Marc Reeves

well I was a late starter with the whole facebook ‘revolution’ as I was quite skeptical about the whole thing (and still am in many ways.) It’s fun, but entirely mindless, and brings socialising to a whole new low.

Anyway, before I start going off on one, the main reason I signed up for an account was to promote mine and my bands music. So here are some widgets for you!

EDIT: Can’t work out how to get widgets posted on here! The code from facebook doesn’t appear to work! Here are the links instead:

DAX facebook

http://www.facebook.com/pages/DAX/72262400029?ref=mf

Marc Reeves facebook

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Marc-Reeves-Music/75175491553

PS. I will be playing at The Loggerheads every friday this month! Check my facebook or myspace for details!

Also, DAX now have a monthly slot at the Running Horse in Nottingham, and are playing there this Saturday (8th August) with Lost Scenes & The Duty supporting us! Check them out on myspace at:

www.myspace.com/lostscenes

www.myspace.com/thedutymyspace

Also, I wrote a long post on my recent busking experiences, but my internet messed up at the point of publishing the post, and I hadn’t saved any drafts! Suffice to say, I have now learned my lesson, and save drafts of my posts.

I will be writing a new post soon about my busking escapades, so watch this space!

Marc.

Just thought I’d mention these two wonderful artists I have been listening to a lot lately.

Lisa Hannigan, and Laura Marling.

Lisa Hannigan, is someone any fan of Damien Rice will be aware of. Her wonderful backing vocals complemented his music perfectly. Now, her collaberation with Damien has ended, and she has boldly embarked on a self funded solo career.

Her debut, ‘Sea Sew’, is a wonderfully seductive collection of songs. They draw you in with their gorgeous sense of melody, dripping with warmth and character. Her voice is understated at the best of times, changing from charmingly reserved to chillingly powerful. The songs themselves range from care free and enchanting, full of bliss and joy, to haunting & reflective. Songs such as ‘Lille’ make me reminisce on memories I have never had.

Every song on the album I would consider a hit, although my initial favourites were ‘Lille’ and ‘I Don’t Know’.

I encourage you if you love her music like I do, to buy this album. It is worth every penny!

http://www.lisahannigan.ie/

www.myspace.com/lisahannigan

Laura Marling is an artist way beyond her years, in many respects. If I am correct, she is only 19 (one year older than me!) and yet her lyrics display an understanding not apparent in most of that age. Having said that, there is still a certain amount of naivety there, and that’s what makes her so endearing.

Her debut, is a passionate, fiery, troublesome affair, beautifully told and excellently crafted. There are songs of love, youth, and turmoil. The thing I love is the subtle observations she makes of people, rather than the social commentry so many try to make, who think they have a great understanding of people. I can imagine she is a great reader of people.

The music itself blends typical folk with elements of pop and folk rock, and is just so lovingly put together. There is not a single song I do not like. I urge you to listen to her music. I truly hope she is making music for many years to come.

www.lauramarling.com

www.myspace.com/lauramarling

Unfortunately I did not win the Hop Pole competition, although on the upside, the song that did win was more than worthy, and the performance of it was very moving. The winning song was called ‘Snow on the mountain’, and is by a man called Phil Langran, featuring Steve Benford on second guitar. It features some lovely chord changes and melodies.

The song that came in second place was particularly good also, and was by a man named Marc Block. I can’t remember the name of the song unfortunately, but nevertheless it was a well crafted, uplifting folky-pop song. It had everyone up on their feet and dancing, which was great to see. I stuck to standing awkwardly in the corner though, as I’m not much of a dancer!

Overall I had a great evening and I really enjoyed taking part in the competition. I enjoyed performing my songs, and I got to meet some great musicians, and some great people too.

It was annoying though on the night of the final, as the place was packed and it was a warm evening, which meant that it was boiling inside! I get headachy when I’m really hot, so I had a bit of a headache by the end of the night, but oh well! Such is life, I guess

Last night I played at The Loggerheads pub in Nottingham. It’s a very modern (but in a good way) place, and also very well hidden! It’s not particularly out of the way, it’s just that unless you’ve been there before you would probably never have seen it, even if you know nottingham pretty well. I thought I knew where I was going in order to get there, but I went in completely the wrong direction at first! I had to ask for directions several times (I get disorientated very easily) but I made it there in the end.

So anyway, they have their main room where you can play amplified, through their PA (which subsequently outputs through the stereo systems around the building, so people don’t have to be in the room to hear you, which is quite cool) or outside, in ‘the cave’, where you play totally unplugged.The cave literally is like a little open cave, with seats all around inside, and lights. It’s really cool and cosy, and has great acoustics.

I did my set in the cave, to a circle of people gathered round me. It literally had a campfire feel to it, and felt very liberating. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I’m looking forward to next week, when I play there again! (4th July in case you’re wondering!)

www.theloggerheads.co.uk

The other acts that played last night were great too. Maurice Moore provided some catchy acoustic tunes, in particular ‘Moon Man’ (Don’t know if there’s a David Bowie influence there, but it has that element of psychedelia to it.)

