Why I’m doing this

I just wanted to write a few words about why I’ve decided to spend more time writing this blog, and why I took up the idea in the first place. I don’t know if anybody but me reads these words, and yes I hope someday somebody else will discover them, but that’s not first-and-foremost what I’m here for. I’m not a great writer, and it’s not often that I have great things to write about, but I want a place I can write about the things that interest me, and the things that trouble me, and intrigue me and excite me. My intention is that, over time, this blog will become a reflection of me, and of all the big and little things that I end up thinking and talking about. Maybe somebody else will find that interesting, maybe they won’t, but I’m going to give it a try for a while anyway. It’ll be fun.

Andrew x

PS. If you’re someone that’s not me, and you do read this, I’d like to hear what you’ve found interesting, it’d be really encouraging to hear that somebody’s taken the time to peruse what I’m writing, and to find out which bits make sense and which don’t. Thanks J

Nizlopi – I’m pretty gutted.

In October 2008 my sister and I went to see Nizlopi (www.nizlopi.com) at Warwick arts centre as part of their ‘Last Nights On Tour’ tour. Before that, I’d heard them on MySpace music, I’d bought their first album, I really loved their music and I spent a good while watching their gig clips on YouTube before we went. I was pretty excited, but I didn’t know what to expect.

What I experienced was really incredible, and very lovely indeed. It didn’t feel so much like a concert, or like Nizlopi were there to show off their musicality, or even to make a ‘show’ of it at all. It was more like a night round the campfire with my greatest friends. Even though I’d never met most of the people in the room, there was such a sense of community, of common ground and common wishes and common human-ness, it was wonderful. It felt like the pair of them were there to lead us in our own entertainment, rather than showing us what they could do. We were in the cinema at the arts centre, which is a seated venue, but there wasn’t anybody sitting by the end of the night – people were dancing in the aisles, dancing on the stage apron, everybody was so enthusiastic. Luke had us singing along to the simple refrains, we were all part of the music, it was all so inclusive and energetic and great – I left with a reinstated faith in humanity!

It was then that I got interested in their record label, FDM (Folk ‘n’ Deadly Music – excellent!), who really existed because of Nizlopi, and are the set of people that managed to get Nizlopi’s ‘JCB Song’ single to the all-important Christmas number one spot, an awesome achievement for such a small label. On their website, the page named Ethos simply states this:

We are a ‘tiny’ independent record company that puts music and people first.
We have a very simple ethos: we do what feels right musically and in business.
We work to a very simple set of purposes and principles hammered out in the heat of battle.
Our core purpose simply outlines what we want to do and become
A HAPPY, SELF DETERMINING, SUCCESSFUL, AND CONSCIOUS ORGANIZATION, THAT PUTS MUSIC, PEOPLE, AND CHANGE FIRST. AND INSPIRES OTHERS TO DO THE SAME. 

Isn’t that lovely? I would LOVE to see more music companies be bold enough and true enough to be able to say something like that. Sadly I think it’s the fact that they are such a “‘tiny’ independent record company” that allows them to function like that – I’m not sure a similar ethos would work in the ‘big business’. As soon as it gets too big, music tends to become more of a money-venture than what I believe music should be – community entertainment, and a vehicle for emotion and love. You can’t really do that effectively if you’re tearing around on a world tour, changing city every night. That, and a few other things, is why I don’t want to pursue a career as a performer, I just don’t think I could be real, I don’t think I’d be me, and I don’t think there’s any point – the world’s music scene doesn’t need another singer-songwriter wielding a guitar.

Anyway, Nizlopi promised to meet up after their sabbatical year and let us all know if/how they were going to continue. I received an email a week ago from FDM, titled “Luke and John part company”, and I read it through, and now I’m pretty gutted about the outcome. It’s not that I’m a hung-up fan – I don’t like to idolise musicians, and any music alone can be replaced by other performers – it’s just everything about Nizlopi that went with it that I’ll miss. I loved seeing two honest guys get on a stage and genuinely enjoy themselves and nurture this sense of community in a crowd. I loved the way Luke could flow between speech and singing in such a natural way that it made evident he was speaking from the heart, I really felt that all this music was a real sharing of emotion, that they were being open with us. There was no mad light show, there was no 10-piece backing band, there was no gospel choir, there were no pyrotechnics or circus tricks, but I realised I didn’t need any of that, and neither did they! Like I said before, they led us in entertaining ourselves, they led us in being a community, in just having a fun night, singing ourselves hoarse, grinning like idiots, and loving every minute of it. I’ll miss that. I’ll miss that inspiration.

I’m really sorry to see those guys go, and I REALLY hope that I find somebody else to take their place, and that I can learn to be a musician like them, being real and honest and staying true to what music’s all about.