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So my new backing band The Handsome Strangers are now up and running. It feels great! They are a very talented bunch of multi-instrumentalists from incredibly different musical back grounds. Exactly what a band should be in my opinion. Jay Wilson has been playing with me for over a year now and is a superb musician who fills a lot roles in The Handsome Strangers from vocals to guitar to keyboard and clarinet. Oisin Dillon is on bass, he has a traditional Irish music back ground and rose brilliantly to last nights challenge of his fist ever live kazoo performance. Maria Fitzgerald is a brilliant drummer and if you are ever wondering where the groove is, it's in her back pocket. Hopefully we'll tap into her kazoo skills as the gigs start rolling in.

The Purty Loft is a great room with a brilliant stage and sound. It was a rainy night but the atmosphere was warm and fun and we had a great time. It was probably the best sounding any of my gigs of the last year have been. It feels like the songs and the band sound are really coming together now and I'm absolutely dying to get back onstage there again next Thursday and even more fun with it all.

We're there again on Thursdays 21st & 28th of May & 4th of June. The support act is on at 9pm, we go on at 9.30pm and we'll be done in time to get buses and DART's if needed. All nights are free in.

http://www.purtyloft.com/

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This is very cute!


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I've been busy these last few days. My new backing band, The Handsome Strangers, have been rehearsing, I've been writing new songs, taking piano lessons, working with The Discover Gospel Choir and tonight will be my fourth gig in the last 5 days. Phew, you could tired just reading that! But no complaints, busy is good in my books.

I'm around to present and play at The Song Room tonight (in The Globe from 9), am up early for rehearsals with Jay Wilson (Handsome Stranger no. 1) before we head to do a live song on East Coast Radio at 11am in the morning then it's sound check later in the day before the big gig in Whelans tomorrow night. I'm really excited about it. It's the first gig of the new band (more of which later) and any gig with a gospel choir has to be worth looking forward to!

For now I've got other things on my mind. Like the big bowl of Won Ton soup in front of me. Time to slurp!
See ye soon.
Hamlet

PS And thanks to "2 U I Bestow" for this mention on his Irish music blog: http://2uibestow.blogspot.com/2009/04/ruby-tuesday-hamlet-sweeney.html

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I had potato farls for breakfast. I'll make a confession, and I do feel diiirty about admitting this, I put jam on the last of the three I ate. Jam on spud bread?! I'm sure it's a crime but by jaysus it was really great!

After brekkie I strolled to work the long way, down by the grand canal. I had Elbow's The Seldom Seen Kid blasting on the iPod and I stopped to look at some incredibly cute ducklings and at the flowers laid at the site of some one's death. It was a lot of food for though before 10pm but was very peaceful.

The School House bar/cafe was where I met Paul Brewer to pick up a vocal multi effects processor that I might be buying off him. I might also buy a guitar amp of him. But then again I might buy neither, it all depends on your prices Paul! :-)

Dinner tonight was super. Scallops with chorizo, roast veg and a cold glass of pilsner. I can honestly say that I really, really, reeeeeaally enjoyed it. I then sat at the kitchen table and played my guitar and finished off the beer. Lovely buzz.

I did a recording session for Balcony TV tonight, a really great online live music TV channel on which bands perform live on .... you guessed it.... a balcony! Jay Wilson was with me on the cajon and B-vocals. We played Sunshine in tribute to the great weather we had today and it was great fun. On the way home we met with Erica for a few glasses of Frulli and tried to make the temporary sculpture on the top of Grafton st spin full circle. We had lot fun failing at this :-)

I'm home now feeling tired and almost over the sickness that has plagued me for the past 2 1/2 weeks. SATC is on the telly. I think I'll rock of to bed.
G' night y'all.
Hamlet

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My poor wee blog. I've thought about you many times on long lonely nights and while I may have neglected to call in to update you I still love you. And I know you love me to :-) It feels nice to be back with you. It's no coincidence that I've returned today, I have big plans for April and they all start here. More info on this to follow very shortly....

