Beware! The Leopard

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Gigs and Boxes

This post will likely be bittersweet.  Last night was my final gig in London, on this trip at least.  It wasn't a particularly memorable show, although I got a good response to my new instrumental, and to the loop work I did on a few other songs.  The Phoenix was the venue of my 2nd show in London, my 2nd solo show period, and was a fitting end to my residency here.  A big thanks to Stripped Bare productions for having me perform at so many great venues in this city. 

On another note, the company we're using to ship our stuff back to Canada dropped off the boxes we need today.  So it's time to start packing.  I'll be without my keys and guitar amp for the next 12 weeks or so.  I'll be taking my guitar and looper/effects back with me on the plane so that I can practise as soon as we get back to Toronto in April, especially as seeing I have a gig on April 23rd. 

This will be my last week of regular posting, before it becomes a bit more sporadic while we travel in Eastern Europe.  It's going to be a great adventure, and will provide some fodder for new material upon my return.

Cheers!

Friendly Friday Update!

Hey, it's been awhile since my Friendly Friday Update (I feel like a bad blogger), so here we go.

I've had a relatively productive week, although work has been sapping my will to live and made me dread half-term kids who are getting dumber by the day.

Musically I have another new song to try out at the gig on Sunday, and I've worked out a few new parts for old songs.  This will be my first gig with the keyboard in a couple of months, because it's the first gig that is close enough to a tube/bus stop to not have to worry about lugging it for miles. 

This is also going to be my last gig in London for a while.  I'm feeling a bit bittersweet about it right now, as this is the city where Beware! The Leopard made its solo debut, and where I feel that I've become a small part of the musical community (kind of like one bit of coral on the Great Barrier Reef - yes I've been watching too much David Attenborough).

However, I'm doing my best to be positive about the move to Toronto, with a smaller more closely knit musical community that I can hopefully charm my way into and make some friends who will join me on my musical adventure.  While it doesn't have the cache of London, Toronto is my hometown, and it will be nice to be among my peeps again.

So that's about it.  Come on down Sunday at the Phoenix Tavern, for a great time I'm going to pull out all the stops and make it a show to remember!

Writing Lyrics, any ideas?

Although I've always fancied myself as a writer (you have no idea how many ninja stories I wrote as a kid), the one thing I've always seen myself as horrible at is poetry/lyrics.

I'm very good at coming up with cliche rhymes, simple iambic pentameter type of drivel, but I find it difficult to write a lyric that is poignant, catchy and interesting.  In the back of my head I always have this little voice telling me to make it rhyme.  I know that it really doesn't have to rhyme, but I tend to do it anyway.

Just for kicks I'll show you what I mean.

I missed the tube today,
and got soaked in the morning rain
which made me feel really sad
like that time that you slept with Chad.

See, stupid.  And who is Chad anyway? 

So to get to the point, if there are any poets in the house, please feel free to write some suggestions on how to have a lyrical breakthrough!  I've got quite a few music only numbers that are just waiting for that right piece of verse to make it pop.

ANVIL

I must go see this movie.  If you're a movie fan, you must to.

Isa Mundo

I went and saw Slumdog Millionaire last night.  Incredible movie, go see it.  That is not the reason for this post however.  The movie made me think about how much horrible shit goes on in this world, and the conditions that the vast majority of humanity live in.

I then remembered my good friends over at Isa Mundo who are doing their best to make this world a better place.  Go check out their site and see some of the things they have been working on (I think the solar powered LED lights for villages in Central America is absolute genius, cheap, renewable lighting, awesome).  If you're at all touched by their projects, feel free to make a donation, or volunteer some time to help.

I feel like those TV adverts with kids with flies on their faces.  But it's true, loads of people live in horrific conditions, let's do what we can to help them out.

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Ebow the blog

I receive kickbacks.  Yep, you've got that right, me, the incorruptible, the integrity focused, honest and caring Beware! The Leopard receives money for selling people a certain product.

I'm not going to tell you which one, but a major piano manufacturer gives me a financial incentive to sell its pianos.  Now it's not exactly cash, I have to spend the earnings by getting their sales rep to buy me gift vouchers at the shop of my choice.  It has ended up being pretty lucrative with well over 500 pounds earned in the last 6 months. 

Before you get all uppity on me, I will be honest, I do have some reservations about the process, but like Frasier Crane, I decided to only accept the vouchers if I really did sell the piano for the right reasons.  Luckily for me, the company in question manufactures the best (IMHO) digital pianos around, especially when you take value for money into account. 

Ok, all of this is to say that using the vouchers, I purchased myself an Ebow.  This little gadget is awesome.  It's bringing a completely different sound to my music, and will help make a lot of the tunes more atmospheric.  It will take a lot of practice to get my Ebow skills to where I would like them to be, and to explore all that this new addition to the guitar can bring to my music, but I am thoroughly pleased.  I know it's a hunk of plastic with some metal in it, but I urge any guitarists out there to go and try one, it just might be that new sound you are looking for.

Bands to watch: Oren Lavie

Neonfoxtongue played me a youtube video for a song by Oren Lavie, and while the video is completely awesome (see below), the song is even better.  Oren has got the singer/songwriter thing down pat, interesting lyrics, mellow but catchy melodies, his star is definitely on the rise.  There are elements of John Mayer, Greg Laswell, and other modern soloists, in his work, but I think that Oren has a sound all his own. 

I'm not really in the mood for describing things this morning, so I'll let the video and music speak for itself.


Her Morning Elegance / Oren Lavie

CIRAA and Cancon

Continuing with my new found patriotism (a virtue of the vicious), I've joined the Canadian Independent Recording Artists' Association (CIRAA).  I originally came across the group while browsing Ember Swift's website.  Granted I'm not entirely sure what benefits being a member will have, but I think it's time I got involved in making Canada a bit more culturally diverse than it currently is. 

One of the key things that got me to sign up was their current stance towards Canadian Content (CanCon) for broadcasting purposes.  The whole story can be found at http://www.letsfixcancon.ca/ .  What it boils down to is that the purpose of CanCon was to mandate that Canadian broadcasters play a certain amount of Canadian content.  This was done to aid Canadian talent in "breaking through" to mainstream success, and to increase the diversity of the content on Canadian airwaves. 

As a former DJ at the University of Guelph's CFRU radio station (Blues Power was my show), I know first hand what a horrible state CanCon requirements are in.  Currently there are no guidelines, so radio stations can meet their quota of Canadian content by playing Nickelback incessantly.  Nickelback, regardless of their musical talents, do not require assistance to "breakthrough".  They are a mainstream act, making millions of dollars.  However, they are an easy way for DJ's to fulfill their CanCon requirements without thinking about finding new Canadian music.

CanCon is an excellent idea that could help push more independent Canadian artists into the public eye, I hope that I can aid in this rejuvenation of the Canadian artistic community.  It should be an interesting ride.