Sunday Free Noodle 4

This week’s noodle is:

Matt Stevens(guitars/loops) - West Green(Loft Dub) - recorded in 2007 live to digital tape.(Lost song version)

It was recorded in my old loft apartment/converted factory by me live into, I think garageband. It was recorded before I got my LR Baggs pickups so the guitar sound is very “electro acoustic” and for some bizarre reason slightly chorusy. I have no idea why. Never did really get on with those Fishman pickups.

This song was part of a rehearsal tape i recorded which was on my old hard drive which died, the rest of it was all lost. The only reason I have this is because I sent it to Graham from the Its A Frogs Life Podcast who passed it on to Pete Cogle from The PC podcast. Recently i emailed Pete to send him some new music and he said he remembered this song and sent me it as an MP3, bloody nice bloke.

The end is me messing with the time delay on the DL4 hitting the guitar messing with the controls. Fun.

More noodles next week.

Listen here:

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Remember you can get my album and "name your price" here
About The Sunday Free Noodle

The Sunday Free Noodle project is a free MP3 ever week - remixes, collaborations, live stuff, spoken word stuff and other odd things - for the next year. 52 MP3’s (thats alot). I think it will be a challenge to keep this going and I’m really looking forward to doing it - please subscribe to the podcast feed on itunes to get it free every week and tell me what you think(yes you can say if you think if its crap). I hope you enjoy it.

This project has only really come about because i have injured my back and have had a chance to go through my hard drives whilst lying on the floor with the laptop on my chest. Odd how things happen.

I really it want to be a collaborative process. Let me know - if you are a remixer, cellist, vocalist, percussionist, film maker,trumpet player or visual artist or anything else let me know(although I draw the line at juggling) . Perhaps i could send you some stuff(loops and noodles) to add something to?

Speak soon


Matt

Speak Soon Matt Stevens www.mattstevensguitar.com mattstevensguitar@btinternet.com

Back.........................

Hello

I'm still stuck lying down while I type this, its getting a bit scary now to be honest. The back specialist is going to inject my spine to get me moving next month but this is all so frustrating as my wife and I have such big plans for this year including playing here:


Some photos i took on the way to the hospital:

This is John Matthias, I hadn't heard him until today - really impressive modern and folky, you can get his music on Ninja Tune:




I hope you enjoy it




Speak soon




Matt

www.mattstevensguitar.com

Sunday Free Noodle 3

This week's noodle is:

Matt Stevens(guitars) & Kevin Feazey(guitars, bass, programming) - Progovantes 2005 demo(Written by Feazey/Stevens)

It was recorded as a demo for a project that never came together and I've always been rather fond of it. It a bit Wire/Prog. Let me know what you think. As i remember it was recorded in a flat in Manor House, north London.

More noodles next week.

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I should be posting the full stems of my album soon - i know i said that last week - still waiting on Kev from Pinna at the moment. Really looking forward to hearing what people do with the remixes.

About The Sunday Free Noodle

The Sunday Free Noodle project is a free MP3 ever week - remixes, collaborations, live stuff, spoken word stuff and other odd things - for the next year. 52 MP3’s (thats alot). I think it will be a challenge to keep this going and I’m really looking forward to doing it - please subscribe to the podcast feed on itunes to get it free every week and tell me what you think(yes you can say if you think if its crap). I hope you enjoy it.

This project has only really come about because i have injured my back and have had a chance to go through my hard drives whilst lying on the floor with the laptop on my chest. Odd how things happen.

I really it want to be a collaborative process. Let me know - if you are a remixer, cellist, vocalist, percussionist, film maker,trumpet player or visual artist or anything else let me know(although I draw the line at juggling) . Perhaps i could send you some stuff(loops and noodles) to add something to?

