Musos – help me out for a future blog post.

I’m Looking for examples of tunes by any band that has a chord progression that rises from the fifth chromatically

- e.g Em – C/E – Em6 (the rising notes are B C C#) – the famous James Bond intro.

Examples I already have are Glass Onion, Hey Bulldog and Savoy Truffle by Beatles, White America (Eminem), Hangar 18 (Megadeth), The Mission (Queensryche) and a few others.

Also what about the same thing in the major key? That would give you

E maj – Eaug  - A/E or E6

as heard in the Rain Song (Led Zeppelin) and Raining In My Heart (Buddy Holly).

Any help greatly appreciated!!!

Had a great time supporting Red Sea with special guest Tabla player, Biant Singh. Here’s my set

Fingernails – free download
Let’s Build An Airport – free download (from Noisetrade)
Everything Is Broken – download from Bandcamp
Sweet Baby Hand Grenade – no demo yet – sorry!
Brother Bull – download from Bandcamp
The Ballad Of NDC - free download

I’ll be doing a live broadcast for Trent Sound Radio on sunday night 7pm – 9pm along with Rebel Rebel

Played my first gig since the EP was released – an open mic at Nottingham’s Golden Fleece hosted by Adam Peter Smith and Marc Reeves who has his own album out

I played

Fingernails – free download
Let’s Build An Airport – free download (Noisetrade)
Sweet Baby Hand Grenade – world premiere – no demo yet – sorry!
Brother Bull – download from Bandcamp

Sweet Baby Hand Grenade went down well which was nice!

I’m hosting another First Tuesday Songwriting Group tomorrow in Nottingham and supporting Red Sea at the Guitar Bar/Hotel Deux on Thurs night.

Other demos here

Christian songwriter Joel Payne wrote an interesting article on collaboration on theCrossing Songs website and he quoted something I wrote on Beatles Songwriting Academy. I guess that makes me an ‘authority’. Go me!

Read Joel’s post here, and mine here.

Even cooler, Tom Slatter interviewed me on IndieSongwriter.Net on the process of writing Let’s Build An Airport. He was kind enough to say

Let’s Build An Airport, is one of my favourite pop songs from the last couple of years

Read the interview here

Sometimes you just get hung up on a song and you can’t stop listening to it. For me that song is Magazine by David Bazan. It’s a song by his old band Pedro The Lion, but my favourite version is the one from Live at Electrical Audio which you can download for free here

Here’s a live version

And here’s the lyrics

This life is metaphysical
And on the one side, on the one side
The bad half live in wickedness
And on the other side, on the other side
The good half live in arrogance
And there’s a steep slope, with a short rope
This life is metaphysical
And there’s a steady flow, moving to and fro

Oh, look you’ve earned your wings
Are you an angel now or a vulture?
Constantly hovering over
Waiting for a big mistake

Oh, my God, what have I done?
Oh, my God, what have I done?

Wouldn’t you love to be
On the cover of a magazine?
Healthy skin, perfect teeth
Designed to hide what lies beneath

I feel the darkness growing stronger
As you cram light down my throat
How does that work out for you
In your holy quest to be above reproach?

Been doing another production of We Will Rock You all week. 7 guys and a large gong stuck in a small cupboard is not the wild rock and roll lifestyle I imagined for myself, but there you go. Snow permitting, tonight will be the last night.

Last weekend I Steve Oliver played Let’s Build An Airport on his US podcast (ep #31) and I had a fun time being interviewed and playing two live tracks on the Darren & Melissa show on Takeover Radio.

Patron saint of the Notts music scene Dean Jackson has written an interesting post about how structural changes have made it possible for Nottingham acts like Jake Bugg and Dog Is Dead to come to national prominence

” Every now and again a song comes in and you think ‘it’s just so well crafted, it’s been written with such love and care and the attention to detail is extraordinary’ … it’s just brilliant isn’t it? Great track”

Dean Jackson – BBC Introducing East Midlands

“Let’s Build An Airport, is one of my favourite pop songs from the last couple of years”

Tom Slatter – IndieSongwriter.Net

“Catchy-yet-melancholy”

Chris Robley – CD Baby DIY Musician’s Blog

“I’ve been critical of the over population of the ‘one man and a guitar’ performers, but Matt stands out from the pack”

Steve Oliver – The Sunday Alternative

Buy Let’s Build An Airport from

Bandcamp – preferred option
CD Baby
iTunes
Amazon UK
Amazon US
Google Play
Media Net

Stream Let’s Build An Airport on

Spotify
Soundcloud
Last FM

and of course here…

Are You A Reviewer?

