A week in the life…

So, it’s been a weird week, a difficult week, and those who know me will know why…

But the news is, we’re still here…and you never know just what tomorrow might bring.  ;)

And so, today I’ve prepared a couple of discs to send away – one for review by Cross Rhythms (hoping to top the 7/10 they gave for ‘Conversations’!), and one a demo for the record label I wrote to earlier this year (if you don’t try, and all that…).

Mostly I guess it’s wishful thinking, but something strange can go on, if we only dream…

AND, if you don’t have a clue where I’m getting some of these lines from, you need to go here: www.martinflett.net and download the new album, ‘Becoming Human’.  It’s my little Christmas present to you all.

Have a great one, and I’ll see you on the other side…(of the New Year)

M

Becoming Human – born 11-12-2010

It’s arrived!

Born, 11-12-2010, my new album, ‘Becoming Human’, is available to download.

Weighing in at 11 tracks, and just a week premature, ‘we’ are very proud.

For more information and to download, visit my website: www.martinflett.net.  (It’s free, at least for now…)

Due date…

The wait is almost over…

The new album, ‘Becoming Human’, is due this Saturday, the 11th December 2010.  And it’s worth the wait (at least I think so!).

It has probably taken close to the stipulated 9 months to create the 11 tracks, many of which have been heard around Leamington in recent months, some of which have not.   And they can be yours, for free (at least for now…).

Saturday.  I expect a baby-shower…

Becoming Human Track List

No Such Thing
Welcome
Why Don’t We?
Become
Horizon
Wonder
Broken Promises
Serious (This Time)
Becoming Human
New Reality
Tomorrow (You Never Know)

A load of nonsense

Hi folks!

Another apology is necessary I feel, but life has been busy (always the same old excuses, eh?! – Ed)…but don’t fear!  I am still here, and I can tell you that recording has been progressing!

We’re well on course for a pre-Christmas release, as advertised (hurrah! – you lot), although there will now not be a pre-release-release (if that makes sense…) of a taster-track.  Because I’m not that nice after all.

(Well, actually, it’s because I don’t want to make you all wait longer than you have to for the whole thing.  So you’ll have to wait.  (Again, if that makes sense…))

We’ve been recording final acoustic guitar tracks this week, which is good news because, once they’re done, there’s just vocals and electric guitars to go. Drums are done, keys and synths are done…can you feel it getting closer???  (Yes!  Yes we can!! – you lot)

I don’t have a lot more interesting to tell you, other than the promised ‘slight change of direction’ is still in evidence, but don’t y’all get scared now: I’m still definitively ‘me’.

M

Recording: Week one

Yep, a whole week has passed in the Flett Studio.  (Ok, so I haven’t actually spent the whole week in here, because I have a day-job, and social ‘responsibilities’ etc etc.  But anyway…)

So far, so good: One song, ‘Wonder’, is almost complete – it needs vocals (pesky colds…) and a bit of editing, but all in all I’m happy with how it has turned out.  I can’t let you hear it yet, because that would spoil the wait.  But it looks something like the picture…!

Since then, work has begun on the title track, ‘Becoming human’.  With a much more straight-rock feel to this one than ‘Wonder’, I’m gonna have some fun…

For the techies out there:

In my last post, I briefly mentioned some new hardware and software.  Having now worked with this properly for a week, I can tell you the following:

The Focusrite Sapphire Pro 24 is great.  If you’re looking for a mid-range (at a guess!) firewire interface, then you could do a whole lot worse.  And in my opinion, you couldn’t do a lot better.  I love it.  Simple to use, and sounds good.  And it has lots of pretty lights.

EZDrummer, the little brother of Toontrack’s Superior Drummer, is also a fantastic purchase for anyone in need of realistic sounding drums, without so much fiddling around as in Superior.  Seriously, I’m not a patient man, and therefore the thought of faffing around trying to mix 16 drum mics for 11 tracks filled me with dread.  But 8 mics is much more manageable, and, so far, I can’t tell much of a sound difference between it and it’s twice-the-price sibling.

