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-Spytunes

WHAT YOU SAYING?!

So a whole load of youtube people met up on Saturday. I didn’t go to this one for a few reasons, one of which was I had to be in Nottingham for a gig at 1:30 today so I couldn’t have stayed the night without getting up early. Though I was pretty sad and jealous that I missed seeing old friends, I’ve been out making new ones, which made up for it.

So today was that gig that involved a 40 minute drive each way to play just three songs. I left at 2:00 (I know I was meant to be there at 1:30, shut up) and got back around midnight. Yeh – those were three LONG songs! Well it turned out that I was the last of about 12 people to play three songs so I actually played somewhere around 5:30. I didn’t think it went that well but then I haven’t played in quite a while and 3 songs doesn’t really give you much time to get going. Still it was judged and they gave me third place, which was nice – behind a guy called Ben who I was hanging out with for most of the night and is amazing and a girl whose set I didn’t really see much of but is supposedly very good too.

After the gig, a few of us went back to Sarah’s (my cousin) for a little after party / music masterclass for her neighbours. We had a bit of a jam and played songs for each other. Along with Sarah and me, Ben was there and two of the judges, one of whom – an old guy named Eric – would have done well if he’d entered the competition, the other would have won it hands down. That’s a folk singer called Gren Bartley who you should check out, especially if you live around Nottingham because live he is something else. He taught me to play banjo, and any day you learn to play the banjo is a good day. It’s really anti-intuitive for a guitarist, he said he only cracked it when he was ill and did nothing else for a week but lie in bed and practise this strumming pattern that most of his banjo playing style is based on.

During all of this time I haven’t eaten, so from breakfast just before 11am until getting home just before midnight I didn’t eat a thing. I was not feeling good. I ate a meal for two and was still hungry after it, I think because I ate it so fast that I’d finished before the first mouthful had reached my growling stomach.

Well anyway it was a very good day, got a few more amazing musicians in my phone contacts, and they spoke very kindly about my abilities. The next hater comment I read will have even less affect that usual when I remember people of their talents saying nice things about me. It was also nice to see that the best musicians in the bar that night were also the nicest people. Often you hear that it goes to peoples heads or whatever… But I find usually that great musicians are nice people, it’s the ones who think they are great but really aren’t, they tend to be pricks.

I’ll probably do another blog linking some of the awesomeness I met today but I can’t be bothered to go look for them right now. So I’ll just leave you with a joke, possibly the best joke ever, I’ll let you be the judge.

What’s brown and rhymes with snoop? Answer.

As some members of my family (not me) are more organised than others (me), the relatively simple act of walking from my room to the kitchen currently involves changing not only your location in space, but in time as well.

I have yet to change my clocks so I’m still in the future, don’t worry nothing much happens.

Actually I quite like this detachment from time and am considering one day changing all the clocks so they say different times for every room. I’m aware this would not really alter anything but the directions certain pieces of plastic or metal or whatever clock hands are made of point in, but unless you have a schedule or appointments to keep that really doesn’t matter.

Unfortunately I believe that to be the flaw in my plan. Even I do occasionally have appointments to keep and I’m bad enough at knowing what they are when I exist in one time zone. For example I believe I’m supposed to be going to Nottingham in approximately 12 hours to play a few songs. Wait, scratch that – I have 13 hours. But I’m not sure if this is true so in about 11 hours I’m going to call and check.

The gig is the final of an open mic competition. I have to drive 40 minutes there and back to play 3 songs. That in itself is quite depressing, especially as that last sentence contained the word ‘drive’ and thus I won’t be able to just get drunk in the afternoon which is, I believe, what Sundays are about. However the reason I’m considering, no I think I’ve decided on doing it, is that approximately half of the people who play will have one of their songs put onto a CD that will be sold and promoted throughout Nottingham, and though there won’t be any money in that, hopefully in the long run the promotion will cover the petrol.

I stopped myself from a digression in that last paragraph but now I’ve begun a new one specifically to follow it. The first day of the week, or last if you look at it that way, Sunday has become something quite different to the other six. I’m not sure there’s a good enough reason for this. Sometimes it’s nice – the afternoon drinking that I will be missing out on tomorrow is the fault solely of the word ‘drive’ and not of the day, and that can be a very pleasant side to Sundays, especially in the summertime with a BBQ. For some reason it’s acceptable to drink earlier than on other days. But also everything shuts early, if it opens at all. Why? I imagine religion is to blame and that is not a satisfactory explanation for an Atheist who needs a post office. Ah well, I’m sure I’ll get over it. And I do like those Sunday BBQs in the summertime.

I’m watching old vlogbrothers videos while I wait for Paper Towns to be delivered. I like their videos very much and I was quite late in discovering them so I’ve gone back to the beginning. I’m looking forward to reading the book as well, it’s been a long time since I read anything, and I love to read when I’m in the swing of it. I never usually buy books new, I either borrow from friends or buy them from charity shops. But I bought Paper Towns (and his previous two since they were pretty cheap) because I felt like it was supporting a fellow youtuber in their beyond-youtube life. Something that I hope a lot of people will be doing for me soon enough. So I have that to look forward to. Of course it won’t come tomorrow – it’s a Sunday.

Sean drew me a picture and I love it.

In other news I filmed a vlog while feeding the fish but by the time I got around to editing it most of the information I relayed was no longer true.

