I had the privilege of hearing Vera Jonas play at Charlie Wrights International a few weeks ago - she’s a 3rd year student at LCCM where I’m studying. Creative use of effects and loops, combined with husky vocals and clever arrangements and harmony, she and her band had us mesmorised. Go and listen to some of her stuff on soundcloud. Do it.
I’ve managed to book her to perform at my next fundraiser gig at The Horse, along with Bryony Foale, Zachary Anzalone and of course myself and my band. As always we’ll have a figurative box of musical treats prepared just for you, so don’t miss out:
Saturday 3rd of March, doors 7:30pm
The Horse, 124 Westminster Bridge road, London SE1 7XG,
£5 entry
If you’re not in London, don’t forget you can watch the live stream at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/stephen-hay - just make sure to check the start time for your timezone - we’ll make a start at 8pm GMT.
Hope to see you there, and in the meantime here’s an acoustic cover I helped my friend Aimée record a short while ago, and a rare opportunity to see me with a beard. Enjoy.
Firstly, thanks for everyone’s overwhelming support for the video I posted in December. It’s up to 1200 views on youtube which is a record for me, and the response has been very positive. More of these to come! If you haven’t seen it yet please go watch it, and maybe even share it with your friends and family (Facebook is great for this!). The song is available for sale on itunes and other major online distributors.
There are some incredibly talented singers and musicians at my uni - one I’ve discovered is Marie Dahlstrom. She’s got a lovely voice and plays the type of music that really floats my boat - kinda neo-soul, lots of jazzy elements. She runs a music night near Barbican and I’m supporting her this Thursday if you’ve got a free night:
“First Thursday” - Thursday 2nd Feb
Native Tongue
13 - 17 Long Lane, Barbican, London EC1A 9PN
£5 entry, 9pm start.
I’ll be playing an acoustic set, along with Marie playing in a stripped-down acoustic-style and two other artists. It’ll be a quality night, hope to seeya there!
Things just got crazy. I started back at uni two weeks ago and it’s been mental - I didn’t quite realise how relaxed my summer was until now. Second year is going to be a huge push, it’s a LOT harder and a LOT more work. That said, I’m enjoying every minute of it and am excited about actually getting good at my instrument. Speaking of which…
Chatting to a friend today made me realise that I’m switching over to electric guitar. I love my acoustic and the ‘play wherever’ element, but for proper guitar playing, I’m going to have to move past just playing chords the rest of my life. I’m leaving my comfort zone - eek! I’ve had many a moment over the last few weeks where I’ve become painfully aware how little of my fretboard I know, and how unwilling I am to take a solo. Time to start some serious practice.
And yes it’s gig time again - we’re back at The Horse on Tuesday the 1st of November with a fresh set of talented and lovely people on the bill:
Stephen Hay (yup that’s me) - FULL BAND! UPPER CASE!
First 24 people through the door (doors open 7:30pm) get a free bottle of beer, how cool is that? Venue: The Horse, 124 Westminster Bridge Road, Waterloo SE1 7XG. Closest tube: Lambeth North, Bakerloo line (just turn right and cross the road, it’s around the corner past Costa). Alternatively, watch online at my ustream channel, we’ll be broadcasting the whole night live from 8pm GMT.
Entrance is £5 on the door (or a donations above £5 if you’re feeling generous!) with all proceeds towards my uni fees. If you watch online and enjoy the show (or just wanna be awesome) you can also donate via paypal here: http://www.heystephen.com/savethestephen/.
That’s it for me folks, I’m going back to practicing my guide tones and arpeggios…
Hey, check it out, I recorded a John Mayer videosong cover. If the image above doesn’t work, find it on youtube here. Me and (brother) J bought a new camera recently and have been playing with the HD video functionality, it’s super nice! I’m rather excited about it; lovely sharp video quality, and that shallow DOF which makes it look pro. Mmm, mmm. So yeah, I’m dabbling in film…
My plan is to start working through my originals (and a few covers like the above) and record them with video for youtube, including drums, bass, piano, shakers, rubbish bins, seagulls and whatever else needed to make it sound phat. Then I’ll release each song (covers excluded) as a single on itunes/amazon etc. I’ll let you know as soon as the next one is online. Or just subscribe to my youtube channel. Link link link.
Also I want to let all you lovely people know about my next gig:
Tuesday 4th October, 7:30pm The Camden Head, 100 Camden high Street, London NW1 0LU £5 or more donation
I’m still trying to raise the funds to pay my uni fees, so I’m hoping to keep running monthly live music nights indefinitely. It’s been fantastic being able to give people who are still new to the game a place to play their own songs to an attentive audience, and I’ve even been able to broadcast the gigs online on ustream. This was particularly useful when a bunch of young hooligans decided to go on a vandalising rampage and brought London to a standstill back in August. Very inconvenient. So use the handy calculator to work out what time/day 20:00 GMT+1 on 04/10/11 is in your timezone, and tune in here to watch!
The last gig at the Fiddlers Elbow was so much fun! I played twenty-something songs for four separate acts on four different instruments. Three other solo artists played with their bands and showcased some incredibly heartfelt, clever and hilarious songwriting. Our uni band played a kinda-ropey but well received set to crowd of die-hard later-stayers. And playing my music with a band was sick! It was a huge shift in the right direction for me, and it was such a blessing to play with such pros.
Since the gig I’ve had all my end of year exams (which went OK, not great but OK) and our end of year performance, which was ridiculously fun. I feel like after our year together we are really locking in as a band. Good vibes from these guys, it’s like a family. I really hope we can do more together in the future. So with my exams and performances out of the way, I’m pretty much free for the summer, weird…. Still need to find some full-time work, hit me up if you know of anything.
I guess this means I have some time to get creative which is very nice. I want to finish a song that’s been on the shelf for a long time, about “home” and what exactly that means. I also want to record some band versions of my originals and maybe some covers, filmed as I record and put together for youtube, Pomplamoose style. (Check these guys out, awesome stuff). I’ve been playing with my electronic drum kit some more and am slowly working out all the kinks (i.e. my poor laptop not being fast enough!) but am finally getting a reasonable sound. On Saturday I started tinkering and came up with this little groove below:
Pretty basic but gives you an idea what is possible. Also, I really like funk.
Also, I’ve booked my next fundraiser! Details:
When: Friday 8th July - Doors open at 7pm, live music from 8-10:30pm
Where: The Horse, 124 Westminster Bridge Road, Waterloo, London SE1 7XG (Lambeth North tube (Bakerloo line) or one stop from Waterloo (Jubilee, Northern & Bakerloo lines, & overground trains)
Feel free to RSVP on the Facebook event - it’s helpful to know how many people to expect. The lineup:
I’m really excited to be getting more people on board with this project, it’s cool to see it growing to more than just about raising money. I love seeing talented and creative people doing amazingly at different points on the journey - come along, I think you’ll be impressed. Entrance is by £5 or £10 donation to the Save the Stephen Foundation, as per usual.
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…
Just got this in the mail, in response to the letter I sent to Network Rail (see previous blog post):
“Dear Mr S Hay
Thank you for contacting Network Rail.
Your enquiry has been passed to our local Community Relations team who are investigating the issue as quickly as possible. For your convenience, this enquiry has been assigned the unique Service Request number XXXXXX.
In the meantime, should you need to contact Network Rail again, please do not hesitate to call our 24-hour National Helpline on 08457 XX XX XX quoting the reference number provided.
Yours sincerely,
Community Relations Team
Network Rail”
Well, I’ve got a reference number which is better than a straight up “No” I guess… They do sound very lovely about it, rest assured I’ll let you know the outcome.
