Looking back quite a lot seemed to go down since my last blog post. A trip to Brighton for the Great Escape, finally getting a band together and now a European tour on the horizon. But first what happened in Brighton...
For those who don't know 'The Great Escape' is a three day music festival and conference that takes place in Brighton, and what a experience it turned out to be. Hunter S. Thompson famously said: "The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." In some ways I can relate to that statement but if there was one thing that came out of the long weekend I spent 'Networking' at free industry parties, catching a talk or two and stumbling home drunk to my glamours bunk bed in a grimy hostel dorm, then it's this; We are now for the first time in a period of the music industry were you really can do it yourself and have the power to make your own path and destiny. If your not careful the music industry can sallow you up, eat you alive, then spit you out again when your 10 mins of fame has passed and leave you pennyless with nothing more than memories at your shot at the big time. As a DIY artist I couldn't be happier in the knolige that I don't have that risk as I am firmly in the driving seat of my career.
May was also month that saw a project I've been working on for a while finally come together. You'd be surprised how long it can take putting a backing band together, finding the right combination of musicians that can not only play together but also get on, can be more of a challenge than you would at first imagine. But I'm happy to announce that on my return from my solo tour of Europe I will be shelving my 'one man band' show for a while and playing as a four piece with a drummer, bassist and guitarist. I'm really happy with the new sound as I'm sure you will be too, and you can watch us all in action on a live video we filmed in 'The Joint' a few weeks ago. The song is 'Devil's Soul' from my album 'City of streets' and is out now on Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon. You can watch the video below, as well as other videos on my YouTube channel, were I'll be keeping a vlog of this years European tour.
As I'm an DIY artist to fund my next album I have to do the odd bit of 'fundraising'. So most of June will be about working like a dog to get the cash together, for my next album, which randomly sees me flying to Moscow to work on this years World Cup then it will be off on tour for the rest of the summer. I'll let you know how it all pans out.