I have been fortunate to be working as a sound and lighting technician for a few years now. The knowledge and contacts that I have gained will give me a real head start for when it comes to the technicalities and logistics of the show. Here are some of my thoughts on lighting.
Here's a video of me lighting a Michael Jackson tribute show using the haze to really bring out the beams. It's a private link so please don't share or I'll get fired.
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I have recently started listening to a musician called Dodie Clark. Her style is really really nice and she is a fantastic songwriter. Her songs always sound so clean. The mixing is brilliant. She's made me re-think a few of my songs and how I play them. I've been sat on a handful of songs that aren't really going anywhere, but listening to Dodie has helped me see some potential energy for them. The idea of telling a story before singing the song as been done before by many artist, but it tends to be just the one if in a show or on the album. I'm still looking for more examples and inspiration so if anyone reading this has some, please let me know in the comments.
Ok, so I am back from my winter theatre job and have decided to create a to do list for this project.
1 - Content. I desperately need to get some content out there. My creative work is just an old stagnant pool in the baron landscape of my underused and under utilised social media accounts! I have two main aims for content, firstly release a single and secondly release good quality footage of me performing a story. 2 - The Tour. I need to start thinking more about which venues would be suitable for the show and start a dialogue with them. 3 - Tech/Staging This is a biggie. How is the show actually going to look and work? I need to start thinking about the logistics of the performance and getting it from A to B. 4 - Marketing. Photo shoot, podcast, videos, tidy up the website and social media pages.
"Why aren't people liking my music at the moment" I ask myself.
"Because there is nothing online to listen to. You are not on Spotify or Apple Music or anything." I replied, annoyed at myself. "But... but I have some videos of me performing!" "They're all very old and most of them are with your old band, so it's not even 'Araby'." "Oh." I slump, defeated. I found that during my time at university, I would create something enthusiastically, record it in my bedroom and then release it all in the space of a few days. I would then go back and listen to it maybe a week later and delete it, realising that it is terrible quality mixing and just overall not very good. Since university however, I have realised that I am now the complete opposite. I am never happy with anything and haven't released any 'serious' content in a long time, leaving my online content and presence stagnant. So, I am planning on releasing some content imminently. Photos. To start I will be shooting some promo shots of me with a tidy jumper on. I'm also in conversation with an illustrator who's work I really like. Hopefully we can collaborate for some tidy brand imagery. Music EP. - I will be releasing a standard EP with a few songs on it. I will be releasing this on Spotify. Podcast. - I will record a Podcast version of my songs to release in stages. Hopefully building up a nice audience for people to then come and see the full show. Pablo. Pablo will also be releasing some music. His music is very different to mine though.
Over my many conversations with Pablo, I have discovered that his story didn't end with that one song. There are now two more songs, forming a trilogy of Pablo's story-songs. Pablo would like to perform one himself, but he isn't often free due to the high demand of his work at the bus station. But there is a software from Adobe called 'Character Animation' that will allow Pablo to perform live and interact with the audience.
You may have seen the Deep Dive video that Pablo recorded for me, that was made using the same software. So as long as I have a good connection from my laptop to the projector, then there is no reason that Pablo cannot perform for everyone at a future salon event. I was unable to make it into uni to present my recent work, but luckily my friend Pablo could. This video was not only a way of presenting my work but also a way of testing the waters with the animation and character development of Pablo. This video felt like a prototype for what Pablo could achieve in film. It's hard for him to do much more than move his arms (one at a time), but the slight head moments, blinking, mouth movements and eyebrow wiggling is very easy.
I'd started recording the tracks in my usual acoustic way, but because I'm now picturing the visuals of the show and how the songs were written I thinking of mixing things up. I have always been an acoustic musician and rarely use anything 'electric' in my recordings other than maybe a keyboard sound, but there's been an image in my head of 'the lonely boy in his bedroom writing music' with an acoustic guitar and a little electric drum machine. So I've added some little beats to some tracks, which has changed the way I'm writing and recording now.
