Goodbye to 2022…

This has been quite a year, both musically and on many other fronts.

An early highlight was recording an interview with Jim Glennie, founder member of James. I’ve know Jim and Tim Booth since the early days of James four decades ago and these are highly creative hard working musicians. The conversations with both of them have been quite fascinating and reconfirmed many of my suspicions about “The music business” Crucially they are extremely focused and have always demonstrated a great attitude towards others.

This video was shot by Mal Williamson, who is now my go to guy for all video filming and editing.

Sylvie Simmons on “The Music Business”

Another highlight of the year was recording the podcast with world class music journalist Sylvie Simmons. I’ve been reading her articles for decades and she is an exceptional writer and terrific person. She also has a history of interviewing countless brilliant artists including Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Lou Reed, Frank Zappa, Elvis Costello and of course Leonard Cohen.

Sylvie Simmons

The Towse connection – “West Coast meets West Yorkshire”

After two years of working on tracks with Towse I finally got to meet Grace Fellows in Leeds. This was quite surreal as we’d mostly only communicated by messenger during covid. We did a photo shoot with Karen Turner for the album “All is fine ’til the world goes pop” and shot some promo video with Mal Williamson.

We also shot a brilliant promo for “Maybe” again by Mal Williamson

The 3rd Music for the Head & Heart Showcase

The live highlight of the year was hosting the Music for The Head and Heart showcase headlined by the brilliant Jon Gomm with support from “The Heartache” and “Towse” This was a great evening of music at its very best. Jon is a mind blowing entertainer and the audience loved him.

Towse

“You had a 4% Chance of Mortality” – the unexpected health crash…

During the MHH set I felt I was going down with flu, but didn’t realise until after, I was actually getting covid for the first time. I played the set, but felt really off and was pleased to have remained conscious for the evening. That wasn’t the end of health issues as in November I ended up in casualty with a temperature spike and was later told I had ‘a 4% chance of pegging it” Fortunately I had excellent medical care and now have a plan to prevent any such occurrences. I am reminded of a classic Mike Tyson quote – “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face” In other words such occurrences really provoke some useful reflections… I’m not a fan of posting such scenarios online as some people in my view “play the victim” to get attention, but this was a real gamechanger in stopping me in my tracks and a good reminder to take care of personal health and to value all those who work in the NHS.

That said, I don’t have time to be ill as I have too much to do! I also don’t have time for anyone who bemoans the benefits of modern medicine and the idiot covid deniers, who are a whole new level of stupid.

Special thanks to all of the following folks

Special thanks to all the following people who have been a great support both musically and in many other ways – Daz in the Hat, Nick Field, Shelly Morgan, Andy Coote for radio promotion, Neil Atkinson for PR, Karen Turner for great photos, Mal Williamson for superb filming and editing, Sarah Patrick for graphics, all the terrific musicians who played on the album including Laurent Zeller, Michael Ross, Emily Mercer, Agi, Dave Bowie Jnr, Josh Burnell, Fergus Quill, Howi Taylor, Towse, Corwin Zekley, Rich Ferdi. For live outings Alex Eden, Fergus Quill, Rich Ferdi and Towse for showcase support. For brilliant studio work Carl Rosamond, Jen Geering for great social media work for Green Eyed Records and for my wife Sue who is my true North Star in all matters

Wishing everyone a very cool yule

Nick Cody

2023 – Big year for music, live event & studio releases

We are just a few weeks away from 2023 and its going to be a big year for music releases. I have two full albums planned and a series of singles.

First up will be ‘Year of the Bat Cat” which is the debut album for Code E1 the remix project with the superb Black Star Liner. We recorded 34 tracks during covid and have selected the best ten for the album. We are currently figuring artwork and video promotions for this project. I’m super pleased with this material and it’s a real departure from previous music, much more beats based. Its already attracting some attention with a great quote from founder member of James, Jim Glennie

“Wonderfully innovative and explorative. Packed full of strong melodies and ideas. Exciting and unpredictable.”

