0:00

Hello , welcome to StevenSpeak . Thank

0:03

you for joining me again . Today's episode

0:05

is going to be about something

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that's happened to me recently . Musically

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, finally , and

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I managed to just achieve it

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just about

0:16

prior to turning 40 . Stick

0:20

with me and I'll explain all in

0:22

a moment . Welcome

0:34

to StevenSpeak , the podcast

0:36

. Unscrupted Prattle

0:39

on everything and nothing . Thank

0:49

you very much for joining me on this on

0:54

the podcast . Grab yourself a brew , whatever your

1:01

poison is , as long as it's not poison , don't kill

1:03

yourself . Sit

1:06

back and listen to me prattle on about the

1:08

subject today , which is me

1:10

joining a band . A little mysterious

1:13

intro from me today I

1:17

joined a band . How weird

1:19

. I've talked about before how I'm a little

1:27

bit musical . Probably

1:29

could be about a million times better than I actually

1:32

am because I never practice , got a room

1:34

full of instruments that I just stare at half the time

1:36

and just mess around on occasionally

1:38

and really

1:41

should invest a lot of time . I still need to do that

1:43

. I really need to do that . Every

1:46

time I get organised something

1:48

happens that

1:51

puts me back . You

1:54

all know my brain's a bit weird and I can't cope

1:56

with things sometimes . Both

2:04

of the excuses , basically , I think . I mentioned on the show that I did

2:06

a soundscape for a

2:08

local charity

2:11

museum Eritre Center and crew . They

2:13

wanted a sound produced , so I did that , used

2:18

my talent . It went out really well . The

2:21

guy that was supplying the PA system

2:24

let me just adjust my microphone . There

2:29

was a guy that was providing the PA system

2:31

because I was literally just providing the sound

2:34

. He was a lovely

2:36

chap called Dave and we were chatting away . He

2:40

just mentioned that he used to be a DJ

2:42

and stuff like this . Shout out to Dave Hello Dave

2:44

, if you listen to this . He

2:49

just basically mentioned that he was thinking about starting a podcast

2:52

as well . He used to be a DJ and he was looking

2:54

for something to get back

2:56

into and get back on track

2:58

and just occupy his

3:00

time a little bit Something he could do from home

3:02

as well , rather than doing his DJing

3:04

, because he said he was getting a bit old for that

3:07

. I'm not going to disclose Dave's days , but he was older

3:09

than I expected him to be . He's

3:12

a fantastic chap and he

3:14

looks brilliant . He's

3:18

done a few things . He used to be a teacher and

3:20

he's come a bit of a friend

3:22

to me . He mentioned basically

3:24

he used to be in a band as well and that he was trying

3:26

to get it going again . I mentioned that

3:30

it's something I've never been in . I

3:33

said that I was a bit musical and could play a

3:35

bit of guitar and play a bit of piano and

3:38

sing a little bit . He

3:40

was like oh , we kind of need a singer and a

3:42

bit of keyboard and stuff would be cool . I was like , yeah , we

3:44

got

3:47

to chatting and then we met up for a coffee just to discuss

3:49

podcasting and stuff . To be honest , he was kind

3:51

of interested in how I got started and him

3:54

trying to start his . We

3:59

basically got chatting on that and he basically had

4:01

mentioned to a couple of the old band

4:03

members that he had kind

4:05

of started up again and do a bit of practicing . And

4:09

yeah , before I knew

4:11

it it was like , yeah , this is kind of happening . Yeah

4:16

, so I'm the lead singer

4:19

of a band and

4:21

I managed to . We had our first practice just before I turned 40

4:23

. So technically that's one of the bucket list

4:25

before 40 . So , and

4:27

at the moment I think it's

4:30

just like kind of a practice when I don't think we're looking at

4:32

getting any gigs or anything . If we do , it'll be like

4:34

, you know , hope I might nice and stuff

4:36

like that , just if we play to public

4:38

. Yeah , we don't sound

4:40

too bad . To be honest . We've only had two practices so far

4:42

. We had one this week

4:44

, wednesday just gone , and

4:48

we're kind of meeting up like every month . There's

4:50

a couple of the guys have retired , a couple of them

4:52

still have jobs , so there's

4:54

the six of us all together , including myself . So

4:56

we have a couple of guitarists , three guitarists

4:59

actually , a bass player and

5:01

Dave that kind of introduced

5:03

me to all . He plays the drums , although

5:05

I think he's looking kind of to like to like retire

5:08

his drum kit and maybe focused

5:10

more on like just recording us and filming

5:12

us and kind of maybe

5:14

being a bit of a managerial role . But

5:17

yeah , it's been good so far . It's been an interesting

5:19

experience . I've

5:22

never really been for all my like things

5:24

that I've done in my life , like kind of like creatively

5:26

and musically and my

5:29

acting and stuff like that . When I was younger I'd

5:32

say that as if I was on the West End or something which

5:35

I wasn't . I did like

5:37

school productions . I was always doing , I was always in the band

