seeing as this is the music section of the board, i feel like i should let people know about my musical escapades, seeing as a whole lot of them are getting quite exciting;
only us
this is pretty much the focal point of my musical life. we started 2 years ago as just a simple jazz standards trio, but once i started composing and arranging for us we've really begun to develop a sound of our own. we've recently recorded an album which will be on sale at some point in the future at gigs and maybe via the internet (CD only... available for shipping). here's a few tasters of our sound for you to listen to;
http://soundcloud.com/mike-sands/only-us-previewshttp://soundcloud.com/mike-sands/dot-squiggle-dash-dash-mvt-1http://soundcloud.com/mike-sands/im-open-mindedi'm currently looking to put together a composers group, with a string quartet at the centre of it all that we get people to compose for. i'm getting help with this from a very good friend of mine, the drummer in only us... he also happens to be a fabulous composer and is very interested in having a consistent group to perform his pieces. i have been writing a lot of sketches for string quartet, but mostly i've been arranging jazz pieces by various composers for string quartet and soprano saxophone. here is one unfinished example;
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6283503moving on...
me as a composer. i've written 5 short pieces going by the name of 'pinto 1-5' for a trumpet without it's mouthpiece, electronics and general sounds that i'll be making with found objects. i've got a trumpet player who wants to play it for me, so hopefully we'll be able to get a decent quality film and recording of the pieces being performed. i also have been commissioned recently to compose a piece of music for an ensemble in boston MA of all places. i'll never see it performed, but i'll hear a recording of it which i cannot wait for.
me as a musician... ... i'm a saxophonist in case you hadn't gathered. i have my band 'only us', and then i have a few other things dotted around here and there. a local singer/songwriter has hired me to play on his next recording sesh which is great. gives me a chance to play through something a bit poppy and simple for a change, which is fantastic. i also have 'le duet' a duet of me and a guitarist. we play sparingly for function-based things... just as background music really, but it's fun.
i think i've just about covered everything there. i think balancing music life with work is going to get progressively more and more difficult, seeing as the place where i work seems to constantly want overtime. while i was typing this out i got rang up and asked to do two evenings of overtime. i think i'm going to set myself a limit of only doing one day a week's worth of overtime, cause that'll only leave me with two evenings a week for music. that's not nearly enough. oh the woes of being a musician. woe is me... blah blah blah. i should write a song about it -_- (sarcasm)