Here are some links to my attempts. The first are the 'normal' tracks, the next playlist has the newer versions in. Which do you prefer? Please leave a comment... (needless to say they are not mixed or mastered yet)
I've been making some tracks. I will eventually use them for the EP that will be online and sold at gigs.
Here is a clip of me performing 2 songs, the first is Bulletproof and the second is Make Believe. The second song starts 12 minutes in on the first video.
This was me performing whilst trying to remember the script. It was pretty soon into the set when I realised that following a script wasn't for me - it felt like too much pressure and restricting. I have never told the story the same way. After the set I felt good about how it went, but watching it back I've picked up a few things that need work.
Things to think about for next time: Could I get some people to be the characters? (This also helps with not playing guitar as much) Slow down Don't swear. I made the decision to get a video of me performing a song story online ASAP. I've been thinking about which song to film and I'm going to go for a song called Make Believe which is about a pigeon that falls in love with a dove. I think it's a good story to tell as its got a bit of comedy and romance as well as I like performing the song at the moment.
I'll start looking into some performance opportunities that would be OK with me documenting it. My issue now is that I have a job contract that won't finish until the new year, so the ASAP thing is not going to be particularly soon. Hopefully It'll be online by the end of Feb. I'm battling with something in regards to marketing. See, I want to show what I'm doing with show to people and potential audience folk, but I don't want to spoil the stories and/or songs, so haw can I market something without showing anyone anything?
It would be a lot easier if I was Bruce Springsteen talking about his songs because people know Bruce and want to see him. Maybe he should do a show where he tells the stories behind some of his songs, perhaps in a theatre on broadway? Anyway. Posters and photos are spoiler free materials but I want people to know the songs and want to see the show because they want to see it, not just because they're my friends and family. So how can I achieve this? Well I've had a discussion with Tom and he suggested creating a trailer for the show in the same way they do for a film - the trailer doesn't have spoilers so that makes sense. During the discussion with Tom, I did realise that I was probably being too precious about the stories, if you think of for example Tim Minchin who's often tells stories and then sings funny songs, his work is online and people still pay to see the songs live, even though they know how it ends. Plus, you don't buy an album and think "Oh good, no I have their album I never have to go see them live again". So suck it up and make some content already. Get some good footage of me telling a story to an audience and get it online.
Now to her back in and hopefully get a sweet hit of dopamine when I see how many more likes I have.
After a very interesting presentation on Social Media it got me thinking about what I'm trying to achieve online. I realised that my main goals would be to gain fans ('followers') that would hopefully pay to come see me play or to buy my music. Most of my current followers are just my friends or family, so I need to create better content to attract fans that I don't know.
As a lot of my work is going to be story based, I have looked into the app 'TikTok' and its uses. Tiki's Tok is the fastest growing Social Media Site and is visual orientated. I Have created a profile and using the information from the lecture I will try to gain some followers on there. I will incorporate my music, my storytelling and my cute pet bunny rabbits. Maybe something will get lots of 'likes' and could maybe lead people to my other social medias and even maybe lead them to come see a show sometime. Just a quick post about a theatre piece I worked on last night.
Cassie Workman is an Australian creative and musical stand up comic. She visited the theatre I work at to perform her piece 'Giantess' before doing a run in SOHO, London. It was a great piece of story telling in very inspiring in all aspects. The visuals were very simple but very affective and it has given me lots of food for thought regarding my own show. The stage set up was a table stage right with a bottle of water, a keyboard stage left and centre up stage was a single window, that when the plain white blind was closed had images projected onto it. The artwork was very simple, single line, biro drawn sketches with no colour and sometimes a little bit of text. It was so simple yet so effective. There was very basic lighting, simply a spotlight on the keyboard and a general wash for the stage. There was however a amber tinted light behind the window (hidden) that when turned on made it look like the sun was shining through the window - a really simple but nice touch. https://sohotheatre.com/shows/cassie-workman-giantess/
Where do I want to be by 31st of October? (insert brexit joke here) Ok, so I've typed this up a little later than planned, so now it is more of a 4 week plan. My imminent goals are quit simple, the main focus is getting the stories written up. So I have challenged myself to create one per week, so I will have four by the 31st. Here is an example of what I am aiming to create for each song. How many songs and stories do I actually have?
