The EP Launch was yesterday; everything came together and I have been left feeling that despite a few technical hitches that were out of my control, it was a success. I even managed to get a bit of compensation off the venue for the technical hitches without making enemies there, which took the best of the skills I have learnt through working with new people over the last 8 months.
The night worked out so that Swansea Love Story played a half hour set, followed by our EP preview which was accompanied by Mike Pettyt's stunning videos; then we, Jeanie in the Radiator, played a 40 minute acoustic set accompanied by Devin's photos which she had edited and sent to me so I could create a slide show. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and commented on all of the audio/visual media as well as the live performances which is exactly what I wanted.
Swansea Love Story shifted 35 of their EPs, despite selling just 25 tickets to their fans and 60 people left with our EP USB wristbands. With our EP set to be released on iTunes, Amazon and Spotify on May 2nd, I can only hope that the sales will increase. However, whether they do or not, I have achieved a lot over the last 8 months which have culminated in a successful, public launch of my career as a producer, as well as the careers of two groups of musicians, a photographer and a video producer.
I have worked hard on gaining ground as an artist and producer since September. As with all things, there were times when I succeeded and times when I didn't so much, but the key thing is that I feel that I have thrown everything I have at putting myself out there in that time. I have secured my songs airtime on a regional BBC radio station; my band a radio interview on the same station; organised the production of the Soapworks Session youtube videos which now have, collectively, 5,466 views; I have successfully produced EPs for 2 bands including my own; gotten in touch with a BAFTA winning director and secured a work experience placement on her next shoot, as well as passed on a CV to her network of sound designers; released the Jeanie in the Radiator EP as a physical USB wristband and as a download on iTUNES, Amazon and Spotify; I just finalised plans for a job playing guitar in the show band of a production of 'Honk!' at the Royal Northern College of Music which is a great opportunity to further my performance skills; and just today I bumped in to Marc Riley of BBC6 Music and have organised to go and shadow one of the live session sound engineers on his radio show in the next few weeks.
This personal and professional development project has been an invaluable tool in documenting my achievements in order to access how far I have come in the last 8 months. It has also allowed me to evaluate the way in which I have dealt with situations and has taught me some valuable lessons in the field of networking, gaining contacts and securing work and experience for my art. The incident with Stuart Howatson, for example, was my first real taste of the exploitation that goes on in the music business and was an experience that will stay with me forever and remind me that one must be careful who they agree to do business with. On the other hand, the work experience I organised with Tinge Krishnan the very next day was a prime example of the swings and roundabouts of this business.
The case really is that the more I put in to something, the more chance I have of getting something out of it. I will continue to document my personal and professional development throughout the work I have coming up. Once I leave University in the next few weeks I hope to make the most of the work experience with Marc and Tinge and continue to build up a portfolio of work in music and audio, in the hope that I can apply what I have learnt throughout this project, to make even bigger waves in future.
Wednesday, 6 April 2011
Monday, 4 April 2011
Final preparations...
The big EP Launch, which will not only see the release of two projects I have produced but will finalise my Major Project, is tomorrow night. I have been extremely busy over the last few weeks finishing off the tracks for the Jeanie in the Radiator EP and organising other things to fill out the evening. I went to my friend Paul Allen's studio on Friday to work with him to master the tracks. The finished songs are sounding great and so, as I type, I am uploading them to some web space so that my drummer, Ben, may download them to put on to the USB pens which I have put him in charge of.
Mike Pettyt, who directed the Soapworks Session videos has put together some promising (I haven't seen the finished product yet) videos to make up the video installation/EP preview idea I had in mind. He sent over a link to two of the videos for two of the tracks earlier and they're looking great. I've sent him some feedback and he'll be making a few changes, but other than that, the videos look pretty much done.
