Tag: music

New music! (Also, sorry for not posting anything for a year)

Hi! I’ve been quiet! I’m so sorry! It’s been a hell of a year and being creative has been hard. I miss being able to be routinely creative but I’m happy to just take it as it comes just now, especially when it’s something I’m as proud of as this!

Tigress is a love poem I wrote a while back, and I’ve always wanted to do more spoken word and music stuff and this has slowly evolved from loose ideas over the last few months, and I’m super happy to share it!

Is it perfect? No.

Is perfection overrated? Yes, 100%

I’m not putting the pressure on myself to create perfect art, I’m just wanting to create and share and do things again, and that’s enough for now. The important thing is not to put pressure on yourself, this is a weird time for us all and “normal” is still a very long time away, we’re learning what normal has to mean for us as individuals and learn what we need to do for ourselves. With time, practice, routine, and positive mental health, we’ll all have even more Things to share, and I’ll be back posting weird stuff on here more often!

Hope you like the track. Take it easy and look after yourself.

2017 – A Year in Review

A long short summary of 2017.

Another year over, and what a year it’s been. It’s had ups and downs and tears and laughter and clichés and bad metaphors. It has been a year.

But I have never felt as successful as I have coming out of this year. This year, I did so many things I didn’t expect me to do ever.

I won not one but two poetry slams, I performed music on stage for the first time since 2013, I managed to write 100 Poems in 100 Days (I still don’t know how I managed that).

I had my first ever stand-up comedy gig (it was terrifying, it was amazing), I got to perform alongside one of my poetry idols and busted some more comedy and broke my roleplaying game cherry with The Comedy Roleplaying Hour at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.

I had my first paid feature poetry gig, I wrote, produced and performed my first ever full-length poetry show at the Edinburgh Horror Festival, and became part of the team that run the Edinburgh Horror Festival.

I had my first ever compere gig, started a new cabaret band/duo, and started work on a new live poetry event with a good friend of mine which is due to debut early next year. And finally, to top it all off, I was named Stage Time Promotions ‘Best Poetry/Spoken Word Act of 2017.’

Across music, comedy and poetry (and hosting) I’ve performed 36 times this year. That’s insane. That’s 36 more performances than I expected to do in my life. There’s so many people in my life that I need to thank. This has been unexpected. For the first time in 25 years, I feel proud of myself.

It’s not been without its battles. Mental health, homelessness, nerves, losing friends, drifting away from people. No life is 100% perfect.

But this year came pretty damn close.

I’d like to say a huge thank you to all of you, the people who’ve read the poems, the people who have listened to/watched me perform. The people who have let me perform (Inky Fingers’ wonderboys, Freddie and Ross, the beautiful Lloyd and Matt behind The God Damn Debut Slam, my good friend Ross who I produce the Freakeasy Showcase with, the Edinburgh Horror Festival, and the organisers of From The Horse’s Mouth).

My sound operator, Graham, and poster designer, Ash from We All Have Fears.

To all my friends who have supported me and listened to my surrealist ramblings while trying to write something. To all my friends who have been there on any level. My friends online and on the earth. There are so many of you. I can’t thank you enough.

And finally, thank you, dear readers. You don’t know me, and yet you’ve taken the time to stick around and read this. You’ve read the blogs, you’ve read the poems. You’re amazing. And I love that you’ve been hanging around, commenting when you can. Liking, sharing, communicating, supporting. Thank you.

Bring on 2018 and the next adventure!

#PoeticAnswers 81 – Did You Get Any Sleep Last Night?

There were flashes of darkness
In between the whirring of electric lights
And the hunger pangs of newborns,
In between the screams of neon sirens
And the late and live music of whisky and wine,
In between the negotiations of mice and owls
And the hard labour in the room next door.
Which might not amount to much,
But even a little of a good thing
Is better than nothing, right?

#PoeticAnswers 51 – What Happens To Your Heart When You Go To Sleep?

The heart keeps going,
Awake and wired like
A caffeinated child.

The heart rests
Takes a moment away from the race
And takes life at it’s own pace.

We don’t sleep when we sleep
Our brains don’t shut off,
Our heart keeps pumping blood,
Our lungs keep breathing
And maybe that’s why
We’re still tired in the morning.
Because rest is a lie and
Our bodies keep going.
We think we’re dead to the world
But we’ve never been more alive.

