mistrustmusic's posterous http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com Most recent posts at mistrustmusic's posterous posterous.com Wed, 16 May 2007 11:52:37 -0700 Life, the Universe, and my alter-ego http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/life-the-universe-and-my-alter-ego http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/life-the-universe-and-my-alter-ego In fact, I seem to have forgotten who I am. Or at least forgotten that I've got a musical alter-ego who likes making tunes and whose music some people like listening to. There's been so much going on at home and work that it's been impossible to even think about making music recently. Me and Mrs mistrust have been occupied with Paul almost every waking hour (and those times we should be asleep), so there's been no time to think of other things. As you may have read in his blog, Paul has PDD-NOS and has become more and more anxious and socially reclusive over the last few months. Helping him to make some tunes and sorting out the production for him was an excuse for me to get using the music software, but now he doesn't seem interested in creating some of his own tracks and getting some plays. Mrs m and I spend most of the evenings sorting out his needs and then desperately needing a rest when he goes to watch a dvd, or at least checking emails, forums etc.  Last evening I took him to the Trafford Centre (big shopping mall) almost straight after work and got home at 9.30pm, all because we'd promised him a reward for going to the child psychology day unit and seeing the registrar. The result was Gran Turismo 4 for PS2. Come on Paul, get making music again and writing your blog.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
Fri, 27 Apr 2007 10:10:52 -0700 My stepson has PDD-NOS http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/my-stepson-has-pdd-nos http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/my-stepson-has-pdd-nos I realised that I haven't posted anything on here, so that means no readers. Probably. Or too many blogs to maintain: music, e-learning, and personal (this one). Maybe I should drop this one, as the music blog is important and so is the e-learning one. Who cares about my personal life and what goes on at home? Paul, my stepson of nearly five years, is 14 y.o. He has PDD-NOS, which means he's sort of on the Autistic Spectrum. He's been having major anxiety attacks about school. He hasn't been in school for almost four weeks, until yesterday. The first two weeks were the Easter holidays, but he was too anxious to go in. We've had his psychologist involved, plus the local Special Needs Advisory service, trying to get him to go back. Finally, he's been to the psychology day unit for a visit, and into school for one P.E. lesson. Where we go from here is anyone's guess.... Paul's has a blog here where he's talking about what's happening to him.....

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
Wed, 18 Apr 2007 15:45:17 -0700 Signed by a music library http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/signed-by-a-music-library http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/signed-by-a-music-library I've sort of mentioned this before, but now I can tell all..... I've signed a non-exclusive deal with a major UK music library, called CandyCover, that supplies music to TV, film, and advert production companies. They've worked with big players like Orange, O2, Virgin, and the Ministry of Sound. It's a massive break for me - never had anything like this happen before. They've asked to use 8 of my tracks - not my long, instrumental tunes that have been doing the rounds for a couple of years like Never Alone and For All we've done, but my more recent ones that are available at Music Freedom. They're all fairly short and are wanted for the library's "Art/Quirky/Cult Drama" section. I've signed a contract with them and the tracks are going to be registered with MCPS, the official publishing organisation in the UK, which means I get paid the proper rate if any of my tracks get used. I know that a lot of musicians get tracks signed to music libraries, and the competition is huge
Listen to this article , but it's a massive break and I'm really pleased about it. I've been told in the last couple of years that my music hasn't been commercial enough to get on a record label release, which was a bit disappointing at first. I got some tracks taken on by a company called Archangel Media Group for use in some O'Neill Surfing promo films - Deep Blue Open 2005 and Anglet Pro, but it was unpaid and not a lot came from it apart from a decent showreel and the prestige from getting airplay on Extreme Channel. However, more and more people in the music licensing business were saying that I had a "soundtrack" edge to my music and that it would fit in with the sort of thing that gets used in film and tv. I got a knockback a couple of years ago when a licensing company called Raw42 said that my style was not suitable for adverts, but I carried on in the same style, making more short instrumental stuff, and it looks like it's paid off. Finally, a big thanks to everyone who's pushed my music and kept me going with words of encouragement and support.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
Wed, 18 Apr 2007 10:50:22 -0700 Timothy Blackburn http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/timothy-blackburn http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/timothy-blackburn I'm Tim(othy) Blackburn. This is my third blog. My second one on wordpress. This isn't my music blog.  That one is here at mistrust.wordpress.com This blog is more of a personal site where I can post non-musical ramblings instead of cluttering up my music pages with stuff that the people looking for my music don't want to read.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
Tue, 17 Apr 2007 21:13:21 -0700 Paul can't open up to people but he can talk to his blog http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/paul-cant-open-up-to-people-but-he-can-talk-t http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/paul-cant-open-up-to-people-but-he-can-talk-t
Should this blog be entirely about music? Comments please! I just wanted to put in a quick word about Paul's blog. Paul Harrison is my stepson, who happens to have PDD-NOS, a condition similar to autism and asperger's syndrome. He's very withdrawn and hates having to meet new people, as it makes him anxious and can't cope. He can't get into school at the moment as his stress levels go through the roof whenever he thinks of being in class - he's 14 y.o. and you just try making him go! The whole thing makes him more anxious and less confident. His school agreed to send him work home, which is a start... We've had major problems getting him to communicate his feelings and anxieties, and won't go to see the pyschologist he's under at the moment, so me and his mum have to keep diaries and try to tell the psych what we think Paul is thinking. He just can't open up to people. Until he discovered I was writing a blog. Now he's blogging all the time. At first it was only to tell people about his music on myspace. Then he posted something about PDD-NOS, I helped him tag it, and he started to get loads of hits and a few comments about how he wasn't alone in the ASD world. People from around the world were writing to him. He's now added more posts, writing about his days at home, and life in general, and he's really opened up in writing how he feels, and actually puts across his anxieties. Whether he's found a way to get more hits than me (he's very competitive) or whether he genuinely thinks he can write down how he feels, I'm not sure. Oh, and if you want to read about music, I've just been signed by a major music library in the UK. Some of the tracks are on musicfreedom.com, so have a listen while you post a comment on here!

