Who the hell is behind this lark?
Well, I have been saying ‘we’ but in actual fact it’s ‘me’.
I am a Singer-Songwriter/Performer/Dad that up until recently has found it near to impossible to get my latest record out, promote and publicise it, (after recording and writing it) pursue my performing and running of a touring theatre show as well as being a stay at home Dad and a ‘great’ husband. (he says with a crooked smile and squinting eyes.)
I hear new songs from my friends and peers all the time and I just love that part of the artistic process. Someone has just finished or perhaps nearly finished a song and they perform it with all the blemishes, which in my book, is beautiful. There is often little ego in the performance at this stage and the nerves are present as well as the self analysis that some artists have shortly after their unveiling of a new work.
I’m growing tired of the step by step process in which we are told by the ‘so called’ industry boffins of how we need and should get our music out to the masses. From conception of an idea to the signing of the record at your last show of the tour it’s a headache of monumental proportions that takes a huge part of ones life and can be a dangerous emotional investment. Not to mention that a HUGE majority of people and artists that go through these steps while working full time, studying and balancing life and relationships. (And the peppered moments of mental instability that often comes with territory,
By stepping back and focusing on key parts of ‘my’ career and personal life, which meant leaving a record behind on the shelf, I have been able to come up with this, an idea that I have no ego, no pressure and timeline to attached to. As a hobby camera operator and silly film maker and one that has a great studio space that is being largely unused currently, this was the next step in my creative direction.
I love songwriting and performance and I love it’s subjectiveness. I dislike the competitive element that is so prevalent in the commercial industry and I am clearly aware of the bullshit that piles up and over the heads of great and insightful artists leaving them choked. WHOA…Get a grip, man. Relax.
We, (there I go again) at ‘Night Sky’ offer honest and unbridled performances of songs that you most likely haven’t heard yet but will be happy you did.
Please enjoy and share away in a bid to promote wonderful live music from wonderful musicians.
Damon.
Here at TNSIAJSW (ok, so the name clearly makes for a terrible acronym) we believe that highly polished and commercially reared music should be chased down at dawn by ravenous ghouls on horseback who hunt musical mediocrity with weapons made out of melted down Leonard Cohen records. The ghouls would be riding while listening to Johnny Cash songs and they’d be wearing Bill Callahan T.shirts…(ugh, bit of wishful thinking there!)
And so, in a tiny and charming backyard studio in Melbourne’s North, a diverse selection of songwriters from all over the show are asked to perform one original song and one cover of an artist that inspires them.
Every artist performs on our old studio guitar named Zach Glickman and the music is performed in ‘one take’ in an effort to capture the true essence of a song and it’s performance, raw, unbridled and with all the wobbly bits that can help to make a song truly memorable.