The Time Has Come...

So, later on today once I have actually slept I will be starting to film my next music video with one of my best friends. I really can't wait. These last few hours I have been writing down some simple ideas that could become explosive (not literally) for the video. I've had a serious think about locations and what content I actually want to include and what kind of mood want to set to match the temperament of the song. As for now, the track is called 'As The Sun Rises' (That's the only thing I've giving away tonight and I'm sure that title will stick) and I just feel like all these ideas are ready made to work together. I'm really hoping the weather is fine tomorrow. As the title gives away the song should feel quite warm and inviting. I don't really want everything looking cold tomorrow and most certainly not wet because I'm not sure it would be easy to edit that out.

'Oh, look it's not raining.'

I'm undecided on what to wear tomorrow and that bears a problem for me. What I wear tomorrow will be recorded for then rest of my life, no doubt. If it's warm enough, maybe some shorts but British summers aren't warm anyway so maybe it'll be ok to look cold.

New Proposals

Today has been rather different. I spent most of today down Nottingham with my old school friend Kieran Cooley and his boyfriend, Dan. I think it has been a month or so since we last met up, maybe even longer so we had a bit of a skate day. I drove down to their new house in Sneinton with my deck in the boot, soon after we rode into town. Before we set off we got talking about our plans for education. Kieran went on to tell me that he had not long dropped out of his course which shocked me a little because not long ago we were both talking about University and more but, then he told me that he will still be going back to college this year taking a new pathway in Media. He went on to tell me that he had been asked to provide a portfolio of work but, was unsure how to go about it. We sat down for a while discussing ideas and all different possibilities that would be achievable in the time limit of a couple of weeks. We came up with ideas like, street photography collections, animal park life photography, edited works, vlogs and making a music video or at least helping me make one. My main thought was that we could help each other with this, I'm fairly experienced with a camera in hand and I could pass on a few techniques, skills and hopefully a few editing tips too. I suggested that I introduce him to iMovie on my Mac with it being the best app I have to make movies. I want to get Final Cut Pro X at some point but it's so expensive, I guess that is what 'professionalism' costs.

When we got into town we didn't really know what to do or where to go, we never do really. We normally just end up wandering, going wherever our feet (and wheels) take us but today I suggested that we skate down to a flatland spot underneath a car park near Broadmarsh which was fun for a while., after we went to Subway and visited a few shops. I was still trying to suggest other little things that could work for his portfolio, some of which didn't come to me until later in the day when we were all heading back to his house to watch some Facebook videos and Netflix.

I've not long gotten home and I'm quite excited to be able to work on another video so soon but, also more importantly with a friend. I have recorded some footage already ready for a new video but, I'm not sure what that will be for yet or whether it will be another. Either way, I have a lot to think about again. I'm hoping to spend sometime in my studio tomorrow morning while my mum's at work so I can get something done and ready for storyboard. I have a couple I could use at the moment but, I'm still unsure. I'm hoping to actually release an EP before I go back to college and then maybe get an album ready for next year after I have performed around Nottingham a little more and gained a few fans. I really am starting to take my music more seriously and I can see that in my work and the levels of work I produce now compared to last year. I believe that this time last year, I was producing nothing. I was constantly thinking about doing something but, something always stopped me whether it be work or something more petty like just being to lazy and wanting to play games more than anything (when I had the time).

Theory Test

Yesterday, I had to go back to NCN Clarendon to resit my music theory test for admissions. I had arranged it a week before with Andy Scoffin by chance, when I came in for a signature for my student finance. That reminds me, I need to get that all sent off on Monday. I decided to travel to Nottingham on the bus, giving myself the chance to relax rather than over think about everything whilst driving. I got to college nice and early. I was in town for about twenty past nine and managed to get to college for twenty to the hour. I spoke to the lady at the reception desk, she must have been a new receptionist because I hadn't seen her before but, she gave the music office a call for me to tell them I was here. Five or so minuets later, Andy came through the double doors to collect me and we headed in the direction towards the music department. Before rushing through the doors we both noticed that it had started to snow, it was just a sudden burst but it looked like it was coming down fast.

Moments later, I found myself back in the same room where I had sat to do the same test on my interview day. I'm not entirely sure what the room is for but, there is a lot of tech in there and the room is very small so its usually quite toasty. I felt a lot more prepared this time around. I didn't notice last time but, I read at the top of the paper that the duration was two hours. That seemed unreal. I managed to finish the test in little under fifty minuets, (which I was quite proud of) I'm not sure how long it took me last time but it was probably about the same.

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. 

NCN Clarendon 2016

January 19th was the day of my first University interview that was conveniently at my old college, NCN Clarendon Campus. I was starting to get nervous as the days edged closer, even more so on the day whist waiting to be collected from the reception area. I was thankful that my friend Fern from work had asked me if I wanted her to come with me and it was just nice and reassuring for myself to have the support there, to have someone to talk to while waiting. We got the college about half an hour early after meeting at the Victoria Bus Station and the minutes seemed to pass very fast. I felt both a mix of excitement and nerves whilst sat down, even more so as the minuets past by and it didn't really help that I couldn't get my hands warm. The automatic doors kept on opening and closing letting students in and out so I decided to put my snow gloves on. I knew it would be more difficult to play my guitar if my hands we freezing and I was determined that my audition was going to go well.