5:39

, I was always in clubs and stuff like that and

5:42

I did . I auditioned

5:44

for a West End musical . I

5:48

didn't get a callback and I

5:50

don't think that was because I

5:53

wouldn't have been any good . It's just that

5:55

the kids there were just something

5:57

else . They were just on another level

5:59

of and I wouldn't talent

6:02

talented yes , they had talent . I would say

6:04

I wouldn't have said no , like

6:06

a great apart from dancing , not

6:09

a great deal more than I had at the time . I

6:11

think I could sing pretty well at the time and

6:13

you know I was really comfortable with acting and

6:16

I think I was all right , you know . I think I was pretty good , but

6:18

they had the edge on me for dancing , like they were all been

6:21

dance schools and stuff like this . They

6:23

were just so , so confident . So

6:26

I think that's always been my problem with stuff like this

6:29

is having that confidence to kind of think

6:32

that I'm any good . But when I went out , when

6:34

I auditioned for West End , like there

6:36

was one loud dude queuing up with me and he'd actually called

6:38

he actually called a newspaper

6:41

to come and interview him and

6:43

they did , which was just bonkers to

6:45

me . I was thinking what's

6:47

like , who are you ? I mean , I don't know if there was anyone

6:50

like reasonably famous . I didn't recognize him . I don't know

6:52

if he'd already been in a West End production and got good reviews

6:54

or he was an up and coming actor

6:57

, I

6:59

couldn't even tell you like , but he literally found

7:01

the Daily Mirror and some guy came out and took pictures

7:03

of him . He was posing while he was queuing

7:05

up because there was hundreds of kids . I'll just

7:07

say that the play was the bugs , him alone , yeah

7:09

, and the audition

7:12

was very excuse

7:14

me , excuse me , that

7:18

was very rude of me yawning I

7:20

was yawning myself apparently

7:22

. Yeah , it was just like you

7:25

had to do like a bit of a

7:27

scripted bit . Then you had to do like

7:29

a dance bit . It was the dance , but I was

7:31

no good at it because , like , it was

7:33

very much like , it's very

7:35

much like the scene from Friends , where

7:37

Joey is taking a dance class and he's lying

7:40

on his CV and the guy literally says

7:42

oh , can you teach the class ? I've got to go and

7:44

do something . He goes oh , yeah , no , yeah , no problem

7:46

. And the guy literally goes

7:48

right , it's really simple , it's just this . And he shows

7:50

them the dance routine and he goes have you got it ? And

7:54

like Joey's like oh , yeah , of course I have . I

7:57

was Joey . They literally showed the class

7:59

like once or twice , when this is the dance

8:01

routine bang , bang , bang , bang , bang , bang , bang , bang

8:04

. It was quite complex For

8:06

me , it wasn't , at least anyway . And

8:08

then , and then they put

8:10

the music on and like right , let's go through it . And I was just like

8:12

what ? And there was probably like 10 or

8:14

12 of us . They called through for the dance bits . They called

8:17

no more than 15 at a time , it was probably

8:19

like 10 , 12 at a time to

8:21

do it . So they could , obviously , and we had to wear a number and

8:23

then you got sent out and then

8:25

some people got called back in . So I got called

8:27

back in , which I thought was a good thing , but

8:29

in hindsight I'm guessing it was a bad thing

8:32

, because they were probably calling the worst of the bunch in

8:34

to try and wean out the really bad people

8:36

. So I presume that was me , but

8:38

I just couldn't get it and I was very , very self-conscious

8:41

of the dancing . I've got nothing to tangent

8:43

here , but anyway it

8:46

kind of put me off like ever like auditioning for

8:48

a band or anything , because I've always wanted

8:50

to be in a band and

8:52

even though I kind of play instrument , I've never really kind

8:55

of felt like I would want to play an instrument

8:57

in the band . I've always felt like being

8:59

the front man would be , would

9:01

be the thing for me , the singer . And

9:03

because I'm very , when I get going I'm very

9:05

, I feel like I'm very dramatic

9:08

and I can hold people's attention

9:10

. It's not easy for

9:12

me to say stuff like that Makes me cringe . But

9:15

people have said to me , like you know , I'm a good talker

9:18

and got it presenting and

9:20

when I've done karaoke and stuff like , I've been able to get

9:22

the crowd going . No , karaoke is different because everyone's

9:25

normally leathered . I've

9:27

been leathered rock bands concerts

9:30

, I suppose , anyway . But yeah , they've

9:32

presented this opportunity and

9:34

I've kind of gone into it and still really nervous as

9:36

hell , really nervous

9:38

about learning words learning the words to the songs is

9:41

kind of the worst thing at the moment we're

9:43

doing . We're doing quite a few covers Well

9:45

, didn't all covers say that , but

9:49

there's probably like 90 percent of

9:51

them that I know well . And then there's a few songs

9:53

that , like I know them

9:55

I don't know them really well

9:57

Essentially like album tracks . So you know that

9:59

you know the popular release ones

10:02

, but you've heard

10:04

, heard the album , but not listen to these as much kind of things . So , lending

