Holy crap...a day off!

Okay, so i know i've been moaning a lot lately about people going n about christmas. Well seen as it's the 23rd now, I guess it is Christmas time. Merry Christmas everyone (I won't say it again this year so treasure it)...

Work

What I've been up to lately

• Recorded the last track for the Homework album called 'Is Gold'. My favourite track yet to record me thinks. So that's all the tracks recorded. Just mixing, mastering, cover design, duplication and a launch night to sort out.
• Rehearsing and Gigging with Carrie Mac  - had a good old time in Glasgow apart from the uber-rude concierge in the hotel (which shall remain nameless). Truely the rudest man I have ever met such a role - not what you expect from a swanky hotel!
• Had a scary journey to and from Aberdeen in atrocious weather with The Jenni Gibb Band  - thanks a million to Gary Oliver for getting us home safely. Gary - you the man, seriously.
•  Also had my last of the 'Off-Piste' gigs at Hawke and Hunter - I will never ever miss the fake snow they put everywhere - it took about 5 hours to rid my clothes of that stuff!
• Chucked down a couple of cheeky drum tracks for the ever great Haftor Medboe - he's got a new project going so keep your eyes and ears peeled. 
• Started recording some bits and bobs for my solo album - it's miles away from even 1 finished track but - it's a step in the right direction.
• Learning how to use my newly acquired Fender Jazz Bass - so far i got my major scales and pentatonics down. Now, thanks to Haftor i'm working on walking bass lines - hopefully have Autumn Leaves in original key down by the end of the year. On top of that i've been busting my ass learning Harmony with Renee Stefanie - she's a patient woman let me tell you!
• Rehearsing with The Soul Foundation for their show at Vegas on the 31st...actually can't wait for this.
• As this will be my last blog of the year there's a particularly entertaining video for you of what i've been up to this week :-)

Listening Post

Some things I like at the moment:

• EST 'A Picture of Boris Travelling with Dorris' - I love this song so much!
• Steely Dan 'Alive in America' - Dennis Chambers strikes again!
• 'When You Wish Upon A Star' from the Disney soundtrack - dammit if those strings don't get me every time
• John Williams "Home Alone Soundtrack" - still on the playlist this week!

Play

Stuff that doesn't have anything to do with music

• Inverness Caley Thistle are still kicking butt at the moment - yus!
• Gonna try and get to Inverness for Christmas tomorrow - wish me luck!

Well - that's about it, have a lovely festive period. Got a very very exciting January coming up. More on this soon. Rock on.

R 

Gig, Sleep, Gig, Sleep, Gig, Sleep...Gingerbread House!

December has certainly been a busy old month so far, and just like the snow in 'it doesn't show signs of stopping'. The snow meant a couple of things were postponed cancelled but it's still been a good couple of weeks

Work

What I've been up to lately

• Stu Goodall Band - Rehearsal and EP Launch. The weather meant the EPs didn't arrive in time but there was still an awesome turnout from an awesome crowd. Cheers to everyone who out. You can see a little video from the gig HERE - thanks to Lewis Rumney for capturing a little bit of it and uploading it.
• Gigging with Homework in support of Bronto Skylift - great gig. Bronto were excellent, really original, creative musicians. Crap weather threatened to wreck the night, but thankfully it all went ahead, despite us forgoing soundchecks due to a late start, but hey - that's life.
• Laid down drums for Kerrie Stirling's debut album, expect her bluesy goodness to be with you sometime soon. Tip of the hat to Dan and Doug for their playing and Shahab + Tom for their engineering skills and supreme chat. Looking forward to hearing the end product.
• A wee video of some of the stuff I've been up to

• Cheeky rehearsal with The Soul Foundation for their New Year show at Vegas - get you tickets from the website only £30. It'll be beast.
• Learning some new material for Carrie Mac - she's writing some awesome new stuff just in time for her tour with Alexandra Burke
• Gigging with a bunch of cool people at Hawke and Hunter for their Off Piste nights. Not a fan of the fake snow though, I gotta tell you.
• Also doing some playing for The Jenni Gibb Band - had a class gig on Saturday which involved Al pulling the plug on a DJ, very funny.
• Got myself a lovely Jazz Bass - watch this space for how I get on trying to tame this beast.

Listening Post

Some things I like at the moment:

• Charles Mingus 'The Clown"
• Hypnotic Brass Ensemble (Self Titled) - Groovetastic
• Count Basie "16 Men Swinging" - Wouldn't get away with calling an album that nowadays!
• John Williams "Home Alone Soundtrack" - this is frightenly good.

Play

Stuff that doesn't have anything to do with music

• Inverness Caley Thistle are kicking butt at the moment - c'mon the wee teams!
• I spent my first evening off in 5 days baking a gingerbread house - how rock and roll is that?
• It's still nowhere near christmas yet guys - so shut up about it already!

And that's about it - off to shred for the next few days ahead: 2 rehearsals, 3 gigs, 1 studio session, 1 potentially dodgy trip up to Aberdeen and apparently more snow - all in 4 days.

