A mini French Tour with Kristyna Myles

Had a great time in France recently on a mini tour with Kristyna Myles. We arrived in Paris on Wednesday evening and just had enough time for a spot of sight seeing. We had a quick look at Montmarte, one of the oldest churches in Paris, before getting some food and an early night ahead of a busy day.

The next morning we headed to the Eiffel Tower, where Kristyna was filming some footage for an upcoming project. It was great to explore this area. The streets are very wide and there's a lot of space so despite there being a lot of tourists it doesn't feel that busy.

Last time I went to Paris I only saw the Eiffel tower from a distance so it was great to get a bit closer this time. Next time I might even go up it. 

In the afternoon we headed out of Paris to play on LFM, a french radio station. I can't speak a word of french so I didn't really have a clue what was going on, but I think I just about managed to start playing the guitar at the right time. Kristyna is pretty good at french so she was able to understand a lot more. She's even written a song in french called 'Bonne Chance'.

Then it was back to Paris for soundcheck and gig. We played at a great venue called Miz Miz. The gig was loads of fun but for some reason I wasn't feeling nervous at all, and as a result made a few mistakes due to lack of concentration. It's much better to have a healthy dose of nerves to keep focused. The next morning we did a spot of busking by Montmarte before boarding a train to Lyon.

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Recording for Youtube.

I recently filmed four of my tracks for some Youtube videos. I have been writing lots of songs over the last four or five years and have recently been coming up with some that I'm actually happy with.

My voice seems to have improved gradually as I've been doing more writing, although I think I still need a lot of practice in order to be completely comfortable and confident with it. 

The videos were filmed by Little Box 9 who did a great job. Three are just videos of me playing live. The video below, Change It, we had more fun with and tried to make it a bit more quirky. 

I'm hoping to do more solo gigs in the future so will keep you posted. Any feedback on which songs videos you like the best would be greatly appreciated.

Sleeping out for Centrepoint

Photo by Harriet Armstrong

I recently took part in Centrepoint's annual Sleepout, an event where more than 850 people spend a night sleeping on the street in Exchange Square in London, to raise awareness and money for the homeless charity. I was to perform with Kristyna Myles. Eliza Doolittle, Stooshe and comedian Tim Vine were also performing, and Sara Cox from Radio 1 and Richard Madeley were presenting the evening. 

A pic from last years sleepout

Prior to the day I prepared myself for spending a night sleeping out on the street, making sure I had thermals, hats, scarfs, gloves, waterproofs and a sleeping bag. I was advised that it was better to wear lots of thin layers than a few thick ones. I also read that it was good to consume as many calories as possible during the day, so that there would be more to burn off during the cold night. An idea which I found quite pleasing. 

We were to perform at two Centrepoint Sleepout locations during the evening, and after we'd sound checked at Exchange Square we headed to Canary Wharf for the first gig. I felt a bit like Phil Collins at Live Aid, except with a black cab instead of Conchord. The gig at Canary Wharf was great, the crowd were very enthusiastic. After we finished we jumped back in the cab and dashed to venue one. We had to make sure we were there and ready to play by '9:01pm' as it was being filmed for the live 3 hour TV show of the night. Before we played, Kristyna did an interview for the TV show with Sara Cox and Tim Vine. 

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Songs of Praise

Earlier in the year we got the call to record a few tracks for Songs of Praise. The line up was to be Kristyna Myles, Joy Ononokpono singing backing vocals and myself on guitar. Initially there was a bit of negotiation over which songs we would perform; we needed to find some tracks that would suite Kristynas soulful vocal style and also fit into the Songs of Praise criteria. We eventually settled on two Alison Krauss tracks- 'Down in the River to Pray' and 'A Living Prayer', plus one of Kristyna's songs 'Your Love'.

We went into the studio with Adam Speakman to record the tracks so that Songs of Praise could hear the songs in advance. Then the idea was that on the day of filming, Joy and I would mime over the tracks we had already recorded and Kristyna would sing live. 

In Alison Krauss's version of Down in the River to Pray, more and more backing vocals come in throughout the song and the texture gets thicker and thicker. In our version, we tried to vary the texture as much as possible, sometimes having a verse with no guitar, sometimes Joy just singing 'oooh's' and sometimes singing the words in harmony with Kristyna. Joy layered up a few harmonies to give the recording a richer texture like the original. In the end the Songs of Praise team decided it would be better to only have one harmony, as it looked too creepy to have more than one voice coming out of Joys mouth. In Kristyna's song 'Your Love' Kristyna played keys and I was able to play some slide guitar over the top. And in 'A Living Prayer' we changed the style of the original to make it a bit more bluesy, which suited Kristyna's voice better.

A few weeks after recording the songs in the studio we headed to Longton Methodist Central Hall in Stoke for the filming. As we arrived a congregation of pensioners dressed in a myriad of pastel shades were finishing off their hymns. Then it was our turn. 

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Kew Gardens

For a week in July I had the great opportunity to perform at Kew Gardens with Kristyna Myles. We were to be the support act on almost every night. The headline acts were Status Quo, The Straits, Chic, M-People, Tim Minchin, Pink Martini, Nerina Pallot, Will Young, Los Lobos and The Gypsy Kings. It was an incredible collection of acts to share a stage with.

