Set lists and the irradication of silence between songs...

Could've been a Doctor!

This gross mass of scribbles is my futile attempt at trying to organise what hell I'm gonna do for my next show. I have six weeks to try and get myself from being a nervous wreck on stage with four songs, shaking legs and no banter to someone who can confidently hold a stage (even just a little one)  for 30 minutes in front of total strangers and come out the end of it looking at least a little pro.

The first trial of this period will be getting my own songs together. there are three new ones which have started forming in my mind and with a little nurturing and effort they should turn into something worth while. My judge these days on whether a song is working is by singing them to Summer, if she smiles at me then it's good enough to me. Fits and crying means it's a no go!

"This one gets 7/10"

That'll bring me up to seven original songs I hope that's enough and my quick bit of maths tells me it should be fine. I also have three covers which shouldn't be much of a problem.

The next bit is going to be trickier.

So I have been playing in bands for a long time but I have never had to worry about the issue of deathly painful silence once a song stops. Usually the drummer will do a few licks, or a lead singer will chat, and if he plays an instrument then another member of the band will chat whilst he tunes and organises himself. But doing the solo thing means there's none of that. If I want to take a drink, or sort a capo out on my guitar, or quietly die a little from an overabundance of nervous energy then it completely breaks the flow of my time up on stage. Back in the day I learnt that the secret to a good show is having it feel liquid, like every piece of the show flows into the next without the audience having realised that the transition has been made. But how do I do this without support?

Well my first idea was to turn the act into a dual acoustic punk/standup comedy routine. There are a few reasons why this was a stupid idea, the first of which is that I am not a funny guy. I am fairly quick witted and have been known to come out with funny observations on occasion but the issue is that it is always accidental. I am never deliberately funny. And I don't have a sense of humour that translates well into standing in front of a crowd delivering a dialogue. So that went out the window.

What I have decided instead is to try something a little more modern, and that's is what I have come to think of as "onstage micro-blogging". I guess I should try and explain that purposefully vague term....

Wise words!

In todays world we like our information neatly packed into bite sized snippets that our brains can process quickly and move onto the next. It is truly an ADD age we are in and more and more the way we expect things to work on the internet is the way we want to deal with things in real life. So the plan is to have a particular observation, doesn't necessarily need to be humourous but I may try, that takes no more than 20 seconds to say in between each song. This will give me (hopefully) enough time to sort my shit out but also will make an audience pay attention to what I'm talking about just long enough for them to want me to start doing something else. It doesn't sound like anything new but I see artists go either way with the "talk between songs" thing, you can ramble, but then you either need to be extremely interesting or have fans that will not care what you're saying. This will be about having something structured to say in a very specific timeframe that will essentially trick someone into listening to me. By the time they realise they aren't that interested in what I'm talking about I'm already playing another song so they don't mind the fact they just had to listen to me talk rubbish at them.

Anyway like I say it's just an idea but it seems to be the most reasonable way to get over my issue....

unless I need to drink.....

Bugger!

Writing Songs..... the ADD way

When I was about 11 and I made my mind up that being a rock star was definitely the right career path for me I glossed over the small print mentioning that poetry is a huge part of making it if your gonna be going it alone or having your own band. I kind of struggled with this idea when I was big into heavy metal and instant classics about kthulu and satan weren't exactly forthcoming. By the time I was 13 I had discovered punk rock and found my niche in singing song just about life and love and pet peeves and stuff that actually happened in my head. Every song I have ever written has just been about stuff that pops into my mind and as much as I sometimes wish I was super politically minded that just aint me and I have over the years come to terms with this.

Now there are two different ways I come up with song ideas and I'm not sure either are particularly productive means by which to write a song. The first and most basic is when I'm in the shower and something is on my mind and I just kind of start humming a tune along with whatever was going on up in my head. you can spot these songs by them being a little more structured than others and generally feel a little more topical. The second and most inconvenient way I come up with songs is that I dream them. Yeah it's a pain and often means I have to jolt myself awake at four in the morning and try desperately to find something to write the fleeting thoughts down on. These tunes are normally a little more vague in content and normally have the words kind of jammed into verses in slightly irregular ways.  On being able to actually remember what was going on I find I like these tunes more, but the problem with them is often I wake up the next morning having scribbled a tonne of total nonsensical bollocks down so more than half of the songs that start life this way are scrapped before anything productive can be done with them.

