Without Fear track #7 - Sunlight On The Cemetary

After a short break, I resume my track by track blogging of my debut album Without Fear which you can buy (yada yada iTunes link yada yada Spotify etc.)

Here is the lovely soothing instrumental "Sunlight On The Cemetery" on the player!



http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_2929701


Music
This track grew from an idea I had years ago, weirdly based around the initial chord of a certain Red hot Chili Peppers' track. I had an image in my mind of the different musical parts/sounds, and finally with this album had the chance to make it happen.

The start of this track is one of the few places where the limitations of in-built webcam microphones shows up. All the other tracks have loud guitar parts and multi-tracking to mask it, but here, with just one plucking guitar, you can really hear the hiss. I don't mind it now - I think it's one of those things like Brian Molko's voice that you get used to. Push on through to halfway and you can hear all the other sounds come in.

I enjoyed making the whhhaaaaauuuuum sounds in the final "verse" part, and also how the bass sound fills everything out.

The title is simply from one day cycling over the bridge leaving Chelmsford for Writtle, and seeing morning sunshine on the gravestones and grass in the cemetery by the railway. I remember it being almost beautiful, but not quite - mainly just calm. I'll leave it to your imagination whether it's morning sunlight or evening sunlight.

Hope you like it!

You can listen to and buy the album at any of these fine places:

Year

In amongst the chaos of last weekend, beautiful kiwi girlf and I marked our first anniversary. It's the first time I've had a girlfriend for a whole year, and she hasn't run off or scared me away, which is definitely a good thing. We're going out tonight to celebrate with a fancy meal.
Huzzah!

Excess

As someone who used to be in a punk rock band, and still think of myself as being a bit rock'n'roll, going out drinking all night is hardly the pinnacle of debauchery. But over the course of Wellington's biggest weekend I managed to demolish my singing voice and still feel absolutely shattered. So it's probably fair to say that I'm not playing tomorrow's open mic at the Ruby Lounge - I'll be along next month though.

One Love Festival, Waitangi Day

Hot hot sunny day. Awesome times.

Bath times

In bar. In bath. With friend!
It's the Library Bar, downtown Wellington, and it's not only got real bookshelues everywhere- it's got a bath too! Happy times.

Emo music for emo people

So Jez, you've got a lot of musical projects lined up for 2010. What's your favourite?

There's one that stands out. It's an electronic symphonic emo album.

You've criticised emo in the past. Should we take it as a pisstake?

Absolutely. Except it'll be awesome too. Just like saying "word".

What's the name of the act?

Electric Fire Heart Dragon Vampire.

Album title?

Epileptic Liar Fart Wagon Tramp-hire.

And stand-out single?

Disco Pirate Robot Ninja Dinosaurs.

Thank you.

Live live live, starting Friday @ Cuba St Night Market

A couple of nights ago I kicked off my 2010 gigs with a slot at the Jimmy Bar, St. James Theatre.

The live continues with a gig this Friday 5th, at the ultra-cool Cuba Street Night Market (5pm onwards) right at the top of Cuba Street (corner Webb Street). It's free of course, so come along before hitting the town for 7s partying.

Furthermore, I've discovered today a bunch of new open mic nights happening, so if you could come to any (or all) of these free nights, that'd be swell! :)

9 Feb 7:00pm Ruby Lounge (14 Bond St)
24 Feb 8:00pm Cavern Club (22 Allen St)
1 Mar 7:30pm "Howltearoa" Open Mic @ Southern Cross (35 Abel Smith St)

Also I have a top secret plan to start busking with some synth/drums backing tracks. Will let you know more when I do ;)

Learning Learning

I'm always trying to learn stuff to help me do more - with F451, no-one knew how to do websites, so I got down and dirty in the HTML code and found out how it worked.

At the moment, however, I feel maybe I'm trying to learn a bit too much. Fingers crossed it's just a low-key phase, which will (hopefully) be followed by another productive phase.

I'm trying to learn a new orchestra program for writing strings, brass and all that jazz for new music tracks.

I'm trying to learn a new drum software program to create drums for those tracks.

I'm trying to learn how to use midi applications to make awesome synth loops.

I'm trying to work out how to display RSS feeds in ways like the snazzy little widget for my blog posts you can see on my myspace profile.

There's also a lot of figuring out going on, e.g. how can I bust out synths+strings backing tracks while busking live on the street, and how can I best take my solo project forward and get known.

There's no time limit on any of this stuff, but as always, I'm hungry and impatient.