After arriving on the first day we were shown to our dressing room which turned out to be a massive greenhouse full of tropical plants. Probably the best dressing room ever. We then walked through a series of greenhouses to the stage for soundcheck.

Kristyna and I were performing the gig as a duo. I had wondered how we would come across, playing to a large outdoor crowd every night. The audiences were in the region of 7000 people. When we first started performing as a duo, Kristyna sang and I played the guitar. Gradually we've added more and more weapons to our arsenal; Kristyna plays the keys now and I sing backing vocals. I also play a stomp box (which sounds like a bass drum) with one foot, and a tambourine with the other. People have said we create a really full sound for just two people, and it certainly didn't seem to be an issue at Kew, where the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Next year I have decided to head-butt a triangle to enhance the sound even further.

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Channel 5 and a Busking Tour

I've had quite a busy summer of touring and gigs, so I've been neglecting my blog a little bit. I thought I'd try and catch up by looking back to the start of the summer, and a busking tour we did. Hopefully I'll be able to remember it all.

After Kristyna Myles was featured in some national papers, we were asked to perform live on The Myleene Klass show on Channel 5. This was the first time I'd done a live national TV performance so I was slightly nervous. It was all very surreal in the green room as members of S-Club 7 and various other celebrities came and went. A woman came in and called me in to make-up, to try and stop me looking too 'pasty'. 

Myleene was lovely and had a chat with Kristyna before the show to put her at ease. In her interview, Kristyna spoke about her record deal, and the upcoming busking tour to raise money for the homeless charity Centrepoint. She seemed very confident and relaxed like she'd been doing TV interviews for years. Then it was time to perform an acoustic version of Kristynas single 'I'm Not Going Back'. The TV show had requested that the performance was just over two minutes, so we'd worked out an arrangement of the tune that fitted into these time restraints. We had twenty seconds to get into position while they played a clip. And then we were off....

I can't remember much about the two minutes but when I watched it back it seemed to be ok. Someone said I couldn't have looked more relieved as i strummed the final chord, safe in the knowledge that I hadn't messed up. All in all it was a great experience. After the show I watched as Myleene Klass recorded three trailers for future shows, rattling through the words on the auto cue without slipping up, while a crowd of people waited to get a photo with her and T4 were banging on the door as they had the studio booked next. All after being live on the TV for three hours. I decided being a TV presenter looked like a fairly stressful job. 

The next day we kicked off our busking tour. The idea was to busk in different cities all over the UK to raise money for the homeless charity Centrepoint, while fitting in as many radio stations as we could along the way. In the evenings we would perform at Malmaison hotels in each city, and this would serve as a showcase for the local press to come and see us perform. 

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Busking Tips

I thought I'd write a blog and share some of my experiences of busking. Hopefully it's good advice and will help people who are thinking of going busking for the first time. After Uni I went busking for a couple of years with Kristyna Myles to make a living, and now we're travelling around the U.K. raising money for the charity Centrepoint. 

1.  There's no point in busking without amplification. -  Unless you're playing a saxophone or another instrument with a lot of natural volume, it can be very difficult to be heard in a busy city. When we first started out Kristyna and I tried busking unamplified in the Manchester Christmas Markets and couldn't be heard from just a few feet away. We barely made enough money to cover the parking.
2. Get a car battery- Although you can get some battery powered amplifiers, most of these seem to run out of power quickly and sound distorted. We used a car battery attached to an inverter, which converts DC to AC. The best type of car battery is a gel leisure battery which are used for golf buggies etc. If you use a normal car battery the acid will soon burn little holes in all of your clothes. For an amplifier, I can't recommend the Roland AC30 highly enough. It has two channels, one for a guitar and one for a microphone.
3. Other useful gear- A compact camping stool means that you can sit anywhere and don't need to rely on finding a bench. A trolley is important for carting all the gear around as it can weigh quite a lot. A battery charger for obvious reasons. If you're planning on reading music, take some pegs so that the wind doesn't blow it away. Fingerless gloves can help with guitar playing in icy conditions. A bag to store the money in afterwards can be useful.
4. Check the weather forecast- There's no point setting out if there's going to be torrential rain all day. Unless you can find some cover to busk under, but even then people are likely to be wet, miserable and less generous.
5. Two's company- Busking on your own has the advantage that you don't have to split the money. But if you go with two or more people it means one person can watch the gear while the other can buy food/drinks and take a toilet break, especially if you're making a day of it. It also makes you less vulnerable if there are more of you. 
6. Be safe- Keep all your gear where you can see it. Empty the money out of the guitar case every now and again and hide it away. Busking at night can be more intimidating as people have had a few drinks and can be a bit 'lively'. We never had anything too serious happen to us. Kids threw sweets at our heads. Someone crept up to me and shouted 'BOO' in my ear which made me jump out of my skin, much to the amusement of the crowd that had built up. Occasionally people would make as if they were putting money in but actually slyly take money out. But generally the good outweighs the bad. And if you're busking in a busy town centre there will be a lot of people around if anything serious does happen. Click JUMP to read on