Jim Glennie (founder member of James)

4th live Music for The Head & Head Showcase May 20th 2023

May 20th will see the 4th Music for the Head & Heart/Green Eyed Records showcase, with Martin Simpson headlining. This follows the 2022 sell out showcase headlined by Jon Gomm. Martin Simpson is a brilliant artist and tickets are already on sale here .

All the other showcases to date have sold out, so we advise booking early. Support will be from my acoustic ensemble The Small Change Diaries with special guest Laurent Zeller and Towse. I’m being selective about live appearances and exploring so we play to listening audiences where the venues have great acoustics.

The 2nd Heartache album released September 2023

We are 70% through the second Heartache album. This also features Towse on some tracks with great contributions from artists across the globe including Michael Ross from Nashville. The album also includes previous Heartache singles including “Can’t Stop” and “Slow Time” Special thanks to Howard Taylor for arrangements and playing as well as Agi for terrific backing vocals. We will be in the studio for the first half of the year mixing and mastering material.

Sonic expansions and inspirations

I just got back from seeing my deal friend Martin Simpson along with a new instrument, a Larry Pogreba reso guitar. This is a very unusual instrument hand made from aluminium and wood. The sound is very different any reso guitar I have heard, much warmer. It has an original gold foil pickup and sounds amazing both amplified and acoustic. Interestingly it also sounds great through a Supro Comet as well as a Henriksen Bud. I’ll certainly be writing and recording with this.

These kinds of instruments spark all manner of sonic explorations and inspirations. Martin Simpson inspired me to explore different tunings and over the years its been a fascinating journey which has resulted in some great recordings.

Live at The Old Woollen Oct 7th 2022

It’s just over a week since playing the Old Woollen in Leeds as part of the third Music for The Head & Heart platform. This was a terrific night of music with Towse as the opening act. I came across Towse a few years ago and continue to be impressed. The five-track set was a great start to the evening.

Towse also sat in with The Heartache set along with Jon Gomm. It’s quite an experience to front a 7 piece band playing your own original material to a packed audience and as ever the sound was terrific thanks to Carl Rosamond

Jon Gomm headlined and was quite superb. He’s a perfect example of a great entertainer

Three more albums planned 2023 – 2024

“All is fine ’til the world goes pop” is due for release Sept 30th and its already getting great attention. We’ll be playing some of this material on Oct 7th live in Leeds.

I am also working on three other albums, one of which is Code E1 with Black Star Liner, which is already done, ten tracks selected from 34 already recorded during lockdown.

The follow up to the new album is “Take Heart” which also features Towse and is scheduled for release late 2023. The final album is a pure Heartache album which is roots/electric and includes some tracks already released as singles including “Can’t stop” and “You gotta move” I have to write more material for this album in the next year, but its already sounding great.

This has been a highly creative period, and all this would not be possible with the input of so many superb musicians and Carl Rosamond who has mixed and mastered this material.

Track listing for “All is fine ’til the world goes pop”

I just signed off on the credits for the new ‘All is fine ’til the world goes pop” album, released on September 30th via Green Eyed Records. Special thanks to everyone who has made this album possible. I’m really pleased with how these tracks have turned out, literally a global ensemble of truly talented musicians. We’ll be showcasing some of these tracks at the Music for the Head and Heart 3rd showcase on October 7th 2022.

The invaluable home studio setup

Before covid 19, the UK had Brexit and with that car crash decision I immediately upgraded everything in my home studio in anticipation of items becoming more expensive or difficult to locate. My instinct was right as now our currency is in freefall and many standard items are impossible to locate.

The benefits of a permanent set up

None of us knew just how covid would change the ability to record and perform music. The home studio upgrade really came into its own over the last two years and I wrote and recorded a staggering amount of material. These days, recording has never been more affordable and its possible to create sonically excellent material. I’m always surprised that some singer songwriters don’t invest in key gear that is invaluable in getting down musical ideas. Having a studio on hand 24/7 where there are no noise problems, is invaluable. Its also given me the opportunity to explore my extensive musical instrument collection and to my complete surprise I’ve been working almost exclusively with electric instruments. In previous years I had recorded three albums with only acoustic instruments. Now I’ve gone all “Bob Dylan” and everything is on six string, tenor and baritone electric guitars.

