Welcome

Welcome to my website - this is where I post occasional updates about music, crochet, or life in general. For more frequent updates check out band's website - www.exitproject.co.uk

More musical flavour, fewer calories

2010 is the year of the musician!  Well, for me, at least – and I’m freakin’ LOVING every minute of it…

It occurred to me that I don’t usually blog about what I’m involved in, so I thought I’d take up the habit of blogging about all my musical shenanigans.  That way my ‘thousands of fans’ (aka – my Mom) can keep up :)

The Ninja Butler and I moved to Bristol in March 2009 to bust open our own businesses.  James owns and runs Siteclick, a web development company and I own and run Vox in a Box, a session vocals company.

Bristol has proved to be an AMAZINGLY positive place to be.  There’s creativity positive smiley people EVERYWHERE and it makes me feel right at home (seriously, there’s so many smiley people here… it’s clearly where I belong…)

Exitproject

My top musical project of the moment is Exitproject – my electro-folk band with James.  We’ve decided to write and record one song a month in 2010 and put them online for free.  January is already available at www.exitproject.co.uk – I have a big girly crush on it.

Exitproject are also currently practising with a cellist and it’s going really well – psyched!

Emigre

I also met the nicest guy ever on earth named Graham and we’re writing music like crazy under the name Emigre.  We get together about once a week and average one new song per practice.  It’s a fantastic opportunity to flex my writing muscles a little more.  One of my goals is concentrate more on the quality of lyrics… only time will tell, eh?

Session Work

It’s been a fantastic couple of months in the session world.  I’ve done my first national commercial in the UK (WOOP!) and also had one of my tracks released on a Ministry of Sound compilation.  I’ve written and recorded music for producers in Bristol, York, London, Manchester, Sheffield, San Francisco, Chicago and Spain (I don’t want to give names – there’s fierce competition in this business ;) ).  But, it’s all been referral work which makes me grin in a very big way – woohoo!

Volunteer Projects

I’m involved in a project for Kid’s Uganda – I’m recording some lead and some backing vocals for a charity album due to be released later this year.  It’s a project for Kids Uganda – all proceeds will go to support this amazing cause.

I’m also volunteering at my church as a part of the band every now and again.  It’s a great to meet people, with added benefit that I love ‘caterwauling for Christ’.

And that’s is for what’s up right now!  There’s probably too much to do, but I love it…

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One song per month in 2010

Exitproject (the band I’m in with the Ninja Butler) have decided to write and record one song a month in 2010.  We’ll then release the whole she-band as an album with snazzy artwork and pictures
of our smiling faces :)

We’re going to document the whole process with pics, in-the-studio videos and blogs on the newly refurbished Exitproject website

You can subscribe to get updates via Twitter, RSS, MySpace, Facebook and carrier pigeon from our website (visit www.exitproject.co.uk
now).  All the songs will be stream-able for free :)

WOOP!

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Folk Tales and Magic: Charity gig in Bristol

The Jist

Some of Bristol’s finest folk musicians, storytellers and magicians gather for an evening of fine entertainment, all in aid of a wonderful cause at The Folk House, Park Street, Bristol, Friday
22nd January.  I’ll be playing with a friend of mine (we call ourselves Emigre when we’re at home) – we’ll be playing mostly weird (inagoodway) originals and a few covers.

Featuring:

  • Rachael Dadd
  • Stanton Delaplane
  • Kieron The Mighty
  • Martin Maudsley
  • Spindrift
  • Jess Lewin
  • Roving Blades
  • Emigre
  • HOSTED BY Martin Maudsley (Folk Tales)

When Where How Much?

Friday, January 22nd 2010

7:30pm ’til late

The Folk House, Bristol

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An octave mandola, an expat and a laptop walk into a bar…

When I married the Ninja Butler in 2005, my Mom and Dad gave us a guitar and an “_blank” href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octave_mandola”>octave mandola that they made for us.  My Mom did mountains of research to source materials and my Dad worked the wood.  It
goes without saying that my jaw hit the floor when I laid eyes on them – seriously, imagine me as a cartoon with my eyes yoinking outta my head with an ‘awooooogah’ sound effect to finish it
off.

I named the mandola ‘Jarvi’ after my Mom and Dad and it’s taken a prize position in our studio ever since.  I pick ‘er up every once and awhile and play through some of the old songs I wrote
back when I was 18 and still a bag of hormones…

But it makes me feel ho-hum that I don’t play her more… she’s a beauty and should be strutting her stuff and making all the other acoustic instruments’ hearts flutter.  So today I went online
and started an online course (after a lot of hunting – it turns out there aren’t really online courses for the octave mandola / octave mandolin.  Bouzouki?  Yes.  Octave mandola?
No.)

But I managed to find one set of lessons that were made up of simple written instructions with some recommended exercises to develop good technique.

