Tag: covers

Today my album went live on iTunes

I’m not gonna lie – that brought a big smile to my face. It’s about €1 more expensive than it is to buy it direct from Bandcamp, but iPhone users can download it direct to their phones through the iTunes store, if that’s something that you wanna do, whereas with Bandcamp, you do really need to be at your computer, and not on your phone, to download it.

If you are enjoying the record, and use iTunes, then please consider rating the album and writing a little review that people can read on the iTunes store page. That would make me very happy indeed.

There are delays with the physical CD, and it’s looking more and more like it won’t be ready for the actual launch days. But sure, I’ll still play the gigs and celebrate this album going out into the world. If you’re around Galway or Dublin next week, drop in and listen to me playing songs from this record live.

At each of the gigs, there’ll be a small little choir group singing with me for a few of the songs. It’s different people in each city, and they’re basically friends and acquaintances, and strangers and twitter followers, who all said yes when I asked if they’d like to sing with me. I’m really looking forward to getting them up on stage with me. It should be a lot of fun.

I’ll also be playing some songs that aren’t on the new album, which I held over for the next one, or which have been written since this summer. And I’ve reworked some of my favourite covers too.

Post-Jazz Festival review.

I had an absolute blast of a time at the Cork Jazz Festival. Definitely a weekend to spend in Cork – there was so much music everywhere. From buskers on the street, to free gigs in venues around town, to the ticketed gigs each day too. I spent the day times wandering the streets enjoying the food stalls and listening to some great jazz bands playing for free in the outdoor stage set up beside the Opera House. Found some great places for coffee, but none better than Cork Coffee Roasters, which also boasted the hottest barista I saw all weekend too as a special bonus.

Méadhbh was working every day over the weekend, which was a pity, but we got to hang out in the evenings instead. She was singing with me at the gig in the Legends Suite of the Festival club, and we got to the venue early to grab some food and a glass of wine before soundchecking. I don’t think I’ve met nicer people than the folk we had to deal with that evening – everyone from the Guinness contact to the sound guy to the waitress. Despite the fact that it was right in the middle of a weekend of long working days for them, everyone was warm, welcoming, friendly and professional. It made me feel completely relaxed and at ease before the gig.

The piano they had in the venue was a gorgeous Yamaha grand piano – between that and the Yamaha I recorded the album on in the studio, I think my opinion of Yamaha pianos has been completely changed this year. Gorgeous sound from both the upright and the grand piano, and those bass notes on the grand were an absolute thrill.

This is the only photo I have of the gig – which was taken just before we went soundchecking. I think Méadhbh has a few more though. But at least you can see the most important thing – how beautiful that piano looks:

This was our set list:

  • The Bliss Returns
  • Codail Sámh
  • Keep Me Here (new song. not on the album)
  • Romance
  • Phoenix
  • Comfort Of The Keys (non-album track)
  • The Score (Sarah Slean cover sharing lead vocals with Méadhbh)
  • Galway Rain
  • Strive (new song. Not on the album)
  • Glory Box / Wannabe (Portishead / Spice Girls cover. Méadhbh on lead vocals)
  • Helen

It was originally this:

I had a few others lined up that I skipped on the night, as we had just about an hour of a set, and I wanted to try out some of the newer songs as well as singing stuff off the record. “Wet Feet”, “Rerun” and non-album track “House On My Back Door” were all on the list too but got kicked off for time.

I’m back in Galway now, and back working on the last little things I need to sort to get a physical Cd into my hands, and then into your hands, and I’ll let you know how you can do that in a later update, but it will be available in some of the wonderful new indie record shops that have been popping up around the country.

Jazz Festival, more mixing, and a Swede

I’ll be playing a set in the Festival Club at the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival this October 30th. The time isn’t confirmed as yet, but I’ll update some more about that when I know later on. I don’t believe I’ve ever actually played a gig in Cork before, now that I think about it. I’m looking forward to showcasing some of the tracks from the record along with some of the other songs that didn’t make it on to this record, but are being held over for a later date.

I’ve also been writing again recently, reworking older unfinished songs, polishing off mostly finished song, and writing some brand new ones too. I’m really happy with some of the newer material and a little part of me wishes I could just jump right back into the studio and knock out a second record this winter, as I have enough songs that I’m happy with to go and do that. But I still have work to do to finish off this one first. And who knows what other songs I’ll write in the meantime.

I was back in the studio for a day a week or two ago to do some tweaks to the album mixes, but I think I now have mixes that I’m happy with of the record. Some little things niggling at me about the track sequencing at the moment, but I took a break from listening to the record to go back at it with fresh ears and sort out the part of the sequencing that I’m not happy with. The next stage will be to get the record mastered.

I’ve been spending a lot of time playing piano again – the digital piano is set up in my room, and I’ve been able to play away on headphones. However, I’ve been snatching time at the acoustic piano too – though it is in dire need of tuning and some minor repairs. Hopefully that’ll all be sorted out next week when the piano tuner comes to call!

One of my best friends is visiting from Sweden for a few days next week too. Last time she was here I had just bought my first little protools recording setup, and we had a ball recording some covers and little things on that same piano that I’m getting tuned next week. Nika plays in two wonderful Swedish traditional folk groups, Sheik and JONI, and as well as having her own solo output, and studied classical piano with me in Maynooth a number of years ago. If you’ve never listened to any Swedish traditional folk, any of those three links wouldn’t be a bad introduction, in my opinion. One of the songs I learned from her, Vargsången, I ended up arranging for SATB choir and performing with the NUIG Choralsoc last year, and is one of my favourites of my own arrangements.

Here’s Annika singing a cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Conversation” on my piano a long time ago now. It’s quite quiet, but I had just one microphone that was on loan from a friend, and the actual recording session itself is lost, and we just have mp3 copies of those tracks left. But she did a really lovely version of this song:

annika hammer – conversation by misterebby

Nollaig shona daoibh

I really love Thea Gilmore’s “Strange Communion” – it’s not only one of my favourite “holiday” albums, but it’s a really wonderful collection of songs, regardless of the winter/christmas themes.

I wanted to do some kind of little “seasons greetings” message of sorts, and the best way I know how is through music. This song has been in my head a lot this week, what with the solstice, full moon and lunar eclipse, and the snow and wintry weather here in Ireland for once. So, I decided to do a rough little cover of it on piano. This is Thea Gilmore’s “Midwinter Toast”:

Nollaig shona, agus athbhliain faoi mhaise daoibh go léir freisín.

(you can hear it on soundcloud too, and download it from there if you like too.)

Scala & Kolacny brothers

I’ve sung this song countless times in choirs. I kinda grew to hate the song because it was such a standard part of choral repertoire when I was a teen. But we never made it as beautifully melancholic and full of yearning as this fantastic choir have, and they’ve completely reinvigorated the song in choral version in my estimation:

They’re a really sensational choir – it’s so rare that you see an all female choir comfortable singing down out of the rafters and really going for a beautiful texture. The two brothers who run the choir (conductor and pianist) create these absolutely gorgeous arrangements of songs as diverse as Air’s “Sexy Boy” and Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters”.

They’re a choir doing versions of songs from popular music in absolutely wonderful arrangements, but not in a glee-style show choir manner. I first heard their cover of “Sexy Boy” and completely loved it. Since then I’ve come across a fair bit of their music via youtube, and sourced two of their albums. Their covers don’t always work for me, but when they do, they’re absolutely thrilling:

Smells Like Teen Spirit (live)

Years ago I actually did a choral arrangement of Kylie’s “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head”, so I was intrigued to hear how they’d interpret it, but unfortunately I’m not a huge fan of their arrangement. But interestingly, there are some of the same harmony lines in their arrangement as I have in some bars of mine.

However, my arrangement was for a musical inspired by “Sister Act”, so the song was re-appropriated to be sung to Jesus instead, and included a “Allelujah” too for good measure.

However, some other songs are far more successful. This is one of my favourites, and is featured as the soundtrack for the trailer for “The Social Network“:

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