Key studio gear

The last two years have been quite a trip and I’ve already blogged on some of the key items that have proved invaluable in studio recording. Many of these are literally gamechangers in writing and sparking creative ideas and include the UAD Arrow interface, Reaper DAW, Synergy analogue tube pre amos, Zen Drive 2 guitar pedal, Austrian Audio mics and the Acme DI unit.

UAD Arrow

The UAD Arrow has been terrific as a really stable, sonically superb audio interface. The UAD plugins are in my view by far the best sonically and really spark creativity. Crucially the Arrow is really easy to use and is invaluable in the studio.

Zen Drive pedal

This Zen Drive 2 pedal has been used extensively on all the Heartache tracks and it is quite extraordinary in terms of how great it sounds. Here you can get all those elusive dumble guitar sounds. Its no surprise to me that Eric Johnson and John McLaughlin are both big fans of this hard to get unit. There are countless overdrive pedals out there, but this one has that edge which is why I use it a lot on recordings. The only other overdrives that match this are the Egnater/Synergy units that I use and especially the COD MTS modules which is now super rare.

Austrian Audio OC818

I now only use Austrian Audio mics as they are just superb. The OC818 in particular is the best vocals mic I have ever come across, just superbly responsive. When I got it, I was so impressed that I re did some of the previous vocal takes. These mics work equally well with all manner of electric and acoustic guitars.

Danelectro Baritone Guitar

This is an unusual guitar in that its very different to any other instrument I own. Sonically it sits in between a bass and a six string electric. I use this extensively on a new track “Crack Dracula” This is a really interesting addition to the studio tools and provokes a totally different way of playing. Its also the most inexpensive instrument I have ever bought and as a bonus it looks super cool!

The Acme is brilliant as a DI unit and especially for bass. Its built like a tank and is another piece of gear that is exceptional in recording situations. Its super easy to use and of course is based on the classic Motown DI units that featured on so many classic tracks.

Reaching a wider audience with your music

Over the last six years I’ve been looking at music promotion and the most effective ways to reach a wider audience. Its been a fascinating exploration and confirmed a number of my initial suspicions as well as revealing some surprises.

Investments of time and money

One thing is certain, if you want to connect to a wider audience, its going to take investments of both time and money. I’d love to think that there’s a quick fix and the music will speak for itself, but that’s really not the case. Like any form of marketing you need time and money to reach an audience beyond friends and family. I’ve seen many great bands play local small venues (often for free) and the primary audience is friends of the band and family. My own experience is that playing local gigs is invaluable in building up performance skills, but it can also burn a lot of time and money with very few tangible results. Of course many artists just love to play and that’s 100% a legitimate reason to gig, but its in my view not something to be relied upon to reach a wider audience.

BBC Introducing experiences

With my first band “The Small Change Diaries” we had an extraordinary amount of music played on BBC Introducing in Leeds, often week on week. I genuinely thought this would crank some interest in the band, but found it made absolutely no difference at all to any momentum for the band. When Alan Raw was one of those choosing the tracks, we had good plays and Alan was kind enough to comment “It’s an interesting sound, it’s good, I like what they are doing!” The second album had a play of “I know what you’re saying is fine” and then NOTHING for any other submitted tracks from following years. I sent tracks from four different projects and even though they were really diverse nothing ever got played again! This was a very different experience and I subsequently found that there were different people choosing the music and a lot of what was played were artists from Leeds college of music. That’s 100% fine of course and one artist had the same single played twice over two weeks, but this lead me to look at other radio stations and see what interest there might be.

Everyone has an opinion, but what actually works?

I attended a music forum in Leeds with a number of local gatekeepers including some from the BBC and it was a good opportunity to hear what people suggested was useful and ask questions. Some of the advise proved in my experience not to be especially helpful at all including the suggestion that radio promoters were a waste of time! My own experience is that this is far from the case and I’m pleased to have built up some really good connections with stations across the UK.