10:08

the lyrics and it's also learning how to sing them

10:10

as well , just getting

10:13

that kind of . Getting that kind

10:15

of you

10:18

know what level do you start at , what tone are we going to

10:20

use ? And and try to get that kind of . I'm

10:25

really trying not to mimic the bands and

10:27

stuff . I'm trying to like put my own twist on it , and

10:30

that's quite difficult . Actually I'm trying to find my

10:32

voice . I think that's what I'm saying . I've

10:35

been singing for years , saying karaoke is , and just

10:37

in the shower and

10:39

to myself , when I've been recording myself at home , when I've been writing

10:42

songs and stuff . So I kind of know what I sound like . But it's different

10:44

when you're singing someone else's song . I

10:47

think when you write your own song . You sing it how you want it song . When

10:49

you sing someone else's song , you have this like interpretation

10:52

in your own brain . So

10:56

yeah , that's been quite difficult so far

10:58

. Yeah , but back at school and I was never I played with

11:01

some bands . There was a couple of bands

11:03

in school and I sang a couple of times with them when

11:09

they needed a singer . I

11:13

think one of the guys used to do the singing but

11:15

for certain songs he

11:17

asked me to come in , so like NDS

11:19

assemblers and stuff . So I sang with

11:22

them a couple of times . And then the school band

11:24

and stuff I don't really count because it's like

11:26

school band , but this other

11:29

band they'd form this band for

11:31

themselves , like guitars , drums etc

11:33

and bass guitar and stuff , and that was

11:35

pretty cool to be asked . But

11:39

yeah , I've seen signs of them stuff like there used to be

11:41

a club in Krugel and they used to have signs of both

11:43

songs saying like singer wanted blah

11:45

, blah and I was thinking I could do that . People

11:48

have told me I've got an alright voice . Could

11:50

I do that At

11:53

the time ? I think I definitely could . I have noticed

11:55

that my voice is not as good as it used to

11:57

be , even my perception of my own

11:59

voice , which I don't have a very strong opinion of , has

12:04

faltered . I think it's just laziness . I

12:06

think I recorded

12:09

the session Wednesday with

12:11

my digital stereo

12:13

recorder . If

12:16

anyone is interested , it's on the website . It's a Tascam

12:18

DR40X stereo

12:23

recorder really good quality , not

12:25

a sponsor , just like Tascam stuff

12:27

, and it was a good price at the time and

12:30

yeah , it sounded alright . there was a few bum notes from me

12:32

, I think . There was a couple of times where I

12:34

didn't know totally where to go , whether I

12:36

should start up high or low , and as

12:38

soon as I started singing I changed my mind immediately and

12:40

had to swap my kind of position . But

12:43

yeah , I think , in general I think we sound good . Consider

12:46

it's like the second practice Like lost

12:49

a bit of time a couple of times . A couple of bum

12:51

notes from the guitar sometimes

12:53

, I think what it was . I think we

12:56

were playing one song in a different key and one of the

12:58

guitars were playing one . We'd gone and looked

13:00

up the tabs and I think someone was playing one

13:03

key and we had to stop one song and go like hang on , what

13:05

key you're playing in . But

13:09

yeah , probably something we should have started out before

13:11

we actually started playing really . But we just was

13:13

like oh , we'll just start jamming , but

13:19

it's been good , it's been good . So

13:22

I'll name some of the songs we've been playing . Actually , let

13:24

me just get my phone because I'll forget

13:26

them . One of the ones

13:29

we've been looking at so far is

13:31

I've

13:34

got on my phone a little playlist because

13:36

