I’m in Dublin at the moment, working as a score reader for a small production for the next two weeks. It’ll give me a much needed break from Galway and some time to work on moving to Dublin properly.
I met up with Morgan of Cuckoo Savante (check that band out – they’re awesome) and was chatting about our lives and work. Just catching up really, but he was excited by how many songs I’ve got at the moment. Which made me stop to think how few I’ve demo’d and how badly I’ve done those. I need to stop spending time alone with the songs and start performing them and sharing them with other people so they don’t start to suffocate in my bag.
I’m going through my lyrics at the moment, adding in the edits I’ve made on the fly as I practise and work out the songs. I like a few of them, but I blow hot and cold about my own work quite frequently. I guess I need to let other people judge the work and not be so critical of myself.
Went to the Memorial service organised by AIDS West to mark World AIDS Day this evening. I was late because I had a volunteers meeting with the youth group I volunteer for. But the candlelit service was beautiful, and the choir, Cois Cladaigh were wonderful.
Lorcan was bored in a lecture and asked for entertainment, so I texted him this quick little story that I wrote on the spot. Obviously it is ~amazing art~
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There once was a chameleon called Lorcan,
Who could change his skin to blend in,
But soon Lorcan realised,
That it’s far more fun to stand out in a crowd.
So Lorcan the chameleon began to change his skin,
No longer to try and merely fit in,
But to stand out in a crowd,
Feeling quite proud
With colours as eye-catching as could be.
Alex Hahn is an Australian jazz singer, who spent a few years in Galway, initially singing with the band Electrogecko, before we got together to form a jazz duo.
When we first started performing together, it was along with two other singers, Sarah Elaine and Meadhbh Sullivan, doing jazz/60’s girl-group numbers as the opening act for the Cuckoo’s Nest weekly cabaret night, as well as solo jazz standards from Alex.
This developed into a weekend residency playing jazz standards, and our own jazz-influenced takes on pop and rock songs such as Gossip’s Standing In The Way Of Control, Jason Mraz’s You And I Both and Mr. Zebra by Tori Amos. [Read more →]
This little terrible poem was inspired by boredom in Javas, and the fact that I twist sugar sachets and put them inside each other, because I’m a neat-freak sometimes.
But when I added the chocolate wrapper, it looked like a worm with a fabulous blue rinse, or perhaps a purple mohawk.
I named her Wilma, and gave her eyes. Declan thought her eyebrows were really quite fetching. So I wrote this beautiful piece of art for him.
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Wilma The Worm
Wilma the Worm
Wilma the worm and her questioning eyebrows,
Went into town to buy herself some glasses,
But a problem arose while trying on frames,
As she has no ears.
So Wilma the worm and her questioning eyebrows
Had to make do with perusing hot asses,
Without the aid of a new pair of glasses,
Because she has no ears.
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This was just an idea for a project I was working on briefly, but there were two of the piano instrumentals that I came up with that I really liked. Much like Bewerunge, this is what it sounds like if I sit at the piano and play sometimes. A lot of my piano music is improvised, and then shaped after I’ve improvised the themes or ideas I want to work with. Sitting and just allowing yourself to play is a challenge initially – I remember some of the awful music I used to come out with when I first started to just let myself play anything at the piano instead of just reading music from a page.
In terms of instrumental music, I guess I’m influenced most by the kind of piano music that I like to play these days. Composers such as Lucovicio Einuadi, Philip Glass and Max Richter are some of my absolute favourites to listen to and to play. So, there’s a strong influence from their styles of music these days when I go to play something.
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I wrote the lyrics for this song while I was in Dublin, I think some were written on the train to Dublin and the rest in the IFI. I wasn’t fully sure what the lyrics were about at the time, and they were puzzling me a bit. But I had a music idea in my head, but when I went to the piano some time later, the music changed and the song developed a different sound to what I had previously thought in my head.
But even as I had started playing the song live a little, there was something missing in it, and I couldn’t hear what it was. Then an Allelujah I’d written for a amateur musical production inspired by the music of Sister Act (no joke), decided to slip into the song. It fitted, and definitely suited this song more than the choral arrangement of Kylie’s Can’t Get You Out Of My Head that I’d written it for initially. (again, I’m not joking. I still have that arrangement.)
But as soon as the Allelujah slipped into the song, I realised what the song was about, and it all became much clearer to me. The beautiful Meadhbh Sullivan added the vocals for the Allelujah parts for me, and the demo is a good idea of what the song will be.
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These were sketches of melody ideas for a project that never really came about. But I quite like the ideas. This piece is just a few little sketches that I came up with while playing the piano in Java’s café in Galway one afternoon. It’s a beautiful piano, and it seems to prefer being used for instrumental music than anything else. There are times when it can be a bit annoying, as the piano is there for anyone to use, but generally people treat it with respect and you can stumble upon some beautiful piano music in there.
But this piece was really shaped by that piano, actually, the sound of the piano is quite distinct, and I really would love to use it for some recording. My digital piano sounds just a little too bright and cheery for the music, in my opinion, but I’m probably just being a bit of a stickler.
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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.
One of my favourite things is going out clubbing, and spending the night on the dancefloor. I started clubbing when I was about 16, and fell in love with the feeling you get when you’re dancing in a club. I wanted to write a throwaway dance-pop song that reminded me of the kind of music I was dancing to when I first started clubbing.
The lyrics aren’t anything special – just relaying an idealised version of a night out on the pull in a club. I’d written a few songs about breakups or being in love, but I’d never written anything about meeting someone for the first time and that energy you feel when you see someone who totally grabs your entire attention. So, this song was an attempt to capture that feeling.
The directness of the lyrics is inspired by a friend of mine from a number of years ago, who would always be very direct with anyone they took a fancy to. Never bothered with any kind of a chat up line or pleasantries, just direct and to the point. And more often than not it worked, much to my surprise. So this song is a nod to that particular friend, who knows who they are I’m sure.
I demo’d it at home and it’s my second attempt at trying to program some beats, and incorporate some loops to add to the sound. It’s not finished, and it’s certainly not perfect, but it gives a good idea of where I want it to go.
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