experiment1.mp3 Listen on Posterous

I thought it would be fun to play along to a field recording of some birds.

So I atttached my guitar to an old midi module I'd liberated from work (It was going to be thrown away otherwise – superflous technology).

The midi converter, being of the cheap and cheerful kind, did weird things with my guitar playing.

This is what turned up.

Last night I played at the Portobello Acoustic Sessions at the Metropolitan pub near Westbourne Park.

The Metropolitan is a lovely pub to which you should go. It has a snug. This is a good thing.

The gig was fun too, despite the fact that the audience was small. Besides myself there was the lovely folk-pop duo Jespa, a wonderful jazz duo – Rebecca Heynes and Sam (whose surname escapes me) and a bloke called Pete who's surname I can't remember.

Find Jespa at http://www.jespa.co.uk

Pete was interesting – sub-Dylanesque three chord non-songs that he didn't play very well. He also turned up clearly off his head, broke a string on his own guitar, didn't treat the guitar he subsequently borrowed particularly well, took too long to get off stage and made lots of noise during one of my songs right in front of the stage.

I wasn't a fan.

I became a little disillusioned with the London acoustic scene a couple of years ago because I always seemed to be on bills with lots of acts like Pete.

Thankfully, Jespa and Rebecca and Sam were fantastic – some of the best stuff I've heard on the circuit for a while and the couple running the night were wonderful.

Lessons to learn?

1. I should gig more – it was fun and I went down well
2. I'm enjoying calling the setlist on the fly – I've done that the last few appearances and it's quite fun. I played a song I've never played before and hadn't even thought of for a year or so – I'll dig an MP3 out of the vaults and share it with you at some point because you won't have heard of it.
3. People like knowing what the song is about – a bit of a speal about the song works well – and I do enjoy telling people about the stupid things I write lyrics about.

So yes, yesterday's gig was lots of fun. Next Month I'm at the Green Dragon in Croydon on October 25th.

missingeyes.mp3 Listen on Posterous

Chasing people with missing eyes
Chasing dreams half remember
Falling backwards to where things end

The girl with the missing Eye will be mine, will be mine

Joe has finished the video for the Beast of the Air and blimey it looks good.

Should I be saying that about my own music video? Well given that aside from gurning a bit and running like a fool, I can take no credit for what you see there. It’s all my brother’s work, from the prop making and filming to the video effects – aside from equipment that he already owned the budget was about £200. I happen to think it looks bloody good for that budget.

Here’s Joe’s website: www.thedarkpower.com

Here’s a link to download the song, and the whole Ironbark album, or buy a CD: http://tomslatter.bandcamp.com

In other news:

A track of mine will appear on the soundtrack to the new book ‘Blood in the Skies’ by G. D Falksen. More details soon, but anyone into steampunk music needs to get a copy.

Here’s a link with a few more details: http://www.gdfalksen.com/steampunksoundtrack .

And here’s the track list – as you can see it includes pretty much every current steampunk related artist.

Disc 1

• “Lullabye for Lizzie” by Hellblinki (Hellblinki.com)
• ”The Killer” by The Magnificent Seven (Magnificentseven.se)
• “Terpsichore” by Strange Artifact (Strangeartifact.jp)  
• “Thick As Thieves {Loreli, Pt. III}” by Dr. Carmilla (Drcarmilla.com)
• “The Beer Hall In Hell” by Veronique Chevalier (WeirdVal.com)
• “Valentine” by Sunday Driver (Sundaydriver.co.uk)  
• “The silent have names” by Platform One (Platform-one.com)
• ““On a 45”” by This Way to the Egress (Thiswaytotheegress.com)
• “For the Killers” by Unwoman (Unwoman.com )
• “House of Cards” by Frenchy and the Punk (Frenchyandthepunk.com)
• Prologue of The Hellfire Chronicles: Blood In The Skies, read by the author