Devin has been working on the EP art all day today. The initial idea we had decided upon as a band really wasn't working as cover art. Devin voiced her concerns to me, that the photo we had chosen looked too busy and wouldn't work. I went through a few ideas with her and eventually came up with this:
It was a simple idea but a good starting point and I had full confidence that Devin would be able to work wonders with it. She did and therefore, after a few minor alterations to the original mock-up she sent over to the band, we now have our finished EP design:
We're all really pleased with it. Devin did such a good job and it was great in the end that the whole band was able to spend a good 15 minutes during band practice this evening suggesting changes and alterations to the original design. Everyone had their say and then Devin did very well to make the best of all the ideas. The logo is courtesy of Sophie, our drummer Ben's sister with some tweaking by Ben. A group effort that has come out really well in my opinion.
Ideally, if we had had more time to do the photos I'd have preferred to have given Devin more time to do this design, as she was under a lot of stress to have it completed today. It is difficult to manage time when band members have educational or work commitments. These last two weekends have been the only two that all members have had time to spare for a while. I think we managed to work wonders in the time that we did have however, and in a way it has taught me the both the value of early planning, and the fact that the best laid plans of mice and men really do 'go oft awry'.
Hopefully that won't be the case tomorrow evening. Practice went really well tonight and I just have a few last minute bits of preparation before tomorrow including information leaflets and mailing lists. I also sent Ben a short PlainText document to put on to each USB wristband crediting the people who helped us make it, and the people who buy it. A nice touch to show our appreciation for the people who support us.
Mike Pettyt, who directed the Soapworks Session videos has put together some promising (I haven't seen the finished product yet) videos to make up the video installation/EP preview idea I had in mind. He sent over a link to two of the videos for two of the tracks earlier and they're looking great. I've sent him some feedback and he'll be making a few changes, but other than that, the videos look pretty much done.
Devin has been working on the EP art all day today. The initial idea we had decided upon as a band really wasn't working as cover art. Devin voiced her concerns to me, that the photo we had chosen looked too busy and wouldn't work. I went through a few ideas with her and eventually came up with this:
It was a simple idea but a good starting point and I had full confidence that Devin would be able to work wonders with it. She did and therefore, after a few minor alterations to the original mock-up she sent over to the band, we now have our finished EP design:
©Jeanie in the Radiator
We're all really pleased with it. Devin did such a good job and it was great in the end that the whole band was able to spend a good 15 minutes during band practice this evening suggesting changes and alterations to the original design. Everyone had their say and then Devin did very well to make the best of all the ideas. The logo is courtesy of Sophie, our drummer Ben's sister with some tweaking by Ben. A group effort that has come out really well in my opinion.
Ideally, if we had had more time to do the photos I'd have preferred to have given Devin more time to do this design, as she was under a lot of stress to have it completed today. It is difficult to manage time when band members have educational or work commitments. These last two weekends have been the only two that all members have had time to spare for a while. I think we managed to work wonders in the time that we did have however, and in a way it has taught me the both the value of early planning, and the fact that the best laid plans of mice and men really do 'go oft awry'.
Hopefully that won't be the case tomorrow evening. Practice went really well tonight and I just have a few last minute bits of preparation before tomorrow including information leaflets and mailing lists. I also sent Ben a short PlainText document to put on to each USB wristband crediting the people who helped us make it, and the people who buy it. A nice touch to show our appreciation for the people who support us.
Sunday, 3 April 2011
Photoshoot...
The photoshoot went so well today and has left me feeling a lot better about this EP Launch on Tuesday. Although we arrived at Delamere 2 hours late due to one of our band members suffering from a rather vicious hangover, we worked really well to get the balloons blown up and take some full band photos, single portrait shots and some to work for our EP cover.
It was good practice today for photoshoots as I'm not very experienced as far as modeling for photographs goes, so having the photographer as someone we knew really helped us feel more relaxed about it. Devin had some really good ideas for the shots, as we only had the theme in mind and little more, and she also directed us well. All in all it was a successful morning.
We went straight straight from Delamere to practice and went through the set for Tuesday's Launch a couple of times. We're working on a cover of Radiohead's 'Lotus Flower' too which ought to go down a treat on the night. Devin has some editing to do as far as the photos go, but has offered to sort out the EP cover too so that's a weight off my mind. We won't have time now, however, to set up the photo display as we originally planned with Stephen but I am thinking that a slideshow of some of the best photos on the projector screen while we play will be just as good, if not better.
