Hannah Nicklin

And as if my opinion mattered…

MUSIC. You know the drill. Music which I have enjoyed. In no particular order and all released this year apart from the first, which I only discovered this year, and is too ace to be missed out and AS IF YOU CARE ABOUT ME BREAKING THE RULES FOR IT. To be honest I think most of you come here for the theatre, so consider this an interlude. Where I will be way less articulate than usual, because this ain’t my form, man.

First up, FOLK PUNK AWESOME. ONSIND’s Dissatisfactions at first listen had me feeling it was a bit… I dunno, gaudy, but it properly, properly grew on me, and I always loved the first track, shouty righteous, and why the hell shouldn’t we shout about these things? Stand out track: Heterosexuality is a Construct

Next up, found – rather appropriately – on a late night stumbling through the internets. Biff from Crash of Rhinos morphs into Emphemetry (which I can never spell properly) with an album inspired by the streets of Derby. A Lullaby Hum for Tired Streets comes in a beautiful card/art booklet CD case. Sounds like orange streetlights and clammy streets and glimpses through the bright lit windows of strangers. Stand out track: Four Million Silhouettes.

Another Derby band, now, quite a new one, but full of awesome melodic energy and vocals with just the right amount of edge to them. Papayér’s EP (they also have a split with Nai Harvest on their bandcamp which you should definitely check out) is one of my favourite leaping-around-unnecessarily records. Stand out track: Dress for December

Last up from Derby, which I should really make an effort to get to more shows at in 2012, is the magnificent Crash of Rhinos with Distal. Physical copies put out by twitter mate Nick Moreton (@roundonefight). Tastily but not too thickly layered noise, bits of guitar feel nicely early-mid 2000s era Hundred Reasons/Reuben type stuff – but LOADS of well up to date vocals; feels like sheets of snow, crunchy, but you can sink into it really satisfactorily. Stand out track: Gold on Red.

In another version of this year I probably would have included Tellison here, I was going to SHOUT about them being STOLEN by associations with an evil* ex, but if it could be taken away I guess the music was only really loaned to me anyway. FEAR NOT, noble reader, it does not matter, for it made room for another ace Big Scary Monsters Recs band; the Sheffield-based Algiers. Their debut Four Priests EP has gloriously poppy vocals, ace driving drums, and nice chunky lyrics which I actually can’t resist singing along to. Stream one of their songs here. Better lyrics than Tellison, actually, I reckon. SO WHO WINS NOW, EX. Ahem. Stand out track: These January Versions.

*not actually evil, a nice chap, really.

Now this one, I actually could understand some people not liking, mostly because it relies so heavily on the lead’s quite distinct vocals. But I find them proper beguiling, so I love it – Winter Forever by Seahaven. Some really good storytelling in the lyrics, too, makes up for occasionally unimaginative guitar-ing. Which is definitely a word. Standout track: Black and White.

Birmingham-based &U&I are formed of most of Blakfish, who apparently you should know if you like your math rock, which no doubt you all do. Anyway, &u&i are a bit more palatable and driving than Blakfish, which I find all kinds of ace. The Chancer’s Paradise EP is another must, but linking to a part-stream of their Light Bearer album release here. All the tasty changes in timings you’d expect from math rock (this is where I pretend I know about genres), with soaring proper firery sounding vocals. Stand out track: Belly Full of Fire and a Heart Full of Blood; mostly for its ability to injure me if I run to it.

This next one is probably at least top 3 for me, Brighton trio Tall Ships’ EP There is Nothing But Chemistry Here. Samples, synths, guitars, really foot tapping drums; half instrumental but with a fucking gorgeous array of vocals and clever lyrics at just the right moments. Feels like floating in the sea, balanced, sometimes serene but unpredictable, prepared to proper hurt you*. Stand out track: Vessels. Just listen to it. And also buy it. Big Scary Monster Recs again. Might just head over to Oxford so they can put a face to who’s buying all of their stock.

*can you tell I was a rubbish surfer? Waves hurt.

“PETER FUCKING WYETH”, once you listen to him (which you must) you will see why this excited shout (from me) was frowned upon by most of the audience. Humming New Time is full of quiet, delicate, soaring, exquisite, sampled, looped sounds all made by one man and an array of instruments/pedals. I loved it so much I cornered him after the gig and tried to convince him he should be making sound installations for theatre. Which he should. And he actually looked more interested in the idea than frightened by me, so if you’re a) in a position to do so, b) actually still reading, and c) interested in commissioning quiet immersive, transporting sound from him, DO. Would fit ace into a small airy room of BAC for the one-on-one fest, for example. Anyway, here’s the record. Hand lithographed hard copies a must-buy, too. Stand out track: ALL OF THEM. But if I had to choose, Sing to Me.

And finally, from Worcester, Watch Commander’s Closer to Home EP. The opening of the first track totally makes me feel 17 again; full of hubris and energy and fucking joy. Classic punky guitars and a good grate-y vocal (I mean that as a quality not a complaint). The kind of thing to leap around to with mates. Which is always a good note to end things on. Stand out track: Places.

et la fin.

Have an ace Christmas, and if you like these tracks, give the bands/labels money for them. Bandcamp makes that uber easy.

Digital Hat? That’s a weird name, what is it?

Digital hat is an experiment in revolutionising how we discover and pay for theatre.