I've been driving around in the car . I don't

13:38

know why I'm whispering . I've been driving around in the car

13:41

, I've been putting

13:43

the playlist on and like singing to the long term in the car

13:45

. I really do need to learn the lyrics . It's

13:47

like one of the things I can't stand on stage

13:49

and stand with . I

13:54

don't really want to stand and have my

13:56

iPad there . I

14:00

might need to do some backup , I might back

14:02

up , but I don't want to have to just

14:04

read off it because it's really obvious . You

14:06

should have to do that . So

14:10

we've got Hootie Hootie

14:12

man by the Jeff Healy band and that's one of the songs

14:14

that I'd heard but didn't really know too well . Hey

14:17

Joe , by the Jimi Hendrix Experience . I knew

14:19

that song but I probably

14:21

not really sung it before , to be honest

14:23

. Same with Hootie Hootie man , sunshine of your

14:25

Love by Cream . Yep , everyone knows

14:27

that . Knockin' On Heaven's Door by Bob Dylan . But we do

14:29

like a reggae one which is pretty cool Reggae

14:32

version of it Can't Get Enough by Bad

14:34

Company I saw it standing there by the Beatles

14:36

which I cannot get in my brain . I

14:38

can sing along to it , but when it's

14:40

me singing I fuck it up every time

14:42

. Which ? is really , really annoying . Melissa

14:45

by the Almond Brothers Again

14:47

, that's the one that we thought we were all playing

14:50

different versions of . We

14:53

added these this week Rough Boy by ZZ Top

14:55

and Cocaine by Eric Clapton , and

14:58

I think we're going to add another one I can't remember what it's called

15:00

. Let's

15:03

see if we can find it . In the Wotsam group

15:05

it

15:08

is the

15:10

Georgia Satellites Keep your Hands To Yourself

15:13

, which

15:15

one of the guys played , and it seems quite funky , quite

15:18

a cool tune , like

15:20

a lot of bluesy riffs and stuff in it . So yeah

15:22

, should be quite interesting . So that's kind of the kind

15:25

of music we're going for at the moment , and we

15:27

also play Wicked Game actually as well . Chris

15:29

Isaacs Wicked Game , wicked

15:32

Game's game , singular

15:35

, god , yeah , and

15:39

I don't think I do a bad job at singing them , to

15:41

be honest . If I'm honest with you , I think

15:44

I'm pretty average at the moment . I think

15:46

for some songs I sound better than others

15:48

. I think I may be more relaxed with that

15:50

style , maybe more relaxed with the lyrics , maybe

15:52

more relaxed in general

15:55

. I don't know

15:57

. I don't know

15:59

. But yeah , I'm feeling

16:01

it . I'm

16:05

pleased that I can go out and

16:07

just do a bit of creative stuff and not take it too too

16:09

seriously . It's

16:11

been just fun so far and I say

16:13

, if we don't get a gig out of it , I'm not overly bothered

16:16

. To be honest , it's just great hanging out

16:18

with some guys that want to jam and

16:20

just to be able

16:22

to sing some songs . And I

16:24

really need to practice . This

16:26

forced me to practice a little bit , but still

16:29

I need to actually

16:31

make this room accessible enough that I can practice

16:34

without having

16:36

to move stuff around , which at the moment , to

16:39

get to my piano and stuff , I'm having

16:41

to move some stuff and that's not helpful because

16:43

that is literally a block to me . I'm

16:45

like oh , I can't do that because I have to move three

16:48

things . And it's pathetic , and

16:50

I know it's pathetic . You don't have to tell me this , my

16:54

brain just can't cope . I'm

17:00

a wreck . Yeah

17:03

, it's nice to be in a band and if we do do a gig , do

17:06

do , then I will

17:08

let you know and I'll put it on

17:10

social media so you can come and throw tomatoes at me

17:12

and maybe meet me in person

17:14

. But no

