Being vegetarian, dreams and last fm.

So I bought some quorn. Guess that's the first part pretty much done! It's been two days, not been that hard but I guess we'll see. Oh for anyone who reads this and doesn't watch my videos (does such a person exist? I'm curious) I've gone veggie for a week. Watch this. if you care.

Dreams. Bad ones. Last night I dreamt I accidentally ate meat and... umm... oh dammit! I forgot the other thing, but it was similar in that I messed something up, but what's funny is neither of them were things I care about that much. Hmm.

Ok last but not least fm. I've been uploading stuff there. I had some kind of half page on there already, just because some people who have my songs use the lastfm widget thing... I don't really know how it all works you probably figured that out by now. But I uploaded the songs properly so people can listen from there AND apparently I can get royalties from the advertising, just like youtube partner stuff. I don't expect I will ever see any money from there, or maybe about £10 in about a year, but it's good to have set it up.

Especially as I think there is another band somewhere that shares my name, because there were some tracks on there that weren't mine, so I'm attempting to take over! I've sent out bulletins telling people about it, basically I think if a lot of people go over and listen to my songs they will be the ones that appear on the page instead of the other 'blue skies' whoever they may be.

As my lovely blog readers I am expecting you to do this as well, oh yes. And any of you that know the site better than me go ahead and do whatever you can do on there! Is there an equivalent to subscribing? I did manage to make a playlist of the songs and embed it on mymymyspace, if other people started doing that it would be very helpful! When the EP nears completion I'm gonna start properly pushing the idea of word of mouth advertising, it's so powerful today with this clever little thing called the internet.

Four songs have been started for the collab ep. I'm listening to the song me and Jay are covering now and I'm excited!

 here is the last.fm page.

Byeeee.
x

Thoughts on a song

I'm uploading a song at the moment. It's going to take a while because my internet is made of failure, and since it's quite a strange song I thought I'd write about it.

It's strange because I wrote it in three parts and I was in a very different mood, or at least thinking about very different things when writing each. I should point out right now, it's not as funny as that song from 'The Wedding Singer', the one he wrote half of before he broke up with his girlfriend and half after... But it is all over the place. So I'm gonna run through it because I think some people might be interested, but really it's more that I want to run it through my head. If you don't care about the thought process behind a song then I'd stop reading this round about now.

The first part I wrote yesterday, I was feeling kinda down and really lethargic, it was just one of those days where I didn't think anything productive was happening, my mind was flicking between topics and never settling on one, which I suppose is how the song turned out as well, which is quite nice.

A little while later I was listening to Jack Poulson (who had just put a new song on his page) and that was picking me up, it really made me want to write but I was annoyed because nothing I've written lately has been finished or turned out right. That's what the 'Jack has me falling in love again but it seems so distant' part is about: songwriting. I can confirm I have not fallen in love with someone called Jack.

The word distant got me thinking about how far I am physically from all my friends. That and I got a call from Alex who is up in Glasgow with Mhazz, by the way, expect hilarity from a certain youtuber not mentioned involving a bike ride! Also go watch Davey's video where he asks 'why do so many people die of cancer every year?' as he puts out a cigarette... in a graveyard. Genius.

Getting off topic. The repeated line, 'take me in...' is about a few things but centered around that longing for physical closeness with friends I don't see often enough. Adding 'your mind' on the end was to put a more positive spin on the idea, because I know even if I can't be with them, I see them and hear them through all this technology some nice person invented for us. Also it's a way of saying I hope I'm in their thoughts like they are in mine. I think of new meanings and forget old ones every time I think about that line.

The last verse is the most out of place and makes no sense. I wrote it today after I had the guitar part figured out and had sung through the rest of it once or twice. That had me in a much happier mood because I love the guitar in it so I was really writing about writing. I don't know why people don't write about writing more, after all you write about what you do and what are you doing when you're writing? You're writing!

