Month: November 2010

Boy George quote: “there’s music everywhere now”

There’s music everywhere now. There’s saturation now. It’s become a career opportunity. A job. People go on The X Factor and say, “I just want a better life”. I wanted to change the world. When I started making music, I felt, naïvely or not, that I had something to tell the world. I had a mission statement. It’s great to buy your mum a house. It’s a lovely idea. But it shouldn’t be why you make music. When I hear that I think “you’re getting it all wrong”. My favourite type of music makes me want to burn down a building or makes me cry.

– Boy George. attitude magazine, december 2010.

I agree with everything in this quote. It’s one of the best statements about the music industry and why some people just have to make music, and others just want to be famous. The whole article, an interview with Mark Ronson and Boy George together, is definitely worth reading. Boy George is a very interesting man, and I’ve a lot of respect for him after reading that interview. I never really read much about him, other than random news headlines, and I only really know his Culture Club singles.

There’s a wonderful moment at the end of the article, where Mark Ronson jokingly refers to Boy George as a “national treasure”, and the Boy responds:

Being a national treasure doesn’t pay the rent though. An 80s icon is nothing to be.

I used to watch a music show back in the late 90’s on TnaG (TG4 as it is now), and they’d have 20minute segments dedicated to an artist or a year or whatever, and I remember one time it was Culture Club. I knew the songs, but didn’t know the man, and even then it was an exhilarating experience to see someone so definitely “other” singing on my tv. The same show introduced me to Kate Bush, and developed my popular music history. Of course, I’m a sucker for choirs, so the Culture Club song that made the biggest impact is one that is probably not as well known (note the top hat. Even more awesome) :

Of course the reason for the interview with the two together is because of the Mark Ronson single “Somebody To Love Me” which has Boy George on vocals, along with Andrew Wyatt of Miike Snow.

Mark Ronson ft. Boy George ‘Somebody To Love Me’ – Director: Saam Farahmand from Tom Lindsay on Vimeo.

I write in cafés

 This post on Edible Geography struck a chord with me. I’m definitely one of those people who sits in cafés for hours working.

Usually though, people can see what I’m doing, as I’m rarely on a laptop anymore since the death of my Powerbook G4, and I’m usually switching between a notebook (yes, actual paper one), manuscript paper (yes, more actual paper you use for writing music), and my phone (for my twitter addiction).

For example, I took this shot of my “workspace” last month while sitting in Kelly’s Bar & Restaurant, which is one of my favourite places to do some work:

Scoring an arrangement for NUIG's ChoralSoc

I love working while in cafés and actually prefer it to working at my desk at home. I’m more productive and more focused when I’m working in a café and get a lot more work done in that kind of environment than I do pretty much anywhere else.

It’s always been that way – throughout uni, I’d get my composition assignments written in the canteen, the students union bar, or any of my favourite cafés in town. The noise and the bustle meant I had to focus on whatever work I was doing. I had to really concentrate to get the work done. That kind of atmosphere works for me. True, I may have also been using the lunch hour before the assignment was due to both eat and get the work done at the same time, but a bit of last minute pressure always helps. ;)

These days, I sit and write out arrangements for songs of mine, or for various different work that I do with choirs, or singing classes. I work on lyrics for my own songs, or write other things like this that make me happy.

I do get some strange looks sometimes, if I’m sitting with a full score out on the table while I have lunch or coffee, quietly working away writing down notes. And it’s certainly not as handy as using MuseScore (a free, open source Sibelius-like software) on my iMac at home, but it’s a bit more comfortable for me and I don’t make as good coffee as those cafés do.

Tosca live from the Gaiety

I’m excited to watch Tosca being performed from the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin this evening, though I’ll be sat at home on my computer, as the opening night is being streamed live in HD on the Platform Ireland website.

The only opera I’ve ever seen live was one I was working backstage on, and I’ve never managed to get to see one properly as a member of the audience, which is a silly situation now that I think about it.

For people in Dublin who can’t make it to the Gaiety, and still want to watch it with other people, there is a free live public screening will also be held on Thursday evening commencing at 7.30pm in the Wood Quay Venue as part of Innovation Dublin’s 2010 Festival.

There’s a nice synopsis of the three acts on the Opera Ireland page for the event, just so you know what’s going on as you listen to the beautiful music.