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Feb 28 2021

TO WHERE I AM NOW

Last day of the month and up early (by my standards) for a sesh with Arctic Lake Tony in Sydney. It was a long one today, when you’ve made a record with someone there’s a lot to discuss. But there’s also a lot to think about when you sing, play the guitar in a live setting and today was the day I promised myself that I would restring my Seagull 12 string. It’s been a while and I was showing Stephen in DC To Where I Am Now (the song) the other day and I realised that the strings were in trouble. When you’re not doing regular shows or recording the guitar can go months without new strings and I can’t even remember when I last changed the strings on this guitar. It’s been on planes and been sitting around in the studio, it’s been three months in Portugal, it has in fact been all over Europe. Since there have been no live shows since last year’s European tour and since I’ve been in the studio working on the Space Summit LP, Arctic Lake EP, and the Ahad Afridi LP, it hasn’t had that much to do (lots of competition with other guitars). Since we’ve been in Portugal, we have done four internet concerts as part of the MOAT – Poison Stream launch campaign with me using this guitar. Now we have four more booked in March and April and the guitar pulled me aside the other day and said, “Really?” and when I looked, the guitar was right, the strings were a disgrace.

When Olivia gets some spare time in between projects she will be editing a video I did for our YouTube channel called How To String a Rickenbacker 12 String. You may consider it to be exciting 12 string nerd fodder but I’m sure it will also be an extremely helpful tool. Today’s task of stringing a Seagull 12 string acoustic is a far simpler exercise although I did have to tighten the nut on 11 of the 12 machine heads (details) and in fact today in one unusual moment of distraction I put the ‘B’ strings where the ‘G’s should be, causing untold trouble. The guitar was furious. I haven’t made a mistake like that for years. I felt like an air traffic controller who in one momentary lack of concentration can cause a disaster. I managed to rescue the situation with pliers and perseverance and eventually had the guitar strung up. Usually, I keep the old strings (I don’t know why, I never use them) but when I saw the state they were in and when I saw the looks the guitar was giving me, I just threw them away.

So the guitar was strung and now it was rehearsal time because this coming Saturday we will be doing the first of four internet concerts and as we have had the idea of ‘you send the setlist’ then there’s always songs on there we need to interpret for 12 string, violin and voice. We can’t do everything that’s asked for but we will have a go at anything so we ask people to send a list of 20 songs, maybe we can do half of them and add some others we know. Today we were rehearsing If I Had A Dream from the first MOAT record, changing the key and doing the same with The Lantern from In Reflection. Some of these songs take some working out arrangement-wise, key, violin parts, lyrics, chords and we spent some hours just working on these two songs. We’ll be working through the week in between seshes and French and blog and breathing and getting the MOAT – Poison Stream music and perks completed and sent out.

Liverpool were playing tonight so we watched them beat Sheffield United 0-2 over dinner. My VPN died in the middle and I had to get in touch with Customer Support to get it working again but I got to see most of the game. Good for Liverpool today as Man U and Chelsea drew 0-0 and Leicester lost 1-3 to Arsenal. After that it was straight into a sesh with Doug in Wappingers Falls and trying to connect the organic creating of the music to the technicality of recording it – we can’t all be Todd Rundgren.

Music today started with Rubber Soul (1965) and that spilled over onto Help! (1965) – a get-going Sunday boost with The Beatles never goes amiss. After that, I got a message from BJM Ricky to buy Phil Parfitt’s record, Mental Home Recordings (2020), so I did.

Then I felt like something uncool so I listened to Heart’s Red Velvet Car (2010) and Dreamboat Annie (1975) but meant to listen to Television‘s Marquee Moon (1977) as Tony was talking about turning a young band he’s met and seen in Sydney called The Moving Stills onto Television because he thought they had some guitar connection and of course they’d never heard of them. But anyway, sometimes more easy mainstream music can be relaxing, seventies Rock over the cool people can be just right after a long, long day and I’m 16 hours of non-stop into this one, so let me listen to Heart (the female Zep), it’s great if you like that kind of thing. Ooh baby mama, yeah! In the meantime check out The Moving Stills – positive, melodic, guitar Pop, something new for you, if you like that kind of thing.

Music Of The Daze

Written by Marty Willson-Piper · Categorized: Blog

Missing

This is my stolen 1965 Rickenbacker 12-string, serial number EB157. If there's any chance of this guitar coming back to me before I go to meet my maker, then that would be wonderful. Please contact me if you have any information.

