Thursday, April 24, 2008
Tickets now on sale for the gig in Whelans 14th May
I'm really looking forward to the gig in Whelans on May 14th. I'll be playing with percussion, bass, harmonies, guitar & a wee bit of saxophone in there for good measure too. My last full gig (Bewleys theatre bar) was my first one in many years so it's kind of nice to have gotten the experience and audience feedack from that on the night. Music is like pretty much everything else in life, you get better the more you do it.
The Bewleys theatre gig was loads of fun and I really enjoyed it, unfortunately not everyone got in becuase it was sold out. Whelans is a bigger venue so there'll be plenty of room and tickets are now available in advance. There's usually a booking fee of €1.50 on top of the €10 ticket price but if you want to secure your tickets you don't have to worry about it as I'll be paying the fee on each ticket bought in advance. I know, very generous of me. Just call me Hamlet "Bob Geldof" Sweeney :-) Ok, maybe not...
Hamlet Sweeney
Whelans, Wednesday May 15th, 8.30pm.
€10 (booking fee already paid for tickets bought in advance).
Here's a link to the Whelans listing page with details on buying tickets. http://www.whelanslive.com/listings/
www.hamletsweeney.com
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The Bewleys theatre gig was loads of fun and I really enjoyed it, unfortunately not everyone got in becuase it was sold out. Whelans is a bigger venue so there'll be plenty of room and tickets are now available in advance. There's usually a booking fee of €1.50 on top of the €10 ticket price but if you want to secure your tickets you don't have to worry about it as I'll be paying the fee on each ticket bought in advance. I know, very generous of me. Just call me Hamlet "Bob Geldof" Sweeney :-) Ok, maybe not...
Hamlet Sweeney
Whelans, Wednesday May 15th, 8.30pm.
€10 (booking fee already paid for tickets bought in advance).
Here's a link to the Whelans listing page with details on buying tickets. http://www.whelanslive.com/listings/
www.hamletsweeney.com
0 Comments
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
My thoughts after my gig at the opening night of The Song Room
So the opening night of The Song Room has passed. It went great, there was a lovely atmosphere and the night was a success. Myself and Brian Brody, who I run The Song Room with, agreed that we would take turns going first each week. I decided to be the first act. Always a little tougher than going on later in the night but I was proud to be the The Song Room's first artist!
The room has a great old pub style atmoshpere and we laid things out quite differently to how it's normally done for live music in O'Sullivans. It looked and felt right. Sleepy Rise played melodic rocky indie style stuff on 2 acoustic guitars, Max Greenwood played some beautiful songs on piano and guitar and Brian played a great set with Junshi Murakami accompanying him on harp. A pretty diverse mix! All musicians signed their names on a banner we have in the background. It'll be nice to have that fill up over time!
I'm looking forward to the playing more Song Room nights. They're a great oppurtunity to get material routined. And having been away from gigging for so long they're perfect for getting used to being in front of an audience again. Something which I love and is a bit of an art in itself aside from writing and playing music.
Drop down to one of the nights, hear great music and say hello. More info at www.myspace.com/thesongroom
See you there.
Hamlet
www.hamletsweeney.com
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Monday, April 14, 2008
"The Song Room" has its opening night tonight
The Song Room is the name of a night that myself and a good friend Brian Brody will be presenting and performing at each Monday in O'Sullivans pub, Westmoreland st, Dublin 2. I've known Brian for many years, we both used to work in the Temple Bar Music Centre about 8 or 9 years ago. He's done a remarkable amount of different things with music and is a musician I have a huge amount of respect for. These days Brian makes a living performing ballads and covers and there's very good reason he gets asked to do it round the world. In a city of of singers and balladeers Brian's got huge popularity for a very good reason. Anyone who has been to his shows will tell you the same. He's also a really good songwriter so check him out. www.BrianBrody.net
Each week we will both play a set of our songs and introduce 2 other songwriters or bands to perform their material too. It's a perfect chance for us to have a residency for our own material with enough weekly variety for listeners. Once a month we will be doing a themed evening. The first one will on Monday 5th of May and the theme is David Bowie so each artist will perform their own and some Bowie material. Should be fun!
O'Sullivans is an intimate room and a great little pub. There will be a upright piano too which makes us the only night of its type in Dublin to have a real piano. Drop down, have a listen and say hi!
www.hamletsweeney.com
0 Comments
Each week we will both play a set of our songs and introduce 2 other songwriters or bands to perform their material too. It's a perfect chance for us to have a residency for our own material with enough weekly variety for listeners. Once a month we will be doing a themed evening. The first one will on Monday 5th of May and the theme is David Bowie so each artist will perform their own and some Bowie material. Should be fun!
