Sam Burgess Music

[samburgesspom]

High Grade (cover)

After Copenhagen, I received several requests to perform as SAMUELLOUIS by various other students putting on events and it became clear that I would need some new material that I would be confident to perform.

Due to other more significant work around the time, I did not have any fresh material to perform on the night of the Copenhagen/Malmö Album Launch gig on the 21st of March, but I woke up in the morning listening to Gentlemen’s Dub Club’s High Grade and I realised that given that it was in my range and something I would enjoy performing I decided to spend that afternoon creating a rendition of it from scratch on Logic with the intention to later perform that, filling the verses with various miscellaneous lyrics I have written in the past to add my own artistic flair to the track.

Below is the backing track I created -

https://soundcloud.com/samuellouis/high-grade-bt/s-2ABFQ

The performance was received really well. I had many people from the audience approach me and suggest that I definitely continue to use this track in my future sets. I took on this feedback and later performed it at the GTB festival on the 29th of March. We live streamed this on Facebook below - 

https://www.facebook.com/samuellouisofficial/videos/454794991929673/

Here is also a brief clip of the original performance on the 21st which I posted to Instagram -

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Samuel Louis (@samuellouisofficial) on Mar 22, 2019 at 10:13am PDT

[samburgesspom]

Copenhagen Downtown Hostel Gig

On the 12th of February I performed in the Downtown Hostel in Copenhagen on the trip with the university. This was a great opportunity for me as this was only really my 3rd gig performing as SAMUELLOUIS and it gave me the chance to gain a larger following both amongst my peers within the university and also locals and people staying at the hostel, offering a large scope for exposure geographically.

The performance was received well, I was happy with the performance although I also learned several traits to improve upon such as how I portray myself and perform on stage. This was aided by the fact that my manager filmed a brief clip of the performance which I could reflect upon below - 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Samuel Louis (@samuellouisofficial) on Feb 19, 2019 at 2:31am PST

The criticism I received from my manager was particularly helpful for my performance development as she suggested that the set order should have been done in reverse in the way that it could have built in intensity and power instead of declining. I took this into account, also nothing the act that followed me which was a similar hip hop vibe. I noticed that this artist managed to engage the audience much more and I realised that the beats were produced to cater much more for a live performance. Since then I have set about creating instrumental backing tracks that use much more sub, 808′s and just generally carry much more of a pulse that can be felt by the audience as I feel it is a fundamental factor in crowd engagement particularly when its just myself performing with a backing track. 

[samburgesspom]

Live Project - Premise

What do you want to do?

I want to display my ability to perform both as an individual demonstrating my ability to hold an audiences attention and as a band to demonstrate my understanding of working collaboratively with other artists effectively.

Why do you want to do it?

I want to prove to the examiners, my peers and myself that I can create a performance that is visually engaging and would encourage an audience to seek my recorded content to include in their regular playlists.

I see this as a good opportunity to give exposure to both myself as an individual artist and also my band, and will hopefully leave university on a positive note, feeling enthusiastic about pursuing a career in performance on my future ventures.

How will you steal the show?

With SAMUELLOUIS I intend to ‘steal the show’ by creating an intense, passionate performance, demonstrating my ability to rap and possibly sing. This is also an opportunity to present my production skills, and I will potentially try to integrate the backing tracks into a more performance based composition using Ableton and some hardware such as an SPD. 

With Indigo Haze, ‘stealing the show’ will rely on all of us as musicians ensuring that we provide an above and beyond performance by being tight, well-rehearsed, and visually engaging. 

Who will you work with?

SAMUELLOUIS - Solo set (Potentially Toby Catt as session guitar)

Indigo Haze - Band set (Matt Yapp, Will Davis, Tom Bentley)

[samburgesspom]

Major Project Log - Christmas Track Release: Analytics

Spotify -

Unfortunately having not completed the track until the end of December and Spotify then not releasing the track until the delayed date of the 13th (Spotify has counted streams for the 12th but I assume that is not on GMT), meant that there were only 12 days to promote the track in anticipation for Christmas, so I didn’t have high expectations for the response. I will explain later in my future plans what I plan to apply to for next Christmas and what I would have implemented into last years promotions if I had the time to do so. 

