Mixing it up

Yesterday saw the start of mixing EP5.

It was pleasantly painless experience.  The plan was to do a rough mix of "Beijing Morning".

This was archived and mixing started on the instrumental "Bathmophobia".  So for once we appear to be getting ahead of ourselves.

So the plan is to live with this mix for a few days and then tweak again later.

More mixing sessions are scheduled for later in the week.

Below is a brief video E made, using his Android Tablet to control Cubase. Even though we normally use a hardware controller, it is interesting to see how modern technology can be used in the music process.

It also contains a sneak peak at the new song "Beijing Morning".

Happy New Year!!!!!

We believe we have finished the last recording session for EP5.

As it turned out, after comping an existing part, we decided not to rerecord the bass for the instumental, "Bathmophobia".

I had been struggling at home alone with re-recording the acoustic for "Invisible Wall", Not being happy with the current version nor the freebie acoustic version we did for the Bridgnorth music festival.

So we spent some time testing different mic setups, but especially distances between the mic and the guitar.

I then went home and re-recorded the acoustic part, which I a lot happier with.  So that is it, EP5 recorded.

Now comes the task of mixing.  This will begin next week in earnest.

My plan this week is to get all the project files into some kind of order, sorting out the grouping, topping /tailing the audio files, setting up some basic send effects and general organisation of the project. All necessary but tedious jobs.

So next week mixing begins.

The track listing for EP5 remains:-
1. Invisible Wall
2. Beijing Morning
3. Assimilation
4. Bathmophobia

We will be making a simple video for Beijing Morning.

This will also be the first EP where we have not collaborated with other muicians.

More news next week.

Rollasoc

End of the year!!!

Well the year was mostly going to plan.

Finish EP5 and maybe play a gig or two.

How hard could that be?

Turns out to be harder than we thought.

Well, the EP is almost there, it just needs mixing and we did play Bridgnorth music festival. So it isn't all doom and gloom.

Normally, we take December off each year. This year we have taken the last four months off.

We are meeting up tomorrow for a drink. I am now mobile again, so work will commence in January to finish the EP and start the next one.

I will also be blogging more frequently on musical matters.

Plus after two years of living in a very musical town, it is time to get out there and play some of the open mics on a regular basis.

So I am quietly optimistic that providing the world doesn't end on Friday that 2013 will be a good year!

Happy Christmas / winter break / whatever and have a happy new year!!!

Rollasoc

Free Music Marketing Book - Music Success in 9 Weeks

I came across the book "Music Success in 9 weeks" by Arial Hyatt about two years ago.

I read through it with the intention of blogging the nine week course, but  given

we don't have any real musical career aspirations, I have resisted blogging about this in the past.

You can now get the latest version of the book for free (or a donation if you like)

Music Success In Nine Weeks Free PDF

If you are a budding musician and want some tips on how to kick start your career, then this is a good place to start.

You can get a free except here

I have every intention to blog about the steps involved in this book, early in the new year, much like others have done with details about what we have done and whether they worked or not.

This is that although we have no intention for world domination, there is always room for more people hearing our music, more fans, more love and possibly a few more sales.

Life

Things have been a bit slow in Hair Thieves land since Bridgnorth Music Festival, mostly due to my lack of a car and thus not being able to get to our weekly meetings, (we live something like 19 miles apart).

This is depressing me somewhat.

So although some work has been progressing on EP5, not enough has happened to get the thing to release anytime soon.

So we will regroup soon and move onwards and upwards.

Bridgnorth Music Festival 2012

So that time of year comes around for the annual live outing by The Hair Thieves.

We were originally booked to play the out door Quayside, but with the mixture of rain and electricity, the outdoor concert was cancelled and moved across the road to Gabrielle's wine bar.

We have played Gabrielle's before at open mic nights (when it was known as the Lounge. Incidentally, it was the venue we first performed live together in 2008), so knew it was going to be an up close and personal experience.   So, with that in mind and breaking with the norm, we ditched the effects pedals.

 We aired the new song "Invisible Wall".  An acoustic version of which you can listen to on our Soundcloud page.  The EP version will be fuller with drums and bass and keyboards added.

We also did our "Donate to charity and get a free CD" deal, with a very limited CD featuring said acoustic version of "Invisible Wall" and the now very old (can't get it anywhere else) track "Tilly".

Other tracks we played were "Bad Consumer", "A Journey of the Soul", "Break The Casino" and a couple of covers by Idlewild and Stereophonics.

Here is how we closed the set with "Break The Casino". Filmed by Tracy Breeze.

More news on EP5 to follow.

EP5 & Live

It has dawned on me that we haven't blogged for many months on the happenings of the Hair Thieves.

Sorry about that. We have been busy writing and recording (and now rehearsing).

So here is the latest news:-

EP5 is ongoing.  We have temporarily scrapped one of the songs and written, (surprisingly quickly for us) another tune.  So we now have three songs with lyrics and the obligatory instrumental.

I believe the track listing of EP5 will be (not necessarily in this order)

• Invisible Wall
• Beijing Morning
• Assimilation
• Bathmophobia

So the rush now is to get the recording and mixing done in the next two or three weeks for an end of August release.

We also have our annual live gig outing booked for Monday 27th August at the Quayside in Bridgnorth as part of the Bridgnorth Music Festival.  We are looking forward to playing once again against the stunning backdrop of the River Severn.

The line up is:-
12:00 Rhi Moore 
12:30 The Moonshine Runners 
13:00 The Hair Thieves 
13:30 Num Nums 
14:00 Claire Diamond 
14:30 Midset Buka 
15:10 Matt Barker 
15:40 Thomson Oldeman 
16:30 ToyPOP 
17:20 The State of Things

So hopefully, see some of you there!!!!

More news on the EP and maybe a snippet soon.