Category: life

Feedback makes it worth it.

I started a post doing a “2011 in review” sort of post, but quickly realised that my entire focus for all of last year was in getting the album recorded and released. So, in lieu of a rather repetitive reflection on the past year, instead I’m going to look at the effect that all that work has had on other people by posting some of the rather lovely things folks have said to me about my record.

Gathered together like this, it really makes me smile when I get worked up about trying to make a living from music work. Getting these unsolicited little messages really makes my day, and they come from the various corners of the internet that I hang out in. Some are friends, some are long time internet acquaintances, some are newer connections struck up on twitter, others are complete strangers. These are just some of the ones that I saved and stuck in a little document that I open up and peek at when things are stressful. I didn’t put all the messages in this, just a few random ones that made me smile tonight.

So, thank you for listening and for supporting my music last year, and thank you so much any of you who took the time to send me a message like this. <3

Some of the Feedback from friends, strangers, unfers and others:
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Talking about fundit some more

Damien Mulley is blogging about :fund:it at the moment by way of three interviews with people who used the site to fund their different creative projects. I was one of those three who was interviewed by him – he emailed over a few questions about my fundit campaign back in August shortly after the campaign finished.

The first interview with Philly McMahon of thisispopbaby went up on his site yesterday, and the one with me went up today.

I remember my replies being a complete and utter brain dump, as my project wasn’t long finished when he emailed me, so everything was still in my head. If I was asked now, I’d probably be a bit more succinct on the whole. Well, maybe not.

A little piano track, mastering and some gigs.

fund:it, the crowdfunding service I used to raise cash for my album recording has been going now for over 6 months, and they’ve released a video about what was achieved over their first 6 months. They asked me if I had any music that they might be able to use for the video, and as it happens I had recorded one of my piano instrumental pieces on the last day of the piano & vocal tracking in the studio recording sessions. I’d an hour or two to spare and ended up knocking out a live version of “I Wish You Were Here” as well as the piano instrumental piece.

The song has ended up on the tracklisting for the album, and the instrumental is planned as a bonus track for the digital version of the record going out to those people who funded my project. But, now you can hear an edit of that track used in the video about Fund:it’s first 6 months, which they have entered into the “Better Together” competition in the hope of winning some money towards helping to develop and improve the service they provide. Please click on the link and consider voting for their entry, which will help enable other creative projects happen through the use of crowdfunding.

Here’s the video:

I’m heading off to get the record mastered later this week, having gotten to the point where I have final mixes that I’m happy with, and a record that I’m quite proud of. The artwork is still being developed with print artist Grace Mitchell, and I’m excited to see the work she has been doing all coming together to result in the final packaging for the record. We are planning to hand print and make the packaging for a limited number of the records, and everyone who bought the cd through fund:it will be getting one of those copies. I’m looking forward to having a finished product and I really hope that people who hear the record like it as much as I do.

Later this month, I also have a little gig on the 24th at the “Song Cycle” showcase night Upstairs in Whelan’s in Dublin, and the Cork Jazz Festival on the 30th. So, if you are knocking around either city around those days, drop in and you’ll get to hear some of the songs from the record before it is out, as well as some of the material I’ve held over for the next one, and newer songs I’ve been writing more recently.

Back to bread

I learned how to bake soda bread from my mother when I was still in school, but never really got into making bread until I was in university and had a kitchen I could use myself. One of my friends in my final year of university was a baker, and taught me how to make a yeast dough. It was our form of socialising – we’d bake bread, drink tea, and listen to great music. We have a wonderful little rivalry over who makes the best bread, eventually agreeing that we would settle on the fact that she makes better yeast breads and I make better soda breads.

The last few years I’ve not made much bread at all, after hitting a peak in my breadmaking when I lived in the UK, but I’ve been getting back into it lately in a big way. I think I’ve made a loaf every two or three days for the past few weeks. It started out with my quest to get better at pizza doughs, as I’m a big fan of making pizza from scratch. Every week I had a Pizza & Dr Who evening, which is pretty self explanatory I think.

But, finding good strong white flour has been the lifesaver of my breadmaking, and the recent loaves have been really delicious. My mother even commented on my most recent loaf saying that it was as good as one bought in a shop.

I think I enjoy it in the same way I enjoy swimming. You have to set aside some part of your day to do it, and there’s a mindlessness to the repetitive physical action that you stop consciously thinking about – your mind is free to wander elsewhere and not have to give it its full attention. Kneading a dough is also a wonderful way to work out frustrations ;) There’s also the fact that you get a really tasty loaf out of it and the house fills with the smell of baking bread. Delicious stuff.

I usually use it to break up piano practice – I go and play for an hour or so while the dough is rising, or use that time to make myself a meal. Now that I’m happy with my basic brown and white breads (I’ve made a successful wholemeal loaf most recently) I’m trying to decide what to try and add next to my arsenal of bread making.

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