Here’s the new single from Cici Lara who I worked with a few years ago when she was part of New Communication
Category: Nottingham Sounds
One of the awesome things about running a songwriters group is witnessing diverse songwriters interacting with each other. Daudi Matsiko and Edi Johnston are just two of the regulars at First Tuesday who always inspire me to try to write better tunes. But that’s what you’d expect from two of Nottingham’s most interesting songwriters
I was thrilled to be featured on the latest Nusic podcast with the title track of my EP ‘Everything In The World Is Fighting Everything In The Sky’ alongside such great Nottingham musicians as Bru-C, Trekkah and Ed Reisner (who were all part of the Afterdark Movement collaboration I did last year) and Alice Short – a great local rapper/poet. New to me were We Are Carnivores – but after hearing their intriguing Zappa flavoured sound I fired up the internets and bought their EP.
There are a whole new bunch of great Notts music coming out in the next few months, some of it from First Tuesday members, former pupils and collaborators.
Following up his excellent Aeon album Scor-Zay-Zee is releasing the Gangsta Wraps (Take The Throne) EP on Sep 30th.
Copper and Lace the debut album from Americana masters The Most Ugly Child is out on 25th Nov. Mountain Schmountain‘s second album Skate Chills is already out (check out the Dewey Decimal video).
Simon Curd (of Mou Schmou) did the artwork for my new EP and Mark Nelson mixed it. Mark’s band Amazing Planes have a single Good Thing out now from their forthcoming album Lost In Translation.
Joe Strange‘s long awaited album A History Of Birds should be out any day now as should the Garlic EP from Sea Monster Eyes
If you catch The Edi Johnston Bit performing live you’ll be able to get your hands on his ukelele-powered comedy hip hop EP Rock Paper Scissors right now. A digital release is coming soon is out now on Bandcamp!
Speaking of hip hop – the crazy/prolific Bru-C has a fantastic track called Marimba which he’s gonna make downloadable when it reaches 10k plays – which surely isn’t going to take long.
And last, but not least, my EP Everything In The World Is Fighting Everything In The Sky will be out Nov 1st. You heard it here first.
Categories
Race To The Top
Stunning MCs like taser shocks, I got a jet pack flow, I’m taking off
A breathless hip hop sprint to the finish line. A collaboration between The Afterdark Movement and Deeper Than Forever ft. Bru-C and Kayfficial
Download mp3 demo
Behind The Song
All credit to Afterdark’s Bru-C for the concept of trading ever shortening lines with DTF’s Kayfficial. Afterdark sax player Ed Reisner came up with the initial riffs and chord sequence. I suggested stretching out the chord sequence for the bridge to build tension and made a few tweaks here and there. Former pupil Sarah Kerry produced and played live drums and Nina Smith added and arranged backing vocals.
Earth Below are the fruit of the latest Inspire ‘Supergroup’ Project that I’ve been working for the last year along with fellow tutor Nina Smith. They’re a really talent 7 piece band and will be launching their EP Almost There at a BBC Introducing Gig in Mansfield on Jun 29th. Here’s the video for the lead track Mountains
My EP Everything In The World Is Fighting Everything In The Sky is finished. One of the coolest things about it is the great musicians who lent a hand. Lisa de’ Ville added vocals to two of the tracks and right now she’s working on a new album of her own. She was recently a guest on the Proc-Cast talking about her influences and writing methods. You can download or stream it here.
Rob Green was another recent guest, showcasing songs from his new EP (listen here). He’s a great lyricist and I loved working with him on the recent Earth Below project at the Royal Concert Hall. “Rob Green Says ‘Start Clean'” will forever be part of my rehearsal lexicon…
Here’s First Tuesday member Dan Wright with a solo version of a Most Ugly Child song live at Filthy’s Open Mic Night
Dan and Stevie were also featured on a recent episode of the Proc Cast Podcast, playing live in the studio and being interviewed.
Listen here
Huge congratulations to my former pupil Sheku Kanneh-Mason for being named winner of BBC Young Musician Of The Year. I taught Sheku everything I know on the cello (which is NOTHING!) but I did teach him guitar for a little while. I remember teaching him Pass Out by Tiny Tempah but wisely he decided to go for Shostokovich’s Cello Concerto no 1 instead (which by a strange coincidence is actually one of my favourite classical pieces – you should check it out).
Something else to check out is the new single from Nottingham duo RJ Marks. Another former pupil Jake Buckley make a cameo appearance at 2:38!