Being A Musician In Bath: Act One

My plan has always been that once I had moved to Bath - the big city - that I would step the music thing up a notch. I would put more effort in getting gigs and maintaining a busy schedule of gigs. I would devote more time to writing, more time to marketing etc, maybe even gather a small cluster of musicians together to form some sort of ensemble. I would no longer be a simple clerical worker, dreaming of hitting the big time while playing crappy open mic nights with zero return. I would be a full blown musician, collaborating with others to produce ground breaking work and showcasing this to packed bars full of fans who will leave amazed and in love with the hottest new act in town.

I guess I had some naive notion that Bath would be overflowing with creative musicians, venues hosting live music and people willing to pay to see music. I thought that in no time at all I would be playing gigs and meeting other serious musicians. But in actual fact, I can't really say that things, so far, are that much better than in Taunton.

This is only going by my first impressions mind you. I have only been here for about three weeks so I mustn't jump to any big conclusions just yet but from what I have seen so far, on the surface, there doesn't appear to be the booming music scene that some other city's appear to boast.

My only proper exposure to Bath's music scene so far is through the attendance of a few open mic nights, which, as was the case in Taunton, are the stomping ground for very nervous newbies and seasoned cover artists and sound a-likes. And even these seem thin on the ground.

It would also appear that what music scene there is swarms around Moles Club and adjoining Porters Bar, mirrored by Tauntons singular music venue being The Perfect 5th. There are a few other pubs advertising live music but that nature of this remains to be investigated. My fear is that this, as was the case back in Taunton, will consist of pub rock cover acts assured of bringing in the punters.

The initial findings possibly could leave me slightly disheartened if it not for the fact that I am positive that once September draws near and the students return, and once this banal festival period of summer has finished, things will pick up and I shall be reporting an entirely different story.

New Inspiration

My plan was to spend the first two weeks in my new flat, writing, playing music, composing, and doing other interesting things like that. The sort of things I spend a long time thinking about doing, but never really get around to actually doing.

I've spent most of my time here rehearsing acoustic material and developing some new songs, reading about photography, and wondering why I haven't really got round to doing the things I was planning on doing. I did also make a brief start on a proposal for a sound installation but decided that, considering the proposal wouldn't be delivered until September, it wasn't worth spending too much time on. Plus I don't want to lose energy midway through this particular project as I feel it will be a real killer.

I have nearly finished reading a book about David Bowie in Berlin. It is absolutely fantastic. It talks about the making of both 'Low' and 'Heroes', as well as the making of Iggy Pop records, 'The Idiot' and 'Lust For Life'. What is most interesting about this time was the importance placed on working methods, collaborations and mindset when they were producing this material. Both Bowie and those he worked with were desperate to put their old selves, their old ways of working, behind them and create something fresh. They didn't tie themselves to schedules of preconceived formats of how things would be done. The sessions were organic and free and, perhaps because of this, the actual bulk of the work was completed fairly quickly.

I've spoken before about the need, as an artist, to force yourself into new directions, to attempt to work in different ways and to seek out new ideas and inspirations. This can be as simple as visiting a random gig, buying a new CD by a different artist, or as radical as it was for Bowie, moving to a different part of the world to work with different people. But if you want to keep being excited by your own musical or artistic journey, these steps are absolutely necessary.

I have spent the last few days working on new electronic music. Although the results aren't quite ready to be heard yet I am getting really excited about where some of the sounds are heading. Over the last few months I have had a bit of a sonic breakthrough with my electronic music which I am really pleased about. So to celebrate, I will be posting some old, new music on my musical sketchpad.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have just gone through the process of registering and licensing my copy of Cubase LE4 so that I can bounce some MP3s to upload. I have now discovered that Cubase LE4 does not seem to offer MP3 bounces. If it does - I can't find them.

I will post again when this is resolved and my music is online.

Bath

Living in Bath is great.

It has taken a week or so to stop feeling like a tourist, to be able to walk through the streets with confidence, not stopping every few steps to take a picture of an old building or ask where I am or where to go, but I am finally starting to settle into life here and the fact that this beautiful city is now my home is starting to sink in.

What with the moving and acclimatising etc, finding our way around and trying to get my head around bills etc, my mind hasn't hugely had the time to wander so I'm going to keep this post short.

I have been trying to develop my portraiture skills recently so will post some of the results very soon.

Also, with a new location comes new open mic opportunities so I will now be hanging around Porters Bar on a Monday night and The Pig And Fiddle on a Tuesday night. Come by, say hello and hear my new music.

Open Mic Night At The Perfect 5th

We can assume that people want freedom - That people want to make their own choices.

However, we mustn't then try and dictate or value people choices by our own standards.

I completely appreciate what Martin is saying in his blog post and understand why he is going to do the things he talks about doing, however, if you take away the free, open nature of the night by imposing rules, well then the night isn't really an open mic night at all and should not be advertised as one.

Yes it may be dull if every other act is an acoustic singer/songwriter but like Martin has said time and time again - open mic night is an open source product - it has no owner and its value is completely created by those that attend. I don't really believe that anyone has the right to take so much creative control over a night that does not belong to them.

As the owner of Atkins Scooters, Taunton, said to me this morning as I rode to work with him and his dog, "There is just no way of knowing why people do some things some of the time, and not at other times". Of course I was far too busy defending myself from his dog to pay attention to what he actually said so the above quote is just a rough representation of our conversation, the point is, Martin just has to let things naturally develop. The night hasn't even been going for a year yet. It is bound to have peaks and troughs and perhaps the night is in a trough at the moment.

Martins blog

Sound Art

I have just sent an email to the Appledore Arts people about me doing a sound installation at the 2010 festival.

I feel this is a bold step for me - they could always just say no, especially since it is currently a visual arts festival, but if they were to be interested, if they were to say yes.

Even putting a proposal together for them to consider in more depth would take me right out of my comfort zone - something which is only a good thing.

In the back of this years programme there was a small section detailing that next years festival will run the theme of 'Coastline', and this filled my head with all sorts of ideas for audio pieces I could create.

I have spent most of this week developing my idea, just in my head, and am really confident that I could put together a fantastic piece of sound art fusing location recordings, sound collages, spoken word and traditional folk music.

I hope they consider it.

My blogging frequency may decline over the next few weeks due to the fact I spend my lunchtimes out in the sunshine now and when we move to Bath, I won't have an Internet connection for a while.

I think I will write by hand and blog-in-bulk.

Appledore Arts Festival

Walking around Appledore yesterday I felt empowered.

I'm not sure whether it was due to the beautiful sunshine, the location, or the festival atmosphere but it felt great.

I like the format of artists exhibiting in their own homes. You weren't led or ushered anywhere and you didn't have to view the art according to somebody else's schedule. We were at our own leisure to explore the various streets and alleyways, poke our heads into peoples homes and chat to the artists in their own environment about their work.

There was some fantastic artwork on display ranging from oil painting to fabric work, to installations and film, and all from a range of artists, both young and old.

I liked the way you could view a collection of artwork, then wonder the streets discussing it before finding your next informal, mini exhibition. And every house you entered was sure to bring you a whole different style of work which tackled the festivals theme of 'Fire And Fury' from an entirely different point of view.

I think it would be nice to adopt this relaxed format for other forms of festival. Imagine a music festival where you weren't choosing between various stages or tents, but found yourself exploring a quaint sea-side town, where musicians held regular and informal gigs to small audiences in their front rooms.

I think that would be fantastic.