I think it was through searching for an ostatus Android app (more on that later), but I stumbled across WhatsApp’s ‘Why We Don’t Sell Ads‘ page. This could easily be subtitled ‘what’s wrong with the rest of the internet?’ – a beautifully written personalised rebuttal of the consensus that ad-revenue and it’s even more pernicious big brother, data-mining are the ways to fund the internet. Continue reading “Whatsapp, Louis C.K. And The Problem Of Advertising”
Rain Stops Play, No Play Means No Pay
You: “Steve, how was your Saturday?”
Me: nice of you to ask! Not so great, to be honest – we drove a 13 hour round trip to play at a festival. Only because of the flooding we (and pretty much everyone else) didn’t even make it to the festival site. It was cancelled around lunch time… Our route home was marred by multiple road-blocks thanks to flooding and mudslides, and involved hours of fairly torturous winding down backroads.
You: “wow, shitty deal!”
Me: Yeah! Though, it’s nothing compared to what the organisers have had to deal with – Continue reading “Rain Stops Play, No Play Means No Pay”
Talking About A Revolution – Feb 2001, Bass Player Magazine
From the February 2001 issue of Bass Player Magazine – the strapline on the cover was “The Future Of Bass – Fearless Forecasts From 40 Pros” – of which I was one.
Here’s the last paragraph of what I wrote: “As the major labels focus their attention on an increasingly vapid and temporal bunch of faceless clothes horses, the Net will open up more and more channels for heartfelt independent original music”. Continue reading “Talking About A Revolution – Feb 2001, Bass Player Magazine”
No More Unsigned Artists – A Solution To A Semantic Problem
My first 5 or 6 albums were released on Pillow Mountain Records. I would be referred to in American magazine articles as ‘Pillow Mountain Records recording artist Steve Lawson’, and my music would be described as ‘his prolific back catalogue, on Pillow Mountain Records’. No-one ever referred to me as an unsigned artist, no review ever had ‘private release’ next to it (what the hell does that mean anyway?) No-one ever accused me of vanity publishing.
Only, Pillow Mountain Records never existed. It never had a bank account, never had any staff, never did anything. It existed in name only. It was a way of me lifting myself out of the conversation about being signed or unsigned, and focussing on making music. Continue reading “No More Unsigned Artists – A Solution To A Semantic Problem”
Limited Edition USB Stick/Postcards Set Finished
All 10 of the ‘essays‘ are now written and printed – here’s what the full set looks like. Only 10 sets have been printed and a couple have been sold already, but if you want one, head over to Bandcamp to order – pay £30 or more to get the full set, or £25 to get the USB stick plus one postcard. Please message me if you want to confirm that they aren’t sold out before buying… The bandcamp page has a full list of everything that’s on the USB Stick – now 21 albums…
Here’s the entirety of what you get. Proper lovely 🙂
Two New Albums Featuring Me!
Yesterday was a busy day for album releases – two albums that I’m on were released!
It’s always exciting to be involved in new music, and fun to have more stuff for y’all to listen to, doubly so when they all arrive at once (I’ve got 3 more albums to release before the end of the year!) But anyway…
So, the first of them is this one from Neil Alexander and I, called Hidden Windows: Continue reading “Two New Albums Featuring Me!”
Some Thoughts on Lowery vs White (a compilation of Facebook responses)
Right, if you’ve been living underground for the last few days, you’ll have missed first this blog post by an intern at NPR and then this response by singer/songwriter and college lecturer David Lowery.
I sadly don’t have time to go through Lowery’s post point by point. Despite how widely it’s been distributed, I don’t, in all honesty think it warrants that level of scrutiny. I also really like this response from Erin McKeown. If you can’t be bothered wading through 1800 words from me on the subject, just read Erin’s post. It’s better than mine anyway. Continue reading “Some Thoughts on Lowery vs White (a compilation of Facebook responses)”
10 Essays – Limited Edition Essays On Postcards
If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen this morning that I tweeted asking this:
One word to write something interesting about – I got loads of fantastic responses including
Chance -::- Timing -::- Serenity -::- Sound -::- Interconnectedness -::- Loss -::- Enlightenment -::- Family -::- Grace -::- Serendipity -::- Truth -::- Steve -::- Focus -::- Metamorphosis -::- Temperament -::- Humility -::- Creativity -::- Intention Continue reading “10 Essays – Limited Edition Essays On Postcards”
Entire Catalogue USB Stick gets a Facelift + An Album For You To Sell
I’ve been meaning to do this for AGES, and have finally found the time needed. If you order the Entire Steve Lawson and Lobelia catalog on USB Stick (currently sat at 20 albums), it now comes with a lil’ label telling you what it is, and a postcard with a list of all the albums on it! Just like in the picture. As you can see, the USB sticks we’re using at the moment are tiny. REALLY really small. V. cute. 4gb of music and video.
The other thing that’s been updated is the ordering process, which is now fully via Bandcamp, so just head to the Believe In Peace page and buy it there. (or any of the other recent albums… will add it to all of them in good time…)
Some Thoughts On Big Catalogs Continue reading “Entire Catalogue USB Stick gets a Facelift + An Album For You To Sell”
2nd Preview Track from Steve Lawson/Daniel Berkman Album
I have SO much new music coming out this year – duo projects with Mike Outram, Michael Manring, Catherine Marie Charlton, Neil Alexander and this one with Daniel Berkman.
If you remember, Daniel and I did two gigs together in January, after being introduced by mutual friends Artemis and Keith Crusher – we met just before the first gig we had booked, and decided there and then that instead of doing two solo sets, we’d just play duo stuff all night. We did the same thing the second night.
So this tune is from the second gig we did, at the Orange Room in Oakland: Continue reading “2nd Preview Track from Steve Lawson/Daniel Berkman Album”