CD duplication

Posted on February 22, 2012 by admin

I thought I’d post a write up on the interesting process that is CD duplication. It’s quite exciting from a personal point of view, as it’s the final stages of recording and the culmination of a lot of studio hours and hard work.

The term for mass manufacturing CDs is known as CD duplication, the technical term for the production, if the quantity is above 500 CDs is, CD Replication. In this process an item-known as a glass-master is made, which is used to ‘press’ the final CDs in an injection moulding type process.

The CD packaging is the other big consideration I had to make; the choice made here will affect what the package looks like, as well as the costs of making. There is a wide choice, first to decide between plastic or card packaging, and decide what type, be it CD wallets, CD digiPaks, CD jewel cases etc. But ultimately don’t forget that when you select CD duplication, it’s the music that matters.

SM.

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New EP preview…

Posted on September 27, 2011 by admin

My new EP ‘My Father’ will be available to purchase this coming Friday the 30th of September.  More details to follow.  I hope to use the EP to fund a new album.  I have written, recorded, and produced the EP myself in my loft studio.  My good friend and brother in Christ Dave Mitchell has mastered the tracks.  Please enjoy the two track preview below:

My Father

Jesus is Lord

 

Blessings in Christ Jesus,

SM.

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Keswick ROCKS!! (Part 1)

Posted on August 5, 2011 by admin

Just a wee note as its late, and I plan to write, in depth, about my first visit to the Keswick Convention.  I feel incredibly blessed to have been here and taken part.  My family spent the week here with me which is the icing on the cake for sure!  I am inspired, revived, determined, excited, and eager to see what happens next.  This might not make a lot of sense to anyone who didn’t catch the amazing sermon tonight at the main meeting, but I put on my Worship Cloak tonight, and I’m set to get down to some proper hard graft for the Big Man!  Bring it!

SM.

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Clan 2011

Posted on July 26, 2011 by admin

Had the wonderful privilege of being involved at CLAN gathering 2011.  This was my 2nd visit to CLAN.  The first was in 2006 whilst a resident at the Bethany Christian Centre; the homeless hostel where I started rebuilding my life.  It was an incredible experience the first time round.  I got to hear some great teachers from around the world talk about Jesus, God, and various aspects of Christian life.  My band and I arrived early evening to prepare for our concert.  I was also able to enjoy a time of worship during the evening session.  During one of the songs, which I don’t know too well, I was struck by one specific line of the song which, for some reason, was in brackets: (Alive in me). You know, when I pondered on how far I’d come, or what had happen in the last five years between my two CLAN visits, I got very emotional and couldn’t sing any more of the song.  It wasn’t because I didn’t want to, I just couldn’t get passed that one line.  I realised that I my abundant life during the past 5 years was because Christ is alive in me.  There is no doubt in my mind that I would not be the man I am today if Christ wasn’t in my life. It was a great start to a wonderful evening.

We were scheduled to play at the after hours event.  Due to a breakdown in communication from all parties, there were no monitors in our tent.  It wasn’t really an issue, but after a wee workaround we got upgraded to the Atrium tent which was a big-top with a massive rig…. AWESOME!!!  There was a good turnout and the gig went really well.  I think we went well passed our allotted time slot but it didn’t seem to bother anyone.  We played a couple of new tracks, Light beams & Emmanuel, which went down great. The night ended with our rendition of Chris Tomlin’s rewrite of Amazing grace.  We were blown away by the response of worship!  The audience and we worshiped our socks off before finishing with Hallelujah.  I made the mistake of having a very nice cup of coffee at the end which kept me up a good while.

Today I had the great privilege of leading worship at the Youth tent.  I must admit I was quite nervous because, although I had led worship before, I hadn’t led at this kind of event with a house worship band.  I chopped and changed my song selection right up to the hour before.  I know some of the guys in the band, Gus Stirrat and Brian Macleod, and they are both awesome and competent musicians.  They gave me advice on the little things I was unsure of, and the rest of the band were just as gifted, helpful, and hospitable during the rehearsal.  I did throw in some upbeat ‘Ho-down’ songs for the end, which is a bit more my style as apposed to tradition worship, and they went down really well with the band.

