Well, the world has certainly changed over the last three months. I'm sat here at my Mac, trying to make plans to move forward with releases both external and through my own label Niahas records whilst the idiot minority dive to the beaches. The Black Lives Matter movement has been massive and thankfully all of my friends have reacted positively to the current climate with no racist remarks, in fact it's been nice to mostly see positive posts in my my Facebook feed. Social distancing is still a thing, although not to some apparently. Boris relaxed the rules a bit but said it has to wait until the 4th of July when the pubs and hair dressers reopen but I think the ignorant believe it's no longer exists. I've been in situation where I can't, mostly at work but I'm not mad paranoid like some. If I see friends, I ask them what they are comfortable with. It feels like common sense.
Enough of the depressing stuff, my gaming habits have again changed. I've not been playing so much recently because I've been working on some remixes that will be released externally soon (will mention more about it when I have more details) I've been playing The Last Of Us (the first part) on PS3 to catch up for if I ever play the new release. I'm ashamed to say I had not had a proper run through before but I'm enjoying it and I'm at a point where it is a bit terrifying. I had to stop playing one night because of the bloater in the hotel basement, although I have since got past that point and I'm now out of the sewers and in a hostel neighbourhood with a cosy sniper.
I'm not planning on doing much tomorrow, I can't really anyway! We're having burgers for lunch and I'm loading mine with peanut butter and jam - Annie's style! It would be nice to get a take out from there but it's just too far and they're not properly open until next week. I don't have any other plans, I might get to see a couple of friends but I'm mostly just bracing myself for all the Facebook posts on my wall. I'm ahead of myself, I've already thought about what I would like to buy with my birthday money, admittedly it's mostly games. I wanted to invest in more music tech this year but at the moment can't justify it with the social restrictions. I wanted an 8 channel interface so I could record more instruments simultaneously but that means more people and I hardly have any space in my room as it is. Plus, I was hoping to grab some gear from college but that plan fell apart. I might message AO soon though, I keep thinking about it.
Anyway, I've drawn up a plan for the rest of this year concerning my music and I'm happy with it. It's given me a new focus and it's probably something I should have done a few months ago. My issue is, I keep holding back and I need to start pushing forward. I was doing so well and I feel like I've fallen behind (I don't blame the video games at all, it's a personal choice) I need to focus on myself some more. The only thing I can announce right now is to expect some tracks from me this month. Two external releases and a remaster of a track I can't get enough of.
I hope I've given someone something to look forward to.
Saturday, 27 June 2020
Saturday, 16 May 2020
Quarantine
These last couple of months have been a bit crazy with no need for exaggeration. The mads gone world? Coronavirus has become a massive issue that's keeping us all indoors as much as we can be kept in. I've still been working, in fact I've been working more than ever lately. Work seem to be giving me a guaranteed extra shift per week, then every other week another two days on top of that. I'm ashamed to say that I haven't been very productive over this strange timeframe. I produced a couple of Animal Crossing style tracks and have another in the works but otherwise my head has been away from music and I've been burying myself in video games. Mostly Animal Crossing - across all releases but I'be also been playing Hitman, The Sims (Again, all flavours), GTA V, Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4 and a few more retro titles - some of the older Tony Hawk games like THPS4 and THUG.
Soundcloud links:
Midnight - https://soundcloud.com/kimkeeton/midnight
Nightfall Adventure - https://soundcloud.com/kimkeeton/animal-crossing-inspired-nightfall-adventure
I've been enjoying my time diving back into gaming as I wasn't really able to over the last few years with Uni. I mean, I did indulge occasionally both during and in-between semesters but not enough to cripple my work flow, like now. (Ha) We're having a Chinese takeaway tonight, it's not something I usually do - I'm more of a KFC fan but the ques since the reopening of the drive thus has been ridiculous so I'll be avoiding that for a while longer, maybe save it for my Birthday next month.
I wanted to talk about something. Has there been an increase in scam adverts on Facebook lately? Only yesterday I saw one for "80% off Lego" - their more expensive ranges. All listed for the same price off £21.99 on a badly written website that suspiciously only takes credit card payment. Today I've seen some weird lightsaber offer that didn't look very convincing, plastered with star wars GIFs and I've just seen an advert for cheating in Animal Crossing, allowing players to buy items thats require a lot of work in-game (which is not so much a scam as an IP issue for Nintendo as it seems to work but has potential to brake the game with duplicated items - and people pay for this!!) Crazy!! I hope this gets sorted soon but I image the current world situation does not help.
