Excellent News!

Not to long ago I told you all that I got randomly selected for the Derbyshire Mandatory Youth Activity Programme and that I wasn't very happy with this because I was blackmailed into thinking I would be free of any more of these courses that the JobCentre would direct me too. The Princes Trust Course Turned out to be a great experience but this other one I just knew would have been bad. The main aim of the course being to get involved helping out the community. I myself, am already a volunteer for The British Heart Foundation and in a way was quite offended that I should be doing more. Generally, I guess this course is aimed at people that do nothing whist on JSA who are people I frown upon. I'm not saying everyone that does it is lazy but, it seems that what the 'course' suggests.

I never did really explain fully about the course content. Basically, for eight weeks you will be sent to a charity organisation and work with them for that amount of time whilst receiving help job searching for a couple of hours a week. I think my message is getting more and more clearer of why I though this was all a waste of time but, hey. Now, to explain the good news.

Not long ago, I had an interview at the ESSO Petrol Station on Nottingham Road, Ilkeston. I have had an interview for work there before so the manager knew my name and to my amazement remembered me. The interview went really well and he told me that if I have been succesful I would hear back from him within a couple of days. On Thursday, mid whist I was running around like a headless chicken on behalf of the stupid DMYAP I had a call just before ten in the morning from the manager of the Petrol Station asking for my National Insurance Number. Lets just say things we looking up at this point. Later on in the day he called me back to tell me that he wants me to pop in so that he can tell me the good news. I was ecstatic. I might not have shown it but, this really lightened my mood from all of the stress the JobCentre had put me under.

The next day, I wandered down to 'Work Pays' which is the most ironic name for the company that provides the DMYAP course and I basically told them the good news. I was also told that I was very good at keeping in contact with them, I just kind of thought to myself that it was mostly because the office was just down the road from where I live but at least I got a compliment out of them in saying I am more organised than them. Before my second to last PassPlus lesson, I drove up to the Ilkeston Jobcentre to tell them I could no longer do the programme. At first I thought the adviser I had the meeting with was going to say that I couldn't not do it. Not as a general assumption either, he displayed that in his knowledge I would still have to do the DMYAP. This made me nervous for a second but, then he wandered off to talk to two other members of staff that went on to say that if it is going to benefit me more that it is allowed. I'm just glad I'm nearly rid of them.

One thing that has annoyed me is that for my training, the JobCentre will still be paying me JSA as if I was on WORK EXPERIENCE. The thing is, I'm not on work experience, I'm on training and they will take it under their statistic that another young person has gained employment through me doing 'work experience' though the 'JobCentre' when really it's all a lie. I found this job myself and I do feel like they are taking away a part of my independence by partially claiming that they found this for me. At the end of the day, I'm just another false statistic they will use to encourage someone else to do work experience and it is still all good news.

Back to Normality (The Joys of the JobCentre)

A short update today, really

With The Prince's Trust TEAM Programme over with it's time for me to focus even more so on getting a job even though that now comes with complications. I'm not too happy with how the JobCentre have dealt with me this morning. Before I started the programme I was told that it should mean that I should not have to do anymore courses to do with the JobCentre though, today I was told that I had been refereed to the Derbyshire Mandatory Youth Activity Programme. This has angered me quite a lot as it is yet again giving me restrictions in finding work, I'm sure they don't really think these things through. Ah, well I can only hope that I get a job by the time that I am meant to start then I can simply tell them to stuff it!

The Prince's Trust Team Programme: Week 12

I can't believe that it is the final week of The Prince's Trust Team Programme already. I seems strange that in less than four days it will all come to a glorious end. This Thursday is our Final Team Presentation where every member of the team gives a speech, now I haven't quite got my speech ready yet but I am preparing something else. The other week I started working on an original song to go with my team, almost like a theme tune but also something to commemorate that we have finished the course. I didn't want to make it to extravagant but, enough to show off my skills as a amateur producer that mostly uses Audacity. I probably shouldn't bring myself down so much but, I assume that's what most people think if I'm using free software.

