Aaron's weekly dispatch
Hey,
Another week, another reminder of just how varied this career can be.
The sunshine has certainly helped, but more than anything I finally feel as though I'm getting on top of a lot of the projects that had gradually fallen behind as my performance schedule continued to grow.
Development on Poster Poster has been fairly quiet this week while I wait for Meta's application process to move forward, but that's actually been a blessing in disguise. Rather than sitting around waiting, I've been able to throw my attention into another project that I'm incredibly excited about: LiftShot.
The idea is simple. You upload an entire gig's worth of footage from your camera or phone, along with your clean audio recordings from your vocal microphone and guitar. LiftShot automatically synchronises everything, mixes the audio, applies EQ and compression, blends in just enough of the camera audio to retain the atmosphere and audience reaction, colour grades the footage, intelligently crops and zooms, detects each individual song and exports every performance as its own polished video.
Instead of spending hours editing after every show, you could finish a gig, upload the files and let the software do the heavy lifting. Within a short time you'd have an entire evening's worth of social media content ready to publish.
Whether musicians choose to use the desktop version or upload everything online while they're on the move, the goal is exactly the same: remove the repetitive work so we can spend more time actually making music.
Even if LiftShot never becomes a huge commercial success, building it has been incredibly enjoyable because it's solving a problem I've personally lived with for years.
The Week That Was
Wednesday marked the graduation ceremony at Anstee Bridge, and seeing several of my students perform on stage was genuinely one of the highlights of the week.
Some of these young people first walked into my room barely willing to sing a few lines during a one-to-one lesson. To watch them stand up in front of an audience and perform takes a level of courage that's difficult to put into words.
It's easy to measure progress in musical ability, but confidence is something entirely different. Watching that confidence grow has been a privilege, so a huge congratulations to every student who performed—you should all be incredibly proud of yourselves.
Thursday brought an unexpected bonus when I received a last-minute call to play Bonnie Rogues in Kingston.
Sometimes the gigs you don't expect become the ones you remember most.
It honestly felt like the best night I've had there. The audience were engaged from the first song, singing along, joining in and creating exactly the sort of atmosphere live music thrives on. Those are the evenings that remind you why this job is still so rewarding after all these years.
A Thought From the Week
While I was playing Bonnie Rogues, there was a huge concert taking place next door at Circuit featuring the boy band 911.
It made me think about how differently we measure success.
Years ago I probably would have looked next door and imagined that bigger stage, bigger audience and bigger production represented "making it."
These days I see it very differently.
I wasn't competing with them. We were simply providing two completely different experiences for two completely different audiences.
Success isn't always measured by the size of the crowd in front of you. Sometimes it's measured by walking away knowing every person in the room had a genuinely brilliant night.
That's a perspective I'm increasingly grateful to have.
Friday's golden-hour performance at The Watermill in Dorking couldn't have been more different.
Playing outdoors with the sun dropping behind the hills overlooking Box Hill created one of those moments where you almost have to remind yourself that this is actually your job. Relaxed atmosphere, beautiful scenery and lovely people—it was a fantastic way to spend an evening.
Saturday afternoon took me to Denbies Wine Estate where, once again, the weather couldn't have been kinder.
Hen parties, familiar faces, people enjoying a drink beneath the canopy—it was another wonderfully relaxed afternoon with exactly the sort of atmosphere that summer gigs should have.
That evening was particularly special.
I was performing at my old school friend Chubb's birthday party, organised by a family I've been fortunate enough to work with for many years.
I've previously played Sharp and Kim's wedding along with several other celebrations for their extended family, so returning once again felt less like another booking and more like catching up with old friends.
England were playing at the same time too, so it became one of those brilliant evenings where the party atmosphere mixed perfectly with everyone keeping one eye on the football. Thankfully England got the result, which only added to the celebrations.
Sunday belonged entirely to family.
It was my daughter's birthday party and, after so many evenings spent performing for other people's celebrations, it was lovely simply being Dad for the day—chatting with other parents and watching the children having an amazing time together.
As I'm writing this I'm on my way to The Windsor Trooper.
The sun is shining, it's another outdoor performance, and if there's one pub that consistently embraces live music with exactly the right spirit, it's The Windsor Trooper.
I haven't even arrived yet and I'm already looking forward to it.
Putting Music First
Building LiftShot this week reminded me why I started creating books, apps and resources in the first place.
I've never wanted musicians to spend their evenings sat behind a laptop editing videos.
In truth, I never imagined I'd be building software or writing books either.
I simply wanted to perform.
But being an independent musician today means wearing dozens of hats.
You have to improve your singing, learn new songs, practise your instrument, develop your live performance, answer enquiries, send invoices, manage your website, create social media content, respond to messages, market yourself, edit videos, analyse algorithms and somehow still find time to enjoy making music.
It's no wonder so many musicians feel exhausted.
The irony is that the more successful you become, the less time you often have to do the thing that made you fall in love with music in the first place.
After finishing a gig close to one o'clock in the morning, the last thing many of us want to do is spend another couple of hours importing footage, editing videos and preparing content before grabbing a few hours' sleep ahead of the next day's work.
That's exactly why projects like LiftShot matter to me.
My Music First philosophy has always been about removing unnecessary obstacles.
Technology should give us more time to create—not replace the creative process itself.
I'd love to spend more evenings writing songs.
I'd love more musicians to spend more time practising, performing and connecting with audiences instead of sitting in front of editing software.
Perhaps it's time we stopped asking musicians to become full-time content creators and started making it easier for them to be what they set out to become in the first place:
Musicians.
Featured Thing
Remember that Bonnie Rogues night? I had the camera running. The first full-length video from that gig — Sweet Caroline, with the whole room singing — goes up on my YouTube channel tomorrow (Monday) evening at 6:30pm, and there'll be a new song from the night every Monday between now and Christmas. Subscribe and you won't miss one: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaVqG-XVE5-QB-v54bGTb0A?sub_confirmation=1
Have a fantastic week, and as always, thank you for reading.
— Aaron
· · ·
See you out there, Aaron