Apple Venus on a half open shell

My most recent blog post was a bit of a downer.  I received some amazing messages of support and felt very guilty about burdening my disappointment and frustration on friends and strangers. I know people with real problems. I don’t have problems.

As planned I moved ahead with the release of Saving Souls as a single.  My primary motive is to raise awareness of meningitis and how we can all learn to spot the signs and save a life.  Back in 2000 our eldest daughter had a near death experience as a result of meningococcal septicaemia. We very nearly lost her.  Against all odds she made a 100% recovery.  There is not a day goes by that I don’t thank my lucky stars that it turned out this way. It’s the root of the story behind the song.  My secondary motive was to finish what I started. There is a third single all ready to go but my heart isn’t in it.

“Saving Souls” was released November 24th 2013 and beforehand I sent promo CDs to a few select radio shows in Ireland. My lesson learned from the “This Hometown” single release was that I couldn’t follow-up with every station and for friends/fans who might request the song it’s better to have a shorter list of shows to request. The promo video was ready and despite multiple emails and attempts to contact individuals I was blanked by TV3 and RTE. Nothing new there 🙂

I’m really proud of the video.  Made with zero budget (well.. I bought lunch) and produced by my very good friend Tony Faulkner we put this together in a single shoot. It took a few hours of editing by Tony who also mixed the track.

As I type this I have no idea if the single has been played. I have pushed as hard as I can and short of starting my own radio station I don’t think there’s more I can do. While at work I can’t really keep tuning through all of the stations so fingers crossed it will get a little traction this week. I sent promo CDs with updated press release to a number of shows and have been using Hootsuite to schedule messaging on Facebook and Twitter to remind my friends & fans to request the single.

Here are two links where you can buy Saving Souls. All profit from the sale of the single will go to Act For Meningitis. It is available here at iTunes and here at Amazon.

Last week out of the blue I received a phone call from Francie Conway who I had met at the 2012 Christie Hennessy Song Contest Final. He very kindly complimented the work I had been doing to promote the single and my efforts to promote the charity. He’s a supporter of the charity and wanted to lend his support. As a result I’m on the bill for an upcoming show headlined by Francie and the one-and-only Mikey Harte. It will be a great night out, no cover charge and I’ll have a mini-band on the night which will feature Mark O’Reardon (who played bass on the “Other People’s Hats” album), a to-be-confirmed guitar player and <big drum roll!> Heather Fitzpatrick on percussion.  I’ll be digging out my keyboard for the show so expect to see something a little new.

I’m touched to have been asked to participate and am looking forward to a great night out.

What’s next? I stand by my decision and don’t see myself doing much more with the singer-songwriter thing. I’m not giving up making music and will share whatever I make. If asked I’ll gladly play and will do it with no expectations.   What’s next is some fun synthpop. I’ve been mucking about with synths and drum machines and have been reliving my teen years when I discovered artists like Yazoo, Depeche mode, Thomas Dolby and so on…  who knows where it will lead?