I’m playing as part of two different live music Hangouts in the next few days. Later tonight / early tomorrow morning, I’m doing a few songs as part of the Musicians and Bands Public DatabaseMBPD Open Mic HOA #5. There’s 8 different acts playing this particular event, so it’ll be quite like a regular open mic session in that way. Just they’ll be playing from their homes.
Then this Saturday, I’m doing another Hangout, this time organised by Artists In The Plus, and at a much more European friendly time “Concerts In The Plus!” TerryLynn Melody, Mister Ebby, Suzen Juel. The event should show up in the time appropriate for you timezone over on the Google+ event page, which is very handy. There’s only three acts playing this event, so it’s a bit more of a showcase than just an open mic.
So, if you’re near a computer, or can use hangouts on your phone or tablet, come along to one of those events over on Google+ and basically get treated to me playing you music right from the piano I write most of my material on. I’ll have the set up rather like how it was for the Imogen Heap hangout I played at, but this time hopefully the sound niggles will be sorted out before going live!
Then to round things off, I’m thinking of doing a third final hangout, with just me, on the Tuesday evening, which would be even more of me in one hangout, so let me know if you’d be interested in coming along and chatting in between songs.
On wet days like this, I mostly hide away with a pot of coffee and play piano for the day, before lighting a fire, cooking dinner, and getting lost in excellent tv and random youtube videos.
Here’s a video clip from the Off Beaten Path dance show that used one of my songs this summer:
My face crops up in the most random places sometimes. I’d forgotten I did a bit of extras work for this production, and there’s my face in the trailer for it.
Spotify finally comes to Ireland, so if you’ve not yet picked up my record and want to throw it into a playlist on Spotify to see what you make of it, then you’ll be glad to know that my record is indeed already on there: mister ebby – wires [spotify].
If you do like it and you want to have it slightly more permanently, then you can pay what you like for the digital download through my Bandcamp store, or pick up the CD there. And there’s a bunch of other shoplinks linked through the website here too if you have a preference for something else.
Last night I went to see a screening of a documentary about Philip Glass, which I’ve just discovered is on youtube too. But there’s nothing quite as nice as seeing it on a big screen with a gang of music fans and film fans all gathered in the Huston Film School.
The opening quote sticks with you even after the film ends. Words to work by for sure:
I never was a captive of other people’s ideas about me. Whatever they thought, it didn’t matter to me. I do what I wanted to, and I didn’t care. I’ve been like that my whole life and it’s saved me a lot of trouble. Even when it came to writing music, I didn’t care what people thought. You know, there’s a lot of music in the world you don’t have to listen to mine. There’s Mozart, there’s The Beatles, listen to something else – you don’t have to listen to this. You have my blessing – go listen to something else, I don’t care.
Seeing how he works, and how he makes pizza, and just random little bits of gems was really interesting to me. I’d previously read this book on him: Glass: a portrait, which was fascinating in a very different way. This documentary works as a great contrast piece to the book, which focuses more on the work and the development of his music – a bit more of a musicology piece than a biography. Whereas the film gives you more of the context of his life and how he created his own opportunities and existed outside the classical world long before his works started getting premiered in concert halls and opera houses.
This piano piece was what really captivated my interest initially – my gateway drug to his musical language I guess.
If you’re a Google+ fan, like myself, then I’m playing some Hangouts soon, kicking off with an open mic on Thursday night/Friday morning run by Musician and Band Public Database. I’ll be playing a few songs along with a bunch of other musicians who use Hangouts. Check it out. MBPD Open Mic HOA #5
