Universal You

Hit this link and you can take a free Universal You track.....and...JUMP!

This was the opening track on our last series of gigs.

No, we were not drinking there....'twas a video shoot for our next single, honest..but we found a new job for our singer.

 

Thanks (as always) to Graeme and Rachel for the camera work and direction and also to James for letting us in to the pub for our early morning (filming) session.

Mark on the keys...adding a little piece for a new song.

 

Well into Feb already and not yet blogged tut tut. Had a great time in Cannes last week at MIDEM (a music conference/exhibition over 4 days) and met loads of interesting people as well as taking in a few gigs too. I managed to see Newton Falkner, King Charles, The Black Swan Effect, Odette Albani, Chipmunk (tho I really don’t get that kind of hiphop music…he tried to sing at one point with the excellent bancking singer..and he really shouldn’t have..he aint a singer..and he just seemed a touch too arrogant as well) .I also saw the awesome Davy Knowles and Back Door Slam who really were electric. French gurlz The Plasticines cancelled at the last minute which was a pity as I think the French folks were looking forward to having their own on show. I must encourage you to check out Davy Knowles..although that blues/rock sound is not traditionally my thing, his singing and guitar playing were suuuuperb. He has been touring the States for a long time even tho he is only 22 (look out for his bassist who for some reason dances around like your dad at wedding….oh man!...that could be me!!). Great gig.

I also had "the best pizza in the world" at the restaurant The Piazza…it was so good I had to go back a second time to make sure…and I was 100% right. For anyone that knows me well, pizza is a fairly central part of my life…:] I also returned home with aching feet after spending all the hours wandering around the stands and also brought back a huge bundle of business cards and a few free CDs that were handed out…Im gonna give Japanese pop and rock a chance!

Now to follow up all those contacts…Typically I also spent some hours in Morrisons Irish Bar..why do we all do that?? Spend time in Irish bars when we visit other parts of the world…why?

From a band perspective it was interesting to take in the many talks, workshops etc on the go at MIDEM and check out the record labels, publishers and distributers from all over the world that were touting their wares. It was also interesting to note that Facebook is now jumping way ahead of Myspace to the point that people are calling it "Who'space"..and some "experts" suggest to not even bother with Myspace...so flavour of the day is Facebook and Twitter, no doubt something new will come along and replace those two at some point soon. However please feel free to look at the Universal You Myspace (and Facebook!) pages! (and our tweets on Twitter too…do like my use of alliteration?)

From a front page of NME perspective there were not many household names there (so no sexy pics with the stars Im afraid) as its more about the business side of making and distributing music, but Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy and Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls took part in a coupla talks and specifically how they use "Social Media" to promote their music. It is a million miles away from the days of finding new bands by buying Melody Maker or flicking through vinyl in Bruces record shop!! (yeh Im old enough to remember that) So in some ways its quite sad that bands have to be good at tweeting, networking and bloggging and Flikr'ing etc all to find people to listen to the music. Of course as a band gets bigger and bigger it won't actually be them tweeting or blogging about the "great latte I just had in New York" (or Tokyo, but never Huddersfield..) and instead it will be someone on the record label payroll…shame…Please be assured that this is Paul from UniYou blogging and not some faceless low paid typist in Mumbai doing this for me...

But in another way its fantastic that perhaps that same person in Mumbai can listen to music made in Kirkcaldy, Scotlando in a matter of 2 or 3 clicks of a mouse and all because they came across an ad on Facebook, a video on YouTube or whatever (or even Myspace)… I must admit that of all these things I find YouTube the best as it still deals with real, tangible content. I love looking and searching for videos of gigs….pretty soon you will be able to go to a gig and by the time you get home watch it all again on YouTube! The video quality is improving so much too….the phonecam has replaced the held aloft lighter at gigs…tho I still cant see the point of spending 30 quid on a ticket and then watching the gig through a 2inchx2inch screen…as so many people seem to do.

Talking of gigs I have Pendulum lined up for May and Pink in June with hopefully a few others in between. I also hope UniYou can get some gigs squeezed in between finishing off recording which is our current priority. We are having some post production work done on a couple of tracks right now…ye know all that cool stuff that make a good track great :] strings n sounds n jingly things….then back in t'studio in March to record vocals on another 3 tracks..she's gonna be busy!

At the mo we three are all apart..one in Africa, one in Eurasia, one in Europe….thats the official tweet version….unfortunately the reality is not as sexy as it sounds however true it all actually is. Making music is not as easy as it once was either!

See ya

Paul