Dear God, choosing a microphone is hard work. How in the hell are you supposed to decide what is the best for you from just reading the ‘specs’ on the microphone? There is WAY too much choice for us amateur recording artists!

Well anyway, after a lot of research, there were two major influences on my choice of microphone.

1) In a guitar center in Chicago, Illinois, a technician briefly mentioned that my voice would need an extremely bright microphone in order to get the best sound I could. This was due to the fact that my voice has a hell of a lot of ‘low-end’ or bass ie. it’s deep. I am a third bass singer in terms of a choir, and so need the clarity on the high-end.

2) The Rode NT1000, then was introduced to me by Gary O’Briain, a studio engineer who recorded my father, jack’s record. It turned out very well, and he mentioned, again, in passing, that the NT1000, is ‘even brighter that the NT1A’, which, in turn is brighter than the NT1, which I already had, and wasn’t happy with it in terms of its high-end.

So you will be seeing the NT1000 in my rig for the next little while, until I have the money to upgrade to a much higher class mic (if it’s even necessary). I will let you know how it goes for me! Rock on brothers and sisters!

So I got called last on Wednesday by Mark Murray, manager of pop band Keywest. Mark asked me would I be interested in doing a support slot to Keywest. Now, I have known keywest for quite a while and have joined them on the streets of Galway to busk. They are a great band and each member of the band is extremely competent in what they are playing. They play a mix of pop/rock music (mostly for the ladies ) and have quite a mainstream image.

The lead singer Andy has a voice likened to Enrique Inglesias (correct spelling? I could always check Google, but really, who cares) and they are very much a mainstream act. In this way, I felt like I didn’t really suit the bill at first, and that what I would play might go against the theme of the night. However, I reconsidered and took the opportunity, as I get on very well with the lads and also thought it would be an impressive gig to play at, as well as providing valuable experience in gigging with Aidan O’Dea (Drummer), and Cian Duffy (Bassist). I got the lads together, along with temporary keyboard player Eamonn Dillon and we got a setlist together.

We had only the two days to practice, so unsurprisingly, I didn’t get much sleep the first night, and the second night, (due to a trip to the gym earlier in the week), I was forced to take pain killers to help me sleep. And that, they did. The painkillers actually had an ingredient in them to ‘aid restful sleep’, and so I was knocked out for the night. However, the following morning, on the day of the gig, Jamie wakes up to the after effects of damn sleeping pills. Groggy, half asleep, tired muscles… feeling pretty miserable, and to top it all off, nervous as hell.

I had done much bigger and higher pressure gigs in the past, but I hadn’t done them for years, and so the nerves got to me. I was also worried as it was the first day I was going to play with Aidan, and he didn’t know any of my originals. Wheeewww….

So anyway, struggling through the day, surviving on pure adrenaline, I managed to teach Aidan the pieces I wanted in the songs, and we went ahead with the gig. The idea of playing gigs for a living was particularly strengthened at this gig. The lads in Keywest were in great form and seemed to love the buzz of being on the road. The gig went down very well, although there were several inevitable mistakes. The drums lost the groove a couple of times, the arrangements of the songs became much different to what they had been in practice, backing vocals sang a few notes very much off key, bass lines were lost in the mix, and I didn’t once hear my own guitar parts, so I can only assume they were far from perfect.

But apart from the struggles, it was great to be out gigging again on a proper stage to get the feel of it. With that in mind, my focus for the next two years will narrow down to developing a high quality studio in my house to record music and videos, writing songs each week, and developing my own repetoire, guitar playing ability, and developing my vocal range and sound. So for now, my blog is gonna be filled with non-gig related material to let you know what I have been up to. The only gigs I will be doing to get myself ‘out there’ are the ones that come to me.