Rumour has it were on around 8.20pm so tune in and buy the single - it’s for charity (and I can say I’m in the charts!).

Doors at 8.30pm and I’ll be performing with incredible percussionist Mat Clements.

£4 on door.  Music until 1am (I’m on after 10pm).  Also confirmed to be playing are Rob Howell, Rossco Galloway and The Banana Sessions so should be a great night. : )

Event Details

Since it’s Armistice Day, here’s a photo of a poppy I took in northern France near Omaha beach while on tour with Gecko 3.

The Graffiti Tower

I also did the warm up slot at this month’s Acoustic Edinburgh and unveiled a new song and dabbled a bit more with the looper.  Here’s a rough recording of “Quicksand” with the loop pedal - hope you enjoy!

Quicksand

The Gecko 3 gig with Nizlopi was amazing - thanks to all the G3 fans for turning out and a big thanks to Nizlopi for having us. Such an amazing duo, beautiful and jaw dropping music and such lovely down to earth blokes too.  Hats off to them blazing a trail and inspiring independent artists in the UK and beyond.

A couple of gigs for me on the near horizon too:

HALLOWEEN with Ten Storeys High.

I’m very chuffed to be asked to be the support act for these guys who are launching the first single “Disfunctional” from their new “The Thrill of the Fall” album.

Lovely venue too:

Where: The Voodoo Rooms

When: Friday 31st Oct 8pm

Tax: £4

Also, I’ve been asked to play a charity gig I did last year though details a bit sketchy - tbc

Where:  Teviot Underground (or may be Medina)

When: Tuesday November 11th

Tax: tbc

Details:  Also playing will be the incredible Rob Howell and the inimitable Banana Sessions.

Album update:  I’ve been so busy that I’ve not even had a chance to listen to what I’ve recorded and start editing for the next stage : (  I have 2 days next week set aside though so hopefully I’ll make some progress.  

Other news: I’ve just bought sleigh bells, in case I feel the need to write and record a Christmas song!

I make a bit of a habit of setting my sights impossibly high and trying my hardest to reach them.  As a result the last two days were a bit of a marathon - no more relaxing mornings to soak up the atmosphere and be inspired before starting work at 11am but straight up and onto my squeaky drum stool to press my aching fingers against the guitar strings while I still had some nerve endings in them!

Day 9 - conscious of the fact that I wanted to get all the acoustic guitar done in the live space with the same mic set-ups I got stuck in early and got 3 songs finished by lunch time.  I saved Vapour Trails for after lunch which ended up taking over 3 hours (the song, not lunch).  I pushed on and I knew that my newest song (which doesn’t have a definite title yet but I’ll call it “Best Friend” for now) which has a really tender vibe to it would work late at night and so I saved that til last that day to try and capture a special feeling.  It ended up being a 2.30am finish but I had guitar for 7 more songs in the bag after about 14 hours of playing.

Day 10 - last day in the studio and I had to be packed and out the door by 5pm.  Woke at 8am after not enough sleep and was back behind the guitar by 9, fingers still hurting from the day before with 3 songs to go before Hugh was due to arrive to lay down some more drums.  Somehow I managed to finish the last take just as Hugh turned up, though this was more like 2pm and I’d actually got an extra song done out of 4 ‘nice-to-have’ tracks that I wanted to get down if I had time.

Desperately mic’d up the drum kit again while Hugh learned the song he’d never heard before (Louder than Words).  I was playing the song myself on drums earlier in the week when I thought “this should be played in Hugh’s style” and no one can do that better than Hugh so after a few run throughs and some discussion we spent an hour getting some good takes down and then covered a couple of things like the intro and ending again.  4pm and we were literally just doing a final re-take of the slow down bit at the end so Hugh could match the timing of the guitar chords when the computer hangs.  I’m a bit of a geek so tried all I knew to avoid killing the program but ultimately that’s all I could do and we lost the whole track!

I know the audio files are on the hard drive but it would be such a pain to go through each one and try and put it in the song arrangement in the right location that we had no option but to start again.

Quicker this time as Hugh had got to know the song but we were finally done by 4.40pm  20 mins to pack up, clean the place and say goodbye.

Hugh Martin

As you might imagine, it took over 2 hours but in the rush I left my jacket (and phone) behind and didn’t realise until I’d got back to Edinburgh.

Having had 10 days of no caffeine and no alcohol, a steak and a bottle of wine was in order so that’s how it all ended.  What an amazing 10 days of music - I can’t wait to get moving on the rest of it but unfortunately my busy calendar means grabbing half days here and there.

I got so much done, but clearly not all the recording done for 16 songs.  The idea was to choose the best 10 from those.  From the 10 days away I’ve got all the drums, all the guitar and 75% of the percussion done for 13 songs.  Now I’ve got an awful lot of editing to do before I can get moving on the bass, vocals and other bits and pieces.

If you’ve read this far(!) you may be up for Acoustic Edinburgh tonight where I’m playing the warm-up slot at 9pm in Medina.  Rags and Feathers are headlining plus sets from Marty Philip, Rob Sproul-Cran and Chris Green so it should be a great night - FREE ENTRY!

Hope to see you there!

Px

The reason I feel the drums have taken so long is because none of my songs have ever been played with kit before, so apart from a couple of tracks I’ve done demos of, I’ve had to think about and write drum parts as well as get good takes down.  I think it’s been worthwhile though as I want this album to sound much fuller than the way my songs are normally heard and this way I’m leaving plenty of scope for bass and other orchestration.