We did our first section of worship which was just awesome!  There must have been 150 kids in attendance but I got lost within the songs in my own worship.  After a great word from the youth pastor on living after God’s own heart like David, we cut straight into the upbeat Ho-down tracks.  Well, the place went mental!  We were asked to sing amazing grace again, then asked to sing more!  People of all ages were turning up and celebrating in the praise.  Grown-ups and teenagers alike were jumping, dancing, kneeling, running around, completely free in worship in a way I had never been witness to.  We worshiped till nearly 9pm.  I was singing at the after hours tonight too which started at 9:30pm!!  I got to give my testimony and share some of my own music with the same group of kids.  They were so cool and listened.  What a privilege.

My 2nd CLAN experience has been truly wonderful.  I have been so blessed.  Humbled doesn’t even cut it.  To know God has brought me from the man I was 5 years ago to what I had the sheer joy of taking part in today and yesterday is humbling beyond measure.  I got to sing about Jesus last night with my best friends and brothers in Christ last night.  I lost myself in worship tonight with brothers and sisters, many who I have never met, in a way I have never experienced.  CLAN 2011 is already one of the special and treasured moments of my life.

SM.

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OK OK…. OK! Just no more takeaway please!!

Posted on July 3, 2011 by admin

So I’ll admit I’ve been a bit reluctant to write my blog in a while.  It’s a mixture of being too busy and laziness.  Shame on me!  Well I’m gonna make more of an effort.

It’s been an interesting week for sure.  Had some time off at the beginning of the week and chose to relax and spend some time with my family.  Managed to record a demo of a new song which I’m really chuffed with.  With the help of some friends I’m starting to get the hang of mixing too.  Thursday night I played at Craighalbert church near Croy.  Was treated to lovely Chinese food before hand.  The evening went well and it was great to see some familiar faces.  Had a nice chat on the drive home with Craighalbert’s Pastor John Dick.

Friday was my son James’ last day at primary school.  We went golfing in the afternoon and treated him to a Chinese takeaway for dinner. He left for camp Scout camp Saturday morning so made good use of the time together.

Saturday it was on the train to Rochdale.  The weather was hot and, despite being put on the wrong train to Blackburn, I made it to Rochdale where I met Pastor Wayne Hudson.  I was invited to play and share at an outreach day, including lots of fun activities and a BBQ, by Branches Fellowship church in Rochdale.  The event went really well, met some really nice folk from the church and the estate, and had Indian takeaway for dinner. It was gooooood eatin!

I was up early bells Sunday morning to catch the train from Bolton to Edinburgh, met my wife and baby daughter and went for a picnic (M&S) before jumping on a train to Aberdeen shortly after.  Arrived in Aberdeen at 17:20 as I was playing at an outreach event at Deeside Christian fellowship.  It was another good evening.  The weather was just glorious!

Finished the evening off with some local ice cream (they must have been speaking to my wife), great fellowship, some prayer, and a train journey home the following morning.  Looking forward to some mince & tatties!

SM.

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God is moving!

Posted on October 5, 2010 by Steph

Today I had the great privilege of sharing my testimony and music at the Living Oasis book shop , formally Wesley Owen, in Manchester. It was the first, of hopefully many, events held in the basement which has been transformed into a mini venue complete with comfortable sofas, chairs, giant pillows, stage, and lights.

I was asked if I would like to come and share by a man called Colin Ruddock who is the director of 1nC Promotions (One In Christ). I met him at the first Gospel Rock gig in August which was also in Manchester.

When I first met Colin he spoke at Gospel Rock about an event 1nC Productions was hosting at The Living Room; a popular venue in Manchester frequented by footballers and celebrities. The aim of the night was to showcase Christian music artists as well as showing the Non-Christian community that alcohol is not a necessity when socializing. Colin’s vision was to have an alcohol free event. The Living Room manager was against this as the club needed to make money through selling alcoholic drinks. To cut a long story short, it would appear that on the day of the event the venue had some refurbishment issues and were not allowed to sell alcohol on the premises due to health and safety regulations. What a revelation!!

I got really excited listening to Colin speak about the event and I could see his vision. As a recovering alcoholic, and the numerous alcohol free evenings I have enjoyed,
I really wanted to support the event but was due back in Edinburgh for my own gig the next day. I spoke to Colin after the the Gospel Rock event and told him how much I supported what he was doing. The very least I could do for the event was ask people, via Facebook, to pray for a successful evening.