The time soon reached one o'clock and I started to realise that anything could happen any minute now. I kept on looking towards the double doors that lead towards the music area in a sort of paranoid sense. I didn't know who was going to interview me, but I knew that there was a high chance that it would be someone that I already know. I must have looked towards those doors serval times. I had already spotted several students that I had worked with before and were one working on courses below me. They made me feel a little bad for neglecting my education without saying anything, just with the thought that they were about to undertake the highest level, the BA course.

At around five minuets past the hour, I remember looking towards the double doors and seeing Dr. Nick Redfern appear out of them, followed closely by Andy Scoffin. Nick went straight towards his group of five or so soon to be BA students, but then noticed me sat on the rather large pink sofa just a little further down. I'm surprised he recognised me, he created me very well and made me feel very welcome again. It was almost like returning back to my second home. He walked quickly towards me past all of the small brightly coloured chairs open armed to hug me and ask how I was. We had a short general conversation as the other students started to look over, surprised also like, what is going on? It was all very nice though but, he was stood there for so long that I barely noticed Andy come up behind him ready to take me away for my audition. I think it's fair to say that Nick unexpectedly talking to me made me feel much more relaxed and so did Andy, really. It was like being greeted by old friends.

I asked Andy if Fern could tag along for the audition, which he agreed. So, off we went. Andy lead the the way through the double doors and down the long corridor towards the circle, then through to the music area. I know the college very well having studied there for three years already an I noticed many changes, for starters in the circle area they now have a few vending machines. When we all walked through to the music area, it seemed like they had literally decorated anything the could see... or that was 'decorate-able'. The were CD's permanently stuck the walls, data side showing all the way down a column. There were still pictures from when I was back at the college three years go of past gigs, photos of Paper Cape and from the Tribute band performances. It was like a short trip down memory lane. Even the the stairs had been 'slammed up', laced with silver metal. There were also many final records stuck to the walls and when we got to the top of the stairs, this was the best bit. The PC Suite had be transformed into a Mac Suite. Every monitor had a Mac Mini connected. The only problem I found with them is that they seemed to run slowly at times but, I thought that that might be because they all run from the same server. You don't need a login or anything to use them either, you just literally jump on.

Anyway, Andy gave me the task of writing a short essay about other a gig that I have seen or taken part in. The last time that I performed is now nearly two years ago so, I figured maybe I should write about the Piano Guys concert I went to back in June. I know a lot about them and I knew that I would be comfortable writing a copious amount in such a small period of time. I think I ended up spending nearly an hour on it in the end but, I wanted it to be perfect. I think I knew I had probably already gone slightly off topic a few times but, I kept reading over it, correcting myself and adding little bits hear and there. 

After I had handed my finished copy to Andy, it was time for the dreaded theory test. I had been worried about it for a while because I felt a bit rusty on the subject. When I was last in college, I studied all the way up to the required Grade 5 and then continued onto grade 6 with help from Nick but, again it had been nearly three years since I had to put the knowledge that I had learnt into practice. I knew it was in my head somewhere, I just ad to somehow push it to the front of my brain. I did have a quick ready of my copy of 'The AB Guide to Music Theory Part 1' on the bus beforehand and even shortly in reception. Andy asked me fist if I felt comfortable to have a go at the test at this moment, I answered a little unsure but still had a good attempt at it. 

After everything, I felt like there were only a few little things that completely threw me off. At the beginning, there were questions on identifying time signatures and describing them with the terms give such as Simple and Compound and then, Duple, Triple and Quadruple so I had a guess a little with that one because I just could remember how one of them was classed, technically. The other little bit that threw me was just at the very end, when asked for meanings of certain Italian words, so translations of music terminology but, I had never seen them before... and I feel like if I had, my old lecturer Dmitry would have just shrugged it off for the test because lets be honest, unless you're studying classical music they are a tad useless.

It took me around an hour to complete the theory test. I felt so sorry for my friend Fern because she had been sent back towards reception after watching my audition and had just been sat for around two hours. I couldn't exactly check my phone until after because I wanted to stay focused. When I delivered my finished test to Andy he explained that he doesn't usually mark them and that he will leave it for Kirsty Proctor (Another one of my old lecturers). He went on to tell me that she will be away for a couple of week so I would have to wait until she comes back off holiday to hear my results. At this point we were sat in the smaller of the two music offices. There was one other guy in the room who I was unsure of who he was, he looked familiar but we wasn't introduced. 

I had a reassuring chat with Andy Scoffin to finish off the day. He went on to explain that the degree is a much more different mindset to undertake compared to the further education courses that I had done before and went on to explain why. Through this I found out that the course is based mostly on artist creativity, where basically that means that there are simply no covers of songs. Everything is original material and that excites me. I have a lyric book with many of my own song ideas already that I can't wait to put into practice properly. I think Andy already thinks I have found my own knack to songwriting since I was on the intro to music course because I co-wrote a duet with another fellow student at the time, Dagmara for the the theme of Valentines day.

After such a great, mad day I couldn't wait to get home. It had been a good day and could not have been much better. I felt like I did pretty well at the end of it all. After being subjected to write an essay instantly and test my theory skills I was well and truly knackered. It took a while to get back afterwards because I decided to go on the bus. It was nearly six o'clock by the time I got home despite leaving the college at around half past three. I didn't realise that the interview could have gone on for so long but, all the work that I given to do just seemed to keep adding on time. In the end, I guess that the whole thing lasted as long as it needed to be.