We just released the promo video for “Tales of Dark & Light” This was done using a collage of many of the superb photos from Karen Turner. Carl Rosamond and myself decided to used these photos along with a few snippets of video I had recorded.
The music is the final track on the album, the title track “Tales of Dark & Light” which brings together themes from four other tracks on the album with a shruti box drone played by Agi. This is a world apart from any previous music I have played and the vocal is a three part harmony arranged by Agi, who truly is “the queen of harmonies” I have never come across anyone with such a talent for such arrangements as well of course having a great voice.
I have realised in recent times that its important to expand musical horizons. My original “Small Change Diaries” band was pretty ukulele centric, but “The Caravan of Dreams” is far more diverse musically and there are usually six instead of four members. On the “Tales of Dark and Light” album there are 12 musicians and a huge variety of instruments.
In our live playing I now include electric guitar (custom Warmoth strat with Moses graphite neck” as well as the excellent Gregor Nowak guitarelle. This also means different amplification considerations, but fortunately the Henriksen Bud and Blu amps continue to do a superb job.
I still enjoy the ukulele and write on it, but guitar and mandolin are currently inspiring all manner of new musical ideas. As well as the 14 tracks already recorded for the Caravan album, I have another eight tracks ready to record later this year. I expect to add more guitar in the sonic mix and already plan to bring in new musicians to add to the Caravan of Dreams sound. The “Music for The Head & Heart” project has brought me into contact with a huge range of new musicians which also have helped expand musical horizons.
I’m a big fan of classic artist photos in music and have become increasingly aware of the importance of using good photos in promoting music. Note the term “good”, often people can settle for an “OK photo” or as they like to call them “pics” a term my official photographer Karen Turner quite rightly hates!
I don’t profess to in any way be a professional photographer, but I confess to being totally in love with my Fuji X Pro 2 camera and I now use it for everything. This was bought as a back up camera to my Leica M, but once I started using the Fuji I never looked back.
I am fast learning the value of having a camera of this quality and how best to use it. Often its about how to frame the best shot and I’m pleased with the following photos I’ve taken. In some instances there was a bit of luck involved, but I am increasingly loving taking photos, especially of musicians. Here are some I love. Are they “good” or dare I say “great?”, well that’s for others to decide!
This is going to be a busy week with rehearsals on Monday and Thursday, a full photo shoot on Thursday and another warm up gig at The Grove Tavern Thursday night. This requires a great deal of practical organisation, something I have realized is essential when running a band.
Key considerations are making sure that everyone knows where to be and when they need to be there. I often joke “Thank god we are not a 12 piece band” as meeting up requires a fair bit of planning. I always pay band members for rehearsal and gig time as I appreciate that its a tough life working as a musician. Today I’ll be figuring out what I need to take to the photo shoot followed by the gig. Here’s my list so far, but this is just the provisional list, there will be more items
2 Bud Henriksen amps
1 Blu Henriksen amp
Furman power supply
2 Genaray lights
2 Sony MV1 cameras
Blackwood tenor
Baritone uke
Gregor instrument
Moses strat
Bliss audio gravitas pedal
Rat stand
2 mic stands
2 Heil Finn mics
SM58
Heil Mic
2 XLR leads
3 instrument cables
2 tripods
Tuner
Hat
We will be rehearsing from 3.30 pm and then doing a photo shoot at 5pm with the gig at 8 pm. Practical considerations about when and where to eat are important as well as transport. I use Karen Turner for all band photography and in the past flew her overseas for one festival because she is that good. Many bands in my view fail to appreciate the value of visuals both in stills photos and video. Often photos are “OK” but not great and video can be sub standard in picture and worse still sound quality. As I have said many times “You never get a 2nd chance to make a first impression”
I have realised that I am developing a problematic habit of needing an increasing number of instruments for a 50 minute set, but I am a fan of having lots of variation in sounds and this Thursday may be the first time ever I have included an electric guitar.
Other considerations include how much space there is on the stage for gear and players. There will be five of us at The Grove, but fortunately the Henriksen amps are small and sonically brilliant. All of this means a bonkers amount of detailed planning and I have a new appreciation for band managers and crews for touring musicians.
I write, record and play for the love of music and am lucky to be able to fund it from other work. I’m lucky to play with many superb musicians and the experience of writing, recording and playing live is an experience like no other.