Colin informed me that the evening was great and absolutely jam packed. I can’t take any credit as I am sure God wanted it to be a great success. The fact he answered prayer testifies to this.

Getting back to the Living Oasis gig today, I got to meet and hear other Christian performers in music and poetry. Their God given talent was absolutely first class! There was also a great crowd at the event. There was also worship spread out through the event which was fantastic. Colin’s vision is to see Christians coming together to meet with God regardless of denomination. It was wonderful to be a part of that, to meet brothers and sisters in Christ that I had never met before, but to recognize that we are family in and through Him. It was a wonderful experience. I was deeply blessed by the speakers, poets, and other musical performances. I couldn’t think of a better way to spend my time.

This brings me to the point of this blog. Last night our church had the monthly Soul Cafe event. Soul Cafe is a monthly held at my church, Abbeyhill Baptist in Edinburgh, where people can come together and enjoy fellowship and a time of praise and worship with our Worship Team. If I’m being honest I would have to acknowledge that Soul Cafe numbers have dwindled but we do recognize that we have a core attendance. There have been recent meetings with Soul Cafe members, my Pastor, and Worship leaders, as they want to see Soul Cafe grow and bless others in Edinburgh as it has blessed us.

Last night a close friend couldn’t have put it any better when he said, “I don’t know about you, but there isn’t much that the world has to offer me at the weekend. I want to be here with brothers and sisters in Christ. I want to be here in the presence of God. I want to be filled with His spirit. I want to be here with my family doing what I love the most; praising God!” This struck me to the core. My good friend was right! There is no other place I want to be other than with my family in Christ worshiping the Lord my God! My friend continued to reveal what had been right there in front of us that we had failed to see.

“There are over 200 churches in Edinburgh and I doubt many of them will be hosting a similar event on a Friday night. Think of all the Christians sitting in their house watching the TV when they could be here worshiping with us. We need to reach out and tell our brothers and sisters that they can come here after a long week and be revived and refreshed.” I don’t quote my friend word for word but you get the idea. We are taking steps to reach out to our brothers and sisters. We aim to come together as a body and worship and to testify to God’s goodness. We believe that through this we will see God move in a mighty way, take the good news of Jesus into our communities, and it is then we will see a mighty revival happen before our eyes.

Revival was a topic of point today. Indeed, on a number of occasions different speakers spoke proactively about God moving in Manchester, which they would see renamed Godchester. They spoke of the mighty revivals in the past including the Western Isles, Wales, and Ireland.

My family are from the Isle of Lewis. It was great to hear how passionate these speakers were when they retold the tales of revival on there. People on Lewis were waking up in the night with such a conviction of SIN that they got up, got dressed, and then proceeded to take themselves to the police station to confess. The police officers didn’t know what to do with the crowd of people that had gathered in the night so they called the church minister. Amazing.

I am very excited at the moment. I can feel it in my bones that God is about to do something enormous and at a scale that it can only be of God!

The last thing I’d like to share is about prayer. I saw a man today called James speak about prayer. He said a couple of things which quite literally left me feeling inspired.

No man is greater than his prayer life:

This was incredible! I suddenly felt very very small. How often do I put my own life before my prayer? How many times has God answered my prayers when I am in need and yet I still fail to do it as regularly as I should? Why is it that the little things in my life take precedence over my time with God? Why do I constantly forget to recognize that through prayer God and I can be closer in every way? I do not exaggerate when I tell you that my prayer life is now at the top of my priorities!

Prayer is always visible to God even when invisible to others:

I might not have worded that correctly, but I will try and explain. The most common times of prayer, for myself, are either with my family, meetings, at church, gigs, etc. I will admit that I pray more with other people than I do on my own. While all this is great, I can’t help but feel how much I would benefit from more 1 on 1 time with God, on my own, speaking right from the heart. This is also now on my list of priorities.

Though today was a face paced day of travel over the border and back, I really was blessed. I should be arriving back in Glasgow in about an hour and then home to my family. Tomorrow I will be in Glasgow for a night of praise with Origin Scotland. I’ve never played the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow. I’m getting to sing a couple of my songs. Really looking forward to it.

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11 gigs in 2 weeks…Phew!!

