Anyway, I’ve taken the plunge. Gone all wordpress.org so I have. From now on I’ll be updating my blog over on www.bcoleman.com, so if you’d to keep up to date with everything, that’s your destination.

Everything I’ve done in this blog will stay here, but it won’t be updated.

This is an idea built around that first keyboard riff and a wondering about how different lengths of loop per instrument would get along with each other. Meant I had to stick to the same chords a lot, but I like the interaction between the loops so to speak. Even though it’s the same chord sequence all the way through it doesn’t out-stay its welcome.  I don’t think anyway!

A lot of this done in one take, which is why some of those lyrics aren’t too distinct, I was making it up as I went along, and I couldn’t think of a rhyme with ‘drink’ at one point, or at least not one that would make sense and I didn’t want to just say ‘nurdle’ or something because that would have just been silly, so I played the old ‘mumble the word’ card.  Hell, if you think of good words to fill in the bits I mumbled be my guest!

Also, warning, there’s a synth bass in this that you’ll miss if you’re listening on laptop speakers.  Just drove myself wild there for a half hour trying to figure out why I couldn’t hear it on soundcloud.  It’s there though, if you use headphones, or a decent pair of speakers…

You know the way, with a new year, you look back on the old one, think about what you wish you’d done and what you can do to change that in the new one.  Anyways, one of my regrets for the last year is that I didn’t make half enough noise or noodle with music.  By noodling I mean exploring sounds and ideas, doing things that I normally wouldn’t do, trying ideas and seeing what happens.

I finally have no excuses as I’ve got the home studio setup to look like a proper brothel.  Should be inspirational.

Now, usually I’m my own worst enemy with this kind of thing.  I’ll mess around with an idea, turn it into a godawful mess to the extent that I hate it.  The original idea gets lost in a heap of frustration because I’m not hearing what I want to hear and I’m not sure how to get to the point where I AM hearing what I want to hear.  Which usually means that I leave the thing half finished and never want to go near it again in my life.  Ever.  Boo.  Hiss.  Down with that sort of thing.

Which usually means that sitting down to record something becomes way more of a chore than it ought to be.  Meaning that I don’t do half as much of it as I should.  Maybe.  Probably.  SO, starting this week, you’ll be getting a weekly dose of demoing/noodling.  Might be a new song, a cover version, might be some weird somethingorother that I stick some words to.

I’m christening this series “Throwing s**t at a wall”, seeing as that’s basically what it is.  The first one is a demo of a new song that I’m calling “Herding Cats” for the time being, until I possibly figure out something better.  Audiophiles amongst you will note that I’ve not really figured out how to properly record a vocal yet.  This one crunches a little too much when I go for it for my liking, but that’s the other ‘advantage’ to this idea.  It’ll make me learn technical stuff that would normally send me to sleep, such as, what kind of compression/eq to use on my voice and so on.

God, that nearly put to sleep right there.

Anyway!  Here, in all it’s glory is the first entry in the “Throwing s**t at a wall” series.

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Greetings!  I hope you’re all keeping well?

Hopefully you’re all enjoying the tunes you’ve recently downloaded.  I’d like to point out, if you’re not already aware, that I’ve got a new album out and you can download the whole record for FREE, from here.

Yup, all you have to do is join the mailing list, which you possibly already have!  Result!  The free download option is down the page a little on the right hand side.

Of course, while you’re there, if you fancy buying something, knock yourself out.  Every little helps

Things have been busy around these parts for the last while.  Gigs crossed with art exhibitions, if you don’t mind, radio sessions, tunes on the telly – on the promo for RTE’s answer to The Hills, no less. All sorts of fun stuff, and we’re not finished yet either.  Keep an eye on the Facebook feed for regular updates.

This side of Christmas I’ve another batch of dates around Ireland (apologies to those of you further afield, we’ll try to get to you at some point!).

Nov 13th – Spirit Store, Dundalk (Upstairs)

Nov 18th – Boyles, Slane with Joel Plaskett

Nov 19th – Sals Bar, Waterford with Thomas Hartery and Luasa

Dec 8th – Sitting Room Sessions, De Barras, Clonakilty

Dec 10th – Kavanaghs, Portlaoise supporting the Mighty Stef

Dec 22nd – Bradleys, Cork

Dec 28th – Matt the Millars, Kilkenny

That’s all from rainy, windy Ireland at the moment.  More coming if/when the weather improves!

Love and hugs,

Bill

All go around here at the moment.  The new album is out October 15th.  I might have mentioned that before

I’m busy licking stamps (actually, they’re stickers, so that’s a lie), filling envelopes, writing emails, talking to people, falling in love with my music collection again, printing stuff, walking the dog and making the most of what sunshine is going around these parts at the moment.

