Ocean in a bottle (A brief history)

Ocean in a bottle, my ambient music project first started all the way back in the middle of 2014, however it’s origin dated to the end of 2013 actually where I decided to get a upgrade to the keyboard I was using for live shows for my then band ‘A Means to an End’. I forgot who advised (forgotten about in the mists of time, sorry whoever you were) me to get a mini USB keyboard and I ended up ordering one off amazon.

Sadly, for reasons I can’t remember it never made the live set for ‘A Means to an End’ as it became apparent it was going to take longer than all of us thought for me to get used to it so it got packed away not to be used. At the time, it is worth noting I was in a relationship with a none artist lady who never really liked me using it and I never used it.

However, fast forward 9 months or so and only got pulled out the following year when the relationship I was in finished and I used it to try and help myself sleep really (the first single ‘Weaving Goodbye’ came in respond to that partly). Although there was recordings before that, there were all over the place structure wise and I find it painful to listen to the early recordings and possibly should haven’t released them and hung on for another six months or so, but those early recordings were important of times in my life as I was generally producing a single, EP or album almost every month.

It was a crazy period as I sometimes would spend night after night after work if I wasn’t going out to any poetry event recording piece by piece just playing it by ear with no training atall, and over time found my feet and found stream and downloads slowly built up as I carried on releasing material. When I got together with Amanda, my partner at the end of 2016, it got to the end of that year and in the start of the following year, I actually decided I had took the sound as far as I could and was going to pack it in around February or March 2017, only for Amanda to have some terrible family news (which I won’t go into here) and really needed me more than ever which delayed the release of what was going to be the last single ‘Finale’ for a few months and by the time I got to it, I had already started work on the next single ‘From Chords to Dischords’ which was very floaty air music.

Since then, I did a series of Autumn based music sometimes with field sounds ontop of it, and am currently working on a series of Space themed music (Currently there are Inner Space, Outer space, Searching for Planet 9, Searching for Planet 9 (Remixes), Floating from the earth to the Moon and back, and First Approach of Mars and in my next blog I’ll talk about future releases in mind) but Ocean in a Bottle is still developing, and I am still finding new avenues and directions I want to take Ocean in a Bottle in. It’s mostly been a emotional journey for me through changes in my life, and like my poetry is sometimes I can’t see ending yet.

https://oceaninabottle.bandcamp.com/

Patreon (A brief history of Podcasting 4)

Lastly currently with my Podcasts (although I am thinking about doing some work on networks for my Podcast series and any other future additional ones I may do), two of them have ventured into the world of Patreon.

If you look back at the topics I've talked about so far, it would be clear that Spoken Label would be impossible and not fair to do for reasons which are to clear to yourself if you think about.

And of course, that then leads to Reading in Bed first of all. I first myself became aware of Patreon constantly at the end of 2017 when I took out a monthly subscription to Sheffield band the Black Dog for their own Patreon project and we decided to do it for Reading in Bed (subtitled Under the Sheets by Amanda) where we would do a additional little episode (recorded usually in the middle of the month) of books that didn't make it for whatever reason or the other.

So far, this has involved taking it in turns with books (Amanda doing two and me doing a additional one book). Amanda it has to be said is a much quicker reader than me usually, so going forward it's likely it could well end up with me doing less of this than her but currently I have just finished off my books for the June Podcast (I'm ahead) so it's possible I may well start on a extra book for it this month (I have something in mind) but like I have said before doing this on-top of the normal Reading in Bed with me dating Amanda just involves a quick call inbetween episodes, say 30 minutes recording, the usual editing and then over to Amanda to release.

Comics Unity has only done it's one extra episode to date on patreon but the pattern there so far has been recording it on the same day we do the rest. In the case of our most recent episode 7 (the May 2019 - we will be meeting up shortly to record episode 8) we spent about three hours recording in total doing the main episode, the bonus avengers end game podcast and then our patreon page bonus. Unlike while with Amanda who has a good internet and / or phone I can ring up to record, Michael for reasons I won't mention here doesn't so it is easier to do it all in all (I make sure we have plenty of biscuits and diet coke to hand here).