I'm sitting right now at the bar of venue The Purty Loft in Dun Laoghaire. I'm supposed to be on the road down to Limerick but work duties have me tied to the laptop a little longer than I'd wanted. So here I am sipping a nice cup of tea having just met with the music booker sorting out the details of an upcoming residency. My next blog (or maybe the one after that!) will contain more info on this.

The last few months have been hectic. I finished my first 'proper' recording session in years in January. I recorded with producer Karl Odlum. He's a super chap, really talented and we had loads of of laughs through it all. You can read all about it above, in my earlier blog.

After the recordings were done I had them mastered in the legendary Abbey Road studios in London by the Steve Rooke, the head mastering engineer. What a great experience, I'll definetley be going back. They may be one of the top music mastering houses in the world but there's also the romantic attachment to the history of The Beatles that makes the place so special.

At the end of January I had my gig in Whelans of Wexford st. Whelans may not be Wembley Stadium but it's the country's most respected small venue and I've always had the ambition to headline the main room there and it didn't disappoint. There was a great crowd and I reckon it was my best gig so far since returning to music. Having a band of jay Wilson, Binzer (drums) and Gav Fox (bass) with me certainly helped! Now I'm going back to headline there again on April 30th and I'm really excited about it. There are also some other gigs coming up round in various places outside Dublin and The Purty Loft Residency to tell you about. And my ambitious plans for the month of April that all start today. I'll blog later on from Limerick and share them all with you.
See you in Limerick!
Hamlet Sweeney

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So as I type this I'm sitting in the studio with producer Karl Odlum putting the final touches to our recording session. It's been a great experience and a real pleasure. I was delighted when the chance to work with Karl presented itself and there are already plans for working togetheralot more in 2009. He's worked with some great Irish artists and albums including Gemma Hayes, The Frames, David Kitt, Fionn Regan, Kila & Mic Christopher . That's a bit of a who's who of great modern Irish acts. More than his ability with a mixing desk or a bass guitar, one of Karl's greatest attributes is his ability to drink a reassuringly large amount of tea. Always a very good sign in a human being as far as I'm concerned.

Altogether we've done 9 days and 6 songs. It started out in Peter Slazeneger's studio near the Powerscourt Estate, Co. Wicklow. We spent 2 days there recording rhythm tracks together with Binzer playing the drums. No, I don't know what his real name is! Binzer is a really good drummer and he was great to work with. His timing, feel and professionalism were bang on and I'd work with him again in a heart beat. Jay Wilson was also there. He played keyboard, clarinet and laid down some tasty backing vocals. Jay is a bit of an omnipresent chap in my musical set up. He's the musician I work with most and is one of those people who could pick up a cardboard box and make music with it.

After our time in Wicklow we worked from Karls studio in Monkstown back in Dublin. The house he is in is from the 1850's and was used as Queen Victoria's residency in Ireland over 15o years ago. We spent many late nights in the studio and it's a cosy place to work. Karl has a collection of high end modern and vintage recording equipment that he's picked up over the years but is also a total techie who loves the latest in recording software tools. A good combination.

The songs we did were, 'Perfect Day', 'I Am A Man', 'Tie A Ribbon Up In Your Hair', 'Hey Girl (Oh La La)', 'Mr. Slim' & 'Voices In My Head'. I'm very happy with all of them and look forward to the final masters being ready in the next week or two. I'll be releasing a new single every month in 2009 with a free B-side, these songs represent the start of what will be a very musically productive year. The first one will beavailable when launched at my gig on January 30th in Whelans. See you there I hope!
Hamlet Sweeney

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I reckon that the notebook that any lyricist or writer uses is quite an intimate and important object. It certainly is for me. Ever since I was a teenager I've had a notebook that has never gone far from my side. Sometimes I've purposefully given myself a few days away without bringing it and I can tell you I felt it!

During the Christmas period just gone I had a few days in Copenhagen, a city I regard as my second home. It was a great pleasure to stroll into all the old cafes that I spent so many long Scandinavian winter afternoons in drinking hot tea and scribbling in my notebook. So it felt like a very good omen when I reached the final page in my notebook while I was there.

