Birdy

This week Birdy released her self titled debut album.  Its been a pretty amazing two years since meeting her and starting to help develop her incredible talent and I see a very bright future for this somewhat special teenage songwriter.

One of the things I love most about her recordings is how honest they are.  Without A Word - the only original track on this first album is basically a live recording!  She played and sung simultaneously, its all one take and we did no editing.  It hit the public pretty much exactly the same way it would if you were to see it live.  Thats pretty unusual, almost unheard of in music that charts these days.  Check it out below.

While Birdy has a huge number of original tracks, many of which we have recorded over the years the debut album displays her eclectic music taste and maturity as an arranger - taking underground classics, some held in very high esteem by their respective followings and making them her own.

Its a very brave thing to take a song that people already know, love and relate to and change everything but the lyrics to make it your own, and sometimes harder to pull of then just starting from scratch.

With a talent that seems to have simply grown with her since birth and the diligent, respectful demeanour she has developed as an artist in such a short career I can't wait to see what comes next and will feel privileged to be a part of it.

Grab a copy of the album and see what you think :)

The Royal Wedding

So I was lucky enough to somehow get myself involved with the biggest media event in the world this April.  I spent 6 days at Buckingham 'Buckerz' Palace setting up a TV studio as well as camera positions at 6 other locations around central London.

My main position on the day - not bad!

I was employed by CTV - a major Canadian broadcaster who brought 450 of their own people over but were also looking for local crews.  Canadians are nice.  I have heard this from many different sources but until this week had only met 2 myself, but I can now say having met lots of Canadians - that they are indeed nice :)

One of the most interesting things about the whole event was the gradual building buzz across the city during the week preceding.  It seems that the wedding was a much bigger deal for the international media and spectators than for the British.  Probably 50% of the street campers that appeared across the week had flown in from their home countries specifically to be in London for the day.  With an estimated TV audience of 2 Billion people its pretty amazing how much attention the monarchy can still command, unless it was just one big episode of reality TV.

I learned quite a bit about the broadcast world, specifically with regards to lighting.  My primary role on the day was in prime position at Australia gate opposite the palace 'babysitting' the lighting.  The anchors in the studio would chop between short dialogues with the various presenters at the 6 locations at the director's request so we had to stay in place during the whole broadcast ready to go at any moment.  With the director in our ears we had a bit of warning at least.  

The footage from inside the abbey was provided to all the broadcasters on a pool feed which everyone was able to tap into, so during the service we basically left it to the feed and had lunch!  Ironic that the apex of the event was everyones break.

Around a million people made their way towards the palace for 'the kiss' which was scheduled to be the last appearance by the couple, though they were seen leaving in a convertible with the number plate 'Just Married'  After that it rapidly grew into a nice festival vibe with some of the best weather we have had in London during April in 100 years.

The Australians next door to us had some nice TV moments created by the gradually increasing crowd of Australian revellers behind their presenters who, after being joined by none other than Rolf Harris would bust into a chorus of "Tie Me Kangaroo Down' whenever they were on air.  That was awesome.

The couple chillin' in our studio...

The media centre (the big green building opposite the palace) became quite a celeb hub on the 28th and 29th with all the presenters and guests arriving.  The studio next door to us housed E! which was presented by Sharon Osborne, Piers Morgan and Dermot O'Leary so we ran into them a lot and actually managed to get Piers to join us in our studio for an interview.

Definitely my favourite encounters were the lookalike couple from the T-Mobile add.  I consider that level of genius viral advertising to be a form of art in itself and I think I was more star struck by meeting them than I would be the actual couple!  I also discovered via Twitter that Fearne Cotton was there with BBC Radio and managed to get a chance to chat about her massively positive influence in launching one of our studio clients - Birdy into the UK singles charts.  She is doing amazingly at No. 19 this week after 11 weeks in the chart!  So it was nice to say thanks for that, she even asked me to say hi to Birdy from her.

Overall it was a great week, working outside in such weather was invaluable and it was nice to be at the bottom of the responsibility chain for once!  To sign off here is a little video I took from my privileged location at the palace just after the kiss.... it got quite busy.

The Red Diamond Dragon Club...

...are a new band mostly based in Brighton. A nine piece outfit in which I play a few things, mostly a synth and a sampler.

After a few months of open rehearsals, to which we encouraged any and all our friends who harboured an interest in making or playing music to come, things have started to solidify quite quickly and suddenly we have a gig!

Built on the age old format of Drums, Bass, Guitar & Keys the band also benefits from the relatively unconventional combination of Synthesiser, Sampler, Flute, Violin and Accordion. The resulting sound is so far being called 'Electro-Folk' There is singing too which is very good at making what we play become songs.

We will be playing at Hector's House in Brighton on the 22nd as part of a Brighton Uni 'Stop The Cuts' fundraiser. Its going to be exciting for all of us especially given than a big chunk of the band have never played on stage before. That was always the intention.

At a recent rehearsal we made a very rough demo recording of an original track, recorded live in the practice room as a single performance.  Click the link to have a listen and see what you think.  We plan to get into the studio sometime this year for a proper EP.  For now our website is here.