Day 6 - this was taken up with drum takes for Slow me Down and She Loves Sushi.  In between hailstorms where the roof windows were acting like a snare head, I got some more guide tracks done : )

Day 7 - Mat Clements arrived for a day of percussion and we got some great stuff down for 200 Miles, Planet Man and Quicksand.  It’s great hearing the layers going on, like a Rolf Harris painting you can hear the magic happening and start to get a clearer vision of the end result.  I love recording.

Mat Clements with Hang

Day 8 - Realising that time is running very short now I started work on the actual final guitar parts.  Took ages to get some good mic sounds but I’m happy with what I’m getting now and got guitar done for Love Train and Louder than Words.  Did much experimenting with and without click track.  These ones were tricky as the tempo shifts in Love Train and the feel shifts in LtW.  I much prefer recording with other people in real time to capture the feel of interaction as it’s hard to play along with what you’re hearing in your head (that doesn’t exist yet) so this time I’ve found it easier to use click tracks which surprised me.

It’s getting late now so time for me to get out from between these two duvets and get under a different one…

Guitar Booth

So here was the plan:  go and record 16 songs in their entirety including allowing plenty of time to get my guest musician’s parts down.  This plan was hatched a few months back, thinking I’d have plenty of time to get prepared, get all the guide tracks sorted and have lots of practices so it would just be a case of going in and doing it.  Unfortunately the world had other plans for me in the last few months and my time away was on me before I realised.  There’s a lot to be said for blanking out some days in your diary for yourself - I’ve never actually done this since I started working 9 to 5 and it feels amazing - definitely going to be a regular thing.

So apart from loving the stress-free solitude, here’s what’s been happening:

Day 1 - packed all my gear and did last minute shopping, set off for recluse.  Arrived (about 6pm), unpacked, set up the drums, cooked some scran, ate scran, set up the computer.

Day 2 - set about learning how to use my new audio software (possibly should have done that earlier…), mic’d up the kit, did a test recording (all good), imported some old guide tracks and had a bit of a drum practice.

Day 3 - realised there’s some work involved as I haven’t played drums in over a year.  Did a lot of practice and eventually got a good take of Ricochet.  Planned out what I’m actually trying to do in terms of songs, orchestration and how I’m going to record each song e.g. click or no-click, guide track or no-guide track.

Day 4 - Conceded drumming isn’t quite as easy as Hugh makes it look.  That said, got a nice take of the Sushi song done and recorded a few more guide tracks.

Day 5 - Spent a long time on the guide for 200 Miles - I’ve got a plan for this one and can’t wait to hear the final result.  Got drum takes down for Glad to See You and Vapour Trails (after a lot of pain) and that brings me to now.  Mat Clements is coming on thursday to do some percussion so I’ve got a few more guides to sort out before I sleep…

Drums - how hard can it be?

It’s so tranquil here… wind chimes, bird song, the wind whispering through the autumn leaves, me drumming : )

Public thanks to Hugh for the loan of his kit and red magic carpet.

As under-prepared as ever, that day has now arrived and I have no choice but to head off to my secret artist’s recluse and get busy!

Some of you know me as ‘moose’ which for some reason has stuck as my stage name in Gecko 3.  So for my first solo album ‘Eponymoose’ is the working title.

I have a few production ideas and will be working with Mat, Tracey, Vicky & Udit to capture some of the live stuff we’ve done this year but beyond acoustic guitar and vocals, I’ve no solid idea how this record is going to end up sounding.  I want it to sound much bigger than just one guitar and one voice but right now, I’m off to have 10 days of fun and immersion!

Px

This is hosted by the lovely and talented Alice Challiner who does endless promotion of acoustic music in St. Andrews, Edinburgh and Shropshire.

Come along if you’re in the area - I’m on around 10pm for 40 mins.

Where: Venue 2, St Andrews Students Association,  St Mary’s Place, St. Andrews, Fife, KY16 9UZ

When: 9pm, Wed 24th Sept

FREE ENTRY

Not really one for competitions but I was very happy to be short-listed for this event which’ll be like battle of the bands (unplugged…).

If you’re at a loose end, come along and enjoy the cheap booze and great music.  Free entry.

Where: The Hive, Niddry St. Edinburgh

When: monday 22nd Sept, 8pm

I’m on stage to do battle at 8.55pm

Also performing are:

LATITUDE 56, MATT JAMES, JAMES MCKAY, JYM PONTER, ALEX DOMANSKI & NICO RUMBOLL

See you then!

Hmmm - not sure if it’s like Box Wars.  Do you think I should wear a box?  I’ll wear a box…

So tomorrow night I’ve been invited to play a special Fondoo event in Peebles along with Ken Barrett and Gecko 2.  I played the first ever Fondoo event back in January and they wrote this lovely review.

There aren’t many original music nights of this quality in the Borders so try and go along and support it if you can.

I may be sitting in on a song with Ken, then I’ll do a 40 min solo set followed by Marty Philip & I performing as Gecko 2 (Gecko without Hugh).  Hugh’s away somewhere so I’ll be beatboxing to fill in the gaps.  Hugh said he was pleased he can be easily replaced by my lips and a microphone.

Should be a great night so hop on a bus to Peebles!