The peak of streams were the 12th-15th and then a sudden spike on the 18th of December. Looking at the dates of my promotions, it suggests that they had no real impact on an increase of traction to the song, as this initial surge could just be put down to the initial hype of the release. They could however be responsible for the fact that the attention for the track more or less sustained up until Christmas. In these 12 days I managed to gain 11 followers and that has remained since the 25th. 

Facebook -

The promotions over Facebook did relatively well, again not as much as I would have liked or anticipated although I gained nearly 20 followers in the space of the month. The release of the Christmas track certainly gave me material to upload on a regular basis and create a more engaging platform and there was a constant response, with several likes and shares per post. It proved that posts with images and videos are certainly more engaging, the most difficult thing is to get people to then engage with the links which I’m still yet to work out how to increase the rate of this! 

I wanted to boost at least one post and I decided that probably the best one to give the greatest exposure would be one with a visual aid and a clear direct link to the Spotify track. On the 19th when I released the video that featured the chorus of the track I boosted it spending £13 on promotion. Unfortunately, Facebook offered me £5 free to claim on the post and when I clicked it it somehow just charged me another £13 for a separate boost so all together it came to £26 however I decided not to chase this up as I thought it would be worth giving it as much exposure as possible. 

I carefully considered what I felt the right demographic would be to target, and after some discussion myself and my manager thought that given the nature of the song and the comparisons it had been made to in initial responses, the ideal target market would be older women between 30 and 65. From this I then set the locations of the promotion to gain local exposure (Cheltenham, Gloucester, Swindon) and places I felt were good ‘hubs’ of new music (Birmingham, Bristol) excluding London as I felt it was too large and might just waste much of the reach.

After the two simultaneous 7 day promotions, the post had collectively reached 6556 people, with 2737 views and 43 reactions. With 663 minutes viewed and 3000 minimum ten second views, there were 144 post clicks, with 8 of these being a click to the link. All things considered, it is a disappointment that looking through all of these statistics, the promotions only generated 8 link clicks.

I’m not educated enough on the marketing of these social media platforms to know whether this is to be considered a success or failure given the scope. However either way I would have hoped it would have performed slightly better and I put it down to a couple of potential reasons on which in future I could improve. Firstly the time constraints made it extremely difficult to promote the song to the extent that I would have liked to and I think it was a major factor in the lack of success in the promotion. Secondly, perhaps I got the target market completely wrong. According to the Spotify statistics, the main demographic for streams where ages 18-22 but I assumed that this is because that perfectly fits my social circles and therefore the people most likely to engage with the track, but the demographic I aimed for clearly did not engage and would need further research to find a better demographic for the track.

Plans for the future:

The advantage of releasing a Christmas single is that effectively it is timeless and can potentially only gain more and more exposure each year as long as I put the work in to promote it. This year (2019) I plan to get a music video filmed early on, it will bring something fresh to the track and also has a much higher chance of engagement than the tracks audio alone. Halfway through the year I plan to send it everywhere I can; BBC Introducing, every playlist and promoter I can find that might aid in the exposure of the track, and hopefully Christmas 2019 will be the year that it gets the exposure that I’m aiming for. The dream would be for it to feature on a Christmas advertisement, something like the John Lewis advert would be amazing and definitely what I would be aiming for. 

[samburgesspom]

Major Project Log - Christmas Track Release: Promotions

After winning the competition to release the track under the university’s ‘BOXED Records’ who released the track under the distribution company CD Baby, I began the promotion by releasing a post on the 5th of December displaying the album artwork and a teaser message for the upcoming distribution on multiple major platforms. 

