Sugardrum music : acoustic storytelling songs

My cover of New York, New York featured on cover music show Coverville

Nigel — Wed, 16 May 2012 17:04:26 +0000

My cover of New York, New York was recently played on the Coverville podcast radio show. You can listen to the whole show via their website which includes 10 other covers all by different artists.

http://coverville.com/archives/podcast/coverville-869-i-keep-your-indie-hodgepodge-upon-the-wall/

And you can download the track along with the rest of this EP for free from Bandcamp…

http://sugardrum.bandcamp.com/album/an-absence-of-friends

Photos and a grainy video from Barfly gig

Nigel — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 19:15:30 +0000

I did a last minute support gig at the Barfly in Camden, London last weekend, supporting Union Sound Set and Richard Parker. The call asking me to play came the afternoon of the gig; I was going to see Union Sound Set anyway and almost left without my guitar before the call came. Everything was a bit last minute and I forgot to give someone my camera to take photos and videos. Fortunately I had some friends in the audience who took some photos and a slightly grainy video on their phones

Free download of Where Once Were Roads EP

Nigel — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 13:27:23 +0000

The newly remixed and remastered version of my latest EP, “Where Once Were Roads” is now available to download for a limited time, for free. Just follow the link to the Sugardrum Bandcamp page, or click on one of the links in the player below.

Feel free to pass it on. There will also be a CD version for sale soon.

http://sugardrum.bandcamp.com/album/where-once-were-roads

Where Once Were Roads by Sugardrum

Recording grand piano for new album

Nigel — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 14:18:03 +0000

Yesterday I recorded Steve James playing on an amazing grand piano for my song Fallen Guru. It all went really well, the piano sounded lush and the part sounds great with the rest of the song.

I’ve just uploaded some photos from the session onto our photos page. Along with the piano you can also see a photo of my laptop / valve pre-amp combination that I’m using to record the whole album. The laptop is rather old and the keyboard and trackpad stopped working a couple of years ago after a many of years being carted around here and there. It’s not too much of a problem as I use a separate keyboard and trackpad anyway, but it’s difficult to break out of the habit of trying to use the faulty keyboard and trackpad on the laptop itself, hence why it’s covered in strips of masking tape as a sort of deterrent

http://www.sugardrum.com/photos.html

New EP, “Where Once were Roads”… again

Nigel — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 21:52:40 +0000

Things have been very busy the past few weeks. I’ve just finished re-mixing the EP, “Where Once Were Roads” that I recorded about 18 months ago and am about to send it off for mastering at a nice shiny studio in London Town somewhere.

When I originally recorded the EP there were a few things that I didn’t like about it, but I went ahead and released it anyway as an internet download, before heading off to India for a few weeks. In hindsight I just needed to spend some more time on it but I think the process of going straight into mixing a record when you have only just finished recording it is a bit too much, at least it was for me anyway; a bit of break is required. In this case I’ve given myself a break of about 18months and gone back and remixed the whole thing, adding in extra instruments including my new guitar, extra vocals etc and taken advantage of my much improved recording and mixing studio facilities.

It’s sounding so much better than the first version and will hopefully sound even better still once it’s been to the shiny mastering studio. I’m planning to re-release it towards the end of April, initially as a internet download version only, but I plan to make a limited edition CD version too, once I have enough funds to do so.

For all of those you have bought the EP already, you’ll be able to download the new version for free.

Postcard submissions for the Postcard video are still open, thanks to all of those who have contributed postcards so far.

Now, back to recording the album…

Photos from new album recording sessions

Nigel — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:45:05 +0000

I’ve just uploaded some photos onto the photos page featuring some of the recordings sessions that have been going on for the new album, Postcards. So far, we’ve recorded Acoustic Guitars, Vocals, Cello, Percussion, Rhodes Piano, Synths, more vocals and a purring cat. Got a couple more sessions to go plus lots of mixing to do but all is going well so far and sounding great.

Keep an eye on the music player on this site as I may well add one or two recordings from the album once they are mixed as a sneak preview of what it’s sounding like so far.

New Song and a request for Postcards

Nigel — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 11:53:53 +0000

So, here is the first song from the new album “Postcards” due out later in the year. I’m posting it here as I’m after a little help from yourselves in creating the video for the song which I would like to feature as many postcards as possible, for which I’m inviting you all to contribute the postcards.

These don’t have to be real postcards you’ve received in the post — an original drawing or picture you’ve made yourself will do fine, so long as it’s postcard size. You also don’t have to post them to me, just send me photographs or scans of the postcard(s) by email that you would like to see in the video.

Please email your photographs or scans to. Don’t worry about making them ultra high quality as I’m not going to be using them for printing, 72dpi is fine. You can photograph or scan the front or back of the postcard, or both if you wish. Even a photograph taken on your phone camera is fine. I’ll try to get as many as I can into the video.

This is the first of a number of collaborations I have planned for the album, more to follow.

~~I’ll be taking submissions for the video upto the end of February.~~ UPDATE: Still open for submissions!

thank you! x

Oh, and here’s the song…

Song in a day – An Angel on the Tree

Nigel — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 14:21:36 +0000

Merry Christmas! I set myself a challenge on Christmas eve to write and record an xmas themed song. I managed it, but by the time I’d edited the video and waited for it to upload to Youtube I only had time to email it to a few friends before heading back home for xmas so here is a slightly late Sugardrum Merry Crimbo video

The story is inspired by “The Price”, a short story by Neil Gaiman from his book “Smoke and Mirrors”. Instead of a cat being the Guardian Angel it’s the fairy on top of the tree.

Recording of the new album is going well. I’ll post up some photos from the recording sessions soon.

Choccy Rolls by Sugardrum, recorded live on a hill in Scotland

Nigel — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 11:54:49 +0000

Here’s a wee video I recorded whilst I was away in Scotland. The background noise is coming from a beautiful waterfall, a few feet behind me on the other side of the hill I was sitting on.

Live recording of Fallen Guru by Sugardrum

Nigel — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 14:21:20 +0000

Here’s another live video from the little session I did at Tribal Voices at Small World Festival in May, this time Fallen Guru…

Mark seems to have captured me in mid “Elvis pose” in the screenshot above