I’ve played the mandolin for years and years and the Octave is the same tuning.  But the mandola has a stretched neck that I’m finding pretty trixie.  The action is going to take some
getting used to, too – it’s higher than the mandolin and my wuss hands are jellified after practicing…

But it feels good to take Jarvi the mandola out for a real spin.  She is GORGEOUS – you’d have a huge crush on her if you met her.  Hopefully soon you will :)

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When a chick plans a stag do…

Stag Do:

“A stag do is a party held for a bachelor shortly before he enters marriage, to make the most of his final opportunity to engage in activities a new partner might not approve of, or merely to spend
time with his male friends (who are often in his wedding party afterwards).” – Wikipedia

I’m sure you all know what a bachelor party is, but what happens when a chick plans the stag do?  I’m my brother’s best man, as you may have heard, and so the privileged fell to me.
And

it

was

awesome.

Any attempt that I made to over-plan were mellowed by my dad telling me that guys tend to do stuff on the fly.  We had a killer venue (a lodge-type place with a built in movie theatre/theater),
we had Beatles Rock Band, we had Jack and coke, we had cigars, we had many musical jam sessions (with real instruments, not fake Beatles ones)

No debauchery (at least not that I saw), no sloppy drunkards (again, at least not DURING the party, I can’t speak for after).

Hosting dude parties is awesome… there’s no ‘hosting’ to be done, everyone just gets their own stuff and finds food wherever and generally gets on with it – most fantastic.

You can check out some pictures that Jake’s friend Dennis took >>

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Knock knock. Who’s there? A cellist…

Knock knock

Who’s there?

A cellist.

A cellist, who?

A freakin’ cellist, that’s who!!

The Ninja Butler and I (like all other humans, mammals, birds and bugs) love the sound of the cello.  There was hardly a finer sound.  So tomorrow we’re meeting up to jam through a couple
of Exitproject songs with a snazzy new cellist.

If it doesn’t work out, all will still be well and smiley… if it does go well, we’ll have a freakin’ CELLIST in the band!!

How can we possibly lose?

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I’m the best man

Yes, that’s right.  I’m the best man… in my brother’s wedding.  In about 2 weeks.  Oh God…

I have to write a speech…

I’m now facing the dilemma, how much to let rip?  The feeling of power is intoxicating, actually, but mingled with nerves and excitement.  I imagine this is what an “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aero_%28chocolate%29″>Aero feels like.

I have so many ideas rolling around in my head.

A full chorus line of people singing?

A movie montage of touching comments from friends and relatives?

A reenactment of This Is Your Life?

A series of humiliating posters?

A bag of tricks?

I wish I knew someone that knows how to break dance…

Oh, AND I’m planning the stag-do (bachelor party)… I’m trying not to be too much of a chick.  We’ll see how it goes…

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Fuzzy scarf + vintage button = Love

Sunday is a day for church, naps and crochet – so far I haven’t taken a nap, but the rest of my Sunday plan is going well!

Eliza (goddess of all things wool and knitting related) usually lets me raid her yarn stash when I head
back to Chicago.  There’s always some bits and bobs that she has left over that I can happily use to crochet “http://www.flickr.com/photos/emibeth/3667335711/in/set-72157603758360883/”>owls, tortoises
or traffic cones.  This super-fuzzy aubergine novelty wool was one such
stash-raid-victory.

But today isn’t a day for crocheted animals or health and safety equipment… I wanted to take one of my vintage buttons out for a stroll.  (My other sis-law is also in to crochet and she and my
bro-law got me a couple of GORGEOUS vintage buttons for Chrimbo.  Score!)

One size-10 crochet hook and half-an-hour of single crochet later, this fuzzy little scarf was born.  WOOHOO!!

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United Breaks Guitars

1 broken guitar, song and music video later – revenge is sweet.

Apparently United got in touch with Dave about 24 hours after he posted this video.  It already had about 600,000 views by then… a little late, people!

Dave now has a scheduled phone call to discuss what ‘United can do for him’ next Wednesday.  Ummmm… I think they’ve done enough – internet fame seems an ample reward…

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Exciting news? Maybe :)

So I was contacted by a guy today that was looking for ‘a voice’, I did some research and found out he’s won all these awards and written music for national ad campaigns and stuff… Sweet!

Nothings happened yet, but it’s nice to get the email, y’know?  It put a smile on my face :)   We’ll see where it goes… you never know!!

On an entirely personal level, I’ve discovered Spotify and all of its wonders!  Free music without breaking the law (and essentially stealing from
myself)… finally!  I’ve had an AWESOME time coming up with random playlists to suit whatever mood I’m in.  Tom Waits, Fountains of Wayne, John Williams, Regina Spektor, Reel Big Fish, Bat
For Lashes.  Schmorgasboard!  Plethora!  A feast of tunes!!!

Alas, only available in the UK, but you guys have Pandora and we had it banned over here, so we’re even…

The other news is that you can subscribe to my blog now!  There’s a link at the top of the page that will let you RSS this action :)

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