Today is an extra special day because I am able to announce the physical release of my new album ‘Head Above Water’.
You can now order a copy of the album as a beautiful CD Digipak with an 8 page booklet featuring lyrics and individual artwork for each track. Perfect for those of you who, like me, still like to listen to CDs chronologically and follow along with the lyrics of each track.
This is one of the best ways that individual artists can be supported and as always I am grateful to those of you who choose to engage with our music this way.
This record was written between 2020 and 2021 and the album title came from the songs varying themes about hope and navigating our way through chaos of modern life, be it personal relationships, the political landscape or overcoming our own personal battles.
At half an hour in length, this is my most focused and best sounding work yet and I am so pleased to finally share it with you all.
Featuring Aled Lloyd on drums, Dan Nelson on bass, Andrew Bishop as co-producer, Charlie Jenkins on Sax, Emma Davidson on vocals, a vocal feature from Lauren Kinsella and artwork from Darlee Urbiztondo.
Thank you to everyone who has helped me along with the journey of making this record, and I hope you enjoy it!
It is called Take the Time and features the wonderful Lauren Kinsella on lead vocals.
Lauren is an Irish vocalist and composer. Her current projects include the band Snowpoet, who released a wonderful record called ‘Wait for Me’ last year and ‘Skylla’ with Ruth Goller which is a fascinating listen.
I am so grateful she agreed to do this track and couldn’t have been happier with the outcome.
Thanks as ever to my team who gave this track absolutely everything.
Too bad that Boris Johnson is incapable of feeling any shame.
It was the same case for Donald Trump.
Are we past the phase of voting in populist leaders who are in the long run so damaging? I won’t hold my breathe, but when you reach a low as low as we’ve done here in the United Kingdom, you have to believe that there is some hope to hold on in terms of us going back up.
Then again, Johnson’s reluctance to resign with immediate effect has a shade of Putin about it.
And what makes me so frustrated is that not enough of the population is aware of the fact that their democracy has been trampled over.
I cannot even bring myself to have a little bit of respect for the ministers who have resigned. They could and should have resigned when Boris Johnson treated the British public with contempt when botching the protective measures needed for Covid 19 and Partygate. The only reason they have resigned is because they have finally realised the ship is sinking and they are making their moves to save themselves. It is all deeply cynical.
The handling of the pandemic from the government in my view is unforgivable. They had plenty of warning signs and ignored them. What’s more, you have a totally reckless push for a hard Brexit which has systemically screwed so many industries over and brought about a massive legal kerfuffle with the NI protocol. Less bureaucracy was the promise and we were given more, and our economic power has diminished. Furthermore, poverty has risen, including child poverty and it took a monumental effort from Marcus Rashford and Jack Monroe to hold the government to account when it came to free school meals and inflated food prices. The defamatory attacks on Monroe from Conservative mps has been especially disgusting. Then there’s Rwanda which was an outright racist and xenophobic move. The Tories are incapable of making policy decisions that are not cruel or squeezing the poor whilst filling the pockets of their over privileged cronies. This is all without mentioning the ignored sexual assault cases that eventually came to be Johnson’s downfall. They are an utter disgrace.
And yet people say it would be no different under another party. Give me a break and do the research. Labour MP Jess Phillips is fighting tremendously hard to bring solutions for domestic abuse whilst Caroline Lucas is a shining beacon for decency, honesty and integrity and whilst things policy wise aren’t that clear with Kier Starmer, there is no question that he is significantly more competent as a leader than any self serving member of the Tories.
So whilst I am somewhat relieved that Johnson will go and hopefully take the insufferable, culturally ignorant sycophant that is Nadine Dorris with her, I am nowhere near optimistic about the alternatives. The best they can offer in terms of an interim leader is Raab. Great: another pathological liar is just what we need.
Standards in the House of Commons are so low, and we need a drastic overhaul where we have a political culture that is more intelligent, compassionate and ultimately one that looks to the possibility that things can and should be better.
It comes down to us to make sure we engage with our democracy and do not take it for granted. We have our vote but we also have our say and Rashford and Monroe proved that you can make those changes happen. If you don’t put in that effort, you have no right to moan about it.
As I wrote in my track ‘Liability’, Johnson is a liability and his bubble was always gonna burst and now it has, we need it to be the first of many.
I am pleased to announce that I will be performing at Atmospheres Music Festival at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.
‘Head Above Water’ is the title of my upcoming album and I shall be playing all 6 new tracks from the record, including the recently released singles ‘Until the Stars Align’ and ‘Liability’.
This is the first time I will be presenting this music live and after rehearsing with Dan Nelson (Bass) and Aled Lloyd (drums) I am really forward to it.
You can get your tickets via this link: https://www.rwcmd.ac.uk/events/2022-05/atmospheres-2022-head-above-water
It’s been a long while since I’ve seen a show of this scale.
Tool have been on my ‘to go see live’ list for years and I’ve never had the opportunity until now. I believe the last time they played live was early 2010s with the exception of download 19.
I had seen the bootlegs and some live footage and saw the audio visual element which is astonishing but as can be expected, nothing compares to being there in person.
They started by using a gauze curtain with thin textured lines coming down. The work that went into the screens and lights was incredible and about 4 songs in they opened it up.
This is a major part of the experience but the essential element is the playing, which is at the highest possible level.
The Tool band members are in their 50s and their experience and dedication was on full display. They were totally in control and played with so much precision, it was unbelievable. Maynard. Adam, Justin and Danny are all so damn good at their instruments. The sound is unbelievable too. Adam’s combination of Diezel Amps and Gibson guitars absolutely screams whilst Danny is a drumming octopus with loads of nice touches including pitched percussion and a modular synthesiser. Maynard sings in the dark like a ghostly figure and Justin hits the bass hard whilst interacting with the crowd the most.
It was overwhelming…and loud!
But what made it even better was that the audience of 20,000 honoured the band’s request not to have phones out during the show until Maynard granted people request to take their ‘stupid effing cell phones’ at the end.
For far too long, being at a show is about the audience saying they are there than just allowing oneself to be experiencing music in the moment.
It was so good to see music of this level of sophistication being enjoyed by so many people but then again, these guys have been at it for decades, and what we witnessed was decades of work.
It gives me hope. So much music today is blamcmanche and quite frankly banal to the point of total irrelevance and swarming in a desperate toxic sea of approval chasing social media crap, but not all. And it’s about time we start nurturing younger acts who want to make music at this level.
Tool inspires me to maintain integrity, stick to my musical instincts and be ambitious.
Ryan Mark Elliott Music 