The song is coming along nicely now, even though at the moment it is lacking in the lyrical department in fact I'm missing a whole verse even though musically it is in there. I'm hoping that my Team Leaders will join in on the song featuring for a Rap Battle, it sounds a little immature and maybe a little risky to use for the final performance but, I really think it will go down well and that most people would take it with a great sense on humor. The only problem is that I have two days left to complete this whole song, which only makes it even more challenging. I will be so proud of myself if I manage to complete this on time. I think my team will be too!

#Team160

Here is a snippet of what I have been working on:
https://soundcloud.com/kimkeeton/team-160

An End To Another Era...

Over the last couple of days I have been battling it out in an attempt to remain in my own my band, the only issue being that I had done nothing wrong. This was a band that I put all of my effort in when it came to the musicality, I wouldn't let one song get past me without sounding half decent. According to our vocalist my main flaw was that I didn't care to attend many gigs, by gigs what was meant was open mics. Now I'm no expert but open mics are NOT gigs but are 15 minuet session windows for locals to play for free to share their music. I understood that it was important to share our music with others but, not at the same three open mics every week, of every month, of every year. This cause much controversy (I lied) over Facebook when I let all of my friends know about the situation and the general public too. I thought it the right thing to do because otherwise I would have suffered whining to myself as no one would talk to me properly out of the band apart from our drummer who appeared to have no say over anything.

I wasn't quiet expecting the large response I received. It made me feel a lot better knowing that I had many friends behind me; backing me up though, it didn't take very long for true opinions to fly out of peoples mouths as more of my friends joined in on the outrage. Personally, I don't blame them and it's not like I should take responsibility for what they have said.

In a way, I am happy that the band has come to an end. In reality, the band Zebra Crossing was never really going anywhere because the main priory was always open mics, not gigs just open mics. All of the open mics were probably even considered more important than practice! An example being when we first got a new drummer we practiced once and the played three open mics, so sorting priorities makes another issue. The good news is that to compensate myself, I took a hold of the official band page. I am now one of the few admins of that page, including my friend Thomas who feels a similar way to me right now in regards to the people involved. Admittedly, we may have took things a little to far by editing up an image and posting it as the pages cover photo, we also changed the logo name to "Zebra Crossed". All in the aid of humiliation.

What makes me feel a lot better is that David rung me last night to apologize for everything. I still haven't heard from Lucy but, I'm not too bothered anymore as I get the message. I'm convinced their was a personal issue but, that's up to her. Apparently, I'm "boring" too. Oh, that really explains why I was one of the more interesting band members.

For anyone who wants to see what the old original page looks like it will still be left up and can be found here.

Honestly, thank you for everyone that got involved for all of your support. Hopefully, I will have another band up and running shortly under a new name and this will go much further. I have some musicians in mind that need popping so maybe, just maybe.

These Months Fly By...

Unsurprisingly it has been a while since I have wrote. I have been extremely busy of late and have many highlights to mention that have gone and PASSED. I may as well go ahead and say it. On 1st of April 2014 (this sounds like a good first line of a joke) I passed my driving theory, following that on the 20th of May 2014 I also managed to pass my practical driving test! Both for the first time. It's good to be able to get about more easily now and I am so proud that I passed both first time around. It doesn't even feel like I had been learning for the last 4 months, it really has flown by!!

In other news, The Prince's Trust Team Programme that I am involved with is in it's 10th week and not too far from being over. Most of the paperwork is out of the way, today as well as tomorrow is going to consist of bag packing in Heanor Tesco to raise some extra money for out Team Challenges next week, though todays collection went towards Diabetes UK. I'm not sure how much we raised today but, the donations so far have been very generous and I'm hoping that we manage to raise even more tomorrow! All of our Team Challenges have been planned and we know exactly what we are doing throughout the week, though I don't want to list them right at this minute. The week after next we have the last load of paperwork to look forward to, that and our final presentation. I'm hoping to produce a song especially for my team but, I want my team mates to help me do so otherwise it seems a little pointless and in some way contradicting or ironic. I know that some of them are interested, I think the underlining problem is that this is something that will be 'out of hours' which could prove to make things more complicated as people have their own commitments to attend.

I managed to get a rough draft of the first verse recorded and even got to show it to my Team Leader today, I'm not totally sure how impressed she was but, she called me talented. It's funny because I don;t see what I do as a talent and never really have. I have learnt most of my trade in the music world, studying countless hours of music theory and memorizing scales and functional chord progressions. I don't find it an insult but, I don't find it an honor either in fact I never really know how to deal with compliments like that. I guess I usually just shrug them off like I did today, blush a little and go back to my usual quiet self.