O'Sullivans is an intimate room and a great little pub. There will be a upright piano too which makes us the only night of its type in Dublin to have a real piano. Drop down, have a listen and say hi!
The Song Room
A night of quality songwriters on piano and acoustic guitar presented with performances by Hamlet Sweeney & Brian Brody with guest artists.
Every Monday, 8.30. O'Sullivans Pub, Westmoreland st, Dublin 2.
Entry free.
www.myspace.com/thesongroom
A night of quality songwriters on piano and acoustic guitar presented with performances by Hamlet Sweeney & Brian Brody with guest artists.
Every Monday, 8.30. O'Sullivans Pub, Westmoreland st, Dublin 2.
Entry free.
www.myspace.com/thesongroom
www.hamletsweeney.com
0 Comments
Travelling to a recording studio in Co. Offaly today by my favourite method of travel; train. Yay!
It's a big professional grown up studio. It's been a while since I've been in one.I used to live in them, the last long while has been all about my own small studio at home. Although modesty won't get in the way of me saying that it's pretty posh too! :-)
I'm going to The Nutshed studio in Clara, Co Offaly. I'm really looking forward to the train journey. I LOVE train journeys. One of my fantasy trips is London to Vietnam through Russia by train. Today won't be of quite the same scale but I know I'll slip into that mild sense of elation I get on trains. On trips is also when I'm at my more creative for lyrics. It's like my mind is busy enough to be distracted but not stressed so it relaxes and the thoughts and ideas just bubble to the surface. Hopefully I'll get a nice windo seat facing the sun.
I'll come back and let you know of course!
Hamlet
Sat. 12th April 2008
www.hamletsweeney.com
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I'm going to The Nutshed studio in Clara, Co Offaly. I'm really looking forward to the train journey. I LOVE train journeys. One of my fantasy trips is London to Vietnam through Russia by train. Today won't be of quite the same scale but I know I'll slip into that mild sense of elation I get on trains. On trips is also when I'm at my more creative for lyrics. It's like my mind is busy enough to be distracted but not stressed so it relaxes and the thoughts and ideas just bubble to the surface. Hopefully I'll get a nice windo seat facing the sun.
I'll come back and let you know of course!
Hamlet
Sat. 12th April 2008
www.hamletsweeney.com
0 Comments
Friday, April 11, 2008
Writing lyrics while asleep. Recurring dreams. Fish for lunch.
I woke up before the alarm clock this morning. Nothing strange about that. What was a little different was that I woke up in the middle of writing a new song lyric in my mind. I don't mean just a snippet of text, I mean full blown constructing and re-arranging of lyrics in a structured rhythmic format. I do it all the time when I'm out walking and don't have a notebook but I never realised I've also been doing it in my sleep.
I've always had a blurring of the line between sleep and being compus mentis. It took me 10 years to work out a recurring dream was actually a dream as I was dreaming that I was awake. I've had that regularly for 18 years. It's horrible as I can't move and feel like I'm being electrocuted but I'm 100% aware of myself. I've also had recurring dreams were someone else appears but can't escape so I've told them to stick by me as I've had this dream before so I know where everything is. Another regular is a dream about someone touching a power cable and I can see their skeleton just like in an old Tom & Jerry cartoon. When I have this dream it's usually best if no-one is a round me as I go into absolute convulsions of laughter. Even thinking of how it looks now makes me laugh!
A new recurring dream I've been having is one where I wake up in my bed but dreams from other people nearby are floating around me and almost getting mixed up in my dreams which are still lingering. But then I wake up and realise that I was dreaming and that my own dreams are safe and sound and so am I.
The lyric I wrote while dreaming this morning was a little dark. I'm not sure it will become a full song. There's no way I could write a full song for every lyric idea. I wouldn't have time to eat.
A few hours after I woke up I had a lyric come to me that was about as far away from what I dreamt as possible. It's set on an historic sea journey. I like reading about them so the influence came from that. This will definitely become a song, in fact it's half way there already as it arrived carrying it's own melody. Always nice when that happens.
I better go, I can smell that my fish in the oven is nearly done and I've got to get back to recording.
Bye for now.