I'm looking forward to seeing what Devin comes up with for the EP cover, but for now she has finished editing some of the photographs.
It was good practice today for photoshoots as I'm not very experienced as far as modeling for photographs goes, so having the photographer as someone we knew really helped us feel more relaxed about it. Devin had some really good ideas for the shots, as we only had the theme in mind and little more, and she also directed us well. All in all it was a successful morning.
We went straight straight from Delamere to practice and went through the set for Tuesday's Launch a couple of times. We're working on a cover of Radiohead's 'Lotus Flower' too which ought to go down a treat on the night. Devin has some editing to do as far as the photos go, but has offered to sort out the EP cover too so that's a weight off my mind. We won't have time now, however, to set up the photo display as we originally planned with Stephen but I am thinking that a slideshow of some of the best photos on the projector screen while we play will be just as good, if not better.
I'm looking forward to seeing what Devin comes up with for the EP cover, but for now she has finished editing some of the photographs.
©Devin Grier 2011
©Devin Grier 2011
©Devin Grier 2011
©Devin Grier 2011
©Devin Grier 2011
©Devin Grier 2011
©Devin Grier 2011
©Devin Grier 2011
Thursday, 31 March 2011
Putting new, last-minute plans in to action...
I had already put new plans for our photoshoot in motion, but it was good to hear from Stephen today to apologize and confirm that he couldn't possibly get time away from the hospital to do the photo shoot for us this weekend. I told him that it was fine, but we were sorry that we couldn't work with him and we'd be okay to work something else out.
We have done away with the idea of doing it indoors at all on my girlfriend, Devin's, advice and instead have decided to do it this Sunday at Delamere Forest, making the most of the forecast morning sunshine. Georgie, my sister and our synth player/backing vocalist, will be doing our clown make-up and Hollie, our lead singer, has bought a load of balloons for us to use. Hopefully we will be able to get some really effective shots. I have a lot of confidence in both Devin and Georgie's abilities, so I'm sure we wont have too much trouble.
I'm pleased with the way that I was quick to instigate a new plan and pleased at everyone else's willingness to change the shooting day. It is always awkward making business decisions around family issues such as the illness of Stephen's daughter, but he is a professional and we have both expressed our interest in working together on another project in the future.
We have done away with the idea of doing it indoors at all on my girlfriend, Devin's, advice and instead have decided to do it this Sunday at Delamere Forest, making the most of the forecast morning sunshine. Georgie, my sister and our synth player/backing vocalist, will be doing our clown make-up and Hollie, our lead singer, has bought a load of balloons for us to use. Hopefully we will be able to get some really effective shots. I have a lot of confidence in both Devin and Georgie's abilities, so I'm sure we wont have too much trouble.
I'm pleased with the way that I was quick to instigate a new plan and pleased at everyone else's willingness to change the shooting day. It is always awkward making business decisions around family issues such as the illness of Stephen's daughter, but he is a professional and we have both expressed our interest in working together on another project in the future.
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
All clouds...
I just got off the phone with Tinge Krishnan, the director my Uncle had put me in touch with. I sent her a Facebook message just over a week and a half ago and was expecting to have to just cold call her, until she sent me a text 20 minutes ago asking me to ring her whenever I wanted.
I jumped at the opportunity and rang her almost immediately. She said that she had quickly read my Facebook message despite being very busy and would be pleased to help me out. According to her, I'm best to get working on a film music and sound design portfolio, which is something I had planned to do as soon as my University work is finished. She also said that she would be happy for me to come and act as runner on the set of her next shoot, which is possibly for an advert in May, and that if I emailed her my CV she would pass it on to the sound designers who worked on her feature film, 'Junkhearts', in the hope that they might give me some work experience.
All in all it was great hearing from her, she seemed really nice and willing to help me out, and more importantly genuine. I'm glad I went ahead and rang her. I really feel like I have a good ability to make and seize opportunities and will look to continue this in to the future. The phonecall has more than made up for what happened yesterday and so, with renewed positivity, I soldier on with the final mix for 'In Heaven' in preparation for the EP Launch in 5 days time.