Tuesday, 11 February 2020
Sick Of Being Ill
I't been a while since I've posted again. Lately I haven't had much motivation to sit and compile my thoughts like this plus, I've been fairly forgetful lately. Hy hearing is still only slowing returning to me as I fight of my second cold of the year. I can't seem to get away from illness lately and it's the main thing that is really holding me back. I've been feeling pretty useless because of this. I've been staying up late, binge watching YouTubers, specifically Call Me Kevin, Plumbella, Lilsimsie. Sometimes I'm not even fully interested just stuck on a browsing loop, more so with Call Me Kevin's content. You may have noticed the other two are more Sims-focused. I'm not much of a fan of speed builds but like the odd one or two that have a challenge, but it's the stories and old game replays that have kept me coming back the most.
In other new, the band is progressing nicely. Kill The Moon's next gig is at The Chameleon in Nottingham next week and I'm betting on it being a good night. Certainly on to look forward to but I'm going to have to focus on picking my mood up for it to be really successful. Since about early December I've not even being trying to hide when I'm in an off mood, whether that be because of illness or not to the point that comes through in photos. I want to look like I'm having a good time like I know I am but it's been difficult lately. With a lack of routine except work it's hard to keep busy and adding illness into the mix prevents me even more.
Both of these colds that I've had recently have seen me lose my voice for a bit, coming and going. It's on its way back now but still not quite there. I have rehearsal later and I'm worried about doing more harm that good. I sing more often these days, in fact I'm singing the lead of one of the new songs that we're working on. I actually wrote it almost a year ago now to build up my repertoire for my album project and it quickly became one of my favourite song-babies. It's been slightly restructured to make more sense but I'm happy with it and more so, I'm proud that I now have the confidence to get up on stage and sing - with or without a band behind me. Although it's still not something that I do too often.
That's another thing. I've been wanting to "get out there" and play more open mics. I planned to go to one this Thursday but I don't think I'll be well enough. Plus, now I'll be going to another Notts In A Nutshell night at The Golden Fleece. I got into conversation with Bassey Easton, who wants to develop his sound with other musicians. I told him I'm interested although, KTM will still be my main love and focus. It think it would be good of my head to play something new rather than rehears the same old. I love what we do but playing the same thing all of the time does get repetitive and tiresome.
I can't wait to shake this cold and get back my drive. I feel like I'm really holding myself back at the moment but there's not much I can do about being ill.
In other new, the band is progressing nicely. Kill The Moon's next gig is at The Chameleon in Nottingham next week and I'm betting on it being a good night. Certainly on to look forward to but I'm going to have to focus on picking my mood up for it to be really successful. Since about early December I've not even being trying to hide when I'm in an off mood, whether that be because of illness or not to the point that comes through in photos. I want to look like I'm having a good time like I know I am but it's been difficult lately. With a lack of routine except work it's hard to keep busy and adding illness into the mix prevents me even more.
Both of these colds that I've had recently have seen me lose my voice for a bit, coming and going. It's on its way back now but still not quite there. I have rehearsal later and I'm worried about doing more harm that good. I sing more often these days, in fact I'm singing the lead of one of the new songs that we're working on. I actually wrote it almost a year ago now to build up my repertoire for my album project and it quickly became one of my favourite song-babies. It's been slightly restructured to make more sense but I'm happy with it and more so, I'm proud that I now have the confidence to get up on stage and sing - with or without a band behind me. Although it's still not something that I do too often.
That's another thing. I've been wanting to "get out there" and play more open mics. I planned to go to one this Thursday but I don't think I'll be well enough. Plus, now I'll be going to another Notts In A Nutshell night at The Golden Fleece. I got into conversation with Bassey Easton, who wants to develop his sound with other musicians. I told him I'm interested although, KTM will still be my main love and focus. It think it would be good of my head to play something new rather than rehears the same old. I love what we do but playing the same thing all of the time does get repetitive and tiresome.
I can't wait to shake this cold and get back my drive. I feel like I'm really holding myself back at the moment but there's not much I can do about being ill.
Monday, 20 January 2020
Tuesday, 31 December 2019
A Year Of 2019: Summary
I've been really quite on here so will probably keep this one brief so I can publish some catch-up posts pinned to more accurate dates. There's so much that has happened this year that I still haven't really blogged about and it doesn't seem right to only just mention things properly now... So, I'll get back to that. I have a list of topics I want to write individual posts about over the next few weeks to fill in the gaps and keep my mind active. Here's the list:
University Of Derby
Graduation
Spain
More Illness
Guitar Lessons
Music Production
NIAHAS
Kill The Moon
Open Mics
It's not a huge list, but it's still a big gap to cover.