If I am honest, our membership has been low on both Patreon pages so far, not that I am worried as its just another way of in both Podcasts of organising our time further and expanding both series to cover more and more content. A while ago, Reading in Bed as a one off did a youtube special which we may do again, and I am not above doing a Comics Unity special also for youtube but again watch this space. One thing I have learnt from doing these Podcasts is the fact that they are so many places you can list special Podcasts in a way to attract new listeners etc.

Comics Unity (A brief history of Podcasting Part 3)

Comics Unity, my third Podcast is the most surprising Podcast of the three I currently do and certainly the one that really wasn’t planned.

And when I really wasn’t planned, I mean really wasn’t planned.

Fast forward all the way back to May 2017 during the early (ish) days of Spoken Label, way before Reading in Bed I ended up doing a Podcast with my good friend Michael who was just starting to get going as a writer and had a great time with him back at N Studios when during the recording off it I discovered he had a massive interest in graphic novels and comics like me.

Although I did know by going to the same writing workshop as him and also the same poetry open mic night, we decided to do his Spoken Label Podcast after getting chatting in Forbidean Planet (Manchester’s great comic shop) several times and when we met up at mine, we decided off the cuff to do Comics Unity straight after we did his Spoken Label session.

If I am honest, we should have prepared it better as it is somewhat disorganised for a first episode but did have a good laugh doing it only for it get abandoned when I was unable to get hold of Michael to do a follow up episode. 16 or so months later, Michael got in touch about wanting to start it up and I invited him over to mine and we had a great chat about it and spend most of the afternoon recording what became the 2^nd Pilot and Episode 2 and 3 really over one day and have managed to carry it on a monthly basis after sorting out what exactly had caused the problem of him pulling out in the first place.

The planning for this Podcast is quite different from both Reading in Bed and Spoken Label in the sense of Reading in Bed I am making notes for each book I review and formally marking and Spoken Label although unstructured I tend to keep to a similar pattern with it which gives it the freedom to go in the direction it does. Comics Unity is different in the sense of the pair of us are often researching news that fit within the remit of what we want to talk to, and I’ll then usually get a running order of news together and we start chatting generally from there almost like just two friends just jumping off on all tangents frequently talking about something we like.

When me and Michael got into a routine with it, it’s been pretty plain sailing really and that’s the crunch point here, routine. Because with Reading in Bed, I am dating my co-host me and Amanda are always talking about it in one way or the other, Comics Unity just needed us to get into a routine after when Michael hit a few problems previously and since we got going in November last year, it’s developed at a good pace with the pair of us now doing extra Episodes when we meet up which have been getting good reviews

And also now doing our own Patreon page

(More on that next)

Reading in Bed (A brief history of Podcasting Part 2)

Spoken Label after a while (if you have read my previous Podcat on Podcasts) was a happy accident that has kept growing and growing over three and a bit years and over time become a much more smoother process to operate and I like to think has inspired other people to have a go at doing it also.

Some of you know I am dating a lovely young lady called Amanda Steel who I met all the way back at the start of 2016 not long after Spoken Label actually got going and who I ended up dating from the end of 2016 onwards. Now whether I was partly responsible for this or not, Amanda in the summer of 2018 decided to do her own Podcast called Amanda’s reading recommedations where every month she would read and talk about what books she has been reading over the past month.

I forget why exactly but after a few months of it, she wasn’t happy with it being a solo operation and asked me would I like to come onboard with her and make it a joint book review Podcast. Who titled it Reading in Bed I can’t remember (although I suspect it was Amanda) but I remember well the first episode or two being awkard between the pair of us as although by that stage we had been dating for over a year working together on a project like this takes time to work out each other strengths and weakness on projects like this

In this case, part of the problem was voice levels as by nature I have a louder voice than Amandas and I simply had to learn to calm it down a bit, and make sure it was the Andy and Amanda show not the Andy out-shouts Amanda show but over time we became to get a pattern right for it, where Amanda would always do the artwork for the Podcast, I would record and mix it for release on bandcamp and then send it over to Amanda over viva Dropbox as a single file for upload in mp3. We became to split the Podcast into 4 or 5 sections monthly with a short add break inbetween each section to let us pause before we carried on chatting.

We’ve had the occasional problem owning to technical issues on one of our laptops or another case where I gave both of us colds and made us sound like Daleks for the Podcast which took ages to get right mixing) or most memorably when I forgot we ad agreed to review some thriller (I’m not naming which one) and I realised with only about 12 hours I had agreed to read that one and ended up reading a full 450 book in about 8 hours which was not fun.

