Heystephen.com - Stephen Hay music and more

I’m a pretty determined young chap. I’ll have you know I fixed our shower curtain AND loft door recently. This, however, is pretty ambitious, even by my standards. I’m planning on continuing my music studies here in London. No, I AM continuing my music studies here in London. There, I said it. I’m going for the full three year BMUS music degree; the course I’m doing now is a one-year HNC certificate course. This means a few things: I need to really nail this years course, as well as do a conversion course which allows me to jump straight into the second year of the BMUS course. So I’m gonna be busy.

It also means I need to raise a heck of a lot of money. £7500, or thereabouts. How much?!? Who has that kind of money? And can we please be friends? I have some money in New Zealand from some work I did there, and from selling my drum kit, but nothing like this. As it is I’m barely covering my rent, let alone saving for school fees - so in comes the master plan. Instead of playing any old gigs, I’m going to start running my own. I find a venue, I book some willing (and generous) artists, and put it all together. I did something similar in my hometown last year, but this will be a first for me in London - I’m pretty excited.

Doing the rounds in the unsigned music scene in London can become a bit of a drag, playing the same venues and trying to impress promoters etc, all for a pretty small profit. At least this way, I figure I can have a decent go at raising enough money to put myself through uni. I guess in a way it also means I’m my own boss - I play where I want to play, and for as long as I want (both within reason), but of course I have all the risk of a promoter. Control freak? Yeah…

I’ve set up a Facebook page if you want to join up right here, and if you’re in London, I’d love you to come to one of my events, the first one coming up soon in March. Watch this space…

Hello, yes it’s me again. It’s been a while so I thought I’d update you all on musical things. My plan is to write a super-short update and give you some music to keep you happy until next time, but somehow I doubt I can keep this short… Here we go anyway:

Since last post I’ve been busy. I played a concert in my tiny hometown of Kerikeri, NZ (love you!); the night was nothing short of a success, with tickets selling out the day before, my fellow musicians and I making relatively few mistakes, and I think I can say people seemed to really enjoy it! Thanks again everyone who came, we had an amazing time. Here’s a short highlights reel if you couldn’t make it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i-h0gvC5T8

Shortly after the gig I flew to Japan for a holiday and to catch up with some friends. There’s some photos on facebook if you want to see what I got up to, but perhaps something more interesting  would be my foray into famous landmark performances. I played my song “Awkward” whilst crossing the Shibuya pedestrian crossing in central Tokyo, check out the footage below or here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_oTZghu2QE

Aaaand now I’m (back) in London, studying music performance on guitar at LCCM, being really challenged and learning from some amazing tutors (and students!). I’ve played one gig so far, for a friend of mine who runs the music website and live music night Cherry Ekko. They actually recorded it too so please if you have time, go to http://www.cherryecho.com/downloads.asp to download my four-song live EP. So many links, gosh I’m really sorry.

I’m not that sorry.

So now I’m thinking ahead. I’m going to try and focus more on the band-sound more and more, I feel like I can really get my soul/funk/jazz style across a whole lot better that way. So now I need to find band-members, which is what I’m working on in the background.

(Almost) enough from me, I’ll leave you with this: http://bit.ly/aC63at. Yup, another link. This is a song I wrote for my friend’s birthday. If you don’t know her already, perhaps you’ll feel like you know her after hearing it.

Enjoy!

Dear Network Rail

Recently my friend and I decided to play some music outside Euston Station. As I’m sure you’ll agree, the cafes in the courtyard and continuous stream of foot traffic create a buzzing, lively atmosphere; I’d been there before and wanted to go back. I’m a musician, and I couldn’t help but think it would make a perfect venue, so I asked my friend and we agreed to give it a go. We carefully avoided “busking” by removing the guitar cases and hats from view, and simply improvised through a number of cover songs and originals, to the apparent delight of the public. The response was highly encouraging; people would stop and listen while waiting for their friends and family to arrive, passers-by would slow down and smile - there was nothing negative about the whole experience. We played for almost two hours, until just as we were winding down, we were politely asked by two policemen to stop playing. As it wasn’t an official “busking” location, no-one could play music in that area, paid or otherwise. Of course we complied, but it certainly raised the question - “What can and can’t you do in public?”. Understandably if we were profiting from it, we’d be taking advantage of the station/courtyard for income, and I’m sure you’d want to know about it. But if we are doing more good than harm, and bringing something new and fresh to the station entrance, would you forbid it? In fact, what’s to stop you setting up an official busking stand, like on the underground? I know which I’d rather play at, and for me personally I’m a lot more likely to stop, listen and donate if I’m not rushing to catch the Edgware train or just focussed on getting outside. Please give it some thought, as I feel like it’s got a lot of potential.

Kind regards

Stephen Hay
Musician

It’s not something I’ve been doing a lot of recently, or at all if I’m honest… I’ve been thinking about it quite a bit recently though, as I had an interesting conversation about it last week. Where to play? What to play? Play for money, or for the music? I think there are two very different paths I can take - I’m sure there is a crossover but honestly I think it’s too hard to concentrate on both.

1. Money. I learn millions (not literally, that wouldn’t work…) of carefully selected famous cover-songs. I then get involved with cover bands wherever possible, and play/sing at bars, clubs, and weddings/parties and crank out the hits to keep the dance floor pumping. If you know the right people and get enough work, you can do alright, money-wise.
2. Music. I try to wean myself from playing at pubs and crowd-pleaser type gigs, and focus more on my own songs. It’s a lot harder to write a song, than learn a song, but there are gigs out there where you can play at to an attentive, and even interested audience. These tend to be less, or non-paid, with the idea being to get your name and music out, and hopefully get better and better gigs.

Because I’ve only been writing music seriously (as serious as writing songs can be) for the last year or so, I’ve mostly played covers, and played at jam nights and parties, back in NZ and over here. But the whole originals thing makes me think a bit differently - is it my music I want to be playing? What kind of venues and people do I want to be playing to? Ideally I’d like to play somewhere where people will listen and hopefully appreciate my music. I have some ideas in mind, and am hoping to start approaching promoters and venues to get some dates locked down. I do have one gig (17th of September, details right here) and will hopefully get more soon - but they don’t just happen! I have to start somewhere, so am not being picky at all, but it will be interesting to see how this grows.

Stephen

PS. Watch this space for a strongly-worded letter to Network Rail on this subject