Speak soon


Matt

Speak Soon Matt Stevens www.mattstevensguitar.com mattstevensguitar@btinternet.com

Tann and Sunchymes

The above widget is the Sunchymes - lovely power pop - a just got there album. Sunchymes main man Aaron Hemmington is a good friend of mine, remarkably he plays all the instruments on this - I really like Your Smile - lovely Brian Wilson feel. Check out the harmonies on Greenacre lane which he follows up with some classic Harpsichord Left Banke loveliness. This widget here is for Nick Tann's podcast

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Which features me talking about Last FM and myspace and lots of other good music and banter from Mr Tann. Some fine sounds. Also appropos nothing apart from the fact that I appreciate your support, you can get my album here and "pay what you want" until the end of Feb when it goes back up to full price:

Speak soon guys


Matt Stevens
www.mattstevensguitar.com mattstevensguitar@btinternet.com

An excerpt from DIY Musicians - on www.mattstevensguitar.com

Find your niche, click here to read the full article

Don't go chasing the mainstream - its not there any more.  Whatever you are into thanks to the internet there is a forum or group or community about it - just find it and engage. Don't go in saying:

CHECK ME OUT I'M AMAZING

People will think - just another random spammer and ignore you.  Have a genuine conversation, engage with the community and eventually people will discover your music naturally.  As the very wise Steve Lawson said "Treat the internet like a country pub" - you wouldn't go into a bar and start shouting about how great you are would you? Of course not - they would think you are a nutter!!

Its far better to be honest and do the music you love, people can spot bullshit a mile off. Be passionate about what you do and talk to people about your music and make your music shareable so that others can spread the word.

Just be honest or no one will listen, people expect you to be real.

What Social Networks should I be on?

That depends to an extent what sort of music you play and your audience. The essentials are Twitter, Facebook, Myspace(even thou its rubbish, people still look there), your own email mailing list(use Reverbnation for this) and your own web site.

Ning networks are also useful if relevant to your niche - i use the these:

Acoustic Magazine

AF Collective

Go to Ning and do a search on Belgian Grindcore or Dutch Folk or whatever music you do and find your community.

Use the social media tools you are most comfortable with - video, podcasts, written word, photos or any combination you feel comfortable with. The more comfortable you are, the more honest you can be and the better connections you make.

Blogs?

You need a blog of your own - host it at blogger or wordpress, don't use the Myspace one its horrible! Write when you have something to say but try and keep it within once or twice a week.  Post photos in it using Flickr then get the code from there to add photos to add to your blog.

Contact other bloggers do a Google Blog Search on a similar artist to yourself and start making friends with the bloggers that write about them.  DO NOT SPAM!! Make friends - enjoy their blogs - comment, email to say you enjoy reading, engage and be honest.  Then you may be in a position for them  to write about your music. Another useful way to find bloggers is to hunt for them on hypem again using a similar artist.

If you like the music on my site please share it - www.mattstevensguitar.com - thank you

Has anyone tried Ping.fm - any good?

Ideas on improvisation

The best tip you can ever get when improvising is that you can only ever be one note out. If the whole phrase is out - do it twice like you meant to do it.

Good improvisation is about belief and melodic construction not playing "hot licks" learned from magazines or records. The best lead playing is instant composition, not noodles. The problem is that real improvisation is that its inconsistent and requires inspiration depending on various factors:

The players mental state
The audience(a good audience can inspire or allow complacency to slip in, a bad audience can inspire anger and a great performance as players push for a reaction)
The sound
The player's ability
The equipment used
The chemistry between the players(often say the guitarist's hatred of the drummer will inspire a great solo)
And other weirdness

Miles Davis used to ask players not to practice and save their improvisation for the stage. Often I have found too much practice can lead to stale playing, while not playing for a few days can lead to fresh ideas.

What do you think?


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

My Equipment - This is from my website

Live Setup:

Ibanez cheap acoustic - I got this for £100 in a shop in Brighton - its got a hole in it! I've installed a LR Baggs M1 Pickup, amazing pickup.

Line 6 DL4 Looping Pedal - I have 2 but normally only use one.

Cheap volume pedal - essential for volume swell sounds.

Whammy Pedal - Used for creating basslines and octave up melody parts.

Korg Kaossilator - Used for occasional electro sounds.

Korg Kaoss Padd - Used for destroying loops (see the live at the VSV festival EP)

Line 6 Filter Modeller (not pictured) - used for synth sounds.

Recording Setup:

White 2007 Macbook Running Line 6 Tone Port and Ableton Live and Garageband

Electric Guitars:

Fender Mexican Telecaster, Squire Jagmaster, Epiphone SG(broken)

Other Stuff:

Gibson - Echoplex - rarely used

Glock

Accordian

Uke - just got this - Mum got me it for christmas!