So that's what I was thinking when I wrote a strange song about all sorts of things. Hardly great lyrics but I kinda like it... And the guitar is shit hot.

Oh but I just got a comment on youtube that informed me I can't actually sing, so I'll be closing my account now, bye.

**********************************************************************************

EDIT: Ok Just want to add a few things, it's a couple of hours after this blog went up, and the video too. First off... Yes, that last line was a joke! I get those comments every day, they don't get to me.

And something I should have said was that this is a first draft and I will go over the lyrics - There is a balance between keeping true to the original feelings and creating a coherent, intelligent piece of writing. So far this is all feeling and little thought! Over the next few days hopefully I will go over it, probably replace the last verse and attempt to connect the others more solidly.

bye then!

Some fucking clowns from myspace

Just sent me a message saying my untitled track is 'identical' to their song and they reckon I ripped it off. Several problems I have with this...

1. This song of theirs isn't even on their page so I can't listen to it, I don't even know if it exists.

2. They are Italian, the only song they have up is in Italian, and the title of the song I supposedly ripped off is "Pane e verità". Now I'm quite particular about my lyrics, I pay very close attention to them, and as such I'm pretty sure I would notice if I had any songs WRITTEN IN ITALIAN!

3. As a songwriter I've never been so insulted. Who the fuck would do that?

4. The one song they did have on their page was shit. If I was ever to intentionally steal someones song (would absolutely, unequivocally, NEVER happen, but for argument's sake...) it would be someone good.

But my real concern is that I know fuck all about copyright, I don't know if the files on my computer are enough, dates posted on websites I would think are official and recorded. But I don't even know when they wrote/recorded their song. For all I know it is before mine. I had a look just now and apparently you have to post songs to yourself and not open them unless it's ever required in court. I guess I'll start doing that. I never even dreamt of this happening.

What I do know is that around a year ago, maybe more I can't remember, I sat down in my room, on my own and wrote every fucking word.

And it's the best thing I've written.

p.s. If this is any of you playing an elaborate practical joke, tell me now or I will actually murder you.

Going well so far

Love it!



 

Think I'll do another one today if I can get some quiet.

Reasons to be happy

My sister Katie and her boyfriend Matt will be here in twelve hours.

One of my videos is currently playing on Charlie's page. I like Charlie, he's nice. I've only met him once at upstaged and I was a bit preoccupied, but I noticed one thing, he was nice.

People are digging The Sunshine Sessions, and well they should! It was a great idea. I'm hoping to put out five parts, four of which I've already recorded, and I want them all up within a week and I want them all to make the first page of the weeks top rated/commented/favourited videos in music, so one quarter of the top twenty music videos will be me! How good will that look?! Also when they are all on youtube I'm going to get them in mp3 format and make them downloadable, not on myspace, but all together from one of those sites... like Jay's EP. 

I got a comment on that first video from someone in South Africa, they said they liked it when it was sunny in the UK because the whole world seemed to get happier! I loved that.

I don't love that I accidentally removed their comment. If you're reading this, I'm sorry.

The Collab EP has begun! I've sent two songs out so I can do no more to them until I get parts from the collabees! I could do with picking songs for everyone next, then get started on one or two more. It's quite good doing so many at once, because I don't need to rush people, I've always got something to do... Those two I can't do more on until I get parts back, but so what, I've got a load of others to start!

I'm currently thinking that getting on as many ipods as possible is a very good idea, so with The Sunshine Sessions and the collab EP being sent out to music collections throughout the world for free and being quite well promoted there should be 'Blue Skies' sections popping up everywhere! Once you're on ipods you get promotion without having to do anything. I like that thought.

 

I'm getting subscribers again, which is nice! I went down to only getting about 10-20 a day for quite a few days, but I got over 60 today, that must be one of my highest. I was a bit disappointed with the Kings of Leon video though. With a lot of my recent videos they have gone to the top of searches, so for example if you searched 'the strokes' for about a fortnight after I released my cover of them, that was the number one search result. Because of this, that video has more views than the one that got featured, same with Iris. But the KoL cover got nothing! I'll tell you what you get if you search for 'kings of leon', you get the bloody Kings of Leon! It's a shame, I got it in stereo and everything, I wouldn't have bothered if I'd known!

