the 7TH CARBON LOGIC WINNER has been announced !

Guest judge Jonny Goodwillie (Catskills Records) has been stalling, giving us the run around, ignoring our calls and avoiding us at all costs.

In his own words "All of the top 10 were of an amazingly high standard, I truly feel any of them are deserving of a deal in some form or another, I only wish we could have had 10 winners."

Finally we caught Jonny and painfully extracted his ONE chosen WINNER - ME!

This is what he said about it all:

"To be honest I was gutted to find out just a few days ago that the ATP guys were from Brighton. As soon as I first heard the track I was sure it would be a potential winner, the combination of the electronic production against Frank Turner's vocal was just amazing and I listened to it 4 times back to back. After spending a few days agonising over whether it would be seen as nepotism to vote my winner from my home town, I realised that it mattered not, it's about the music and this is simply my favourite track, and also I see that I can offer ATP a lot of help with the release of their debut album."

So what do I win? The competition prize is two packages worth over £600.00 of professional consultation from The Independent Label Scheme on how to jumpstart my career.

7th Carbon Logic Competition Prize from The Independent Label Scheme;

1. Legal and Business Affairs package:

It's run by Dean Marsh & Co and is aimed at those setting up a new business, whether you are a budding Alan McGee, a new artist, or a manager throwing the dice. We can help you set it up simply and cheaply. We have an initial consultation either face to face or on the phone. We answer any initial questions and provide relevant advice. We show you how to set up a limited company (that involves a fee to a company formation agent of about £100 unless you go the whole hog and do it yourself on the companies house web site). We can supply the necessary agreements (recording agreements, publishing agreements, producer agreements, remixer agreements, band membership agreements, website T&Cs and investment agreements. etc). The package covers up to 2 agreements, beyond that there is an additional fee.

If you are an artist then we advocate that you enter into an agreement assigning the copyright in your recordings and your songs to your new company. This will enable you to use this as your service vehicle retaining ownership of copyright and instead granting licences for fixed periods of time. It can also offer up an investment opportunity in your music. We have developed a new business model to allow you to seek investment in your music by offering a share of the net profits to fans, brand, friends and family in return for a share of the of the profits.


2. Jumpstart package:

ILS will listen to your music then make an appointment for you to see him or call him and discuss everything relating to your planned release. ILS can offer advise on releasing the right songs, guidance on who you will need to work with to make the most of your opportunities, explain how to manufacture your album, offer advice on making sure that your online presence is strong, offer a general description on the different aspects of the music industry and generally making sure you are in shape for the imminent release of your music. ILS is independent of any other company, the advice you receive will be unbiased. After this initial phone call or meeting ILS will draw up a report with their recommendations and guidelines of what you will need to do next including, but not limited to the following…

• A basic A&R report on how strong we feel your music is and what's the best way to proceed
• A guide on how to register your music with the Royalty Societies
• A simple profit and loss spreadsheet so you can understand exactly how much it costs to release your single or album and the expected return
• How to go about getting your record or CD manufactured and potential discounts
• Offer across the board advice on how best to market your release with your budget in mind
• Explain the different ways of plugging your music< • Provide information of different ways of distributing your music • Information on the different digital options to sell your music • How to strategise the release of you record plus timelines to illustrate the different aspects of release in the lead up to the release date
So All in All thats pretty amazing! and I am one happy Cat. 

2009 really could be the year of the pigeons!

http://carbonlogic.co.uk/judge/7

ATPRMX003 - The Collector FLCKR

I was asked by a band called The Collector to make a remix of one of their tracks. The band based in Horsham, Sussex are a fairly mellow acoustic affair, so I was not sure how the remix would turn out.

Simon from the band sent me a load of their tracks to listen to and I picked one called Flicker to remix. The results are now up on the ATPRMX Myspace site - linked below - and I must say I am rather happy with it. Go take a listen.

As always more to come...See you on the other side.

www.myspace.com/amongstthepigeonsremixes

99.9%

Two nights ago I recorded the vocals for the final track on my album. Since then I have cut them up, added effects, and done all kinds of things to them. As such I have now 99.9% finished my debut album.