I’m watching John Green’s Paper Towns tour on blogtv and he started doing his signing and just left the laptop there for people in the queue to talk to everyone. These girls came over and we all typed ‘hello’ and similar greetings. Then they spoke the immortal line;

‘Oh my God, it’s Dave from Blue Skies.’

Epic, epic win.

What should I call this song?

Some thoughts:

One track mind
Falling
Fallen
New cliché
Unique cliché
Hurling clichés in a glass house

Or any other suggestions, in the comments please. =)

People born in 1990 are now, mostly, 18 years old.

PEOPLE BORN IN THE 90’s ARE NOW ADULTS.

Fuck off.

Been recording a song the past couple of days, basically just as I teach myself to use logic (the music production software… not the study of the principles governing reliable inference). It’s one I’ve been meaning to put on my channel for the last two months since I sung it on my indieduction video.

I made it electric and I think it has potential, though I’m listening now and can hear a lot I want to work on. I’m thinking of doing an electric version of Happy Friday (and maybe another) and selling them together as a way to get used to itunes or whatever else I may use to sell songs, before my proper EP is ready.

I’ve uploaded it to myspace, but currently music on myspace is working about as well as the Bush administration’s economic policies (Oh yes, this blog now official counts as political/current events) and as such the song has been processing for hours and won’t let me do anything, even delete it. SORT IT OUT TOM!

Anyway I uploaded it to lastfm, which is less utterly terrible. So long story short CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE DEMO!

And do let me know what you think. Leave a comment… anywhere. I’ll get it.

Right I get asked all the time what mic/guitar/software etc, etc I use. So I’m gonna write it all here then link people to it. No need for regular blog readers to continue from this point unless you’re interested in that.

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Microphones
I use an AKG C414 for most things. I also have an sm58 which I use for gigs and a samson C01U that was given to me by the RNLI… Don’t ask. I haven’t really used that one for anything other than skype.

Guitars
Fender cutaway acoustic DG 14SCE
Epiphone Sheraton II
Burns Marquee
Yamaha bass stolen from my cousin
Dean acoustic bass also stolen from my cousin

Piano
Upright made by Kemble London. I know nothing more about it apart from it’s beautiful.
And a midi controller keyboard, M-Audio: Axiom 61.

Drums
I only have an electric kit – a Yamaha DTXpress. I’d love an acoustic kit but they’re quite loud and there’s a baby next door.

Mixer
I have a firewire mixer which negates the need for an external sound card, it’s an Alesis multimix 12.

Computer
Fairly old G5 iMac (PPC)

Software
I’ve been using Cubase LE up to this point, though I’m getting logic.

Extras
AKG K271 headphones
Alesis proliner720 speakers
Plectrums – I like the simple nylon ones about 1mm thick (though I can’t find one to check… I lose them so fast it is, at times, unbelievable). Tried hundreds and I always come back to those. Thin enough to strum, think enough to pick. Just right.
Digitech RP50 and Behringer UF100 guitar pedals.
I own approximately seven thousand jack leads.

Video
Camera – JVC Everio
Software – iMovieHD

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If you have a question about gear that is not answered leave it as a comment and I will try to update this entry. I’ll try to update it as I get new stuff as well.

That’s the date, not a perfect score.

So I got my first money from youtube, I know – it’s only been eight months!

Sarcasm aside I didn’t expect to get anything from it when I signed up and I’d be making the videos anyway so insert your own cliché saying about me not being such an ungrateful bastard here.

Anyway I spent twice as much as I received on clothes, a haircut and a ticket to London and back this weekend. Did resist buying a nice long overcoat for winter but I still want one because they’re awesome.

In town I saw a sign saying ‘No pushchairs on the escalator please.’ It was placed so you would see it just as you were about to get off the escalator. Very sensible.

Here’s something that’s nice, of all the blogs I read on google reader, which is over 50, the only people who have more readers than me are John Green, who is a writer, and Amazing Phil, who is amazing. So thank you for caring about the things I write, and for not sending me anthrax letters when I accidentally posted my address on here. In fact! Today I got sent this…

*goes to find camera*

*fails*

well it’s a birthday card with the words “with love on your birthday a random day of the week” typed/written, followed by, “HAI DAVE! You just got Nonjanated! … Nicanated! … Sent a shit card!” And in compensation for this I was given 2p and a hug made out of post it note. I try to avoid drawing punctuation/alpha-numeric pictures in this blog, but I am allowing an exception to this rule for Nic, just this once… <333333333

Possibly the best start to the day ever, apart from maybe climbing over a fence like a ninja to get to work.

I want to do a video involving sending people letters. I was gonna do it the other day but I did the texts video instead because it was easier! That’s doing well, not in views – I never seem to get high views anymore, but it’s top rated in all categories for the ‘day’ which is much longer than 24 hours for some reason.

In totally unrelated news, I am totally in love with Conor Oberst’s album. It’s all that drags me away from listening to Midnight Hideout lately. Oh downloads are working for me on myspace again, they aren’t for everyone but if you want to download Tom’s stuff or mine, as I put a bunch of new ones on my second myspace, it’s worth a try. But yes, Conor Oberst, I had to record a version of Milk Thistle because it’s beautiful. I put it on my second channel. I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned my second youtube channel before, it was for private videos that I didn’t care about anyone seeing other than who they were for, then I used it to test uploads sometimes, but I’m thinking of using it a bit more, maybe even linking the partnership. So I feel like blog readers deserve to be told!

Can’t be bothered fitting links in so here they are:

Second youtube

Download Tom’s stuff

Download my covers

Have a good night.