New EP 'Songs For a Room' released into the ether!

With little fanfare, I embarked on a new EP around about July of 2013 which, a little overdue, is finally released over at Bandcamp so please check it out. The delay lay squarely at the fact I chipped a bone in my thumb late last year and the broken thumb debackle rendered me pretty useless, more so than usual, for about the sum of three months. But all is well now in thumbland and I was able to pick up where I left off, completing and mixing the EP for a March 11 2014 release.

The new EP is four brand new songs and the orphaned 'To Be Free' which was initially released February 2013 completing the picture. The mood of the EP is somewhat intendedly schizophrenic, opening up fairly gleefully and shifting down the gears from there. A smack of falsetto here and there (you have been warned!) and some ethereal backing vocals as I attempt to step out of my vocal comfort zone.

Some of these songs favor playing live, so I am hoping this release kickstarts a renewed vigor for performing and will be looking for opportunities in the coming months to embrace the stage.

Listen below, comments always welcome, feared on occasion but welcome! ;)

Covers EP Released!

So I get round to posting it about here but I completed my first covers EP 12 days ago entitled 'Songs Borrowed Vol#1' and launched it into the social media world to little frenzy! It's the first installment of two EPs of covers I had planned before the end of the year.

After much procrastinating I knuckled down and really started to approach this more diligently two months ago. There is real heartfelt responsibility when working on songs other people have written, but I feel I have dealt with those ghosts and am pretty content with the versions I could muster. I have been performing Childstar live for over a year now so it was long overdue for me to cut a version of that. The difficult pea in this pod was Shangri-LA by The Kinks which caused the most sleepless nights not least thanks to Dave Davies harmonies which are pretty ridiculously high. Couple that with such an extravagant arrangement that cries out for a band, I had to strip the song down, change key and pull in some backing vocal favours to get it into the shape it's in today!

I built a mini-site for the whole project here, so please check it out.

Here is the infamous cover art, just me and my buddies hanging out in the woods.

Download full EP .zip file

A much belated update....and new EPs on the way!

Gigs

So I came out of the woodwork to do two shows, my first solo shows in Chicago actually. About June of 2012 I got the bee in my bonnet to at least explore the possibility of embracing the stage again. I gamely went out into the Chicago open mic circuit and after paying my dues was offered a show at Uncommon Ground in November of last year playing on the same bill as David Anthony Marshall and Savanna as part of a songwriting Showcase. A rousing crowd of well wishers meant my first show back in a long time was like putting on an old comfortable sweater! It didn't completely kill my spirits and I went back for more when asked to fill in a support slot for Greater Alexander in Match of this year. Gigs since have been less forthcoming but I have also retreated slightly back into my musical cocoon, so need to spend the latter part of this year searching out venues and collaborators for more live tom foolery!

Below is a picture from the November show, I also uploaded a couple further photos to stevenprobinson.co.uk.

If motion pictures are more your thing I did upload a video to youtube of 'Factory Settings' although it's not my finest hour I don't think. Also you can view my profile up on the Uncommon Ground website.

Ep's galore...

Covers EP Volume 1 & 2

So rather bored of my own songs, I toyed with the idea of ruining other peoples songs instead and this led me to the idea of doing a covers EP. Much procrastination has followed but I have begun work and have three covers complete and another I'm fairly down the line on. However selecting songs has proven difficult because there is such a plethora of songs I wish I had written. I'm resisting being too obvious in my choices, and I'm also trying to find songs I can offer my own spin on. So my selection headaches has led me to make this a two part project and finish off volume#1 of covers but pick straight up and begin volume#2, both expected to be about five songs in total. The title to follow my previous 'Song..' naming convention is 'Songs Borrowed Vol#1 and Vol#2'.

I already have a sleeve idea for this one so that should speed it along! I hope to have the first installment out within the next two weeks all being well.

(as yet untitled) EP4

I uploaded to bandcamp a new song called 'To Be Free' and this will be the opening track of a yet untitled new EP. I tentatively call it EP4 because I think it's part of the same musical journey as the three previous EP's I released over the last 2 years. I have three songs written so some stuff still to work out with this one but I'm optimistic I can wrap up something within the next couple of months.

Colour Experiments

If I get to the stage where I have two volumes of cover EP's and one original song EP under my belt but my musical restlessness is not quite put to bed, I am contemplating an instrumental EP called 'Colour Experiments' where each track is named after a different color (and yes I will spell this the British way). Although I definitely need to purchase a bontempi organ if I am going to do 'Brown', nothing quite echoes the sound of Brown quite like a bontempi!

Raining Demo's

Lastly and probably least but I uploaded an old song 'Set To Slow You Down' to a new site called Demo Rain. The site looks pretty cool though, some good music on there, check it out.

Come see my show @ Uncommon Ground Devon Branch, Wednesday Nov 28th.