 

Still I make that five reasons to be happy against one annoying thing. The fact that the second part of The Sunshine Sessions still hasn't uploaded can make the final score 5-2. So a good day. Bedtime now and I just had one of those 'Oh my God' moments when you realise the time is an hour later than you thought it was.

Sorry this has been a bit all over the place... Well not that sorry, I'm sure you'll get over it.

Bye.

The Sunshine Sessions

The recent wave of gorgeous weather has had me longing to get outside more. However I struggle to do things productive with music out there other than song writing, so I have decided to do a little series called 'The Sunshine Sessions.' There's nothing too special about it, it'll just be me and my guitar like many of my videos, but I'll be out in the garden (and maybe the local park if I can be bothered) and I won't be using proper recording gear, just the mic on my camera (which it turns out, is pretty good!)

I like playing outside, you get all the background noises, water fountains, birds, a plane goes overhead at the start of the first one!

So I have done two songs today and I may go out again tomorrow and record a couple more. The videos are going to be really simple, the audio will have no effects and I'm only giving myself one take for each song so it's not going to be polished, there will probably be a mistake or two, but it will be real, just like you were sitting in my garden with me. At least, that's the plan.

You never know how long this weather will be with us so I'm going to put the videos up quite quickly, probably one a day. Then hopefully it will still be nice when people are watching, I don't want it to have gone cold and wet and for my videos to remind everyone of that!


So yes, I let the weather run my life. I am English.

Where all good stories come from.

Grandparents.

Especially if they are Irish.

So I have a story for you, one that I just heard for the first time, which is the most amazing part because I thought I had heard every story my grandad had in him, most of them several times!

Just in conversation my Dad mentions Tho Who, and my grandad says 'Oh, I remember them.' This is unexpected. His knowledge of rock/pop music is limited at best, The Beatles are the only band I think are big enough for me to be confident he would know them. He's into... Marty Robbins and... stuff. Anyway his appreciation and taste in music is beside the point, all I'm trying to say is that he is unaware of the popularity of this band, which is probably why I've made it through 22 years on this earth having never heard this story before.

On further enquiry as to how he 'remembered' The Who he comes out with this little gem. Please include an Irish accent when reading his lines, it will greatly improve the realism and wonder of his story.

He used to work as an accountant for Granada, and here my knowledge is shady, but this day he was working in some large music venue, but... as an accountant. 'The only other people in the whole building' he says, obviously prone to exaggeration but that's why everyone loves old Irish people, 'were The Who.' They were rehearsing for a gig. He was doing accounts. Unsurprisingly, they were quite loud and off putting, so he went and found them and ASKED THE WHO TO TURN IT DOWN! The best part however, is that they did turn it down with their apologies!

I only wish I could write a story as well as he could tell it, and I hope you know an elderly Irish gentleman who is similarly stereotypically brilliant at weaving a tale and holding the attention of everyone within earshot so that you can relate to being told a story from the genius that is my grandad.

 

Also I have had a stroke of genius about the collab EP. I was just going to go along putting up videos for each song when it was finished, but I've realised that would be stupid. I'm going to hold off releasing any of the songs at all until they are all finished and everything is ready. Then I'll have a 'launch' night where I put up a video explaining what I've done and the videos for each of the songs go up on the channels of the people I did them with, all with a link to a download of the whole EP. It'll be awesome. We can take over the music section of youtube! Ok maybe not, but it will be awesome, and I think I can reach a lot of people. Even if these ones wont be my original songs, having a ''Blue Skies' section on that many people's ipods has got to be good! But I'll be honest, that's just me justifying to myself the time it will take, the main reason is that I want to work with these people and to listen to it myself!