My Dear Cookies,
I was down in éistmusic in Portlaoise on Friday for a wee support gig. I have some photos of the event thanks to John, which I'll post tomorrow hopefully. I played a 40 minute set of songs from what will be the new album. It was nerve-wracking because I hadn't aired many of the songs before, but the reaction was great, and I managed to pull through. It feels great to have tried out the new songs and see them work in a solo environment. It fills me with confidence now for the album. Onwards and upwards...
I just read an article in The Observer (Mancunian paper linked to the Guardian) written by Simon Napier Bell about the music industry. It's the most informative, funniest, scariest piece of writing on the state of the record companies, the music business and the history of it all that I've ever read. If you want to learn a little, and laugh a lot about how insane it is, then I recommend you take a few minutes to read it :
http://music.guardian.co.uk/pop/story/0,,2241769,00.htmlHere's a taster :
"Imagine the outcry if people working in a factory were told that the cost of the products they were making would be deducted from their wages, which anyway would only be paid if the company managed to sell the products. Or that they would have to work for the company for a minimum of 10 years and, at the company's discretion, could be transferred to any other company at any time."
It's funny to see it all in plain English! Or perhaps, the opposite of funny...
[warning : geekiness/nerdiness/anti-social behaviour to follow]
In other news, I had to purchase a new computer to support the whole multi-track recording process (which essentially eats little computers for breakfast). The new computer is lovely... finally. It's a tasty piece of engineering, but it came with Vista, which is mental... so after a day of madness I've managed to format the drive, partition it, load XP and get everything running again. Woohoo! I'm such a nerd. I got a little bit stressed though, because my [now] old machine collapsed two days after the new machine arrived. Was that timeliness? Or did the computer have a mental breakdown at the thought of having to compete with such a powerful new machine? Hmmm.
Anyway, all is rosy now, thank goodness!
That's all for now.
Be careful out there! Tabhair aire!
Tadhg