Disc 2

• “Glory (Blood in the Skies Mix)” by The Clockwork Dolls (theclockworkdolls.com)
• “goggles” by The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing   (facebook.com/blamedfornothing)
• “The Cruel Intentions Of Time” by The Wet-Glass RO              (thewetglassro.bandcamp.com)
• “Railroad Track” by Imaginary Airship (imaginaryairship.com) “The Man Who Learnt To Fly” by Tom Slatter (tomslatter.co.uk)
• “Blood in the skies” by Victor Sierra (victorsierra.net )             
• “Smoke & Mirrors” by GHOSTFIRE (ghostfiremusic.com)
• “Eveen” by Life’s Decay (lifesdecay.com
)
• “Until the End” by Escape The Clouds (EscapeTheClouds.com)
• “Savior of the Skies” by The Cog is Dead (thecogisdead.com)  
•   “Zeppelins” by The Absinthe Drinkers (theabsinthedrinkers.com) 
• Chapter One of The Hellfire Chronicles: Blood In The Skies, read by the author

What’s it about?

Watermen’s Square is about some watermen on the Thames who dredge up an evil rusty twisted metal skeleton, take it back to the the Watermen’s square. Once there the executor turns up and claims it. Terrified, they hand it over.

Its the middle song from the Miser’s Will, and possibly my favourite. It hangs somewhere in the middle of lullaby and horror story and the one I enjoy singing the most.

The Writing Process:

Watermen’s Square started heavier than it sounds now. I had recorded an instrumental Alice in Chains rip-off with the melody played by several harmonized guitars. A rough version of this was hanging around on my harddrive for about six months until I got the point last month where I needed a third song in the Miser’s Will and didn’t know what to do.

So I dug out this Alice in Chains rip-off, calmed it down, and there it was.

The Recording Process:

It took forever to record the vocals for this. So long and so frustrating a process was it that I ended up writing several entries of a diary about my singing voice.

Mostly I got there in the end.

Inspired by/Blatantly steals from:
Alice in Chains acoustic stuff.

So downloads and sales of my new album my new album IronBark continue:

But there are all sorts of extras for those who join the mailing list, because doing so gets you access to the fan page. As well as extended liner notes, you can now download the the acoustic demos for 7 of the 8 songs from IronBark straight from the fan page. To do that of course, you’ll need the password. You can get that by joining the mailing list:

You will recieve no spam, just a monthly newsletter keeping you up to date with everything I’ve been up to plus the fan page password

I haven't performed regularly for a while and it was a real joy to get on stage (although the stage in this case was the space in front of a large working steam engine).

I performed a couple of tracks from Spinning the Compass, Master of the Sidings, and a couple of Comrade Robot tracks that seemed to fit including Sing for a Sail which is one of my favourite unrecorded Comrade Robot songs. I also performed the whole of the Miser's Will across my two sets – the first time the whole thing has been performed.

(The Miser's Will can be found on my new album: http://tomslatter.bandcamp.com/album/ironbark )

Of course all performers are always critical – I could talk at length about the lyrics I got wrong, the fumbled guitar chords, the fact that my posture isn't perfect which can affect singing, or even the lack of strength in the lowest part of my register.

There is always room for improvement.

But overall I was pleased with my performance and the songs seemed to go down well. It was a slightly odd gig, in that while some people had chosen to sit and listen to the music, the gig was happening in the middle of a museum that was open to the general public. So as well as people listening intently, there were elderly steam engine enthusiasts, toddlers and kids in push chairs just moving through the museum looking at the exhibits.

I've played plenty of different audiences and that didn't phase me particularly, although I was nearly put off when during one of the songs the huge green steam engine in the corner of the hall hissed into life.

Although I'd planned a few songs to perform I put the set together pretty much on the fly. Putting together a setlist is an art in itself, but generally I think I found the right balance of light and shade. A lot of my songs are dark and minor key, and it's important to have more throwaway major key uplifting moments. Sing for a Sail worked quite well in this regard, as did ' Meet me in Gaslight'.