I plan to find a good handful of songs that can be performed with the story part alongside it. I have only performed a 'story-song' once before and have some that are suitable but to create the show I need to dig deep into the back catalogue of my songwriting history and dig out some oldies. And of course maybe write some newbies. Josef Albers. Leigh Davies brought up a book in his presentation that looked interesting - Colour Theory by Josef Albers This will be useful when it comes to the design of my show overall and what colours I could use to help generate my own aesthetic for the show. Very much written as I think, so it should hopefully flow as if live...Windmills and Wooden Shoes.
As a songwriter I find it hard when writing about people from specific places or places and cultures, I find it hard not to be cliche. Anyway here is a song about a girl from holland called ‘Windmills and Wooden Shoes’. I wrote this song in the summer of 2012, and I remember the year because it was during the London olympics. At the time I was camping in the south of France (It’s not as cool as it sounds, I was about 18 and on a camping holiday with my family). So there was a small hut in the middle of the campsite where they’d set up a little TV for anyone that wanted to watch the Olympics. I used to be into my athletics and sports in general so I would often visit. There was also this lady who would go to watch the olympics and she was the only person who was near my age range, and we kept catching each others eye but I don’t think wither of us were confidant enough to initiate a conversation, I mean I didn’t even know if she could speak English, and I’d only be able to ask her what her name is and ask where she lives in French and that would be the end of the conversation. I would be able to translate her answers either! So a few evenings went by without us ever talking, and then I was my last night there and it was the night Usain Bolt had his 100m race, so everyone was excited and the little hut was a lot busier than usual. There were people from all across the world, you could here all different accents and languages and it was a really cool experience. So after Usain’s race finishes the room starts to empty until there are very few people there. The people that are left are all talking to each other, except from myself and this lady. There’s no reason for her to be here now, and to be honest there is no reason for me to be there either. Maybe she’s waiting for someone or something - I don’t know. All I know is that this is my last chance to probably ever speak to this person, and I can tell that she’s been looking over to me. Maybe she’s trying to send a signal over or maybe she’s not. Anyway, I wait for her to look over at me switch my phone off and pretend that it’s battery has run out. Then I wait for her to look away and quickly hide my watch in my pocket. Then I walked over to her and said... *This is where the song starts* None Here (WT) This song takes place around thirteen years old. I was only a teenager but I was in a very serious relationship relationship - we had been together for almost 3 months(!) That is like 3 years in adult relationships. It was a turbulent time however, it was definitely what you would call an ‘on again, off again’ relationship. One day we’d break up and the next we’d be together again as if nothing had happened. I remember the very first time she broke up with me, I was heartbroken! It ripped me apart, but luckily a day or two later we were back together. Then I remember the second time, I was completely numb and heartbroken, at least until we got back together. I even remember the third time, I was completely heartbroken, but then we got back together. And then there was the fourth time and I was a little heartbroken… and the the fifth time, and I kinda noticed this pattern.It had happened so much that it became almost like a routine. I was doing things half assed because I thought, well we’ll always get back together and when she’d break up with me I wouldn’t mind so much, because I knew we’d end up back together. I remember at the time writing a song about the situation in one of my notebooks and I’d left the notebook only bed and she came over one time and found the page and read the lyrics that went something along the lines of ‘it has happened so many times before, I don’t get that broken and numb feeling anymore’. So, she broke up with me. But, I didn’t really feel that numb or broken feeling. And we were back together a day or two later. But I remember the one time that she broke up with me, something felt a little different. There was a weird tone to her voice and I didn’t like it. We were at her house, and she sat me down. I was on her bed and she was sat facing me and she told me it was over, but this time for good. This felt final. I was genuinely numb and just in denial. I’d become complacent and naive. Part of me is thinking, don’t worry, there’s no heartbreak here because this happens all the time but for some reason this time felt different. So we just say there in silence for a bit, her at her desk and me on the end of her bed. *Song Starts Here* On of the main issues I'm facing is that I'd love for my bad to perform with me on each gig of the tour, but I can't afford to pay them so I need to think of ways to work around it. There are 3 options I can find at the moment
