The Struggle

...Why do I hear so many artists harping on about the "struggle"?... Moaning about how hard it is to make music and get it out there. To me the struggle is a brilliant part of becoming a musician. It's the part where you really learn about what you are doing, and put every bit of passion you have into everything you do. Like a footballer has to josstle for his place in a football team, a musician has to raise his or her game to be recognised. This is the music business, probably the one of the hardest busnesses in the world.

Some musicains and artists moan about struggling so much, it becomes all they talk about, all they think about. Try using the "Struggle" as inspiration. For me it's the most enjoyable part, it's a time to find your strong points, assess your weak points, hone your skills and find your sound. If your going to be a boxer and fight an opponent, you have to train if you want to stand any chance, you can't just jump into the ring with no preperation.

"Struggling" also makes you stronger, shit, things are looking up for me at the moment, but i'm still struggling. The difference is that I love the "Struggle" because every day i'm thinking about how the fuck to get out of it. The music buisness is like a game of chess, you have to be patient and wait your turn. Frustration, depression and anger are themes that run deeply through my productions. Shit, I locked myself away for a year of my life when I first got some recording equipment, i lived off a credit card, smoked copious amounts of ganja, grew a beard and made music every fucking day!... I didn't really have a clue what I was doing, I was just making music that I loved and really didn't give a shit about the bigger picture. That for me was a "struggle" because I took a gamble, but thinking back it was a great moment of my life. For the first time ever I was making music that I wanted to make with no-one telling how I should be doing it. I was in musical heaven, and quite litterally couldn't give a fuck what happened in the future.

My point is to embrace the struggle instead of winging and harping on about it. If you work hard and love what you do, keep doing the same thing, enjoy it, write about it, spill your heart out, the "Struggle" is just the begining, it's what we all go through to become what we are. "Struggle" is standard, your not alone. Remember that.

Drums & SoulP

I promised myself that if can i'll try and write at least a paragraph of stuff a day. So today i'm gonna talk about live drumming. As well as producing music I am originally a drummer, I played on tabletops and ice cream tubs as a kid, but when I was 11, a youth club I attended gave me a drum kit. I had never played an actual drum kit before and I still think about those first moments quite often. I remember setting it up so it looked like the drumkits I'd seen on Top Of The Pops, and when I had set it up, I sat behind it and it just came naturally. I'd never had a lesson (apart from a couple of snare drum technique lessons, parradiddle's, two stroke rolls etc) and the whole thing just seemed so natural, almost as if i'd been playing for years... It was the best feeling in the world, and i'm glad to say, that it still is..

As the next few years past, I played almost every week for one band or another, Rock, Punk, Metal... Anything in fact!... As long as I was playing drums, I really didn't give a shit, as long as I could play. At home I was restricted to 30 minutes after school becuase we had grumpy nieghbours who went mental if I played any longer!

At school I was a dreamer. I used to sit by the window gazing out accross the playing fields imagining what it would be like to be a proffessional drummer. I'd often fantasise that I was going to live some rock and roll lifestyle, filled with late night recording sessions, album tours, beautiful women etc etc... As I said, I was a dreamer.

I'd get home and go straight into the spare room where my drums were set up, i'd go to my Dads Hi Fi and stick in a tape or put on one of his records.. Which didn't work too well as the records always jumped with my kick drum vibrations. I quickly learned that a two pence piece sat on top of the needle cartridge ammended this problem.

I played along to Jeff Lorber, Phil Collins, Bob James, Chris Rea, Level 42, Hall & Oats... You name it, if it gave me goosebumps, I was piping it through the headphones, closing my eyes and playing along. Often imagining I was the drummer playing it at a live show... Sad eh?

Anyways, to cut a long story short, in my early teens I met a bass player with the same passion as me, we loved the same bands and when he sat in his bedroom and played me the Level 42 track "Children Say" bass lick for bass lick, whilst singing, I knew that we were gonna be in a band together... This bass player was a 14 year old kid called Paul Lancaster, you might know him now as Punk Pappa of Wonderlush. We have been friends ever since and have recorded countlesss songs with one an other...