17:16

, I'm enjoying it at the moment and it's

17:20

something I've always fancied doing . So

17:22

it's a big tick in the box for me to say that you know , I'm

17:24

in a band and that sounds pretty cool

17:27

in itself , doesn't it really ? Yeah

17:32

, that's kind of what I wanted to tell you about this week

17:34

and yeah

17:37

, is

17:40

it something that a lot of people have done ? I

17:43

feel like I think it's . I suppose

17:45

it depends on circles You're in , because there's probably

17:47

like part of my friends group would

17:49

be like oh yeah , I've never done anything like that before . Probably

17:51

part of them would be like oh yeah , I've been in a band

17:53

or I've played guitar and I've done this , and

17:55

X , y , z and done a little bit . And there's a

17:57

couple people I know that have been in bands or still

18:00

in bands . So I suppose I suppose it just is

18:02

the time people be hanging out with us for this , and that is

18:04

to like what

18:07

they thought their experience of it would be . But

18:10

yeah , I just , I

18:13

just , I just , I'm just enjoying it . It's , it's something

18:16

to do at the moment and it's it's

18:18

given me pleasure and yeah

18:21

, long may it continue . And you

18:23

know , something comes of it . Something comes of it . If it doesn't

18:25

, then I'm having a nice time and that

18:28

is always good and that's that's we've got a focus

18:30

on , I think , at the end of the day , and that's

18:32

that's kind of like my ethos for the podcast and

18:34

and we kind of start my own , my registering

18:36

as a business for it and like trying

18:39

to maybe Make

18:41

it work for me . I'm kind of going into

18:43

it with very open-minded and and Fun

18:46

in mind , rather than this could turn into

18:48

something , and I think there's

18:51

a fine balance between putting enough into

18:53

it and to achieve something and

18:55

just fucking around . Yeah

18:57

. I'm hoping that

19:00

it just carries on for now , and if something , if

19:02

we get a gig out of it , then happy days . If not , then you

19:05

know we're just having a nice time and that's

19:07

cool . So

19:11

yeah , so yeah . So that's me , that's . That's , that's the podcast

19:13

this week . I hope you enjoyed that , and let

19:15

me know if you've been in a band , let me know if

19:17

you are still a band . What do you play ? Um

19:20

, do you just sing that ? I

19:22

don't want to be in two bands . I'm

19:26

enjoying it that much though , like you know , it's always good

19:28

to get experience . I think I do need to . Um , oh

19:30

, if you got any techniques from our voice , you only

19:32

techniques to warm up , warm down , strengthen

19:34

my voice , you know . Every

19:38

little helps . So yeah , thank you very much . Check

19:40

out the website , steven speak calm , if you

19:42

want to be on the show . I think you're some of the interest and see

19:44

you are in a band , you know what . Chat about it and

19:47

contact me and

19:49

follow me on social media at Steven speak

19:51

PC . And if you're super awesome , you love

19:53

the podcast so much that you want to you contribute

19:55

, then you can now subscribe and

19:57

you can contribute to

19:59

help me put these things out there for a

20:01

bit less cost to myself . That

20:04

would be awesome . Anyway , thank you very much

20:06

and I'll hear you . Well , I won't

20:08

hear you . You'll hear me on the next

20:10

episode of Steve speak . I'll

20:13

speak to you soon . You've

20:16

been listening to Steven speak the podcast

20:18

. Thanks for listening to my unscripted

20:20

prattle on everything and nothing . Visit

20:24

Steven speak calm for updates information

20:27

on my blog . You can follow

20:29

more updates on social media at Steven speak

20:32

PC . Thanks very much and

20:34

I'll speak to you soon .