I jumped at the opportunity and rang her almost immediately. She said that she had quickly read my Facebook message despite being very busy and would be pleased to help me out. According to her, I'm best to get working on a film music and sound design portfolio, which is something I had planned to do as soon as my University work is finished. She also said that she would be happy for me to come and act as runner on the set of her next shoot, which is possibly for an advert in May, and that if I emailed her my CV she would pass it on to the sound designers who worked on her feature film, 'Junkhearts', in the hope that they might give me some work experience.
All in all it was great hearing from her, she seemed really nice and willing to help me out, and more importantly genuine. I'm glad I went ahead and rang her. I really feel like I have a good ability to make and seize opportunities and will look to continue this in to the future. The phonecall has more than made up for what happened yesterday and so, with renewed positivity, I soldier on with the final mix for 'In Heaven' in preparation for the EP Launch in 5 days time.
One day, I will look back and laugh...
Sometimes I wonder if more things happen like they did yesterday, I might one day have enough material to write a rather entertaining book.
We had our meeting with Stuart Howatson yesterday, who I had been communicating with via email regarding a gig he had offered Jeanie in the Radiator at the Silverstone Grand Prix in July. The meeting was full of fantastic news. He worked as part of the Mercedes F1 team and was also in charge of a company which organised their corporate events. We sat and talked with him for over two hours, during which he offered us two high profile gigs including the Silverstone one and a black tie event which would be taking place a few days beforehand. Each gig would earn the band between £5,000-£7,500 and we would get transported to and from the venues. It would be a big opportunity for all of us to play for a highly influential audience and he was willing to give the opportunity to a talented unsigned band as opposed to the usual mainstream acts they would book.
All sounded fantastic and we left the meeting elated. He had even offered to sort us out with a venue for and transport to an EP Launch after-party, as several venues around Manchester owed him favours. When I arrived home my dad was thrilled for us and encouraged me to check out how high up he was in the F1 team. His name and picture did indeed come up on Google.
Unfortunately, this was the article that contained them: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/01/12/get-used-to-that-view-115875-21960485/
It turns out that Stuart has just recently got out of prison, having been jailed last year for Fraud, convincing his family and friends that he was a police officer for years. He had also pleaded guilty to downloading indecent images of children and it seems that, upon his release, he has immediately started a new lie, conning people again. He got us good.
He had mentioned being in touch with comedian Stephen K Amos. I can only deduce that he did this to us, not for any monetary gain, but for the cheap thrill of meeting a 'celebrity' in our ex-Hollyoaks actress lead singer and to be a man with power for a few hours in our company. Judging by Stuart's twitter feed, he had planned to do the same with Stephen K Amos and a host of other, more accessible, British 'celebrities'.
I have therefore spent this morning getting in touch with Stephen K Amos' manager, Mercedes-Benz, Odder bar (which Stuart had booked the whole top floor of for our 'Afterparty') and the police. Long story short, everyone is now aware and I have resisted the urge to take any action against him personally. At the end of the day, he wasted a whole afternoon of EP mixing as far as I'm concerned, and the professional thing to do is to make sure that he wastes no more of it.
This experience did initially leave me feeling quite shaken and confused. But it would be detrimental to me and to my work to think much more about it. I have put it out of my mind and started concentrating on the EP Launch, my major project, once more. Although I always organise any meetings in a public place, in future I will also make sure that I try to further research anyone I speak to via email or otherwise not face-to-face.
At least the time I sat in a gig meeting with a paedophile con-man will make a great anecdote or, indeed, chapter of a book one day.
We had our meeting with Stuart Howatson yesterday, who I had been communicating with via email regarding a gig he had offered Jeanie in the Radiator at the Silverstone Grand Prix in July. The meeting was full of fantastic news. He worked as part of the Mercedes F1 team and was also in charge of a company which organised their corporate events. We sat and talked with him for over two hours, during which he offered us two high profile gigs including the Silverstone one and a black tie event which would be taking place a few days beforehand. Each gig would earn the band between £5,000-£7,500 and we would get transported to and from the venues. It would be a big opportunity for all of us to play for a highly influential audience and he was willing to give the opportunity to a talented unsigned band as opposed to the usual mainstream acts they would book.
