March 2024 Blog Post: More Better Than The Book album and live updates, back on the radio + 9 more YouTube Videos including a teaser from the new album + more!

Hi everyone and hope you had a great leap day yesterday! It's March (man oh man this year is going by fast...) and time for another update!

In the news for this month, 3 more Better Than The Book mixes were completed (aaaaaalmost 4) which puts mixing at about 75% done now apart from final checks and tweaks! These final mixes are getting trickier as they branch out into more complex styles, but it's been a fun ride putting them together! 4 left to go so I'm hoping they'll all be at that final checking and tweaking stage by the next update, but we'll see how it goes!

Carrying on with some more BTTB news, it's been another busy month training and practicing for gigging and after a period of uncertainty, I can confirm that Better Than The Book's first full band practice since January 2020 will be happening on March 9th! The studio is booked and I cannot express how excited I am for it! We've prepped 10 tracks (a mix of new and old) to run through and see how we do and hopefully (depending on the results) it'll be the first step to FINALLY getting some gigs booked in later this year. Hoping to grab some footage to share on YouTube while we're there. I cannot wait!

In other news after many months of putting it off, I finally got around to servicing the electronics on my homemade Satin-X doubleneck and I really don't know why I keep putting it off because it's SOOO much nicer to play after I do it! The neck switch was cleaned for the first time in probably 18 years(?!) and it's guillotine switching so smoothly and reliably now! After going through a few different brands of contact cleaner, it seems like Kontakt10 (Servisol) is the winner for getting the dust and scratchiness out of the pots too! We'll see how time tells in terms of the longevity, but it's been super reliable so far! Next on the long-overdue-and-put-off-things-to-service list are the homemade Retro Rotary leslie speaker which was due for oiling last May I think.... oof... (it's a pain, but good too keep on top of it even if it is running smoothly (at the moment)), and the Jazz bass which needs a complete overhaul on the control electronics! All the new parts have been ordered so the latter will definitely be something for the month to come with the former a hopeful shout as well! Wish me luck!

Back to BTTB news and I'm super happy to share that Button Down Radio is still giving the Hopes and Dreams album some love even after all these years! Thanks so much for playing "The Hardest Part" on the show next to some top class Ska acts from around the world! It's always a pleasure and an honour:

https://www.facebook.com/buttondownradio5446/posts/pfbid02ouqjH4sXm7xb8tfKG2zpfMp4ELWh22npsWkropLjkVQ7vqkrHvrAJg6DzeRBWEaxl

Finally for this month's news, it's onto the gear and guitar videos for the month as usual and it's another 2-a-week packed playlist for you! Not much guitar this time actually but there's a whole bunch of other fun things instead concluding with a teaser from the upcoming Better Than The Book album! Here's the usual playlist link with the added videos:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWEmqIhrNPvQTBoOjZdKLgL4ecTvLz6sm

And here's a list of the latest additions:

• Cécile Corbel - Our House Below - Balalaika cover (from Studio Ghibli Arrietty)
• Ahhh Scratch Akai MPC1000
• White Noise Scratching Akai MPC1000
• Roland TR-08 + Korg NTS-1 = Drone Machine!
• Pink Floyd - The Wall - In The Flesh? Intro Melodica Cover
• The Yardbirds / Graham Gouldman - Heart Full of Soul Acoustic Cover
• Organ Overdrive with the Orange Amps Micro Dark
• P.O.D. - Youth of the Nation Intro cover on Yamaha Reface CP
• Better Than The Book upcoming album teaser: Mixing "Hearts Racing Backwards"

We'll be taking a beat based detour for most of next month before returning to some good old metal guitar! Hope you enjoy it and there's more to come every Thursday and Sunday as usual!

That about wraps things up for this month unless you're a $10 Patreon Supporter in which case you have another exclusive mix demo from the upcoming BTTB album to look forward to (a track called "Rewrite")! Looks like I'll be mostly busy mixing Better Than The Book, doing more live show practice, recording more videos, and servicing equipment, so no doubt it's going to be a jam packed month before I have my taxes to look forward to in April! JOY! In any case I hope you have a great month ahead and thanks as always for supporting my music and projects however you can! Fun times are 'acomin'!!! Hope you're as excited as I am, and take care!

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