Spring is in full swing with many changes!
Been very delayed in sending a mailout this month, lots happening in the Sans camp and to be honest, been kind of brain fried. Taking on Album 2 completely solo has used up a lot of my energy. From work and life balance as well as rehearsing and arranging album 2 material, plus booking shows…
Speaking of which, I am very happy to announce the first gig with the band:
12 MAY 2023, at The Hope & Anchor, in Islington, London.
This is a FIRST for me; everything we’ll be playing will be new material, so a first chance to hear it. It’s the first time I’ll be playing as ‘Arron Sans’ with a proper band, me, George (Bass) and Jack (Drums) have been in the rehearsal room a few times now and we’re working hard on getting the songs into shape ready to play live for you all.
It’s also created a slight shift in my plans for album 2.
Whether you perceive
my attempt to tackle an entire album on my own to be a vanity ego ride or whether
you sympathise with my need for growth (probably a bit of both really) it has
always been an ambition of mine to write, record and produce an album 100% on
my own.
That was the
intention with this album, not only does it save on budget, both time and money,
to do it completely DIY, but it also achieves that milestone in which I can
grow my own confidence within my musical expression and skill set.
But… And it’s been a tricky ‘but’ to swallow if I’m honest! (there’s perhaps a control freak in me that needed feeding – I wonder, is it dangerous not to feed such a beast?) …These songs deserve better; 3 heads are certainly proving to be better than 1. I’ve got things into a great spot on my own, but there are changes and tweaks to be made that I just wasn’t going to see on my own.
There are still elements that I will take on myself, because to put it bluntly, I just don’t have the funds to pay someone else to do it and it will take too long to save up for them. At this moment in time the tracks have a relevant energy, we are buzzing with them and just want to get them out there. If we wait, then we risk wasting that momentum. Pus any budget dedicated to this is better used on the promotion to increase awareness and push the songs.
It’s crazy to think that these days, artists, and this isn’t just in music, Belenchuk has the same roles to juggle in her field, we have to wear so many hats, creative, managerial, accounting, promotion, there’s an iceberg of responsibility under that façade of creative fun.
I quickly realised as I began recording the 2nd album that I was giving myself unrealistic expectations; I had decided to give myself 14 days. I’ve never done anything this complex before, writing songs is one thing, and I’ve always recorded as demos when I’ve worked with professional producers such as Paul Tipler.
The demos for PRINT ON DEMAND continued to get better the more we worked together. But as an amateur and flying solo, tackling 12 tracks under a given time frame and with no previous experience of doing this before, I felt as though I’d gone slightly mental!
I fell behind schedule numerous times, caught up again but then dropped it. I realised that both the pressure of a time frame AND the fact George and Jack were now having such a positive impact on the tunes was conflicting my ethos.
I wanted to just get this album done. Prove that I could have 12 songs written and recorded ready to promote. But as we began rehearsals it was clear these tracks deserve more, a prime example being ‘live drums’, rather than the midi I’ve been programming. I was already planning on recording live guitars with the advice of my good friend Vinnie who is an awesome guitar player so has great advice. So why not make everything real!?
I’m also still very keen to see my musical journey in achievements, it is after all NOT a competition with anyone else, only with myself, can I be better tomorrow than I was yesterday etc. I guess that’s a big drive for me. But that’s also why I’ve conceded into letting the guys join me in this part of the process not just joining me on stage. I want things to grow and get so much better, uniting really does do that.
I really like to run before I can walk, it may seem crazy at times, but I think that forward motion and ‘deep end’ stuff really does push humans into forging something special.
Whilst we forge this second album into the rough diamond it deserves to be, please join us in the live arena and come see what this current phase is all about, we promise to get your blood pumping and to have you singing along!
Here’s to good friends!
Arron
Grab your copy of album No.1, ‘PRINT ON DEMAND’ produced by the incredible talent that is PAUL TIPLER – RIGHT HERE!