Section 2 – Project concept

I am looking to create a successful performance, showcasing my skills as a vocalist and the frontman of the band via choreography, Technical skill and appropriate planning for rehearsals. I anticipate a great show with a setlist of a little over 20 minutes. I will study live performances of the songs in our setlist to mimic the performer's choreography. I will meticulously practice finding my comfort range and choose a setlist depending on that aspect as well as our instrumental composition.

All the resources will be sourced from live recordings on YouTube and lyrics from online sources. Mash House

Section 3 - Evaluation

During our rehearsals I will record each run through we have done, Do note taking of what went well and which areas to improve upon.

I will ask private members of the audience to record the performance, and to send it to me so I can evaluate my own technical abilities and choreography of the songs. I will also listen to the crowd and see if they are enjoying the current show. I will write a detailed document of the pros and cons of the entire performance with areas to later on improve upon, what I/we did well etc.

Project action plan and timetable:

24/4/25

My vocal style for Moving out was heavily inspired by Andrew Eldritch from Sisters of Mercy for Moving Out, As I have a quite wide register that can reach really low and couldn't exactly hit Billy Joel's vocals with all the harmonies I decided to find lower register singers who I could mimic. Ni recommended me sisters of mercy and immediately realised with him that I would have to mimic and give my own spin on the vocal deliveries. It also allowed me to embrace my limitations of not being as high on the register. It affected the project's setlist, letting me be more comfortable with lower songs and higher ones. We had to boost the volume of lower eq frequencies which is usually unheard of since I couldn't power my lower register as well as my higher one.

Kobranocka has had a heavy inspiration in how I sing and handle stage presence, their rather bland but powerful stances and way of singing gave me a comfortable stance in being able to woo the stage with technical skills and charisma rather than showmanship. We replaced the middle chorus of Mowie Ci Ze with Kobranocka's version, showing off my rougher vocal style.

This was research done to help with mowie ci ze's chorus, as we changed it to kobranocka's version rather than Tilt's. This allowed me not to ruin my voice during the performance or rehearsals as we continually ran the setlist 3 times a day at times. Which harmed my vocal folds on the third try.

"28th March

Our rehearsal went well, we already have our 4 songs out of the setlist done structurally. I also figured out how to do vocal deliveries for Moving Out, Damien is struggling a bit so we recorded our setlist without the bass to help him out. 2 more songs need to be fleshed out.

1st of of April:

Me and Ghillie have started to work on churches since drums wise it is a frantic song. Gillie as always is making great progress and I know the lyrics like the back of my hand for churches.

9th of April:

We have our entire setlist, done well for the run through as well, no faults as far as I can hear. Will get Ni to listen when he is free. Ran into some difficulties with Valerie regarding timing but I will sort it out. The set list will be;

Our House

Moving Out

Burnt Bridges

Mowie Ci Ze

Valerie."

funnily enough I'd say we had more limitations because of more options as we didn't want to leave any instruments out or any lackluster parts. We all went through a lot of our own personal playlists to see what bands we've listened to which incorporates a saxophone, keys, guitar, bass, drums and baritone vocals as well as trying to keep the mood at the same pace while not keeping it repetitive so we had a quite diverse setlist. We had to ask Ni for Valerie however as we were quite dumbfounded what to change the final song to.

Our House by Madness Released in 1982

Moving Out (Anthony's Song) Billy Joel Released in 1977

Burnt Bridges by Franek At The Disco Unreleased

What You Know by Two Door Cinema Released in 2010

Mowie Ci Ze By Tilt Released in 1988

Valerie By the Zutons Released in 2006

Writing our original's lyrics and vocal lines was a great and freeing experience, throughout college I managed to realise I am good with making up lyrics on the fly. Having our original vision, writing Burnt Bridges with my lyrical skills and the emotion we wanted to convey helped a great deal as no one else was up to the task of trying. The words I wrote in a poetic haze those days allowed me to fulfil our artistic vision of what the song was about, which was the freeing feeling in being hurt by someone you trusted with your heart. A lover, a friend, the freedom you feel in burning that bridge and realising you are free now, whether you like it or not.

To realise something has been done before and worked, that gave us a way to pursue something usually not seen by audiences. It helped me specifically realise that I can sing in the lower register without losing charisma or volume as well as how to use rougher vocal styles without harming my vocal folds.

Techniques wise, time management and organisation has helped us to stay ahead of schedule while being able to communicate has helped with deciding what we need to work on next.

Vocally, being able to work out if I can perform a song well or not has also drastically help. The lessons that Ni has given me have been a great help with understanding my limitations and boosting my confidence in being able to perform this gig.

Originally Sean was also included in the band however he encountered some difficulties and we had to manage without him this time, Thankfully the hole he left behind in our composition was not too hard to fill as Caleb had to do What You Know's Guitar Melody with Rachel.

Originally our set list was Churches instead of Valerie, however we found it overcomplicated and unreasonable to have it in the setlist when it was way too niche.

We decided to pay a lot more attention to the time constraints of this project unlike our previous one, although time keeping wasn't an issue we decided to give ourselves the best advantage we could.

It has been nothing but an absolute pleasure to perform with them, to grow with them and to get to know them throughout this project. Gilly has been amazing on drums with his mastery of fills and cues making my life so much easier, Fraser's Guitar playing and his open ear to music has been such a heavenly help to the performance. Damien's bass playing and backing vocals have helped to glue us all together and make us sound like an actual band instead of individuals all in a room. Caleb's ability with the saxophone and open-mindedness to transposing has delivered one of the greatest sax solos I have ever heard as long as the audience's constant applause. Rachel's technical ability on the keys and humour has been the cherry on top in every song she plays, the intro to Mowie Ci Ze is my personal favourite as it added so much to set the mood. All together we have delivered what I'd call a successful performance. I am eternally glad I managed to grow alongside these people and work with them on this very project.

Inspiration

Jeff Buckley has been a prevalent inspiration in my heart with his lyrical writing, perfect vocals and the ability to sway the emotion of any crowd.

https://themashhouse.co.uk/

I got the chance to come in and scope the place out myself as well as the stage on the 12th of May. The stage unfortunately seemed quite small to fit the 7 of us there. We somehow managed to make a tight fit.

Performance Spaces

Main Room

Accessed by 4 stairs down from main bar area. (Capacity 350 club show / 230 live show)

Upper floors

Accessed from front door and at least 30 steps up a tight staircase. Both rooms 75 capacity each.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNj8Vlg0L28&t=3s

For our music box session we decided to play the song that we knew the best at the time we recorded back in early April. This Music Box session went great to gauge how I'd work under pressure, I was definitely nervous and messed up the lyrics a couple of times so it also showcased what I knew what I needed to work on. It was also a great promotional to showcase the uniqueness of our band.