I’m writing this from my desk (I actually have a desk, almost like this was a real job, ha!), wrapped up in a dirty great big warm www.strummerville.com hoody (thanks Trish!).  Better than any kind of thermal underwear, not that I’d know anything about that sort of thing, seeing as how I don’t own any…

I’m really enjoying myself, even though there’s plenty to worry about, organising gigs, posters, flyers and so on.  I’ve come off the biggest bout of ‘make and do’ I’ve ever subjected myself to, doing the artwork for the new record, so all in all it’s been a busy time.  Now people are starting to hear the record, and I’m delighted to say that so far the reaction has been pretty amazing.

Suffice to say that I’m full of hope at the moment.  I love making music and I’d like to get this record to as many ears as I can so I can keep making more records.  If you’d like to help me out in this, I would really appreciate your help, there are a few different things that you could do.  Some of them are pretty simple, but they all help just a little, enough little helping hands makes a huge difference.

You could…

1. Share a video or link, on your Facebook page, Myspace, Twitter, with a short note on why you like it would be GREAT.  Here’s some handy links to some of mine:- Making of the artwork: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39Iqpvb6JV8 – ‘I Want You to Know’: http://vimeo.com/11531759 -‘Welcome to the Breakdown’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQPh7SBUoec.
2. Email a friend you think will enjoy what I do.
3. If you’re going to any gigs and don’t mind flyering them for me, let me know and I can stick some in the post to you.
4. Bring friends to a show of mine.
5. Text/email/tweet your favourite radio shows and ask them to play ‘I Want You to Know’ (more Ireland this one than anywhere else).

Thanks very much

You can pre-order your copy of the new record ‘You Can’t Buy Back Your Life’ from here: http://billcoleman.bandcamp.com/album/you-cant-buy-back-your-life

Or you can buy it at a gig – there’s a tour!  Come on out!  If you’re in Ireland that is.  Rest of the world, my apologies, hopefully I’ll see you soon.  I’ll cross all my digits…

At some of these gigs (two, to be precise, see below) I’ll be mounting some of the spray-painted artwork that took so much out of my joints (not to mention the joints of Jazz & Ger, thanks again lads) back in August.  For those of you who haven’t caught it, here’s the explanation of the whole production: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39Iqpvb6JV8

For those of you in Belfast and surrounds, unfortunately we’re having to change the date of the Belfast gig, stay tuned for the re-arranged date.

Tour:

Cavan – Oct 16th – Gonzo Theatre, Main Street, Cavan

Dublin – Oct 23rd – The Exchange, Dublin (Artwork Display)

Dundalk – Oct 27th – The Spirit Store, Dundalk (Downstairs)

Galway – Oct 28th – The Roisin Dubh, Galway (Upstairs)

Athlone – Oct 29th – The Passionfruit Theatre, Athlone

Cork – Nov 4th – Mutant Cabaret, The Roundy (Upstairs)

Cork – Nov 6th – Triskel/Plugd Records, Caroline Street (Artwork Display)

Slane – Nov 18th – Boyles, Slane
That’s about all for now.  Hope you’re all keeping well and having fun.  Make sure you wrap up warm if it’s cold where you are, and slap on that sun block if it’s the other way around.

Thanks folks…

It’ll be out October 15th. I’m really proud of it. I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever done, and I’ve had a load of ‘fun’ with the artwork too.

Here’s a two minute vid to explain:

I’ve had huge help getting the artwork sorted. It wouldn’t have happened without the assistance and slave labour sorry, kind help of Aisling & Jeff in Jamestown Studios in Inchicore, Jazz Finnegan, Ger Murphy, Adrian Taaffe, Eoin Keating, Orla Kerbey and last but certainly not least, Charlie ‘Hound Dog’ Bird.

You’ll be able to buy these in most good record shops in Ireland and from the website and places like CD Baby.

Here’s some pics from the process…

Numbers:

2,000 – the number of these bad boys I decided I’d make

7 – the number of coats of paint I had to put on the studio floor when we’d finished spray-painting

13 – the number of slips that goes inside each album to explain the artwork a little and spell out the lyrics, credits and so on…

113 – the average number of seconds it seems to take to stencil each album

26,000 – the number of little slips of paper we’ll have to cut up to make the interior booklet/jigsaw

5 – the number of light bulbs that blew on us when we were spray-painting

And I’ve lost count of the number of times I thought I might have bitten off more than I can chew 

More soon, tour coming, single coming – stay tuned!