Please feel free to contact me at

for a free review copy

Trying to blog regularly. In an idea world I’d have everything neatly compartmentalised, but guess what? – it’s not an ideal world! Everything Is Broken as the song goes.

Single Props

Was really nice to get featured on the Nusic Podcast. There are interesting tracks from Blind Caves, Gallery 47, Yunioshi and Esther Van Leuven (who has a great voice). I’ve been sending stuff for a couple of years and had almost given up on getting any airplay. The old saying is you should never take “no” for an answer but I’m not sure. However with the EP I’ve resolved to never take ‘no answer’ for an answer and keep bugging people till they say no. And it’s kind of working.

Had some really nice comments from about the single from Nottingham artists Them Balloons, Frazier Lowrie and The Gorgeous Chans. The Let’s Build An Airport video that someone made from Disney clips has been well received and I think it’s approaching 200 views. I hear there might be another on the way.

New Communication

The band I’ve been coaching got airplay on BBC Introducing (here at 1:24:02 (time) till 13-03-13 (date)) and had their single launch last night. Sadly I was too ill to attend but I’m hoping to make a video session on wed and the BBC Introducing gig on thurs.

Former Pupils

It’s a real pleasure to keep coming across former pupils who are now in bands. As well as New Communication drummer Charlie, who I used to teach in beginner pop workshop when he was so tiny you could barely see him over the tom toms, I found out (from a LeftLion interview) that I used to teach Joel Peat from Lawson at the same saturday music school, Frankie Rudolph played drums in a Junior School rock band I ran and I taught members of Goldsmiths at secondary school.

Let’s Build An Airport EP

I’m previewing a track a day from the EP till the release next monday. Here’s Brother Bull.

Songwriting

That’s what I’m here for right? Finished a crazy victorian flamenco comedy song called Shrove Tuesday and am putting together a lo-fi 17 track album of songs I wrote with School kids for FAWM called Blast Off To Crazy Planet. I want to go back to the finished but unrecorded songs like Sweet Baby Hand Grenade, Hammer Down The Raised Up Nail, A Conversation With Death and Set In Stone. And I’ve finally got the Beatles Songwriting Academy train back to a full head of steam.

you can downloaded the single for free from Noisetrade

FAWM is finished, I got ill over the holidays, my EP is approaching like a bullet train on buttered rails, the New Communication single is mixed and off to be pressed and it’s past midnight and I haven’t blogged for about two weeks.

So a FAWMer in New Zealand sent me a very nice message about Let’s Build An Airport and said he’s been listening to it since it came out on the FAWMpilation album last year. The comment really encouraged me and reminded me of a comment from ace songwriter Paul Williams (Bugsy Malone, Muppet Christmas Carol, The Carpenters) on the Sodajerker podcast (download it here). He said writers get paid 3 times

• Free Therapy (know a lot about that one!)
• Financially (sadly not so much experience)
• and Heart Payment – when someone tells you how much your work means to them

the latter can really help you keep going. I can also help you make a real connection with the person you give it to. I’ve got to know several writers I REALLY respect by sending them thanks and specific praise for songs or parts that have really moved me.

Take a look at your mp3 playlist. Who is on there that you could email, tweet or whatever and say “this song really moves me”? Then DO IT!

I really ought to thank Dean Jackson from BBC Introducing East Midlands here for giving me a major heart payment by playing Let’s Build An Airport on his show and saying the following -

 Every now and again a song comes in and you think ‘it’s just so well crafted, it’s been written with such love and care and the attention to detail is extraordinary’ … it’s just brilliant isn’t it? Great track.

And here’s a bizarre band called Winny Puhh which translates as Winnie The Pooh – enjoy!