Heystephen.com - Stephen Hay music and more

Good afternoon people, enjoying the beautiful weather? (The sarcasm will probably be lost to my southern-hemisphere subscribers). It’s snowing outside, and it makes me smile every time I notice.

I just posted another video blog, you can watch it by clicking that link or directly in this post if you’re reading this on my site:

I’m working on my new song called “Future wife”, it’s what I’m calling a “hypothetical love-song”. I’ve played part of it for you on that video, check it out if you haven’t already. Disclaimer: the audio sync is all messed up, and I can’t be bothered spending any more time on it. I have to find a better way to do these, I think it’s the built-in webcam on my laptop, it’s just not that flash…

Anyway I hope you like the song, make sure you come down to the Troubadour next Tuesday to hear it in full. Details here, here and here. £6 on the door, 8pm start, closest tube Earls Court.

In other news, I’m thinking of writing an awkward song, you know, about all those painful social situations. Like when you take a joke or something a little too far, and then it’s awkward. I do this quite a bit. Hmm. Think of some examples and reply to this by email or on facebook with some ideas - I’ll probably end up including some in the final version. 100 points for the best example, and 500 points if it’s something you’ve actually done yourself!

Take care everyone, and hopefully see you soon

S

Seasons greetings to you all!

It’s only one day to go, and I’m rather excited. I was really late thinking about Christmas cards this year, so I thought I’d write a Christmas song instead. It was refreshing to break out of the jazz/groove thing for a day and just write a normal guitar song. It was also cool to think I could write a song for a purpose like this, record it and post it online in time for Christmas. Technology these days.

Speaking of which, I’ve started a youtube video blog, where I can post my song ideas, talk about random music stuff and basically mumble too much, along with a healthy amount of new music. If you’re interested, you’ll find it here: www.youtube.com/stephenhaymusic.

And here is my first video blog post, with My Christmas Song:

Sorry if you received this via email, it probably won’t work… just go to my youtube channel to view it in your browser.

And so merry Christmas everyone, and wishing you all an amazing 2010. I’ve got some exciting gigs coming up next year so stay tuned - the best way to find out where and when is to follow me via email, facebook, myspace or last.fm, or just check the homepage of this site. I’m also recording at the moment, I’m excited to get some new and old stuff online so you don’t have to keep looping the same three tracks! (You know who you are)

Take care everyone

Stephen

So I’ve finished my new song “Busy Life” - awesome! I’m pretty happy with it, the first part is on my previous post and the rest - well you’ll just have to come along to one of my gigs and hear it! Sounding great with Doug’s accompaniment too.

I also wrote a final verse to a song I started  (and thought I finished) in February 2008, so it’s the longest it’s taken me to write a song yet - almost 23 months in the making! It’s called “You got me”, some of you might have heard it already (it’s the valentine one). So it’s nice to have some closure on that, in more ways than one, so now I’m ready to record it for you all to hear.

So here I am, feeling good about myself for finishing a couple of songs. I’ve got some great gigs coming up, so it will be good to gauge the response to my new stuff. BUT I can’t stop here! I have to keep writing, keep the momentum, and give people more reasons to come and see me. So the next question is: What is my next song going to be about?

One idea was to write about my complete inability to speak clearly - I tend to speak really fast, with a mumble, and of course in a kiwi accent. So basically, no one understands me. E-NUN-CI-ATE, Stephen… So could be kinda funny, do you think?

On the other hand, my friend Naomi was saying I should write more love songs. Yuck, love? But everyone has had enough of love songs, surely! And like I’ve said, I don’t have an awful lot of inspiration right now. But should that stop me? At risk of completely ripping off John Mayer’s “Love song for no one”, I could write a song from the perspective of “when I meet you, this is what it’ll feel like”. Hmm. I guess the genre(s) of music I write tend to suit love-lyrics, and let’s be honest, we can all relate to this kind of stuff in one way or another. I’m not sure yet, what do you reckon?

Stephen

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.

I thought I’d just share an insight of my new song, which at the moment I’m calling “Busy Life”. It has probably the lamest title so far, so don’t be upset if I change it later.

Basically, something I’d always wanted to write about was the busyness of London -  those that live here I’m sure will agree that it’s a very fast-paced lifestyle. Don’t get me wrong, I’m loving it. I love that there is always something to do, a party to go to or another concert or festival in the city. But I found that with my music especially, it was hard to “find time” to sit down and work on another song or email some promoters. It also reminded me of my life back in Kerikeri - that was pretty busy too! So is it London, or is it just me… Do I make me busy? Either way, something had to happen, because I wasn’t getting where I wanted with my music, and months were sneaking past me without asking.

Is this a busy city? Or is it just me? My weeks just seem to fly past, like that crazy london cab passing me in a flash of black - when’s it going to hit me? Those weeks add up so quickly, it kinda scares me; now winters here, another year. So then where did that time go, and did I spend it wisely? If not, why not?