Posted on August 22, 2010 by Steph

It’s been a long 2 weeks.  The first of the 2 was very lonely as my family left me home alone to visit Granny Macleod on the Isle of Lewis.  I had lots to do to keep me out of trouble.  Wednesday to Saturday, both this week and last, I played at Charlotte Chapel in the centre of Edinburgh.  It was a great privilege to be a part of the Fringe and even more so that I got to tell people about Christ and the impact He has had on my life.  It’s a real blessing to be able to do this through music.  There was lots of different people coming in and out of the venue.  The Youth at Charlotte Chapel gave up their time and came every night to hand out flyers and speak to people.  It was so encouraging to see.

I also played at Bellevue Chapel last Saturday.  Bellevue Chapel has lost a family member as the Pastor’s wife had recently passed away.  Her vision was to open the church doors to the community as well as reaching out and meeting the community’s needs.  That particular night saw the church doors open at 10:30pm and I sang and told my story until midnight.  There was some great interest from people coming home from the bars and pubs.  I spoke with the Pastor afterwards and he was very kind and encouraging.  It broke my heart to see how much he missed his wife.  It was, however, great to know that we were seeing her vision come to light.  Again, it was a great privilege.

There was also a gig this evening at Danderhall; a village just on the cuff of Edinburgh.  It was a nice, quiet, and intimate gig.  Met some really nice people.  It is such a joy to tell people about Jesus!   I don’t consider myself a preacher or an evangelist.  I can only tell people what’s true in my life.  Christ is very real to me!  I couldn’t imagine life without Him!

Last night I got to lead worship, amongst some other activities, at our friend’s 25th Wedding Anniversary.  It was a fantastic evening of celebration.  The incredible thing about this family is that, although they have only been Christians for 4 years, you would never know they were so young in their walk because they are completely devoted to the Lord in every aspect of their lives.  Mum, Dad, and 2 kids are all such beautiful inspirations!  What a great thing it is to know that God saved my life and that I have brothers and sisters in Christ!  It is simply amazing:  Amazing Grace!

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When hard times fall

Posted on August 3, 2010 by Steph

Hard times do fall.  It is usually in such times of sorrow that I actually stumble across something completely humbling and reviving.  Sometimes it is of a large nature that has taken the test of time to reveal itself.  Other times it is a passing thought or a whisper on my heart.  Rest assured that, no matter how big or how small, these instances of hope are they are all great!

Today yielded much sorrow.  It took a little gesture of love from a good friend, who incidentally does not share my faith in Christ but understands how much it means to me, to remind me that I stand upon the rock in the name of the Lord!  That the Lord is my light and salvation.  That I need not be fearful.  For my God is with me.  For my God is real.

Thanks mate.

[pro-player width='530' height='253' type='video']http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJq11taAJgY&feature=player_embedded[/pro-player]

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Ill Health

Posted on July 31, 2010 by Steph

I have been hit hard this last week with a nasty virus.  It was a reminder that, although I feel on top of things at the best of times, I still suffer from mental health issues.  As a recovering alcoholic I understand that a successful recovery has no end.  Recovery is constant and has no cure other than abstinence.   Before I quit ‘drinking’ I was diagnosed with Major Depression, or severe clinical depression, which was most likely caused by my excessive  alcohol and drug abuse when I was younger.  Alcohol and drugs are themselves depressants.

When I arrived at the Bethany Christian Centre, the rehab that got me back on my feet, the antidepressants I had been prescribed started to work.  I had previously just drank while taking the meds.  I did feel on top of the world!  When I started enjoying life it was very hard to say no to anything.  I had come so close to losing my life that I lapped up any and every opportunity that came my way.  It wasn’t long before I realised that I had limits, and if I pushed myself passed these limits I got very very ill.

I didn’t have the mental strength to cope with exhaustion the same way I did when I was younger.  My depression plummeted and I needed some real time to relax, recover, and re-energise.  I had to cut everything in half that I was involved in.  In the years from then to now I have come to realise that I do need to recover from times of stress and heavy work or gigs.  Tis no biggy, and my family are very supportive.

When I got struck down this week by a particularly nasty virus my depression fell through the floor.  I had a bad fever over 2 nights which made my dreams very vivid.  I dreamt I was drinking again and had relapsed.  Earlier in the day I had a bottle of J20 which I understood is only fruit juice.  I was so convinced that I had been drinking that I scoured the internet to find proof that J20 was alcoholic, much to the distress of my wife as I was having a bit of a manic phase.