This year has been a challenging one. At the start of the year, I don't think I quite had the right mindset. It was a bit strange going back to what still felt like a new environment. I new my way around the UoD campuses but I still hadn't quite settled in and the lack of new friends yet influx of many new faces made me feel overwhelmed during my final year. It was the one thing I was worried about, "fitting in" and it was just so difficult since social groups had already been formed long before I had got there and it was a hard thing to break into. Those that I did work with, I massively appreciated. To say how big their music department is, I felt like I only came away with a handful of friends. It's a strange thing. Nevertheless, it went fast. The course was over by early May and Graduation followed a couple of months after. This takes us to July. I had not long recovered from a throat infection and was still feeling the stress of University even after Graduation. I finished my degree with a high 2:1 and still feel like if I had made extra efforts in places, (mainly my double module which really messed me up) I could have scraped the first class degree that I wanted but at least I know by the calculations, I wasn't far off the mark.
With studying over, it was time to put focus on the band, Kill The Moon. We reformed in April this year and performed a handful of gigs this year with a few different drummers along the way, Michael Ives now being our new drummer. I'll speak more about this in another post but I'm proud of the direction that we're going and we're now focusing on getting some recordings down.
July sparked the plan to go back to Spain with Will Giddings. This was probably on the biggest things of the year. possibly topping graduation since I'm still a bit salty about my results. We planned to go in August for a few days over a week. We had two hotels booked and a rental car, no real idea what we were doing once we got there except that one day we may have had the chance to see our friends, which we did. We found lots to do once we settled. We eat out a few nights, found a bike rental place, saw some flamingos, watched people cover themselves in mud. Ha. We were really close to the beach for the first few nights. At our second hotel, we were more inland. We found a local pool to visit, a McDonalds and one day went into the city of Murcia where I found a guitar that I brought home with me, after running around like a manic trying to find a flight case for it! It was an incredible holiday. Stressful but well worth it.
When we returned, I was ill again within a few days. I remember being called in for a night shift then when I turned up my ear went a bit weird. Little did I know that this was the continuation of an illness saga. I had an ear infection/ Weeks passed and there were still things wrong. A few more weeks passed, I passed out at home from a high temperature. I went to the doctors the next day to be told I now have a kidney infection. More antibiotics were given and eventually it passed as a bigger-picture-problem but my hearing hasn't yet still fully returned. My ear still feels blocked and I feel like fainting/blacking out from being to hot my still be a problem every month or so. I blacked out in public a couple of months ago, it wasn't fun.
These last few months of the year have been focused on recovery, band and music production. I'm still proud of the recording that me and Jake threw together in a week in October. It's nice to finally have something to show even if I know it's not perfect yet. These studio recording will be what we really need, I think I just wanted to make use of what I had. It's been nice that some friends have supported us by buying some of our merch, it helps spread word more than anything as I don't really make much back on it, but any sale goes back in towards more. It's like a cycle, except it's business. I've been working with a friend to make tracks for him and record his vocal, I'm essentially his producer at the moment. His artist name is Jem The Ruff Diamond and he aims to launch his own record label, Boombox Entertainment in the new year. This has been one of my focus points, allowing me to start earning from my craft. I did teach a few guitar lessons this year too but I need to get back into promoting that locally and see where it takes me. I just don't want to end up making myself too busy!!
December has been nice, the early part I managed to catch up with friends on a night out, we had quite a big crowd. As Christmas drew closer the days seemed to be going to fast. It's always over too soon. Now, it's new years eve and we're counting down the hours left to 2020. I don't have any new year resolutions this year but I am going to try to remain focused more. I have a few of tracks to finish in January which when completed will help me save up. That's one goal I have for this year, just to save a little, but it's hard to do whilst working part-time so a combination of this and the small hours work keep tipping on me will help. There's always going to be car insurance that pulls my income down and I'm not looking forward to paying that this year, will definitely have to shop around. There is a gig I'm eyeing up in the Netherlands. I might be able to justify it since it's not as far as a holiday to Spain but I'll have to see nearer the time, that isn't until July anyway. Will need to see what happens with Brexit!
