The album “Hard Clown’n Noise” will be released via I-Tunes, Amazon and other leading online retailers on Wednesday September 21st. The album will also be available in lossless digital format from this site from that day. The physical release which will include additional artwork and all song lyrics is scheduled for a release on 11/11/11!

Hard Clown'n Noise Album Cover

The album tracklist:

1. A Piece of Heaven On Planet Earth

2. Traffic Cone Girl

3. The Best Day of Our Lives

4. Ghost

5. A Bright Sunny Day

6. Just One Life

7. There Must Be Some Way Out of This

8. While We Still Can

9. Can’t Let Go

10. Don’t Forget Me

11. I Want the Best For You

12. Where Is My Home?

13. Seismic Meltdown

Lyrics to follow on the site shortly.

Peace and Love,

Andrew

Just some thoughts I thought I would share….

Please ban all guns on planet earth.

I’m always disappointed when things like the Norway shooting happens that everyone debates motives and if religion is a good and/or bad thing. We start to analyse the motives. Throughout history religions have been with us and it is difficult to control what people should / should not believe. In either case this man didn’t exactly commit these acts in the name of a religion how other people believe or interpret it.

To me the answer for preventing the atrocities from happening again is simple. Yes the bomb was a horrible attack in Oslo and it was possible to build this with easy to get ingredients. However what was much more horrible was the gun attack which carried a much greater death toll. All guns should be banned everywhere. They should stop being made, stop being sold, rounded up and destroyed EVERYWHERE on this planet. We put a man on the moon so certainly are capable of achieving this if there was enough will. And no it’s not up to politicians. As we have seen in 2011, the normal guy on the street is capable of a lot so we CAN do this. It’s a crime not to and just a bunch of excuses “I need a gun for blah blah….” “I need a gun because he has got one” “I need a gun because some daft old law states I can own a firearm”.

Think about this logically. If a road outside a school becomes a deathtrap with many kids dying because of the traffic. What do you do? You make the road safer, change its structure, put down preventive measures. You do not analyse the reasons why people are driving fast, attribute the reason for driving fast to video games or only put more rules on that driving etc. etc.

The road should be made safer, please ban all guns!

Peace,

Andrew

I got a great review on “Seismic Meltdown” by Rhonda Readence, check it out:

Artist: Andrew Nicholson

Song: “Seismic Meltdown”

Review by: Rhonda Readence

As a self-taught musician from the Netherlands, Andrew Nicholson entered the world of music at a young age and has remained there since, studying at Glasgow University in Scotland and citing Meatloaf, Bruce Springsteen and Imogen Heap as influences. The track “Seismic Meltdown” was directly influenced by Imogen Heap, and in this artfully composed piece of music, Nicholson delves into the tragic earthquake and resulting tsunami and nuclear meltdown that occurred in Japan in March of 2011

“Seismic Meltdown” is Andrew Nicholson’s first single from the album Hard Clown’n Noise, which is set for release in summer of 2011. The track is lyrically sound and offers an insightful and emotional look into the triple tragedy that struck Japan. It begins with mournful piano work that carries with it a sense of despair and hope. The solo efforts of Richard Wright may come to mind as listeners enjoy the graceful and elegant piano playing. The track begins slowly and quickly builds to a crescendo of heartfelt imagery of the devastation that struck Japan and the aftermath left in its wake.

Nicholson has the unique ability to touch upon a subject that brought great sorrow and despair to tens of thousands, and yet there is an essence of hope in his music. There is a sense of compassion toward our fellow man that is evident as Nicholson sings “Embracing each other / Whose names you don’t know / After this destructive time / Where can we go?” This line alone is powerful enough, but “Seismic Meltdown” is riddled with lyrics that bring to mind the scenes of chaos that were broadcast worldwide after the tragedy struck. This song also highlights the human instinct to help one another and come together in times of need.

The music itself is skillfully done with exceptional piano work and artful guitar playing that sends the heart soaring. Nicholson’s vocals are occasionally pitchy and they are not his strong suit, but the intelligent and honest lyrics more than make up for this. The powerful instrumentation and excellent composition of this piece makes it more than just a song. It is a story of human suffering and hope; fatalities and those left among the living; the process of picking up the pieces and comforting others, some of whom are complete strangers.

“Seismic Meltdown” is a rock opera that carries a wonderful message and leaves listeners with a sense of hope in the wake of complete destruction. The human spirit is uplifted with this song, despite the grim reasons for it having been written at all. Andrew Nicholson has put into words and music the horror we all felt after such a remarkable tragedy – The lives taken, the survivors, the lost and broken people helping each other. He has artfully captured a time in human history that will forever be remembered, and he has done it with skill and grace.