I can also remember doing such a close knit podcast together it comes up in conversation when we see each other when Amanda may ask me have you started that book or if I ask her she may swear jokingly, sadly yes or in the case of one book she hated it that much she declined to tell me the name off it during the Podcast depending my attempts to get hints out of her and I reckon would have surprised people as much as me when they heard it.

In a future Podcast, I’ll talk about Patreon and how that is a interesting tool to link into Reading in Bed, but I’ve learnt a lot about myself doing Reading in Bed which is almost like a band in some ways where you have to have things prepared, in this case what books we are going to review and any notes (which we don’t show each other) until we are recording, just ensuring they are split into strengths, weakness and ratings.

It’s proved great fun but in a lot of words tons more work than Spoken Label which I just book and record sometimes with a gentle control but I love it also.

Spoken Label (A brief history of Podcasting Part 1)

The older I get as a writer in particular since I abandoned watching television on any kind of regular basis (aside from Netflix and Amazon Prime series and some stuff on youtube) has found myself getting busier and busier with creative projects who touch on writing but not my own in the field of Podcasting for example.

A few of you already know I started a regular Podcast series called Spoken Label in 2016. This was originally designed to done as one or two off, but over time it took off more and more in particular as I got better and better with it, and it’s currently as of typing around 120 or so separate sessions and has another 9 or so pending (with others pending for recording too). Certainly on the earlier sessions, I can heard my own nerves in it as I was learning how to run the show more and more and I like to reflect its a good sign of how well respected they are, I am generally uploading one a week at the moment and have enough recorded for release until the middle of July and am expecting more to been getting recorded over the next month or so.

Nowadays, what I have learned with Spoken Label is simply keep everything in a similar pattern so everything starts off from the same point – i.e. what lead the person I am talking to taking the art (usually writing) they are doing and letting it flow from there. I’ve interviewed some people who are even more experienced than me. There was one for example who I won’t name who I found out had released a incredible amount of books which I didn’t realise until our chat had done 20 books in around 6 years and had another two on the way.

That chat was amazing as there was so much I could ask that writer, but I wanted to keep it to a manageable level. Now a manageable level for some Podcasts can be two or three hours, but there are Podcasts which have sections and sections with it. Take for example an interview with an actor or director on one of my favourite Podcasts, the Empire Film Magazine Podcast, I’ve noticed works somewhere around 20 minutes (but with no strict planning for more or less) works as it lets them talk about a specific project which most of my artists are talking about 90% of the time.

Some Podcasts I do know however like asking quite specific questions to the people they are chatting, with Spoken Label I have never really done that in three and a half years, I prefer really to do before we sit down to properly get going do what I term as fact checking really, make sure my facts are correct I know for the introduction and make sure there isn’t anything specific we need to touch on or cover and away we go.

Not all Podcasts have gone to plan, as I’ve had crashing laptops to deal with, and even once ad a Policeman stick their head through the window in the room I was doing the Podcast (warm summer night) to check whether next door was in and even once in a coffee shop when a friend walking past spotted I was in there with a female writer and thought he would pop in to say hi and ended up sitting in for the rest of the Podcast speechless.

I’ve also had venue problems where I have arranged to meet up with somebody only to discover the venue we were going to meet up in was totally unsuitable and we had to move somewhere on no notice whatsoever.

Spoken Label has been a challenge I’ve found over the years not in the fact of getting guests but rather time management and the uploading and trying to give everybody as welcoming a experience as possible and dealing with problems as they come along with a smile and a joke (if needed). I’ve made quite a few new friends out of it, and some people I’ve never spoken to again and would recommend anybody to have a go at it.

Whether I would suggest setting up a 2^nd Podcast to run alongside is another ball game like I did is another ball game

And I’ll talk about that next.