I’m now in full preparation for the May 11 album launch for The Caravan of Dreams “Tales of Dark and Light” album. This is a monumental amount of work which involves hours on social media, organizing a photo shoot, planning warm up gigs and rehearsals and costing the whole process!
I’m a big fan of making sure everything is of the highest quality and previously I organised the album launch for The Small Change Diaries “Lullabies for Cynics”. That launch was a massive amount of work where I had three support acts 175 attendees and a huge space for the live work. I also had the major challenge of our longstanding double bass player being seriously unwell and Dave Bowie saved our necks at the last minute by stepping in.
The May 11th launch will be a ticket only event where attendees will receive a copy of the new album, released on the day.
Trouble at Mill are organizing the event again and they have years of experience in providing superb entertainment for the public. Ahead of the launch we have a few low key gigs to work up the new Caravan of Dreams material. This means lots of rehearsals and that means a great deal of time management! I semi jokingly comment “Thank god we are not a 12 piece band” as its a challenge to be able to get everyone in the same time and space to practice.
I have a policy of paying all band members for rehearsal time as I have the greatest respect for anyone working as a musician. This means lots of practical considerations for costing and to wonderfully quote Blackadder “Sometimes I feel like a penguin. Everywhere I look, there’s a bill in front of me!”
That said, I really wouldn’t have it any other way and its an absolute joy to play with such talented musicians. I am also flattered to already see some good ticket sales for May 11th and never take for granted those who come to see us play live.
“The Pink Moon” was inspired by my good friend Zeke Schein who has told me many amazing instruments over the years in New York and who wrote the brilliant “Portrait of a Phantom” book about the lost photo of Robert Johnson.
Here are the lyrics
The Pink Moon (Song for Zeke)
Dm G7 Cmaj 7 C
The pink moon in Brooklyn, turns a shade of blue,
Mojo man is writing, all his tales are true,
Coffee’s for the morning, Robert’s in his dreams,
Portrait of a phantom’s, all is what it seems
Em Bm Em Bm
Sun sets on spring street, yellow cabs ride by,
Em Bm A Bm
Story’s for dreamers, under New York skies,
A Hatful of fiction thrives in this old brain,
Waitresses are peeking at what is here again.
Made your mark on Bleeker, for 27 years
Set us kids in motion, opened up our ears
Instrumental
Music is our language, it’s our common bond,
Power to awaken, the joy in every song,
Transforming spaces, transcending time,
Here at the crossroads, all is here to find
Em Bm Em Bm
Sun sets on spring street, yellow cabs ride by,
Em Bm A Bm
Story’s for dreamers, under New York skies
I’m in the process of planning the next 18 months for all music projects. A key aspect of this will be the album launch for The Caravan of Dreams album “Tales of Dark & Light” where I have now finalized the tracks.
To date I have written and recorded 40 original tracks which to my amazement is on average 10 each year since 2014. Here is a list of everything to date including the track listing for the new album.
ADAM BLAMES EVE – THE SMALL CHANGE DIARIES
Adam blames Eve
This Perfect Place
Airport Codeine Blues
There’s only one of you
One day I’ll disappear
Birdman
Miles Ahead
I’m driven here to comment
This Heart wants
Five String Man
Hey Rona
Amish frame of mind
Cold Mountain
PROTEST SONGS – THE SMALL CHANGE DIARIES
Not one of us
Big Tony
Commons Sense
Draw you out
LULLABIES FOR CYNICS – THE SMALL CHANGE DIARIES
Hold on
Huggie Crying thing
I know what you’re saying
Not one of us
Kicking down doors
There’s no trees
Draw you out
Voodoo Doll
Birdman 2017
Slow news day
You can drop by anytime
Lullaby
You got the looks (unreleased)
TALES OF DARK AND LIGHT – NICK CODY AND THE CARAVAN OF DREAMS
I grew up in the 1970s in Surrey and used to shop at ‘Threshold Records” which was owned by The Moody Blues. Back then they stocked the store with an amazing selection of music, including the original Jimi Hendrix albums on Track Records, the Yes albums and all manner of 70s psychedelic music. I remember buying “Layla and assorted love songs” on a sunny day and I still listen to this music decades on. An album cost two pounds fifteen pence on average until Elton John priced a new album at 2 pounds 45 pence.
There had been attempts up until this point to introduce a new tape music format and in 1971, the Advent Corporation introduced their Model 201 tape deck that combined Dolby type B noise reduction and chromium(IV) oxide (CrO2) tape. This meant that music was portable for the first time, but the sound quality was not great. For those of us recording music in the 1980s the 4 track cassette recorder emerged and then later the Adat which I personally detested with a vengeance.
