Ben Walker Music

It’s been quite a while since I posted here, but rest assured I’m still alive, well and tweeting…

To cut a very long, arduous and frankly riveting story short, the following has happened:

• New gig dates as part of a mini tour. If you think there’s somewhere missing and are willing to cover travel, accommodation and food, get in touch
• Josienne and I won the Isambard Folk Award. This means promotion (yay!) more gigs (yay!), embarrassing photos, and much glory to bask in… 
• It doesn’t matter how many CP80 samples you have, unless you’ve got Tony Allen on drums, La Ritourelle won’t sound the same.
• Finished some more recording for the lovely Zoe Wren. I’ve added it to the showreel on bensroom.co.uk and at the bottom of this post..
• The Homemade Heartache EP is almost done; we’ve got one more string part to do, and some accordion, then it’s mastering and production stage. All sounding great so far. On the subject of CDs, “The Seas Are Deep” will soon be available on CD, which means the PWYW download on bandcamp will be disappearing soon!
• My involvement with the Blue Rose Code tour has been cut short owing to my other gigging commitments. It was fun though, and if you ever get the chance, be sure to ask Steve to tell you about the microphone in Inverness. Classic.
• Next week I’m session guitaring for Trent Miller - watch this space…
• Soon in the studio, more from Salwa Azar, Cameron Niven.. if you’re interested in a collab or working with me in a production/studio context, do get in touch via bensroom

poster design…

Since finding myself technically unemployed in December, I’ve been aiming to make a go of the professional musician lark. It’s not pretty so far - there are upsides, downsides, and few nice things and a lot of attitude towards and from musicians that seems to be floating around…

January was a bit of a write off. I’d been on holiday (booked before redundancy), but was heading back to promises of producer work, which of course hasn’t materialised owing to changes in plans. Friends I’ve worked with before, I don’t mind having last minute changes, but people who claim financial constraints have forced them to cancel, but then remark about how they’re working with a “professional” really get my goat. Heaven forfend that they’re handing money over to someone who just wants to record them to pay the bills!! Two more recordings lined up for Feb and March though - if you’re interested, get in touch!

Getting some great feedback on Andrew Butler’s EP though - from The Blue Walrus, The 405, the “vintage vocal” from Glasgow Podcast and even the hallowed halls of For Folk’s Sake - here’s to the launch and the next Folkroom release!

Gigs are on the increase, which is certainly a good thing, though the perception of most promoters that artists should perform for free still seems apparent. It’s all well and good suggesting that you “bring 10 mates through the door and you’ll get £3 from each ticket sold” - but it’s a false economy. I don’t consider the music I’m playing to be so bad that I couldn’t find 10 people to listen to it, but when you’re performing so regularly, getting people to trek down on a damp Tuesday night to a back-end pub in Stockwell isn’t really going to happen… So you end up playing gigs to the other bands. The sensitive singer songwriter that still rhymes “arms” with “charms” and “farms”, the middle-managers who form a metal band every other weekend and gig once every other month… it’s quite depressing!

To be honest, I’d rather play for not a lot, but get travel, food and drink provided, and then sell people pay what you want download tokens for bandcamp after playing… 

Maybe it’s a self-esteem thing? I still see playing guitar as nothing particularly special - just putting fingers on strings at the right place and time - so asking people for money to see me do something I would do anyway, seems almost alien - however it’s an attitude that needs to shift if that “professional” tag has anything to do with it.

Gigs this week -

• Monday 13th Mark Harrison @ Round Midnight
• Tuesday 14th solo ambience @ The Gallery Cafe
• Wednesday 15th Josienne Clarke @ The Queens Head for Folkroom
• Friday 17th Camille Delean @ The Sheepwalk Pub
• Saturday 18th Josienne Clarke @ The Pumphouse Theatre
• Sunday 19th Camille Delean @ The Good Ship

Today’s a busy one: uploading Andrew Butler’s EP for press, sorting out the streaming versions for previews, making sure everything’s there for the Folkroom launch!

In addition, I’m playing tonight with Blue Rose Code at The Elgin in Ladbroke Grove, tomorrow with Josienne Clarke at Loughton Folk Club, and Friday again with Josienne Clarke at the Gallery Cafe!

No rest for the idle thumbed or something like that…

Recording with Andrew Butler today. A rather fantastic cover to promote the ep release for folkroom.