Another brilliant week — thank you to everyone who came out, sang along, and turned an ordinary night into a proper one. Here's the week that was, a few things I've been building behind the scenes, and where you can catch me next.
The week just gone
Thursday took me to The Minnow in Weybridge — one of my favourite rooms to play. They've got this beautiful beer garden out front with the River Thames running right past it, and we'd had everything crossed for an outdoor set… the weather had other ideas, so we pulled it indoors and went full campfire instead. Honestly didn't hurt us one bit — everyone in close, request after request, a genuinely lovely night.
Friday was the Hare & Hounds in Claygate, packed with familiar faces — which is honestly the best feeling there is. Loads of singing along, loads of requests, that warm room where everyone seems to know each other. Saturday at The Bear in Walton was an absolute buzz — rammed, dancefloor full from early on, the whole place thriving. Couldn't have gone better. And on Sunday I was setting up at The Stag for the afternoon session — the weather still wasn't playing ball, but that crowd has never once let a bit of rain spoil the fun.
A website that finally feels like me
The big one this week. I've given my website a proper overhaul — again. I built the previous version myself and was genuinely proud of what I'd pulled off, but the more time I spent with it, the more it nagged at me that it didn't really reflect me — my values, my personality, who I actually am as a person and as a musician.
These things have to be done in blocks, a bit at a time, so I went back in and reworked the lot: the colours, the whole feel, the character of it. It now ties in properly with my YouTube and everything else, so it's all one consistent look — which, it turns out, matters far more for a brand than I used to give it credit for. It feels miles more professional and has so much more character. Have a wander around while you're here — and you'll find everything I mention below linked across the site.
Why "Music First"
Here's the honest heart of it. Somewhere along the way, the music quietly became the secondary part of being a musician. The person I set out to be slowly turned into something a bit different — because I've spent so much time making posters and posting on social media, all in the name of reaching a broader audience. And don't get me wrong: online genuinely is the realistic way to reach people at any real scale these days, far more than the gigs alone ever could — but none of that takes away from the live work. The gigs are the reason; the bit I love most. The trouble is the balance had been tipping the wrong way for a long time.
It becomes this vicious little cycle: the more you post, the more you have to post, until there isn't even time left to reply to the lovely people who engage with what you made — because you're already busy making the next thing.
That's exactly what my free book Music First is about. It's the most honest thing I've written, and the more I live with it the more I think it isn't just a musician thing at all — it's the coffee shop, the salon, any small business where the heart of the thing gets buried under the sheer mountain of work it takes to market it. My real hope is that AI can finally hand some of that time back to people — and genuinely improve the quality of a lot of lives. It's free to read here.
On AI — completely honestly
Since it's bound to come up: yes, I use AI to help me produce my books. But I want to be totally straight about how, because it matters to me. AI is nothing like hiring someone with expertise — I'm the one with twenty years of doing this; the tool simply helps me word and structure what I already know. I've poured a genuinely overwhelming number of hours into reading every single line, making sure it's true, making sure it's honest — to the point that I say plainly in the books that I've used these tools to help make them.
The truth is I'd love nothing more than to sit in a room with a real writer and make these properly — I just don't have the capital for that, and being honest about a working musician's earnings, I can't see that changing any time soon. So tools like this are genuinely opening doors for people like me, and I really hope what I'm putting out shows they can be used for good — not the scary stuff that grabs all the headlines.
A good friend gave me some lovely, honest feedback this week that Music First could be a touch tighter — so I went back through and trimmed it. Which is its own little lesson: when you're the one with the knowledge, you have to hand it over clearly and concisely for the tool to do its job well. The expertise has to come from you.
I've also been refining my other guides — including one all about coaxing a clean, professional vocal out of a live mixer. I actually tried a few new things at a gig this week that completely flopped (it happens to all of us!) — but that's the gold, really: it means the book gets the real, here's-what-actually-works-in-a-noisy-room version, instead of just repeating whatever the manual claims. Real rooms, real experience, the bits no instruction booklet ever tells you.
The apps — and what nobody warns you about
When I first started building my apps, I genuinely thought: build it, upload it, done. Ha — if only. The moment you're dealing with different companies and platforms, nothing is that simple, and somehow every YouTube tutorial skips straight past that part. Right now Poster Poster (and the TikTok side of it) are both sat waiting on approval to go fully public — and that could be a few weeks yet. Everything works; I've been running it myself in test mode and it does exactly what it's meant to — it's just down to the gatekeepers now.
The dream of it is properly hands-off: you keep your calendar up to date, and Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn just… post themselves, every single week, without you lifting a finger. TikTok's the fiddly exception — it makes you manually approve posts — but after a fair bit of digging it turns out you can approve a whole month in one go, which keeps it manageable. I genuinely can't wait to get it into people's hands.
Teaching
And a lovely one to finish on: teaching at Anstee Bridge has been a real joy again this week. I've started writing little progress reviews after each lesson, and watching kids who don't quite believe in themselves yet — the ones who just need a gentle nudge in the right direction — try something that scares them a little and then bloom… honestly, that never gets old.
Where to catch me this week
- Wednesday — Open Mic at the Windsor & Eton Brewery, Windsor
- Thursday — Horse & Groom, Chobham (from 8pm)
- Friday — Private function
- Saturday — Private function
- Sunday — The Duke of Connaught
The music's all free to download, and if you ever fancy chucking a little something in the hat there's a Guitar Fund on the site — never expected, always genuinely appreciated.
See you down the front, Aaron