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
So, I just got to do a piano hangout with Imogen Heap and a bunch of other piano players from around the world. I saw a tweet from @imogenheap about it, and filled in the wee application form. I’ve done a few little hangouts of my own and was just this week putting my setup back together to do a few more, so it was providence!
It was lovely to be brought into the hangout and to get to jam with Imogen Heap and the other pianists. Latency issues and sound issues were definitely a feature of the experience, but that’s the fun of live internet stuff. ;)
My favourite bit was every pianist doing a little solo improv while Imogen vocalised over it. That was magic to get to do, and a little bit nervewracking. However, it’s kinda nice that you just see the bunch of people in the hangout, and not everyone who was watching from home somewhere, as that might have been a bit more nervy.
In a random aside: somehow Imogen started to try and set me up on dates after someone on twitter (?) said I was cute. That was unexpected and I totally got flustered and embarrassed. I’m totally very cool. Honest.
If you’re stumbling across my various accounts now after the hangout, you can see some videos on my youtube channel, and listening to recordings on my bandcamp or soundcloud pages, and find out more info about the recording of my debut album here on this website too. There are some piano instrumentals to listen to on Soundcloud too, and one is a bonus download if you buy my album through the bandcamp page.
Just finally getting around to listening to the orchestra album from Antony & The Johnsons, and the new track that opens it “Cut The World” is utterly gorgeous as I relisten to it now with the rest of the album.
I was a huge fan of the videos I’ve seen from the concert with the Metropole Orchestra, which debuted some gorgeous orchestral arrangements of these songs. And the album versions don’t fail to thrill either, as they are absolutely beautiful renditions of the songs, particularly the heart-wrenching gem that is “I Fell In Love With A Dead Boy”.
At the moment, I guess it’s my favourite of the orchestral albums done by popular singers that I enjoy. The Joni albums “Both Sides Now” and “Travelogue” were for a long time my favourites, but this album is competing with “Both Sides Now” as my favourite.
Anthony’s voice just really suits the rich sound of a full orchestra, without ever feeling overpowered or out of place in that context.
I’ve also been still hooked on the latest Fiona Apple record, which is on almost constant rotation in amongst everything I’ve been listening to. It’s not often I get completely drawn into a record so completely, but there’s something about this album that works so brilliantly for me.
This has been my theme song since the record came out. It’s such a joyous statement:
My scars were reflecting the mist in your headlights
I looked like a neon zebra shaking rain off her stripes
And the rivulets had you riveted
To the places that I wanted you to kiss me
When we find some time alone
And then, we can
Do anything we want
It’s such a sharp contrast to some of the big rich textures from her other albums, but the core of voice, piano and percussion never feels too sparse really. It brings to mind how Kate Bush’s “The Dreaming” sometimes feels like such a huge dense sound, despite being just a few elements when you really listen to it closely.
Then really, I guess you should just press play on this video, and spend 43 minutes in the company of Kate Bush circa 1982.
This is the full album of “The Dreaming” on youtube that some fan set to a mix of footage from Kate’s videos from that album, and other random film clips that kinda fit rather well in places.
I feel I should admit that putting this record on one day in uni made my boyfriend at the time run out of the room with his hands over his ears for some reason. He just couldn’t deal with it.
It was obvious that particular boyfriend wasn’t going to last. If you can’t manage to sit through “Sat In Your Lap” ….
Then I’ll be in Dublin on the 22nd of September to play at the Noisy Plug Sessions, which I’m really looking forward to. So, Dublin based folk, take note of that date, and keep an eye on the Noisy Plug facebook page.
I’ve been quite lucky recently, as it’s been wet on the days I’ve been working, and sunny out the days I’ve had to myself at home. Earlier this week I had one of those perfect days where I had the house and garden to myself (except for the cat), and spent the day going from the piano to the garden, working on two of the newest songs I’ve been writing.
Honestly, there’s not much more enjoyable than spending a day like that. It was perfectly sunny, but not too warm, and my voice was in good shape. I’ve been noticing a progression in the sound and even the style of the songs I’ve been writing more recently, and there’s a noticeable difference between the newest songs and the other songs from the batch I wrote for Wires. There’s enough left over from that album to be nearly a full album themselves, but now I’ve written nearly as many as that again since then. I guess I need to sit with these songs a little while, and finish some of them off, and see others take shape a bit more and find the sound that they need.
I’ve tried out some of the newer songs live already this summer, and it’s always that moment when you really look at the song and start to see what you really think of it. With one of the songs I was working on this week, I had that panic moment where I worried that I was just re-writing someone else’s song with different words, that I was unconsciously ripping off a melody from somewhere else. That happens and always threatens to kill the song while you’re still writing it. Usually I just ignore it, and keep working on the song and see where it leads and how it ends up. This time I went and listened to the song that I thought I was unconsciously ripping off, and felt the relief when I saw just how different the two works are.
I’ve another song sitting waiting to be written at the moment. There’s a little glimmer of an idea about it that I like, but the rest is sitting waiting as I’m not entirely happy with what I’ve got so far. It’ll sit in the back of my mind while I work on other things, and we’ll see how it works out.
Incidentally, one of the newest songs is possibly one of the most “pop song” like songs I’ve ever written. But I really like it.
