What's going on?

Well it's time for a little update.

First up, did anyone miss that we did this...

Everyone still on board?!

OK, and more recently, since mid-August we've been working hard on new singles for Byron Gold and Enrico Delves, as well as recording new tunes for Aimée and Ebonie G. Tommy's album has been moving forward as well - we've been finishing up mixes as well as recording some of the remaining collabs, which are well exciting.

Phew! Essentially everyone we work with has been through the doors in the last month and this has certainly been one of the most busy and productive times yet for us.

Here's me looking stressed and frantically busy.

And Looking ahead, we've got worship projects coming up with Alun Leppitt and NauJavan in Oct/Nov and more new writing to get done as well.

Sweet times!

Chris

 

Posted with Blogsy

Yes!

Love the video for this song.

Chris

 

Posted with Blogsy

It's Tuesday...!

What better start to the day than discovering some old friends up to amazing things? Introducing, once again...the lovely Hannah Holley and the awesome Kate Brown.



HANNAH HOLLEY - "MILES AWAY" (LIVE ACOUSTIC) from Hannah Holley on Vimeo.

The Boxettes live...in a laundrette

 

Posted with Blogsy

Redefining awesome

OK people. Serious whooaaaa's this morning...

How is it...? #worldsbestkeychange

Posted with Blogsy

Coldplay live @ Emirates

Hey avid hi-son reader(s)! It's been a while! Time for another meandering stream-of-conciousness monologue on the state of live music from yours truly...


Had an amazing time seeing Coldplay at the Emirates on Saturday. We had fireworks, confetti canons, lasers, giant inflatables and radio-controlled light up wristbands for the whole crowd. It was a pretty stunning effort by the band and a huge contrast to the Viva la Vida tour which I also saw - at that gig, the music was similarly stadium-esque, but the visual feast on offer this time around made the whole gig seem so much more direct and engaging.

It's interesting watching the band go through their paces. They're certainly now an accomplished stadium act - one of only a few - where the music sounds better in that size and type of space. The lavish visual efforts tell of a deep desire within the band to go the extra mile for its fans and give them an unforgettable night. Chris Martin says little but for requesting his audience have the best night of their lives and go as crazy as they can - "The more crazy you go, the harder we'll play" or words to that effect. The crowd lap it up and make more noise than I've ever heard.

But something about it to me seems a touch too trivial and short-sighted. Is it enough to just get a happy buzz from a show for a few hours, or should we expect something deeper or richer from the experience? Could it be that all this effort to excite and wow the crowd is just pandering to their superficial needs and actually people crave something deeper? Isn't music capable of more than just fuelling the party vibe - isn't the best stuff when it gets under our skin, gives us goosebumps, moves us to feel compassion, joy, forgiveness?

I guess it comes down to the vision of the band and of the music. Clearly, Coldplay are interested in giving people a great time. I have no problem with that whatsoever, but I woke up Sunday morning and felt no different because of the experience. Yes, it was a great night, but I can't say it's had any particularly enduring effect. Other shows I've been to where there's been a strong political message or more soul-searching dialogue from the stage I think lend a richness to the music that they accompany.


And it's true, sometimes when you're in the crowd at a U2 show, Bono will be going off on one, or some promo vid for a charity will be rolling, some people get twitchy and start muttering for the band to just get on with the hits. It's risky to do stuff like that and you don't always get away with it. But I genuinely believe that there are things that need to be said that can only be said in that kind of environment, and even if some people don't get it, for those who are willing to be challenged, it makes for a more lasting and inspiring experience.

Happily, Coldplay seem to be quick on the up-take, so I'm hopeful that their next major step forward in their music and stage show will be to find some issue or another that keeps them up all night, that they get angry about, and think creatively about how to tell us all about it.

Chris

Aloe Blacc fest!

Wow. Had a genuinely great evening in yesterday watching Aloe Blacc videos on YouTube with Lorna. Here are a couple of gems, but basically there's at least an hour and a half of amazing stuff to enjoy. Particularly check out the rest of the MADE sessions. The Billie Jean cover is the absolute pick but the other five parts are incredible as well. Needless to say Amazon are shipping me the record as I type this. Signed sealed delivered I love this guy.

 

 

Chris

Elusive songs

OK so I'm pretty excited currently about what's happening in Hi-Sonorous land. We had a great week last week. Worked on some new Tommy Eye tunes which are sounding amazing. Arranged some string parts. Chewed the fat with old friends over the bank holiday.