So with time rushing past at the speed of, well, time, the question really is how do we use it? The focus moves from “gotta find time” to “gotta make time” for the things that are important. Like songwriting in this case, which makes for an ironic prechorus.

Gotta find some time, near impossible in this busy life, I can’t forget I’ve still got this song to write, and it wont happen ’till I make some time in this busy life.

Since writing that verse and pre-chorus I’ve stopped working full-time, so now have truckloads of time. But somehow I still find it hard to put aside time for songwriting, and end up spending lots of time on other stuff, some of which is important and some really isn’t. So the second verse (which I wont write here ’cause it’s not done!) is talking about the reality that no matter how much time you have, it will all be used up somehow, and it’s still up to us to be diligent and use it for what’s important. Cheesy? I’m sorry.

Ok, I’m not that sorry. See you soon!

S

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

Two friends asked me recently (on separate  occasions) what my songwriting process is. Now I’m still quite new to this stuff so I’m certainly no expert, but it was interesting to analyse my writing patterns and see trends coming through with each of my songs. Well I thought it was interesting, feel free to stop reading at any stage.

I  always have a whole bunch of little guitar bits and harmony ideas floating around in my head, so it’s hard to define the starting point. By the time I finish, a song is likely to have guitar parts from three completely different concepts, matched to a common key and kinda welded at the edges. So maybe I’ll have a fun little guitar riff, realise that with a bit of subtle modulation I can get to a chord progression I came up with last year, and then slice in groove I dug up from the voice recordings on my phone from ages ago.

Once I’ve got a basic structure, I’ll start just writing stuff about a topic I’ve been thinking about. As an aside, you’ll notice “love” isn’t a common one for me. I feel like there’s probably more than enough of the usual “I love you” songs, and I think I can do something hopefully more original and thoughtful. Ok, and also I don’t have a whole lot to write about in that department either.  Once I’ve got a few pages of scribbled ideas and phrases I’ll start laboriously going through and trying to match phrases to music - this is a frustratingly long process, and I haven’t found a shortcut yet. I’m extremely fussy, I think I’m averaging about two lines per hour…

The last part is probably the most fun, arranging the parts and finalising the structure. Although no matter what all my songs end up following the ABABCB pattern - oh well. See if you can tell, I’ve recorded two songs so far and now working on a third, they all end up on my music page so check them out here.

I hope you’ve tolerated this music-related post alright, if your on facebook please comment with your thoughts on the topic - whats your songwriting process? Am I weird for struggling to keep to one key for an entire song? Does anyone else find it so hard to write lyrics? Do tell.

Take it easy folks, and stay tuned for “Singledom”, I’m hoping to nail the vocals this weekend.

S

Hey all - thanks for reading! As I mentioned in my last post, I’m kinda moving the focus of this blog. Not that anyone reads it (hi Mum!) but just in case, here’s the deal. My plan is to study music in London for the next one-to-three years, and really push myself in my guitar playing, singing and songwriting. There’s not many better places for it - London is so massive and diverse, so thriving and fresh. There’s no shortage of venues or promoters, and everything a musician needs is right here. Not to mention people, there’s quite a few of those here too. Love London? Heck yes I do. Now in terms of this blog, because I can’t afford to travel any more, I’ll be focussing more and more on music - mine, others, in general really. I hope that’s ok with you - basically it’s a reflection of whats going on in my life anyway, so it’s all your gonna get!

So something I’ve been thinking about a bit recently is self-promotion. It’s something I knew I’d have to look into eventually, but I’ve just started some bits and pieces and it’s amusing the questions it raises. I’ve made a Facebook fan-page, (obligatory self-link) and (naturally) invited all my current friends on Facebook to “Become a Fan of Stephen Hay”. These are people I would certainly classify as “friends”, not fans. But for the purposes of good communication of my musical going-ons, its easier to manage updates and gigs when everyone is on there. It makes me think though: when your starting what is hopefully a career in music, people aren’t going to come and see you play just because they’ve heard of you or like your stuff. Your lucky even to have anyone like that at all… Firstly they’ll have to be your current friends. And then, maybe they’ll come if you nag, bribe, pester and blackmail them into coming. And only if enough of their friends are coming too. And to make a good impression to promoters or venues, you’ve just gotta have the numbers - how many fans? How many friends on myspace? How many people can you bring on a weeknight? Quite depressing really. A neccessary evil I guess. So please don’t be offended if you get a notification like “Stephen Hay is a fan of Stephen Hay and thinks you should be a fan too” - yes it’s blatant self-promotion, but I’m just trying to set myself up to be taken seriously, and of course so I can keep everyone posted when I have gigs coming up or record a new song.

I spoke to a friend of mine Pete Mcallen a while back, he was saying he gets the majority of his gigs through his myspace profile - that’s mental! It just highlights the importance of good PR and online interaction. So I guess it’s one thing writing and playing music heaps, but if no-one comes/listens, whats the point? I hate it, but it’s gotta be done. Here’s a picture of me playing guitar at the Toybox:

Yes, that was ironic on purpose. But enough ranting from me, time to do some real music! Love you guys

S