Simon Little

It’s official, my debut solo album Mandala is now available on CD!!

In fact I’ve just heard that a few lucky folk have already received the copies of the album I sent out yesterday afternoon. The postal system is obviously improving somewhat. I picked up a motherload of CDs from the lovely David at Key Production yesterday lunchtime and am so happy with the finished product.

The CD is exclusively available on my website (click here for a shortcut!). It comes lovingly packaged in an eco-friendly recycled card sleeve designed by my friend Symeon Cosburn with photos by Ary Vidot. The CD version also includes immediate download of the digital version of Mandala in whatever format you prefer (FLAC, 320k MP3 etc).

I keep getting asked about the record; what sort of music is it? Is it really just bass? So here is some of the info I’ve started sending out to give you some background…

Simon Little releases solo album Mandala

Having been experimenting with live-looping technology for the past few years, bassist Simon Little has now released his debut solo album Mandala.

Best known for his work with The Divine Comedy, Clare Teal and Duke Special, Simon has appeared on numerous recordings and this is his first release under his own name.

The entire album was recorded using solely his Warwick Thumb VI, a wide array of effects and a Looperlative LP1. Simon uses live looping to create ambient soundscapes as a basis for improvistion. He explains:

When I was 17 I was listening to the Weather Report live album 8:30 and heard Jaco perform his solo live-looping piece ‘Slang’. It changed the way I thought about playing the bass and so began my obsession with making music using the bass as a solo instrument.

Whilst I was studying at The Guildhall School, a friend introduced me to the fantastic Eberhard Weber album Pendulum. This album really opened my eyes to the possibilities of using live-looping technology to create vast soundscapes and textures as a basis for improvisation.

Mandala is the culmination of my ongoing experimentation with looping technology. Each track is a live improvisation using the Looperlative LP1.

Mandala is available now on CD or digital download via Bandcamp at Simon’s website http://music.simonlittlebass.com.

Some lovely people have also been asking how they can help promote the record and spread the word online. As you can imagine this is incredibly important for an independent release and I am a great believer in the power of Social Media. My best suggestions for anyone who likes the music is simply to tell your friends, tell your colleagues and tell your family via whatever method you prefer. I use Twitter and Posterous to share new musical discoveries and recommendations. Some people prefer Facebook or Delicious. Some people even prefer MySpace (!). One great way to let people hear the album is using the embeddable player from the Bandcamp page itself. Just click the Share button to copy and paste the code onto whatever page you’re using. Easy…

Big thanks to everybody that has bought and downloaded the album already. I’ve had some great feedback and hopefully will be getting a bit of press coverage in the near future.

Hope you’re all enjoying the music…

Simon x

Hello folks,

With all the excitement surrounding the completion and subsequent release of my solo album Mandala I have let the road diary slip somewhat! So i thought I’d briefly redress the balance a little by filling you all in on some of the various goings on of late.

Even as I sit here writing to you now, I should really be packing. Tomorrow lunchtime I set off with the Duke Special band to play at Electric Picnic over in Ireland before heading straight across to China to play three shows in Shanghai. Oh yes indeed folks, we’re jet-setting this week!

August has been a pretty hectic month, let me tell you! Since the Duckworth Lewis gig at the Dublin Olympia at the end of July I’ve been back and forward to Heathrow airport like a maniac! Pretty much the moment I got back from Dublin I flew back out to Ireland to play at the fantastic Indiependence festival in Mitchelstown near Cork. This was a real in and out affair so I didn’t get a chance to catch any of the other acts but we had  great show. I’ve been playing my new Danelectro Dano ’63 bass with the Duke of late to save us lugging the upright around, which has been a real treat. Thinking I might have to post a little review here at the some point.. watch this space!

On the 8th we played the Tall Ships Festival in Hartlepool which was a lot of fun. The stage was enormous (as was the crowd!) and I got to watch Ocean Colour Scene straight after our show. I used to love them back in the day and it was brilliant seeing them live (even without the fab Damon Minchella on bass). We then burned straight up the motorway to play at the Famous Spiegeltent at the Edinburgh Festival. We were met with some traditionally grotty Scottish weather but playing in the Spiegeltent is always good fun. We went back to some of the Mother Courage and hector Mann set for this one-off show which went down a storm.