A notebook ending is quite a satisfying feeling. It contains a large body of work that captures your life in a certain period like absolutely nothing else. But what's more exciting is a new notebook. It contains so many empty pages, each one of which will be filled with creativity and energy. But it's not all romance you know. I've learnt the hard way that the choice of notebook must be a practical affair. If it's cheap it'll fall apart, if the lines are too small it's frustrating, if it's too big OR too small it'll be a nuisance. I once went for a big fat black plastic folder type thing with a velcro fastener. I have no idea why it seemed like a good idea at the time. But I love it now like I love all my babies.

The notebook I found is a Moleskine. It was a great pleasure to buy it and a black biro and head down to my old haunt Cafe Sommersko (A typically Danish Cafe, beautiful room, decent food, terrible service!) and scribble the date and my first thoughts. I like this notebook.......but...... maybe it's like a new girlfriend and I'm at that stage where I realise it might not be perfect but I need to commit and I'll get out what I put in :-) I'm sure it'll be ok, if you don't hear any more about it you can take it that we are getting along together just fine.
Hamlet Sweeney

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It's been a very busy time over the last wee while. Sometimes life seems to tick along at a leisurely pace and other times the accelerator seems to push itself to the floor and you can barely keep up with what's going on. The latter is how it's been for me over the last while. And I've loved it :-) I've had some great gigs and have been writing away but the most exciting news has been my first proper recording session since my return to music in 08.

Up until now everything I've recorded I've done alone and played all the instruments, but now that I'm recording for commercial release I wanted the songs to have that "lads in a room playing" feeling and vibe that you can only get by, you guessed it, getting some lads together in a room to play music!

I'll post another blog very shortly that goes into detail about the recording sessions and what they were like. For now I just wanted to come back and say hello to my blog that I haven't been showing enough love and attention to the last while. I also wanted to wish the whole wide universe a super New Year and that I hope it's amazing for everyone of us. Yes, even you down the back in the Kylie tee shirt!
Hamlet Sweeney

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I recently went into the www.muzu.tv studios to do some recording with them for my channel on their site (thanks to Alex Donald for asking me in). Jay Wilson accompanies me on keyboard and vocals. Interviews by Phil Udell. My channel is right about here: www.muzu.tv/hamletsweeney
Enjoy!

HAMLET SWEENEY - I Am A Man - Live at MUZU Sessions on MUZU.


HAMLET SWEENEY - Hamlet Sweeney MUZU Sessions Interview on MUZU.


HAMLET SWEENEY - El Capitan - Live at MUZU Sessions on MUZU.


HAMLET SWEENEY - Hamlet Sweeney recommends David Bowie on MUZU.


ITN - Harty - David Bowie on MUZU.




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Home recording is a fact of everyday life for me and many, many musicians in today's digital age. It's big business and we are constantly bombarded by companies trying to convince us that their latest gear is the final word in recording and until we buy it we are but fleas on the shoe of real rockstar pros. Even though they said the same about last years gear too.

It's actually a relatively new phenomenon and the internet is littered with millions and millions of musicians sharing their experiences in home recording. But if you read between the lines you'll see that many people fall into the same traps. People are getting completely sucked in by the gear they should have instead of concentrating on writing and making music and as a result aren't getting the most out of their writing and playing.

Perhaps it's a phase modern musicians have go through but I can't help thinking that for a whole generation of musician separating the too is going to be tricky.
So here is my manifesto for all us home recording musicians out there:

1/ No matter how good or expensive it is, your gear will not make you a better musician/songwriter/engineer/producer.
2/ Internet forums about making music will take time away from making music. Oh yes they will.
3/ Music gets better the more you work on it. Working and working and then reworking stuff is what pro's do and amateurs don't.
4/ More people make money from teaching people how to record on over priced courses than there are people who know how to record well.
5/ Don't be fooled by vintage being better. Some gear is better just because it is, not because it's old.
6/ Great gear costs a lot of money.
7/ Good gear doesn't have to cost a lot of money.
8/ You don't need great gear to make great music.
9/ If you're not great on an instrument get someone else to do it and don't trust MIDI to be your saviour.
10/ Don't trust stock samples to sound great in 10 years.
11/ Buying €500 worth of recording equipment because 1 day in the studio costs the same is very, very bad maths.
12/ Write in your home studio then record and/or mix with the pro's.

