Wow, what an amazing past few weeks it’s been! In August, I started to publicize the One Umbrella studio in earnest for the first time, and have hardly had a chance to catch my breath since. The studio itself has been undergoing a gradual facelift, with the addition of posters, nice pink blinds to match the logo…and even a couple of massive plants that  are already planning to form their own small jungle! The improvements will continue as we strive to make the studio a really nice environment to encourage the creativity our clients need to produce great music.

We have had a good number of singers and musicians through our doors recently, from total beginners looking to find their voice, to experienced musicians and performers, singing, playing, practicing, writing and recording. Here’s a few of those who visited in August and early September:

Carmida - the lovely ladies have been in and out this month, working on original songs for their first album, and also rehearsing for gigs. Watch this space, some simply stunning tracks are going to be available soon.

Talitha - a wonderfully talented singer with a country flavour  - has a regular session, and the One Umbrella team are writing an album’s worth of songs with her. The song list is almost complete and ready to be demo recorded. I can’t wait for people to hear it! She doesn’t even have an internet presence yet for her songwriter work but she has been working as a classy covers singer for many years.  

Beckyanne -  another student currently home from uni; she’s made two visits, one to record a few songs with backing tracks, and then with a guitarist….who also happened to be her dad! Beckyanne has a liking for bluesy music, and makes some interesting song choices. Very smooth!

The Awesomes - part Carmida, part Convolution, this duo is not only the One Umbrella Houseband, but now gigging in their own right, and also backing new young singers at gigs and open mic nights. New songs coming soon from these guys too. Nothing on the net yet, but it won’t be long!

Patch Bawn  -a local singer-songwriter who popped in during August to record quite a few of his own songs, a hint of Snow Patrol in a couple of them…and he’s thinking about forming a band when he goes back to uni. Looking forward to hearing the results of that!

Robyn Ayers - we’ve been tracking this young lady’s progress for a couple of years now; she’s still at school, but  her voice is just getting bigger and bigger!  We’re hoping to get the Awesomes writing a song or two with her shortly; in the meantime, she’s belting out some great covers and getting a few live performances going too, including the One Umbrella Acoustic Sundays in Honiton.

Hannah Wood (Vocal Arts/Sound of Sirens)  - Hannah called in for a day with one of her students, Simon - he’s written a couple of songs and they have made a start on getting  them recorded; they’ll be back later this month to finish them off - then you can hear them, and they will get under your skin too, they are SO catchy! It’s great to work with someone like Hannah - her energy is still buzzing around the room days later! We are forging very strong links with Hannah and her team of singing teachers at Vocal Arts - they get excellent results.

Emma & the Convolutions - admittedly I am one of the Convolutions…but owing to my ever-increasing musical workload, Emma has been in the studio this month rehearsing with a new guitarist to help her to be able to do more gigs. I don’t plan to stop playing with the Convolutions; Emma is one of the most dedicated, hard-working  singers I have ever worked with, and also one of the very best! On top of that, it’s a lot of fun! We have also started to record all the originals we have been playing over the past year, and hope to have those available online very soon.

Anna & Tim - a new duo from Exeter, producing some very cool tunes with a jazzy, country-ish feel- let’s call it ‘Jountry’. Whatever you call it, Tim’s piano skills and Anna’s voice blend perfectly. Expect to hear some new music online very soon.


So there you have it, for now. So much more to talk about, but this is a blog, not a book. I’ll be back in a short while to let you know about exciting new developments  happening over the next few months. In the meantime, if you are ready to take the next step with your singing/song writing…please get in touch!

Tony

Hi folks, this is hopefully the first of many regular entries into the One Umbrella blog; it's been a while since we set the site up, but to be honest we have been busy getting the structure and concept of the business going, finding premises to work from, and also becoming a bit less lazy.

Finally, enough things are in place to enable us to 'relaunch' the One Umbrella concept and actually start to encourage singers, musicians and people in general to come to our new humble little studio and work with us. As we get ready for this onslaught of new business, the website will slowly and steadily be changing, so please pop back to see what's happening.

Over the next few days and weeks I am going to explain a bit more about what we can offer, whether it's to a young singer wondering how to improve their chances of winning X-Factor, or an established musician looking for somewhere reasonably priced to record a few quick demos, or just someone who wants to practice singing some songs ready for karaoke at the weekend, in a private secluded place where the neighbours won't complain!

I don't want to give you too much to read at once, so today I will leave you with a link to the latest song from the One Umbrella studio - it's a tune written by an exciting singer/songwriter called Lou Latham; she comes into the studio once a week for a few hours, armed with her guitar, voice and almost always some great new song ideas. She then asks me to record them and mess with them a bit (some people use the term 'produce', but I think 'mess' could be more appropriate!) and gradually we are building an album's worth of songs together. Have a listen and join her fanbase!

Lou Latham - Heart in the hills