If wet…

I recently spent some time in London. I did the following things:

– Met with Richard Whitelaw at Sound and Music
– Appeared on the panel at Wire Salon
– Met loads of inspirational folk at Café OTO
– Spent time with my dad
– Wandered around looking and listening
– Appeared on Graham Dunning’s show on NTS
– Visited Tate Modern
– Stood for 30 minutes listening to some live Klezmer on the South Bank
– Read Wire magazine on the train home

It was a really inspirational couple of days which resulted in the culmination of an idea I had been pondering for a while. A number of things me and David Morton had been trying to address suddenly solidified around a single idea. I love it when that happens!

And so it is that we (MortonUnderwood) will be starting a monthly night in my local village hall. A night dedicated to sonic exploration and the demonstration thereof. Somewhere for people to show what they have been working on and to get some feedback. Somewhere for panel discussions. Something that isn’t yet another blues rock band playing in a pub. We hope it will bring some people out of the woodwork locally and act as a nurturing environment for investigation and collaboration. And, like so many nights run by enthusiasts, we hope that one day we will be able to fund people we admire to come to us…

Behold “If wet…”, in the village hall. To be held once a month in Callow End Village Hall. More details soon…

Dooooooh Doo Doo Dooooh

I’ve been doing quite a lot of work with young people over the last couple of years. This mostly involves introducing them to new ways of making and thinking about music. I have continued to do this work during my sabbatical as I hope it might go some way towards creating a more enriched future.

The latest event I attended was the “Change Day” held at Billesley Primary School in Birmingham. I spent between 45 minutes and an hour with groups of 15 kids, showing them how sampling and looping works and then writing a short tune using this technique to form the basis. Given the short period of time available I was really pleased with the results. As well as creating the rhythm and the “bassline” the kids also wrote and sang the lyrics.

Here is the catchy ditty year 6 created:

[audio:https://www.mrunderwood.co.uk/audio/Yr6_I_Want_My_School_To_Be.mp3]

I would like to thank everyone involved for helping make this inspiring day happen. The other creative practitioners were really great and I think the goals of the day were exceeded.

Glatze, live and thrice live

Last weekend I played a thoroughly enjoyable gig at the Frog and Fiddle in Cheltenham. It wasn’t as well attended as I’d like but the room was ace, the sound system was storming and everyone who was there was there was lovely and seemed to really enjoy it! BINGO!

Having been concentrating on other things for a while I now find myself with three gigs in three weekends. Following on from Cheltenham I will be playing at the Dirty Bristow Fete this Saturday and the Whales EP launch party on the 5th of September. I’m really chuffed to have been asked (!) but I also have my concerns…

Apart from the usual nerves and self-doubts I am also a little worried about both gigs, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I worry that people who have heard my EP will expect me to sound like that. In fact I am billed as a “Romany Surf Step Supremo” by Bad Egg (see flyer below), which is cool / true but I only do one tune from my EP in my liveset. Secondly, I might be a bit of an odd act for the Dirty Bristow bill. I am particularly concerned what the Dirty Bristow lot are going to make of my raucous antics at 9:30pm…ho hum! Both of these might be non-issues and I will give it my all regardless but I just wanted to get these thoughts out in the open. Either way Glatze does what he does, so nehhhh!

Event flyers below (click each flyer for more info):