Money well spent, me thinks.

And so it begins…

The picture tells the whole story really…

Yep, my living room has been converted into a studio once more.  For how long, who knows?  As long as it takes.  But tentative work on the new album, ‘Becoming human’, has begun this evening.

With new ware (both hard and soft), new ideas, and a slightly new direction, we (that’s me and Zebedee) are very excited about the coming weeks/months!

All that remains is for you lot to get excited too.

There’ll be more as work progresses…

M

Star and Garter review

So, with a week gone since my ‘gig’ at The Star and Garter, it’s probably about time I told you how it went!

In short, it went very well!  Pretty much everyone I’ve spoken to about it afterwards has said that they really enjoyed it, and you can’t ask for much more than that!

I played a slightly extended set of, mostly unreleased original material (some of which will be on the forthcoming next album, possibly later this year!).

I opened with ‘Welcome’, appropriately enough, and went on to play around 7 other songs, including Horizon, Nothing’s Wrong and the timeless classic The Polar Bear Song.  The night also played host to the first performance of my latest song, No Such Thing.  An encore was (surprisingly!) requested, and so I delved into my back catalogue for a rendition of ‘If I could know the future…’

All in all it was a really fun night and I very much enjoyed it.  If anyone else did too, then that’s a bonus…

Not sure when my next live appearance will be, besides open mics relatively regularly.  As ever though, I’ll keep you posted (if not always as quickly as I perhaps should…! )

M

Just enough time…

So, it’s been a while again!  Apologies and all that, but you know – life never stops!

But, there’s just time to tell you I am the Featured Act at The Star and Garter this Monday.  I’ll be on at 10.30pm, so make sure you’re there!  Before that, it’s open mic from 9pm, which is always great, so come early, grab a pint and a seat and enjoy!

I’m even planning to unveil a brand new song (that is, if I get it finished…)

Bet you’re excited now, huh??

Happy Easter everyone.  Don’t eat too much chocolate now will you…

M

New Horizons….

Ok people, so it’s been some time since I wrote – that’s because it’s been busy around here….

Firstly, the gig at Cafe Create went very well.  Had a great time and saw some other good acts as well but,  it seems so long ago now that I’ll move swiftly on!

Secondly, I went to Norway.  Which has very little to do with music, but is interesting nevertheless….

Thirdly, I’ve been playing the open mics of Leamington, which is still a lot of fun.

And now to the real news…

The reason I’m rushing through all that is cos there are more important things to tell you about.  Like free stuff and changes to my website…

The album ‘Conversations’, which has been available on my website since October, is now no longer available for free.  So, if you missed out, well…you’ve had plenty of time!! :p  BUT, all is not lost, because you can now purchase ‘Conversations’ online!  Amazon and iTunes are probably your main ports of call, amongst a host of others that I can never remember…

Never fear though, because I’m a nice, generous guy, and to make up for having removed free access to my album, there is now a brand new track available to download!  The song is called ‘Horizon’ and has been touted as my best song yet.  It’s gone down very well at open mics (it is requested most weeks in fact….) and now you have the chance to hear the studio version.  Click here to go straight to the download page.

And finally…there’s an ulterior motive for me recording ‘Horizon’.  Shortly after recording ‘Conversations’, I contacted some record labels to see whether I could send them a demo.  And, one of them actually replied!  I figured it was probably a good idea to send my best songs…hence why I needed to record ‘Horizon’.  Elevation music should now have in their possession a four-track demo, containing Horizon, Struggle, Nothing’s wrong, and Closed doors.  Let’s hope they like them!!

I think that just about brings you up to date.  Hopefully I’ll not leave it as long next time….

M

Wanna see me live?

…as in ‘playing live’ rather than just living (although, if you really want, you can see me doing that most days as well (yes, only ‘most’!))

Saturday 30th January. Put it in your diary and go here for further details.

That’s all! (What more do you need??!)

M