Stagefright

I used to get a really bad case of stagefright. I don’t really know why. I’ve always known what I was performing. Knew I looked and sounded good, and had a show well worth the admission cost. But they were still there.
The jitters eventually subsided, but it took a long time. And once they went away, I missed them. I missed the butterflies in my stomach, the nerves for the day before a performance, when I would constantly run the set through my head, ensuring I knew my parts and wondering what I didn’t know I didn’t know. Without them, performing got quite hum-drum. "Okay, it’s time to get back onstage… guitar – lights – put it in autopilot and go."

I haven’t played publicly since 2003. Not including my wedding, where I whipped out Unchained Melody (guitar and vocals) for my bride. And THOSE jitters had nothing to do with the music!

Tomorrow I have a couple of shows with The Boys From County Hell, and the nerves are back. My main concern is that I’m playing Irish folk music, and until 6 months ago I’d never really listened to it. I’ll be playing these 3-set performances of unfamiliar songs without cheat-sheets to hint at the chord changes. I’m sure I’ll be fine, i've done a lot of rehearsing, but there’s always the things that I don’t know I don’t know… Especially for the first performance with a new group.

I’ve got the stagefright jitters, and I like it!

Boys From County Hell - LIVE

Me. Live. Excited.

In ten days, I may betray my British heritage. I’m playing guitar in an upbeat, and somewhat aggressive, Irish folk band. A band which I believe has NO Irish members…

Anyway, it’ll be a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to performing live for the first time in almost a decade (my wedding notwithstanding).

The Boys From County Hell
Saturday, March 17
at The Cloak & Dagger, 394 College St, Toronto
10pm-2am. ish.

Musical Eulogy

My mother passed away almost 2 weeks ago.

I had been writing a song about her, and it's about 1/2 finished. I may leave it as it is, and never play or record it for anyone...

Little Black Dress Fundraiser

I don't know if I've mentioned it, but my wife (Kate Kudelka) is an actor and playwright. Her company (along with partner Lise Maher) Little Black Dress, is hosting a fundraiser to help cover costs for their upcoming piece "Ladies In Waiting." It will be performed in the Toronto Fringe Festival this summer.

LBD has put together a great list of gifts for a raffle (including 5 guitar lessons from yours truly). Quilts, vocal lessons, gift certificates from local establishments, and much more are all up for grabs.

Details are here - check it out! http://www.littleblackdresstheatre.blogspot.com/. All proceeds go to a great cause - the artists, actors, and writers that give Toronto such strong live performances.

Woodshedding & Bloodshedding

Hi,
Remember me? I’m that indie songwriter that you may have heard?
Sorry I’ve been away so long, would you believe me if I said it was all to better the way I give you what I give? It’s partially true…

So what’s been happening? I’ve been quite busy over the last few months. After seeing Bryan Ferry at Casino Rama, and being overwhelmed by guitarist Chris Spedding, I decided to “woodshed” for a while. That’s where a musician isolates himself and focuses on improving his skills. I hadn’t noticed mine slipping until (watching Spedding milk the perfect sounds from his guitar) I thought “I could do that. No, wait, that’s a lie. I USED to be able to do that.” So I’ve spent a lot of my time practicing.

I’ve also started rehearsing with a band called “The Boys From County Hell.” They play Irish folk music (and Pogues-style rock). It’s interesting because I’m totally unfamiliar with these songs. I’m learning them mostly by ear, but having to remember which song is what, what key, what rhythm… and to boot, the songs are all named “the irish somethingorother” or “the whiskey something” or “rover”…
It makes for a confusing time, but I’m loving it. It’s good to be challenged like this. And I’m SHEDDING FLESH AND BLOOD for this. My fingers haven’t split (yet), but I’ve got no feeling left from all the calluses. And I’ve rubbed all the skin from my right forearm from friction against the body of my acoustic guitar! Thankfully it’s been just missing my tattoos. That might change how proud I am of this sacrifice to the music gods…