I am a punk fan. Other stuff too, but mostly punk, hardcore, screamo. Guitars, shouting, that kind of thing. I was 14 when Napster was released. My musical maturity was shaped by sharing; it was also shaped by the staring at of progress bars, and never needing to pay.

I was 25 when I started always paying for music.

Because over 2 years or so my whole relationship to music and its worth has changed. For one thing it has become a relationship, social media has, in a big way, connected me to musicians and the work that they do much more fully. For another, the ability to trial music, listen to it on spotify or youtube, means I know what I’m buying, and that friends also share what they like, in podcasts, blog posts, tweets, and playlists. And a final thing; pay what you think it’s worth. Not ‘pay what you want’, I think it’s an important distinction, because I probably (leaving aside the relationship with an artist) want to pay as little as I can, but as soon as it’s framed with the notion of ‘worth’, suddenly I want to pay as much as I can. Bandcamp and social media changed my relationship to musicians, and the music they produce. The trust that ‘pay what you think it’s worth’ puts in me, makes me want to respond favourably. And actually, how artificial is a price point anyway? An album may only be worth £4 to me, it might be worth £20. Don’t you want my money either way? Often I’ll buy an album for a fiver and go and give back more afterwards. How much is the song you danced to at your wedding worth? How about the album that saved your life?

I feel part of a community, one that the web helps me find, and support. And I want to support it.

Over the past two years my relationship to how I discover and pay for new music has been revolutionised. I may not pay much more on average, but I know that it’s going directly to an artist, and I also know that I’m buying an awful lot more. Plus, more awesome music! WINNING.

In the checkout area, how often do we see theatres linking to similar work in other venues?

And while we’re at it, when have you ever used an e-checkout system on a venue’s site that was even slightly bearable?

How often have non-theatre going friends expressed a general interest, but just not known a) where to start or b) if it wasn’t just a bit too expensive?

How often have you carried a piece with you for weeks, months afterwards? How much do you think that’s worth?

I think that there is a bandcamp for theatre. Not bandcamp exactly. Not Spotify, or Amazon, not twitter, not just a recommendation site, a place to buy stuff, not a review site. Though it may look a little like all these things, it may not necessarily be just an online or web based system, it could borrow a lot from physical things like Oyster cards or loyalty systems. But a way of regulating, sharing, exchanging, standardising, offering, equalising, and making easy the act of finding, going to, and paying for theatre.

Seth Honnor and I are going to r+d this. We want to look at the data generated from ticket sales – the sharing of that data in a way that the theatre-goer is completely in control of, and benefits from (rather than just the ‘untick mailing list’ box). We want to look at changing the experience of paying for theatre, work on a scalable model that could be used by any size venue, that had room for recommendations, sharing, simple video or audio trails, and that are used by many venues. Imagine only needing to remember one password for every theatre checkout system in the UK. Imagine syncing tickets with your smartphone, so you don’t need to have it delivered, or pick it up. Imagine subscribing to the arts events calendars of friends, or certain venues. Imagine a system that allows you to put a deposit on a ticket, but doesn’t take the money until after you pay, after which you are able to pay what you think it was worth. Throw your money in the hat; that’s why ‘digital hat’.

That’s where we want to start thinking. digitalhat.co.uk/ Let us know if you want in, what you would want from it, or if you think it already exists. We’ll let you know soonish about our next steps. Early days, but exciting ones, I hope.

DIY Music and DIY theatre

So I wrote this thing for my mate’s punk and comics webzine. It’s about DIY punk, and DIY theatre. And mostly how we can learn from each other. You should go and read it, it’s over here. Go on. What are you waiting for? It has swear words and lots of semicolons. WHAT MORE COULD YOU WANT. Clicky. Also, when I was writing it, James of ace performance duo Action Hero sent me some of his own thoughts on being ‘DIY’ in theatre. Just after I sent my finished article off, but I’m reposting them here, with his permission, because they say a quite similar but still really useful thing.

“I think a comparison between DIY music and DIY theatre is long overdue. Not least because theatre suffers so much from an identity crisis and I think it could benefit from the association!

I would identify the work that Gemma and I do as Action hero very much as DIY but there’s an important distinction to made between two ways of using that terminology. There is much talk in theatre of a ‘DIY aesthetic’ and its a phrase often used to describe our work (I think we even use it to describe ourselves on our website) but the DIY element of our work is not ‘an aesthetic’ it comes from a genuine do it yourself approach. We sometimes do make decisions to deliberately use things that are lo-fi because of the way it changes the relationship an audience has with the work but more often than not its a genuine response to trying to make something with very few resources. So not an aesthetic choice as such. What interests me more is the punk use of the term DIY which doesn’t mean ‘ooh look their set is made from cardboard’ but is about an approach and a way of working that deliberately avoids mainstream modes of production. Continue reading…

More on the Umbrella Project

Two videos from me and brilliant musician Simon Goff both talking in a little more detail about the umbrella project. Writing for soundwalk one is underway, and has taken an interesting turn. Here’s an excerpt from the intro to the first draft:

People have been telling me stories, and I will get to them. But I want to start with the silences. The inarticulacies. The people who don’t feel like their lives are worth putting into words. The people who asked ‘why me’? The lack of light, the darkness on the edge of city nights, the things on the edges of saying.

Event details for the first soundwalk will be released on Monday…

videos!