All sounded fantastic and we left the meeting elated. He had even offered to sort us out with a venue for and transport to an EP Launch after-party, as several venues around Manchester owed him favours. When I arrived home my dad was thrilled for us and encouraged me to check out how high up he was in the F1 team. His name and picture did indeed come up on Google.
Unfortunately, this was the article that contained them: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/01/12/get-used-to-that-view-115875-21960485/
It turns out that Stuart has just recently got out of prison, having been jailed last year for Fraud, convincing his family and friends that he was a police officer for years. He had also pleaded guilty to downloading indecent images of children and it seems that, upon his release, he has immediately started a new lie, conning people again. He got us good.
He had mentioned being in touch with comedian Stephen K Amos. I can only deduce that he did this to us, not for any monetary gain, but for the cheap thrill of meeting a 'celebrity' in our ex-Hollyoaks actress lead singer and to be a man with power for a few hours in our company. Judging by Stuart's twitter feed, he had planned to do the same with Stephen K Amos and a host of other, more accessible, British 'celebrities'.
I have therefore spent this morning getting in touch with Stephen K Amos' manager, Mercedes-Benz, Odder bar (which Stuart had booked the whole top floor of for our 'Afterparty') and the police. Long story short, everyone is now aware and I have resisted the urge to take any action against him personally. At the end of the day, he wasted a whole afternoon of EP mixing as far as I'm concerned, and the professional thing to do is to make sure that he wastes no more of it.
This experience did initially leave me feeling quite shaken and confused. But it would be detrimental to me and to my work to think much more about it. I have put it out of my mind and started concentrating on the EP Launch, my major project, once more. Although I always organise any meetings in a public place, in future I will also make sure that I try to further research anyone I speak to via email or otherwise not face-to-face.
At least the time I sat in a gig meeting with a paedophile con-man will make a great anecdote or, indeed, chapter of a book one day.
Saturday, 26 March 2011
Bad news...
I woke up this morning at 8:30am for the photoshoot with Stephen and the rest of Jeanie in the Radiator, only to get some bad news. Stephen had texted me late in the night to tell me that his daughter had been taken to hospital very ill yesterday and he wasn't yet sure if he would be able to get away to do the photoshoot. To be honest, I couldn't do anything but send a text back wishing his daughter all the best for a full recovery and assume we wouldn't be shooting today at all.
These kinds of situations are difficult, because obviously Stephen's family need him and none of us would argue that for a second, but at the same time we have a deadline to meet and so it was up to me to get my business head on and sort something out. Fortunately, my girlfriend happens to be a very good photographer so it didn't take much to find a replacement. However, we would have to possibly find a new location, as Stephen had planned the shoot to take place this morning at Sound Control in Manchester, but with even less time to sort something out, it is doubtful that they will have the time to accommodate us once more.
Stephen is still hopeful that he might be free next week to rearrange, but that is the last weekend possible to get this done so I'm reluctant to take the chance. I also don't want to put any pressure on him, but I will see what he says midweek.
I know I can adapt things to ensure our deadline is met. The only time things haven't worked out for me in the past have been when I have taken too big a risk on similar decisions. And so, though I will see what unfolds over the next few days, I have 'plan B' very much in motion.
These kinds of situations are difficult, because obviously Stephen's family need him and none of us would argue that for a second, but at the same time we have a deadline to meet and so it was up to me to get my business head on and sort something out. Fortunately, my girlfriend happens to be a very good photographer so it didn't take much to find a replacement. However, we would have to possibly find a new location, as Stephen had planned the shoot to take place this morning at Sound Control in Manchester, but with even less time to sort something out, it is doubtful that they will have the time to accommodate us once more.
Stephen is still hopeful that he might be free next week to rearrange, but that is the last weekend possible to get this done so I'm reluctant to take the chance. I also don't want to put any pressure on him, but I will see what he says midweek.
I know I can adapt things to ensure our deadline is met. The only time things haven't worked out for me in the past have been when I have taken too big a risk on similar decisions. And so, though I will see what unfolds over the next few days, I have 'plan B' very much in motion.
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