21st Century Schizoid Man

I often talk about why i do looping because i haven't got another 16 guitarists to play the other parts. Well these guys do.....

Matt Stevens Live At The London Looping Festival

Full gig! :)

CARCASS - SURGICAL STEEL (OFFICIAL TEASER)

One of my favourite bands. This sounds amazing.

Vote for The Fierce And The Dead!

20 seconds of Fierce And The Dead - Album 2 :)

Prog Magazine Awards Nomination

Bit of a surprise!! Very pleased! 

The band I play in The Fierce & The Dead have been nominated in the prog mag awards :) YAY :) Here is the info:

"The Fierce And The Dead are very pleased to announce we have been nominated for an award in the Progressive Music Awards - thanks Classic Rock Presents Prog magazine and all those who have supported us. 

We're in amongst some very humbling company on the list! Go and have a look over here, the voting is open now. You can vote at:

http://awards.progrockmag.com/awards/limelight

Your support would make a MASSIVE difference. 

Visualisation And David Bowie

In the recent excellent BBC David Bowie documentary one of the talking heads made a good point that "Bowie managed to visualise his success before it happened and not many people could do that".

Bowie, through his own belief and that of his wife and management was mentally already the rock star he was to become a few years later. Famously when Bowie first went to America his management acted like he was already a big star, spending money and riding around in limos. Bowie ended up massively in debt but this belief did pay off when the anticipated success did arrive.

When you read about successful musicians (and people in general) a couple of things always seem to be consistent - a specific vision for their success and a belief in what they are doing. Whether it's Miles Davis changing jazz or Steve Harris from Iron Maiden's desire to be the biggest metal band in the world, vision does set people apart.

When I was  on a bus a while back i got talking to a man who got on next to me, and he was talking about "you reap what you sow". I think this is very useful advice. 

Setting specific goals and having the belief in them does seem to very useful. However it's sometimes hard to get that belief.There is a lot of truth in that you can't be shown the way, you find it for yourself. 

To truly have that sense of confidence and vision you need you have to feel you are already there, to trick your mind into it. Not easy, but faith once found will lead the way. The hard bit is convincing yourself.

Mahavishnu For All!

When I supported Sanguine Hum and Tin Spirits (both great bands BTW) recently at the Borderline in London I was in the dressing room playing the chords to Hope by the Mahavishnu Orchestra. Its just one of those things i always play when i pick up a guitar, not really thinking about it, a wonderful ascending chord sequence I've been playing since I was a kid. This got me talking to Dave Gregory from Tin Spirits who was also backstage about the Mahavishnu, about those chords. Dave is a really interesting fella and a great guitar player, he's also played with Big Big Train, XTC and loads more. You really must see Tin Spirits live.

We both agreed that with the Mahavishnu Orchestra the most important thing wasn't the amazing playing but the compositions. When people say a band sounds like the Mahavishnu they always have the fast modal noodles but rarely the stunning heartbreaking chord sequences. No one has really carried on that tradition. 

Writing music as beautiful as Hope is really hard, whereas fast playing can be learned, like a good typist. 

If you've not listened to Hope its here, let me know what you think.

Katie Hopkins - It's just marketing.....

So this has gone viral then. Very Daily Mail. 

What a genius troll we're all giving air time to. One of the best marketers i've seen. 

(horrible stuff to say, but it's "remarkable" content).

It's the old "say something nasty and we'll all take notice trick". Katie Hopkins is now a pantomime villain and everyone knows who she is, this has created a valuable personal brand that she can monetize through speaking gigs, guest columns, tv and books.

Calculated to offend and go viral....

Clever move, no it's not very nice but probably best not to keep sharing and encouraging it. Video below, but i dare say you have seen it. 

Cathedral - Ride

I love this. I've seen Cathedral a few times, great live band. Lee Dorian is such a great singer.

When I think "big metal riff" this is the song I'm thinking of and it has a great feel to it.

Feel the groove.

I'll take this over the new Sabbath any day :)