University Of Derby
Graduation
Spain
More Illness
Guitar Lessons
Music Production
NIAHAS
Kill The Moon
Open Mics
It's not a huge list, but it's still a big gap to cover.
This year has been a challenging one. At the start of the year, I don't think I quite had the right mindset. It was a bit strange going back to what still felt like a new environment. I new my way around the UoD campuses but I still hadn't quite settled in and the lack of new friends yet influx of many new faces made me feel overwhelmed during my final year. It was the one thing I was worried about, "fitting in" and it was just so difficult since social groups had already been formed long before I had got there and it was a hard thing to break into. Those that I did work with, I massively appreciated. To say how big their music department is, I felt like I only came away with a handful of friends. It's a strange thing. Nevertheless, it went fast. The course was over by early May and Graduation followed a couple of months after. This takes us to July. I had not long recovered from a throat infection and was still feeling the stress of University even after Graduation. I finished my degree with a high 2:1 and still feel like if I had made extra efforts in places, (mainly my double module which really messed me up) I could have scraped the first class degree that I wanted but at least I know by the calculations, I wasn't far off the mark.
With studying over, it was time to put focus on the band, Kill The Moon. We reformed in April this year and performed a handful of gigs this year with a few different drummers along the way, Michael Ives now being our new drummer. I'll speak more about this in another post but I'm proud of the direction that we're going and we're now focusing on getting some recordings down.
July sparked the plan to go back to Spain with Will Giddings. This was probably on the biggest things of the year. possibly topping graduation since I'm still a bit salty about my results. We planned to go in August for a few days over a week. We had two hotels booked and a rental car, no real idea what we were doing once we got there except that one day we may have had the chance to see our friends, which we did. We found lots to do once we settled. We eat out a few nights, found a bike rental place, saw some flamingos, watched people cover themselves in mud. Ha. We were really close to the beach for the first few nights. At our second hotel, we were more inland. We found a local pool to visit, a McDonalds and one day went into the city of Murcia where I found a guitar that I brought home with me, after running around like a manic trying to find a flight case for it! It was an incredible holiday. Stressful but well worth it.
When we returned, I was ill again within a few days. I remember being called in for a night shift then when I turned up my ear went a bit weird. Little did I know that this was the continuation of an illness saga. I had an ear infection/ Weeks passed and there were still things wrong. A few more weeks passed, I passed out at home from a high temperature. I went to the doctors the next day to be told I now have a kidney infection. More antibiotics were given and eventually it passed as a bigger-picture-problem but my hearing hasn't yet still fully returned. My ear still feels blocked and I feel like fainting/blacking out from being to hot my still be a problem every month or so. I blacked out in public a couple of months ago, it wasn't fun.
These last few months of the year have been focused on recovery, band and music production. I'm still proud of the recording that me and Jake threw together in a week in October. It's nice to finally have something to show even if I know it's not perfect yet. These studio recording will be what we really need, I think I just wanted to make use of what I had. It's been nice that some friends have supported us by buying some of our merch, it helps spread word more than anything as I don't really make much back on it, but any sale goes back in towards more. It's like a cycle, except it's business. I've been working with a friend to make tracks for him and record his vocal, I'm essentially his producer at the moment. His artist name is Jem The Ruff Diamond and he aims to launch his own record label, Boombox Entertainment in the new year. This has been one of my focus points, allowing me to start earning from my craft. I did teach a few guitar lessons this year too but I need to get back into promoting that locally and see where it takes me. I just don't want to end up making myself too busy!!
December has been nice, the early part I managed to catch up with friends on a night out, we had quite a big crowd. As Christmas drew closer the days seemed to be going to fast. It's always over too soon. Now, it's new years eve and we're counting down the hours left to 2020. I don't have any new year resolutions this year but I am going to try to remain focused more. I have a few of tracks to finish in January which when completed will help me save up. That's one goal I have for this year, just to save a little, but it's hard to do whilst working part-time so a combination of this and the small hours work keep tipping on me will help. There's always going to be car insurance that pulls my income down and I'm not looking forward to paying that this year, will definitely have to shop around. There is a gig I'm eyeing up in the Netherlands. I might be able to justify it since it's not as far as a holiday to Spain but I'll have to see nearer the time, that isn't until July anyway. Will need to see what happens with Brexit!
