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.
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| 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