Out of the innumerable amount of songs I have written in my life I have probably only kept about 40% of all of them due to repeated playing making me decide I don't like them any more. I figure if I don't like one any more then everyone will likely think it sucks too!

I have decided that since I have started this blog then maybe I can use it to help with this process by getting some (hopefully) objective appraisals on songs I'm writing by putting the ideas I have up on the internets for anyone perusing these pages to leave a comment and I'll use the feedback to make a better decision on what is worth developing and what should be left by the wayside. So for your first up is a recent dream idea I had, I think it may have potential so here is the first verse I worked out, I'll put the words here and also you can check the vid to hear the idea for the melody. I realise I may be setting myself to receive a bunch of hostile troll commentary but hey, it's worth a shot.

"Punk Police"

Verse:
I'm sorry I don't give a fuck about the people in power
But as long as I can string four chords together
And provide for my family I'm gonna be happy

And I'm sorry that my hair is just it's natural colour
And I don't own a leather jacket or have a mohawk
But I have my music in my soul and carry it with me......


Yeah so that's it so far and here is the tune:

So this is me in the shed at the end of my garden. It's the only place I have found where I can make noise once Summer goes to bed so This is where I'll be for the forseeable future, freezing my tits off with a flashlight and a digital camera until I can figure out somewhere to play that is a little bigger/warmer/nicer smelling. If you would like to see videos of the tunes that I actually have finished off then let me know in the comments.

First Show Aftermath...

12th Nov
So I have gotten over the fallout from my first show and all in all it didn't go as horrifically has it could have done.
A couple of things happened to me as I stood up on the stage. Firstly I became incredibly aware of the difference in style between what I was playing and what the people staring in my direction liked. As much as I like to think I'm pretty hardcore the truth is that I am and always will be a pop-punk. Now there are some awful bands which fall into that genre but the same can be said about absolutely any style of music possible. I fall into that genre, hook line and sinker, and I have now decided it aint such a bad thing. Problem on the night though was that I was face to face with around 40 or so drunken hardcore Oi punks and I was a little shaken by the revelation!
Secondly came from that number above. Yeah standing in front of 40 plus people who have paid good money to come to a show and expect to be entertained is a little terrifying. Now I have played in bands for nearly fifteen years and together with a band that sort of number would not be enough to put me off, but there is something incredibly humbling about standing by yourself with spotlights glaring in your face, realizing that there is no one to back to up and that every tiny slip is a million times more noticeable and that you are the only one to blame to each time things aren't perfect.
So there I was, standing there and shaking in my biker boots and my mind drew a blank. I couldn't remember the name of my songs, what order I was playing them in (I only did seven) or how to play the guitar that was trembling in front of me. I had a fleeting moment thinking if I just bolted for the door I could probably make it all the way back to london and delete every social media account I own before I could hear the laughter. Although that would make for a quick merciful end to my dreams of building a career back up I decided instead to just close my eyes and see if my stupid scared brain could put itself back together.

And so I did. And I played the wrong chords. Over and over. But not so badly that I totally broke a song, and people didn't seem massively bothered by the muck ups, maybe that was because I did well enough overall to keep myself together and maybe it was just because they didn't care and weren't listening. Either way it went well enough for me and I even had a few claps and the odd cheer. Pretty much ends this in a win for me. I even had a guy ask for my pick and set-list afterwards so if I had been that bad I'm pretty sure that wouldn't have happened.

Now I need to write some more songs. I can't get by on Rancid covers forever and next time I play it probably wont be in front of a crowd that new me from the CJD/Another Day Lost/Valves eras and forgive me for playing things wrong and forgetting lyrics. next time is the real deal. Also I need to record something too, so it may be sometime before I play again.

We'll see.

Upcoming first show...

25th Oct.
So I am preparing for my first proper solo show which I will be playing alongside the ABSO Retards, Matt Black and the Emulsions amongst other special guests. Of course having a 9 week old baby means that most practices have to be played to her. Therefore I have no idea what anything sounds like loud.

I feel like it's a bit of a bold move having written all new material (and even a new Billy Bragg cover) but in my head I feel it's the right thing to do. Even though I could quite happily play Roots Radicals and the old CJD alternate versions for the rest of my existence it's time to step things up a notch and see if this old rum addled brain can still write a catchy ditty.

I tell myself at least once a day that I will re record the songs so I can have a half decent demo ep but being that I am still working quite hard on sleeping properly that will have to wait tll i have some more energy and some actual spare time.