As the years past by, I gradually played drums less and less. I was busy being a teenager, getting drunk, pulling girls and getting into trouble, I played drums now and again for favours, but i'd never found a band that I wanted to be in. I was craving soulful, jazz funk bands, and where I grew up the most soulful you got was "Mustang Sally" ... Then the drumming went dry.

15 years later in 2008, myself Punk Pappa (bass) and another old friend Richard Molyneux (Guitar) got together for a jam. Also at the jam was my good mate Michael Rendall (Jackanory) who is one of the finest keyboard players i've ever heard. Watch out for his name cos this boy is gonna be huge. Trust me.
I hadn't really touched a kit for soooooo long, and neither of us had played as a band before. I had just sent one of my songs to everyone beforehand as a groove reference. We mic'd up the instruments, and pressed record... And this is what happened and it felt so good!

So just to re-cap:

Bass: Punk Pappa
Guitar: Richard Molyneux
Keys: Michael Rendall
Drums: Me, SoulP

Hear what happened, below.

Free Download

To celebrate the launch of Soulacoaster, here's a free download of my Leroy Hutson re edit of "Lucky Fellow" it will be available for 14 days until the link expires. Thanks to everybody that has supported and purchased Soulacoaster so far and if you haven't got it yet, you can by going direct to digisoul @ www.digisoul.co.uk

Download your free "Lucky Fellow" Soulpersona Re Edit here:

http://www.yousendit.com/download/Z01NZHltcWZwM214dnc9PQ

Hope you enjoy reading the blog.

Love & Goodness,

SoulP

Leroy Hutson "Lucky Fellow" SoulP Re-Edit

A little something I did for the love of such a wonderful song. This track gives me goosebumps from start to finish, the lyrics and sentiment are deliciously delivered by the straight talking Mr Hutson. This is the ultimate love song, with no fucking about or word mincing.

...Anyways, I thought I'd take it upon myself to do an extended version with a bit of SoulP flavour to show my respect. If you don't have this man's work already, you can find his albums on itunes, and trust me, you won't be dissapointed.

"I Am Your Mind Part 3" Soulpersona V Roy Ayers

So I was sat here listening to Roy Ayres "I Am Your Mind" Part 1 and 2, and loved it so much, I decided to take a little sample, add some SoulP embelishments and do a Part 3... Enjoy.

SoulP Never Selling Out...

Over the past couple of years i've been noticing many producers and musicians i've respected for a long time a letting go of their soulful roots and prefering to opt for a more commercial sounding musical product. fair enough, the bills must be paid and all that, but to be honest, id rather get a day job that sell out to commercialism.

People who know me well, will know that I have no love for the commercial music industry, this is because I have respect in my art, which might sound pretentious, but when it comes down to music being sold just because of the way and artist or band looks, regardless of their musical talent and ability, it really begins to hit a raw nerve... Pretty much fucks me off if I'm honest!

As a producer, I only want to work with performers and musicians that are truly talented, I dont care if they're fat or thin, ugly or beautiful, all I care about is whether I get goosbumps listening to them. If I do, I know it's the right thing. When I see shows like X Factor, even though 99% of people auditioning are a load of wank, I would never bring it upon myself to degrade these people in front of millions on national TV. These "Wannabee's" are usually from a little town where they have been stars in their own right, winning Karioke compititions and doing little gigs for their friends and family. Even though they are average it's been instilled in them by their family and friends that they are absoloutly amazing, so they turn up to X Factor believing this, as this is all they know, they believe they are fantastic!

A simple "yes your through", or "no your not through" would suffice, but no, this is a TV show, so they will litteraly verbally rape a performer that they think is rubbish. I think this is totally wrong, i've heard people have committed suicide after being axed from the X Factor auditions, and for someone like Cheryl Cole to be telling someone they're not a good singer is quite ironically laughable... You see these poor people look so heartbroken and quite often completely refusing to accept that they're not up to the X factor standard, they believe they are amazing, their friends and family have showered them with praise convincing them they are the next big thing... Then they get their dreams shattered, by Cheryl Cole, Louis Walsh and Simon "the waistband" Cowell... It's wrong!!! Music is something that makes people happy, even if your a rubbish singer and enjoy singing, you go for it, if it makes you feel good, then why not? Just because you can't sing, doesnt mean you can't enjoy it, you just can't do it proffessionally.