Hamlet
www.hamletsweeney.com
0 Comments
I've always had a blurring of the line between sleep and being compus mentis. It took me 10 years to work out a recurring dream was actually a dream as I was dreaming that I was awake. I've had that regularly for 18 years. It's horrible as I can't move and feel like I'm being electrocuted but I'm 100% aware of myself. I've also had recurring dreams were someone else appears but can't escape so I've told them to stick by me as I've had this dream before so I know where everything is. Another regular is a dream about someone touching a power cable and I can see their skeleton just like in an old Tom & Jerry cartoon. When I have this dream it's usually best if no-one is a round me as I go into absolute convulsions of laughter. Even thinking of how it looks now makes me laugh!
A new recurring dream I've been having is one where I wake up in my bed but dreams from other people nearby are floating around me and almost getting mixed up in my dreams which are still lingering. But then I wake up and realise that I was dreaming and that my own dreams are safe and sound and so am I.
The lyric I wrote while dreaming this morning was a little dark. I'm not sure it will become a full song. There's no way I could write a full song for every lyric idea. I wouldn't have time to eat.
A few hours after I woke up I had a lyric come to me that was about as far away from what I dreamt as possible. It's set on an historic sea journey. I like reading about them so the influence came from that. This will definitely become a song, in fact it's half way there already as it arrived carrying it's own melody. Always nice when that happens.
I better go, I can smell that my fish in the oven is nearly done and I've got to get back to recording.
Bye for now.
Hamlet
www.hamletsweeney.com
0 Comments
Thursday, April 10, 2008
A day in the studio - Buy This Song - Creme Brulee
It's 10.30pm and I'm pretty wrecked. I've spent the day recording. Although my brother coming to cut the grass with a lawnmower caused a brief diversion. It wouldn't work properly. He thinks it might be the spark plug. Whatever it is, half of the garden is shorter than the other. It kind of looks good actually.
So my aim was to put down the rough guide tracks to a good handful of new songs. It's funny to see the various stages in a songs life that have on impact on it. Over the last months I've purposefully honed all my songs live, avoiding the studio at all costs. I thought they were as written as anything could be. But then as soon as the little red light of the record button goes on things change a little. I get new ideas for bridges, rhymes and choruses. But then that's the fun of the studio. It's an clean palette and you've got a delivery of fresh paints waiting to be opened.
So I ploughed on resisting the urge to start layering on individual instruments. Click track/basic rhythm guitar/guide vocal. That was the mantra for the day. But after 4 or 5 hours of that I decided I needed a bit of fun so I let myself loose on a song. I knew it would happen. I also knew the song would pick itself. It was a tune called, "Buy this Song," which is a piss take on people wanting to be famous through music. I've tried breaking my own mould a little lately, and this is one of the songs that I did that with. It's actually pretty funny and has a kind of twisted hip hop meets singer/songwriter thing going on. I've gone with that feel and laid down some harmonised slap bass. Which is definitely a first for me! I can honestly say that it felt really, really amazing to be recording again. It's one of the best things I know. Aside from playing concerts of course. Oh, and then there's writing songs too.... I guess it's all good.
Okay, as I wrote this I watched Sex And The City. The one were a gay guy marries a girl but the only thing wrong with the wedding was that the top of the creme brulee wasn't hard enough. Great line that...
Good night y'all.
Hamlet Sweeney
www.hamletsweeney.com
0 Comments
So my aim was to put down the rough guide tracks to a good handful of new songs. It's funny to see the various stages in a songs life that have on impact on it. Over the last months I've purposefully honed all my songs live, avoiding the studio at all costs. I thought they were as written as anything could be. But then as soon as the little red light of the record button goes on things change a little. I get new ideas for bridges, rhymes and choruses. But then that's the fun of the studio. It's an clean palette and you've got a delivery of fresh paints waiting to be opened.
So I ploughed on resisting the urge to start layering on individual instruments. Click track/basic rhythm guitar/guide vocal. That was the mantra for the day. But after 4 or 5 hours of that I decided I needed a bit of fun so I let myself loose on a song. I knew it would happen. I also knew the song would pick itself. It was a tune called, "Buy this Song," which is a piss take on people wanting to be famous through music. I've tried breaking my own mould a little lately, and this is one of the songs that I did that with. It's actually pretty funny and has a kind of twisted hip hop meets singer/songwriter thing going on. I've gone with that feel and laid down some harmonised slap bass. Which is definitely a first for me! I can honestly say that it felt really, really amazing to be recording again. It's one of the best things I know. Aside from playing concerts of course. Oh, and then there's writing songs too.... I guess it's all good.
Okay, as I wrote this I watched Sex And The City. The one were a gay guy marries a girl but the only thing wrong with the wedding was that the top of the creme brulee wasn't hard enough. Great line that...
Good night y'all.
Hamlet Sweeney
www.hamletsweeney.com
0 Comments
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