Photo courtesy Mike Cummins

Well, the dust has about settled on my concert at mac back on June 11th (2011). Im glad to say it went really well.

To be honest, my main worry – stemming from many years experience of small time music and comedy promotion – was getting a big enough audience to make it worthwhile playing in such a big venue as the main theatre at mac, but happily, at 8.05pm on the big night, I could look nervously over a crowd of no less than 150 fans, friends and family and I’m very grateful to all that attended.

Although the nerves were building, I had the pleasure first of watching Jules Gray’s support set – he’s such an intense performer, in contrast to his casually charming between song chat with the audience.   Have a look at this video of  Jules’ rendition of the Neil Young classic “Southern Pacific”:

The track is also featured on his eponymous debut album alongside nine excellent original songs combining great melody and really insightful lyrics.

I started my set with a playback of my new track “On til Dawn” giving the audience a teasing sample of the lush backing vocals that charaterise the Mindfulmess album before taking the stage to start with a performance of one of my warmest and most uplifting piano pieces Gudonya:

(videos courtesy Marc Reck, to whom Gudonya is dedicated.)

I then launched straight into a sequence of songs from Mindfulmess and followed it with more select highlights from Valentine Court as well as a couple of pieces from what will be my third album when that comes out in 2012 and a nice rendition of Brian Wilson’s God Only Knows.

My friend and long time collaborator Leon Trimble (aka VJ Chromatouch) was, as always, doing some really fine work with the visuals, displayed to great effect on the big mac stage.  Leon’s currently putting some finishing touches to a video to my new track  On til Dawn, so watch this space.

I also took my life in my hands and, for the first ever time, performed an improvisation live on stage.  Im not sure the result was one of my best or most adventurous efforts, but it went pretty well and, in what will hopefully prove to be a long term tradition, I recorded it directly into the memory of my digital piano and will soon be sharing it exclusively as a thank you to those who joined my email list at the event.

Being an independent musician is certainly hard work and is no kind of a route to financial gain, but when an event like this comes together, it really is a very satisfying experience and a good stimulus to keep on being creative and putting what I do out there.

The album wont be in all the usual online retailers until the Autumn (to give me time to try and get some reviews), but its available to listen to now (and purchase as CD or download) exclusively from this site, so do please visit www.richbatsford.com/music/mindfulmess and have a listen.   Thanks.

Photo by Wayne Fox

I’ve been hearing good things about these guys and looking forward to checking them out as part of the Honeycomb Club – a monthly event at, where else, the Hare & Hounds in Kings Heath – home to so much of whats good in terms of the smaller end of the Birmingham live music scene.

The Honeycomb clubs offers a blend of guest bands, with resident VJs and DJs, each night being headlined by the Alternative Dubstep Orchestra and whilst the whole night was very well put together, its the ADO whom most of us have come to see.

First up were Velvet Texas Cannonball who got the crowd warmed up, toe tapping and even some serious rockin out (Im looking at you Bernard Davis!).  Style-wise it was pretty much time warpsville – we’re talking 70′s blues rock, but if that doesnt bother you (and why should it) theres lots to enjoy in the form of classic rock lead vocals, psychedelic hammond, bluesy guitar and a great drummer.

So to the Alternative Dubstep Orchestra (ADO).  These guys floated my boat in a number of good ways – first up its a lovely to see such a diverse bunch of musicians on a stage together in a loose and yet clearly pretty tight collective (this makes me proud of being a Brummie and reminds me of my excitement at early encounters with the Destroyers).   Second I like to see that combo of traditional and modern – a three piece brass section alongside big electronic basslines and the bass player switching from stand up to electric.

The music I thought for the most part very good indeed.  Theres a few places some editing could help, but these are early days for the group so thats entirely forgiveable.  As someone who personally isnt a major reggae or dub fan, I found it a little disconcerting at first when a big build upwould lead to the slow, deep dubstep beat rather than something quicker, but after a little while, I let my knees bend a little more and sank comfortably down into the groove.