I'm not entirely sure where this post is leading anymore, it is quite late as it is 23:08 and I can't quite tell if I am just debating with myself or just rambling on. I should probably go to bed now as I have to drive tomorrow. I guess this is a conclusion. Good night.

Princes Trust Team Programme?

I have been quite busy lately, mostly because of a course that I was directed to by the Ilkeston Job Centre Plus. I'm trying my best to fit in some of my recording projects in between the duration of the course but, this is proving difficult because of our 9-5 hours... Well, that and being worn out by the time I get home. Don't get me wrong, I'm thoroughly enjoying every moment of this course it's just that it would be better if I were less tired.

The week commencing we start our community project which is to build a sensory garden for the United Response which is a registered charity disabled care home. Over the last two weeks, a team of twelve of us have been trying to raise money to go towards this. It been an interesting two weeks, painting fences, tidying up garden fronts and donation collecting for our tombola/raffle that is still yet to go ahead next week. We also did a sponsored walk all the way around Carsington Waters on Friday which ended up taking around three hours and a half! It's easy for me to say that our residential trip we went on during week two was the best so far. Myself and the rest of my team took part in all sorts of teamwork/team building activities where it was essential for us to plan how we were going to approach the challenges given to us and then fine tune it so the idea works perfectly. Though, this trip did have some individual challenges coincide with it as well. We went bouldering at Roaches Gate and abseiled from the highest point of Millers Dale Bridge in Derbyshire! Both of these were quite scary and for some of us it took a lot more than others to overcome our fears. I, myself got quite scared when I managed to get myself stuck between two rocks that I couldn't quite fit through which made me quite teary. In all honesty, I think I panicked then!

During the residential trip, our team gained its own anthem. Having to travel in a mini bus often with nothing but, the radio we all took a shining to the song 'Timber' PitBull feat. Ke$ha. Plus, our favorite impressionist of anything Family Guy made us laugh and voiced over it. I started to enjoy the tune a little too much, so when I got back I ended up producing an acoustic cover of it. I'll leave a link to my cover at the bottom of the post so you can have a listen if you want to check it out!

Before I end the post I should announce that I hope to release some rough demos soon including vocals that will be home recorded. I suppose the big dream is to one day have my own studio, that way I won't have to call my work demos because the quality would be highly improved... ah, well!

Till the next time!

Links

Timber (Acoustic Cover)
https://soundcloud.com/kimkeeton/timber-acoustic-cover

Twitter: @kimkeeton

So, the last couple of months have gone by way too fast for my liking. The Christmas period has come and gone and we are already fast into a new year of 2014. As I still remain strong to my passion for music; playing open mics and recording, I've been doing a considerable amount of work for The British Heart Foundation. Before I started working for them as a volunteer, I was sent there by the JobCenter as a work placement and I do quite enjoy it, still, at least this keeps me on my toes as I no longer have a schedule to keep to. 

In regards to recording, between the 21st and 25th of December I managed to record a Christmas song... in which I sang. I was quite impressed with myself that I managed to get the whole recording finished but, I will definitely have to redo the vocals, some other instruments and render the mix.

Here is a link to the track:

https://soundcloud.com/kimkeeton/merry-christmas-everyone

 For now I'm happy. I made this possible with the layering technique I use a lot recently, it comes in handy when you are the only musician around and when you have a very basic studio setup even though, I still believe the quality that I produce at now is fairly good and only getting better! I have been recording things like this for about a year now, which has gone incredibly fast but, I'm so proud of what I've been able to make and a achieve with the equipment I use.

Also, my band. How can I forget my blessed band Zebra Crossing! We have had a bit of a ride over the last month. In early December we decided to kick out our old drummer, of course leaving us drummerless. This made gigging feel a little tedious for me; being a bass player. The good news is that we now have a new drummer, whom I found and trust more to do a great job. I can't wait to have the whole band play at The Maze, Nottingham at the CHAOS WARS! (Battle of the Bands Heats) and then at The Navigation in early February (see image)

 CHAOS WARS 2014