#4- Adapting the Set – Why audience matters as much as skill

The catalogue has ever grown from many experiences catering to different demographics which I will go into detail about in this post.

Festivals

• Murder Mystery Rave
• Mini Glasto Fest

A real power couple – Ryan & Angharad – along with a small team to assist managed to pull off some amazing festivals in Swansea – Murder Mystery Rave and Mini Glasto Fest. During which time Angharad was heavily pregnant and still being an absolute powerhouse. The festival entertainment included artistic and dj’ing workshops. They had live spray-painted murals and a talented fire performer. The indoor area had drum and bass music playing. So, we had to adapt the set list to fit the tastes of the audiences preferred sound.

The songs that went down particularly well were Jamie T – Sheila, Arctic Monkeys – Mardy Bum and A Certain Romance, Amy Winehouse – Back to Black and White Stripes – Seven Nation Army. Tate played a set of solo songs and had most success with Fred Again, Jack Johnson and Chase & Status. We played some duet songs and I played some solo songs and it was a good mix of playing covers as well as originals. The travel was difficult but luckily we had a close friend, Jesbin who joined for the Mini Glasto Fest, and managed to get some footage I will drop in below. For the Murder Mystery Rave we had a group of friends join us for the event, and the support is so appreciated. My body was suffering a lot for both of these events but we managed to make it through, and I got by with a little help from my friends 🎵

Special Events

• Birthday in Weston
• Birthday in Bristol
• Wedding in Hereford
• Birthday at Volleyball Centre in Victoria Park
• Childs birthday

We had fun at several special events over the past couple of years in various locations such as Weston-Super-Mare, Bristol, Hereford, Cheltenham and Cardiff. We had to adapt the sets to fit the demographics present at the events and enjoyed learning lots of different songs from different genres. For one, we added songs like The Killers – Mr Brightside, which was a good one to keep in the street performing set as its always one that pulls in a crowd. At this particular event, the partner of the birthday boy arranged a surprise party for him. So, she let us know what music he was into and we focused on those artists and other similar artists. So the catalogue of songs grew even bigger and now encompasses lots of indie 1990-2000’s tunes which are handy to have in the bank.

For another birthday, we were requested by the birthday boy himself to learn some beautiful songs that I had never heard before, so we had a challenge learning the songs compared to when we already know them, but they were so enjoyable to listen to we managed to pull it off. The birthday boy actually cried when we played one of the songs, so I know it meant a lot to him and I’m so glad we were able to touch him with our performance.

For the wedding, a list of 10 new songs were requested, alongside some of the songs on our standard set list. They were all classics that we know bar a few but many were in an uncomfortable key for our vocals so this was a challenge, but was good to expand our vocal range.

We also performed at a child’s birthday, which required more adaptions to the set list, with many hours spent listening to Disney tunes with such nostalgia and joy. Singing these musical type songs is particularly pleasurable as it focuses more on big notes sang through chest voice and almost feels like its massaging the diaphragm. So these songs are so fun to perform and the kids present at the party all enjoyed the songs we performed on the day. We included The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, The Jungle Book, Frozen, Aladdin and Moana and also sang some popular pop songs.

Corporate Events

• Welsh Volleyball Open Event
• Volleyball Tournament at Victoria Park
• Bute Park Networking Event

We have performed at a couple of corporate events, including the Welsh Volleyball Open at The Volleyball Beach Centre in Victoria Park. This was such a fun event and we have built a good relationship with the head of the centre. He also uses the same camera that I invested in coincidently, so he’s been a huge help with progression of my pursuits. Carl, the owner, does work for the BBC providing footage for BBC Wales sport, so during this particular event, it was requested that we just play our original songs, to avoid copyright infringement if it was to be picked up in the audio that went live. Luckily between the two of us we had around 30 original songs fully ready to play at this stage.

We also performed again for another volleyball tournament and was one of the first performances we did where we included the looping pedal outdoors, and had some new songs to perform on loop, and it went really well. There was loads of engagement and everyone had such kind words about the performance.

