Simon Little

Hello folks

I thought this would be a good time to drop a quick post to let you all know that I have recently made all my solo recordings “pay what you want” on Bandcamp. This means that you can pay whatever you think the music is worth to you. If you want to grab an album for free you can. If you want to make a contribution you can pay whatever you like. A good guide would be around 50p per track but it is entirely up to you.

I currently have three solo records out there and one EP. Many of you will be familiar with my first record Mandala which I put out in 2010. This was the result of my early experiments with live-looping and the culmination of a good few years tinkering with the technology. There are still CDs of Mandala available via Bandcamp for the bargain price of five pounds. If you want one signed, just let me know when you buy the record!

The Rejectamenta EP followed in 2011 as a teaser for the next album. That was always available as PWYW, so I’m guessing if you’ve been following my music you’ll have that one already! This was followed by The Knowledge Of Things To Come later in the year. This record was a lot more glitchy and in your face than Mandala and was a bit more progressive in the use of live looping as a compositional device. No CDs of that one I’m afraid…

And finally we have the ‘acoustic’ album [un]plugged, recorded on that rare breed of instruments; the acoustic bass guitar. I really like this record and whatever shape the next record takes I can imagine it will be along these lines. I went for a far purer sound his time with fewer bells and whistles sonically to let the sound of the instrument shine through. It was pretty well-received when it came out in 2012.

So there you have it. A whole bunch of music for whatever you want to pay for it. About three and a half hours of bassy goodness to rattle your speakers. If you do feel like making a contribution for the records you can rest assured that it all goes back into making more music. Although it doesn’t cost me much financially to put an album together the way I work, the gear is frankly bloody expensive!

So why have I decided to switch to PWYW on Bandcamp at this stage? you may ask. Well a number of artists that I have a lot of respect for have been using this payment model for a number of years now and it’s something I’ve been meaning to try out. It gives  listeners the opportunity to consider the value of the music they listen to and take a punt on something new. All these records are on Spotify too.

So tell your friends that this music is out there. Bandcamp has a plethora of sharing options for you to shout about the music you love so it’s all very easy. And if you do pay something for the music you’ll appear in the ‘supported by’ section directly under the album artwork. If you add a review that’ll pop up too. Bandcamp has become such a fantastic site for artists and fans alike over the last couple of years. In fact I wrote a blog post about the new Fan Pages a little while ago which is worth a quick read if you’re unfamiliar with all the new features. I’m rather proud of how my fan page is coming along!

So go forth people! If you really want to support this music why not buy a CD of Mandala? Christmas will be upon us before you know it! I shall start thinking about the next record. If you have any requests or suggestions, let me know.

Until then…

Hello folks,

I’ve been getting some great feedback about the new solo album [un]plugged, which was officially released on Tuesday. I thought I’d drop a quick post for those of you that missed the big announcement.

I’d been working on an acoustic album since the Autumn when I started A Comedy of Errors at the National Theatre.  I was playing an acoustic bass guitar for the first time and really fell in love with the instrument. Well, not that particular instrument but the acoustic bass guitar in general! I went in search of my own bass and eventually found a beautiful Breedlove bass which I decided to use for the album.

Since I put the album out I’ve sent off a few copies to various reviewers and music writers; hopefully I’ll have some reviews out and about soon enough. I shall of course Tweet all the links so you can check them out.

The album is available in glorious 24-bit audio via Bandcamp (click on the Music tab above). This is better than CD quality. The album is now also available (as of yesterday) on iTunes, Spotify etc if you prefer. You can only get the hi-res version at Bandcamp though. You know what to do.

So, it’s over to you now folks. If you like the record; spread the word! The most difficult thing at the moment is letting people know the music is out there. So you can share the player above, you could Tweet about it, post about it on your Facebook pages, blogs, Tumblrs. The possibilities are endless! I’m sure you’ll know better than I who amongst your friends would be into this kind of music…

As a treat and to celebrate the release of [un]plugged, I’ve made the digital version of my first album Mandala available as a pay-what-you-think-it’s-worth (including free) download on the Bandcamp page. If you’re buying your copy of [un]plugged, do feel free to grab a free copy of Mandala whilst you’re there. And the same goes for the Rejectamenta EP whilst you’re at it. Of course you can still buy the Mandala CD from the same place. If you want it signed, let me know 😉

I’m really pleased with the reaction to [un]plugged so far and I’m looking forward to seeing what you all think too. It is quite different to my previous albums, but the new direction seems to be quite popular.

Until next time…

Simon x

#soloalbum3 #unplugged

Well the time has finally come…

Ladies and gentleman, I give you my new album The Knowledge of Things To Come.

I’ve blogged about it quite extensively over the last few months and I’m really excited that it’s finally here. The album is only going to be available as a download, initially from the Music page here on my site via those sterling folks at Bandcamp, and soon via iTunes and all the other major download providers like Amazon MP3 and 7Digital. And yes, it will soon be on Spotify too…

Heres the track listing for you. Some of the titles are Joni Mitchell quotes, one is named after an excellent short story by Neil Gaiman, most of them I made up (with some obscure sci-fi references thrown in)

• the music of chance
• babel fish
• go quietly now…
• some mysterious song
• no strings attached
• harlequin valentine
• the band sounds like typewriters
• baliset
• l for leather
• the knowledge of things to come

Two of the tracks will be familiar to those of you that followed my old solo bass podcast. Early sketches of both baliset and go quietly now… have featured on the podcast in the past. I recorded versions of both for Mandala last year and those tracks are still up on my Soundcloud page if you fancy investigating how the tunes have developed over the years. The other tracks are all brand new live improvisations and compositions.

I really hope you like the album. Remember to click the Like button on the album page to help spread the word! I’m hoping to get a few reviews and possibly some features on the record. I shall of course post links here on the blog when I do.

And don’t forget to check out the Rejectamenta EP, which features five more tracks from the Knowledge sessions and is currently still available on a ‘pay what you want’ basis…

Enjoy 😉