A good friend got me back into singing when we were joking around coming up with random funny lyrics and making passers by laugh. Once he noted how good my voice was we jammed together alot and came up with some cool songs. But then my world changed when he taught me the guitar… it was mind opening for me. Probably one of the most difficult and frustrating things I’ve ever tried to learn, but also so worth it. It’s like you can see the progress and the motor memory working at peak when you try again the next day. Like no other experience I’ve ever had trying to learn something.
When I wasn’t hiding from toxicity in relationships by taking to0 many painkillers, I managed to squeeze out some absolute gems for lyrics. I guess the suffering brought out my inner poet. This was the start of how I began to vent my feelings, and once I was able to play at least 6 guitar chords, it took this to another level. When I play, I feel almost possessed, possessed by my inner feelings being unleashed. And it’s embarrassing to see it on my face when I look back at footage, but I guess that’s just soul baby 😉
Buffalo & The Vulcan
Tate Note was the blessing that pushed me into the deep end of performing again when I totally wasn’t ready. He took me to play at open mic nights and made sure I was equipped to deal my health in the best way possible to ensure I was able to perform. He then encouraged me to perform at some of the venues he was booked at, such as Buffalo and The Vulcan so I was able to gain more experience. He then hosted some events for artists wanting to perform their original songs, and it was fun and super productive to be able to work on building our originals and performing them live. Tate Note is just the perfect cherry on top of my original songs, always adding more depth and some sophisticated, smooth and intricate leads. Tate has been operating his own music business and has allowed my plenty of experience to now start think about making my own career in the music industry, and due to his can-do approach to everything, which absolves my worry regarding juggling health problems whilst trying to build a career. If in the event of ill health before or during performances, he’s would alway have it covered.
“Life is For the Living”
Langston Hughes
The Heath
This venue provided us a lot of freedom to play whatever our hearts desired, so it was nice to be able to play some lesser-known favourite covers and originals and pull out some of our songs built up on the looping pedal. We were welcomed to perform here by various owners over the years.
One one occasion playing at The Heath Hotel, Tate decided to host an ‘originals’ event. Some amazing artists turned up to perform their originals such as Rhi’n’B, Ro Wan, Lava Delta, Local Rainbow, Lloydy, Luke and the Lazy Machine, Thomas Hodges, Corinne, Martin Jones. Some of whom, I made personal promo pieces for to play on the display behind them, which I have included below as I never actually got a chance to show them off on the day 😂
Balley Ballerson
Playing at Balley Ballerson was difficult. Tate Note was landed with a residency, but needed to perform 3 hours’ worth of chart pop hits from the past decade, back to back with no break. Many of the songs they were suggesting were ones he was not used to and so asked me if I could help to learn some of the required songs. It was a lot to take on and a lot of new songs to learn within weeks, and by the time of the performance, I was so run down and exhausted, and my throat and tonsils were so inflamed. So, I was kicking myself after the first performance. During the second performance I managed to pull out the stops on some absolute bangers, but towards the end, my painkillers kicked in too much and my playing was quite sloppy. The crowd who gathered during our performances at this venue all seemed to have a great time, and complimented our music, so I had mixed feelings about the experience.
It was only as I had my first taste of street performing, that I realised the true golden value of my experience at Balley Ballerson. It was so handy having books full of popular pop songs we had learnt. Before this experience I was a bit of a snub to the modern day pop music, but learning the songs actually made me appreciate their musical value, and how clever most of these songs that I overlooked, truly are ( don’t even get me started on Britney Spears – Toxic, that masterpeice will take up at least a whole blog post… or two!)
So despite whenever we practiced for the Balley Ballerson gig, seeing Tate Note looking like his soul was leaving his body because of the pure cringe of looping ridiculous sound effects whenever we practiced Cha Cha Slide by DJ Caspa, Hey Ya by Outcast and Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars, it was all fully worth it in the end. We learnt so much, appreciated so much, and will continue to carry all those teachings like a walking jukebox duo.
Street performing is hard work fending off all the drunk people who all claim to be professional singers wanting a crack at performing. At first we were maybe too kind, because sadly, we learnt the hard way from damaged equipment and damaged ear drums, that not every drunk person should be trusted for face value. Overall though, street performing can be invigoration and great for gaining confidence. And when it’s so late that everyone’s wasted, it’s a perfect opportunity to practice particularly tricky songs that haven’t been performed live yet, as nobody notices a thing if anything goes wrong!
Since you have made it this far, I hope you’ve enjoyed the read. In the future, I plan to come back to this post with mini show reels of the footage captured at each venue mentioned in this entry, As there is loads more footage for me to go through!
For now I will leave you with a slideshow of photos took during these performances 😊
Performing at Vulcan 
Performing at The Heath 
Performing at Balley Ballerson 
Performing at Balley Ballerson 
Performing at the Heath 
Performing at the Heath 
Performing at the Heath 
Street Performing 
Performing at the Vulcan 
Street Performing 
Looping at the Heath 
Performing at Balley 
Performing at the Heath 
Performing at the Vulcan 
Performing at the Heath 
Performing at the Heath 
Performing at the Vulcan
An extra special thank you to everyone who took the time to engage with our performances and for all those that sent across footage you got of us playing. It is always so appreciated!
Wish you all Peace, Patience, Pride, Puppies, Pandas and all things Perfect,
Emzy Music xxxx
-P.S. This blogging stuff and wearing my thoughts on my sleeve kinda makes me feel like Lizzy Maguire. Pretty epic really.