arockpoet’s blog

Being in a band as most people will tell you is an exercise in sweat, blood and tears...while great fun the amount of prep behind the scenes, hard work, sacrifices and time demands can place a boring fecking cloud on the whole fun factor! This seems to be even worse the more independent an artist or band is, a catergory we fall into. However hard work rarely goes unnoticed and this week seems to have been a lesson in that wise saying. At the minute there are so many plans and potential alternative courses for this year on the table its hard to assess which is the best, but by the end of the month we should be completely clear as to which direction and route of releases, tours and territories etc that the band will be visiting for this year! One thing is for sure though, its back to Austin now for me and good old SXSW!

Last year we had 3 months notice and I still felt we needed more time to be effective at the beast that is this conference, this year it is one month (albeit not showcasing), so the prep needed will be no doubt around the clock to set up the meetings we need too.

Our independent label is taking shape also and our first release outside the Poets will be the fantastic Silhoutte http://www.myspace.com/silhouetteofficial

Meeting Peter and Shauna from the band this week I'm really excited about getting these guys out there with their track 'Volume Destroyed', release is due around April and more details will be announced on the new VM Records web-site which will be up and running sometime in March. The guys are in the studio this week so I'll be bouncing next week to the new recording me thinks!

This week in rehearsals we'll be working more on acoustic verisons of our tracks for several radio and TV shows in the pipeline including BBC Radio One introducing. I never was keen on doing acoustic versions of our songs but since the Making we have done quite a few radio shows etc and its growing on me and have to admit with Jeff a necessary part of the push behind any new tracks. We're gonna introduce Mark and a bit of light percussion into the mix this time so I'm interested in seeing what will come off this...ideally I think some keys would be a massive benefit....ok more work....gotta go.....

Some great live photos from The Village in Dublin by Tom Bereska!

 

Yesterday myself and the lads finished the new Poets single in the studio and I’m really happy with how its turned out. Called ‘One By One’ the track will be out in March 2010 so keep and eye out for the samples hitting the main site and myspace next month. On Wednesday we confirmed our appearance at the Belfast for Haiti gig which is on Sunday 31st of January 2010 which will be the Spring and Airbrake, Limelight and Katy Dalys. Some great bands are playing including The Answer, General Fiasco and Cashier No.9. After the studio on Thursday night I was in the Limelight checking out local band ‘The Good Fight’ and was highly impressed with the band and their tracks, totally recommend checking out their track ‘Hats and Sticks’. Also I was discussing the Haiti gig with Owen from Fiasco and we’re in agreement it’ll be a fantastic day for the local scene in N.Ireland and shows the tremendous spirit of the community in helping everyone so badly affected by the Earthquake in Haiti. It seems the whole world is pitching in and rightly so! Last night I watched some of the Help for Haiti on MTV which is also available as an app on the iphone…some amazing stripped down performances and recommend checking some out! I also see Frank Turner has announced Mandella Hall on May 28th, saw him at SXSW last year so if at home in May will definitely be heading to this!!

 

From Myspace Blog:

It's been a long time since I logged onto myspace...think facebook has taken over a bit these days but checking in again and updating my profile. Since my last Blog post its been a mental year. We set up our own self-release indie label (VM RECORDS) via Absolute Marketing in London who also look after Dave Matthews and Ocean Colour Scene's indie labels and now distribute our records via Universal. Our biggest mistake over the last two years was not getting our music out there as much as we could have! The first record from our self-release set up came out in November 08, 'Staring Stars Down'. This is a song that has stood us well over the years winning Virgin radio Xtreme, Xfm unsigned and the Rising Artist Award on Today FM. Since then we have been gigging, doing some TV, radio etc and even made it to do shows in America in March 2009 including 6 Shows at this years SXSW in Austin. Texas with Metallica, Razorlight, Primal Scream etc playing too.

Since then we have taken the summer off to write and reinvent the band, stage show and most importantly sound. We gave some new tasters of our new tracks at the cool as fuck 'Glasgowbury' festival last week. We also dedicated our last song at Glasgowbury to a local talented musician from my home town 'Stephen Markey' who was tragically killed the night before the show. His band Stone Syndicate had supported us in the past. It really brings you down to Earth knowing that while this game is hard at least your getting a chance at it, Stephen tragically losing his life at 18 is a stark reminder of that. My deepest sympathies to his family and friends, especially Adrian who his brother and whom I have know on the music circuit for a number of years, another talented singer/songwriter.