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Rockin' the MOAT t-shirt next to the real deal! #m Rockin' the MOAT t-shirt next to the real deal! #moatband #poisonstream 🤘🏰

T-Shirt Design by Reid Wilson
Photo by @oliviaelektra 

#schoolkidsrecords #nikoröhlcke #wellscathedral
Peter Walsh and I getting down at the Heron Tower Peter Walsh and I getting down at the Heron Tower disco 🕺🏻 #heyday
Soundchecking at Birmingham Symphony Hall, 10th Fe Soundchecking at Birmingham Symphony Hall, 10th February, 2001. All About Eve supporting Fairport Convention.

📷 by @derektimbrell
Thanks to The Wernickis for a little glimpse into Thanks to The Wernickis for a little glimpse into their new New Mexico listening space 🌵 #nightjar #schoolkidsrecords
Redeyed lad of the lowlands 🎵 📷 @oliviaelek Redeyed lad of the lowlands 🎵

📷 @oliviaelektra 

#danelectro #danelectrobass #redeyerecords #pleasantrylane #pleasantrylanestudio
You usually don’t spend the day in the studio an You usually don’t spend the day in the studio and the night at a gig but if you put the studio next to the gig then there’s a greater chance. So @salimnourallah did just that, he put the gig and the studio next to each other and made it possible for me to spend the day recording and the evening playing live 🎵

📷 @drewliophoto 

#galacticheadquarters #happinessarecordlabel #pleasantrylanestudio #salimnourallah #oliviawillsonpiper
TO WHERE I AM NOW A visit in the studio today fro TO WHERE I AM NOW

A visit in the studio today from old mate Mark Burgess from The Chameleons who has been hanging in Texas recently. I was thinking about the two of us growing up in the northwest of England and all these years later finding ourselves in such an unlikely spot together. We fixed a few issues in the universe and I carried on recording some guitars until Mark had to leave. Mark had played at the Galactic Headquarters next to the studio this year as Olivia and I had four years ago and this reminded me to remind myself to remind everyone to remind their friends that we will be playing there with Salim on Saturday, New Year’s Eve, for the ultimate in intimate performance. You can get tickets here (follow link below).

CONTINUE READING: https://martywillson-piper.com/2022/12/to-where-i-am-now-1045

KEEP IN TOUCH: https://linktr.ee/mwillsonpiper

📷 @salimnourallah 

#markburgess #thechameleons #chameleonsvox #pleasantrylanestudio #happinessarecordlabel #martywillsonpiper #oliviawillsonpiper #moatband
📷 @argirgirl 📷 @argirgirl
TO WHERE I AM NOW Sadness manifested in a buildin TO WHERE I AM NOW

Sadness manifested in a building, today we went to visit Paisley Park. Prince built Paisley Park in Chanhassen, about twenty minutes southwest of Minneapolis. It opened in 1987 and he recorded his later albums there. Apart from Prince, REM also recorded and mixed Out Of Time there, recording Kate Pearson’s vocal on Shiny Happy People vocal. Madonna had Prince play guitar on three songs from Like A Prayer and the two co-wrote Love Song, finishing it remotely due to Madonna not being able to stand the cold weather and the rather desolate location of the studio. Of course, there are things around but it’s not in the city and it’s not in the countryside, it’s in a suburb, no distractions, just what Prince wanted.

CONTINUE READING: https://martywillson-piper.com/2022/12/to-where-i-am-now-1032

KEEP IN TOUCH: https://linktr.ee/mwillsonpiper

📷 @argirgirl 

#paisleypark #prince
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In Deep Music Archive

Songwriting & Guitar Guidance with Marty Willson-Piper
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"These are awesome sessions that I highly recommend for guitar players of all levels. Very informative, frank discussions on everything related to guitar and music in general. Definitely a must for anyone pursuing songwriting."
(Stephen G., VA, USA)

"Marty knows how to bypass scales and get to the heart of feel and timing. His musical knowledge spans multiple cultures and genres. Perhaps most importantly, Marty is a cool dude. I highly recommend his guitar guidance." (Jed B., MN, USA)

"Ok, so you’re sitting in your home and Marty is across the world but is actually right here teaching you how to play guitar and write songs. He is a delight to talk to and he is your teacher, meaning he wants to see you get something out of his lessons. You know he’s paying attention and wants to steer you in the right direction. I am so grateful and humbled that he offers his time in this manner. This is an amazing opportunity for anyone who admires anything from his enormous body of work. How often do you get to learn from somebody that inspired you in the first place? Amazing." (Ann S., CA, USA)

Missing

This is my stolen 1965 Rickenbacker 12-string, serial number EB157. If there’s any chance of this guitar coming back to me before I go to meet my maker, then that would be wonderful. Please contact me if you have any information.

11209512_1669022976719710_7288437867089763325_n

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