God, believe.  Believe with all your heart if you need to.  But don't let God rule over choices in what you know deep down is the right.  Only you can decide that.