Visually the guys look great, the guitarist in particular is a bit of a livewire.  The live percussion really added something and the laidback vocal lines over the top of it all work well.

All in all, an exciting new addition to the thriving independent Birmingham music scene so do check them out at their residency at the Honeycomb, on youtube or before long at good venues and festivals everywhere.

Many musicians are pretty wary about puting their music in a pigeon hole and yet choosing a suitable label for your music is pretty much indispensible in terms of getting your music out there and helping it reach the ears of suitable listeners.

Personally Im something of a reluctant marketer – I certainly dont want to push my music down the throats of random people, but I do relish a chance to share my music with someone who I have a reason to believe might enjoy it.

And so Ive been on a continuing quest to pick a suitable genre. Many websites Ive uploaded music to only allow you to pick from a short list, but if you want an idea of the full gamut of options available, look no further than the perenially excellent resource that is wikipedia and their list of no less than 1650 different musical styles!

Interestingly, Wikipedia offers a short series of genres and movements – Art music (Classical music (European) · religious) · Traditional music · Electronic · Popular music (Blues · Country · Hip hop · Jazz · Reggae · Rock (Heavy metal, Punk rock)) · Folk.   Within that list I think for my music I would plump for Art Music for my solo piano music – given my classical influences and spiritual leanings and also that I cant see it fitting under any of the other headings.

Now to go through the 1650 listed styles and see if I can find the perfect fit.

It feels like I’m working hard at the moment.

Of course that doesnt necessarily mean that Im doing more work than any other time, but it feels like heavy going. In fact, you could argue that Im hardly working at all – Im well ahead with my main work at the moment (as a booking agent in stand up comedy) and have relatively little to do on that score just now.

Consequently, Im seizing the opportunity to spend some quality time progressing my music career which, altho it doesnt currently make me any money and so usually takes a back seat compared to paid work, is something I am very passionate about. The strength of my motivation to succeed in music is a good thing I think – without it I’d have very little chance of making any headway amongst the (literally) millions of other musicians in the world today.

Im finding myself pretty stressed tho, so alongside my musical and promotional efforts I’m doing some spiritual work – that is, trying to maintain perspective, bring to my efforts a lightness of touch, trust in the process and hang loose to the outcome and recognise that doing whats important to me matters more than whatever the results of those efforts might be.

Examining my motivations also helps – when Im acting out of a pure desire to create, develop and share I feel positive and enjoy myself whereas when Im feeling stressed and worried, looking “underneath the bonnet” often reveals egoistic efforts to create financial security or gain reputation and success for my own benefit.

As with all things, its not easy finding the right balance and its all too easy to be self critical – setting arbitrary standards for myself and then feeling bad for not meeting them seems to be a favourite of mine.

Maybe this is a stage Im going through where my musical career feels like its scrabbling for a foothold in my life and once its more properly established as an equal partner alongside my comedy work, perhaps I can relax a bit more.

Or have I just set myself another arbitrary standard again..?

Anyway, thats all for now, I better get back to work

Its great to be able to plug a local artist and really mean it.

Jo Hamilton is a fine and subtle songs with a very individual feel – often inspired by her unusual upbringing in the wilds of Scotland as well as periods in Turkey, UAE, Kuwait, Sri Lanka and Cambodia.

Now based in Birmingham’s Bohemian capital – Moseley – Jo has teamed up with superb producer Jon Cotton to create a debut album which marries up Jo’s delightful vocals with a rich array of talented instrumentalists.  Not surprisingly, the album has received absolutely glowing reviews from the likes of the Guardian, Independent and Mojo.

Now Jo and her team have released a new special edition of the album, so if you dont already have it – nows a good time to buy it.   Meanwhile you can listen to some of the tracks right here:

As I passed a couple of school boys in the street this morning, they noticed they had just missed a bus and one of them let out a swear word (a fairly mild one) to express his mild frustration and displeasure.