Also, we met up with Myles Dhillon and Alan Sampson in London on Wednesday and saw/heard the amazing work both of them are doing, musically and other. Got really inspired by them. It turns out we're all basically on the same page in wanting to do something together, so later on this week we'll be adjourning at the Squares to find out what that something sounds like.

At the risk of getting ahead of ourselves, we're also thinking about some filming as well, and the ideas are coming thick and fast. In many ways, so many of the usual things that scupper ideas like this are in place, or aren't issues. Like finances, space, equipment, time. What it comes down to are the songs, and the people. These are the two biggest factors in determining whether any of this is a success or not. And interestingly they're the things you can't really control.

Song writing is tough because it's so elusive. You can learn the craft, but you can't learn to control the creativity. Not really. The essence of a song, the bit that feels magical, the bit that makes you go "yes" is never something a writer can claim ownership of. It's a gift that's imparted - a seed that's sown in you, the writer, by something, or someone else. I like to think it's a bit of heaven on earth.

It's still a mystery to me. Which makes a deadline a very scary thing indeed. In fact a deadline is the sort of thing that is very likely to produce very mediocre, uninspired "craft" from a writer, rather than a bit of real magic.

Anyway, Friday is when all of this comes together, and by then we need to have some songs worth working on. So my thought for today is going to be to reflect on the best piece of song-writing advice I ever had, which actually did not come from another songwriter, but from an activist and political advisor called Jim Wallis, who said "if you want to tell the story, you have to be in it".

 

Ghostpoet

Loving the simplicity of this tune. Ghostpoet's delivery is so hypnotic and evocative. Loving it!

 

Rush available to buy now!

Yes folks!

Very excited to announce that Tommy' first single "Rush" is now available to buy from iTunes! Please go there, download it and help Tom get into the charts this Sunday!!

Here's the man himself...




In other news, we've been doing some writing with Ebonie G. Holla! Here's a little vid we put together on that...




Good times!

Chris

What's going on?

Time for a mini update folks. Plenty to write home about from Hi-Sonorous HQ. First up, some of you may remember a few weeks back we linked you to this video. Well the man behind it all, our good friend and fellow producer Mr Gregory Felton organised a hip-hop orchestra show featuring Tommy Eye yesterday in Southampton. Which basically was amazing. [I wanna say it rocked, but that would be imprecise stylistically. Sadly there's no urban equivalent I can think of right now. At least not positive equivalents... Hm, significant?]

Tommy Eye made his best effort at getting the west quay shopping zombies to remember that life exists beyond retail, and a good few hundred were reminded and all the more healthier for it. Big up to G Funk for an amazing job...too cool.

Back in the studio, we've been writing a good deal of worship stuff for a future hip-hop project (Yes, I did just use the words worship and hip-hop in the same sentence) which is turning out to be a huge challenge, but one we are totally pumped about. We're also writing for this guy, and this guy, and this guy. (ok that last one is...let's say, aspirational.)

Sanj has been on particularly fine form on the beats and I've been jangling the guitar strings in between hourly sittings of this...

Sorry, that had to go on the page, I love it so much.

I'm generally finding the ebb and flow to be a little unorthodox. Staying creative is a discipline in itself. One it takes to time to learn. I'm realising more and more that you don't always just instinctively do great things. More often than not, you work for them. I sat in my snug (my house is too small for a lounge) on Friday for an hour and a half and produced two lines of lyrics.

So working is sitting and thinking. And it's an incredibly intense process sometimes. Always, always, always, lyrics come last after chords and melody. I wish it were the other way round, but the others are a piece of cake to me and words are nearly always a slog to the finish. I can sit in complete silence for a while, perhaps 10-15 minutes and just churn rhymes and ideas, ways of sayings things over and over, and get increasingly more impatient with myself. Sometimes the wall comes down before I pull myself out, and then the confidence is too low to carry on. But if not, eventually I just start to strum the chords and sing all vowels on the tune I have. And it's in this kind of spontaneous speaking tongues moment where I might randomly pull out a word or a phrase or occasionally even a whole line and it just fits and feels good, and right. Sometimes it's very closely related to the ideas that I've just been chewing on, and sometimes it's totally different. But what does seem consistent is the feeling that it's a process I have little control over, which is both exhilarating when I hit on things I think are good, but frustratingwhen I can't just get something out. It certainly increases my envy of artists like Tommy, when they freestyle all these complex rhymes and meaning and humour just totally off-the-cuff...

Anyway I said this would be mini. And now it's not.

Chris

Ps. Also shout out to the tireless independent music promoter Nick Tann who played us on his podcast show "Is this Thing On?" this week.