Hot City Knights...

Escort Knights play host to 'Hot City Knights'... 

\\ Middleman & Escort Knights play live, plus DJ sets from Felix Leiter (Digital/Ministry of Sound) & Lance Lewis (Uber/Anaglogue) //

\\ £5 OTD or Text names to 07825 779 732 for LIMITED £3 GUEST-LIST //

Thursday 19th May, Leeds Uni Mine (Inside Leeds Uni Student Union), 9:30pm - Late
www.escortknightsmusic.com

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On Thursday 19th May 2011 - For one night only Escort Knights are proud to play host to their first club night, a huge event that will see some of Leeds best live acts and DJs play Mine @ Leeds Uni. Located inside the Union mine is a hidden gem of a venue, done out completely with wood floor walls and ceiling and the longest benches you have ever seen in your life... not that you will want to sit down. 


http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=155106697882837

Eiger Music School Launched!

Steely Dan Big Band

Here are some pictures of a recent rehearsal/recording with Katie Patterson's Steely Dan Big Band. 

We have been playing a few fantastic Steely Dan charts, originally played by the Frankfurt Radio Big Band & HR-Big Band, and with a big of luck and funding we should be able to get hold of the rest of the charts. Can't wait to start gigging with this!

The Band:

The Rhythm Section:

The Drummer (haha!):

Primary School, Sambuca and Jerk Chicken.

It seems to have taken me quite a while to get over the events of last week...

During the week was fairly uneventful, School of Rock & Pop and rehearsals as per normal. We started rehearsals with Hassan Erraji again, which was great. Dates are rolling in so keep checking the tour dates section for more details if you fancy coming along!

Now, Thursday night begins to get interesting. Escort Knights pile into the band Passat (Ok fine, Ewan's Passat) as per the usual routine and drive into the early hours down to Bristol. We were up at the crack of dawn on Friday morning (I don't think we even knew that time existed... unless it was part of the previous night!) to go to school. Yes, we were going to school in Bristol to teach a day workshop on being in a band and songwriting.

We had around 12 kids in our group who all came up with some fantastic song ideas, which we performed at the end of the day as part of a performance called Sing Up! which celebrates singing in schools. What a fantastic initiative! 

Once all the performers had sung, Escort Knights got up and presented some awards for the best in each school section and then played a few tracks. A big well done to everyone involved!

Back to Leeds on Friday night and Saturday saw a mammoth shift at the VOX Warehouse (9pm - 7am), which practically wrote off Sunday. What a night, who would have thought shots of Sambuca would go so well with Jerk Chicken?!

Until next time...

London, Otley and 100 Space Hoppers.

Right, so I have decided to keep this blog as a weekly diary of my goings on. This way I should never get writers block, unless I decide to give up on life and watch ITV all day.


I had the absolute pleasure to spend Monday listening to You Me At Six's Underdog so I could teach it to my School of Rock & Pop students that week, I can feel your envy. The blow was lightened somewhat when I was sent a link to download Dustin O'Halloran's latest album Lumiere which is absolutely fantastic, I will definitely be following his work from now on! (You can read my review of it in the Journalism section of my website)


Wednesday was a rehearsal day, a couple of hours with my quintet and another couple with my trio. Both went very well, although they were undertaken at the expense of missing a meeting with videographers 3B Media, who Escort Knights are working with to produce our next single's video.


Good news: Space Hopper video idea is a goer. I now have 100 space hoppers boarding with Olivia and Me in our flat. They are very good house mates, always cleaning up after themselves and they don't eat much. Only issue is their energy levels, they are practically bouncing off the ceiling and they can be full of hot air sometimes.


Thursday brought a trip to The Monarch in Camden with Escort Knights. The gig was excellent, very receptive audience and bumped into a worker for Gaymer's Camden Crawl Festival who asked for a demo, fingers crossed eh?


Friday was a jaunt back up the M1 for a gig at Otley's Courthouse Rocks with Fauns and Richard Dutton. Mr Dutton is a crazy, crazy man. A pleasure to watch, and tickled me pink with his stage banter - but then who wouldn't after necking the majority of the beer rider!


6 Nations was the order of the day on Saturday, with the afternoon spent down the pub with mates before having a lovely dinner at La Bella Vita in Garforth (always a lovely dinner) with family. 


Following more recovery from the obligatory Sunday hangover we headed to the gym for a nice run and swim. 


Bad News: My muscles had forgotten what the gym was and failed to remind me that I would feel like this two days later. I have written myself a note now to remind me never to go back to the gym again.


Until next week...

Spongey Goodness

So we left a couple of our new tracks in the extremely capable hands of Mr Jam Sponge so he could wave his magic wand over them and make them sound like songs. After severely distressing the drums, turning the bass into CamelPhat (that's phat, spelled P-H-A-T), debating over 2db of synth pads, honing in one rogue guitar note and Daft Punk-ifying it up we were happy that the tracks sounded... incredible. 

The man is a genius. Check him out here: http://www.myspace.com/jamsponge

Scream if you want to go faster...

Congratulations to Ronnie Bottomley

6th December saw the first ever Yorkshire Jazz Awards at Dean Clough Mills, Halifax. What a fantastic initiative! Jazz is rife in Yorkshire at the moment and it is absolutely right that we need to recognise that.

Many worthy bands and people collected awards on the night, but my biggest congratulations has to go to Ronnie Bottomley, who won the lifetime achievement award. Ronnie is a fantastic man who I have had the pleasure of studying with for 2.5 years (and counting). Ronnie is in his 80s and is still a committed teacher and is still gigging! 