This morning whilst on a very early train up to London I listened to the album all the way through from start to, finish and I must say I am rather happy with it. There are a few tiny little tweaks that need to be done but on the whole its FINISHED!

In the new year I will be getting it mixed and mastered and then getting it put on iTunes (and similar), getting CDs pressed and also making some tapes for all the old school people out there.

At the moment I would say that the album will most likely be available for you to buy around Easter/Spring time! I will do more posts between now and then and may soon give you the full track listing, artwork etc ..... maybe.

I have also been working on another new remix for a local band called The Collector. I hope to have that finished next week so will let you know once I have and where you can go to listen to it.

Until then - stay warm, stay happy. Peace and Feathers!

x 

Magic People, Pigeon People

On Friday night I took to the decks in a tiny club in Brighton; Tom's Gallery. The night was put on by Brighton promoters Club Mayhem.

My set was due to start at Midnight but started about thirty minutes later after trying to find a power lead for one of the decks. Once that was found I spent a minute getting used to the mixer and then began my set.

I have made a little track that I plan to play whenever I play live or do a DJ set. Its based on the opening track of my album but with a few more beats under it. So I started the set with that and merged it into a brief bit of pigeon sounding circus beats, then some Old Orleans Jazz before uping the tempo with a track called Tension by my heros Orbital.

The following hour took some major twists and turns, focusing on dance, hip-hop and d'n'b for the middle of the set and then towards the end I played some jazzy, soulful numbers, a bit of Disney and some classics like Hendrix and The Beatles.

It would be fair to say that everyone in that little room (probably about 50 people) was dancing their nuts off. I was dancing behind the decks and can't wait to do it again.

Alongside the music I also unleashed the first wave of ATP Pigeon Masks. They were more popular than drugs, people kept asking for more until the first batch ran out. In fact they were so popular that I will have to make more for the next ATP outing and may put the design on my website as a pdf for people to download.

Anyway ... Photos of the night are up on myspace

Hopefully see you at the next ATP outing! x

They've gone their own way....

I spent the weekend just gone having the above words going round and round in my head. They are part of a sing called Love Pigeons which will be on the album. My good friend Ollie provided the vocals to me on Friday. He is currently travelling South East Asia and recorded the vocals whilst travelling (on his phone), he emailed them over to me and I have been cutting up 7 tracks of vocals and adding effects, moving bits around and making the song sound damn sexy!

When you make music you seem to spend a lot of time listening to tiny bits of the songs over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. In this case I was working on the last 40 seconds of the track in which Ollie sings 'They've gone their own way'.

I have tried as much as possible to not be there when people record the vocals for the songs. I love the idea of people recording them away from me and then putting the whole thing together. As I say, Ollies vocals were recorded in South East Asia. My friend Tim recorded his vocal track whilst in Spain and others have done the same.

The other good thing about working on Love Pigeons is that once this is finished it leaves me with just one final track to finish and then the album is done. I have (currently) spent just over a year on this album and even though I love it, I cant wait to finish it off and start work on LP2.

I have also been cunning in the way I made this album - the last track I have to finish is the last track on the album ..... so more on that soon!

x

All quiet on the pigeon front

It's been a little while since I last did a Blog. The reason for this is that it has been pretty quiet here at ATP HQ. The debut album is pretty much done. I just need to finish of two tracks and have been waiting to get the vocals for them. So once I have them I will do some magical tinkering and hopefully get the album mastered at the end of the year.

But in other news I have purchased an electric drum kit so will be spending a fair amount of time learning how to play drums and try to use this on the live shows and LP2.

Also dont forget I have a DJ Set in Brighton next Friday 28th November - I start at Midnight!

Demo Review - Rock Migets

I have been sending out a few of my demos to try and get some reviews in order to use them on my press release. Today whilst hunting the net I found my first proper review.

Now I must point out that this review is from a site called 'Rock Midgets' which mainly deals in only rock music. Ruth (the lady that runs the site) warned me of this before I sent the demo but I said I would like to see what the reviewers think anyway.

I have posted the review below.

