Life.

It’s so short, don’t you think?

Blink and you miss it. Whether someone is on the planet for 9 years or 90 years, it flashes past in the blink of an eye, and before you know it, they’ve come and gone. Feels like forever, but our existence is a mote in the eye of the universe.

I was reminded of this forcefully this week, when I heard the news that Lucretia, aka The Knife Lady, a blogger who has spent years writing incisive, sharp-witted articles about the music industry, had passed away.

I was lucky enough to meet her once, at a gig where, admittedly, none of us were at our best. It was held in a small, cluttered pub in York, packed with students and an excitable, chatty after-work crowd, very much not conducive to a thoughtful, acoustic music experience. She had travelled a long way and was tired and stressed about housemoving (and, I now understand, symptoms of terminal illness), and I was feeling lousy with flu and had a lift home in a warm car waiting for me – a blessing when normally I wheel or carry my keyboard and stand across York.

So, to my regret, what should have been a cosy post-performance chat with a pint in hand, enjoying the acts that followed, became a rushed dash for the exit, a breathless “nice to meet you, but I have to go now”.

Hindsight, of course, is 20/20. We never know until after the fact that we should have done things differently. That night, I was focused on how tired I was, how early I had to be up the next day, how I was afraid that my flu would lead to missed work, lost earnings and all manner of other small issues.

If I had known that would be the only chance I got to meet her, I would have made different choices.

Here’s what I knew about Lucretia.

Her real name was Sarah. She was an avid music lover and supported many artists on the crowdfunding site, Sellaband. This was how I originally came to know about her in fact, she followed my progress in the short time I had an account on there. She started blogging as The Knifelady in 2008, and reviewed dozens upon dozens of artists, as well as making observations about the music industry in general. We didn’t always see eye to eye, but she always had something valuable to say, and I found myself agreeing with her more often than not.

She was devilishly good at chess. She played for Buckinghamshire as a teenager, beating both AI and human opponents.

She worked in software development, loved gaming, and had a particular fetish for rock/metal from Finland.

She was honest. Brutally, painfully honest. Knifelady was an appropriate moniker.

I’m not sure how our friendship would have developed had her life not been ended, far too soon, by cancer. I’m pretty blunt, in contrast to her hatchetry, and its entirely possible that we’d have butted heads and clashed, our respective opinions like opposing weather fronts, causing thunderous downpours all around us. It’s also entirely possible that had things been different, had she lived, we’d have ended up at gigs, drinks in hand, putting the music world to rights. That would have been awesome. Somewhere, in another lifetime, I like to think it is. And I hope that wherever she is, with her perspective altered by her entirely new state of being, I hope that she forgives me for not having the time that night. For being in too much of a rush and for missing that chance to get to know her better.

Life.

It’s just too damn short.

Read Full Post »

5 Songs I’d Love to Cover

Hello and happy (if slightly damp) Monday evening to you all.

I’ve been a busy temping bee this week, in week 4 of 7 of my contract as a data herder. These periodic lapses of sanity are necessary for my fiscal well-being, but as you know, I haven’t had time to actualise as many of my musical projects as I’d like and instead I have been making lists of things I’ll do when I have time again…

As the title of this weeks post has probably indicated, I want to talk about covers today. I’ve been slowly learning more, I now have a grand total of four confident covers learned that I can whip out at a moment’s notice (yes, yes, stop sniggering in the cheap seats…). Currently I’m competent to a reasonable degree at:

Braille  – Regina Spector

Exit Ghost – Faderhead

Merry Happy – Kate Nash

Someone Like You – Adele

I’m also halfway to competent at Hallelujah – Leonard Cohen, but that’s still only five songs, and I am feeling the need for a bigger repertoire. Not because I can’t write, but because pub gigs come more easily to people who can entertain the masses on a Saturday night. That said, perhaps these covers that I’d like to do would be too obscure..who knows. Anyway, here are the originals of the 5 covers I would currently most like to learn:

Raspberry Swirl – Tori Amos

The original of this is a full band, gritty, swirly, stompy dream of a track that I’ve danced along to, numerous times. I adore it. I also love the idea of turning it into a mellow, breathy, floaty piano and vocal track.

 

Enjoy the Silence – Depeche Mode

Speaking of the dream king’s girl, I know Tori covered this, and I’d never do as good a job, but I still want to. This has long been one of my favourite tracks ever, and I’d love to see what I could do with it.

 

Iris – The Goo Goo Dolls

I’ve been working on this one for years. I can’t get a decent replication on the piano of the jangly sound of the guitars in the original, so I always give up after trying fruitlessly for a bit to get something reasonable out of it. I think I need courage to do this one. It’s a song that means a lot to me, and I think that makes me afraid to take risks with it, but I will, one day, I will do it.

 

Crucify – Tori Amos

Yes, I know, another Tori song… it’s so deceptive though and it lures me in. Time and time again, I play up until the first chorus and then, then I can’t quite figure out how the rest of it should go. I lack Tori’s technical precision and decades of classical training and experience, so the best I can do is muddle something together that sounds vaguely competent. When I manage that much, I’ll let you know!

 

Bleed It Out – Linkin Park

I’m a sucker for taking a loud, stompy track and giving it a completely different interpretation. This is one track that I think would be incredible done with just piano and vocals. The lyrics are so vivid, it would be interesting to bring them forward more. I haven’t yet worked out the practicality of doing it, but I’m working on it. Shotgun opera, lock and load….

 

And there you have it.

In other news, EP mixing continues, song 6 is nearly actually a song, and everything else is pretty much together now. I’m very excited 🙂 I also played at the Rook and Gaskill in York last Wednesday, as part of Vinnie’s Live In Session, and had the great pleasure of meeting longtime fellow blogger and online friend Lucretia, who was in York for the evening, so this is a shoutout to her 🙂 Vinnie does this night on the last Wednesday of every month and it’s a superb chance to hear four great acts, I highly recommend it (although I highly recommend that you bagsy seats near the performance area at the back of the pub, as the pub does get crowed and hence noisy, early on in the night)

I’m going to sign off now, have a great week, see you next Monday!

Read Full Post »