Saturday 14 April 2012

Christie Connor Vernal session video and other news

Time for some more blabber about what I've been up to. A couple of weeks ago I was commissioned to do a video for my good friend Roddy Macaudio who was recording a couple of demo tracks for up and coming artist Christie Connor Vernal at the under construction Titan Studios West in Clydebank. Before I get started properly let me just say that this studio is going to be awesome when it is finished and any band or artist who take themselves seriously should be recording there. So with the shameless plug out of the way lets get on to the video. At the time of writing this it has had a fair amount of attention with nearly 1000 views in under a week which I'll admit is no Justin Bieber (who's success is proof that people are morons) but it is quite substantial. Most of this can be attributed to the fact superb quality of the recording and Christie's tremendous voice and song writing, but here I'll gladly take my third of the credit. Well actually it should be the medium of video that deserves the credit. Roddy and I discussed this at length during the process of the collaboration and we agree that the way people digest music is through video. We connect with things a lot more when we see the artist perform. Again I refer you back to Justin Beiber (douche). I'm not trying to downplay the recording or the musicianship they will always be more important but in this day and age video is a must. It seems though that musicians for the most part are slow to catch on to this or if they have are content to post mobile phone footage of them playing a track. One in a million times this will get them noticed but in the rest of the 999,999 cases it just makes them look like complete amateurs. This is where someone like myself comes in. Even something as simple as a well shot session video is enough to make a recording artist or band look a million times more professional and in this world if you are perceived as professional you ARE professional. So my advice to musicians, stop playing about with mobile phones and DIY recordings and intelligently spend a bit of cash to get a professional recording done with Roddy and have it filmed by myself. Feel free to check out the video below.



Last week I also attended the Breast Way Round charity event in Ayr at Harleys. The reason for doing so was to film another interview for my Youtube channel Metal Outlaw TV. This time I was interviewing the new look Attica Rage and getting to know their new bassist Colin Wilson. The interview went okay and featured camera work almost entirely done by my little brother, Keith. I thought it would be a good opportunity to give him a bit of experience... actually that is a massive lie. I really just fancied checking out a blonde getting in to the music across the room from me. If only I wasn't accompanied by my mum and she wasn't accompanied by hers I might plucked up the guts to actually chat her up. Probably best that didn't happen my chat up skills are famously poor. Anyway, back to the video. The whole point of Metal Outlaw TV is to create exposure for hard rock and metal bands through video. I'm doing this because 1. No one is doing this properly in Scotland and 2. The grass roots scene needs as much support as it can get. I actually know people who will not check out a band at the club level because of the, "they can't be good if they are playing in front of 100 people" logic. Quite frankly they are idiots. I have often been quoted saying, "Success and talent are in no way shape or form linked." It's a fact people. Just watch the Christie video and ask yourself, "is she more talented than Cheryl Cole?" Or if you are a fan of comedy ask yourself, "why isn't Billy Kirkwood better known than Russell Brand?" Or if you are in to film ask yourself, "why is Uwe Boll allowed to make terrible video game adaptations?" I rest my case. Anyway, back on topic, I hope you all support the channel and help it grow. Bands who want filmed should not be shy about getting in touch. I get content, you get content and viewers get content. We're all winners. Check out the Attica vid below (apologies about the video glitches. This happened while uploading to youtube.)