1 - Just pay them. I've still not got around to the finance side of things in regards to outgoings and fundings, so maybe there will be enough money to pay them. Or if there isn't money in the 'budget' to pay them, perhaps I could pay from my own pocket? It'd be a lot of money so would it be worth it? 2 - Go Solo I could just make it super simple and just do the whole thing on my own with my guitar. That would save a lot of money, but the impact of the music might not be strong enough - but saying that, it would draw more focus to the lyrics within the song. 3 - Backing Tracks Perhaps using pre-recorded tracks will solve all of our problems. I can simple press play at the right times and then we get the full band sound but without the cost of bringing musicians to each show. I can even assemble it in a way that would mean I could take out certain parts if I wanted to - for example if my violinist decides that they want to jump in for a show, then I can mute the violin track recording so that we can only hear the live violin. BUT a big problem with this would be the fact that every time I tell the story it is a little different in length - so having the prerecorded tracks means that there would be no flexibility when it comes to the story telling. Is that such a bad thing? What do I do already? I am a singer-songwriter whose genre would fall under the acoustic folk umbrella. My band consists of a (usually brush) drum, violin, double bass, trumpet and acoustic guitar. I sing and the band tend to throw in the odd harmony. Here's a link to a recent performance where the violinist and drummer were absent. I have always been a fan of how musicians will tell the story of why they wrote a specific song. I have created a previous music body of work that was story orientated which you can watch in the video below. What do I want to do?
As I have just mentioned, I've always been a fan of when musicians explain the song before they play it. And so I decided to try it with all of my songs, then a particular song had a slightly loner story than the others as I felt each time I told it it would get longer and more elaborate. It seemed to really draw people in when I was telling the story and people would tell me that it made them more invested in the song because of it. My project is very malleable but the one main constant is creating a performance suitable for a more 'theatre' based environment, in which I tell stories and sing songs to an audience of (hopefully) paying fans. There are lots of aspects to explore around this idea, but this is the core of the project that I will build around. Other Aspects There are many things that go into the making of a show and here's a list to start with. - EP/Album - I already have the songs, I just need to record them. - Marketing - Why would people want to come to the show? - Self promotion - Why would people want to come and see Araby? - Merchandise - T's, zines, posters, music. - Technical - What are the technical requirements for the show - Financial - What is affordable? Can I actually make a living from this? Summary So I guess that's kind of it for now, over this course I'll be looking into each aspect to help evolve the show. 1. About
2. Project Summary
Project Title & Description Live Visual Music Performance.
45 minute live storytelling and music performance with performers and visuals. Before each song, the songwriter will tell how the song evolved. Whilst the songwriter is telling the story, several actors/dancers will act it out on stage, from the story’s start to the end of the song. Each song is it’s own story, but the performance as a whole will have a consistent artistic aesthetic that will glue them together, as not to feel too disjunct. Project Aims The main aim of this project is to create a new way of experiencing live music, that will be successful enough to sustain itself as a performance piece capable of touring. It will work better in theatre and studio spaces as a performance, but I would like to make sure there is a version that can be performed in more traditional music venues. I can see it potentially developing into a tv series that has established artists taking part in the process, explaining the stories behind their songs and creating a live performance. The storytelling aspect would also lend well into workshops within theatre schools and primary/secondary schools. Exploring what lyrics mean, which words are emphasised melodically and how can we interpret that into physical/visual art. Project Development Requirements To develop this project I would have to improve on my knowledge of theatre tech and performance. I would research into what is feasible within the spaces that the project will be performed and how to get the set from A to B when touring, whilst also considering the financial side. Plus I’d need to work on event management and organisation if it were to tour. Fields of Practice/Research Theatre Dance Acting Staging Directing Songwriting Storytelling (verbal and physical) Current performers that tell their stories before singing their songs - Passenger, Damien Rice, Glen Hansard, etc. Bibliography 'Performance Now: Life art for the 21st century’ by RoseLee Goldberg. ‘The Art of Songwriting’ by Ed Bell ‘Costume in Performance’ by Donatella Barbieri |
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