Phillips produced the DCC as a digital alternative to the cassette and Sony went one further in creating the mini disc. DCC never really took off but I quite like the mini disc, especially when they introduced high capacity discs. The world changed in 1982 with the creation of the Compact Disk or CD and everyone I know had copies of “Brothers in Arms” by Dire Straits. No more tape hiss, scratches or warped vinyl, but many swore that digital sounded harsh compared to vinyl. In 1999 Sony and Phillips created Super Audio Discs or SACDs. By 2007 the general consensus was that this medium had not really taken off. As well as the hard to find general SACDs (these will not play in a conventional CD player) there are the more obscure by excellent Japanese SACDs. These have lavish packaging and the discs are all emerald green. I have never seen these outside Japan.
In the 2001 mp3s began to become popular with the introduction of the I Pod. This is a compressed format and is “OK” for listening on the move but not the best sound, commenting –
“Digital music files download quickly, but suffer a significant loss in quality. Bitrates for most tracks on iTunes average 256kbps AAC audio encoding, which is drastically inferior to the quality of recorded source material in almost every case” Neil Young
Other lesser known formats that never took off include DVD audio that appeared in 2000 and never took off. I confess to loving high fidelity where you can hear the full recording rather than what is essentially a filtered version. FLAC audio has appeared in recent times and now its possible to hear high resolution or HD files which can be truly superb. Of course any listening experience is only as good as the original recording and HD FLAC shows how good or bad the original mastering was. If you are not already exhausted by now, there is also the DSD as a file format .
On August 28, 2013, the Acoustic Sounds label launched SuperHiRez.com, which sells mainstream albums from major record labels that were produced with Direct Stream Digital or PCM audio formats.On September 4, 2013, Acoustic Sounds announced an agreement with Sony Music Entertainment to provide the company’s new digital download service with albums that have been produced or remastered in Direct Stream Digital format.
I have music on all these formats, but prefer high resolution HD flac and DSD files on my home system and portable Sony HD media player. There can be a massive difference in terms of listening experiences, but great music mostly sounds great regardless of what you play it back on. I miss the artwork that came with original vinyl albums, but love the sound of high resolution files which require a good playback system with a digital audio converter.
Vinyl is now making a come back and digital formats remain massively popular. With the closing of HMV, I suspect CDs will continue to decline. According to a new mid-year report released by RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) this week, CD sales are falling at an extraordinary rate, with revenue decreasing 41.5% in the first 6 months of 2018, compared to the same period the previous year
Often people will say “X format sounds best” but so much depends on what kind of system you choose to listen back on and what sounds good to your own ears.
I originally come from a business background and one of the major lessons I learned was to seize opportunities when they appeared. “The music business” is of course no different, although many can have a very romantic vision of what it is to be an artist. Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with romance, but at the same time any music promotion and artist development requires ongoing work and application as well as seeing and seizing opportunities. This means thinking long-term, rather than cutting corners. Above all, it means having the commitment and stamina to seize opportunities and see projects through to completion.
“Something comes along and you have to jump on and do it. You can’t stop until it’s done.”
Neil Young
Some opportunities are created of course and I’m amazed at how many artists totally miss what I call “the elusive obvious” I have always advised artists to pay attention to their online presence, social media activity and musical development. In this talent show era, a lot of this seems to be forgotten as many (not all) artists have almost delusional expectations about their musical ascent. Again I applaud anyone aspiring to develop as a performer and to earn a living as a professional musician, but often there’s a lack of strategic thinking at a most basic level. As I blogged previously, creating great music is only one piece of the puzzle these days.
I don’t claim in any way to be an expert, but producers and established artists all confirm the need for relentless focus and perseverance to create any kind of success. A common issue is not completing tasks. This can include websites, songs or replying to live gig requests. In short these days, any artist wanting to reach a wider audience needs to both create and spot opportunities and crucially to act on them. I’ve realised that each person has to find out for themselves that works. I have also given up offering advice and making suggestions about “the elusive obvious” as some folks either really don’t get the need to move on opportunities and/or are stuck in a very narrow way of thinking and not seeing the bigger picture.
One thing is for sure. The way in which music is created, promoted and received is changing at some rate. As I type I just heard that HMV has gone into administration. This is the second time in 6 years, after there was a bail out in 2012. Of course as one door closes another will open in some fashion…