Thursday, 26 September 2019
More Illness, For Over A Month
It all started (again) once I got back from Spain. Not immediately, it took a few days. I was generally achey the day we got back (Wednesday 14th August) but it wasn't until the Saturday later in the week as I was about to start a night shift that my ear started to ring. At first I thought it had just popped so, sort of waited for something to happen but I fast realised that something wasn't right but I had to just suck it up. Working nights is lone work, so there's little to no support if something goes wrong. I figured that I wasn't exactly dying so I'd somehow survive the night. The problem was afterwards when I realised working Saturday night take you through to Sunday morning when no where is open to be seen to. This meant that I had to wait another day. Sleep was hard. My poor ear was absolutely ringing in pain, I'd never known anything quite like it.
I had to wait until the Monday to see a nurse about my problem who gave me the same antibiotics as before, a weeks worth. After that, a week later, the pain had gone but I still couldn't hear very well. Two weeks on, I had another appointment. My usual medical centre was busy so they sent me up for an evening appointment at Ilkeston Hospital. I was seen to pretty quick but given nothing else and told to give it more time and give it another two weeks. At this point I was starting to get really stressed about my hearing coming back. Two weeks is already a long time to live with only one functional ear.
I waited and by the time I was dues to see some, little did I know that I had picked something else up along the way. I mean, I really didn't know and two nurses missed out on telling me but thats partially my fault for not realising what was going on with my body and focusing too much on my hearing problem. Naturally, I thought it was all related. It wasn't until I saw a doctor last Friday that I knew of my new problem even though by that point I reckon that I had already had it for a week. I had been struggling sleeping again, very feverish, back pain, no appetite and my temperature was ridiculously high, so high that the doc was concerned I could contract sepsis. I've had a kidney infection. The back pain was in fact my kidneys screaming at me in pain, fighting infection but at least this is nearly over now. I take my last antibiotic in the next hour and the pain has really eased off today. There's still little bits but I've been more active today, or rather it's been a lot easier for me to move about.
Yesterday, I was still slow but I can feel myself picking up now. I've just been taking it easy. I wanted to get some recording done today but I just ended up playing The Sims most of the day, eating better and blogging. I still won't be 100% for another three weeks but I definitely feel like I'm getting there now and I swear if I get ill again this year... (Ugh!)
I've missed this. I feel like I have so much to catch up on. So much has happened since my last post in June, which ironically was also about illness. But, yes! Spain, I went back to Spain. I haven't mentioned that, before that was Graduation. I'm a graduate now. These all need their own seperate specific posts really, not a short outburst on this one.
The good news for now is that I'm on the mend.
I had to wait until the Monday to see a nurse about my problem who gave me the same antibiotics as before, a weeks worth. After that, a week later, the pain had gone but I still couldn't hear very well. Two weeks on, I had another appointment. My usual medical centre was busy so they sent me up for an evening appointment at Ilkeston Hospital. I was seen to pretty quick but given nothing else and told to give it more time and give it another two weeks. At this point I was starting to get really stressed about my hearing coming back. Two weeks is already a long time to live with only one functional ear.
I waited and by the time I was dues to see some, little did I know that I had picked something else up along the way. I mean, I really didn't know and two nurses missed out on telling me but thats partially my fault for not realising what was going on with my body and focusing too much on my hearing problem. Naturally, I thought it was all related. It wasn't until I saw a doctor last Friday that I knew of my new problem even though by that point I reckon that I had already had it for a week. I had been struggling sleeping again, very feverish, back pain, no appetite and my temperature was ridiculously high, so high that the doc was concerned I could contract sepsis. I've had a kidney infection. The back pain was in fact my kidneys screaming at me in pain, fighting infection but at least this is nearly over now. I take my last antibiotic in the next hour and the pain has really eased off today. There's still little bits but I've been more active today, or rather it's been a lot easier for me to move about.
Yesterday, I was still slow but I can feel myself picking up now. I've just been taking it easy. I wanted to get some recording done today but I just ended up playing The Sims most of the day, eating better and blogging. I still won't be 100% for another three weeks but I definitely feel like I'm getting there now and I swear if I get ill again this year... (Ugh!)
I've missed this. I feel like I have so much to catch up on. So much has happened since my last post in June, which ironically was also about illness. But, yes! Spain, I went back to Spain. I haven't mentioned that, before that was Graduation. I'm a graduate now. These all need their own seperate specific posts really, not a short outburst on this one.
The good news for now is that I'm on the mend.
KILL THE MOON - GIG @ THE CHAMELEON, NOTTINGHAM 08/10/19
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| Poster designed by Emily Jane, singer of Alice's Ants. |
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