Mix Tape

On the Spencer Park Music office stereo:

Cardiacs - Jibber And Twitch

Elliott Smith - Miss Misery

Amon Tobin - Journeyman

Radiohead - Knives Out

Shineback - Here Come The Envoys

Dead Kennedys - Nazi Punks Fuck Off

The Ventures - Walk Don't Run

Brian Wilson - Wonderful (90's)

John Mclaughlin - Guardian Angel

Kreator - People Of The Lie

Bert Jansch - Acoustic Routes (documentary), part 1

This is great and inspirational stuff :)

Fierce And The Dead reviewed in Rock A Rolla

photo, a photo by mattstevensguitar on Flickr.

Its always interesting reading reviews.

Often some writers praise you for things that annoy others.

So you can't win

I think the key is making records that you like and going from there, if you worry about critics you'll go mad :)

Review from:

http://www.rock-a-rolla.com/

Radiohead From The Basement/Believers Roast

I've always rated Radiohead, since The Bends. This is great, bloody amazing band. So many ideas.

And.....

Only 300 copies of this. Ridiculously good line up - some of my favorite contemporary bands (seriously) :

On Belivers Roast Records - Pre-order your limited edition CD featuring exclusive songs by Knifeworld, Sanguine Hum, Matt Stevens, The Monsoon Bassoon, William D Drake, Stars In Battledress, Admirals Hard, Thumpermonkey, Arch Garrison and Redbus Noface here.http://www.thegenepool.co.uk/items/769.htm - very limited quantities and likely to sell out! :)

Speak soon :)

Standing on a bail of hay trying to hit pedals in 13/8/ Rumour Cubes/ Supernormal

Supernormal, a photo by mattstevensguitar on Flickr.

On Friday I played at the very wonderful Supernormal Festival - intimate, wonderful and friendly - and my friend Rob kindly gave me a lift.

Sometimes the ridiculousness of what I do really hits home. I was standing on a stage made of bails of hay with wooden planks on. Every time I moved the stage moved. It was incredibly hard to hit the loops in time, like being drunk or seasick. Especially when you're clumsy like me. You can read Robs blog of it at:

http://robhenderson.over-blog.com/

After I'd played my set someone I knew from years ago came up to me and asked me what I do for a living. When I told him "this, this music thing" I found it hard to believe even myself. Weird.

I saw Rumour Cubes - they were great, amazing soaring strings. Highly recommended.

Kev is sending mixes of Relic. I have real difficulty with this part of the recording process, signing off. Finishing.

An ending.

They say records aren't finished, they are abandoned.

True.

All the Limited Versions of Relic have now sold out on Pre-Order. Thanks so much. I really hope you like the album, the faith of those 150 keeps me going.


Matt

Limited version of the new album/Gigs in Reading/Liverpool

Hello

 

Hows it going? All good?

 

Thanks loads to everyone who has pre-ordered the new album Relic (limited extra disc version), I really appreciated it. There are 10 copies left at:

 

http://mattstevens.bandcamp.com/album/relic

 

Then they are gone, forever :) They'll be ready for dispatch at some point next month, the exact date depending on a number of factors, but ASAP. 

 

I'm doing a few gigs - tomorrow I'm at the amazing Supernormal Festival (thanks Rob) and next week I'm off to Liverpool to play the Newpath festival.  

 

More gigs soon and the Dec Burke show in Kingston and Jon Gomm gigs in Islington look like they will both be sell outs - well worth getting tickets in advance. 

 

Thanks loads 

 

 

Matt Stevens

http://www.fierceandthedead.com

http://www.mattstevensguitar.com

http://www.spencerparkmusic.com

mattstevensguitar@btinternet.com

Why musicians don't want the truth about the music industry

Basically most musicians want to believe that you are playing in a bar and an A & R person comes along and you are off to rock star island.

And if you tell them the truth - thats its about gradual growth, hard work and lots of little breaks they don't want to believe you.

Because if you keep that dream alive you can say its not worth putting the work in cause "you never got the breaks". Its easy to blame piracy or the critics or lack of funds.

Thats how you get this inertia amongst musicians, waiting for the right moment rather than just getting on with it.

NOW is the moment to put your music out, to start building an audience,to practice harder, to write better songs. NOW!!!!

Sometimes its easier to believe in "the dream" rather than actually try. I get it, just don't complain when nothing happens.

Wellingborough Riots 2011

This cheered me up :)

Mixing an album during a riot.

photoshoplooter

This site cheered me up a bit :)

Being honest the rioting in London threw me.

Burning cars, homes. Tragic, upsetting. Not good, really, really not good.

I was watching Watchmen on the TV Saturday night with the scenes of rioting. Then watching the news it was all a bit real.

Last night was the first night we slept. The city seems nervous, edgy. People are friendly but frightened. London is a great place to live, lets just put this behind us eh?

I hope the BNP doesn't do well out of all this.

So sad to see this happening all over the UK.

If it carries on like this we may have to move Morecambe :)

Me and Kev went through the drum parts Stu recorded last week for Relic, its just about Kev finishing mixing the album now. I'm really excited and proud of what we've done. It feels like a progression from Ghost. Very different, yet the same :) More electric and noisy.

19 copies of the limited version left. Blimey :) Thanks loads to everyone who is supporting me in doing this

A free sampler album....

I noticed on my Bandcamp page that due to the amount of paid downloads that have been sold I can give away 12000 plus free albums. So.....

The Spencer Park Music (my label type thing i run with my wife) sampler:

Please tell your friends, burn them a CD, stick in on a torrent or download site if you like it :)

Some people asked what I did:

Matt Prog, a photo by mattstevensguitar on Flickr.

My name is Matt Stevens and I play the guitar and delay pedal.

I write and help people with social media "stuff".

I'm a musician and distribute my music online.

I want people to share it.

The most important thing is to get the music heard.

I ask people to pay for it, I'm not independently wealthy but I hope gaining an audience will eventually give me a decent standard of living.

Pay what you want has been good for free promotion and building a fan base but Relic will be my last release using this method. Thankfully a decent amount of people choose to pay and enable me to keep making records and paying the rent.

I feel very lucky to have an audience through this method and there will always be some kind of "free" album or EP to get people interested in my work available.

I make records because I love music, chord progressions especially. I want to surprise myself and the listeners.

My new album Relic is the last of three "guitar" records, I hope to take the music somewhere else after this and expand on the harmonic ideas in the first three records.

About 18 months ago I really messed up my back, I ended up stuck on the floor unable to move. I spent my days talking to people on the net and building a following, basically to avoid getting bored and going mad. I slowly got well, over a long period of time.

I also play guitar in The Fierce And The Dead.

Relic features Bass and Drums by Stu and Kev from Fierce And The Dead and violin from Chrissie Caulfield.

The Limited edition version has an extra disc and is nearly sold out.

Metallica - Enter Sandman - on Laser Harp

I have seen the future of ROCK and its laser harp shaped :)