Wednesday 30 April 2014

Empty Quarter (Rub' al Khali)

So here's a little instrumental delve into my Middle Eastern-esque works of late. I feel I've found a niche musically, that I'm comfortable with and seems to hold endless possibilities. I've gotten a little creative buzz going lately and I hope it stays for a while. Have plenty of stuff to blog about at the minute but time constraints, right now (work) have reared their ugly head so here's a taster, named after the infamous Rub' al Khali desert. Thanks for listening.



Monday 28 April 2014

And now for something completely different: A Call To Prayer (The Adhan)

Growing up in Ireland, you could be considered lucky with the culture that surrounds you. We tend to take it for granted. One of these things is our national music, or as we call it "Trad" or "Diddly Aye"! I always gravitated more towards the sad, sombre pieces one would hear especially on the Uilleann pipes from Davy Spillane and the like. As an avid music lover, I have been fascinated by certain other cultures who employ a similar style be it through music or singing.

I'm a method musician. I need to understand a certain piece before I employ it in my own work otherwise I'd consider it drowning in my own ignorance, not that I am anywhere near very knowledgeable in this next culture. But this is where I found the "Adhan", "Azan" or "Azaan" (just three of a number of ways to spell it). Anyway, I was entranced. The vocal is absolutely stunning! Religious beliefs aside, musically it shook me to the core. So I have decided to record a backing to a piece of my preference. (Clearly I couldn't sing it, these men are incredibly gifted vocalists) but it does give me a chance to flex some musical muscle and at least pay tribute to the piece whilst hopefully not detracting from it's power.

For anybody with an interest, here is one of my favourite versions, with subtitles. At one point, so powerful, the camera sound begins to distort. Fantastic.




Wednesday 23 April 2014

Rock n' Raga.......

So I haven't discovered a higher celestial plane or anything like that but about 2 million years ago I purchased the "Ravish Sitar" from Electro Harmonix. It is, to an extent, a sitar emulator with lots of knobs and setting, which frankly terrifies a technophobe like me. So much so, I put it into storage about 2 days after I bought it and never gave it another thought. Here she is:


I've recently taken her out to play after rediscovering the song "Something For The Pain" by Bon Jovi and am having a lot of fun with her. Expect a few sonic experiments to pop out of the woodwork in a week or so. Once I figure out how to use it. Wish me luck!

Sunday 13 April 2014

LOUD NOISES!!


So, I bought myself a new toy, as you can see above! Loud is an understatement but to be fair I have saved the neighbours eardrums as once the level passes 4 o' clock, the windows threaten to wobble in the spare room. It's an investment which will be useful for any parties (home or away) which we may have in the future or should "Skin & Blister" choose to play an impromptu gig for family and friends. It was an impulse buy but overall I am very pleased with it. Downloaded some custom backing tracks, wired up the laptop to it and played along through my trusty Vox whilst warbling along.

It's a new sensation to be honest. As I have been forced to learn to play along with with some popular standards (some enjoyable / some necessary evils) and that is completely alien to me as somebody who only played along to my own compositions for a long time. New mainstream music rarely excites me as it's been monopolised and raped by the Simon Cowell-esque manufactured mentality that's pandemic today. So that's why I tend to live in my own head, listen to older music or find sounds completely off the grid.

Not to go off topic, I'm ultimately pleased with with my purchase and having been gifted some further excellent equipment from my grandfather (I'll cover that in the next one) I reckon I'm in for a fun and interesting musical summer. Thanks for reading.

Tuesday 8 April 2014

A Shameless Plug!

This is a shout out to my friend Tomasz! A fantastic photographer (one of a couple I'm lucky to know) who is rarely, if ever, seen without some sort of photographic equipment on his person. As you can see by his work, he's a consummate professional and clearly loves what he does. This is A LINK FROM HIS WEBSITE to the photography from the charity night for AWARE, detailed earlier in my blog. There is plenty more examples of his work available there. Anything that catches your eye, drop him a line on it. He'll reply quickly as he spends more time online than working........ Just kidding! Check him out now.


Thursday 3 April 2014

The Video - Skin & Blister - "It's Only Love": Live

So, here it is for your viewing (dis)pleasure. Our live debut. Loud, brash and a little arrogant. Just like many classic performances. I'm not saying it was a classic performance as there was plenty wrong with my own personal one but I was vibing off the admittedly brilliant crowd. And as most people who've experienced such a thing will tell you, there's no better feeling than a crowd who's 100% percent behind you. So hopefully my court jester guitarist antics will give you a giggle! Susan, my sister, was practically flawless, though a little nervous right at the beginning. To be expected as this was her first EVER live performance that didn't include karaoke coupled with inebriation in our local pub! Thankfully she rocked it, as I knew she would. Filmed by my wonderfully enthusiastic better half, and yes at 2:45 is the moment I kneecap myself! Enjoy, dear reader. Rock n' Roll!


 

Tuesday 1 April 2014

This is (nearly) Spinal Tap.

We made it through relatively unscathed in last night's charity talent show! I was called up in a last minute request to perform a solo number as due to some acts not being able to attend, they were a little short on numbers. I wont lie, it rattled me a little. I had to pick a song on the spot and perform as the third act, which disrupted my groove a little. Thin Lizzy's "Dancing In The Moonlight" was duly downloaded and I performed it in my best amateur capacity. My sister was nervous, extremely so and I'd hoped my onstage horseplay (I'm a pretty energetic performer) would calm her down. It didn't, but the couple of drinks and her hidden nerves of steel surprised us all.

The soundcheck at the start did not please me. My guitar was too low. The sound producer said it was fine, but you don't argue with the producer. Musician's bible: He's responsible for how you'll sound. If he's having a bad day, so will you. A pre-show natter with a fellow guitarist informed me it was too low though, so against the producer's wishes, I boosted my amp emulator pedal's volume later on. The sister turned into a mouse on the mic check. Not literally. She just lost her voice with the pre show jitters. I practically exploded my microphone and drowned her voice out. This was largely my fault as she had misinterpreted my instruction not to go all out on sound check as "sing clear but not loud". I had actually meant "tone down the stage gestures, shape throwing etc".

So the big moment was pure Spinal Tap! I asked the audience "Are you ready to rock, are you ready to roll?!!" and the instrumental track intro clicks were suddenly inaudible. I remained calm and requested a restart. Again the intro clicks were inaudible, so I winged it, timing the intro wrong. The sister's nerves were shot and she started singing at the wrong point. I started soloing over it and she stopped straight away. We got that out of the way and then BOOM! She sang like a bird - bright , melodic, loud and clear! She was excellent, a pure ROCK DIVA. The place was rocking. Our harmonising was spot on and she threw me a "Play it, Phil!" I couldn't resist, I dropped to my knees and indulged in some ridiculous fret widdling. It was fantastic fun at the time, but my knees don't approve today!

It was brilliantly received but as I gathered last year, the judge is not a fan of the more energetic acts, and I have way too much fun to stop hamming it up so I pile it on. There'll be pictures and a video to follow so you, dear reader, will have to make do with my words until I manage to lay my hands on them. Thanks for reading.