I think its a fair review but still positive. The CD was listened to and reviewed by someone who likes Rock music and is not so keen on dance.

I will be sending out more demos over the next few months and hope to get one into MixMag via a contact I have made.

Its not often you'll find something championed by Radio 1's Rob Da Bank on these pages, but then music full of these kinds of blips, beats and breaks rarely involve guest appearances and samples from Frank Turner, Beans On Toast or Massive Attack vocalist Debbie Clare. The results of investigating this four track demo are positive; whilst this will not convert the many opposed to button-pushing music as opposed to acts using 'real' instrumentation, the home-made-sounding beats are appealing. Relaxed to the level of chill-out, the layers, skittering beats and radio-transmission samples of excellently titled 'Trouble On The Deathstar' will raise smiles though not the heart rate. The distant sounds of brass add interest to 'Wings Wings Beat'. But it's the odd beats of and haunting singing of Frank Turner that makes 'Larkin About' the highlight. This doesn't rock, but there's something engaging about these ever so slightly blissful tracks that make Amongst The Pigeons well worth keeping an eye on.

http://www.rockmidgets.com/releases.php?&id=3046

...and straight in at Number One!

In Brighton (the place I live) we have a magazine called Latest Homes. In this magazine they have all of the houses for sale and flats for rent. On the flip side there is another magazine called Latest 7 and a few months ago they started having a music chart for local bands. I uploaded one of my demos and not much happened until last week when upon looking in the said magazine I had reached the top of the charts.

Now this week I imagine I have slipped in the top 10 but wanted to get back up to the top again. So this is where you come in. At the bottom of this post I have put a link to my track on the latest 7 music chart and upon pressing play you can cast your vote.

I thank you in advance!

Click here to listen to Deep Housey and to Vote for me

(Re)Mixing It Up

By now I am sure you know that I make music. I put it under the general heading of dance music but I dont know if that is a fair description.

I also do remixes for other musicians. So far I have made two. Over time I want to make more as I really enjoy brakeing down all the parts and then putting them back together in an ATP style. It's like creating some kind of DNA monster. Adding bits, taking bits away, changing parts and generally trying to take the work of someone else and adding my style to it.

The first remix I did was for a band called Miss Pain, they are a Brighton band and I made a remix for one of their songs called 'Kiss, Cuddle, Torture.

Then last week I remixed a track called 'Negative Thinking' by a band called Largo.

I have also been asked to do remixes for some other local bands and will be working on these soon. In order to let people hear my remixes I have set up a myspace page with my ATPRMXs on. The link is at the bottom of this post.

The nice thing about doing these remixes is that it allows me to take a break from working on my own tracks. I can do something slightly different, yet similar at the same time.

Eventually I plan on releaseing these remixes as part of an EP or if I have enough maybe a full album. There is also a numbering system to the remixes I make. The first one was called ATPRMX001, the second one ATPRMX002. You get the idea. I like to keep things organised.

I will add blog posts as time goes on to let you know when new remixes appear. But for now check out the two currently online and if you are a band after a remix please do get in touch.

http://www.myspace.com/amongstthepigeonsremixes

A date for your Diary : 28.11.08

I was once someone else, I used to be a different type of musician. One that played guitar and sung folky songs. For now that's not me. For now I am Amongst The Pigeons.

Yes it is true that I used to write, record and gig under a different name and whilst doing so I released 9 ep/lps and played over 50 gigs.

I miss playing live and hope to get the Amongst The Pigeons live show ready for early 2009 to coincide with the LP coming out. So if you are a person that books gigs keep that in mind.

Alongside this however I can and do DJ. I have not done a DJ set for quite some time but have been asked to do one on Friday 28th November 2008 @ The Prince Albert pub in Brighton.

This will be the first ATP outing in quite sometime. I will be doing a mix of dance/easy listening and will most likely drop a few of my own tunes in too.

So ladies and gents get your dancing shoes on and come down. There will be more info coming in the next few weeks and the night looks really good - there will be other DJs and bands and I will hopefully be doing a live set there in Jan/Feb time!

I am excited to get getting out .... It's been too long. Way too long!