Hello readers,
I've been even more quiet than usual recently, well about a year actually, so I thought it was time for an update. So what have I been up to? Err, stuff. Mainly procrastinating. I've been very busy but apparently not busy doing anything constructive.
In late 2014 I finally returned to playing live. For a few months I haunted every open mic in town, trying desperately to remember how it's done. After a lot of mistakes and discovering I can't always remember the lyrics to my own songs I finally started to improve. Unfortunately, most of the open mics nearby closed down for various reasons and I was left with no option but to stay silent for a while. There was some good news though, after playing bass at a regular jam night I was offered a chance to play bass on an album that a friend was working on.
In Demember I was unexpectedly invited to star in a documentary about The Smiths, I got to go to Manchester and see some places associated with the band. I had a great time, and the entire crew were fantastic and really lovely people. The film, This Charming Fan, can be found on YouTube or the blogpost before this one.
In January 2015 I met up with producer Dr Jaxon and singer Billy Hobbes from the band Broken Swords. The sessions lasted about a week. Broken Swords's first album Sunlight Skims will hopefully feature me playing bass. Almost a year later, the album remains in a kind of limbo. The last I heard, recording was finished and the project was now being mixed. That was 6 months ago, so I'm not sure when the album will see the light of day. When it does come out, it will be available on most streaming sites and distributed through Damsel Records (aka my label).
In April I found out that the streaming site Grooveshark was shutting down. This pissed me off because most of my available material was hosted there. The Bletchley album and the Songs For EPs were there, along with some other demos and live recordings. At the moment they are all unavailable. The only place to find my music right now is Reverbnation or Soundcloud. More info on releases later.
I spent the next few months doing my day job of caring for family, even less interesting than it sounds believe it or not.
In September, I was injured in the street and broke my wrist. It needed to be pinned and plated and has left me comepletely unable to play the guitar any time soon. With any luck I will be able to play again but it's not definite.
So, where does leave me and making music?
Good question.
Despite multiple false starts over the last few years, album no 4 Broken Mornings is actually almost finished. It needs some more parts recording and then I can mix it and release it. Unfortunately, it will probably be a few months before I can record the final parts. The album is coming but it's going to be a while yet.
With this in mind, I've looked into my options for distributing my music online. I'm still weighing up which deal to take but long story short, The Cerice Trilogy, some EPs and a side project I worked on a few months ago will all be available to stream for free on Spotify, Deezer and YouTube, and available to purchase on Amazon, itunes and Bandcamp.
In the meantime, I've been searching through boxes and found the files for Songs For Cerice 2.0, Songs For Toni 2.0 and Salad Days 2.0. These are all a few years old now but most people never got to hear them since the sites they were on either shut down or got shut down by legal teams. I'm remastering the audio and making them a little more listenable. If all goes to plan they'll all appear on Youtube and Soundcloud ASAP. Probably a few weeks, it's not a big job but I don't have a lot of free time at the moment.
Til next time,
Barnaby J. Tremayne.
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Barnaby Tremayne / Blog
Where I've Been In 2015 and What to Expect in 2016
Hello readers,
I've been even more quiet than usual recently, well about a year actually, so I thought it was time for an update. So what have I been up to? Err, stuff. Mainly procrastinating. I've been very busy but apparently not busy doing anything constructive.
In late 2014 I finally returned to playing live. For a few months I haunted every open mic in town, trying desperately to remember how it's done. After a lot of mistakes and discovering I can't always remember the lyrics to my own songs I finally started to improve. Unfortunately, most of the open mics nearby closed down for various reasons and I was left with no option but to stay silent for a while. There was some good news though, after playing bass at a regular jam night I was offered a chance to play bass on an album that a friend was working on.
In Demember I was unexpectedly invited to star in a documentary about The Smiths, I got to go to Manchester and see some places associated with the band. I had a great time, and the entire crew were fantastic and really lovely people. The film, This Charming Fan, can be found on YouTube or the blogpost before this one.
In January 2015 I met up with producer Dr Jaxon and singer Billy Hobbes from the band Broken Swords. The sessions lasted about a week. Broken Swords's first album Sunlight Skims will hopefully feature me playing bass. Almost a year later, the album remains in a kind of limbo. The last I heard, recording was finished and the project was now being mixed. That was 6 months ago, so I'm not sure when the album will see the light of day. When it does come out, it will be available on most streaming sites and distributed through Damsel Records (aka my label).
In April I found out that the streaming site Grooveshark was shutting down. This pissed me off because most of my available material was hosted there. The Bletchley album and the Songs For EPs were there, along with some other demos and live recordings. At the moment they are all unavailable. The only place to find my music right now is Reverbnation or Soundcloud. More info on releases later.
I spent the next few months doing my day job of caring for family, even less interesting than it sounds believe it or not.
In September, I was injured in the street and broke my wrist. It needed to be pinned and plated and has left me comepletely unable to play the guitar any time soon. With any luck I will be able to play again but it's not definite.
So, where does leave me and making music?
Good question.
Despite multiple false starts over the last few years, album no 4 Broken Mornings is actually almost finished. It needs some more parts recording and then I can mix it and release it. Unfortunately, it will probably be a few months before I can record the final parts. The album is coming but it's going to be a while yet.
