Tag: music

Inspiration: Brad Walsh

Brad Walsh is a multi talented creative force. A singer/songwriter, producer and photographer. I remember hearing his music quite a few years back and liking his electro influenced sound. Yet he has developed a really signature sound that is totally identifiably his own. His cover of Stacey Q’s Two Of Hearts created a major buzz online, and his remixes of Britney’s Womanizer and Ashlee Simpson’s Out Of My Head are absolutely fantastic.

Check out his new album on his website, which is hitting shops in October.

And you can listen to more of his music at his MySpace page, including his amazing cover of Two Of Hearts as well as his original songs.

Why is he an inspiration? He’s done it all himself with style and determination.

Brad Walsh - Human Nature
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Collaborating #1: Anna Lee

I had a visitor for a few days: Anna Lee, who I used to play piano with is back in Ireland for a few weeks, and spent some time here in Galway. Had a little mini session playing songs for each other in Java’s Café, where there’s a beautiful grand piano upstairs. But we’ve not yet managed to get around to having a good music session together.

I spent about two years in total playing with her, gigging around Ireland and a little bit around the UK too, before she headed off to Spain. I’ve known her since university, and we both used to play the singer-songwriter night in uni. She’s got a fantastic voice, and has released one EP so far, but I’m hoping she’ll release a full album. Here’s one of the tracks from that EP:

The video was shot and edited really badly by myself, and I helped her put together the EP for release, including working on the cover design and getting it available for sale. It was definitely a learning experience for me.

We had some great gigs playing together as “Husband | Wife” and just with me accompanying her as a session pianist. We shared a house together for about a year, and would practice and mess around with music at home. Here’s a cover of Portishead’s “Glory Box” that was recorded in our living room one afternoon back in 2006. Just ignore us messing around at the start ;) Read More

The artist – technician dilemma

Recording yourself is an interesting experience. You’re basically playing two separate roles at the same time: artist and technician. I often find it difficult to switch between the two, which can be a little problematic.

When I’m recording someone else, I get into that mode and find it rather smooth sailing. Similarly, when someone is recording me, I just focus on my playing and performing. However, jumping between the artist and the technician roles us something I find difficult and I’m learning to try and merge the two so I can be better at recording myself.

I guess the two roles are opposing kinds of brain activity or something. I really have a lot of admiration for artists who can just do everything needed to record an album all by themselves. It’s certainly hard enough to be capable of doing one of the roles involved in the recording and creation of an album.

Free Download: Bewerunge

This is a piano instrumental track that I released as a b-side to the single I Wish You Were Here in late 2007, but it was recorded well before then.

It’s an example of what happens when I just sit and improvise at the piano, and the track itself is an excerpt of a longer improvised session.

I had been recording Anna Lee doing some of her songs, using the piano and just using the room for other tracks, and she was taking a break. So I pressed record and sat at the piano while she was gone. I improvised two separate tracks and just chilled out.

When I went later on and looked at what I’d recorded, I realised I’d set some levels badly, and any of the much louder moments in the improvisation were distorting noticeably. Thankfully, the quieter moments were coming through beautifully, and there was this whole middle section of the track that I just loved.

I edited out that middle section from the larger piece, and decided that I really liked how it sounded by itself. I named the track Bewerunge because that’s the name of the room it was recorded it.

The two main lecture rooms in the Music Department in NUI Maynooth are called the O’Callaghan Room and the Bewerunge Room. The piano in the Bewerunge room is where this track was recorded. It’s a beautiful piano, and I spent the three years of my music degree in one or the other of those rooms.

[audio:http://www.misterebby.com/previewtracks/bewerunge.mp3]
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