October: Gigging with No Questions Asked and Singing Lessons

Well it’s been quite a busy month for me!

I’ve had a good run of gigs with No Questions Asked, the band I was depping with and now a semi-permanent member. We’ve done a few gigs around the area, and I have a feeling it’s going to be one of those bands that is conducive to my development as a musician. It’s certainly the busiest one I’ve been in for a while in terms of gigs; not since Crashpoint have I managed for than three gigs a month with a band! While I still feel there is potential in the band yet to be realised, we’re having fun playing live and making a bit of money off it as well.

One thing I did realise during my first gig with No Questions Asked is not to be a dick about my gear. Specifically, my multi-effects pedal. It’s a Digitech BP50, not amazingly brilliant but does a good job for the money I paid for it (£80, eight years ago.) I tend to use it as a stage tuner, but most of the effects on there are amp simulations and compression/noise gate, and most of them do quite a decent job. There are a few modulation effects there, including a phaser which I wanted to use on the bands rendition of Dancing in the Moonlight by Thin Lizzy.

Unfortunately there wasn’t a lot of room in the Mitre where we were playing that night, and due to the length of the power lead that comes with it, there’s no way I could have plugged it in without getting in everybody’s way. Dave said to me something like “Just manage without it; you can play the Thin Lizzy song without it and it will sound as good,” and that’s when I realised: There’s no need to be a dick about it. The effect would have been nice, but not essential. And remembering some people in my past that would have refused to play without their effects made me think: Don’t be that guy. I used my clip-on tuner, managed without my effects and it didn’t make the slightest bit of difference to the show. So there you go!

As for the money I’m making, well, not much is happening with that at the moment. The actual amount I get depends on the venue and how the money is paid, but I’m savvy enough to know that to rely on a band as a source of income is a dangerous game indeed, as work goes up and down. So I’m doing what I do with all the money I get outside of my job, and saving it. It’s of little use to me for day-to-day spending, but if I save it, the money will add up – and it’s there if I need it.

In other news, I’ve now started having singing lessons with my friend and colleague Vie Watson. After singing for 10-12 years, including studio recordings, live performances with various bands and the many solo performances I’ve done, I’m finally getting someone to teach me how to do it. It’s so far had the effect of increasing the range I can comfortably hit – and how to hit those high notes I sometimes struggle with. But more than increasing my level of skill, I’d love to be able to teach singing as well. That will increase the skills I can bring to my work with Dudley Performing Arts, and also increase the amount of skills I can bring to any future jobs. At this time I’m still looking for work in Swindon, and I’m hoping my chances of finding it will increase if I have more to offer!

I’ve not visited an open mic this month as I was busy on the one night I could attend, but that didn’t stop me doing some acoustic slots for NQA on their gig in Tividale when the support pulled out, and playing at the Jam Night they organise! Some people who haven’t seen me play for a while have noticed an improvement in my playing and delivery, so that’s always good to hear!

Next month will be a bit quieter for me in terms of gigs because of some cancellations and a generally lighter schedule, but I’m hoping to use the time for a little rehearsal with NQA.

Matt's Songwriting - Stripping it Down

What makes a good song?

Many things, and taking it back to basics and delivering it with one instrument and/or one voice is a good place to start. This isn’t my idea, and I can’t remember who said it, but for me, the acid test for any song is: If you strip it down and have one guitar or piano and one voice, do you still have a good song?

This came up when I was talking to Dave from No Questions Asked a few days ago. I’d posted on Facebook that I was practicing a Queen song for my solo slot; Dave asked what it was and if I would like some accompaniment. I told him privately that it is Who Wants To Live Forever, and I’d rather see how it sounded with one guitar and one voice.[1] That’s how I’ve been doing my acoustic show for years; only rarely do I have someone else playing on stage with me. I try to capture the essence of the song in this format; if it does, then I include it in my set. If not, I move it on.