It quite surpised me, which is something on reflection I put down to the fact that these days, I rarely spend much time in the company of kids when there isnt an adult present (aside from me – its still a bit hard to believe that I qualify).

Of course I hear adults swearing pretty often – particularly as someone involved in the world of stand up comedy – and thats not unusual, according to the interesting wikipedia article on the subject, one study showed that swear words make up roughly 0.5% to 0.7% of all words spoken.

Of course when kids are around, most adults dont let themselves swear in front of them and it suddenly struck me as immensely strange that, because of the power attached to these few words, we have two separate groups of people – children and adults – each going around swearing freely amongst themselves, whilst trying not to swear in front of members of the other group for fear of offending them.

Its a bit ****ing weird if you ask me

Is there anything in your life that you’ve found to be intrinsically good, or truly, ultimately satisfying?

My analysis of my own experience suggests that actually no one thing is capable of providing lasting and genuine satisfaction,  which is why I think that as a society its vital we allow people the freedom to choose their own destiny and as individuals, we each take responsibility for finding out what balance of which factors really works for us.

Have you had any experience of committing yourself fully to something or someone only to find that it didnt deliver the satisfaction you sought, or have you any experience to share of balancing the right factors in your life?

I had a bit of a thought whilst meditating today – I suppose you could call it a vision in fact, since it was visual in nature, tho that conjures up all sorts of weird connotations.

I was imagining peeling off rusty plates of armour from a figure that had been buried a long time in the ground, gradually peeling off layer after layer and revealing what was underneath.

Im seeing the “self” as an encrustation of responses that have turned into defense mechanisms, perceptions that have ossified into beliefs and tendencies that have petrified into habits.

Coated in this fixed layer of solidified self, the being inside the armour has become mired in the morass of the society around it. Elements of the dense atmosphere has adhered to the surface of the armour, reinforcing its strength and further separating the being inside from the reality that surrounds it.

Sinking further into the turgid ground beneath it, the figure has become embedded and trapped, its movements gradually decreasing until it has become entombed and motionless, its potential for growth lying dormant inside.

Now the figure has been discovered and exhumed, the process begins of peeling off the surface to find what lies beneath – a simple being of infinite light, an indefinable process of energy and becoming.

Business is a covert form of warfare.

Warfare is an overt form of business.

Britain is a business.

Part of the job of the government is to sell us the idea that we need a government.

I came across Peter Cox’s music blog via a Yahoo egroup which I’m a member of which probably deserves a blog post in itself as its a valuable musicians resource – its a place where muso’s across the world hang out to exchange ideas and tips and music chat called Music Thoughts – and theyre a really friendly bunch of people.

Your Music Blog is a new enterprise and well worth checking out, particularly for rock music which is Peter’s own specialty (he’s in established rock group Chinawhite).

He’s given Valentine Court an interesting review too.  He starts with some kind words about the music and then goes on to do what many reviewers shy away from and gives some interesting critical feedback.  He suggests that I might consider experimenting with some pieces with fewer notes in the future, or putting it the other way around, with more silence and space.

This I found an interesting comment – composer/pianists I enjoy such as Satie (as Peter states) and also Ludovico Einaudi are able to produce much simpler and sparser arrangements than I and I wonder if this is partly me compensating for a lack of confidence by keeping things busy.  Or perhaps to put it another way, one’s music reflects one’s state of mind and to date I’ve had to work quite hard (in a way) to achieve space in my mind and I think thats reflected in my music – there are moments of relative stillness – particularly in the climax of Jewel and Namaste, but these tend to be hard won, coming as the result of a build up towards that moment.

Mind you, Satie was an absolute master of tonality and Einaudi has a remarkable ear for melody, so perhaps the relative simplicity they sometimes achieve is hung on those particular gifts.

One of the many musical ideas I have saved on my digital piano is a very still and simple piece with only two chords, so perhaps I will be exploring that territory more in the future.  Time will tell of course, but in the meantime, thought provoking comments from Peter.