Melodica

K9

Stylophone

Converse(essential for looping)

Matt Stevens www.mattstevensguitar.com mattstevensguitar@btinternet.com

How to get your music into a Video Game

This is cool. Since I was 6 i have wanted to be in a video game and only 28 years laters I'm there! This is Jam Legend a guitar hero type game you can play online. On the full site you can even plug in a Guitar Hero or Rock Band Controller - how cool is that? Finally I can play my own songs on a plastic guitar, YES!!!!

This is a brilliant tool for musicians to connect with listeners - you have to apply to be an artist, they are only taking a few people a week here http://www.jamlegend.com . They listen to all applications and only approve the stuff they think is good for the site, so there is quality control. I think this is going to be MASSIVE for indie artists.

Don't forget you can get a free song every week free Here

And make me happy by downloading my album and paying what you want here

Speak soon and let me know what you think of the game.

Thanks

Matt

Play this music game and more at JamLegend

Sunday Free Noodle Week 2

Well its week 2 of the Sunday Free Noodle and this week’s is a bit good. Its a remix of Dolls House by the mighty @pseudoambient (Gaetano Fontanazza)- Italian ambient genius. Its called the - Its Working Right Pseudo Remix. The fact that that he put this Remix together before I’d even posted the stems is even more impressive. I’m really pleased with this one and I think hes done a blinding job. I really enjoyed hearing the track and it does feature a “vocal” by me. Top work. Please let me know what you think.

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I should be posting the full stems of my album soon - still waiting on Kev from Pinna at the moment. Really looking forward to hearing what people do with the remixes.

About The Sunday Free Noodle

The Sunday Free Noodle project is a free MP3 ever week - remixes, collaborations, live stuff, spoken word stuff and other odd things - for the next year. 52 MP3’s (thats alot). I think it will be a challenge to keep this going and I’m really looking forward to doing it - please subscribe to the podcast feed on itunes to get it free every week and tell me what you think(yes you can say if you think if its crap). I hope you enjoy it.

This project has only really come about because i have injured my back and have had a chance to go through my hard drives whilst lying on the floor with the laptop on my chest. Odd how things happen.

I really it want to be a collaborative process. Let me know - if you are a remixer, cellist, vocalist, percussionist, film maker,trumpet player or visual artist or anything else let me know(although I draw the line at juggling) . Perhaps i could send you some stuff(loops and noodles) to add something to?

Speak soon


Matt

Fish Action and Spencer Park Live

I found this Today - its me playing in Norwich in 2008 - I had completely forgotten about it - its amazing that over a thousand people have watched it.

I posted it on Twitter and people seemed to like it so I thought I'd bung it on here.

This is amazing Fish from the Tank at the medical center:



It Sunday Free Noodle day tomorrow - can't wait to play you the track.

Speak soon


Matt

formspring.me

Favourite trombonist?

Thats easy http://twitter.com/moinlabs looping Tromobonist - top musician

Ask me anything

formspring.me

Angelina Jolie or Jennifer Aniston?

Cheese or onion?

Ask me anything

formspring.me

Why so you use formspring?

I've no idea - seemed like a good idea while lying on the floor with a slipped disc.

Ask me anything

formspring.me

Have you any idea who is asking this?

yes(no)

Ask me anything

formspring.me

Penguins or Dolphins?

Penguins every time - dolphins think they are great, too much ego.

Ask me anything

formspring.me

I bought some pants that started to smell like fish when I got them home.. I didn't do it. How do I stand legally?

You should have 28 days to return them. Check your receipt.

Ask me anything

formspring.me

When ya gonna up the stems? Are they still in Kev's garage?

Stems should be up this weekend depending on @kevinfeazey - can't wait to see what people do with them

Ask me anything

formspring.me

Ask me anything http://formspring.me/Mattstevensloop

Podcasters and Bloggers are great

Hey

All - still lying on my back with my back injury - I have had to cancel the gig i had hoped to do this weekend, the promoter was really understanding but i still feel really bad about it.

Kev sent me the first mix of the new Fierce and The Dead stuff we recorded last year - thats a 3 piece band thing i did with Kevin Feazey and Stuart Marshall. What we did was improvise around the 3 themes for Snow(the track thats on Echo) and Kev took them back to his computer and created an arrangement. They sound really good. Its all electric and noisy which is fun, looking forward to playing you that.

