RECORD FIRST ORIGINAL MUSIC VIDEO, CHECK.

Again, it has been a long day recording both music and film. This morning until early afternoon, I have been recording the last few little parts for my new song, "I Don't Care". There were only two things that needed recording and that was the guitar solo and the bass. I am very happy with how they turned out after the mixing process. The guitar solo is very distinct and I feel like it is the also the right sound for me like, what you would expect me to play but with a bit of a surprise. The bass adds a sense of completeness the overall sound of the track.

I used my pair of WeSE headphones for the mixing to make sure that I had everything panned exactly where I wanted it and that the levels were spot on. It didn't take long for the track to be ready, it must have only taken me two or three hours to get everything perfect and ready for the video.

I had already recorded most of the footage I decided to use yesterday and some even further back than then. The ones from yesterday were shots of me playing my guitar and of myself singing, the others were from a couple of weeks ago when I went out with my skateboard, camera and tripod. Daring, though to be honest I did only take with me a camera that I brought for £1.99 out of a charity shop and to my amazement the damn thing works! It's a shame about the battery (I have to use an external battery for it work... pros and cons, eh?)

I still needed to record a few other little bits like , more guitar playing and a bit of acting out. By the time I was filming this, I had already mashed the other bits into half a video and I just needed more ideas. That's where the acting came in. I don't want to spoil it too much before the release on Monday but, it involved make up and applying it. Not all of it but, yes. Make up. It's not really something I wear a lot but, I do like to occasionally.

The music video was officially finished at 22:23pm. I'm so amazed with myself that I've been able to pull this off again. The last time I made a music video I was using a shitty windows laptop and windows movie maker. I will never go back to those days again!

HOORAY, FOR THE NEW MUSIC VID. WOOP, WOOP!

A Working Day

Friday: Generally,my day off work as well as any Saturday and Monday but, today I certainly haven't put it to waste. This morning I got up at around half past nine and I was straight at my desk and loaded up Garageband. I didn't really have many plans for the day, originally I thought about getting my hair cut around mid day because my hair is longer than I'm comfortable with. I hate it when my hair irritates my eyes. I kept thinking about it but, decided it can either wait for tomorrow or maybe even Monday at this rate with the workload that I am creating for myself.

A screenshot from todays filming session.
Guitar: Washburn MG-74.

So, at the start of the day I got back to work with my pop punk song titled "I Don't Care". Very anarchy. I managed to write some more lyrics and record all of the vocals for the track in one morning session. I had to keep taking the drum track here and there but, its nearly finished now. It just needs a little more guitar work. I filmed myself singing when I recorded the vocals, this will be used in the music video for the song all being well. I'm thinking of making a black and white video for now but,  I managed to get some nice shots in with my guitar too. Plenty of selection!

A screenshot of "I Don't Care".

After about hours into the session, I decided to end it for a while and take a break on my PS4. I played The Legend of Kay 20th Anniversary for a while, pretty much until my mum got back from work. My pre order came from amazon today at the same time as when my mum got home, so I didn't have to go to the door. It was my copy of Simple Plan's new album, "Taking One For The Team". Of course, the first thing I did was finish up on my game, struggle to open the CD wrapping due to over excitement and then whack it into my suppressive to stick on my iTunes... then my iPod of course.

Later on, when my dad got home we all went shopping together. This was the perfect opportunity for my to listen to their new album to the full extent with simply no interruptions. When we were on our way back home, I had a thought that I could make a mashup of their new album. I wouldn't include all of the songs, just a select few and I wanted to challenge myself to see how far I could come tonight with it all. Simple Plan announce that they we're doing live responses on Twitter at 5pm EST so that would mean around 10pm in the UK where I am. We got back a little after 7pm and I wanted to see how far I could get in those three hours.

A screen shot of all the exported
drum tracks.

I started by selecting tracks that I wanted to include in the mashup and told myself that I would use all of them. After that, I imported them into Garageband with separate tracks to align them into an order that I would like to listen to them too and then I started shifting about the timing. All the tempos were different so it was important that the transition didn't sound wrong but, sounded natural. After I got the layout about right and I knew what needed to be done I started to create the first drum track. I had to do one for each song that I had chosen so I knew it wasn't going to be a quick job. The most difficult part of this was trying to figure out the correct tempo and match it completely to the song again and again. Some songs were much easier than others but, one in particular took me at least 45 minutes just because it had a slight swing to it. It took a while to get it as perfect as I needed it to be.

And here I am now. All I have finished tonight in regards to the Simple Plan Mashup are the many drum tracks which have now had to have been exported so that I can use them all together in Garageband without the metronome throwing a hissyfit because of all the tempo changes.

