New Year, New Things

Left- My Vintage JHS SG (5/6 years old),
 Right- My new Epiphone SG (11 years old).

Whilst I'm still adapting to my recent change to using apple computers and owning a mac, I'm still keeping my eye out for a few things I want to purchase this year. Despite being only 14 days into the year, I have already made two purchases that were purely impulse buys but, I do not regret them. Firstly, I brought some ones old guitar for a very low price. It's an Epiphone SG that after researching with a friend is believed to be 11 years old. It has defiantly seen better days but, was an absolute steal at £70. Its currently at The Music Inn for repairs as it needs work doing to the bridge pick up. Not too sure if it is a dead pick up if it just needs rewiring but, time will tell when other bill comes my way!

The second buy was of an iPod nano 6th Generation. I've been on the look out for one of these for the last month and they are becoming harder to come by. Again, this was something I brought second hand but, this time fully functional. I brought it from Cash Generator in Nottingham for £69.99 which I thought was a great deal considering it is the 16gb version and it came with a multi-charger and a free watch strap accessory (which I have now brought another that is a different colour so I could work out how to attach it, turns out it needed two allan keys.)

There are a few things I hope to treat myself to in the coming months, upgrading my guitar amp is on the top of that list and next to it is getting a midi interface and desktop sized midi keyboard which believe it or not, I may actually have to the free time to use it. In a couple of months time there will be big change to my life with all sorts of new rewards. I can't reveal anything as of yet but, I super excited to reveal all soon... If I'm ever allowed haha!

2014: A Look Back At The Good And The Bad

This year has been a bit of a crazy one, to say the least. Having had a break from the education system does still feel a little weird, it is of course one of the steps I needed to take in my young adult life to find a job. Gone are the days of dossing around playing video games all of the time, as I can hardly find the time for it now despite my massive collection.

The beginning of this year seems a bit of a blur to me now and feels like much longer ago than it actually was. Around January/February time when I was still with the dreaded JobCentre I remember doing some work experience for a month at a shop in Ripley called 'The Original Factory Shop'. It was nice there and I got on with everyone just fine, it was just a pain because of the travel everyday and the fact that I technically wasn't getting paid for it. Though, I did start to learn to drive around this time too. It took me a couple of weeks to get to grips with the basic controls and many months to find more confidence in myself on the roads. I'm still very pleased with myself about my first time passes on both my Practical and Theory. Though, it wasn't till May-time that I actually passed and this was the same time as I was taking part in The Princes Trust Team Programme, which was quite an intense 12 week course. I met many new friends whom I still get on with very well though the Team Programme and hope that before this year comes to an end, that we could all meet up one last time before this year continues on into the next. This year has gone way too fast, it only seems like yesterday it was July.

July was the month I completely ditched the job centre. I was so proud of myself that I had finally gotten myself a job. I had applied for the position before but not given it for god-knows-what reason, I just never heard back the first time around. The second time around I think I got a tad lucky. I had lots of help with mock interviews and I knew just what to talk about. That and I made a point that I had applied before, just to be on the safe side. I still enjoy my job, its just that I'm like most people and don't really enjoy being told off when I feel like I'm working hard, trying my best and most importantly not really doing anything wrong. It may sound a bit cocky but, it's not like I misbehave or indeed that I am a thief. I would never do such a thing. Any money I handle, I look at it and think that it has no value to me apart from my job. It is the price of my job and it's what I get paid for.

This last month coming into Christmas admittedly has been a bit crappy with having so many hours at work. The week of Christmas was especially exhausting as I worked everyday. Yes, everyday. It's my first working Christmas and because it wasn't that busy I actually just found it to be boring. Businesses are slowly seeming to awaken as we now drift away from the festive period and enter into a new year which thankfully means, I will no longer be bored at work.

I have a lot of things to think about next year. I am still pondering about trying to decide whether or not to go back to college/uni, for what its worth I'm really unsure. I really would love to work within the music industry but how can I sustain an income and learn full time at the same time. It seems impossible though, some do manage I feel that I will be one of the ones that will not despite experiences. I'm very stressed at the moment from the amount of hours I'm given, as it seems there are no longer any hours in the day left for myself. Aye, maybe this is just the working way but, it sure isn't any fun.

I hope for another great year next year. As things stand I have no idea what is going to happen. I will probably buy a few things, sell a few things and maybe even get a different job. I really don't know but, it would be nice to have a fixed hourly contract rather than worry about having to work 50 hours a week, its a killer.

All the best for 2015 - Kim

My Latest Suprise

So, as usual I have left a fair gap since my last post so I have a fair bit to write about. You all know I now have a job and have had one for the last 3-4 months. I have been quietly saving up for a new computer machine with plenty more power. I was originally contemplating spending around 300-400 on a half decent gaming/desktop pc and then sticking in another graphics card that I had donated to me by my friend out of sympathy for not having one at all for my old pc which now may as well be classed as dead. Literally, all it does is blue screen and I can't be bothered to sort it, nor do I have the time or money to waste by just trying to revive it. Long strory short, I took as it may, the easy way out and brought myself a mac. No, I'm not joking.