I have to thanks the following blogs for writing about my music(thanks so much):

Nice interview here Matt Stevens – Guitarist

A Little Saturday Night Music

Bearly Rambling on Matt Stevens

Pit me on it Download: Matt Stevens "Echo"

The following podcasts also feature my at the moment music(thanks so much):

Made in the UK 83
It's A Frog's Life Acoustic Podcast: Show 98 - The gasman cometh
Ed's Mixed Bag - ~A weekly music podcast~
Nick Tann - Is This Thing On?
http://www.larrywinfield.com/sundownlounge.htm
the bugcast - episode 094
http://crazycubicle.wordpress.com/

Don't forget to download my free song a week here:

http://bit.ly/d5mxGD

(thats the Sunday Free Noodle)

And watch this film which features my music
http://www.atom.com/funny_videos/daddys_little_helper/

And if you are facebook inclined this is my page there

Thanks


Matt Stevens
www.mattstevensguitar.com

I am talking about Soundcloud on this Podcast and Google Buzz

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This is Nick Tann's podcast which features me talking about social media while lying on the floor with a slipped disc. Just been listening to this weeks Sunday Free Noodle(out on Sunday) - its a really good remix of Dolls House by a friend of mine. Also I am now on google buzz http://www.google.com/profiles/mattstevensloop - looks fun so far. Take it easy Matt

Sunday Free Noodle 1

This is the first Sunday Free Noodle

The Sunday Free Noodle project is a free MP3 every week - remixes, collaborations, live stuff, spoken word stuff and other odd things - for the next year. 52 MP3’s, (thats a lot).

This project has only really come about because i have injured my back and have had a chance to go through my hard drives whilst lying on the floor with the laptop on my chest. Odd how things happen.

I really want to be a collaborative process. Let me know - if you are a remixer, cellist, vocalist, percussionist, film maker,trumpet player or visual artist or anything else let me know(although I draw the line at juggling) . Perhaps i could send you some stuff(loops and noodles) to add something to?

I would really be interested to know what you think, comments would be lovely?

I think it will be a challenge to keep this going and I’m really looking forward to doing it - please subscribe to the podcast feed on itunes to get it free every week and tell me what you think(yes you can say if you think its crap).

The first Sunday Free Noodle is a song from my album which is out later in the year - its called Moondial. I thought if i post something fairly representative of my stuff first so you can get an idea of what I do before we launch into the spoken word/ambient/death metal stuff.

The musicians are:

Me - Guitar/Xylophone

Kev Feazey - Production/Loops

Stuart Marshall - Drums

It was recorded last year at Pinna Studios(before my back went).

I hope you enjoy it.

Matt

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www.mattstevensguitar.com
mattstevensguitar@btinternet.com

Subscribe to my podcast here:

Lucozade and Iron Maiden

This is the coolest advert ever - Fact. When I saw this I was desperate to find out who did the music - IRON MAIDEN!!!! I love early Maiden - Genius!!!! Thanks to my friend Steve Cleaton for spotting this. Tomorrow I'm starting a new project that will take a year to complete, but more on that tomorrow. Matt Stevens www.mattstevensguitar.com

Remix project update

Hey guys

An update on the remix project - its all still happening. We are currently waiting to get the stems from Kev Feazey who produced the album(they are currently locked in his garage!!). Hopefully we will get them this weekend and i will then upload them onto the web into a drop box where everyone can download them to produce remixes. I am really excited about this project as:

A - Its something I can do while lying on the floor and resting my back(still causing me serious problems)
B - The people who want to get involved are incredibly talented - I am amazed at the amount of people who want to do it.
C - Its another album to put out - which is always cool - I will probably do it as a free download from my band camp page.

Echo my first album is still available as a pay what you want download here:


I will keep it like that until the end of Feb.

Also tonight my friend Rob from the Atmos trio is liveon ustream at 9pm - hes very good:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/atmos-trio%27s-modern-jazz-concert

See you guys soon



Matt Stevens
www.mattstevensguitar.com

formspring.me

Ask me anything http://formspring.me/Mattstevensloop

Social media for Musicians and Summer Gig

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This is my friend Nick's podcast - in it he interview's me while lying on the floor with a slipped disc about the best social media websites for musicians. I hope you like it. I am playing the Acoustic Festival of Great Britain for more info visit here http://www.acousticfestival.co.uk/ - loads of good bands and its only £60 a ticket if you get in early.

Is This Thing On Podcast: Podcast Number 17

This Podcast features me talking about social media Is This Thing On Podcast: Podcast Number 17