I’ve been busy studying music therapy, teaching piano & loving life!

And – planning the next album – currently the title is:

stars from a sidecar

Most songs are written, some are still in progress, aiming to release in 2018. Meantime you can hear a demo of one of the songs over here: soundcloud

Next Friday night I’ll sing that and a few others in a live show at the launch of an awesome exhibition for Fun-A-Day 2017.  You may have heard me mention this in previous years – making art each day of January then showing it in Feb – well this time they asked me to sing at the launch!

Friday 10th Feb from 7pm at Wasps Studio, West Henderson Wynd
I’ll sing from 8 till 9pm

There will be artwork from at least 50 Dundee people – all kinds of stuff they have made throughout January. I highly recommend coming along if you’re in or near Dundee next weekend – poster below & read more online.
Thanks for reading – and hopefully it’s not so long till the next one
Take care
Ed

Sometimes the lyrics are inspired by the paint, sometimes not – either way, it’s been a positive experience once again, to create new things at the start of a new year.

And this will be visible for a short time over the weekend in Dundee at the 2016 exhibition at WASPS – alongside a host of other interesting art created last month by a variety of people in the area.

Plus: this Friday night, after the exhibition launch, I’m playing a small gig at Cerberus bar – singing my songs & hopefully some of the new lyrics too – art in action

If you’re around Dundee, it would be great to see you at both these events.  At some point, demos of the songs may also appear, we’ll see how it goes…

Each day’s painting is part of a whole canvas – and at this stage half of that canvas is full, see below.  There’s also a lot of words to go with the pictures, check out instagram or twitter for more.

Sometime in February this artwork will be shown as part of a #FunADay Dundee exhibition – more details to come.  Meantime, enjoy the colours!

  
There have been fewer gigs this year, though some of the best yet, like playing to a packed hall at Letham Nights!

  
And I’ve been writing new songs along the way, just about enough for another album, you’ll hear more soon, like the recent Sidecar.

 
In January I’ll also have #FunADay for the third year running – expect daily painting and songwriting – my canvas is ready

So, happy new year when it comes, and maybe I’ll post a bit more on the blog for 2016 (maybe not).

If you pre-ordered, you already have a copy in your hands like this:

though it’ll have a wee number written on the CD + case, since there’s only 50 of these CDs & handmade cases, each numbered – and 20 gone, so that leaves 30 now… easy maths!

Thanks once more to The Banter, a small band of guest musicians who feature on tracks this time – you can see their details on the CD liner notes or Bandcamp page.  And this is the only place to get 4 bonus tracks in addition to the 12 album tracks, more info below.

Some folks have kindly played tracks on their radio shows, for example:

• Kathryn Tickell on Amazing Radio
• Craig Gornall on Shore Radio
• 1320radio – including a lovely review (“High Girders throws down a glove to anyone who says that the blues are passé; in fact it’s a thumping tune in the vein of its earliest incarnations that suddenly sounds terribly novel….”)
• Jim Gellatly on Amazing Radio
• Andy Gee on The Sound on Radio North Angus – earlier today we recorded an album special, airing next Saturday and featuring several tracks from Day Job, plus 2 live renditions on accordion!

Whichever way you consume music these days, you can get Day Job that way… bandcamp, itunes, spotify, google play – and the full album to stream on youtube – just because I can!

Enjoy the music, share around your music-loving pals, and see you soon

Ed

x

(last year it was wood and words)

They played 24 packed shows in front of thousands of people across the USA, employed musicians & crew, sold $100,000 of tickets, and had loads of fun!  (They say they lost over $11,000 in the process, but it’s OK because they are making it back via YouTube plays, Patreon & iTunes sales.)

And “making it” was Jack’s point: they continue to work hard on music, movies and more.  It’s an ongoing thing, in this “a new paradigm for professional artistry…”

For fun, here’s my figures for my wee 6-date album launch tour for Simple Life (Oct 2013) and how they compare with Pomplamoose (in brackets) – I’m a low-key solo musician based in the east of Scotland, UK, so it’s quite a contrast!

Expenses
Rentals: £0 ($26,450)
Food/accomodation: £60 ($17,589)
Travel: £96 ($11,816)
Merch/marketing: £443 – CDs, T-shirts, posters, ads ($21,945)
Insurance/Salaries/Commissions: £0/£0/£0 ($5,445/$48,094/$16,463)

Income
Tickets, fees, cash in a jar: £317 – my income per venue rose the further north I went! ($97,519)
Merch: £380 – CDs, T-shirts ($29,714)
Sponsorship: £0 ($8,750)

Bottom line: £599 vs £697 : £98 profit ($147,802 vs $135,983 : $11,819 loss)

So, I didn’t employ a band, or have to stay away from home since my tour was so small (only visiting Scotland’s cities) – though I’m happy the tour covered itself, and a year on there’s only 4 CDs left, and we’re half-way through recording the new album Day Job!

Next time I hope to have a bit of a band for a gig or two, and play a few more places, who knows . . . watch this space

Keep update via bit.ly/EdEmails

bit.ly/FunADaySongs

(You can listen & download them for a limited time)

More about the exhibition…