TweetTom from Indiesongwriter.net has posted more thoughts about this business we call song – I’m not going to respond to all of them; I think those questions we substantially disagree on aren’t ones that I have interesting things to say about (yet). I will pick up on a couple of his points. ‘The listener’s emotions [...]

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TweetTom at indiesongwriter.net has responded to my previous post on storytelling. He says a number of interesting things, but I have a couple of points of housekeeping before I get to those… I disagree with Martin, who finds ‘ambiguity or irony excessively frustrating’. I’d much prefer a musician not beat me over the head with [...]

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TweetI think storytelling in songwriting is quite an important idea, even for those songwriters who would never be seen dead with a fluffy beard or within punching distance of an acoustic guitar. And I find the tension between personal “confessional” (or at least personal storytelling) and imaginative/fictional storytelling fascinating. I have an instinct which I’m [...]

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TweetThis month’s podcast is out now – featuring the brand-new The Man Who Could Not Read Minds: [Audio clip: view full post to listen] Or, if you prefer, you can download it via the Sound of  The Ladies podcast for free via iTunes or directly. This is another very character-based song, about the only man [...]

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Tweet The latest episode of the Sound of The Ladies podcast features a demo of a song called That’s just storytelling, dear – which, as I say in the podcast, I have quite mixed feelings about. The arrangement you hear is not really the style I would normally work in, and the vocals are all over [...]

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TweetSimon from indie blog extraordinaire Sweeping the Nation has featured The Sound of The Ladies’ The only girl who would ever break my heart on his compilation We make our own mythologies. Simon rounded up tracks from the cream of up and coming (or in our case, gently simmering) indie to create a showcase of [...]

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TweetIf there’s anyone out there (seriously) in the market for any guitars, I’m selling… get in touch at thesoundoftheladies@gmail.com Gibson Les Paul Studio Faded Mahogany 2007 Used for a lot of Sound of The Ladies, Monroe Transfer and Answer Me This! recordings. Fat 50s-style neck, all mahogany (I think), twin humbuckers, comes with plush-lined hard [...]

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Tweet This month’s Sound of the Ladies podcast features a song not by the Sound of the Ladies: “To light, you’re just the same as the sky” is by The Overdrive Orchestra featuring textual artist Gethan Dick, taken from Trying and Trying and Trying: [Audio clip: view full post to listen] Or, if you prefer, [...]

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TweetNext Tuesday (April 12th), The Sound of the Ladies perform at a very special night as part of the London Word Festival. “Books vs Cigarettes” is inspired by George Orwell’s essay on the pleasure of his particular vice, books, comparing the costs to the amount a smoker spends every week on their drug of choice. [...]

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TweetSome of you might have heard this song around. I didn’t write it; this is just a cover. [Audio clip: view full post to listen] Or, if you prefer, you can download it via the Sound of  The Ladies podcast for free via iTunes. It’s a really difficult song to sing as a 32-year old; [...]

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TweetAs I mentioned recently, I’ve become a one-man dynamo of recording output, single-handedly saving the music industry with, uh my industry. I thought, then, that I would take a short break from plugging Songs from the Scientific Cabaret to plug something else. That something else is Geek Like Me, a compilation of songs put together [...]

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TweetIt’s true. Without me, the music industry would crumble. Well, maybe not sales-wise… By some freak of chance, last week marked the release of three records to which I had some significant contribution. Don’t worry, it doesn’t happen very often.. The first you know, I’m sure: Songs from the Scientific Cabaret is my first full-length [...]

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TweetThe limited edition run of CDs for “Songs from the Scientific Cabaret” are finally ready to greet the world, and fine they look too: A micrograph of stained penicillin is printed onto the CDs, which are presented in an attractive Petri Dish setting. The album sleeve notes come in the form of a 20-page scientific [...]

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TweetPlans continue apace for the release of “Songs from the Scientific Cabaret” – CDs are on their way to the pressing plant, tracks are uploaded to BandCamp, and I have a job lot of petri dishes about to arrive at my door! In the meantime, I’ve been putting the band through their paces for the [...]

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TweetThis is a very sad song. If you like, you can let the seemingly humourous references to Winona Ryder and Richard Linklater lull you into the sense that this is a flip or at least somewhat frivolous tune. But the song is about some very sad things that happened once upon a time, and I [...]

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TweetI know that mid-January is a bit late to be rounding up 2010 and looking into 2011 -  but I had gastric flu for the first week of the year which , along with the usual Xmas and New Year Business, meant my 2011 didn’t really begin until this week. 2010 was a year of [...]

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TweetBy the time you listen to this, you probably won’t be feeling remotely festive, but here is Xmas/January’s podcast. Sorry it’s so late. Happy New Year anyway. [Audio clip: view full post to listen] Or, if you prefer, you can subscribe to the podcast for free via iTunes.

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TweetI just got back from the curated music festival Bowlie 2, hotbed of exclusive indie chic (although this time, generally more melodic and with fewer sweary bandnames, thanks to the fact that Belle and Sebastian were curating and not bloody Pitchfork), and of course water slides, Herta hot dogs and ennui (all three courtesy of [...]

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TweetI’ve been rehearsing this week with a strange kind of band – a sort of conceptual post-rock group. They’re called The Overdrive Orchestra by virtue of their 6 guitarists (plus bass, drums and spoken vocals). This collective operate under a singularly odd set of rules, namely: 1) The line-up is never the same for two [...]

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TweetI started writing this post in praise of the concept album because I may be a serial concept album writer. I’ve just recorded my first full album of songs about science, and there is a nonzero probability that the next “straight” Sound of The Ladies album will be about animals. Or something less lame. “We [...]

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