So as the title suggests I have a show and the day of reckoning is almost upon us as it's this coming Wednesday November the 28th at the Devon Branch of Uncommon Ground. I am first on at 8pm sharp, Savanna and David Anthony Marshall are also playing. This is my first show in a long time, I decided to break out of my shell earlier this year in July and start playing open mic nights to slowly befriend the stage again. We became tentative bed fellows, and I strangely enough enjoyed debuting some of the material from my last three EP's Songs You Probably Won't Like, Songs You Can Live Without and Songs Lost In The Fire (available @ http://stevenprobinson.bandcamp.com/). The crescendo to my efforts is this first break out solo show this coming Wednesday so I really appreciate anyone that can swing by and lend their support.

What?

Join us for the musical odyssey that is the first ever Ground Up Showcase @ Uncommon Ground!

Steven P Robinson - Singer Songwriter
Uncommon Ground Profile
(http://stevenprobinson.bandcamp.com/)
8pm

Savanna - Singer Songwriter
Uncommon Ground Profile
(http://savannamusic.bandcamp.com/)
8.45pm

David Anthony Marshall - Singer Songwriter
Uncommon Ground Profile
(http://www.davidanthonymarshall.com/)
9.30pm

When?

November 28th, 2012
8pm Start time
$5 Entrance

http://www.uncommonground.com/pages/calendar/52.php

Where it is?

1401 W Devon Ave, Chicago, IL 60660


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New EP 'Songs Lost In The Fire' Released.

I say released, "released" in it's loosest term, ie available over at Bandcamp and added to the music page of stevenprobinson.co.uk. And as I openly support music kleptomania, it's even available for download for free here in zipped up format.

It is a raggy doll collection of songs. Christmas Tree is my first crack at a christmas song, an ode to an artificial christmas tree. Factory Settings is a brand new song I've already put out there, probably the best thing on here. Half Illuminated is a digital treatment to a song I recorded on the analog tascam a few months ago. Sweet Amy is an old song but I never quite got it right even though I actually recorded at Uptown Recording Studio, so this is my third and final attempt - I threw some reverb on the vocals to stop them sounding so flat. Weeping Willows I'm not sure how to describe, it's an instrumental I had in mind. I find it quite chill, your dog may not agree!

Speaking of dogs, Chase is the star of the album cover, Chase and fire that is!

FatCat Demo Re-shuffle

So the kind folk over at FatCat Records who used to host demo's they liked on their own site, have done the old digital re-shuffle and moved everything over to SoundCloud. They hosted from me I Couldn't Offend You If I Tried, Amputations and Dead As Stone, and in this re-shuffle two out of the three fell by the wayside but they still host probably the best of the three 'I Couldn't Offend You If I Tried' at the below url. The other ones can still be unearthed on my music page www.stevenprobinson.co.uk/music.html

My Demo Page http://soundcloud.com/fatcat-demo/steven-robinson-i-couldnt

The Demo Archive http://soundcloud.com/fatcat-demo

My musical comings and goings...

Though my blog doesn't attest to it I have been fairly busy over the past couple of months music wise. Firstly in a moment of grand nostalgia while shopping with my good friend Neil Woodman who was visiting the windy city at the time, we came upon a Tascam MK II analog 4-track, the same model I first bought 17 years ago. It was my first ever recording purchase and I cut my teeth on it for a couple of years before moving on. So retro as it may be, and impractical too, I have regressed to tape at least for initial demos. The first of which is a new song called 'Half Illuminated' which I have already begun to give the digital treatment to so watch this space for that version.

As a lover of motion pictures, the next natural step for my music was to add video. It began tentatively enough with a quickly edited video for 'Set To Slow You Down' where people look to be having far too much to the sound of my tunes. Then overwhelmed with festive cheer I created my very first Christmas tune, an ode to a Christmas Tree (an artificial one at that). I recorded the song and it can be found here , but I accompanied it with video, the Mise en scène involving a Christmas Tree naturally, myself and an impromptu appearance from Chase.

Christmas Tree

Set To Slow You Down

Santa was pretty good to me despite myself and I now have a Studio Projects C1 microphone. It really is something else and may even make me sound not too shabby! So expect some recordings soon with this new weapon in my armory.

I have begun work on a new EP which I think is going to be a raggy doll collection of songs so I have given it the title 'Songs Lost In The Fire'. It will include 'Christmas Tree', probably both versions of 'Half Illuminated' (if I manage to complete the digital version and make it stand out from it's analog twin), a new song called 'Factory Settings', an instrumental called 'Weeping Willows' and then either I'll re-visit an old track called 'Sweet Amy' or 'Out of My Tree'. I doubt I can do the latter because that'll be too many tree references for one record, sort of why Mother Natures Son and Child of Nature both couldn't be bed fellows on the White Album! I also have a cover version up my sleeve but I don't want to give too much away about that yet. At my pace I figure 6-8 weeks to wrap this up, but the EP cover is already done so that's pushing me along!

Finally also got round to updating http://www.stevenprobinson.co.uk with the new sounds, videos and a couple of old photos to boot.