This is the first Apple Mac I have ever owned and that has ever been in the Keeton household. I have been sparing though, and I have thought this through. Honest.

Right, specs are as follows:

OS X Yosemite

2.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 (Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz) with 3MB on-chip shared L3 cache

1TB (5400-rpm) hard drive
8GB of 1600MHz LPDDR3 memory

Intel Iris Graphics

Two Thunderbolt 2 ports (up to 20 Gbps)
Four USB 3 ports (up to 5 Gbps)
HDMI port
SDXC card slot
Gigabit Ethernet port
Audio in port
Headphone port
IR receiver


All in all, a very powerful machine and very tiny. One thing I have failed to mention thus far is that I did go for the Apple Mac mini. Which basically means, its not an all in one like most Macs, which I really like. It's incredibly small and extremely powerful. Also, it came with Pages, Numbers, Keynote, iPhoto, iMovie and Garage band pre-installed.

I'm a very excited Kim!

Work In Progress

Today I started work on a new song. The riffs and licks were inspired by my first ever full size guitar, my jax ville strat as I picked it up for the first time in a while. I have wrote a few lyrics for but, so far I have only managed to record a short acoustic clip without vocals.

Here are the lyrics I have so so far for this song:

Walking down this lonely road,
I'll drive myself insane.
Doinf nothing but, working, playing hard,
Everyday is the same.

It's been so long since I had a day,
Where I just do stuff for me.
I just need a break, not to stay the same,
Don't take this personally.

Here is the link to listen:

https://soundcloud.com/kimkeeton/060814-work-in-progress

Soundcloud Success

This evening, I've noticed a steady increase on my Soundcloud plays and I'm actually quite impressed with how many plays I'm now getting per week. This weeks total 27. It may not sound like a lot at all but, the fact is that I have hardly visited the site or even been all that active in the last week. I have used Soundcloud for about 3 years now so it is nice to see some hard work paying off.

I am honored to have 349 followers and I am so happy that I recently managed to bypass 2000 plays overall leaving my current total plays to 2324 plays. I really am highly impressed and I am so thankful for all of the support I receive. Music is the career that I dream to follow but, in my current situation I can't quite see it though at the moment.

If you missed my announcement earlier on, keep you ears out for my upcoming EP titled "Alone" (DISCLAIMER: May not be the final title depending on what other cool, relevant names I can come up with).

Thank you all, so much!

Here's To A New Start

It's been a busy two weeks at the ESSO Petrol Station on Nottingham Road, Ilkeston for my training, the last couple of days in particular. Today, I have the day off so I will be making he most of it and going to the cinema to see "How To Train Your Dragon 2" with a good friend. Tomorrow, I start my new job properly as I will no longer be on training. My first paid shift is a night shift that technically doesn't start till Tuesday morning but, hey it's all a part of the fun. I will most  likely have trouble getting a healthy amount of rest beforehand but, as long as I don't fall asleep on the job (which I doubt) everything will be fine.

In other news, I've been thinking more and more about taking myself seriously as a solo artist. I hardly have anytime for a full band at the moment and it is already proving difficult to organize any musical get together. I already have a good albums worth of songs that I have written myself, it's just getting around to actually recording them all. Some have been heard before like, Innocent Romance but not many more. At the moment, I have two others recorded that are still unhead/unpublished to the general public. I plan to release them with a couple more tracks as an EP called "Alone". A slightly sinister name but, it sums up a lot of things recently, with the band spiting, song themes and with my new job how it feels with my new kind of social life. Without a doubt, I still have friends and the title may change but, that is the best I can come up with for now.

I will try to post make some artwork for this album soon, I may take my camera out with me today to try to give myself some ideas. It's been a while since I've been out to play with my camera and I've missed the creative freedom dearly. Yes, I will take my little Nikon with me today. I might need a canoe....

The Behringer C1

Yesterday, I brought myself a charming new condenser microphone. I brought it of someone that no longer wanted it and it came with a stand and cable. It was kind of an impulse buy, as I've been after a new good quality microphone for a while so I didn't exactly do my research before buying. The package cost my £35 and I have no need to complain. I had to collect it myself which wasn't a problem at all, it just took a while to get there but, at least it was only a zig zag away! I wanted to test it out as soon as I got back but, had to wait until I had eaten. I didn't get back home till after 7pm and hadn't had anything to eat.

When I finally got it out of the box, I was excited to get it all set up and ready with my mixer. I set up the stand first, quite low because I tend to sit at my desk in my bedroom. I had to screw the mic onto the stand with the swivel stand mount. It was really easy to set up and I never anticipated it to be a challenge. Maybe I did learn something in the college recording lessons after all, even though I use a totally different set up.

I spent an hour 'testing' the microphone yesterday night and it really is good quality. This morning I did my research on this particular microphone and on its own its worth between £35-45 depending where you look though, I noticed that Behringer also make a USB version, the C-1U that is almost identical to the model I own apart form the connection.