From October we should have a tonne of new releases and hit the road like crazy, which I have to say I can't wait for! Hopefully in the next 12 months we can follow the successes and standard set by other local bands kicking the arse of music scenes elsewhere like The Answer, General Fiasco, FWW and ASIWFA.

For the first time I have been listening to local music in a big way and would recommend that people check out the likes of Ed Zealous and Cashier No.9 also...had 'Jackie Shone' stuck in my head for a week...love the video and the track.

I got an e-mail from Heather Hennessy last sunday saying, she was listing to us on The Hills on MTV One in Philly, so a quick e-mail to MTV and a moment later we were confirmed to have our tracks on Episode one and Two of the new series 5, out at the minute in the US and out in the UK on May 3rd 09....so cool when you get unexpected surprises...also we're on the girls of Hedsor Hall episode 6!

On Wednesday 22nd we did our first gig in Belfast since coming back from SXSW. The gig was in Auntie Annies and run by Six Events, they are new to the promoter scene in Belfast and I was really impressed by them and how they handled the whole night. There was a great crowd do to see us and the atmosphere on the night was fantastic! Below is some highlights from the gig:

Our new online store is up and running for the first time and were looking for any ideas as to what people would like to find on there from the Poets? Any ideas please send them to our twitter page at www.twitter.com/thebeatpoets or myspace, www.myspace.com/beatpoets

 

We've booked the studio in May to begin recording the new releases, the first will be out in August and the following in October, on top of that were starting to put the dates together around these releases so can't wait to see you all on the road again, especially as I hope to have my driving test at least for the 2nd release so I can use it as an excuse to practice and drive to a few shows!

The run into the Premiership looks shit hot this year, as  Man U fan I was a bit gutted after the Everton semi final, but always liked the Toffee's so hope they win a trophy this year as Moyes has down a great job! We played with the Duke Spirit last year and a year later I actually started listening to their Ex Voto album...feckin great it is....Lassoo!

If maintaining this vox blog was my chosen profession I would be sacked by now, but I am hoping to get this embedded to www.thebeatpoets.com in order to make me more prone to updating this!

Anyhoo since our last trip we have been frantic! We released 'Staring Stars Down' in November 2008 via Universal Distribution and have been working on new songs such as 'Ghosts', 'Race' and 'The Making'. On top of this we done our first US shows including New York City and SXSW 2009, were we done 6 shows. Below is some youtube clips that give a rundown on whats been rocking lately!

It's been a while since I had the chance to write in my blog, we have been so busy that it has been out of my mind updating the vox. I'll make a special effort to update more from now on. The band begun the build up to the 'Staring Stars Down/G.I (Generation Innocence)' release on May 1st in Ireland and the UK. Covert PR have taken over the reigns on this and with the release date set for October 6th we hope everyone will be well aware of the releases to follow. It's been a weird one with 'Staring Stars Down' being one of our most successful tracks and yet has never been released so I know alot of people are finally going to get their hands on this.

We have been over at events such as London Calling since my last blog and done some really cool gigs last night being one of them in the 'Spirit Store' in Dundalk, Ireland. It was streamed for the first time live online and reports are it the stream went extremely well with no stalls or hiccups (please check www.livewebstars.com). We also streamed from a radio interview in Iur Fm, Newry just before the gig which I think caught the presenters slightly off guard (sorry girls). Our next gig is on Saturday 26th of July at the fantastic Glasgowbury Festival which will also have  a few acts I'm looking forward to seeing Ash (their secret gig in Proud Galleries last year was immense), Fighting With Wire, General Fiasco, Oppeinheimer and The Panama Kings.

We have added alot of new dates to the gig calender and more are being updated as we go along, all of which are on www.myspace.com/beatpoets

Our new web-site should also be launched next month with finally an online merch store, new galleries etc. We also have hours and hours of live footage which Graham Smith is looking at and editing for his documentary of the band and Staring Stars Down video. We should have some new live clips for you tube too and I think Live Webstars will be putting the Spirit Store gig live online again sometime.

The CMJ festival in New York spotlighted us this week and it has been immense (www.cmj.com) and Sonicbids have asked to have the band represent them worldwide for the next 12 months all their associated events etc which is fantastic.