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
Thu, 12 Apr 2007 12:21:46 -0700 Breaking the spell http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/breaking-the-spell http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/breaking-the-spell
Media_httpmistrustfil_hbbjb
I'm nervous and excited at the same time. So much stuff going on at home to keep me occupied and  frazzled and to keep me awake at night. If you've read my stepson's blog, you'll know more. Now I've got something else on my mind. Some major news - big, big stuff - about my music. Can't say much at the moment. Am I superstitious or have mildly autistic tendencies and think that if I let the cat out of the bag, it will somehow not happen. If I spell it out, does it count as telling all? Maybe if I say it backwards? Or cross my fingers? Anyway, here goes. A music library in the UK that works with the likes of Orange and Virgin want to add some of my tracks to their roster.  I've submitted 10 tracks. They want to use 7 or 8. There. I said it.  I get nervous and excited at the thought of having my music on TV. It's like the time my tracks were used by O'Neill Europe on their Deep Blue Open 2005 promo film and I found out it was being shown on Channel 4 in the UK and in 25 other countries around the world. Plus, in all the O'Neill shops. This time, if it gets used, I'll get paid and the exposure will be massive. Oh, and the tracks will be registered with MCPS.  I'm just an unsigned, bedroom musician. I'm allowed to get nervous. If anyone reading this has any experience of working with a music library, please leave a comment tell me how you got on.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
Mon, 02 Apr 2007 14:31:07 -0700 How many forums - how many blogs http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/how-many-forums-how-many-blogs http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/how-many-forums-how-many-blogs
Media_httpfarm1static_hrdue
Just how many blogs should a person have? How many forums should a musician sign up to? All in the interest of promoting a new song? My stepson, Paul, is trying to get people to listen to his music. He's only 14 and gets very focussed and obsessed with everything he does. You wouldn't say he's very musically-minded, but he wants to make tunes. He's not interested that they might need mixing properly or mastered to get them sounding good. He just wants to put them on the internet like me. He thought that people would just come across his myspace profile or his page on MP3.com and just his total plays would go up and up without any input or promotion from him. So, I told him that he should start a blog and tell people all about himself and his music. He could always join a few forums and start swapping reviews and opinions, and start to get people to listen to his music. I even mentioned music competitions. I think he's taken me a bit literally. He's looking on the web for almost every music competition that's listed. He wants to me to put him on every blog site going - especially the ones I'm on. He wants me to sign up to loads of forums and let him copy and paste a "Listen to my music" message so he doesn't have to write anything new. Why gets me back to my point. How many blogs does an unsigned musician need to do a bit of self-promotion and to get some new listeners? How many forums do you need to sign up to? Is it ok to sign up and just post a thread saying "here I am"? It made me think that when I first started putting my music on the internet just over 2 years ago, I wanted to post threads on every forum and tell everyone to listen to my tracks, hoping that someone somewhere would hear me and I'd stand out from the crowd. I'm still on a few of those forums, but don't post much these days, mainly because I haven't got time, due to other things like making music. Budding artists like Paul need to stick to getting some decent tunes together and put them on a couple of sites, and spend a few weeks plugging away and posting comments about other people's tracks, in the hope that someone will listen. It happened to me. When I go on the old forums, I see the same old names, hoping that someone important will notice them, or they'll get a good review from someone on Outer Mongolia who's never heard of them and will never ask the to play live. There's more to making music than forums and blogs.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>