Eleven preview by mattstevensguitar

Here is a preview of what we recorded today - a very rough mix of a new song called Eleven - more xylophone? Eleven preview  by  mattstevensguitar

Flies In The Basement & Snow

All about the making of echo -song by song: Flies In The Basement This song is very much a surf rock thing played on acoustic guitar - kind of like a Dick Dale sound. It was inspired by going to see a band called the Manyarays - genius surfy stuff. Also reminds me of some of the flamenco sounds on Friday Night In San Francisco. it features Kev stomping and clapping at the start for a percussion sound. Snow part 3 My favorite on the album and some people have said they agree with me. The pad keyboard type sound at the start is me fading the guitar in after strumming it using a volume pedal. It's a really simple song but I like the chord progression with the innversions. This a 3 part song parts one and two will be on the next album - Kev and I performed the whole thing at the vsv festival a while back. More tommorrow. Matt

Spratton Videos/Knackered Back

Well This time i've really messed my back up. Can't move - every time i go to get up off the floor my back locks up at the base of my spine - its like an electric shock. The doctor has signed me off til monday. Very frustrating - writing this laying on the floor on my back with the laptop on my stomach. Bugger. Once i'm over this - I will sort out my weight - i'm going to write about it on here to shame me into doing it. Need to get fit, can't handle laying on me back doing f all. The gig in Spratton was great fun - my friend Lew played percussion on Get carter - the last song in my set. There were great sets from Lew(solo set), Sketchy, Broon and Carleko - all good. The taxi driver got lost on the way home - v scary as Spratton is in the middle of nowhere - Mrs S was not impressed. Here is some video from the gig that Lew filmed(sadly none of him playing percussion), I'm actually quite pleased with my playing on this!!! Take it easy Matt Stevens

Why now is the best time ever to be an improvising musician

Now is amazing time to be an improvising musician as you can produce an infinate variety of new recordings and post them to a community on the web straight away - amazing. The recent VSV festival was a fantastic example of a group of improvisors coming together as a community and putting on an event with musicians from ten contries - marvellous. Just a few years ago none of this could possibly have happend. For esoteric non commercial artists the only enemy is obscurity. Give some if your music away-if they like it they willl most likely buy something later - win hearts and minds first and make friends. If they are interested in your music they are probably people you have loads in common with. Build a community and worry about making money later on. It works - this week Steve Lawson a solo bass player(hardly the most commercial of genres) gig was completly sold out in London. Fantastic, Steve is a really talented guy and he has built his fan base thru Twitter and other forms of social media. Lots of major label acts can't sell out anywhere and they are thousands of pounds in debt!?! These are good times. Matt - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Winehouse

Morning all I'm off to play in Spratton tonight with my friends from the af collective - it all starts at 8 ish, I will be meeting up with some of my friends who I have played with in the past. Some photos from this week: Amy Winehouse Seaside Horror Time for more rehearsal - i've changed my strings.... Matt

Thom Yorke/Goals For This Year

I had a lovely day wondering around with my wife, a meal in Pizza express and messing around with Ableton live. What do you think to this? Thom Yorke live with Flea - I like it, reminds me of Remain In The Light era Talking heads(and i hate the RHCP)


My Friend Julia suggested a gear page for my website with the pedas ad stuff I use - I'll add one soon - great idea.

Goals for this year:

Spend more time with my wife


Loose Weight

Practice Guitar

Book a week of gigs next year across the UK

Get my second album finished

Get Ableton Live and move my looping set up across

Do some more duo gigs with kev or maybe start a full band project?

You can still get the EP free here: Matt Stevens and Kevin Feazey Live @ The VSV Festival by mattstevensguitar My friend Dan wrote a nice feature about my EP on his blog here. Matt Stevens www.mattstevensguitar.com

Testing blogging from my phone

This is the first blog I have sent from my phone test - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone