Collaborators 6: Richard Vernon and Gareth Saunders

Over the last few weeks I’ve been writing a series of posts on people I’ve recently worked with, with particular reference to my Jesus is for Losers album.

So far, we’ve had:

Steve Lawson (bassist, improviser, teacher, writer)
Mark Hilditch (keyboard player, mad cyclist)
Iain Hutchison (engineer, producer, musician)
DUFI (photography, graphic design, spray paint)
and Phil Moir (drummer)

This is my final post in the series and there’s another couple of people I want to mention:

Firstly, my good friend Richard Vernon, who listens to my music before anyone else and tells me if it’s crap or not.

He also writes my press releases, including the ones for JIFL and the new album by my other band, The Trufflehunters.

Richard has also written some great articles for Sojourners magazine, his most recent being here.

So, if you need a good bio or press release written, get in touch with him here.

——————————————

And lastly, Gareth Saunders, who has helped me on countless occasions with web design problems, computing issues and basically any time I wanted to punch my PC monitor in frustration.

Gareth is an Assistant Information Architect / Web Manager at the University of St.Andrews and is also a priest in the Scottish Episcopal Church. I don’t think many people can say that.

He helped me when I was designing my JIFL website (as well as other websites I’ve cobbled together over the years) and made it look much better than it would have done otherwise. He is a very clever and a very generous man.

You can read his blog here and follow him on Twitter here.

Collaborators 5: Phil Moir

(This is the 5th in a series of posts on people I’ve worked with recently. The 1st post is here, the 2nd here, the 3rd here, the 4th here).

Phil Moir is an immensely talented drummer who I’ve had the privilege of playing alongside on a number of occasions. He’s also a very good guitar player and singer too, much to my chagrin

He played drums on two songs from my Jesus is for Losers album – Perfect Moment and Jesus.

He has also played drums on most of the songs on my as-yet-unreleased new album, and I also get the chance to play alongside him every 3 months or so at Ignite.

Phil makes me think of that cheesy line from Chariots of Fire when Eric Liddell says:

“I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure.”

That’s what I see in Phil whenever he’s behind a kit – the sheer joy, confidence and excitement of knowing you’re doing what it is you’re supposed to be doing.

Phil also teaches drums in Inverness. I can’t think of anyone who would be better at it so if you’re from this area, and want drum lessons, you can get in touch with him here:

phil.moir@drumsense.com

www.drumsense.com

Photo by Marc Tatton

Collaborators 4: DUFI (a wee bit more)

Not long after writing my post about DUFI I received an email from them about their new project, which YOU can help them with.

Here’s what they had to say:

—————————————–

The National Portrait Gallery of Scotland will be hosting an exhibition later this year entitled Rough Cut Nation.

This unique multimedia project draws together a group of young artists from around Scotland to create a dramatic collaborative installation. For the Edinburgh Festival they will construct a remixed version of Scottish history as informed by street art and graffiti culture, painted, pasted and projected directly onto the walls of the Portrait Gallery.

The project updates William Hole’s original decorative mural scheme of 1889-1898, depicting important events from Scotland’s past. This new installation exploits the empty space produced by the Gallery’s current closure for redevelopment.

The original mural by William Hole portrays elements of Scottish history with strong religious and at times Protestant overtones.

As one of the artist duos involved, we are interested in exploring religious iconography and the use of Jesus as a moral or social catalyst within both Scottish history and contemporary culture.

With that in mind we would like to ask you three questions:

1. In one word, describe who was/is Jesus?
2. In one word, what does Jesus have to do with Scottish History?
3. What impact has Jesus had on Scotland past, present and future?

The answers that we collect from these questions will potentially form part of the final artwork, but will not be attributed to any one individual.
Thank you for your willingness to participate in this project, please send your answers to DUFI.JESUS@GMAIL.COM

DUFI ART | Guerrilla Art & Creativity
DUFI-ART.BLOGSPOT.COM

Collaborators 4: DUFI

(This is the 4th in a series of posts on people I’ve worked with recently. The 1st post is here, the 2nd here, the 3rd here).

DUFI are, in their own words,

‘The collaborative brainchild of graphic designer Al MacInnes and photographer Fin Macrae born from love for spray-paint, canned art and creativity. “Spray the word if the word’s worth spraying”.’

I’ve known Al & Fin for a few years and my life is much richer for it. They are both incredibly talented, generous people and, together and alone, produce amazing artwork.

Al designed the amazing artwork and digital booklet for my Jesus is for Losers album:

And Fin contributed these cracking photos:

Thanks guys!

