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

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…

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!

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.

Hey all,

It’s been ages indeed. Have been kept busy with my new solo album project which should be out on I-tunes / Amazon / Spotify / Bandcamp and CDBaby before the end of this year. Aiming for 12 brand new songs and it’s a bit of a concept album. Most of the material has been written and several songs are almost finished. Still lots to do though. Will keep you updated.

In the mean time here is a very short instrumental piece of music I put together last year for a student film project.
In the end it wasn’t used but I recently found it on my webspace so thought I’d post it here. The aim was for 90 seconds of instrumental music so there is only so much you can do really. I started with a simple piano theme switching from minor to major and added a couple of instruments to it, drums, guitar and a couple of orchestral instruments from the East West library. Not thrilled to bits with it or anything but hopefully worth a listen!

Will be back soon.

Peace,

Andrew

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Recently taking a lot of time out to master the 2nd Bruce Springsteen tribute cd (almost done, I promise!) I was pleased with some of the results I got, hence I thought it was worth to see what I could do mastering some of my older music. The Jim Steinman fan album submission I made in late 2006/early 2007 always lacked a bit of grand full sound I was trying to create. I felt the orchestra and drums were slightly underpowered. Well what a bit of mastering can do. It took me just around an hour to get this right…. The new vocal was recorded earlier this year but not used till now.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

I’m busy with the final touches of my new Bruce Springsteen Tribute Album but all the basic recording is now complete. I’ve managed to put together 15 songs for a 79 minute album:

Andrew Nicholson – Driving All Night: A Tribute To Bruce Springsteen Volume II (2009)
1. Growin’ Up
2. New York City Serenade
3. Thunder Road
4. Darkness on The Edge of Town
5. Drive All Night
6. Reason To Believe
7. Tougher Than The Rest
8. I Wish I Were Blind
9. I Ain’t Got No Home
10. Streets of Philadelphia
11. Hearts of Stone
12. Further On (Up The Road)
13. Devils & Dust
14. When The Saints Go Marching In
15. Long Walk Home

Whilst I was recording it became clear I was recording one song from almost each of Springsteen’s studio albums, so I was thinking of continuing that trend. However it would have had to be a double cd considering the amount of studio albums and thus taken me a lot longer to complete (I have been busy recording this album, starting with demos back in February). In the end I am happy with the song choices and although some gems I was thinking of recording such as “Queen of The Supermarket” / “Downbound Train” and “Land of Hope and Dreams”, I can always do those songs at a later stage for Volume 3 perhaps?

The flipside is that I have now done 25 Bruce Springsteen songs back to back thus I am looking forward continuing with my own music for the next couple of years at least.

I will be working on the artwork for this album over the next couple of days and hope to have it all complete by the weekend so that copies should be available well before mid September. Will post an update when ready.

Peace,

Andrew

..still recording songs for the second tribute cd.
At this stage there is a possibility it may turn out a double cd, which would be great if it did.
I am about halfway through recording the songs and it seems I am picking a song from each of Bruce Springsteen’s studio albums

Hopefully be done with the recording towards the end of August after which I will put the songs up in the cds/albums section of the site.

I have quite a few photos to add to the site from a Bruce Springsteen concert I went to in June and from my holiday in Disneyland Paris. Will post them soon.

-Andrew