Hi everyone!
If you follow me on twitter or facebook, you may have seen that Friday was the final deadline for coursework and last day of teaching on my university course.
My second year doesn’t start until mid-September/October, so I’ve got plenty of time to work on new music and projects!
I already have plans regarding upcoming projects, and I’ll talk a bit about what’s to come in this blog.
Hi everyone!
It’s been a really long time since I’ve written a blog on here, this is just an update regarding what’s happening in regards to the EPs I keep talking about.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to finish the EPs in time for the end of 2012 like I had originally planned, but they will be released in 2013.
As I’ve mentioned in earlier blogs, I’ve been working on two EPs.
They have the working titles of Morality and Immorality.
I’m hoping to release Morality by the end of January, and I hope to release Immorality in February or March.
This is may change, but as of now, Morality features five songs and Immorality features four songs.
They are all brand new songs!
Morality features an extended and “produced” version of The Flame; an acoustic version of this song was released on my SoundCloud page earlier this year.
Similarly to Era earlier this year, both of these EPs will be released and available to download on my bandcamp page.
After the release of these records, I don’t really have anything else planned as of now.
I’ve got lots of ideas for new projects though, so I’ll keep you all updated!
Era is still available to download if you haven’t got it yet!
You can stream it in full and download it from my bandcamp page!
Click here to get Era!!!
I may or may not post another blog before the end of 2012, so I want to wish you all a happy holidays and a happy new year in advance!
I also want to say a big thank you to all those who have supported me this year!
I’m eternally grateful to you!
Thank you so much for reading this blog, please check out my music if you haven’t already done so!
Thanks,
Josh :-)
Hi everyone!
This blog is an update on what’s going on regarding Era, my first compilation/album/whatever you want to call it.
For once, I’ve (sort of) managed to stick to my plan meaning that Era should be released this month!!!
I’m not entirely sure when, but I’ll be sure to let you know.
All that is left to be done is artwork design, my sister and I are currently working that out.
For those who don’t know, Era is a compilation of my songs that have been released over the past year and a half.
Two of the songs feature totally new vocal recordings, and all of the songs have been remastered. I have also re-recorded sections of vocals throughout the other songs. Two brand new songs are will also be included in the compilation.
Here is the Era tracklist
* - re-recording
^ - remaster
The unmarked songs are new and previously unreleased.
Except for Falls Apart, which was released last month as a free single from Era.
I chose to re-record the vocals for some of the songs are I grew to dislike my original recordings, and the songs have been remastered as the audio quality differs greatly between each of the originally released tracks.
The audio quality of all the tracks now match so that they can be listened to clearly, without you having to make any adjustments to your volume levels on whatever you chose to play the tracks on.
Era will be available to listen to and download free of charge from my bandcamp page. You should also have the option to invest an amount of money of your choice for the record if you believe that my music is worth paying for.
You will also be able to choose what format the audio files you download are.
This compilation is really designed for the fans that enjoy listening to albums of music.
I have carefully arranged the tracklist to ensure that it flows well as an album.
At some point, I will replace the original tracks on SoundCloud with the re-recordings and remasters, but the two new songs are exclusive to Era and will not available anywhere else.
Thank you for reading this!
I’ll keep you updated on my Twitter and Facebook pages with any more news!
Thanks,
Josh :-)
Hi everyone!
I’ll try to keep this blog short since I just want to let you know about a few things.
If everything goes to plan, I should be releasing one compilation of songs and two EPs before the end of 2012.
I’m going to dedicate 2013 to finishing off the album I started writing over a year ago, but I plan to take as much time as possible with this.
I’m sure that I will be working on many other projects next year also.
A few weeks ago I released an acoustic version of my song The Flame, and more recently I released a new recording of a song I wrote over two years called Falls Apart.
If you haven’t heard either of the songs yet, please check them out on my SoundCloud. Both tracks are free to download!
The Flame (Acoustic Version) featuring Poppy Starmer by joshstarmermusic
Falls Apart by joshstarmermusic
That’s all I’ve got to say now, thanks for all the support and thank you for reading this blog!
Josh :)
All of the songs that I needed to remaster are done!
All that is left for me to do is finish the re-recordings and finish the new songs.
Falls Apart (2012) is done, all that is needed is background vocals from my sister.
The other two songs are just demos at the moment, but the arrangements are quite minimal so it shouldn’t take me too long to finish them.
I’ve added a new song to the chart, which has the full working title of An Open Letter To An Unnamed Person.
I’m not even sure whether it’s a song actually, it’s totally different from anything that I’ve done before!
If you have liked my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter, you may have seen me write about the fact that I’ve been ill for the past few days.
I’m currently much better than I was, but I’m still not back to normal.
As soon as I’m better I’ll finish all of this off, release Era and continue working on my EPs and my other project.
Here’s a photo of the chart I’ve made that documents what stage I’m at during the making of the “Era” compilation.
(Yes… I like to make charts, call me what you will!)
As you can see, I haven’t done very much yet, but hopefully the boxes should be filled up with check marks pretty soon.
By the way, the grey boxes indicate stuff that doesn’t need to be done for those particular songs and I’ve left a blank box at the bottom just in case I decide to write a third new song.
Hi everyone!
First off, I apologise for not writing a blog in quite a while, the reason for this is because I plan to start making video blogs soon.
However, I’m not too sure how to do that as I don’t have any good video editing software.
If anybody can recommend any free or inexpensive video editing software that is compatible with Windows, please get in touch!
Anyway, I’ll get on to my announcement now.
If you’ve “liked” my Facebook page then you may have seen a post saying that I’ve made a Bandcamp profile, but there is currently nothing on it so I haven’t posted any links yet.
Well, I’ve decided that my first release on Bandcamp will a compilation of songs.
The compilation will be called Era and will contain the majority of my free download songs, as well as two (possible three) new songs!
However, they won’t be the same audio files that I have already released.
I’m re-recording my vocals for Save Me From My Secrets and Missing Pieces and I’m re-mastering all of the other free download songs that will appear in this compilation.
I’ve often mentioned that I’d like to re-record Save Me… and Missing Pieces as I just don’t like my vocal performance on either song, but until now I’ve never found a reason to do that.
I also feel that all my songs, with the exception of Here With Me as my friend Chris mixed that, are not as high quality as they could be.
I didn’t have much knowledge of mixing tracks when I made those songs, but know after finishing my music technology course at college, I feel much more confident with my mixing skills and I want the audio quality of those songs to match everything I release in the future.
I haven’t decided on a definite track list yet, but the songs that will be included in the compilation are…
The two new songs that will be featured in this compilation are the new version of Falls Apart and a brand new song called Going Out In Style.
(I may possibly include another brand new song, but as of know I haven’t written anything)
I’ve chosen to create this compilation now as I realised that all of these songs were written about or inspired by people who used to be in my life but aren’t any more.
Some of these songs are several years old, and some were released over a year ago. A lot his changed in my life the past few months, and I’m preparing for even more changes to occur.
So I felt that it was important for me to mark the end of this chapter of my writing.
There are still songs hidden away that are inspired by those people I mentioned earlier which may be released one day, but I think it’s unlikely I will ever write about them again.
I feel that the first chapter of my musical lifetime has ended, I’m doing lots of new things such as side-projects with other musicians and writing lyrics and composing in new ways.
I don’t know if you’ll hear a distinctive change in the music when I release it, but I’m hoping that you’ll hear growth in it.
Like any other artist, I want to leave behind bodies of work that I can look back upon and say that each one represents a period in my lifetime.
This compilation will be my first full body of work.
This blog is much longer than I planned, I’ll talk a bit more about the release nearer the time as I’m still preparing the tracks.
I’m hoping that this compilation will be released by the end of august.
Thank you so much for reading this blog, please check out my music if you haven’t already done so!
Thanks,
Josh :-)
Hi everybody!
For anybody out there that actually follows my blogs, I’m so sorry that It’s been so long!
However, I suppose the fact that I’ve not found time to write blogs more frequently shows that I’ve been busy working on music, which at the end of the day is the most important thing.
Anyway, I have nothing but good news to talk about in this blog!
EP number 1 is shaping up very nicely.
Instrumentals for Are We Right Or Wrong? and The Flame are now complete, all that is left for me to do on them is record vocals.
The Flame was formally known as Fire In Your Eye; I may still change that title.
I think I mentioned in my last blog that the instrumental of The Flame (Acoustic) is complete, that also just needs vocals.
I’ve decided that I like my fourth attempt at Sense Of Morality, I’m currently working on producing that song.
I’m going to re-record my vocals for Waiting On The Park Bench and the demo for Stars is complete, I’m currently developing synth sounds for that track.
I’ve been thinking about names for both of the EPs, I think EP 1 will be called Amorality and EP 2 will be called Immorality, but those may still change.
I think I’ve discussed this briefly before, both of the records seem to go hand in hand with each other in terms of lyrical themes.
However, musically there are many differences between them.
The lyrics on the majority of the songs on both records are much less personal than my other songs, they focus more on the lives on other people.
Particularly the decisions that people often make during their lives, which cause the people around them to question that person’s morals.
I’ve been working on a (sort of) new track!
If you have been following my blogs for a long time, you may already know about this.
Shortly after I released my first songs last year, I released a preview of a track that was going to be included on an EP that I planned to release late last year.
I then lost the willpower to put the finishing touches on that EP due to it sounding so out of date compared to what I had already released and I think the quality of writing and production greatly lacked compared to what I had already released, so I gave up.
For those who don’t know, The vast majority of that EP was written and recorded up to two years before I actually released any music.
The track I previewed was a song called Falls Apart, and it seemed to get a pretty good reception from those who heard it. I thought it would be a shame to let that track go to waste (as it’s one of the only songs from that EP that doesn’t make me cringe!) so I decided to re-visit the track and record a brand new version of the song.
All of the instrumental is complete, and I think it sounds really amazing!
The only thing left for me to do is record vocals, once they are done the song shall be released for free download!
I think it sound much better than my original, if you heard the preview then hopefully those who heard the preview will think the same.
I plan to get all of the instrumentals done for all of the songs I’m currently working first, as that is really the time consuming part, then I’m going to spend a few days record all of the vocals!
Last week, my collaboration with my friend Posh Boy was finally released!
It is currently available to download, absolutely free of charge, from my SoundCloud profile.
I sing vocals, play piano and wrote lyrics on the song.
Posh Boy wrote the music and produced the track.
Please listen to the track, download it and share it with your friends
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE SONG
That’s all I have to say now, thank you so much for reading this blog!
Please be sure to listen to my music if you haven’t already done so!
Thanks,
Josh :-)
Hi everyone!
This blog is going to be about what I plan to do over the next few weeks rather than what I have been doing since I last wrote a blog, as I’ve done very little unfortunately.
I’ve finally finished college!
I have mixed emotions about finishing, but finishing college does mean that I’ll have loads of time to work on my music before I start university.
Over the next few weeks I plan to…
I plan to release the acoustic version of Flame In Your Eyes for free download very soon!
Then shortly after, a digital download single from the EP should be released.
I may work on a B-Side for the single as well!
A produced version of Flame In Your Eyes will appear on the EP and both versions of the song feature guest vocals from my sister, just like Learn To Fly does!
All of the recording is done for the acoustic version of Flame In Your Eyes, except for my vocals.
I’ve recorded a demo vocal, but my performance isn’t as good as it could be so I plan to re-record parts.
In my last few blogs, I’ve briefly mentioned a project that I’ve been working on, but I haven’t said anything else about it.
The project I’ve been working on is a collaboration with a really great artist called Posh Boy.
His music is a combination of 1980’s styled synthpop and disco, I compare him to really great 80’s electronic groups like Pet Shop Boys, Visage and Erasure.
I absolutely adore a song of his called We Always Want What We Cant Have, you should definitely look it up!
Anyway, Chris (Posh Boy) sent me an instrumental that he produced and I wrote the lyrics, recorded vocals and even played a bit of piano on it.
The song is called Here With Me and we’re both incredibly excited about it!
It’s very pop, and I think the music Chris produced is so catchy!
Everything for the song is has been recorded, and Chris is currently mixing and mastering it.
So once that is complete, the song will be released on SoundCloud for free download.
I’ll post a link to the track on here as soon as it’s released!
You should definitely check out Posh Boy’s music, we share a lot of the same influences.
CLICK HERE to listen Posh Boy’s music!!!
Speaking of projects, I’ll end this blog by telling you that I’m working on another project that I’m going to keep a secret for now.
This project is still in the very early stages, so I don’t want to say too much about just yet.
All I will say is that it’s incredibly different to my usual style and I’m really excited about it!
Thank you so much for reading this blog, please be sure to read the other “My Music” blogs and to check out my songs if you haven’t already done so!
Thanks,
Josh :)
Hi everyone!
This blog certainly has been a long time coming!
I can’t really remember what I’ve already written about, so please forgive me if I tell you something that I’ve already mentioned in another blog.
All of the songs on EP 1 are complete, except for Sense Of Morality.
I have only three weeks left at college, so right now I’m working on putting all of the finishing touches on the instrumentals to the songs.
I plan to get the instrumentals for the four complete songs done within the next three weeks so that I can focus on vocals and finishing Sense Of Morality when I finish college.
The instrumental for Are We Right Or Wrong? is complete!
All that I need to do with that now is record the vocals.
The song sounds really beautiful and it’s even better than I expected it to be, I really can’t wait for you to hear it.
It’s a lot more “avant-garde” than anything I’ve released so far, so please listen to it with an open mind.
This EP should hopefully be released in the summer, I’m hoping for a July or August release.
I’m planning to release both EPs that I’m currently working on as digital downloads, but if that doesn’t work out I’ll find another way to release them.
As I have pushed the release of EP 1 back a bit, I’ve decided to record an acoustic version of The Flame In Your Eyes.
I’m currently finishing up vocals for this version.
I’ll put this version up for free download and I’ll hopefully release it within the next few weeks!
I recently wrote two songs that should be include on EP 2.
These songs are called Army Of Hypocrisy and Life In Fear.
Army Of Hypocrisy is a song about a person who turns their back on all of their morals.
Life In Fear is an incredibly personal song, which I don’t really want to discuss the depths of just yet, but I will say that it is a song about revenge.
I really love both songs, but both of them are just piano/voice demos right now so I can’t wait to begin working on them!
I also recently completed my half of a project that I’ve been working on with a friend. I don’t want to say too much about it just yet, but I’m really excited about it!
I’ll let you know more about it soon.
Thank you so much for reading this blog, please be sure to read the other “My Music” blogs and to check out my songs if you haven’t already done so!
Thanks,
Josh :)
I might re-record all of the free download songs that I’ve released so far!
I still love the songs, but I really don’t feel like I did them justice.
However, I then think to myself “After the re-recordings have been released and available for a while, what if I still haven’t done the songs justice?“
Then it’s just going to be a never ending cycle!
Maybe I should just leave the songs alone and focus on the new stuff?
I ordered a new piece of recording equipment online.
This equipment will basically allow me to record multiple instruments simultaneously, as right now I can only record one microphone and one DI.
Shortly after I ordered the equipment, I received an email saying that the item was out of stock and would be back in the next couple of days, then the item would be sent to me.
A few weeks passed and I heard no new information about my order, so this morning I contacted the store asking them about what was going on.
They sent me an email that said “I’m sorry but we don’t know when your item will be in stock, but we’ll post it to you as soon as it becomes available”.
I started to consider cancelling my order and buying it elsewhere, but then several hours later I received an email saying “A miracle has happened and your item is in stock! You should received by this Thursday”.
Hmm… something tells me that they just forgot about my order!
Hi everyone!
I’m sorry that I haven’t written one of these in quite a while, I’ve been really busy over the past couple of weeks.
In my last blog I mentioned that all five songs for EP 1 have been written and demoed, except for “eyes” which is only half complete. Well, I’ve spent these past few weeks working on them.
I’m struggling with “Sense Of Morality”, I currently have four totally different demo versions of the song. Usually, whenever I write a song, I record one rough demo, then the final version. The final mix is never too different from the demo.
I’ve heard of many songwriters/producers who record many different versions of the same song, but I’ve never had to work that way before.
So far, this is what each version is like
I really can’t decide which version works best.
I’ll continue to work on each version of the song, and if I still can’t make up my own mind then I may put up portions of each version online and let you choose the best one.
Also, in regards to the EP, I’ve decided to switch “I’m Quite Happy Here” for a song called “Stars”, which I think I’ve mentioned in a previous blog.
”I’m Quite Happy Here” has a kind-of cabaret feel, which didn’t really fit in with the rest of the songs.
Recently, I’ve been working on a little side collaboration with a friend, I don’t want to say too much about it yet, but I’m really excited about it!
I recently bought a Kaoss Pad Quad, which is this really cool effects processor.
I haven’t used it on any recordings yet, but I have many plans for it!
As it was my birthday on Sunday, my Uncle bought me a set of cards called “Oblique Strategies” for my studio.
For those of you who my not know what they are, they’re cards that were created by Brian Eno (one of my favourite musicians and producers) that are designed to help people make decisions when faced with a dilemma whilst working.
Apparently, many professional music studios have them, and people like David Bowie have used them in the studio, so I can’t wait to start using them!
Thank you so much for reading this blog, please be sure to check out the other “My Music” blogs and to listen to my songs if you haven’t already done so!
Thanks,
Josh :)
Hi everyone!
It seems like forever since I wrote one of these, I’ve had way too much going on lately.
I’VE GOT MY FIVE SONGS FOR EP NUMBER 1!!!!!
The working titles and working track list of these songs is…
All of these songs have been written and demoed, but I may change some of the lyrics in Waiting On The Park Bench and I’m contemplating writing an extra verse to Glass Eyes.
Glass Eyes is a song I wrote the lyrics to recently, whilst sat on a bench by a pond in a park. I find that quite strange since I wrote the song Waiting On The Park Bench in my bedroom, yet Glass Eyes was actually written whilst waiting on a park bench but the songs have no connection.
Anyway, Glass Eyes is quite an ambiguous song. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure what caused me to write the song and I’m not too sure what it’s exactly about. I think it’s about being physically attracted to someone, but hating who they are personally. I could be wrong, so I’ll leave it open to interpretation.
I’m really excited about this song, and I can imagine it’ll be the first song I release from the EP. The only problem is that it’s a bit shorter than I’d hoped it would be, which is why I’m contemplating an extra verse.
I’ve written a second song for EP 2, which has the working title of My Life Is Not Easy.
I’m really excited about this song, it has a kind of bluesy feel to the melody and it’s very different to my usual stuff.
Both songs are still in the early stages, so I’ll let you know how the progress.
I’m sort of keeping to the schedule I set at the beginning of the year.
It’s unlikely that I’ll be able to have EP 1 out by May like I’d hoped, but I’m confident that it will be out by summertime.
EP 2 is coming along slightly ahead of schedule so I’m hoping that’s a good thing.
I haven’t decided on a name for either EP just yet.
I’m thinking of calling EP1 Morality,as that is a running theme throughout the five songs, but I’m not too sure about that yet.
I also have an idea for the EP artwork, but I’ll discuss that further another time
Thank you so much for reading this blog, please be sure to check out the other “My Music” blogs and to listen to my songs if you haven’t already done so!
Thanks,
Josh :)
Hi everybody!
Over the past few weeks I’ve been working on a couple of new songs.
Last week I wrote this instrumental piece, which has the working title of “Apart”.
I’m really excited for it, it’s kind of a hypnotic electronic dance track with a chord progression that I really love. The structure of it is different to most of my other stuff, as it’s mainly centred around three verses. Most of my songs have a standard verse, chorus, verse, chorus structure. However, I’ve had no ideas for lyrics yet.
I’ve been feeling very frustrated with my self over these past few weeks as I’ve had very little ideas for lyrics. Usually I write lyrics very regularly, at least one song every couple of days, but lately I’ve been lucky if I can write one song in a month!
I usually write my lyrics based on feelings and situations I’ve experienced, but nothing really seems to have happened lately that I’ve thought would make a good topic for a song.
I hope I can write something soon, as I really can’t wait to hear this song when it’s finished.
I’m going to try and fit it in with the theme of my upcoming EP so it can be included on that.
I mentioned very briefly in my last blog that theme of my EP will be Morality.
I’ve always been very interested in the reasons behind why people do the things they do. Whenever we’re placed in a situation which requires us to choose the way we act towards it, we almost always seem to think that we’ve done the right thing and we often don’t realise that our choice was a mistake until a long time after the event. I’ve always been curious about why that is and why we choose the morals we have. The main focus of the EP will the way we act towards other people.
So far I have written two songs for the EP. One of them is called “Sense Of Morality” which will be the centrepiece of the record, and the other is called “Waiting On The Park Bench”. “Waiting On The Park Bench” is already complete, but it may not be included on the EP as the style of the song is quite different to my other ideas. I’ll let you know what happens with that, but if I choose not to include it then it will be released for free download.
If you have liked my Facebook page then you may have seen that yesterday was the one year anniversary of the release of my songs!
I just want to say thank you so much to everybody who has listened to and downloaded my music, and anybody who has followed these blogs and kept up to date with everything that I’m doing.
Thank you all so much for the support!!!
It really means the world to me!
That’s all I’ve got to say this week, thank you for reading this blog.
Please be sure to read the other “my music” blogs and to check out my music if you haven’t already done so!
Thanks,
Josh :)