MMU Cheshire Campus, Crewe 2016

So, yesterday was the day that I had my audition for the much more bigger University Manchester Metropolitan. All of their creative courses are based at their Cheshire Campus in Crewe so it's quite far away from home, though it's not as far as Manchester it's self. My friend Joanne came with me for support and it's fair to say that I needed that. The campus is quite large and is almost like a little it's own little village, it reminded me of Ilkeston School actually, minus the road weaving through it.

Having arrived in Crewe a little after 11am, after the long drive knowing that we were minutes away we started Searching for a place to eat. The first place we noticed was a Subway which we settled for. I was surprised to find out that they still had the old price ranges. I usually have the 6" sub deal with a refill drink which recently went up to £3.20 because I have chicken tikka but, there it was £3. Bargain. We didn't stay at Subway for long. We ate and then we left, mostly because their wasn't much time before registration.

We arrived on Campus for around 11:30am. Parking was free thankfully as I found out beforehand and then we joined the queue for registration. There were two lines dividing the names alphabetically.  It was only a short wait and when I got to the front I handed in an old photo they requested. My thought being that it was still a photo of me and that it was better than nothing. I also handed over an album of demos, that I had burned last minute with the hope to impress. In return the lady gave me a slip that told me that there was a talk at 1pm in the Lecture Theatre but, she then went on to say that we should follow the others up the stage stairs and take the tour for accommodation, and so we did. We had to wait for a few others to join the group and for one of the ambassadors leading the tour to come and collect us. It ended up being a rather short tour because someone was saying that they had their audition at 12pm. So, off we went to the accommodation that was a short walk just across the road. We had a look inside the individual rooms where we would stay and the communal kitchen. I did remember the ones in Manchester being a little bigger but, everything seemed suitable enough.

It wasn't long until we were heading back to the campus. It was a little after 12pm when we got back and if that girl did have her audition then, then she would have missed it although our tour guide; Victory suggested she lead the way to were the auditions were going to be. We decided not to follow and just tried to figure out where I was meant to go next. It didn't take long to find it. A few other female musicians were waiting outside so I decided to follow them, which turned out to be the right decision. Later we were waiting inside the corridor for the talk to commence. More people were arriving slowly and the the corridor started to be become rather busy. At around ten minutes to 1pm, they decided to let us in. It's really bad that already, I cannot remember a single one of the lecturers names, though it was easy to see that they all came from very different musical backgrounds. When we were let in we sat nearer the back of the theatre, I didn't want to sit either too close or too far away so we settled for the middle of the raised seating. 

The talk began a few minutes before 1pm because most people had already arrived. Everyone was told to be five minutes early anyway. There were a few people walking in during the talk, some even midway through which was a little annoying but, I suppose not everyone knew where to go. That or they got lost or something. Dr. Pete Dale (I had to look up his name on their website) opened the talk by welcoming everyone and declaring mostly what the talk is about. He also told us a little about him self and his contributions and experience to the music industry. Three other lecturers were also introduced more briefly halfway through the talk, one of which whom I had my audition with later on. It was all very confusing towards the end as we had to be split up into groups for the auditions. I was sure that I had only applied for a single honours course but, I found out later that I had actually applied for the double honours Music/Popular Music degree so I didn't move thinking I was in the right place. It didn't really matter too much, I just had to think of a way to tell them that I had made an honest mistake.

Anyway, we found out that my audition was the last slot at 4:15pm. The whole day had seemed to have been a bit of waiting game and this proved it further more. We waited in the cafe for over an hour after Dr Pete Dale came out to ask who I was. I was unsure if I had to go down the hall to meet them at 3:30 or not, the instructions weren't that clear but, this lead to me gaining a practice room which was much needed. An ambassador lead us up to one of their smaller practice rooms. By this point I was really tired having been up since about 7am getting everything ready. I had about three quarters of an hour to prepare myself, so I went over the song several times. It didn't seem long until we were fetched back downstairs so I could do my audition but, I didn't waste any time.

Dr Angela Kang (I had to look up her name too, I hope it's correct) was the lecturer that look me for my audition. She was very king and really nice to talk to. After she had asked all of her main questions, I had told her that I went to NCN Clarendon, that's when we got talking about Nottingham and how we both know Dmitry Fedotov, my old tutor and Muha; his band. It was nice to talk about similarities and she did go on to say that she missed Nottingham. I think at that point I was starting to too. It's not very often I stray too far from the homeland. I felt like I did well after I played my song. I knew that I had messed up a little in places but, I think that because I just kept going and tried to remain professional about it I managed. This time around was definitely a lot more stressful that just going back to Clarendon.

The good news is that this morning I had a call from Manchester Metropolitan's Admissions and the lady on the phone told me that I had passed my audition and that all I need to do is send her a scanned copy of my BTEC Extended Diploma so that they could make me an offer. It's all very exciting. I just need to choose between staying close to home or moving out for a couple of years.