R

No biz no like snow-biz

Wow, what a week! Last night was my first day off in 12 days or so - and I did what anyone else with half a mind would do on their night off in heavy snowfall...I got a bus out to Dalkeith to meet my good friend Mikey Lambert - tour manager, promoter and musician. He's got a pretty ace blog - check it here

Work

What I've been up to this week

• Recording drums for Safia's debut album 'Out of the Woods'. For those who don't know Safia - she was formally known as Muhsinah. Safia has toured with The Roots, plays in Common's band, and has already recieved a grammy nomination, all before her debut album has been released. I met Safia on wednesday for a short rehearsal before spending Thursday and Friday locked in Radio City Studios cutting the drums for the album. She's an absolute pleasure to work with, super creative and enthusiastic. A massive tip of the hat to engineer Jim Lang who was also great to work with and got those drums sounding sweet, and to Mec for her ace chat and input (and bad-ass Stevie Wonder drumming). Dan from The Noisettes has been laying down guitar for the album for the last 2 days - I can't wait to hear the finished product - it's going to be awesome.
• Gigging with Carrie Mac - this week we were opening for Adam Lambert at O2 ABC in glasgow - it was a fun gig - sold out crowd on 1100, good to be gigging with the band again. Carrie, Harry and Nick are all really ace musicians, so much fun to play with them.
• Here's a wee video I made on my mobile of when I was in the studio with Safia and on the road/sound checking with Carrie - apologies about the upside down clip - that's my iphone's way of reminding me that it's a piece of crap:

• Was also playing at Sneaky Fest with Homework at the weekend. Note to self- don't start the set with a brand new song you've rehearsed twice! Otherwise it was great - awesome crowd. We got some new mixes of the album - they are sounding sweet. Off in to the studio on the 18th to lay down the last track. I've been listening to a lot of Dennis Chambers and Troy Miller lately and this is definitely going to show in the drum track, that's all I can say right now, expect a couple of unexpected fills.
• Had an acoustic rehearsal with Stu Goodall Band for the EP launch on 9th Decemeber, it's gonna be beastly. Looking forward to bashing out the grooves on a kit some time this week.
• So to summarise what i've been up to this week - 2 gigs, 13 drum tracks , 5 rehearsals , 1 day's college tuition, 6 return journeys to glasgow. It's gone fast.

Listening Post

Some things I like at the moment:

• Paul Towndrow - 'Six By Six'
• Janek Gwizdela - 'Live at the 55 bar'
• Buddy Rich - 'Big Swing Face'

Play

Stuff that doesn't have anything to do with music

• My beard is no longer bleach blonde - it grows fast apparently
• The snow is awesome, it wouldn't pose such a huge problem if people would only learn not to drive like idiots
• I'm making mulled wine today - anyone with a good recipe please step forward and help me out

That's it for this week. I've got a load to do for the week coming up, hoping to get some more better videos for next week's blog. Rock the Mic.

R

A poor man's Cisse...

Work

All things music that i've been working away at

Been a pretty crazy few weeks for me, here what i've been up to....

• Playing the Fabrikant Records mash-up night at the lot with The Discordian Trio, in what was our first gig in over a year. It was great to be playing with guys again after such a break - Craig had been out in New York for a year jazzing it up - certainly nice to have him back. The night was was pretty special, I loved every artist (and I don't say that too often). Personal favourite had to be NeWt's duo set which was frankly mind-blowing. Props to Chris Grieve and Graeme Stephen for some seriously special musicianship.

• Rehearsing and gigging with Carrie Mac - been a while since I've seen Carrie as she's been touring down south and shooting a video for her new single, nice to dust of the cobwebs and get playing the tunes again. Been working on some new material which is going to be ace. Also had a little gig playing with Alexandra Burke this week which was pretty ace.

• Jamming with Saxophonist Zack Moir for his new musical outing which is exciting me a lot. There's been a lot of scope for creativity in the project and i've been working on a lot of polyrhythmic stuff for it. I can't wait to start gigging this stuff, for me there's a good balance between structure and improvisation. More on this soon.

• Listening to some early mixes from the Homework debut album, some tracks are already done - we have however just penned another track which means one more day recording and then it will definitely definitely DEFINTELY just be a case of getting the mixes finished. There was a lovely little article about the band in The Scotsman recently which you can read HERE

• My ears have also been drawn to The Stu Goodall Band's new EP which you can buy at the launch night on 9th Decemeber, details on the website, it's an awesome listen and i'm looking forward to playing with Stu and the band at the launch.
• Last night I was Latin-Jazz/Ceilidhing it up with D-Reel, not only a bunch of great musicians but also awesome folks, you havn't lived until you've been talked through a ceilidh dance while the band plays 'Girl from Ipanema' :-)

• On top of that I've been doing some lovely gigs with Corra and Soul Simplicity, working on a new project with Gaz Clinton of Tabasco Fiasco named 'Flux Velociraptor', teaching drums to music students at Stevenson College, learning how to sing thanks to the patience and expertise of Renee Stephanie, writing some material for my solo album (which will be a long time in the making), trying to get my website off the ground, trying to get a pretty damned exciting Jazz project for next year going, and trying to get 8 hours sleep once a week or more.

Listening Post

Some things I like at the moment:

1. 'What's Going On' by Marvin Gaye
2. The new Conquering Animal Sound album - out soon (I'm lucky enough to have a promo copy)
3. 'Conversations with the Unseen' by Soweto Kinch - one of the best jazz albums I own
4. 'Vento Bravo' by Nosso Trio - if you like latin-jazz this is worth a punt, probably the best thing I've heard in 2010.

Play

Stuff that hasn't got anything to do with music

1. I bleached my hair and beard, I like it - everyone says I look like Djibril Cisse - he's cool so I don't mind the taunts.
2. Budget cuts - more instrumental teachers are looking like they will lose their jobs. if you imagine that 'The Arts' is a big Piñata, then the government are a large child with baseball bat, beating the life out of it.
3. It's still November, so shut up about christmas, okay?
4. The apprentice - this is a vintage year - Stuart Baggs has got to be the real life David Brent