“The Autumn winds blow chilly and cold”… the fabulous words of Paul Simon. They’re ringing true right now; there was some pretty intense rain in Bristol yesterday, as well as over South Devon during our family holiday last week. It does appear to be a loud declaration that our time in the sun is up.
It’s somber, but I don’t mind so much, partly because I’ll be in Portugal soon stealing a last bit of Summer, but mostly because I am very satisfied that these last few months were well spent. It’s been a busy mix of leisure and work; I’ve made many, many trips to various beaches with family and friends, and had a couple career milestones respectively. Since this is more of a music blog though, I’ll skip the beach photos. Sorry. On to those milestones.
First up, I played The Fleece in Bristol. With my very own band.
Every year since I started playing music live I’ve made the same resolution – start my own band. The rawness and honesty of a solo performance is special, of course. But a collaboration of creative minds all lending their unique voices, coupled with the inherent dynamism of multiple people and instruments, locking in together to entertain an excited audience of friends, family and strangers… that’s everything. Throw in an amazing venue and it’s nothing short of transcendental. For me, anyway.
I’ve been fortunate enough to play in a few bands now and be a part of some amazing gigs, but never playing my own songs. So, it’s hard to overstate how special it was walking on stage last month with two of my close friends, David Gwyer on drums and Ben McCollum on lead guitar/backing vocals, to play our first show together. At The Fleece! It was magic, the guys were brilliant, and it was over in a flash.
We’re still just ‘Seb Longhorn’ for now. I’ve tasked the guys to come up with a killer band name. I quite fancy an ‘and the’ format i.e. ‘Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers’. There’s been a lot of terrible ideas. On a recent camping trip to Falmouth my friends and I sought to lure wasps away from us using a can of Thatchers Haze – “Sacrificial Haze” was posited (you can have that, metalhead reader. You better sound heavy as f***). Anyway, what a gig. Thank you for coming if you were there.
In what was a whirlwind of an August, I also recorded my debut EP “The Living Room Sessions”.
If you’ve read the blog before you know by now the love affair I have going on with Dan Weltman and The Living Room Studio. I’ve made all my recordings there, including this new EP which, perhaps rather obsessively, I have named after his fabulous “song laboratory“.
Why? Forgive me for some arty-fartyness here, but I wanted the space to be as much a character in the recordings as the music itself. The recordings are single takes recorded live, just me and my guitar the whole way through, and I wanted the listener to be aware of the fact. I wanted them to be sat right there with me. So it made sense for the title and the artwork to reflect that.
I was drawing from my songwriting inspirations, Neil Young, Cat Stevens, Paul Simon and the like, all of whom at many points in their career released solo, live recordings. It shines an authentic spotlight on both their songs and their performance, imperfections and all.
Now, it does help your cause if you happen to be Neil Young, Cat Stevens, Paul Simon or the like… but I took a stab at it anyway. It’s an honest snapshot of where I am right now musically. To be fair I thought I would absolutely despise listening back to these recordings, but it’s not so bad. I couldn’t listen to ‘The Half a Song Blues’ when I first released it. Only now when I listen back am I pleased with it. I guess I’ll have to wait until I dislike the next thing I release before I can fully appreciate this EP (now that’s some pretty poor advertisement – listen and buy it NOW!)
That’s the Summer then. It’s very grey outside right now. I had to put on my overcoat earlier as I stepped out the house. It’s all snuck up on me a bit. But I’m looking forward to some cold and cosy Autumn gigs. One in Weston-super-Mare perhaps… “Live From The Living Room”. Stay tuned.