Where I've Been In 2015

Hello readers,

I've been even more quiet than usual recently, well about a year actually, so I thought it was time for an update. So what have I been up to? Err, stuff. Mainly procrastinating. I've been very busy but apparently not busy doing anything constructive.

In late 2014 I finally returned to playing live. For a few months I haunted every open mic in town, trying desperately to remember how it's done. After a lot of mistakes and discovering I can't always remember the lyrics to my own songs I finally started to improve. Unfortunately, most of the open mics nearby closed down for various reasons and I was left with no option but to stay silent for a while. There was some good news though, after playing bass at a regular jam night I was offered a chance to play bass on an album that a friend was working on.

In Demember I was unexpectedly invited to star in a documentary about The Smiths, I got to go to Manchester and see some places associated with the band. I had a great time, and the entire crew were fantastic and really lovely people. The film, This Charming Fan, can be found on YouTube or the blogpost before this one.

In January 2015 I met up with producer Dr Jaxon and singer Billy Hobbes from the band Broken Swords. The sessions lasted about a week. Broken Swords's first album Sunlight Skims will hopefully feature me playing bass. Almost a year later, the album remains in a kind of limbo. The last I heard, recording was finished and the project was now being mixed. That was 6 months ago, so I'm not sure when the album will see the light of day. When it does come out, it will be available on most streaming sites and distributed through Damsel Records (aka my label).

In April I found out that the streaming site Grooveshark was shutting down. This pissed me off because most of my available material was hosted there. The Bletchley album and the Songs For EPs were there, along with some other demos and live recordings. At the moment they are all unavailable. The only place to find my music right now is Reverbnation or Soundcloud. More info on releases later.

I spent the next few months doing my day job of caring for family, even less interesting than it sounds believe it or not.

In September, I was injured in the street and broke my wrist. It needed to be pinned and plated and has left me comepletely unable to play the guitar any time soon. With any luck I will be able to play again but it's not definite.

So, where does leave me and making music?

Good question.

Despite multiple false starts over the last few years, album no 4 Broken Mornings is actually almost finished. It needs some more parts recording and then I can mix it and release it. Unfortunately, it will probably be a few months before I can record the final parts. The album is coming but it's going to be a while yet.

With this in mind, I've looked into my options for distributing my music online. I'm still weighing up which deal to take but long story short, The Cerice Trilogy, some EPs and a side project I worked on a few months ago will all be available to stream for free on Spotify, Deezer and YouTube, and available to purchase on Amazon, itunes and Bandcamp.

In the meantime, I've been searching through boxes and found the files for Songs For Cerice 2.0, Songs For Toni 2.0 and Salad Days 2.0. These are all a few years old now but most people never got to hear them since the sites they were on either shut down or got shut down by legal teams. I'm remastering the audio and making them a little more listenable. If all goes to plan they'll all appear on Youtube and Soundcloud ASAP. Probably a few weeks, it's not a big job but I don't have a lot of free time at the moment.

Til next time,

Barnaby J. Tremayne.