Yonks and other recording projects

Hello Blog Readers :)

Hope you're good? Enjoying a cup of tea of or a light ale?

After the excitement of playing to hundreds of people at Islington Academy today I've being doing guitar part for Jessica Grace's new album - a track that features me, Kev from The Fierce and The Dead and Seb Roachford from Polar Bear/Acoustic Ladyland. Recording went well - played lots of different parts, some harmony bits and a lot of Johnny Marr-esque jangle on my Telecaster. Great tracking guitar thru a Fender Hotrod. I shall have to post the track when the album comes out.

Another recording project I'm working on is Yonks - with Lextrical. Mostly its improv stuff along to programmed parts by Lextrical - some stuff with him playing guitar in unusual tunings. Very modal/experimental/electronic. We're hoping to get an EP out soon and are playing at an exhibition of Mythical Taxidermy soon. Seriously!

Yonks in the Studio:



One last photo from the Islington gig:

Lessons learned from the BJH support gig :)

The BJH support gig at Islington Academy was really fun - great crowd, the BJH guys were ace and they really looked after me - I had shepherds pie and beer!!

Some stuff I learned:

Playing in front of that many people is a weird experience, its actually less scary than a pub as you can only see the first few rows due to the lights being on you.

Don't use the toilet in front of the Academy as the entire audience are walking out of the venue. Its never easy to meet new fans when "doing your business" :)

BJH fans are amazingly loyal to the band - people had travelled from Japan, New York and Germany - JUST TO BE AT THIS GIG. Brilliant.

The audience were really nice people, they really seemed to enjoy my set, from the people I spoke to. I noticed a few people watching that had been to other gigs I'd done - which is really positive. I had a chance to speak to a few people who had discovered my music online seeing me play live for the first time - I'm really pleased its reaching people.

A few months ago I thought I'd never play live again due to my back injury so doing something on this scale really meant a lot to me :)

This is Kev from the Fierce and The Dead - he helped me so much at the gig - thanks mate:


Some Photos from the gig by Peter Marchant and Kevin Feazey and Me:




Backstage



I'm playing again on Thursday at the Millers in London with Furniture - I'm doing a longer set and its only £5 to get in - come down and have a beer :). On Wednesday I'm recording 2 more songs for album number 3 - thanks to everyone who has paid for my stuff and giving me the opportunity to make records.

If you want both my albums on CD for £8 - this is the last weekend to get them, order them here - due to rising manufacturing costs I'm going to have put the price up in December, frustrating but true.

See you all soon

Matt Stevens
www.mattstevensguitar.comB

Whats happening ere then?

Hows it going? Hope you're good. I'm doing a free web stream gig tonight at 6.30 pm UK Time - its only an half hour set but you should stay around to watch the excellent James Corachea and Ernesto Schnack. You can watch it here: www.cafenoodle.ning.com Would be awesome to see you there - the international times are here: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?day=21&month=11&year=2010&hour=18&min=30&sec=0&p1=136 Its a warm up for the Barclay James Harvest support gig on Friday - I can't wait - its the biggest venue I've ever played outside of festivals - the Islington Academy holds nearly 1000 people. If you want to get both my albums for £8(plus postage) the offer is ending at the end of the November. Order them here - thanks to everyone who has payed for CD's/downloads already - thanks to your support I have been able to book a day in the studio in Decembr. If you have got my music free please pass it on and copy it for your friends, I really appreciate it :) - Obscurity is the enemy, not piracy and all that. Thanks loads Matt Stevens www.mattstevensguitar.com

Now listening to

I have man fu :(

Just had an email about appearing in a documentary about "social media musicians" - interesting, not sure I'm that.

Currently Listening To:

Draw - Foam/90's Demos
NIN - The Slip
Opeth - Still Life
Jesu - Conqueror
Fierce And The Dead - Demos
Zoe Keaing - Into The Trees
Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
Boards Of Canada - Music Ha The Right To Children
VoiVod - Angel Rat
Danny Elfman - Edward Scissorhands OST (its nearly christmas)

Along with shivering I'm doing some more writing today - you can never have too many songs.

I took this on Tuesday morning in North London



Speak soon


Matt Stevens

BJH Support - news and all that

Afternoon!

News and all that:

My current album Ghost is back in stock on CD, filling my living room (apparently they make lovely christmas presents) as is my first album Echo - if you do want one in time for Christmas please order early - it would be hugely appreciated and it helps us to fund the recording of a my third solo album - most of the songs are written now and I can't wait to record them.

The gig on Tuesday went well - the warm up stage is now complete! I'm now ready for this gig in London on the 26th - my biggest gig to date supporting Barclay James Harvest at London Islington Academy - I'm on at 7pm - would be amazing to see you there tickets are £20 plus booking and available here. Apparently there are people coming from across Europe to the gig(for BJH)!!

Also I'm playing at the Miller in London with the excellent Jazz trio Furniture - hopefully we're going to try jamming on some songs together as well - its £5 to get in and there are tickets are available here.

On my Podcast there are now 41 tracks subscribe with 11 more still to come, enough to fill a Sunday. This weeks song is a remake of my track "As We Fall" by the ambient artist Ambienteer, there is a new track(a demo, a remix or live track) every week.

Thanks so much for all your support - if it wasn't for you buying the albums I wouldn't be able to continue doing this.

Speak soon

Matt Stevens

www.mattstevensguitar.com

Matt Stevens Flyer A5

Matt Stevens Flyer A5
Originally uploaded by mattstevensguitar

I've just had 2.5K of these printed! I will be handing these out at gigs and Denmark street etc - if you fancy putting some up for me I'd really appreciate it. Let me know if you can help me distribute them - email me at mattstevensguitar@btinternet.com and I'll send you some :)

Thanks :)

Summerhill

Afternoon

Its been an odd week - all the sunday looping gigs are done,. Was fun to play the gigs - thanks so much to everyone who watched. I shall miss the community of people who watched them.

The interview I did for Alarm Press is one of their most read - which is cool. Its a very cool site and I'm not :) Read it at:

http://alarmpress.com/22817/features/music-interview/matt-stevens-guitar-virtuoso-finds-an-audience-online/

I'm going to focus on getting ready to do the Barclay James Harvest support @ the end of the month - really looking forward to it. I'm doing another little warm up at an acoustic night next Tuesday if you fancy coming down for a pint its at Biddle Brothers - cool little east london venue.

I recorded this little electronic thing this week while trying to demo some stuff - i thought it might grow into something but it didn't. Its called Summerhill:

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Early December I'm doing this gig with Furniture - my friend Phill's excellent new jazz trio: