Seven years later - a lightbulb moment

Last night whilst in the shower I had a lightbulb moment.

I'll explain in a minute.

Recently I've started getting an itch to start working on music properly again, and I'd actually wanted to write a blog explaining why I stopped in the first place, but spare time being so rare for me at the moment, I haven't had a chance to yet - but I will.

Just recently my Drewvis facebook page has been receiving a number of new views and likes (no idea why!) and it's actually been niggling away in my head and finally made me want to actually finish the new album I wrote over a year ago.

A recent visit from my good friends Natalie Wouldn't from Seattle has also ignited something in me again (they always seem to do that!) and so not only am I now gearing up to get the new album finished, there's also serious talk of starting a new band with some of the closer members of Second Time Lucky.

This is a big thing.

For all of us.

It will make more sense to anyone else out there when I actually get around to writing my 'why I fell out of love with music' blog post soon.

But trust me, it's a big step, and a big deal.

So, going back to my lightbulb moment in the shower last night...

When I was at BIMM (Brighton Institute of Modern Music) doing my songwriting degree back in 2009 I received some feedback and suggestions about one of my songs (Short Measures) which at the time made no sense to me at all, I was happy with how it sounded and it's structure etc. and that was how it should be. But the feedback has always stayed in my head, and I've always tried to understand how it could possibly be of any use. Seven years later... it was last night in the shower that it finally made sense to me... I will explain what the heck I'm yabbering on about, but not now.

You'll have to wait until you hear the new version of it! ;)


And just on the off chance you read this blog and haven't heard my music... here's the last album:

The one where I attempt profundity but fail...

Being upset by friends is something that we all probably go through in our lives.

By the time you get to my age (mid thirties if you must know!) most people have seen friends come and go and siphoned out the ones that are flakey, fakey, or emotionally draining and have a nice solid collection of close, reliable, loving people that you could trust with your life, and you would do anything for.

More like family.

Families have ups and downs too though.

So what happens when your "family" - or a few of them in this case - upset you and they don't even realise?

That's the situation I've been in recently, and I've dealt with it the way I tend to deal with things like this - I've distanced myself from the situation and those who have hurt me.

It's a natural thing to do, and I'm particularly good at it unfortunately.

The problem with dealing with it in this way (and I think it's because I've changed a lot as a person over the last few years) is that I'm then left with the burden of conscience. Thinking and thinking and dwelling on the situation.

(That's not healthy by the way.)

But more annoyingly, in the end, I always seem to be the bigger person and brush it aside and just get on with it, reconciling differences (where differences are reconcilable) in my head and putting it down to just being a nice guy.

Being a nice guy never got me anything until later in life*, so there is some truth in the saying 'nice guys finish last' and the thing that is eating me up right now is that when I see the people that hurt me, I'll just do what I always do and act like nothing's happened because they're my "family" and it's my job to protect them from being hurt or upset themselves.


On a side note, I must add that I have the best friends I could have ever wished for in my life. Nobody's perfect - especially me.




* I have to say, the rewards of being a nice guy really are worth the wait!

Pepper - Ohana - Super quick album review

I'd almost forgotten about Hawaiian ska-reggae-punk band Pepper.

It seemed like they had all but disappeared from my life, aside from the odd pointless 'bands in town' demand emails I kept getting over the last few years.

Luckily though, whilst using Spotify's awesome 'discover' feature, I stumbled upon the new Pepper album, Ohana.

I love it.

It's got all of the elements I love Pepper for - with the exception of the departure of their more ska-punky songs.

It's laid back, full of summer vibes, yet still full of bouncing ska/reggae infused energy. The lead vocalist has one of the best voices I've ever heard - when I originally discovered Pepper many years ago I was convinced it was Brad from Sublime doing vocals!

As I said, this review is super quick, but my favourite tracks on Ohana are:

Reckless
Start You Up
Wait
Big Mistake

2008 was their last album 'Pink Crustaceans and Good Vibrations' - and not a great one at that, with a half decent e.p 'Stitches' in 2010. They allegedly released a self titled album in 2013, but I can't find any concrete evidence of this.

Anyhow, Ohana is great, and in perfect time for the summer. 6 out of 7 from me.

Alborosie - Freedom & Fyah - Album Review

Today has been a good day.

It started with finding a fully working 40" Samsung TV. Nice.

Then I got my hair cut. Nice.

Then when I got home, I logged on to Spotify and FINALLY the new Alborosie album Freedom & Fyah was sitting there waiting for my ears.

Having heard the single 'Fly' a couple of days ago and being pretty disappointed with it because of the horrendous overuse of autotune on it, I was actually dreading hearing the new album.

I'm going to talk a bit more about the autotune thing in a minute, but for now I'll let you know what I think about the album as a whole. It's been three years since Alborosie's last album 'Sound the System', which was a corker. Just about every track on the album is great.

Two years before that album came '2 Times Revolution' which was also really good and had a hefty amount of cracking reggae tunes on it, and was a welcomed follow up to 2009's 'Escape from Babylon' which was the first taste I had of Alborosie, and he immediately became one of my favourite contemporary reggae artists, and he is by far the most authentic white reggae artist that I listen to.

Read about him here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alborosie I can't be bothered to tell you about him.

Over the last year or so there have been a few tracks released by Albo, and it kept me in suspense, really excited for the new album which I have listened to three times already today - so that tells you it's good already.

It does lack some of the catchiness that I've become used to from Alborosie, but nevertheless, the album is consistant and has been more or less worth the wait.

My favourite tracks are 'Rich' and 'Poser' which are probably the albums strongest, catchiest tracks.

My biggest criticism of the album, and not just Alborosie's - I'm talking about a lot of current reggae artists here too - there's just way too much autotune used throughout the album. When used sparingly, and well, autotune has its uses and place within music (never thought I'd hear myself say that!) but seriously, it's to the point of overkill here, and that made me a bit sad.

Alborosie can sing, so why not just sing the parts instead of singing them and then murdering them with the autotune? For me, it's honestly enough to shorten my listening span of this album, and although he's used it on pretty much all of his albums to a degree, this one just takes it too far.

The man can sing, and has a great voice, but honestly, if you can't sing a certain melody well, get that person that's featuring on your song to do it!

Anyway, I'll shut up about it now, but reggae artists - please please please put the autotune to rest and leave that to Ke$ha and the other artists who need it in the mainstream charts.

As with all of Alborosie's previous albums, this one is really well produced and mixed - Albo has an incredible knowledge of reggae production and there are some amazing videos on YouTube of him in his studio mixing some tunes and it's hypnotising to watch him do. His dub albums are also great - check out 'Dub of Thrones' your ears will thank me if you like a bit of dub reggae!

The only thing I felt this album was truly missing was the little bit of rocksteady/ska that he usually manages to squeeze in on at least one track, the song 'Goodbye' featuring Nina Zilli on his last album is an ear worm for sure.

All in all, my ears were most pleased with 'Freedom & Fyah' but as with all of the albums I've been waiting for that have come out this year, I just hope the wait for another one isn't too long.

I'm giving this album 5 out of 7, it might've got a 6 if it wasn't for the autotune overkill.

I'm no Kit Harrington but...

...it dawned on me the other day that I essentially went through exactly what his character Jon Snow did.

Just like Jon, I'm a loyal, caring, hard working and just person who served his cause and people with honesty and integrity, and yet in the end everything and everyone turned on him and murdered him.

This happened to me in the not so distant past believe it or not. Well... I wasn't murdered obviously, I'm using it as a metaphor of course.



But then just like Jon Snow... I came back from the dead.

Stronger, and more determined than ever.

Ok, fair enough, we're yet to see that stage yet from ol' Jonny boy (season 6 is being well slow) but I'm sure he's going to spill some well deserved blood.


So, to those who put knives in me, and those who wanted to see me burn...

Karma doesn't discriminate, and she also doesn't fail.

We'll see who has the last laugh.

That elephant in the room is me, and elephants never forget.

The Cat Empire - Rising With The Sun (Album Review)

I was first introduced to the Cat Empire back in 2006-2007.

Back then my band was at the height of its "success", and the guys that told us all about them (an awesome trio called Toupe) had said that we'd love them.

They billed them as a ska infused hip-hop band, and that's exactly how I found them.

But since then, the Cat Empire have evolved and grown and morphed and completely changed.

I saw them live in London in 2008, and they were one of the most incredible bands I've ever seen live. They are so much more than a ska infused hip-hop band. They are an entity.

To see them play with a full orchestra (although my idea of a full orchestra is like, anything beyound a normal brass section and accompanying string instruments!) was out of this world.

Yes, I'd had a "bit" to drink that day, but still, they blew me away. No, I won't be posting pictures of the state of me after that gig.

Anyway, a couple of days ago they released their 7th (?) album, Rising With The Sun.

It's... different.

But actually, it's different in a good way.

So basically, you've got two main vocalists... one who sounds like a less annoying version of the bloke from the Slackers, and the other that sounds like an Australian hitch hiker. One does more melodic singing, the other does more rappy vocals.

Up until album number five (Cinema - which is awesome) the formula was pretty much always; grab a pot, throw a bit of hip-hop in there with some jazz, some ska, some reggae and occasionally some orchestral shizzle in there for good measure, and you've got a Cat Empire album.

Can't go wrong with that, after all, they are one of the best bands I've ever seen live... so much energy, so much soul, so much party (and not your typically stereotyped teenagers-drinking-underage-jumping-in-a-pool-rich-kids-copping-off-with-anything-that-moves type party that you hear in so much music these days) nope, I'm talking proper burning-man "this BBQ where we all randomly appeared at this evening is the best party ever because we're all connected and peace and love n all that shit" type of party.

Yeah.

You might need to re-read those last couple of sentences.

Anyway, I've been looking forward to a new CE album for ages... three years. Well, six actually because the album before this one 'Steal The Light' I didn't particularly like. But I might do now they are back on my radar and my ears are open to them again...

It's a good album, but fans who dropped away after 2010s 'Cinema' might think they aren't worth giving them play time now. I disagree, this album is nice and has most of the elements I like about CE.

No hip-hop flavours in this one though....? Hmm. That's the biggest shame for me, as it's one of the reasons I enjoyed them so much 10 years ago.

TEN YEARS?! Oh my god.

Yes, it's just hit me.

When a ten year time span crops up in your memories as if it was yesterday, it's a shock to the system.

Cat Empire created and hold many happy memories for me. This album is... great, but when I think about how they could/should have evolved in the horrifying ten years that have passed since my ears adopted them, I'm left a little saddened because this new one isn't amazing and really, I wouldn't recommend a noob to listen to this one as their first taste of Cat Empire Awesomeness.

'Midnight', 'Bulls' and 'Wolves' (the latter 2 being released earlier this year as singles) are the best tracks on the album, and had filled me with hope that the rest of the songs might be as good or better - alas, not really.

It's all just kinda... meh after the first three tracks. But somehow, still great, probably just because it's new Cat Empire tracks. I think I feel like "yeah, nice, now hurry up and get a PROPER album out" and all will be fine. But I think that about most bands I've loved and followed every time they bring out a new album.

Maybe I'm just too hard to please.

'Rising With The Sun' (like my boner does) - I give it a (just about) 3 out of 7

Want to read more about the Cat Empire? Here's the wiki page - BOOM

Disney's Zootropolis has melted my mind.

A couple of Wednesday evening's ago I went to the cinema.

'Wow, so what' I hear you say (in my head). But this was no ordinary cinema trip though... it was an experience.

I've seen a fair few films at the cinema that have blown me away over the years, but nothing quite as amazing as the film I saw on that Wednesday.

I went to see Disney's Zootropolis.

Also known as Zootopia in some other countries... I don't know why, although I'm sure there's probably some ridiculous reason.

Anyway, this weekend I went to see it for a second time - it's a rarety for me to want to pay to see a film twice, but I would honestly pay to see it a few more times, because it's amazing.

Both times I saw Zootropolis I lost count of the times the animation, and the absolutely stunning rendered landscapes made my eyes well up out of sheer astonishment. My poor little mind just couldn't quite compute how something so incredible was able to be created.

Animation has come a long long way since I was a kid.

Is it even possible to get any better?!

I'm an illustrator, and have occasionally dabbled with 2D animation, and I can honestly say, I don't think I have the patience to get in to animation properly... the amount of time and effort that goes in to each second is numbing on so many levels, and I can't even begin to think how many hours must have been spent on the animation in Disney's 55th animated feature film, even WITH all the help of modern technology. Then you've got scenery and background characters. My goodness, there's a tonne of them in this film, and when I buy it (it will be my first Blu-Ray purchase ever, yeah I know, that's old-hat now!) I plan to sit and go through it frame by frame.

Buuuuh.

You know what? I wanted to write a really in depth blog about this film and animation in general, but I'm still so blown away by this film I really can't find words to express how amazing it is in so many ways.

So let's just say, you must go and see it. You'll love it for any of a billion reasons, whether it's the animation itself, the great story line, or the contemporary universal message.

I'm so busy at the moment I've barely got time to breathe, let alone write a blog (that nobody will read anyway) but hopefully one day I'll be able to come back to this.

Zootropolis, for me, was an experience - and much like one of the messages in the film; that you can do anything, or be anything you want to be, it makes me so happy to see that the dream I once had as a kid (to be a cartoonist) now offers so many more possibilities in terms of what can be achieved in animation.

Does that even make sense?! No idea. I know what I'm trying to say.

Rating this film a 7 out of 7 wouldn't do it justice.

I'll be long dead before I achieve anything on the scale of awesomeness of this film.