Nigel Beck performed an array of beautiful instrumental acoustic music, and some brilliant folk covers. His voice had a lovely timbre and his guitar playing was exceptional.

Finally Mr. Ford & Mr. Gibbs, who performed in the cave after me, played some great folk tunes. They were very entertaining and obviously passionate about music, and also had a great sense of humour and charm.

Here’s is the info for next week’s line up (courtesy of the Loggerheads website):

Saturday 4 / 7 / 2009  LOG JAM & CURRY NIGHT
Nottingham’s hottest acoustic curry night. Come and tuck into a tasteful freshly made Indian curry all prepared in-house with the finest herbs and spices whilst enjoying the sounds from some of the talented performers we have lined up. LOIS – (Jonny from the band), MARC REEVES – (Experimental alternative folk), ROXY MAY – (Alternative acoustic), PAUL WALKER – (Acoustic folkrock), ROSS DARBY – (Alternative) & THE BONSAI PROJECTS – (Acoustic blues punk). 8pm till 1am. FREE ENTRY!

Hope to see you there!

Well, recently I’ve taken it upon myself to further pursue my solo music, as opposed to just being a bedroom hobbyist. I love being in my band DAX and promoting that, but it’s about time I pursued my solo music more.

So that’s exactly what I’ve been doing, and have had a good reception so far. I entered myself in a song writing competition at one of my local pubs, the hop pole in Beeston. It’s a wonderful place, with a sense of community, spirit & warmth. Everyone is very welcoming there so I have enjoyed performing there for this competition.

Basically, the idea is you enter up to 5 original songs to perform in a series of rounds. The judges make their votes and if you get enough points from them, or through audience votes, you go through to the next round.

Well, my songs went down a treat and I am now in the final tomorrow! I am very much looking forward to it, the winner recieves £100 and the chance to record their winning song in a professional studio, so it would be amazing if I won. I’ve not really won anything in my life (except for a book store competition when I was a kid, I won an R2-D2 backpack and some star wars books. The prize didn’t mean all that much to me, but I remember how great it felt to have won!) so it would be nice to win this. Although just taking part has been wonderful, and I am just happy to have made it to the final, and to have sold quite a few copies of my new album!

Anyways, I’m rambling, but I shall let you know how it goes tomorrow! Fingers crossed eh!

Also, I did a gig at the Running Horse pub in Nottingham on Friday (it’s a pub/venue really, I’d say 70% venue and 30% pub. It’s a great place to play, nice atmosphere, good stage and pretty decent sound. The two sound guys that work there are cool too, one of them is the drummer from local band Beast and the Preist, who are pretty good!)

My set went really well, I got a great reception from the crowd, and sold some copies of my album too! The venue owners and sound guy seemed pretty keen to get me to play there again, which is cool.

On a different note, life is pretty good right now. Confusing at times, but I can’t complain. I’m a week away from the end of my college studies (I’ve been studying BND music at Castle College in Beeston) and I feel I’m gonna get a good result. I’ve had a great time there, and met some great people (I met the drummer from my band there) so it’s kinda sad that it’s coming to an end, it’s like the end of an era. I know I’ll still keep in touch with people, but things will be different. For better or for worse, who knows, but I’m eager to see what the future holds for me

Anyways, I’m out. More updates will be coming soon!

Hey there, welcome to my first ever blog!

I’ve never done something like this before, but I guess I should start with a little bit about me.

For those of you that don’t know, my name is Marc Reeves. I am 18 years old, and live in Nottinghamshire. I have been writing and recording music since I was about 13-14, but can remember coming up with songs in my head and even writing stuff on one of those kiddy keyboards when I was very young.

These days, I tend to enjoy writing folk music most. Well, I say folk (and I would consider it to be so), but really it’s more of a modern folk genre, like folk-pop and folk-rock. It’s not traditional traditional folk, but I take a lot of inspiration from that genre.

I like a lot of old music, like Carole King, Del Shannon, Cat Stevens, Tim Buckley, Nina Simone, etc. Then there are the current generation singer-songwriter types that I like, such as Seasick Steve, Norah Jones, Lisa Hannigan, Feist, Laura Marling, Fionn Regan, Iron & Wine, not to mention many others. I could go on, but I won’t. My intention is not to bore, I’m not here to simply reel off a list of artists to show how cool I am because I listen to them.

I just like music.

As well as doing my solo thing, I also have played in a few bands over the years. I am the lead singer & guitarist of the band DAX currently, of which I am enjoying much success with, locally. We write sort of indie-fused rock with splashes of blues and funk, and all sorts really.

You can check DAX out at

www.myspace.com/daxofficial

or on Jamendo

http://www.jamendo.com/en/artist/Dax_(5)

and then of course there’s my solo stuff

www.myspace.com/mjronline

or

http://www.jamendo.com/en/artist/marc.reeves

Thanks for taking the time to read this, I hope you found it an interesting read.

Check back for more updates soon!

See ya,
Marc.