With this in mind, I've looked into my options for distributing my music online. I'm still weighing up which deal to take but long story short, The Cerice Trilogy, some EPs and a side project I worked on a few months ago will all be available to stream for free on Spotify, Deezer and YouTube, and available to purchase on Amazon, itunes and Bandcamp.
In the meantime, I've been searching through boxes and found the files for Songs For Cerice 2.0, Songs For Toni 2.0 and Salad Days 2.0. These are all a few years old now but most people never got to hear them since the sites they were on either shut down or got shut down by legal teams. I'm remastering the audio and making them a little more listenable. If all goes to plan they'll all appear on Youtube and Soundcloud ASAP. Probably a few weeks, it's not a big job but I don't have a lot of free time at the moment.
Til next time,
Barnaby J. Tremayne.
Reply
Trinity album cancelled
Hello readers, I'm very sad to say that the Trinity album is cancelled. After a lot of work and a lot of time, I finally got to listen to the almost finished product. 6 of the 9 songs are finished and ready for release. After listening to some well trusted opinions, it was agreed that the album just didn't quite work.
But it's not all bad news, some of the album is salvageable and with a little work I should be able to make a new album out of the remnants. Hopefully it will be ready by New Year's, if I really put the work in. Christmas is a quiet time for me, so I should be free to record everything I need.
The plan for Trinity was a departure from my previous work, to add electronic elements to my mostly acoustic music to create new textures. There are rough demos online at mediafire/barnabytremayne, and I will upload the complete album (such as it is) for a limited time just in case anyone wants to hear it.
So what's next? I was playing the very first demos for Trinity and I realised how different it is to the original concept. The plan is to return to the original plan and start again, keeping it simpler this time. Luckily, most of the material is recyclable and I should be able to recreate the earlier work very quickly. Working title for the new album is Absentia (I'll let you figure out why).
Til next time,
Barnaby J. Tremayne.
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Salad Days 2.0
5 years ago today (a Saturday if I remember right) I was sat on my bed, guitar in hand, trying to figure out how to use a four track recorder. I had the house to myself for a few hours and I'd promised to record a demo to show the people I worked with what kind of musician I was. This seemed like a good idea until I realised that I actually had no idea how to record it properly. I had some very basic equipment, a karaoke microphone from Poundstretcher, a second hand set of bongo drums I bought from the local market which were (actually still are come to think of it) badly in need of repair, an acoustic guitar that I was given for my 17th birthday and a hired Tascam 4-Track recorder which recorded on to standard cassette tapes. I put on Bill Bailey's Bewilderness for background noise and got to work. First I had to learn how the recorder worked (not that easy without a manual). Second I had to learn how to do overdubs, and also how long it takes to do overdubs if you don't know what you're doing. After about an hour I was ready to record some songs. This was when I learned that it really helps to decide what you want to record before you start recording. I chose 5 of my favourite songs (that seemed easy to play) and finally pressed record. Take 1 didn't go so well. Lesson 4: turn on the microphone if you actually want to record anything except silence. Also, it helps if the microphone isn't muffled by bedsheets. I remedied this by resting the microphone on top of a milk crate (it made sense at the time). Take 2 went better, well sort of, it recorded at least. Lesson 5: microphones record everything, including the sound of Bill Bailey in the background.
I recorded 5 songs that day, only 4 were complete, I didn't have time to record the vocals on a cover of Babyshambles' I Love You (But You're Green). The other 4 songs were: Perfect Day by Lou Reed, Sunday Morning by The Velvet Underground, Norwegian Wood by The Beatles and I Feel Fine by The Beatles. I wanted to record more, including an original song called Dove and a cover of Albion, but there was no time and the 4-track had to be returned.
Salad Days took about 6 hours to record, everything took multiple takes as I missed my cue or played out of time and had to start over countless times. Still it was worth it to have something to prove that I really was a musician (to myself as much as to other people). I had just started writing the songs for the original version of Bletchley and I needed something to encourage me to finish them. They got finished eventually but that's another story.
Fast forward 5 years and I'm sat in another bedroom typing this next to a different guitar and a 4-track recorder. Over the next few hours I will be recording a new version of Salad Days. Hopefully it won't take as long as last time and I can get it finished and online by Sunday. Times have changed, now I've got better equipment (did I mention that I used a milk crate as a mic stand? Yeah, money was tight at the time.) and I know much more about recording than I did back then, so it should be much easier this time. The plan is to record the same songs but there may be some additions if the mood takes me.
That's the end of this ramble.
Til next time,
Barnaby J. Tremayne.
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I've returned
Hello to you all. I've been absent for quite some time. I've been busy battling illness and taking care of other things and music took a bit of a back seat. But these last few days I've finally got back in the saddle and started to write and record new material. A new album is just starting to form, taking a different direction to previous work by adding some electronic elements. In a few days it will be exactly 5 years since I made my first proper demo, Salad Days, and I've decided to revisit it. Over the next few days I'll be re-recording the 5 songs and possibly adding another song that I didn't have time to record. The new version of Salad Days will be posted here and will be available for free if you want to download it. Til next time, Barnaby J. Tremayne.
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hello
Just signed up at Reverbnation. Still figuring it all out, so simple yet so complicated. Have just set up a store and uploaded the Demos 2007-2009 album. Hopefully I'll be pretty active around here.
Til next time, Barnaby.
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