As for the Matt Swift music, I’m still tweaking the next album. I’m loving these songs so far. There’s one point in “Your Loving Song” where it’s all I can do to not jump or dance!
I’ve written a couple of more songs, and right now I’m trying to decide whether to put them in this 2012 project, or maybe hedge my bets and keep those on the backburner for 2013…

It’s an exciting time, but hard to write about the incremental progress. It looks great to me, but I wonder how much detail anyone else really wants…

Guitar Inadequacy, or The Ferry Supremacy

Last Saturday I saw Bryan Ferry perform at Casino Rama.
I saw Ferry in 1988 - my first concert and the moment I became a fan. In the last 23 years, I was sure I'd built the memory up into this fantastical, fictional account of what was likely a good concert, but not the "be-all, end-all of live music."

Well, if the 2011 show is any indication, I was wrong. The almost 2-hour performance was the best live concert I have EVER seen. Ever, ever, ever. Better than any of the half-dozen David Bowie performances I've attended (and that says something). Better than The X-Pensive Winos, which previously held either the #1 or #2 slot... Just phenominal.

One surprise was how guitar-oriented the setlist was. Another was how impressive Chris Spedding was as one of Ferry's guitarists. I've seen lots of DVD footage of Spedding, and knew it was good. But the lines he played last night were awe-inspiring. I've never seen such intricate slide-guitar skills, for one. Wow, wow, wow.
Now I feel quite the fool for not seeing his rockabilly performance last year at The Cadillac Lounge. His skills put mine to shame.
In fact, he's inspired me to improve my own guitar technique. I have been playing for 23 years now, and have been pretty confident with my abilities: whatever I want to play, I am able to play. Saturday night I saw lines plucked that I COULD NOT repeat. And I want to.

So now it's Tuesday morning. I am sitting in a hotel room with my wife. We're taking a mid-week holiday to celebrate our first anniversary. And my acoustic guitar is sitting in the corner, waiting for me to lay my hands on it. I'm about 5 minutes from that right now...
I WILL become a fantastic guitarist. I will, I will, I will. My plan had been to take piano lessons to improve that facet, but f**k that - the guitar comes first.

Idol Worship

Tonight I'm heading up to Casino Rama to see Bryan Ferry.

In August 1988, a wee lad of 14, my parents had an extra ticket to his Bete Noire tour in Toronto. I agreed to go simply because there was nothing good on TV that night. I hated Ferry and his Roxy Music cohorts. Ugh, that was music my parents listened to. There weren't nearly enough gritty guitars... But I went.
We got to Exhibition Stadium, and I looked at all the middle-aged, middle-class fans with distaste.

The lights dropped, as the steam rose from the audience. As the curtain dropped, the first notes of Limbo started. 60 seconds in I was hooked. I was dancing on my chair for the entire show, a 100% convert. At the end of the show, I elbowed my way to the front of the queue to buy a t-shirt.
I then spent 10 years obsessively listening to Roxy Music and Ferry's solo material. Weathering the barbs of friends who didn't "get it." It wasn't fashionable to like glitter and glam. In the late 90s, it suddenly became trendy, and fellow musicians were jumping on the bandwagon.
For a laugh, i wore my Bete Noire memento to a rehearsal and my drummer gasped "where did you get that?" At the concert, I glibly replied laughing on the inside.
Around that time, his portrait was tattooed on my left forearm, along with similar icons of David Bowie and Keith Richards.

I have spent the last 23 years trying to see him in concert again, and always in vain. The first tour that hit Toronto after '88 found me broke and unable to afford a ticket. The next couple, including Roxy Music's reunion in 2001 (ish), found me forced to be elsewhere.
A few months ago, he announced a North American tour. I noticed that while there was no Canadian gig listed, there was a suspicious 6-day break between New York and Ohio. That's too long a break... I trolled the internet until discovering a sneaky, not-well-publicized stop in Rama.

So now I've got fantastic seats to tonight's show. Prepare to be bombarded with posts about one of my musical idols and more Ferry-inspired music blasting from my studio in the near future.