Heystephen.com - Stephen Hay music and more

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!

Greetings! I’ve finished (for now at least) the song I’ve been writing. It’s still unnamed, but it’s about dealing with uncertainty in life, learning to let go of the things I have no control over. It’s pretty much the story of my life over the last few months - leaving London, waiting for my visa to come through, (it came through!) and I guess now sorting out the minor details of my return to London i.e. where to live etc. Small stuff really. Anyway it feels a little different to my previous music in that it’s got this kinda slow rock chorus, with a groovy or funky verse. If you can’t see the video below, just go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xthOHoo530 to see it on youtube.

I’m still experimenting with my sound and getting loads of inspiration with my new Spotify subscription - why didn’t I do this earlier? I’ve been listening to heaps of Neo-Soul, nu-Jazz and everything in between. Lovely. Discovered John Legend, Erykah Badu, James Taylor Quartet, all very inspiring. If you’re into soul or jazz I’d definitely recommend them.

Also I’ve been reading up a lot on music industry people’s advice for people like me, starting a career in music. One thing I think I need to work on is songwriting - I’m so darn fussy (and lazy) it takes me months to write a song - I need to start churning out a song a week, even if it’s rubbish, to give me heaps more practice. I can always bin them or re-use the good bits, but I think my perfectionist writing style is slowing me down. I give you full permission to hold me accountable to this!

Hope you enjoy the track, the lyrics are on the youtube link.

Until next time…

Stephen

PS Tickets are selling fast for my Kerikeri gig, make sure you grab yours soon before they sell out. Here’s the Facebook link: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=140115529332793

Hey world - so yeah I’m in New Zealand. You probably know already, but just in case you didn’t. I came back about a month ago to attend some weddings, say hi to the family, hang out with some mates and renew my visa (not necessarily in that order). In September I fly back to London (after ten days in Japan, woohoo!) to start my guitar course and get back into the swing of things music-wise. I have been busy though, in more ways than one - I’ve almost finished a brand new song just for you so hopefully I’ll be able to record that soon. I’ve also been planning a gig here in Kerikeri where I used to live - It’s on the 20th of August if you’re on this side of the planet, details here or on Facebook.

It’s been great being home - flip, New Zealand is stunning! I had the privilege of taking some photos for my mates wedding recently, and although I’ve seen it all before, the scenery here is crazy-pretty. Seriously. You don’t appreciate it till you leave it and come back. Oh and stars! On a clear night they look incredible.

I want to rant a bit about songwriting, I apologise in advance for the following spiel. I guess I’ve been thinking a lot about my music and where it fits - like if you were to give it a genre or put it in a box, what would it be? I like to think I’m kinda jazz-influenced pop, but there’s bits of funk in there, some kinda-R&B grooves, some soul maybe? What is soul? What is pop? Is pop a dirty word? What is a dirty word? Who am I?!? I’ve been thinking, and probably too much.

It has been interesting analysing some different musical styles, and I’ve learnt a bit - for example, I don’t HAVE to change to chord sequence in the chorus! (or the key signature, but I’ll need some serious rehab to work that one out of my system). Some recent revelations: I don’t HAVE to limit the length of vocal phrases to keep it “catchy”, I don’t HAVE to stick to the ABABCB structure (although I probably will) - in fact I don’t HAVE to do anything! Ah, that feels nice to write.

I think I just matured slightly, artistically speaking. Wow, that sounded vain. Oh well. I’m gonna write music that I like, and if I’m lucky, other people might like it too. Screw genres. Where’s my guitar/notepad? I’m gonna work on this chord progression that changes key twice every bar…