We also performed at a networking event in Bute Park where there was a meet and mingle set up for different entrepreneurs based in many different sectors. This was a hard event to know what music would be suitable to play in the background as we assumed we would be more ‘background music’ rather than the sole focus. We ended up choosing the stripped back acoustic, light hearted songs as we felt this would allow everyone at the event to focus on conversations between those they aimed to network with. This was an enjoyable event, sunny day and didn’t require much travel which was an extra win 😊

Charity Gigs

• Online Cancer Awareness Event
• Bawso Light a Candle Event
• Ukranian Independence Event

We’ve participated in a few Charity Gigs for truly deserving causes, and this requires a sensitive approach to the songs played as they needed to be appropriate to the situation.

For one, we were performing within a group that a friend of mine created to celebrate the Band ‘Sticky Fingers’. A band that helped me through a lot of trauma, and one that I hold dear in my heart, I was touched to be included into the admin space for the page. The creator of the page, Dave, was a brilliant man who brought many people together. He had such a passion for bands like Sticky Fingers and DMA’s and especially loved to bring those fans alike together. Unfortunately Dave had a long and difficult battle with cancer, but he still had so much life to give right up until the day he passed. He asked the admins of the group if they would carry on the legacy of the page, and so we continued to host events on there that raised money for the Cancer Clinics that gave him a great deal of care during his struggles. He wanted to include birthdays celebrations for the page so we did lots of live streamed performances including many Sticky Fingers songs, A DMA’s song and some originals that had a Sticky Fingers vibe. This was fun and we now have a huge set of Sticky Tracks we can perform. When Dave passed his friends and family came together to create a Dave Day with me and the other admins on the Sticky Fingers page, we also performed live to the group on Dave Day, and it was lovely to see so many group members posting their art and covers into the group to celebrate Daves commitment to the group of 53k + members that had brought so many joy.

I took part in the Light a Candle Event hosted by Bawso Charity which was a candlelight walk to stand up against the domestic violence of women. It was hosted at Llandaff Cathedral and included various speakers. This was a difficult one to decide on songs to perform as it is such a sensitive subject. Luckily, I had songs already in the bank and decided to sing Freedom by Anthony Hamilton and Elayna Boyton, and People Help the People by Birdy. And even though I have been very used to playing my solo stuff, it was the first performance I had done in a long time where I wasn’t accompanied by anyone. It was also my first early morning performance, and my vocals usually struggle more at this time. I also shot myself in the foot as I accidently practiced without a capo and realise the night before that it was meant to be on capo 1… oops… so I felt ropey when starting off. Despite that, it still went well and I had many people come up to me to express how touched they were by the performance. 

We also played again at the Volleyball Beach Centre for a Ukrainian Independence Event, which included lots of speakers, poets, artists, dancers, pianists and singers as well as Ukrainian food and crafts. The song mentioned above, Freedom, also was very fitting for this event, it has such power, and I remember I used to listen to it every day when I was mentally preparing myself to leave a toxic situation, so when I perform it, I can feel the power rushing through my veins. We also performed some originals, one of them was my song called ‘Make Peace with the Fight’, which was my closest fitting original song to fit the event.

Curating the set list based on the audience

Cheltenham Raceweek

Curating the set for Raceweek in Cheltenham was fun as we got to learn loads of classics that were originally performed by Irish musicians such as The Cranberries, Thin Lizzy, U2, Van Morrison, The Pogues, Hozier, The Script. The song Zombie by the cranberries must have been request at least 5 times an hour, and oddly, Kate Nash – Foundations was requested quite a lot which was not what I expected (even though she’s obviously amazing and that songs an absolute banger). We decided to laminate an A3 catalogue of all the songs we can play so that party goers could just request what they wanted. I find it really interesting learning what songs make certain demographics tick.