Our brain dreams,
Processing thoughts and actions
Like a machine,
Like a computer with the screen turned off,
Creating images and flickering lights,
Playing tricks on our minds and retinas like
A limited edition, one-of-a-kind movie
In a cinema screening that no one saw,
Except for a projectionist in a dark room.

And our heart is the soundtrack,
Heart strings and pulsing drum beats,
Slow and steady
But swelling to crescendo,
Racing to action
A veritable ventricle
drum and bass underscore,
Returning to legato then coming to rest.

And, like any true heart,
The protagonist in the story,
Arriving on dampened horseback,
Head- and heartstrong,
The knight in shining armour
Chasing nightmares and negative thoughts away,
Then riding into the sunset,
Reminding you to love yourself

Question from Amanda P. from Facebook

#PoeticAnswers 50 – Is There An Art To Being A Stage Technician?

Yes.

Allow me to shed some light,
Hear me out on this matter,
There is as much artistry backstage
As there is on the stage.

Sonic, scenic and visual artists
Set the scene and the score
And illuminate the microcosms
Of stage and screen while
Remaining unseen and unheard
While building walls of sound and
Tapestries of light and
Entirely illusory worlds.

Because it’s a big-top circus
And we’re the juggler, and trapeze, and the balancing act
Performing behind the scenes.
Getting everything ready before
The clowns enter the stage.
Playing God,
Controlling the light they walk in,
Adding the music and sound to the mundanity,
Cueing them into life.

We are valid true artists.
Hiding in shadows,
Lighting the way
Making the music,
But staying out of the spotlight.
Forever alone in black space,
Making every day our magnum opus
While no one pays attention
To the man behind the curtain.

Question from ‘A Curious Follower’ from WordPress!

#PoeticAnswers 49 – Why Aren’t You Listening to Smash Mouth’s “All Star” Right Now?

Somebody once told me
That this song was the
Greatest Song in The World.
I believed them,
At the time, I wasn’t exactly
The sharpest tool in the shed.

I now realise I was wrong,
And the only people who believed it
Might as well have had their
Finger and their thumb in
Their ears, blocking out
All other opinions and
Never experienced real music.

YouTube is suffocating,
The parodies start coming
And they don’t stop coming,
With more samples than
Costco on a Saturday
And more covers than
The bedding section of IKEA

It’s spreading like a virus,
It’s spreading like an STD,
Infecting ears and brains
Like stereo herpes
Like cold sores on my inner ear,
An uncomfortable nuisance
Causing rage and discomfort
Proving that all that glitters
is not golden.

It needs to stop
I need to get away from this place
Things need to change.
We could all use a little change.
I’ll change the DVD to Shrek 2
And hope for the best.

Question from Michael Clark, and now I’ve got this song stuck in my head.

#PoeticAnswers 43 – How Did You Discover Amanda Palmer?

This romance happened by chance,
A brief introduction in a theatre class,

We were working on a production of
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”,
Which was slowly turning into a nightmare
Due to the director’s tendency to be laissez-faire
And the actors didn’t seem to care
As actors tend to do.

My friend and ally,
Let’s call her Lucy because,
Well, that was her name.
She played Puck and Lysander
Spoke with virtue and candour
And she was not down with this chaos-

But that’s another story,
I might tell that one later-

But we clicked and connected,
Our personalities blended,
I was Oberon to her Puck,
Although I wish I had the luck
To be Hermia to her Lysander,
I really should have asked her-

Sorry I got distracted,
But you see, this girl impacted
My life in such a way during this
Awful, awful play,
And she introduced me to the sound
Of the Queen of the Boston underground.

(You’re welcome to complain,
But I just needed a rhyme).

My eyes were opened to beauty and truth
After awkwardly being sent “Delilah” by Bluetooth,
Then ‘A is for Accident’ and then ‘Yes Virginia’
Starting with the songs that were nearly vanilla,
Before ascending to madness with ‘Missed Me’ and ‘Backstabber’
All thanks this bodacious, genderfluid Lysander.

And though we’ve drifted apart, I still have Amanda.
She’s a constant, vibrant, talented reminder
Of the past and a force saying things will be better
Forming groups on Facebook, providing a shelter
For the outcasts and artists, the mad and fantastic
From across the Pacific, South Seas and Atlantic.

If these rhymes have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended:

I’ve got this girl, Shakespeare and you to blame,
For all this support and love and I have no shame
When I commit these awful crimes of rhyme.
So darling, if you have the time,
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Amanda shall restore amends.

Question from Delaney A.