David’s Blog

Just another quick one to say that my first gig with the band since January ‘09 (seems so long ago now) went down a storm at the Folly Bridge Inn in Oxford on Saturday 21st November, where we were supported by the wonderful Boog (check them out, they’re awesome).

We got some great feedback and also played a brand new song, as well as a couple of oldies from the last EP. Was a great feeling to have the band behind me again, after all, there’s only so much acoustic one man can do! Hopefully there’ll be more in the very near future.

Also, a very nice time was had by all at the Regal Room on 13th Nov, where I played an acoustic set in a piano based singer-songwriter evening called ‘Me and My Piano’.

Other than that, I am playing for a cash prize and free recording time in a talent showcase at Sands in Southend-on-Sea this Saturday (28th Nov) where the audience will be voting for their favourite acts, so wish me luck there!

Check back for more gig dates soon!

Hi everyone,

Another productive day on Sunday 27th, as we got all the brass parts done, as well as doing some djembe drums and some backing vocals in Southend.

Thanks to Jono who played all the trumpet and trombone parts, and used pretty much all the breath he had in him… he did a really good job, and I’m pleased we’ve got some real brass parts down at last – it was getting very tedious listening to the guide midi brass!

This weekend we’re recording the strings in Plumstead, London – we have a quartet coming and we’re also hoping to finish off the backing vocals that I won’t be doing. So watch this space, another update very soon!

So we’re nearly there… all my vocals are done, and all we have left to do are brass and strings parts, which I’m hoping to get done over the weekend of the 26th -27th Sept.  We’ve set the 27th out to do brass, as well as some group backing vocals for a few songs. I’m also keen to try and African drumming idea on Twisted, just to give it something a little different.

Other than that we’re trying to get the string quartet sorted for the 26th, and then it’s all down to the mixing and mastering.

As for the release date, I’m still hoping for late October, although it might be November before it’s available to buy online, either through download or ordering the physical product, artwork and all.

Thought I’d better update people on how this album is coming on, seeing as I’m getting very excited about it, and lots of people have been asking me!

Firstly, the album is being recorded and co-produced by Oli Whitworth and Dave Seck, who are both fantastic musicians and very talented arrangers and producers.  It’s really good to have people to bounce ideas off and also with some expertise on recording techniques, etc.

In April we recorded the drums in Southend-on-Sea, where my drummer Liam Ambrose was on excellent form, which enabled us to get down the drums for 13 tracks in just 1 day!  We got several decent takes of every song, and also some good guide vocals and bass.

Since then, I’ve been zipping up to Oxford and back (which is where the majority of the recording is going to be taking place), and I’ve done almost all the keyboard tracks and also I arranged the strings and brass parts, and with some advice from Dave Seck, they’re all sounding excellent with some guide instruments on there, as we’ll be recording real strings and brass for the album.

Last weekend (16th and 17th May) I had Greg Kiss (guitars) and Andrew Moore (bass) come to Oxford with me, and we recorded all Andrew’s bass parts and several of Greg’s guitar tracks. Hopefully the next time we go up we can finish Greg’s parts off.

So that’s where we’re at now, it’s getting there slowly but surely. Hopefully people will be looking forward to hearing it as much as I am!

More updates soon,

David

Sorry that’s it’s been so long since my last post, but a very busy few months have meant I’ve not had so much time to update things. But anyway, here’s what’s been going on:

June hosted the Action for Fair Havens Hospice event, which I helped organise. I got together a band of superb musicians and we performed a 3 hour set of classic covers, which went down incredibly well and we managed to raise £3000 for the charity.

In July I played the Cambridge Rock Festival with The Tracie Hunter Band, in which we played alongside Bad Company, Deborah Bonham, and Marillion. Great fun, and good to play on a massive stage infront of a decent crowd! The very next day we played the Hard Drive Festival in Leicester, which was also good fun.

I also joined Greg Kiss & The Feral Cats for Greg’s album launch, where I also played an acoustic solo set, and it turned out to be a fantastic night.

The highlight of August was playing at the highly regarded Regal Room in Hammersmith, London, where I played a solo acoustic set, including new song ‘Hiding Place’.

September has so far seen the return of my electric set with my band, and we played a killer set at Chinnery’s on the 12th, in which debuted 2 new songs, ‘Twisted’ and ‘Air To Breathe’. I had my first ‘Glastonbury Moment’ when I stopped singing and the crowd sung back the chorus to ‘Fire To The Sky’; amazing! Thanks to all who came, sung, danced and enjoyed! The band will be playing again on the 28th in Leigh, at The Crooked Billet in an all day charity event to raise money for the lifeboats. We’re scheduled on at 2pm – hope to see you there!

Until next time, goodbye!

Hi everyone,

 This is the first blog I’ve ever written for davidsimonmusic.com, so I just thought I’d sum up 2007 and share some of the highlights of last year.

Going to the studio to record my Fire To The Sky CD was something I had planned to do for a long time - this was finally realised in April when I went to Pogo Studios in Southend to put down the 6 tracks I had struggled to choose from a shortlist of 10 or 12 (eventually I let other people make the decisions!) So I got together with Greg (guitars), Liam (drums and percussion) and Andrew (bass) and had a great time recording (even if Greg had his odd diva-ish moments…) This added to my five track demo CD ‘The Midnight Demo Sessions’ which I had home-recorded a month or so before. The whole studio experience was fantastic, and I learnt a lot about things that I would do differently next time, and things that went well. The CD can be bought on the davidsimonmusic.com website.

 Fire To The Sky CD

 The CD was followed with several David Simon live shows with the band, one of which was playing the Greenwood Theatre in London, for the Astrid Charity Showcase in October. This was a great gig, lovely venue and for a very worthy cause.

After several electric gigs, I decided to try my hand at performing acoustic sets. This included several gigs at The Honor Oak, Viva Viva and The Notting Hill Blag Club, among other venues. These proved popular, so I recorded an acoustic CD. This was a home recorded project that included acoustic versions of tracks from previous CDs (Shut Your Eyes and Walking Disaster) as well as 4 new tracks, all of which are featured on the Discography page of the website.

 Acoustic CD

 Gigging with my other band, 80s Covers band Guitarmageddon, saw us perform at the Goldsmiths College Summer Ball and Fresher’s Ball, with a fantastic reception on both occasions. We also played at a friend’s wedding, which was one of the most fun gigs I’ve ever played, because almost everyone at the whole wedding was dancing and singing along! To add to this, I got together a covers band for the Old Convent Summer Party, where we played a long set under the name of The Chapel Rockers (as it was held in a chapel…) and we played songs from the 40s to the present day. And again, we got everyone dancing. Great fun.

 The Chapel Rockers

The biggest change of my life was the end of my uni course at Goldsmiths; this left a large hole in my life for a while! I soon found things to be getting on with though; a lot of writing and recording demos and doing some acoustic gigging. I also stumbled across a new project - playing keyboard and singing backing vocals for Tracy Hunter (daughter of Mott The Hoople’s Ian Hunter). The band are a great group of musicians who it has been a pleasure working with.

Finally, my track New Direction from the Fire To The Sky CD was selected for the Lakeland Records Promo CD3, which is distributed to radio stations, download sites and record companies. This CD is not on general release, but details can be found at www.lakelandrecords.com.

 The Notting Hill Blag Club 16.01.08

For now that’s about it, the highlights of 2007.