We also created laminated graphics with our stage name and barcodes which helped to build a following, but unfortunately I have rebranded since, and took a big time off socials so some of this following may be lost in the algorithms.

Rugby

When street performing around Rugby days in Cardiff, we have tried to include the types of songs that people love to chant, like Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes, This it the Life by Amy MacDonald and Chelsea Dagger by The Fratellis.

The Eras Tour

For the Eras Tour we learnt a vast catalogue of Taylor Swift tunes and those of her supporting acts, like Holly Humberstone, Shania Twain and Sabrina Carpenter, so much so that I now have a pink folder dedicated to their songs called ‘Taylor and Friends’. The challenge of learning so many Taylor Swift songs made me appreciate her and her music in ways that I never did before. Her music is well thought through and she has lots of techniques that I’ve tried to incorporate into my own style. Her music has adapted a lot over the years and kudos to her for her drive and success. Holly Humberstone was a love of mine before I caught the new found respect for Taylor Swift, and I’m so glad she was invited to perform on the eras tour, that artist deserves it. I’ve enjoyed Sabrina Carpenters tongue in cheek tunes, and I love the artists she works with to create her songs, like Amy Allen. They really do tune the songs to play the fine strings of the music industry very successfully. Anyway Taylor Swift sings in a very different natural key to me, so learning her catalogue took a lot of persistence and sounding like a screaming cat quite often, but we eventually go there and it has been so good for stretching my vocal range. At the time whenever I swam I would hold my breath for as long as she does in songs that are particularly stingy on breaths to help me train my body to relax when it panics for air. Anyway we missed every date we had planned to perform near the Eras tour because my health just would not permit it at all. So this was a shame but it was a valuable experience all the same as we have gained a fair few followers from performing Taylor Swift.

London

Performing in London was very difficult, my aunt and uncle helped so much when we forgot various pieces of essential equipment. We had some touching moments, one in particular when I performed Freedom again but overall, this was a very painful and exhausting experience and didn’t seem worth it. The audience was very reserved, and it felt very awkward. The silver lining is that it taught us to keep a smile on our faces even when we are not getting a reciprocal reception😊

Charlton King’s Social Club

We also performed at the Charlton Kings Social Club which was probably one of my favourite performances yet. We were booked last minute as a fill in for the  act that cancelled, and so we had to rush to get there, which I was very impressed with myself for as this is a huge challenge for me. We took all our songs books and created a perfect set on the way. We decided to go for 50’s-80’s music to fit the tastes of the crowd likely to be in the audience. When we arrived there was a full room with all clapping and cheering for us. We had never had a reception so welcoming, it was such a joyous moment. I played my solos, Tate played his solos and then we played our duets and added in a few original songs at the end. It was the first performance my mum has seen I did the competition she entered me for, as she was unable to make a lot of gigs due to ill health. It was so lovely to be able to see her loving the music. We had a good reaction and some good feedback on what else we could learn to suit the tastes of people in the audience, which we’ve taken on board and learn some more of these styles song since, learning songs from artists like Jackie Wilson, Thurston Harris and Elvis.

Special Thanks

Shout outs to everyone who’s tagged along on adventures, I have been so blessed to know such amazing people that have encouraged and supported my journey even from the days when I could only play a handful of songs. To all the times they have helped me carry equipment, have provided me power to play, provided travel, cheer, singing, dance and emotional support, and especially for the many that have stood out in the rain for hours in the cold to watch us perform in the street. Extra points for those that sent in footage of clips you gathered during our performances, without you this blog would be boring asf…😂

Stay tuned for my next post which will start to dip its toes into the improved performances, filmed on a better camera than my samsung potato phone (as Tate Note likes to call it). So expect better quality shots and sound quality, easier for the ears and eyes 😂. Are you ready for the good stuff? Lets get this party started 🥳🥳🥳 (on my next blog post)…

Wishing you all Peace, Peachy Bums, Pride, Puppies, Pandas and All Things Perfect,

Emzy Music xxx