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:

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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

Jesus is for Losers track 7: Jesus

Calamateur – Jesus.mp3

I’ve uploaded the next two tracks from my new album here:

www.jesusisforlosers.co.uk

The first is a cover of ‘Jesus’ by The Velvet Underground.

When I first started making music with my friend Mark Russell back in 1997, going on to become the band Oldsolar, we listened eagerly to each other’s music collections and borrowed loads of each other’s CD’s.

One of the albums I remember borrowing, and loving, was this The Velvet Underground album. The song Jesus is a wonderfully gentle and simple song – my new take on it is hopefully different enough to warrant existence.

My New Favourite Joke

St. Peter decides to take the day off to go fishing, so Jesus offers to keep an eye on the Pearly Gates. He is not sure what to do, so Peter tells him to find out a bit about people as they arrive in heaven, and this will help him decide if he can let them in.

After a while, Jesus sees a little old man with white hair approaching who looks very, very familiar. He asks the old man to tell him about himself. The old man says, ‘I had a very sad life. I was a carpenter and had a son who I lost at a relatively young age, and although he was not my natural child, I loved him dearly.’

Jesus welled up with emotion. He threw his arms around the old man and cried, ‘Daddy!’

The old man replied, ‘Pinnochio?’

Jesus is for Losers

Calamateur – I_Can_Hear_Her_Breathing.mp3
Calamateur – Jesus_is_for_Losers.mp3

This is the artwork for my new album which is out today. You can start to download it here –

www.jesusisforlosers.co.uk

This one’s been a ridiculously long time coming. I had the idea for it probably over 4 years ago when I started learning to play some cover songs that all followed a similar theme (you can read more about this theme in the essay I’ve written for the digital booklet you get with the download). I started recording the songs, played some of them live, found older songs of mine that fitted into the overall concept and soon found I had the rough template for an album on my hands.

I actually thought I’d finished the album 2 years ago (I’m procrastination personified) but listening to it again recently, and having done a lot of recording and producing over the past 2 years, I could hear a lot I wanted to do again – vocals, guitar parts, mixing, etc.

So, I’m a lot happier with it this time around. I’ve still got a little bit of work to do on some of the tracks which is just one of the reasons I’m releasing them 1 or 2 at a time over the next few weeks.

The artwork and digital booklet were designed by MOOSE77 and some of the photos were taken by Fin Macrae. Hannah Clyne, Mark Hilditch and Phil Moir played on the album, and Iain Hutchison at Glo-Worm mastered it. These folks are all hugely talented and I’m incredibly grateful for their help.

Anyway, the album is here: www.jesusisforlosers.co.uk

I hope you enjoy it – if you do, please let other people know about it, be it via word of mouth/email/blog etc. It all helps immensely. And please let me know what you think by emailing or leaving comments on this blog.