I love the full-on rock production, but in most cases if you stripped rock songs down to they would still be good. Some of my favourite songs to cover are: Thick as Thieves by Kasabian, Closer To The Edge by 30 Seconds To Mars, A Little Respect by Erasure/Wheatus, and The Boys of Summer by Don Henley. They all sound great in a stripped-down format. And it comes across in my own songs. Bitterness would be a Crashpoint song if we hadn’t broken up soon after I wrote it; originally it was a punk-style rock song and I remember Cj doing a good job on the drums. Get Out Of My Head began in Perception, jamming a Led Zepplin-style riff on my guitar with John on the drums. It didn’t sound anything like how it eventually ended up – but I used the chord progressions from what we jammed out.

I see it in other people’s covers as well. Steve who comes to Sam Draisey’s open mic sometimes does a finger-picked acoustic rendition of Sweet Child ‘o Mine. I think that, in many respects, his version works better than the original. Granted, I will almost always say that about anyone who sounds different to Axl Rose; (I can’t stand his voice,) but the lighter finger-picking and the gently-delivered vocals capture the essence of that song more than the rock song that everybody recognises. I love Slash’s guitar playing, and the riff to Sweet Child ‘o Mine is fantastic. But Axl could have been singing toothpaste; his voice would have sounded just as bad, and the guitars just as good.

So what about bands where this doesn’t work? Two examples: Pendulum and The Prodigy. The latter, as far as I know, haven’t written anything resembling a ‘song’ in the usual sense. And Pendulum relies on the drum and bass sound with the keyboard riffs; without that, the band wouldn’t work. I’m not saying either of those bands bad. I enjoy listening to Pendulum, and I wish I’d seen The Prodigy at Download Festival in 2006. But I will say that those bands have a good sound – not necessarily good songs.

The problem, of course, is with those songs that are great but have extra parts to them that I can’t strip away. I’ve only played Motorcycle Emptiness by the Manic Street Preachers live once, and it functioned – but without the lead guitar, it’s nowhere near as good. I’d love to play Waterfall and This Is The One by the Stone Roses, and Marvellous by the Lightning Seeds, but I think those songs lose something without their backing vocals.

But I don’t think that with Who Wants To Live Forever, despite the arrangement of the original. Taking it down to one guitar and one voice – as long as both are properly managed – can make it as good as the huge amount of production that went into the record. I’m hoping that comes across if I play it at the gig.

What do you guys think? Is this a good benchmark for whether a song is any good or not? Or is the way the record sounds more important? The answer, I suspect, lies somewhere in between, depending on the context of the band. Just remember, the vast majority of songs that we listened to when they first came out and are still sounding good decades later could all be stripped back to their rawest form, and sound every bit as good.

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[1] At the time of writing I haven’t actually done the gig yet so I have no idea what’s going to happen when I do.

September: Social Media, and Depping in NQA

Back again! As blogging can be more work than fun if I try to do too much of it, I’m trying to limit my posts to 700 words or thereabouts. Thinking about it, I’m not convinced people would want to read much more than that in one sitting anyway…

 

September was a little quiet for me on the gigs front. I did a couple of Sam Draisey’s open mics, which went reasonably well and I’m becoming very fond of The Rainbow Inn as a place to play. I also did a short set at Codfest on their Open Mic stage; this didn’t go too well, largely due to me forgetting my capo and my hands being freezing cold. I’ve added Wetsuit by The Vaccines to my repertoire of acoustic songs; it’s a challenge for me to sing but I’m getting used to it.

However, two major things happened in September that I want to tell you about:

The first is that I’m now doing a run of dep gigs for the band No Questions Asked that’s going to take me up until the end of the year. Dave from the band asked me to come and play bass for an ‘audition’ for the singer they’re currently using, Mike. I knew Dave at school and we’ve kept in semi-regular contact since, mainly at jam nights he helps to run, some of which I’ve played bass at. Though it rarely takes me long to learn simple songs for my acoustic set, I’ve got an affinity with bass that I just don’t have with guitar; I can watch what Luke on guitar is doing to know what notes to play, and sometimes even the keyboards as well. I can lock in to Fred’s drums and keep the rhythm going, and provided I’m not concentrating too hard, I can put on a show with it as well.

