Guitars and Life

Funny some weeks back I posted on here that I was sort of moving more towards SoundCloud as the window on the web to my musical endeavours.  However almost no sooner had I said that than I had a new host of people who've become fans at my Reverbnation site.  How the wheel of fate churns... so I've decided to have a SoundCloud and Reverbnation widgit on here now. Also I've found some stunningly good music via this as well.  If you want free music to listen to you can do a lot worse than heading over there and plugging into some of the artists.  Clearly play my stuff first then look at the artists I recommend and just look about.  I've found really good metal artists, great folk singer songwriters and others. Finally one such discovery on there led to one guy ( Markke ) putting this comment about my material on my site.   From the rhythmic catchiness of "All At Once", to the gentle acoustic sensitivity of "Partial", to the haunting contemplativen...

It was a funny sort of a weekend.  Started same as ever - well a bit differently for the first time in several weeks I accompanied Daughter-of-Furtheron to swimming training, for a bunch of reasons I've not been on a Friday with her for a while now.  Saturday started with me running her about to go out with a friend shopping heading to pick up some wallpaper - we are in preparation stage for an assault on the master bedroom of the house over Easter and Mrs F had seen some she liked and I thought we'd best order it and get it acquired instead of leaving it and finding that style having been deleted from the catalogue. I spent a lot of Saturday in the studio recording All At Once which has been around a while even having had at least one live outing but I'd not got the chance to record it.  Mrs F and Son-of-Furtheron between them had bought me a Behringer C1 Condenser Microphone for Christmas - it has been something on  my "to be bought" list for ages as many have...

Following on from the last post. I've kicked off a couple of discussions on a couple of forums to see garner people's opinions on these. So if you have any and are  a member of LinkedIn then go here or if you are, or would like to be, a member of Rock-Til-You-Drop then go here . If I get much debate on these I intend to end up summarising in both places and back here at some point in time.

It has been a while with work and all that... so whilst on the week's break between jobs I've finally recorded a new song - Round and Round. It can be listened to at  http://www.reverbnation.com/grahamhunt Comments as ever welcomed.

Into 2010... The second gig at The Lib on Valentine's Day was more nerve racking than the first for some reason. I think because now it wasn't a one off and I was nailing my colours to the mast as a solo singer/songwriter and therefore needed to raise the game. In the end it went alright I think. I learnt some stuff there indeed... using 12 strings live is a nightmare :-) I will still go there but not ever gig. I was still "sitting down" as I had at the debut and afterwards thought - I don't feel comfortable like that - so a move to stand up ... moving about... :-) was on the cards. I took the Boss BR600 along to that and got some surprisingly good results with it just running off batteries and on the table in front of my daughter who was in control of the buttons and only using the built in mics. If you to to my Reverbnation site you'll find a couple of live tracks in there from that. This also introduced me to Audacity. I had one big track of the who...

Here is a the story of the last year of my life... In 2009 I looked to put a band together, for sometime the music in my life was a frustration not an enjoyment. I knew I needed some kind of outlet for it. I had some replies to some ads and met some people but nothing clicked. People were either just into "I want to gig endlessly" or "I don't want to gig" or "I'm not good enough"... etc. I just couldn't find people I clicked with. Then in August 2009 I was taken ill and was off work for a while and simply not good at all. Everything took a back seat and the people I had made contact with drifted away - largely my fault I'll be honest as I didn't pursue anything at that time. October arrived and I felt a bit better physically. That month erstwhile blogger, ex-MagicShip front man Colin Gillman introduced me to Rock-Til-You-Drop and he played at the October Sunday Acoustic afternoon at The Libertine. In a moment of madness I thoug...

I've more new songs to be heard at my reverbnation player. Everyday and Golden Moment. Enjoy

I'm on a roll on the music front following my time in the studio. Two days at home with my little BR600 has produced Running in the Shadows - go to www.reverbnation.com/grahamhunt or look right for the player. This is more rockier than my usual stuff and is a good old fashion protest song - turn it up! :-) Enjoy!

A new mix of the Let Me Love You Tonight track from last Friday's studio jaunt. I realised that the bass seemed to drift away in the mix. I emailed Nick at Broadwood Music and in a jiffy another mix was available. Hear it over at www.reverbnation.com/grahamhunt or via the player in the right hand margin on this page. :-) I've been spurred into trying to get a more "band" sound via my little Boss BR600 - I'm half way through with another track now amid some swearing as you find out little annoyances with things - like I shouldn't have done a bounce without first completing the drum track or at least I should have muted the drums in the bounce down. Also I can't figure out the punch in / out buttons... must read the manual that'll no doubt help :-)

I spent 4 hours in the studio yesterday - you'll remember this was Mrs F's anniversary present to me :-) What a great time! Firstly huge thanks to Nick of Broadwood Music Productions for all his help. Broadwood studios is a little studio in a small "enterprise center" in a village just along the road from us. Actually I go to an AA meeting there pretty much every Wednesday. The studio is small but with a lot of stuff packed in to it and all I could possibly need for my needs. I'd gone prepared with several songs but, not surprisingly, we only got one done in the time we had - particularly given the arrangement/production I had in my head going in. We worked on Let Me Love You Tonight - which I've had a live version up on my Reverbnation player since I played it live at one of the RTYD Libertine gigs in Feb. Nick got me to play the song through and then started with Logic Pro on his Apple set up. I've never really used software like this for record...

I've a new song for you to listen to... Look at the widget on the right hand side of the page - it's call Summertime - a short acoustic piece that has more than a nod towards Gordon Giltrap's influence. Alternatively go to my reverbnation site to listen via the player there. You can also sign up there to my mailing list :-)

I've put up a couple of live tracks onto my Reverbnation player. Let Me Love You Tonight - is a new song that debuted at the gig that I'm quite proud of and sounded pretty good. My Baby - is different as a solo acoustic piece so I thought I'd lob that on there as well. Enjoy! For the technically minded / interested read on... I took along my Boss BR-600 to the gig on Sunday, it's a digital multitrack recorder and is what I use to make my "studio" recordings. It's a really simple (apart from the drum tracks that still loses me) little 8 track device. Anyway you can power it off 6 AA batteries and it has a couple of little built in mics. I've used it like this just to capture early demos of songs as work in progress at times. I thought to myself "I can record the set" - mostly so I could listen back and learn from it for future performance. Which I have! Anyway Fourdinners asked for some tracks to play on his scooter forums radio show this ...

I've loaded up two new songs as promised. Go to here or they are in the widget in the right hand bar of this page just down a bit... You Make Me More - is dedicated to all the people I've come across in my life who have made me a better person... those that give energy to people not those that suck it out of you. My Baby - is a little diversion for me. This is a jazzy chord progression I've had lying around for ages. I thought it needed some tongue in cheek lyrics so this song is a play on the fickleness you sometimes see certain people have in relationships and love. Enjoy...

Okay stretching a point since I actually mean - In the little box room that is crammed with guitars, books, AA paraphernalia (I hold the stock for Public Interest stuff in our local area), Christmas presents... etc. But it has my little recorder in it so today it is the studio. :-) I'm recording a couple of new tracks - so watch this space. I've signed up to Reverbnation as an artist... nothing like self publicity is there. My page is here . It's quiet neat as you can then get a player for your material without it being available for Download - well it is up to you to set that and then you can get widgets to bung on your blog... note the two news one to the right of this post. If anyone would like to promote me on there blog then go here and you can grab the code for a widget of different types which you can put on your blog etc. (If you are on blogger in layout tab click on add a gadget and then select the one that allows HTML to be pasted in and viola - done! I have ...