Hello folks! It’s nearly single-launch-party-time so I thought I’d do a wee roundup of what’s been happening recently. First of all, I’ve clearly been cloned. Well, not quite. You might remember I did a wee shoot recently with the talented-and-lovely Ashley Baxter. Well, Ashley took another couple of photos to promote the single launch. She’s got a blog post about it here, and we’d both love to hear which shot is your favourite. Wondering why there’s two of me? Ashley explains that too.
Somehow, amidst all this single launch preparation, I managed to find time to write an article for the Pop Cop. It’s called “Shambles Miller goes speed dating” and although I could explain it here, I recommend heading over to the Pop Cop to read it for yourself!
And of course, I can’t miss out the fact that my single is now available to stream and preorder through Bandcamp! You can check it out at this link, or listen in the player below!
The launch party is tomorrow night in Vespbar. Here’s a link with a wee map in case you’re not sure where you’re going. And to be REALLY specific, it’s on Drury Street, opposite the Horseshoe Bar. It used to be O’Henry’s. And it’s just past the strippers. Bonzo! I really hope you can make it along.
I think the effort to payoff ratio for this might be badly skewed.
Hello folks! You’re looking young and fresh and clean and NEW today. A bit like my blog, now that you mention it. As you can see, I’ve given the old girl a bit of a makeover. I’ve updated the links above, such as my music page, the page with free stuff, and the bit about me. So if you want to hear my music, buy my music, get free stuff or get in touch, it’s now that little bit easier. And if like me, you’re too lazy to remember web addresses with more than 18 characters, never fear. You can now reach this website simply by heading to shamblesmiller.com! (don’t click it now though, you’ll just end up right back here, that’d be silly. Unless you really want to. Och go on then, I can’t say no to you)
Some of you might also have noticed I’ve recently got one of those tumblrs. I’m still figuring it out, but I think you can contact me there too, or ask me things, or send me pictures of dyslexic cats and whatnot. So far there’s only one picture and a video of Phillip Schofield talking like Satan. I think my television might be possessed. Oh and there’s a song you might have heard but which you should download if you haven’t already.
Hello folks! You’re looking lovely today, whatever day this is. If you’re reading this, it can only mean one thing. It means that I only have one copy of my EP left to sell. I’ve been selling these CDs at gigs and online for the past year or so and now it’s finally on the brink of selling out! Who will be the one to buy that last CD? Who will receive the last sent-out-in-the-post-with-a-hand-written-letter copy of Shambles Sails the Clockwork Sea? If you’d like to be that person, there’s only one way to do it (well, unless you’re sneaky that is) which is buying from my bandcamp.
I promise I’m working on new material and I’ll have new things for you to hear and possibly even buy (or steal) and hold before long, but right now I’m really excited that I’ve managed to sell nearly 100 copies of this EP to you lovely people. Whether you bought it because you really like my music, on a whim at a gig, or even just to support me in my musical endeavours, I’m really grateful. It means a lot to me that people take the time to give my music a chance. So, thank you!
You can tell from this picture of me and my daft haircut singing a song.
Hello folks! Has your hair always been that colour? It fair suits you. This week I’ve been thinking about twitter and facebook and all this social network malarkey, in relation to my music. You see, recently I met someone who followed me on twitter but didn’t realise I was musician, until a mutual friend brought him to one of my gigs. I was a little incredulous, after all, my twitter isn’t short of tweets about gigs and I do use it to promote my music and whatnot. My twitter avatar is even holding a guitar!
Look, just listen to the song. Don't make me hit you.
I had a similar experience one day in work, when I served someone I used to go to school with. We have each other as friends on facebook, but don’t tend to interact with each other via the site. We chatted briefly about what we’d been up to since school, and she seemed quite surprised to learn that I was a gigging musician, never mind that I had self-released a couple of EPs and was planning a single release.
It got me wondering however, about how many people that follow me on twitter, or who are friends with me on facebook, have actually heard my music. To be honest, I get the feeling that most of my active followers probably do know I’m a musician, but I suspect many of them haven’t got round to listening to my music yet. After all, I’ve often seen a band crop up on twitter and think “oh, I’ll need to listen to them sometime” but I often forget to until someone actually links me to their music. With this in mind, I thought I’d give an updated list of some of the places you can find my music online.
This is an invaluable tool for unsigned/independent musicians nowadays. Allows anyone to listen to your music, buy it if they want, and offers a very fair deal for the bands/artists who use it. It also allows you to embed the player into other sites, which is why you can not only listen to my music on bandcamp, but also on this very blog, AND of course, on everyone’s favourite evil digital empire…
Facebook, sneaky as it is, regularly finds ways to integrate with other useful sites. After all, you post a link to a youtube video and you can watch it right in your facebook feed. Well, you can also listen to music, via the likes of the aforementioned bandcamp, but also using something called Bandpage. Basically, if you go to an artist’s page on facebook, this application will allow you to listen to, share, download and buy music. Both bandcamp and bandpage options are available on my music page, so feel free to check it out.
A digital radio station for unsigned artists? If you’re looking for new music and haven’t heard of either Amazing Tunes or Amazing Radio, I recommend you have a listen. You can listen to songs whenever you like using their inbuilt player, or tune into one of their shows for some great music. My page is here, if that floats your musical boat.
I know that nowadays a lot of people just chuck a song title into youtube when they feel like listening to a particular song/band. Well, it’s no different for me. If you feel like checking out some live videos and/or me talking pish, there’s always my youtube channel.
So, lots of ways to stream my music online. You can also buy one of my CDs from bandcamp, or download a digital copy (which is a bit cheaper, if you’re not too bothered about owning the disc). But what if you’re not quite sure if you want to pay for stuff just yet? Well, for folks who like free stuff, you could check out my…
Well, funnily enough, all of the previous sites (apart from youtube) offer some ways to download some of my music for free. I also occasionally contribute the odd track to compilation CDs and monthly EPs, so you could keep an eye out for those. In the meantime, here are three of my free tracks currently doing the rounds:
Rapture
This is a little song I recorded recently about the end of the world and chatting up girls.
Things That Make Me Angry
This is the free track I offer through being a member of Strummerville DIY.
This is a live track, from Glasgow’s very own Words per Minute.
That about covers it for now I think! If you’ve never heard my music before, I’m genuinely greatful that you’ve taken the time to read through this, and I hope you’ll take the time to listen to at least one song. Might have even managed to surprise one or two of you who simply thought of me as a daft little cartoon man on twitter.
Hello folks! You look RAVISHING, I have to be honest. Oh my. I’ve been updating my EP malarkies, so that download and physical copies of my EP can now be purchased from the same place: Bandcamp! Oh Bandcamp, that beautiful website of choice for the discerning musician of today. And tomorrow. And for ages after that cos Bandcamp is so full of brawness.
There are 50 physical copies of the EP remaining and a very small number of badges, so if you haven’t purchased a physical copy of the EP, now might be the time to do it. You get a free badge with every purchase and the bright folks and Bandcamp allow you to download the EP files immediately after purchasing a physical copy, so that you can listen to the tracks without having to wait on the postman!
If you’d like to purchase a copy, please head over to my updated Bandcamp page and rummage about a bit. Any money made from sales goes back into the fund for my next release.
Shambles Miller's really really good website 