Happy Christmas

Christmas time is here again - awesome. Big thanks to all the folks who chose to get their recordings and video projects produced with me at BB Studio. It’s really appreciated and I’ve enjoyed making them all come alive.
Many people ask why the business is called Born in a Barn - the truth is that it’s really got nothing to do with any little babies or mangers. When I set the studio up in 2004 it was cold - real cold - and I figured the phrase ‘were you born in a barn?’ was very appropriate but underpinning this was the notion that many musical artists’ careers would be born in a barn using my studio set up - and they really have.

However this year, my own bands and music has been born too.

High Command was an adventure in going back to live drumming with a band and we recorded a superb 4 track EP, played 3 gigs and made a tongue-in-cheek video. Now the band is on Winter Break (not my term!) cos Greg the guitarist is in Thailand avoiding the chill in resplendent self-indulgence!!

Cup of English (aka COE) is a new venture which started as a studio production group, for 4 individuals with similar tastes and interests. This has grown now to a 5 member band and we intend to start live rehearsals in January. The band make trance/hypnotic indie-based music (loosely) with a good few twists as you might expect from something I get involved with. To date we have 6 tracks on the Lemon Soul EP, which is growing fast into an album. This is an underground group and it’s been a wonderful refreshing project to immerse myself in. Can’t wait to get it out there - but you gotta wait!!

I myself had a great year outside of the studio with the highlight being running my 1st marathon, in Dublin. I trained for this in 8 countries and ran just a little over 1000km, plus raised over €1,200.00 charity cash for the ISPCC or ChildLine Ireland.

Enjoy yourselves this Christmas to the max, but take a bit of time to reflect on the year you have had and other people you know who may be less fortunate.

The music industry goes crazy this time of year with all the gigs and shows. Be careful enjoying yourselves.

Who knows what is coming next year with Brexit?
One thing’s for sure - there will be plenty of stuff to write songs about!!

But lastly ….. here are some big baubles!

New Service added to help business owners promote themselves better

This year we have been asked to help out at a few local events and take some video footage of various performances plus take pictures.  Video is increasingly popular with everyone now and some people are happy to shoot footage themselves on their phones of course, but the results are never as good. Making videos is something BB Studio is very experienced in now, but photography is another field of expertise.  

In light of this we have partnered up with a fantastic local photographer who has been shooting people for a number of years and specialises in head shots and portfolio work.  Jay Deeley has his own brand called Pop-up Pix which is fairly self descriptive - he will come to your work place and shoot various portfolio pictures for use on social media, newsletters and so on. 

Effortless Promotion has been created to combine our 2 services and provide an all-in-one session where you can talk to camera about your products or services or show us around your premises, which you may be renting to others (homes etc) or to the public so they feel more connected with you as a business, as well as have a photoshoot to gain great pictures.

http://www.borninabarnstudio.com/promotion-at-bb/

So if you have products or services you want to shout about then get in touch and a session can be set up to provide you with all the promotional media you may need to get you going.

If Dave can, we all can.

How old would you say the average person is who releases a track?

I work with people of all ages and I think the youngest person to record was a young lad reciting prayers, only last year.  The oldest person I have ever worked with to date was 92 and still singing. 

Featured here in this article is Dave Jagger - Dave is an astonishing man - he turned 70 recently and is still actively recording an album with a local band at BB Studio.  He has played several gigs over the last couple of years, since being spotted, and actually works with 2 different bands from time to time.  Dave is due to release his first ever single this year and more details will be divulged very soon.

Don't ever think you are are too 'anything' for music - if Dave can, we all can.

What About Us?

This will be short because if you read my last blog you will know I don't like blogging - but I understand it's important so here we go!

Any artist that comes to the studio I will encourage to make a simple video to go with their song since video is so important nowadays. 

Matilda really doesn't need any encouragement to make a video though and has made lots with me and other studios now.  The one linked too here though is very cool and took very few takes to perfect both in the singing and the filming.  All we decided the song needed was some simple shots of Matilda singing the song in the studio with plain background and moody lighting - sounds simple but achieving this requires a heap of stuff - lots of lights for a start. Towards the end of filming we threw in the idea of just showing Matilda walking onto set and make a few adjustments to the gear.  Some of these moments are added to the song so the viewer gets to see Matilda in a different way.  It's not a new technique or anything but really works well with the sentiment of the song.  Check it out:

My cover of P!nk's 'What About Us' - great song, amazing artist and I loved covering it! Many thanks Roger @ Born in a Barn for this fab video too! M x

The creation of scene at the studio - it doesn't need to be over complicated. Matilda is a very good artist to work with who knows how to perform to camera well.

2017 Round Up

Well the first thing to note is that I don't add blogs much! I'm not entirely sure why this is but I suspect it may have something to do with not wanting too - based on the notion that if every business was blogging away all the time, there would surely be an overload and not much would be read - so I think a little bit of substance every now and then is better than tons of bull$**t blogs all the time!!

Last year I did a heap of work with a musical journalist who is compiling, restoring and remastering works from a couple of very distinguished church organists.  David Lepine and Robert Weddle were fantastic musicians and it's been a very interesting ride so far finding out about their lives/works/journeys and of course making heaps of CDs.

Hip Hop and Base and Freestyle rap Music - I do a lot of work with rappers and it's always high octane, high speed stuff which tends to not go very far.  It's a shame but I do think a lot simply isn't thought out enough.  My advise to rappers is to edit and rework and rethink what you're saying.  Like any music - it takes time to craft it well - simply free-styling a whole bunch of info is not enough - it's very good of course it is but if the content is a bit wooly then can you expect others to like it? - make it so people can relate to it not just repeat it. 

Video work - Last year saw a big increase in this which is nice.  Making videos for people is an absolute pleasure and I have invested in more equipment to facilitate the production of videos even better and easier to film,  like appropriate Lavalier mics, additional lighting/reflection screening and the green screen room has been repainted and upgraded with sound panels making the area even larger with better sound reproduction.  It's amazing what has been filmed in this room now.  If you have products you want to show off or talk about, or want to make a professional video for your website then let me know.

Demos of singing excellence - last year saw about the same level of this and i had the pleasure of working with lots of new rising stars as well as some very well honed experts.  Working with vocalists is a big part of any studio and I spend a lot of time on vocals in any project.  Knowing how to push for the best in someone without bringing them to tears is an art in itself.  Knowing when not to push is also something i know!! 

The studio is constantly evolving - there are 7 main rooms (plus the loo and outside areas) to maintain and believe me this can be a large task.  Towards the end of December I threw a big party for some friends and decided to rework the Live room a little to show off my unnecessarily big drum kit which had been hidden for far too long - I actually polished it all and the cymbals which took hours.  So let's end on that - if you have read this, get back in touch and let me know what you think to the new look of the Live Room with drums set up and piano moved over to accommodate it. Cheers.