Manc based engineering & musical companyera Janet Wolstenhome invited me to play a few tracks live and almost unplugged at her friend’s get-together which turned out to be a thoroly fun creative and otherwise sharing. Despite being rather disabled by my chronic pain, I usually quite cheerfully lug around my dozen or so devices, with their corresponding power adaptors and cables (they’re the hefty bits). i jumped at the chance/excuse of well this is stripped down and not as full/much to rehearse/set up. Played “say trees” (a request, my ode to the abundance and splendour of berlin’s tree population) with only a tarabouka, and first track from my new album called “mammoth mountain” – all strings and scintillating effects in the recordings) on a budget roland keyboard – would have taken the pocket casio had it not been monophonic. I could tell i was communicating more clearly what the songs are essentially about. and i felt really comfortable and relaxed – i thought it would be intense, scary to be so intimate with yer audience. And i got a chance to know them (so it’s not all me, me, me for a change) and even their talents for singing, scriptwriting or playing bodhran. It got me thinking, i like this and hope to do it again. Also resolved to youtube these 2 songs in their stripped down personable-ness as it was mentioned they might be stronger more stripped down.
i first heard steve lawson raving on about this channel of income and playing live outlet for him at the Unconvention panel we shared in 2009 . He has actually set up a site and what i may even hazard to describe as a micro movement, with manifesto and how-to step by step instructions outlined at microgigs.net. He even has an article on his wow-how-does-he-find-the-time-and-energy-to-do-all-this blog steve lawson.net.
Dunno about the price structures, i much prefer a pay as much as u can/want – but great he has a strategy at all. Maybe i may align myself to this micro movement in a not so macro way…
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