I finally get round to engraving a bunch of promo bottle opener keyrings
SUN’S SHINING! I’ll get some tidying up done outside before Auntie Glo comes tomorrow (Wednesday).
First, though, I need to do some more promo for Thursday’s show at the Glad Cafe in Glasgow. Tickets sales have picked up over the last week but I wanna have the place full.
Next job is packing some of the Kickstarter reward stragglers…folks whose mailing addresses I need to chase up.
I find a jiffy bag full of bottle opener keyrings that I’ve been meaning to engrave for ages. I tried one when they arrived and it didn’t work very well – today I try some different settings and get a decent result. I make up a jig and manage to get a load of them done in just ten minutes. Good to have them for the merch table at Thursday’show.
Finally I get outside and do some work edging the front garden flowerbeds and tidying things up.
Then it’s onto the back and fixing the fence behind the office and filling part of a crater created by a fallen tree on the other side of the fence.
We need to put some weed barrier on the top, then a load of chuckles but meantime it’s sorted enough to get the log splitter out from under the smoker shelter and back where it came from.
There’s also a big old cross-trainer under the smoker shelter. It’s covered in birds shirt and been there since I took it out the studio!
I ordered a cover on Amazon who’s arrived today so I clean the thing up, move it round behind the bar area and cover it. Job done..just in time for one of guitar students to rock up with his mum.
Margaret gets home from having her hair done in Edinburgh and runs me up the lochside to drop off a Kickstarter CD to Ivor and Izzi.
USUAL early Monday start to get my sourdough in the oven…and Margaret’s off to get the car MoT’d and pick up some shopping.
I have an online guitar lesson mid-morning then do some more work on a flyer for the local community hydro society.
Next, some more promo for Thursday’s show a the Glad Cafe in Glasgow.
It’s another stinkin’ day outside so I don’t get any fo the garden stuff sorted. Instead, some more rehearsals for Thursday before my afternoon guitar student arrives with her mum.
It’s rubbish weather so I hit the studio and run through some of the songs I’m planning to put in my set for Thursday’s show.
I’d a couple of things needing done for the community hydro society which takes a little longer (as ever) than I expect.
There’s been a lot of feedback on the social posts about my logo evolution – I add them all up and scan through the comments. It’s a close thing and if I take into account some of the suggestions and implement them it looks like I’m close to making a decision.
An enjoyable morning at Balfron primary school’s summer fayre 🙂
NO LONG lie today – need to sort stuff and pack the car for the West Highland Way Gifts’ table at Balfron Primary School’s summer fayre.
It doesn’t start ‘til 11am but be need to get there by 10am or soon after to get set up.
There’s a good buzz about the place and we have an enjoyable few hours until the event closes at 3pm.
Back home we make a quick video to punt round my socials and promote Thursday’s (12 June) show at The Glad Cafe in Glasgow.
I get it edited up and ready to circulate tomorrow (Sunday) then we do a little more work on the front garden flowerbed pulling out some huge rocks so we can properly bury the (now fixed) electricity to the studio.
RELEASE day for Hellbound Train – the second single from my forthcoming (November) album Still Friends.
There’s more Kickstarter rewards to be packaged up, including some with additional items – I offered overseas folks the chance to add stuff postage free.
In the studio I get the camera, gimbal, microphones and stuff ready to shoot a quick promo video for both the single and Thursday’s show at the Glad Cafe.
By the time everything’s set up, though, it’s pouring rain so I head back to the office.
I get through the stuff to be sent out today and we jump in the car. We’re off to Meatopia – a big BBQ event – in Glasgow and stop off at a post office en route.
We have a great few hours at SWG3 for Meatopia…lots of great grub, demos, music and more. Plus we hook up with the Hang Fire BBQ girls Sam and Shauna…we’ve been online pals for ages, so it’s great to meet them. And sample their amazing beef cheek and ox tongue tacos 🙂
STRAIGHT into the office to continue packing the Kickstarter rewards packed packages.
It’s pretty much an all-day job and other than a few backer’s whose addresses I’m still waiting on, I get all the packages finished and postage printed.