Also on the bill were Moth – a steampunk husband and wife duo who play a lovely fusion of folk and rock music with hints of jazz and Portishead-esque tip-hop. They looked the part far more than I did and have a great collection of songs. Ben from Moth was also responsible for putting my name forward for the gig as well, for which I'm grateful because it was a great gig and got me off my backside and wanted to gig more.

There was also a steampunk ballet by a wonderful young ballerina and some great steampunk story telling bought alive by wonderful performance and suitable sound effects.

Yesterday was a good day, and I thoroughly intend to be gigging far more often in the coming months.

(so erm, anyone want a steampunk/scifi singer songwriter to come play for them? Anyone?) 

See the full gallery on Posterous

So summer is here and finally I am free from the day job. I can experience the real world for a week or two.

I've been up to various things. IronBark has recieved a little attention in the form of a review by the lovely Oliver Arditi and my music has also turned up on two podcasts.

Review:http://oliverarditi.com/2011/07/26/tom-slatter-iron-bark/
Made in the UK:http://www.darkcompass.com/miuk/?p=395
Epileptic Gibbon:http://epilepticgibbon.wordpress.com/2011/07/25/episode-66-best-of-2010-part-2/

I've also made a start on failing 5090.

5090 is a songwriting challenge where songwriters try to write 50 new songs in the 90 days from July 4th. Every year I fail – the most I have ever managed is 25.

Here's my 5090 profile:http://fiftyninety.fawmers.org/users/tom-slatter

So far I've managed 3 songs and you can hear some rough demos of them on my profile. They're all rough recordings and were composed in only the time it took to record them. I happen to think there are some good ideas in there and with a lot of pruning they'll come up good.

Joe 'The Dark Sibling' Slatter and I have also been shooting a video for Beast of the Air. When I say we've been shooting, I mean Joe has been shooting it and I've been doing what he tells me and generall prancing about like a tit.

I've seen a rough edit of what we look so far. Joe has excelled himself.

We're shooting a few bits and bobs in August and then it shall be unleashed upon the world. It's gonna look bloody amazing once finished.

I've also been booked to play a gig in London on Sunday week but I haven't had final confirmation of details, so watch this space for that.

And that is what has happened. ]]> http://comraderobot.com/tomslatter/?feed=rss2&p=536 0 http://comraderobot.com/tomslatter/?p=520 http://comraderobot.com/tomslatter/?p=520#comments Sun, 17 Jul 2011 18:10:56 +0000 Tom http://comraderobot.com/tomslatter/?p=520

Title:The Miser’s Will II: What the Orderly Saw

What’s it about?

The second song of the Miser’s Will is from the point of view of a hospital orderly. He witnesses a doctor cutting a brain out of a body, placing it in a jar and then trying to diddle the man who hired him to do so. He is killed, as is the orderly.

Here’s a video of a live performance of it:

The Writing Process:

This is connected to the first song musically both in terms of the arrangement, at least to begin with, and the minor arpeggios which aren’t a million miles away from the Cartographer’s Tale either.

It’s through composed, the music changing to follow the story, and most of it turned up pretty easily. I’m not the sort of songwriter who slaves over songs, constantly editing and rewriting. I much prefer to let things simmer and stew at the back of my mind until they come to fruition of their own accord. What the Orderly saw obliged me by doing so very quickly. As we shall see, some other tracks on this weren’t as easy to write.

The Recording Process:

There’s some actual live percussion in this! Most of the percussion on Ironbark is programmed drums and sound effects. What the Orderly Saw has real tambourine and Djembe as well.

There are also lots of messy synth sounds which I recorded with my trusty Sonuus G2M midi converter.

Inspired by/Blatantly steals from:

Black Holes in the Sand by Gravenhurst, the poem ‘There was an old woman who swallowed a fly’ and a couple of Opeth numbers