Review by Rhonda Readence

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

 

Seismic Meltdown is now available for download via Amazon from here and Itunes from here.

Still finalising the album. But into the mastering stage now, then artwork. Soon soon soon! I promise!

Peace,

Andrew

Over the last two weeks in March Imogen Heap was working on a crowd sourced song eventually titled “LifeLine”. In addition to fans contributing sounds, videos, images and other things that would help her to eventually create the song she also set up an “Inspiration Wall” where she encouraged her fans to submit their own work.

The word cloud she had up inspired me to write the song called “Seismic Meltdown”, about the earthquake and subsequent Tsunami which killed thousands in Japan in March. Though Imogen’s song was originally inspired by the these events too, I think my song is perhaps more literal and therefore I made a accompanying video consisting of photos taken of the aftermath of the events in Japan.

“Seismic Meltdown” has now been released as a single. You can buy it here, via my website in digital format and it will be out on I-Tunes, Amazon and Spotify soon too.

This is some extra work ahead of the album which I am now finishing off and should be released in May!

Peace,

Andrew

I was sad to hear about Gerry Rafferty passing away yesterday. Obviously I had heard “Stuck in the middle” many times growin’ up, partly because of the popularity it gained from “Reservoir Dogs”. It wasn’t until about 10 years ago I listened to Gerry’s solo music properly. A French dude who had a dodgy old Volkswagen convertible over in Glasgow I was chatting to whilst at uni happened to be playing his “Baker Street” compilation disc in his car with the top down (not exactly something you’d do often in Glasgow) and I just HAD to go out buy the CD myself. I went down to the local record shop, Fopp and bought the CD for £3.99 which in those days was ridiculously cheap (now it seems a more normal price for a CD ).

I was in awe of “Days gone Down”. I love the original version but I always wondered what an acoustic version would sound like (partly because of the piano/vocal only intro). So anyway last night I was playing this through a few times as a mark of respect to my fellow Scotsman. Here it is:

Love the lyrics “You still got that light in your eye”, “The first time I set eyes on you and I listened to you sing / We didn’t have to speak cause the words said everything”….

RIP Gerry…

Happy New year everyone!!!

First off, a little New Year video!

Secondly, here is my attempt at Imogen Heap’s “Hide and Seek”:

Thirdly, what will 2011 bring? Well I hope it’s a great year for everyone. As for me music-wise 2011; my full length studio album will be completed over the next few months and will be released in the spring. It should be available on Itunes, Amazon and hopefully other places such as Spotify and Bandcamp (on this site). Not just here but I will most likely also be spreading word of my new music via YouTube, Twitter, Soundcloud and Facebook so stay tuned!!

Peace and Love,

Andrew

A few weeks ago I posted a video to YouTube which contained my birthday message for Imogen Heap’s birthday on December 8th.

I included my rendition of her “The Song that never was”, which basically consists of Imogen’s provided vocal tracks with my interpretation of the music. I actually included a little background singing too over the the verses when the music kicks in fully.

Thought I would share here for keep’s sake.

Will be uploading my own rendition of “Hide & Seek” over the next week too, in time for the new year hopefully!

Someone on a forum came up with a good idea to trace back your favourite music (how and when you discovered it). Rather than making up a boring story I thought I would put my music heroes into chronological order of when I discovered them. It’s an interesting exercise and one that shows me I think that my musical taste is reasonably diverse.

Before the age of 10: Dutch Top 40 music mostly

-> Early 90s
Phil Collins, Queen, Guns n’ Roses

-> 1993
Meat Loaf (heard his music before but this is when obsession kicked in), Janet Jackson

->1995
Jim Steinman & his other children (Pandora’s Box / Bonnie Tyler), Michael Jackson

-> Mid to Late 90s
Chicks with guitars (Sheryl Crow / Meredith Brooks / Leah Andreone / Alanis Morissette)

->1998
Brian May / Roger Taylor Solo stuff.

->1999
Bob Dylan/”Weird” Al Yankovic, Roxette

-> 2000
Bruce Springsteen/Billy Joel

-> 2002
De Dijk, Per Gessle (of Roxette) Solo stuff

-> 2004
Nena Kerner

-> 2010
Imogen Heap

I also like film music and some trance.

Little Synthesizer Improv I did when I got the East West Complete Composers Library earlier this year.
The preset used is called “Colossus Pad” which sounds really nice I think.