Reviews so far of the new single have been immense and while we have a video for Staring Stars Down we are also contemplating a video for G.I also.

We'll its a Saturday and I'm off so a pub now beckons, hoping the the weather stays ok as it has been pissing down in Belfast since May ended which is no fun for summer! Anyway keep rocking everyone and hope to crowd surf with u all soon!

Over the last few months I've been working quite intensely on a big project that will be announced this summer. It has been in planning since November so thankfully we're nearly ready to launch. We have a several big Irish dates coming up in the meantime and we're also working on alot of new material as well as going through hours of footage for our documentary and new youtube clips. Below is a recent review of our gig with The Duke Spirit in the Limelight Belfast, it was a great show!

 

 

 

Well we are just back from Canadian Music Week and I must say it was fantastic! Arriving on the Wednesday night we indulged in the local Keg Steak House were I finally met up with Cara Heath (and her husband Ian) who's company With a Bullet PR had successfully placed us on the bill for The Bovine Sex Club on March 6th and worked tremendously in promoting the band before and during CMW (www.withabullet.ca).

The day of the first show at the Bovine was pretty hectic as we were in the Royal York Hotel most of the day meeting people. The Bovine was rocking that night and we met up with familiar faces from last year Ian, Yoko, Renee, Pete, Myles etc. It was a great slot to be on at midnight and a great crowd battled the snow making it to our show. Below are some photos taken by Pete Nema (www.petenema.com) at the Bovine.

 

 

 

 

 

The next few days were saturated in interviews with Greg Godovitz on Rock Talk CRFB 1010, Yoko Sanchez Show, My Living Room Radio Show, Andpop.com, The Radtastic show, Noise Makes Enemies etc. It was also great to finally meet Cheryl Hoar who had also helped with us in 2007. Below is me Keith and Mark on the Yoko Sanchez show:

On the 8th, snow storms had left Paddy Casey and Delorentos stranded in New York so we filled the last slot on the bill for the Music From Ireland showcase that had some great Irish acts on the bill such as Fight Like Apes, Iain Archer, and the Lost Brothers. In fact it was the worst snow storm Toronto had seen all winter! Again it was a packed show and we were greatly received and I must say hello to two Canadian bands we struck up a bit of a friendship with over at CMW firstly The Conmen....the whisky drinkers and secondly MicLordz and Sauce Funky who I thought had a great show in The Smiling Buddha!

Sunday normally a day of rest saw us meet more people from many labels and producer Paul Milner (Keith Richards, The Cult) and discuss some more exciting developments for the band. Monday was a city centre photoshoot that meant a swift recovery from the drinking session in the hideout with the other Irish acts on CMW. Looking forward to the pics Renee and Pete!

Flying home on Tuesday we got ready for our first live TV broadcast on BBC2 N.Ireland on the Imeall Gael show (13th March) and also found ourselves the editorial feature of Northern Homes and lifestyle!

 

We hope now to return to Toronto for NXNE and follow on from the fantastic week at CMW!

Ah how the change on a digit on a sequence of 4 numbers can reinvirgorate a band! 2008 is really heating up now as we begin the PR campaign for the bands series of UK and Irish releases. We have been in the studio over January and working now on new material for the album. The new poets web-sites will be launched next month and full of cool new features as we had two genius designers working on them. Yesterday we spent the morning in the new Oh Yeah building in Belfast (Many thanks to Stu Ballie for allowing us to use it) and done a great photoshoot with Graham Smith. The building was freezing first thing on a Monday so we made the best use of the 1000 watt amps to heat ourselves in between takes....the coffee helped too! I'm really looking forward to these shots as new styles are definitely present...especially with the beef!

Over the weekend however we got the exciting news we will be returning to Canada for Candian Music Week 2008. Our showcase is in the Bovine Sex Club on Queens St. We spent alot of time here last year as it is a fantastic rock venue and it's an honour to play here this year...big thanks to Daryl and Cara! If anyone has any Press/Radio/Media enquires for us at CMW please contact Caraheath@rogers.com

I also got a CD through the post from the Glasgowbury festival last year (they used one of our tracks as promotion for the CD)....ah it brought back memories of great day and anyone in N.Ireland this summer should make a point of getting to this small festival it's immense...www.glasgowbury.com