We Do Adventure

A couple of weeks ago one of my guitar students asked a question. Was it me who made the video of a girl he knew singing? Yes, was the simple answer I gave him. The slightly more complicated answer would have gone something like this. That video was something I filmed while recording them rehearsing a couple of songs for an acoustic performance with Budo, our Novi Most colleague in Jajce. I'd sent it to her in a private message, she'd left her Facebook signed in somewhere public and a friend leaked it online. She had about 1500 views overnight. I think she was happy about this. Either way, it wasn't my fault! His follow up question was obvious. Could I film him? He had sung a song at the same performance and wanted to record it to put on YouTube. The challenge for me was he didn't want to play the guitar, opting to just focus on his singing. This left me needing to learn the song and play while overseeing audio and video recording. We filmed on Wednesday afternoon,...

It looks like it's going to be another sunny day in Jajce but I'm inside, sitting down for another of mixing. It's what I've done for the last two days; it's what I'll be doing for most of the next three days. At that point we'll assess progress and work out what needs to happen before the end of next week. You'll have to watch the video below to get the details of the project, it's enough here to say it's going well but the timeframe is tight. The looming deadline means there's little room for interruptions. However, in my experience, achieving an uninterrupted working day is a big ask in Bosnia and Herzegovina - but here's hoping!

Almost a fortnight ago I blogged about a particularly poignant songwriting commission I'd received. Two weeks later that song – No Time To Say Goodbye - is written, recorded and, with the obligatory music video, now ready to tell its story wherever the world wide web may take it. Life is, as you're doubtless aware, not quite so simple as those last two sentences imply. That I have produced a recording and video featuring both of the young people it was written for is a testimony to the the shifting sands of bureaucratic time frames, the importance of sometimes just acting on impulse and of what can be achieved if you are prepared to sacrifice a little sleep. Both Sting and Craig David have songs called 'Seven Days'; this song was turned around in four. It was early evening on a Monday when I picked up my freshly restrung Telecaster and started strumming out some chords. Suddenly I hit something that I knew would be the basis of this song. Very quickly the genesis of a m...

If you want to hear Rowan and I rocking out head over to the Gilgal Facebook page . Plus, there are a bunch of older live videos on the Gilgal YouTube channel .