Al MacInnes (graphic design): www.moose77.com

Fin Macrae (photography): www.finmacrae.com

DUFI: www.dufi-art.blogspot.com

Collaborators 3: Iain Hutchison

(This is the 3rd in a series of posts on people I’ve worked with recently. The first post is here, the second here).

Iain Hutchison is a musician, sound engineer, producer and one of the most talented, and nicest, people I’ve ever had the privilege to work with.

Iain mastered my Jesus is for Losers album a while back. When I then decided I wanted to re-mix the whole thing he listened to each new mix and gave me pointers along the way on how to improve it. He then mastered the album track-by-track, again, as I released the songs sporadically over a few months. Needless to say he’s a very patient man.

Iain runs his own recording studio, Glo-Worm, from his home in the west-end of Glasgow. He also works at Secret Music recording studios, where he’s worked with Capercaillie, James Grant, Eddie Reader and many other stalwarts of the Scottish folk scene.

He’s also got a couple of his own musical projects on the go, one of them being the band Torag, who put out a CD a couple of years ago which is lovely – have a listen here.

Iain also joined me on stage for my recent gig in Edinburgh, and I hope to play alongside him a lot more in the future.

So, if you’re looking for an experienced engineer, an imaginative producer and a genuinely talented musician to help you make your next record, I can’t recommend Iain enough – just go to www.glo-worm.com to find out more about his studio and to contact him.

Collaborators 2: Mark Hilditch

Accompanying me on many a gig over the last few years has been Mark ‘Big Boss’ Hilditch. A great friend, a supremely talented musician and ‘the-man-with-no-ego’, Mark is the perfect man to make music with.

In his previous guise as leader of rave/dance outfit Big Boss, you might have seen him looking a bit more like this:

————————————

To say Mark is a keen cyclist would be a huge understatement. His idea of fun is to get up at 6am on a Saturday and go for a 60-mile bike ride. (My idea of fun is to lie on the couch and watch as much of a DVD box-set as I can in one day).

One day Mark was cycling to work and, half-way down a very steep hill, his handlebars snapped off. Unable to stop, he had 2 choices – either keep going down the hill and very likely fall off his bike at great speed onto the hard tarmac, or,  come off the road onto the grassy verge and hope the bike slows down and he has a softer landing.

He chose the latter option and came flying off his bike, landing on his head. When he stood up he realised something wasn’t quite right and, being a doctor, figured he must have injured himself in some way.

So does he call an ambulance? Does he call his wife or a friend to come get him? No, he does his best to fix his bike, gets back on it and cycles the rest of the way to the hospital where he works. After some tests, he’s told he has broken his neck.

So as not to worry anyone, he waited until the end of the day before phoning his wife to tell her and when I went to visit him at home I didn’t heard him complain once.

The man is a legend.

Oh, he also played on several tracks from my Jesus is for Losers album, and kindly lent me his VERY cool Korg MS-20:

I used this to make the cool old analogue sounds on  Jesus, Jesus’ Hands and Jesus, I.

Collaborators 1: Steve Lawson

You might have heard this quote before:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

(I always thought it was Nelson Mandela who said this but after googling the quote I found out it was written by someone called Marianne Williamson)

Anyway…..

When I decided I wanted to write a blog about Steve Lawson, this was the quote that came to my mind.

Steve is an immensely talented individual who is one of the most creative, intelligent and innovative people I know. He’s a bass player who plays solo much of the time using looping, effects and a myriad of pedals to make some of the most beautiful music you’ll ever hear. He’s also a bass teacher and one of the leading thinkers in the music industry today, especially when it comes to social media, the internet and the effects they are having on musicians, songwriters and record labels.

I’ve known Steve since 1992 and I’ve always been inspired his ability to ‘let his own light shine’ and ‘give other people permission to do the same‘. Whatever Steve learns and discovers, he’s always keen to share it with others and encourage people to become better at what they do.

With particular regard to my Jesus is for Losers album, I recorded the whole album using this:

A Roland U-8 USB Digital Studio which was given to me by Steve. It introduced me (rather belatedly!) to the world of PC recording and I doubt I would have recorded the album without it. It’s now a pretty dated piece of hardware (as is the Cakewalk software that came with it) but it was new to me and made it possible for me to do far more than I would have been able to do with my old equipment. Thanks Steve!

If you’re a songwriter, musician or are involved in the music industry in any way you could do far worse than suscribe to Steve’s blog here and follow him on twitter here.

If you want to hear his music you can buy his latest solo album here or if you want to start small I’d download this song.

Steve and I recorded an album together a while ago (of which I’m incredibly proud) which you can download from CDBaby,  iTunes or Steve’s online shop.