Of course different people will have different experiences and there is no “right way” to market music. My experience is that to be effective you need to useful many different mediums and not reply on sporadic social media posts where friends and colleagues proclaim you as “brilliant”. Its well meant of course, but “the music business” is like any other business, its essentially about “trades” who gives what and who gets what. My experience is that the key is collaboration with like minds and being prepared to put in the hard work.

Green Eyed Records and Music for The Head & Heart

I set up Green Eyed Records and Music for The Head & Heart as platforms to showcase a wide variety of music. This requires a fair bit of time and financial investment. That said, its proved to be a great way to share information and offer practical help to some artists. GER has sponsored some artists with marketing by paying for services the artists probably could not afford, and/or have access to. Music for the Head and Head and Original Ukulele Songs have allowed me to connect to many great artists who I would probably never have come across. Obvious examples are Towse and Emily Mercer, both who play on the forthcoming album “All is fine ’til the world goes pop” Both are smart enough to have their own sites and not just reply on social media platforms. Of course not everyone gets the value of collaboration and I even had one artist decline free assistance from the GER platform, while at the same time endlessly seeking funding from core fans for all manner of urgent financial needs just to get by from week to week. That in my view is not a great long term strategy and the whole “I know better than anyone else, following my dream” is a bit daft. Of course others may disagree and that’s fine to.

Enter Frank Wilkes and Kycker

I’d almost given up on getting sensible advice on music promotion until I spoke to Frank Wilkes from Kycker. Frank offered some great practical advice and the edited one minute clips here are invaluable for anyone wanting to expand their audience reach. Frank is very straight talking and offers some really sensible tips worth listening to. Of course everyone needs to decide for themselves what path they want to take, but it doesn’t matter how great the music is (in your opinion) connecting to a wider audience requires some good strategic thinking. Anyone who imagines otherwise is with respect, totally delusional!

There’s no substitute for experience

I’ve realised that there really is no substitute for experience and its worth looking at the artist interviews on Music for the Head and Heart as well as Green Eyed Records. I’m grateful to Jim Glennie from James, Jon Gomm and Martin Simpson for their insights as well as world famous journalist Sylvie Simmons.

One thing is certain, “the music industry” is changing and hoping that your track will stand out from the other 62,000 tracks uploaded each and every day to Spotify is somewhat optimistic. Ultimately any success will in my view come from working with like minds and appreciating that the old model of “getting signed” “to make it” is now seriously outdated. I have massive respect for any artists seeing to create and bring music to a wider audience. Its often far more work than anyone might imagine and great music alone is not going to be enough. Every artist I have interviewed or spoken to has had a great work ethic, good strategic planning as well as excellent creative skills.

Selecting live appearances, less is more…

Covid created an opportunity for a musical reset and as well as recording a stack of new material that will be released across 4 albums over the next two years, I’m also reviewing live work.

With The Caravan of Dreams we did a lot of local gigs and this experience was invaluable in working up a live set and really getting the band “match fit” The challenge with such appearances is that with the smaller venues there are limitations on audience numbers and earning opportunities. I always pay the band regardless of any fee from the venue. Last year “The Heartache” did just one selective live appearance as a support to another artist. It was great to play to a packed room with great acoustics and to a listening audience.

Nick Cody & The Heartache

Hosting artists and playing support slots

My strategy now is to organise events myself with the band supporting major artists. This is a much bigger financial and time committment, but in my view a much more worthwhile strategy. I can guarantee a much bigger audience, great sound and an overal better experience for all concerned. Previously pre covid I ran two sold out Music for The Head and Heart showcases and its become clear to me that these attract a different audience to standard gigs. This October 7th we’ll be supporting Jon Gomm at The Old Woollen which is currently my preferred venue for a really excellent listening experience. Next year, my acoustic band “The Small Change Diaries” will be supporting a major international artist in Leeds with a special guest appearance.