My point is, this show reperesents the way commercial music works, I've seen and know really good singers that have tried their luck on X Factor and havent even got through to the TV audition process, it's a fucking joke! Have we really got to accept that music has become a visual format? I'm tired of seeing manufactured bands and artists singing the same sounding bullshit over and over again on daytime TV and national radio, hearing that same tinny popcorn sounding production that 9 times out of 10 comes direct from Apple Loops (As was Rhianna's "Umbrealla" if you didnt know that already) the only acts with any musical ability and talent seem to be our Rock bands, like Kasabian, Kings Of Leon, Oasis etc... Why do majors sign rock bands but not soul bands? I can't understand it. Why hasn't any major label cottened on to the Motown blueprint and philosphy? This was one of the most succsessful record labels of our time and everyone involved in Motown were supa talented, down to the musicians, and most of Motown have either passed away with legendary status, or are still performing with legandary status today.

All I know is, i'm gonna stay true to what I know best, I'm never gonna change my style, and i'm only going to work with people who really move me, whatever their apperance. To me it's about the listening and enjoying of music, couldn't give a fuck about the TV videos and the vanity part of it. So I hereby promise to never sell out and to always keep quality control of my own shit!

Love & Goodness,

SoulP

I present to you "Soulacoaster"

Some people make music purely for the financial gain, a hope of one day selling a million records, to be number one, to be the next "Big Thing" to satisfy the hunger of powerful record labels, to be consumed by the industry and be treated like a superstar, to be able to shmooze with the elite, and go on about how they were born to do it etc etc...

Well, i'm pretty different to that because Soulacoaster was made only for the love of soulful music, not to satisfy any record label, or be fucked about with some dickhead A&R person telling me what tracks I can and can't have on my own album. It's not been constantly diluted with other peoples opinions and it will probably never even see the light of day at your HMV and Amazon.com's. This is not done for the money either, if you can't afford my album, i'd rather you burn it off your mate and just enjoy it.

I make music, to make me happy and to make other people happy. Ideally i'd love to have a live band and take this album on a tour, nothing lavish, just some nice intimate venues, with a good atmosphere, cos this isn't really Wembley Areana kind of stuff. I'd want to fly in all the artists involved and perform the whole album live...

My point is this, from when I started this album up until I completed it, I imagine the whole thing done live, if I had the means to record it live, with live musicians, I would have done, in fact that would have been the best thing ever, but as this album was being done I have worked as a water meter repairer, a long distance van driver, a courier for DHL and a music teacher. I hated every job I had before the teaching!

When I was a driver, I was waking up at 5 sometimes 4am and working all day til 5pm. All i'd think about all day whilst driving were the grooves I was going to make when I got home. I'd get home, and get Logic fired up immediatly and work on Soulacoaster. The fact is most of the music for the album was completed in 3 months, but I wanted to hold out and wait for the vocals come back from singers accross the globe. I didn't want to rush anyone to do this for me as I believe that if it's right, it will be done. Eventually over the 3 year period, the vocals were complete and the very last song "Imagine" with Sibel Thrasher was finished in June. This is when the album was complete. Also, i'd been made redundant as a teacher in June, so that was the reason I decided to get this album together and finished. I'm getting a small run of CD's together and hopefully some great things will come of it, It might open some doors for bigger and better things, I could speculate forever but really, all I care about is that people just enjoy it. I'm proud of this album, and of everyone that took part in it.

So when you listen to it, just remember, it's not meant to be commercial, cos it is what it is. It's music that I have enjoyed making, and music I will continue to make, always and forever....

Thanks for reading...

SoulP

BUY SOULACOASTER RIGHT HERE

First of all, welcome to my blog, you can buy my album right here using this Paypal button below, it's £9.99 with FREE WORLDWIDE shipping.

Thanks for your support and hope you enjoy your "Soulacoaster" ride!

Love & Goodness,

SoulP

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