You can find out more about the Yorkshire Jazz Awards and the winners here:

http://www.jazzyorkshire.org/awards/

Ianep...

Check out this upcoming graphic designer Ian Edward Prentice who is currently putting together the artwork for Escort Knights' new single 'Saturday'.  Ian does do more than just brilliant pictures of animals, find out more here:

www.ianep.co.uk

I have also been informed that Ian is in need of a new coat (it is rather cold, don't you know), so make sure you check out his Christmas cards for sale here: www.ianep.co.uk/shop.html 

Golf and Juggling Balls

Friday was my official reintroduction to the world of big boys golf. After spending months cowering in the confines of the driving range, I finally plucked up the courage to brave the grown up's 18 hole course, accompanied by my good friend and band mate Ewan (singer in Escort Knights).

There was one major problem, aside from the fact that I am unable to hit the ball in a straight line (my swing technique restricts me to hitting the ball at 90 degrees to where I am aiming). This was that the golf course looked like a scene from Gorillas in the mist, just minus the gorillas, obviously. But we ventured forth, battled hard and emerged unscathed.

There are two points I have taken from golfing. Firstly, golf forces you to forget about everything around you. Any thoughts in your head distract your attention and you fluff up, so you must learn to empty your head. It is like a mini holiday away from life - brilliant. Secondly, as a band it is so important to spend time away from music and just be friends.

Things are always hectic with Escort Knights. Those of you who know me personally are surely aware that I love to use metaphors, most of which are not generally accepted metaphors, just ones I have made up myself. I don't think I have made this one up, but I think of what we are doing as having lots of juggling balls in the air and hopefully we will catch one of them.

Our most recent juggling ball is having our music featured in a brand new drama series, which might be fantastic for us, but we will wait and see. Anyway, this means that we spend all day discussing business and the band, even when we go out to the pub with each other we talk band. Everyone needs downtime and we are beginning to realise the importance of retaining a good friendship as well as being band mates.

Mini Aubergines

Whilst on tour with Hassan, we were talking about fruit in the bus, nothing unusual, just normal sized fruit. Also, it should be mentioned that the fruit we were talking about wasn't actually in the bus with us as could be misconstrued from my previous sentence, just fruit in general. I can't remember exactly what we were saying about the fruit, but whatever it was i'm sure was conversation worthy (as all tour bus conversations are... ).

Anyway, I suddenly remembered that while on a shopping trip a short time before I had seen what I thought were mini aubergines. To my amazement they were exactly the same as normal aubergines, but much smaller! I would guestimate around five times smaller.

At this point I was laughed at, severely ridiculed and much verbal abuse was thrown at me (this may be slightly exaggerated). I was even accused of confusing them with small purple grapes.

Now is time for my comeback... Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you in their full dark purple glory... Mini Aubergines!



In their box for selling.



Compared to a normal aubergine.

Managing bands... it's relentless.

Escort Knights are just around the mid-point of our current UK Tour to promote or single 'I Don't Know Your Name'. Currently we have no manager, no booker, no label, no form of representation other than ourselves (apart from a bit of PR). We have been working our little socks off since July booking the tour, organising posters/flyers, sorting out the remix competition as well as recording and writing new tracks and more.

So it's time for a break right? Wrong.

Now it starts all over again. Emailing all the venues in various cities to get another tour organised for March/April time to promote our next single 'Saturday'. We have one date confirmed already and hopefully a couple more in the pipeline, so fingers crossed.

We have just uploaded all of our current tracks to SoundCloud so you can hear them in one spiffing playlist. Please let us know your thoughts - http://soundcloud.com/escortknights/sets/escort-knights-so-far

Keep posted for more details on the next tour and find out how we get on!... Alternatively if you know of any managers/bookers/major record label executives who would like to work with us let me know.

Being contented, but still wanting more.

At the moment, I am struggling with the concept with being happy with what you have in the present, yet still yearning for bigger things in the future.

Buddha said "Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment."

But what about determination, goals or aspirations? Should we just ignore these? If I cease to think about what might happen in the future, will I lose my drive to succeed? What does it mean to succeed?

Reading quotes like the one above makes me, personally, feel selfish for wanting more from my life. I am very candid about my goals, and simply will not rest until I achieve them. However, thinking back to when I was a young(er) musician, my goals were to have enough earning potential from drums that I didn't have to get a 'proper' job and get into music college. Well, here I am in the final year of my music degree with just about enough potential work in the pipeline to keep me in the black.

Am I content?... Of course not! And here is where I begin to feel selfish. I have so much to be grateful for, yet I still yearn for bigger gigs, in front of more people, for more money. How can I possibly justify this?

Quite honestly, I don't know and I don't think anyone really knows. Now, if I was to relax and look down upon myself and impart advice (what a weird concept) I would recommend that I:

- Be grateful for everything I have and have done. In hindsight have an understanding of why I have had my past experiences and what I have learned from them.

- Take every opportunity with grace and humility, don't feel selfish.

- Don't have 'ultimate goals'. Understand that they are experiences I would like to enjoy at some point, but relax and take life as it comes.


"Answers only make more questions..."

Too true.

Dan Weiss - Timshel

As wrong as it is to cry laughing at this... I did.

New Escort Knights Tracks on SoundCloud

Escort Knights have uploaded three brand new tracks on to SoundCloud for your listening pleasure.  


Check them out here:


http://soundcloud.com/escortknights

Dan Weiss Trio

Went to see the amazing Dan Weiss Trio last night at The Spin Off, Santiagos.  It was a pleasure to watch musicians who had been playing together for so long and clearly knew each other's playing inside out.


Well done Joost for putting them on.  Support Leeds jazz!