And finally:
13/ Despite what you think, you probably already have enough gear to make all the music that is in your head/heart/loin. So get off the internet and do it.

Good luck!
Hamlet Sweeney

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I've spent the last week slowly feeling a little more under the weather with each passing day. It's definitely that time of year in Ireland when the days get a bit chillier and all the vitamin ads appear on telly. By now I can official declare myself sick. Don't worry, it's only the man flu. No need to call an ambulance just yet.

Unfortunately I had borrowed a really nice microphone from my friend Simon over the last few days to put vocals on the tracks that we've been doing in my home studio. Not much use when my head has felt like a huge piece of cotton wool has been pulled inside it through my ears! Ah well. Simon's coming round tonight to pick up the mic but it hasn't been a complete waste. Aside from being a great programmer, drummer and songwriter (he co-wrote a recent Eurovision track), he's a pretty sweet funky & classical guitarist so we're going to do a little guitar work on my songs The Boogie Man & maybe Hey Girl (Oh La La) too. Right, I better go plug in some cables.
Se yas!
Hamlet


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I can't believe that my last blog was in April. How could I be such a neglecting parent?! Well I do have reasons you know. I decided at the beginning of the summer to take a break from writing as much as I was and to gig lots and raise funds to finance the recording and release of my debut album. It's been a crazy, crazy summer and I have been in every corner of Ireland working on LED video screens for a huge range of concerts and festivals. Very little time for blogging! Now the rainy season is coming in Ireland it's time for me to return to the master plan. Actually, it's been raining all summer too but sure we won't get into all of that.

See yas all again soon.


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hamletsweeney@gmail.com

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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/

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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

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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!






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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

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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

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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

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So the launch night gig has now passed. It went great and I really enjoyed it. In hindsight I should have picked a larger venue as it sold out and some people couldn't get in, which is a pity.

I was joined on the night by Jay Wilson lending his talent on a variety of instruments. It was great to have another musician on stage with me. Something I'll definitely be doing more of.

I have several shows coming up over the next while with the next biggie in Whelans on May 13th. It will be a with a full band and I'm already looking forward to working with the sounds and dynamics that you can only get playing with other musicians. It's the way forward! I'd like to also say thanks to Simon Dowling for playing support on the night.

Here's a video clip of Voices In My Head from the gig. The sound isn't perfect but it captures the mood a bit. Enjoy!


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I'm looking forward to it. It's my first gig where I'm not the support act or on someone elses bill. I've been working on my songs and but every time I start I end up wanting to write new songs! So much so that it's been hard to really work on the ones I need for the gig.

In reality I think the only true way to work on songs is to play them live. Rehearsal rooms will only bring you so far until you need to see the whites of people's eyes to really bring the songs further. You just have to get them to a certain point then let them go. And once you do that and start gigging enough the songs start to organically develop without you even realising.

A good example is my song Street Lights that I just did a video for. I had to play along to a version of the songs I recorded last year. But I've gigged it alot since and was amazed to see how much I'd changed things along the way. I'd completely re-written the bridge and didn't even think about it!

Back to tomorrow's gig.... I'll be playing with Jay Wilson who is a great guy that I met when we were playing on the same night at The Purty Sessions. He'll be playing the Cajon and possibly one or two other bits and bobs too. It'll be the first time I'll have someone onstage with me since I've returned to music properly. So if anything goes wrong I can blame him :-)
See you at the gig!
Bewley's Theatre Bar
Grafton st, Dublin 2.
March 27th, 2008
8.30, €7
Support: Simon Dowling.


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So it seems to be one thing after the other at the moment, after many chats I'm starting a video shoot for Street Lights tonight with director Mark Doherty. He went out last night to get evening shots of the unique atmosphere of Dublin city centre on Good Friday because it's one of the few times that the pubs of the city are shut. It's a great idea as anyone who knows the city will tell you that that's a whole lot of closed doors.

I won't give too much away as you'll have to come back and see it for yourself when it's done. But I think it will be great.

I've been working on other video ideas too so with me starting to record alot now they will all be filmed over the next while to accompany the new songs. Should be fun!
Hamlet

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