There’s just enough time to get them to the post office in Balloch. Margaret drives and drops me just past Kilmaronock so I can get a walk home.
Betty comes for dinner and I fire up some charcoal for the grill and our marinaded flank steak….
I HAVE an early Zoom session with a guitar student then we dash into Glasgow. I have a last-minute appointment at the eye hospital for an overdue check up.
Margaret drops me off at 10.30am and goes to drop off a bunch of Kickstarter rewards until packages at the post office and pick up some shopping.
It’s nearly midday by the time I’m done and we’re on the way home.
I grab a guitar and stuff I need for a session at the school in Balloch and head off for a couple hour with the kids. On the way home I pick up a couple bags of sand to seat the flower bed edging.
There’s time to get some more Kickstarter rewards packed up before my 6pm guitar student arrives.
Later on we venture outside for pizza…I made another batch of Roman/thin-crust dough the other day – and a good three or four years since we got the Ooni, Margaret preps and cooks her first pizza. And it’s great 🙂
Logo evolution – existing (A), rough (B) and my final idea (C)
AN early Zoom guitar session with one of my students before I get stuck into the daily emails and socials.
I’m distracted by a need to finalise my idea for a logo revamp and decide how and when to start phasing it in.
Backdrops, existing merch, socials and all other branding instances need to be identified and planned. Ooofft.
In the office I pack another batch of Kickstarter rewards until I run out of vinyl mailers. They should have been here before now…and I’m also running short of boxes for the pledge pins.
Fulfilling the rewards is probably the most laborious part of the Kickstarter project…even more so than selling the campaign and producing the album!
With Hellbound Train dropping on the streaming services on Friday I need to give the folks on my mail list a chance to get it early via Bandcamp. Members of my Wildcats’ Facebook group got the link yesterday.
The mental heath nurse calls from our local surgery bang on time …we chat through my ‘issues’ and meds and both positively agree there’s no immediate change required in anything.
Next job is submitting the next single – Walk the Walk – to my aggregator (digital distributor). Not a huge task, but tricky to get things right, especially as we’re adopting the ‘waterfall strategy’…timing is of the essence.
I also start the edit of the official video for the track. Wanna get all my ducks in a row on this one.
Finally I get out for walk..or at least the beginning of one before a rainstorm sees me scuttling back home….
We rescue a struggling bee with a little sweetened water…
I’M UP early to get the sourdough in the oven then back to bed with a coffee while it bakes.
Our pal David rocks up early to check out the problem with the power feed to the studio.
After much deliberation we find that I have indeed damaged the armoured cable while trying to dig some edging for the wee flowerbeds in our front garden. Done so much damage, in fact, that it’s a muscle I didn’t electrocute myself!
While we’re outside Margaret spots a bee in trouble. We manage to revive it with a little sweetened water.
The electricity‘s fixed in time for my first online guitar student of the day. I thought I was gonna have to revert to the iPad.
After lunch Margaret’s drives me round to drop off some more Kickstarter rewards and I walk home form the village.
I’m back in time for my afternoon guitar student and her mum arriving.
AFTER a bit of a long lie we have breakfast and I get busy.
There’s no power in the studio – the fuse in the house that controls the power to the studio has tripped again.
Definitely something amiss somewhere. I reset it, go back to the studio and a few minutes later it trips again.
I get video premiers set up on Facebook and YouTube for Friday’s release of Hellbound Train and most way through the way through a vertical edit when the power goes off again.
I call Margaret in the house and get her to reset, but it trips another couple of times , throws out some sparks and we decide to leave it off!
Hopefully our pal David will be able to come tomorrow (Monday) morning and check it out.
With the studio out of action I hit the office and. Start sorting the Kickstarter reward orders. A big job.
After spending a while working out how to organize the ‘backer survey’ results in a spreadsheet I email the folks that haven’t replied to the survey. I need their addresses to send stuff out.
I mange to get some of the reward packages parceled up and postage printed for pickup tomorrow (Monday) then make some wild garlic pasta…