After spending a lot of time just messing around recording little bits and pieces and playing them back to hear the quality, I had an idea to make an atmospheric track using only the microphone and any other useful objects that were close by but, no instuments.

This is the result. Happy Halloween!

https://soundcloud.com/kimkeeton/happy-halloween-mic-test

If you haven't guessed, I highly recommend this microphone!

Thanks, for all of the Support!

I'm going to be posting more regularly on here now, mostly about my band Zebra Crossing.

Yesterday, saw the release of our video of us playing our new song 'Drunk on Tequila'. Over the last day and a half, this video is nearly at 200 views. It's good to know we have some strong support behind us now and with our Facebook fan page increasing with 'likes' everyday, we are so lucky. I wanted to put out a massive to everyone for all the support so far, even if it was something as simple as liking our page, subscribing or even taking the time out to watch one of our videos on YouTube., so THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!

At the moment, we are still working on the website and will be practicing again later on this evening, hopefully to learn so more songs to add to our setlist!

See you on the next post.

http://www.youtube.com/zebracrossing1212
https://www.facebook.com/zebracrossingofficial
https://twitter.com/ZebraCrossing13

Updates for Zebra Crossing

At the current moment we are mostly working on developing our set list by adding move covers and slowly writing new originals. We are releasing a video on YouTube tomorrow which is a recording of us during practice, playing our new song 'Drunk on Tequila'. We wrote this song as a band, coming up with the lyrics together sat around as a team suggesting ideas. When we release it tomorrow, I hope you like it!

We've also been simultaneously working on a web page. At the moment it is still under construction and still needs a fair bit adding to it until it is full complete and we are satisfied enough to show it off. Yesterday, I spent almost two hours sat with my friend Thomas Edwards whist he was writing the script for the website and going over ideas we could use. He has made many websites before, check out this link shortener that he made! http://smallurl.in/

COMING SOON! >zebracrossingofficial.co.uk<COMING SOON

We're going to be putting biographies onto our website, so that people can learn more about us and feel more involved. We'er also going to put a gallery for our good pictures taken of our band so, live, fun, individual, selfies ect. ect. It's slowly piecing together anyway and I can't wait till it's finished.

We still have many postcards that Lucy got printed to share about. I spent the later hours last night designing a poster to make awearness and promote our social media a little more. I'm not completely happy with them yet, but, I can't moan about them too much. I spent about one hour and twenty minuets putting it together, trying to make it look fairly professional. The idea of the bottom is that we cut them separately so people tear off the links if they want to check us out.

I am quite proud of this, though again I owe Thomas Edwards my thanks for making us the new logo that will be changed on the pages soon.

http://www.youtube.com/zebracrossing1212
https://www.facebook.com/zebracrossingofficial
https://twitter.com/ZebraCrossing13

Break Time! ...Not Quite.

So, it's the Easter holidays and yet again I find myself not doing all that much apart from eating mounts of chocolate and gaining that extra weight that no one would dream of having. I don't exercise as much either, these days; that's my other problem.

On the lighter side of life, I've been preparing for new challenges (At least that's what I like to call it). It's generally more looked upon as slashing out on new kit though, what I've brought this time certainly looks more professional. In terms of what I already own second in it's kind. My other looks so much more primary compared to this, with it's colours guiding you through it's use it's almost like you should have to input dummies and milk bottles into to it rather than jacks and xlrs! Nevertheless, they are both fantastic pieces of machinery.



L2 Audio AD-82

I've been able to test out the pre-amps for the first two channels using the line inputs but, I got distracted by my own playing to test the other two.

The bonuses of this mixer for me are:

- More channels! (Previously, I had two).
- I can now record with effects and set the amout per track.
- I have a master fader to ease the control of the overall output and help the recording process
- Aux sends as well as a basic headphone amp

The downsides so far:

- Having to switch between '2TK TO CRTL RM' and change the volume coming out of the monitors to listen to the playback or what I'm recording at the time properly.

This is what I find with my setup though, mine is very simple. A couple of rca lead in and out of my outdated laptop and mixer. Though, a little lagging... it's the best I can do for now.

Any comments/advice welcome. :')
I'm still new to this!!

A Lazy But, Productive Day...

Today has been very slow and dull. I've been ill all day so I haven't been very active. I haven't been out at all. Hardly moved! I've been sat on the Internet all day so, my eyes are feeling quite tired at the moment. I do believe however, that I have been in some way productive today. Not only have I finally sorted out this blog good and proper.

 I have started to create a small website. It's a free one provided by Wix but, it's looking fantastic and I can't really afford domain prices! It will have collections of my music and photography so that it seems everything is in the same place.

I can't wait to launch the website! There is no doubt that I will post about this again before it is published. It just needs a few more finishing touches and then it will be ready. I really hope I don't forget about this, as it will be a great way to showcase all of my work.

Here is a screen cap:

Let me know what you think.