I still have nightmares when I sleep.  Not all the time but I do have them, and they are all about relapsing, drinking, and the psychological damage I know it could cause if it were a reality.  I was very scared because the dreams were so real.  I also felt very shaken up and started to get very paranoid about my health.  My wife was a great help.  She knows what I get like when I’m down.

So it would appear that I still get very mentally unstable when I’m ill.  The last week was not nice.  I’ll have to work harder at staying well and healthy me thinks.  I’m on the mend.  Happy thoughts!!

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Hard Graft

Posted on July 6, 2010 by Steph

Time has flown by the past month since my time in Berlin.  I had a great time in Germany, and are supporting the German football team in the World Cup.  They are doing very very well.  That’s all I’ll say about the footie.

Things have gotten really busy and the gigs have come and gone, as well as some charity work, and the official album launch.  I have been really blessed and encouraged by the support from all my mates. friends, and people who enjoy my music and ministry.

As well as all the concerts in the last few weeks I have been traveling down to sunny Newcastle to record songs with my manager Mick and his good mate, and top sound engineer, Dave.  We began with recording a few new tracks, Wait to fly, Fighting talk, and rerecorded some of my old material.

My manager Mick has had some past success in the music industry and has been giving me a few pointers.  We both agree that the majority of my music is longer than the average song on the radio.  There are also other aspects of radio friendly songs that I have been learning; song structure, melody, hooks, chorus, middle 8 etc.  It’s all been a fascinating learning curve.  While I know and understand how much of the mainstream song structure is tailored to a specific criteria, I didn’t want to restrict myself and not give it a bash.  While I’ll never write (I hope) cheesy crappy catchy pop songs, I’d like to think that I had a good go at writing radio friendly songs.  I still want the lyrics to be good, I still want the music to be good, and I still want to enjoy writing and singing my songs.

We rerecorded Man in the cold, Rattle, Alone in the dark, 2112, Alcoholic Synonymous, and two versions of Grace.  We have also recorded a version of Mary Mary‘s Shackles.  Things are really starting to sound great.  It’s taken a wee while but the recording is really coming together.  I was a bit unsure how the cover of Shackles would turn out.  It’s a cracking song and the original version is brilliant.  I had to sing it in B minor which is a long way off the original’s G minor as I had a touch of difficulty with the range.  It turned out not too bad with an acoustic guitar part and vocals.  I added 3 backing vocal parts so the chorus sounds like a gospel barbershop quartet.  I also slowed down the tempo so it’s really old school Gospel.

So as our first stint of recording will be coming to a close this Thursday we have LOADS of new projects lined up.  I am writing music for a worship album.  It is NOT easy!  In fact its really difficult.  Not only is it hard to write about something that has been done so many times already, writing for a congregation is very different to anything I’ve done previously.

While I love to worship God in song my songs are not as cheerful as your average Christian track.  I have been heavily influenced by Blues, folk, jazz, americana, trip hop, Jimi Hendrix, and a whole load of Led Zepplin.   If I’m honest I find being a disciplined Christian very difficult and times can be tough.  I’m trying to get this across in my music whilst looking at very real things.  An example would be the song I am writing about the crucifixion.  While I know that Christ died for me, for my SIN, and everyone elses too, he was beaten, severely tortured, and executed.  Forgive me if I’m wrong but none of these things sound very ‘Happy Clappy’ to me.  The resurrection on the other hand is a time for limitless celebration!  I have only written a verse and chorus to the crucifixion song.  It took me 2 days.  It took me another 2 days of hard work to realise that I had to leave the song for the time being.  Nothing else I wrote worked or had the same power.  I did play what I had written for a friend, who isn’t a Christian, and it moved him to tears.  When I explained my frustrations he said, “You have to be patient.  Yo have to earn a song like that.”  It was exactly what I needed to hear.  So I’m still waiting to take it up again, and while I wait I am writing other songs and really searching within myself and asking God to lead me.

As well as the album of worship music I have decided to record an album of my favorite worship songs/hymns like Power in the blood.  I have led songs like this in my church and elsewhere.  They have so much depth and power in their lyrics, grammar, and language; something I find modern worship music (not all) can lack.  I’m looking through some old old hymn books, which is so much fun and really nourishing, finding inspiration, and other songs to record.

So times have been busy.  I think we’re just about to get busier.

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