To conclude my EP project, and to mark the official launch, I had decided to perform the whole thing at a live music venue. This on its own was going to be a big task, again due to the incredibly short timescale.
As I mentioned in my EP planning, I have decided on using ‘The Underground’ as my venue of choice. This venue is local, is well suited to my genre, has a fantastic stage, a professional sound rig, and a crowd capacity of around 300 people. There were also many other students who chose this as their venue of choice, so the idea quickly developed into a collaborative night of students who were launching new music.
Here is the official poster for the event:
By the time I had finished my EP fully and had each track mastered, there was just under two weeks until performance day. This meant that I had some intense practice to do.
I kept a log of each practice leading up to the gig in my journal:
“Practice session 1”
“FRIDAY 11th MAY”
“1 hour 30 M=mins on the song ‘covenant'”
“This song is now more or less there, it has mainly just been me refreshing my mind”
“The solo needs some SERIOUS work with regards to timing, particularly with where to come in with the diminished scale”
“Rhythmically this song is fine”
“Practice session 2”
“MONDAY 14th MAY”
“2 hours spent on ‘Covenant’ + ‘In Flames'”
“Covenant is more or less the same as before with regards to solo timing. Rhythmically it’s a push for stamina, but tight”
“In Flames went better than expected. The solo has a real flow and path to follow so it basically just fell into place”
“Need to tidy up the transition from the intro line to the melody line”
“Practice Session 3”
“TUESDAY 15th MAY”
“2 hours on’Covenant’ + ‘In Flames'”
“Still having the same issue with the solo on covenant. It might be time for a different approach?”
“In Flames sounds really good now. It’s just a matter of keeping up to practice with it”
“Practice Log 4”
“FRIDAY 18th MAY”
“1 hour + 30 mins on all three tracks”
“FINALLY sorted the timing on the Covenant solo, and rhythm is up to speed.”
“In Flames is really good, melody sounds perfect now”
“Started with Ricochet, Structure is fine, main issue is the rapid pedal changes between sections. NEEDS WORK”
“Practice session 5”
“SUNDAY 20th MAY (2 hours)”
“In Flames is perfect now”
“Covenant just needs another session”
“Ricochet is still slow in regards to pedal changes, but the song itself is there, one more session should be fine.”
“Practice Log 6”
“Tuesday 22nd May (3 hours)”
“First two tracks are ready”
“I have finally mastered the pedal changed, and I feel confident enough now to perform.”
“FINALLY!”
Mock Performance:
My mock performance was during the afternoon before the actual gig in the Dye House Art Gallery. This was simply just a mock run to make sure that I was fluent with my tracks on stage and ready for the real thing. It was also a chance for my peers to give feedback on my work.
Here is the performance:
This performance was me mainly focusing on making sure I can nail my tracks on stage in front of a live audience, So I focused mainly on my playing over stage presence.
I nailed each track almost perfectly, even managing to impress myself a little bit, and had some really positive feedback regarding my tracks:
Both of these pieces of feedback express the fluidity and confidence in my performance, which is what i was hoping for.
The only improvement to be made is stage presence. Luckily enough, I have performing is my strongest skill, so I had no doubt that I could easily improve on this at the real event.
The Launch Performance:
The launch performance was the most fun I have had playing live yet. It felt so good to be playing my own content and for people to actually be enjoying it.
Here is a video of the final thing:
Straight away, my focal point was to interact with the audience. I did this by announcing myself and my songs, asking the mandatory “are we all having a good time” question as every performing musician should, and with my gestures whilst playing.
Each song went absolutely perfectly, much to my surprise as normally something has to go wrong on stage. I feel as though I had performed each song with confidence and fluidity, and the audience loved it.
The backing tracks worked really well and the audio was all balanced almost perfectly and I was really pleased with the overall sound. I used my own pedal-board while performing, meaning I had the exact settings from my recording process, and therefore making the performance authentic and an accurate representation of my recorded EP.
The only way this could be improved upon I feel, is if it was performed with a live band instead of a backing track. I feel as though this adds a more human feel to a performance, and allows for camaraderie on stage, thus making the performance that more entertaining to watch.
Ultimately this was a really successful launch, and a fitting conclusion to summarise my project. I received an overwhelming amount of positive comments from people in regards to my performance, with many asking me to link them to my EP – meaning that having the extra work towards a launch day performance actually paid off.