The upshot is that Dave seemed really pleased with what I was bringing to the band, as I played all the songs he’d asked me to do and many more besides, and Mike was pro-active in establishing his involvement with them. Dave asked me to play the gigs they’ve got booked up to the end of the year, and as I can play all but three of them, that is what I’m going to be doing for most of the weekends between now and then! I’m not a permanent member of the band yet; I’m going to see how it pans out over the next few months and how much investment I have in the band before I commit to it entirely.

At the time of writing I’ve done my first gig with them and it went quite well. Watch this space for more!

The second thing is that because of some of the training I’m getting working for DY3 Solutions, I’m now making a much more structured use of social media. I now have a dedicated Facebook page for my music: https://www.facebook.com/mattdoonermusic and I’ve been making much more use of my Twitter page as well. I’m advertising the gigs on there, trying to pace out my content and keep people engaged with what I’m doing musically. This is where all my regular updates will be posted. I know it is a folly for musicians to rely on social media entirely – but when it can be done from the comfort of my bedroom, it shouldn’t be ignored.

The Rainbow Inn, Coven: 24/9/2014. There's Sam and Kayla.

As a part of this, I’ve also started making use of the hash tag function on both, uploading pictures I’ve taken from the stage. I’m hoping people will find these photos, tag themselves in them if they were there, comment on them if they weren’t, and generally increase the level of engagement when I’m not actually doing gigs – which as this is at the very most a few hours a week, is actually not that much. So, watch out for the #viewfromthestage tag – if you were at one of my gigs, chances are you were in one of the photos too!

Some big news coming up for next month, but I’d like to see how that pans out before I announce it. I’ll try and get these blogs out on the first weekend of the month after the one I’m taking about, if that makes any sense.

See you at the next gig!

Matt

What's the Story at the Blue Brick? 2/7/2013

As promised, I played the Jam Nite at the Blue Brick on Tuesday Night...

My set list was much the same as ever it is these days, however there were a couple of things worth talking up. First, right before I went on I went on with the band to play Summer of '69 on bass, something I don't think I've done since the Jack's Legacy days. It has been a while since I've picked up a bass guitar, my own having been in its case basically since Aki Maera called it a day, but I have a kind of affinity with it and I remembered the song pretty well. Thanks for letting me play with you guys!

Then when I went on, my set list was:

The Boys of Summer
Zephyr Song
Bitterness
Never Forget You
Morning Glory.

I think with Boys of Summer the first few minutes may not have come across all that well because of some sound balancing issues that it took a change of microphone to sort out. I really should try putting that later on in the set, or last, as that has a bigger impact I think and I don't want it to be blunted by sound issues.

Bitterness was unplanned; I made a joke about forgetting my capo and somebody lent me one! That was very kind of them, I'd have done Storm from the North otherwise, but I was hardly going to say no once they'd lent it to me. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was this song I enjoyed playing most tonight.

Morning Glory was something of an encore, and my old friend Rich Sadler got up and sang the chorus with me and played tambourine. Rich has developed quite a powerful voice over the years and it was cutting right over my gravelly tones; a bit of light and shade never hurt anyone! I enjoyed playing the song and it was great to get a guest musician up with me.

A very good night in all, and it had a lot of support from a local following that Dave and Rich have obviously worked very hard to nurture. They're doing it on the first Tuesday of every month so it would be worth popping down, especially if you like playing blues-rock, they love it!

Tomorrow I'm playing St Mary's school in Brierley Hill for the Insight group, I'll be on at roughly 12:30 if anyone wants to come and have a look. It will be mostly, if not all, covers; as it's a summer fayre it would probably be better to mind my Ps and Qs, so don't be expecting Bitterness, and I certainly won't be playing A Lonely Night, otherwise it will be a lonely car journey home.

See what I did there...