May 2019 News

Podcasting again has been really really busy recently (and writing / music too) since my last Blog, the following has been released / news has come in:

Spoken Label:

https://spokenlabel.bandcamp.com/album/benjamin-guilfoyle-spoken-label-april-2019
(Benjamn Guilfoyle)

https://spokenlabel.bandcamp.com/album/nicola-worswick-spoken-label-may-2019
(Nicola Worswick)

https://spokenlabel.bandcamp.com/album/eva-curless-spoken-label-may-2019
(Eva Curless)

https://spokenlabel.bandcamp.com/album/nick-armbrister-bridge-building
(Nick Armbrister – Building Bridges album)

https://spokenlabel.bandcamp.com/album/jan-mccarthy-spoken-label-may-2019
(Jan McCarthy)

(Upcoming Podcasts already recorded are from in a rough order – Kurt Clopton, Kate Martin (Kate Banco), Alicia Fitton, Elisa Matvejeva, Sara Culleno, Chelsea Tadeyeske and Edie Roberts, Rob Barratt and Roz Weaver. I am also in the process of recording sessions by Anthony Briscoe, Matt Nicholson and Benjamin  Guilfoyle (Pre and during Prestwich Library date on 27 May 2019 and am also looking out for new writers to chat to also as always)

Reading in Bed:

https://readinginbed.bandcamp.com/album/reading-in-bed-episode-17-may-2019
(Episode 17 – Book reviews of 1. Lisa Hall - between me and you,  2. Jo Jakeman - Sticks and Stones, 3. James Hadley Chase - No Orchids for Miss Blandish , 4. Phil Reade - Hard Fall  and 5. Eliza Maxwell - The Shadow Writer)

(More to follow on our Patreon Page too -https://www.patreon.com/readinginbed where a third extra Episode will follow before the end of June and the recording of our 18th Episode in June)

Comics Unity:

https://comicsunitypodcast.bandcamp.com/album/comics-unity-episode-7-may-2019
(Episode 7  includes Topics / news discussed this month include:
1. Shortened series on Marvel tv series coming out of the Avengers: End Game film, 2. Reaction to the Too Old to die young TV Series,
3. John Cena could be joining the Suicide Squad film,
4. Willow TV series in development at Disney,
5. Reaction to Star Wars 9 trailer,
6. Captain Marvel comic already close to cancellation?,
7. American Carnage comic finishing at Vertigo after issue 9 to name but a few topics.)

https://comicsunitypodcast.bandcamp.com/album/extra-episode-2-the-avengers-end-game-review 
(Extra Episode 2 featuring a full review of The Avengers: End Game)

(On our Patreon page – there is a extra feature this month where we will do an extra monthly Podcast for 2 dollars a month – this month on where we look at will be coming out of The Avengers: End Game and what remains unanswered from the
film - www.patreon.com/comicsunity)

(Coming up from Comics Unity will involve recording our 8th Episode in June which will feature a special discussion feature on the first Episode of the forthcoming DC series Swamp thing and a review on the forthcoming book by Amanda Steel – First Charge)

Ocean in a Bottle: 

https://oceaninabottle.bandcamp.com/album/first-approach-of-mars
(First approach of Mars)

https://oceaninabottle.bandcamp.com/album/floating-from-the-earth-to-the-moon-and-back
(Floating from the earth to the moon and back)

(A number of Ocean in a Bottle releases are forthcoming such as Late Winter on the Moon, On Saturns Wings, Looking at Jupiters Moons Volume 1 and re-examining the Solar System to name but a few but the next release will be through Silber Records and will be called – A Simple case: i’m sorry.. looking at the moon)

Writing:

Recent publications have included a Poem published at Best Poetry (Witnessing the colour of Spring with Mark Hollis) and the first issue of Printed Words (Horses minus their riders).

I have also recently completed my latest NaPoWriMo project (Ghost Story 6 which can be read here - https://ghoststory6.blogspot.com/)

I’ve also got another poem due up in Printed Words Issue 2 (Poem will likely will Roots in the Undertow of Clifton, Nottingham) and hopefully other works to follow shortly.

As can been seen on my gigs / concerts page, I am constantly doing poetry gigs (Usually 3 or 4 a month) all over Manchester and there is plenty forthcoming in also.

I am also now working on a top secret poetry project with Amanda Steel which you can see on our instragram pages (Andy Npoet (andynpoet) and Amanda Steel (amandasteel37)) where every day or two we will response to a 7 word poem the other has wrote. Amanda is writing the odd numbers, I'm doing the even numbers and i think we are up to Part 6 now)