The Duke band also ventured forth into Devon to play Beautiful Days a couple of weeks ago. I’d never played this festival before. It’s quite small but had a great lineup including The Wailers, Fairport Convention, James and New Model Army. My parents decided to come along to this one for their first festival experience and loved it (even in the rain!). Again I didn’t manage to catch any of the other acts as is often the way in these situations, but we had lots of fun during the gig…

In between all the Duke dates, the Teal tour continued on with three shows in Germany. We started off at the lovely Rheingau festival, which is set in the grounds of a beautiful old castle. We were playing on a small stage which was floating on the moat (!). In fact,  the speaker stack was suspended in the most peculiar fashion, which Clare christened the “Speaker of Damocles”. I tried to get a photo of it in all it’s glory, but all I could come up with was this, taken from our dressing room…

Playing on a floating stage with that hanging over your head was a bit exciting, let me tell you.

We then moved on to the lovely town of Jena where we played the first of two shows opposite the fantastic Canadian boogie pianist/singer Michael Kaeshammer. He had a great trio featuring Marc Rogers on bass, who was also a joy to watch. If you haven’t heard their music, you should definitely check them out…

The last show was in Kassel. Both those shows were right in the town center. I really enjoy playing these kinds of festivals. They’re quite common in Germany and Scandinavia; state funded arts festivals which often run for more than a month throughout the summer. They often feature a rich and diverse mix of music, theatre and cinema right in the heart of a town; bringing proper culture right into the local community.

We were so well looked after by our German promoters. Really looking forward to playing some more German dates soon..

As soon as I landed back in the UK from the German shows with Clare I was back on the plane on my way back to Germany to play a one-off festival with Maggie Reilly. It was a big beer festival where we shared the stage with a very loud and raucous schlager band and, wait for it…. Right Said Fred! Oh yes indeed folks! They are still alive and touring in Germany. Absolutely hilarious.. The gig involved a very early start for me at Heathrow, a four-hour drive to the festival site from Berlin and getting picked up at 2.15am after the show to do the four-hour drive back to Berlin to fly home alone. Why?! You may ask. It was the day before the Tall Ships festival in Hartlepool! The gigs really are the easy bit…

So, enough of this waffle. I’m off to China in a couple of days and shall undoubtably be blogging away on my return. Today I dropped the master off at Key Production to start the process of getting the Mandala CDs pressed. I had a photo shoot with my friend Ary Vidot last week and Symeon Cosburn has done a sterling job on the cover design. They should be ready in a couple of weeks for those of you who don’t like downloads. For those of you who do, or can’t wait that long for the CD, you can buy the album in whatever electronic format you prefer at my website. You can also stream the whole thing there too. Oh you lucky people!

Until next time x

This was my thought process this morning regarding this blog post…

• “Shall I write the Album Progress Report #3 post this afternoon and launch the album on Monday?”
• “If I can just sort out the website to point to the Bandcamp page, I could actually start selling downloads right now..”
• “Must sort out those ISRC codes first for Bandcamp.. “
• “Hang on a minute, everything is coming together suddenly…”

My new album Mandala is hereby unleashed!!

I spent Saturday with my good friend Joe Leach at the Cowshed mastering the album. I chose the best ten tracks from the twelve originally shortlisted (the album was running far too long…) and Joe worked his magic with some great gear at the studio. The sound has expanded so much from the original, I am so pleased with the finished product.

Thanks to those delightful folks at Bandcamp, you can now stream the entire album for free on my Music page. This is also where you’ll need to visit in order to download the album in whatever format you prefer; from 320k mp3 to FLAC. For those of you who’d prefer a physical copy of the album, you will have to bear with me for a little while. But fear not, I am on the case and when they are ready they will also be available on the Music page.

So where do we go from here, you may ask? Well, I’m now handing the album over to you all with the hope that you will listen and download away and spread the word via whatever means you see fit. Be it Twitter, Facebook, Posterous, or some of the fab little embeddable widgets available on the Bandcamp page (see below), let’s see if we can spread the word amongst ourselves.

There is no record company, I have no manager or booking agent. It’s just me and you guys right now. I’ve been working on this solo project and using looping technology for a few years now and I’m really pleased with the end result.

Not that this is by any means the end folks. Oh no! I am going to continue producing solo music here at Little Towers and will soon be starting work on my next project Little Alex, a duo project with drummer Steve Alexander. Watch this space.

Hope you enjoy the album; here’s a little taster x