Myself and a photography student made this artwork, taking a close-up shot of my hands holding loose copper change. We put a black and white filter over the top and then brought the natural colour of the coins back to highlight the change inspired by the way Spielberg uses colour in Schindlers List to emphasise a point of interest.  

Two days later on the 7th of December BOXED Records released a quote which I gave them in conversation earlier in the day. I wasn’t entirely happy with the rephrasing of the quote as I may have worded it differently, but given the time constraints and pressure at the time, the whole release had to be done in a very short time span as Christmas was looming and we had to make do with what we could achieve.

Also on the 7th my manager had created a short preview for the track which used the bridge of the track, which we used to again anticipate the release of the track in the next coming days.

The 9th of December was the intended release date of the track, we had submitted the track to the distribution company several days before with the understanding that this would be the multiple platform release date. Unfortunately the only thing that it became available on this date was the companies own website where it was available to purchase. Because of this BOXED Records made a post explaining the complications.  

It wasn’t until the 13th that the track became available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Amazon Music, Tidal, Google Play and Shazam. On this date I released a post announcing that the track was available on streaming platforms, additionally including the orange scannable code which takes you directly to the track. Alongside this I released an Instagram and Snapchat where I screen recorded myself using Shazam to identify my song playing and following the link to Spotify. 

With the knowledge that I could only attempt to generate hype for this track up until the 25th realistically, on the 19th December I released another post for the track. This time releasing a video which teased the chorus of the track, again with some of the available platforms and a direct link to the track on Spotify.

On the 25th of December, Christmas day I released a thank you message and Christmas wishes, again promoting the track with yet another link to the Spotify track. 

[samburgesspom]

Major Project Log - Christmas Gig (13/12/18)

For this gig I could only perform the Christmas song so I set out to make it the best performance I possibly could.

With only a week to arrange session musicians and rehearsals I managed to find performers to accompany with piano, guitar, double bass, violin, trombone and drums. Unfortunately I could not get them all together in the strict time frame before the gig so I had a couple rehearsals with a few of the musicians but pretty much went in blindly as we had not all rehearsed together.

Despite this, the performance went great. The response was amazing and luckily I had talented session musicians that were able to pick it up no trouble and it turned out to just be a very successful rendition/jam of the Christmas track

[samburgesspom]

Major Project Log - Christmas Track: “It’s Christmas Time, It’s All Fine”

I began the process of writing this song by researching past Christmas songs to try and identify some distinct timbre that would be vital in the composition. It became apparent that some in particular such as sleigh bells, tubular bells and brass instruments would be vital in the instrumentation of a conventional Christmas song. From this I began jotting down an initial idea for a composition. Taking inspiration from the ‘cuteness’ of Christmas songs such as Lily Allens version of Somewhere Only We Know (As made famous by the 2013 John Lewis Christmas advert), I focussed on using sustained strings, and soft percussion such as glockenspiel and xylophone synthesised sounds. Other inspirations include Badly Drawn Boy’s Donna and Blitzen and The Pogues Fairytale Of New York for a more ‘melancholic’ Christmas song approach. Completely opinionated but Donna and Blitzen in particular always somehow brings me to tears right from the beginning and this feeling really resonated with me and this emotional expressiveness was something I knew I wanted to implement in my song. 

— https://soundcloud.com/samuellouis/christmas-track-demo/s-KLj76 — 

As I mentioned, I wanted to create a Christmas song that was more touching and sentimental than celebratory, I feel that there is enough of those and doesn’t really have the impact that heart-felt seasonal songs convey. On my way to University to begin writing the first draft (above), I found my lyrical inspiration in seeing several homeless people along the way looking cold and alone on a particularly freezing day, and it really made me think about the concept of ‘giving’ at Christmas and how many people (myself and family included) really only tend to focus our intent of ‘giving’ to our family and friends, and how redirecting this wealth around the season would impact the lives of the less fortunate so much more beneficially. 

In my opinion, Christmas has become a completely consumerist-driven holiday, with advertisement in all media, even in the celebratory songs I mentioned earlier feeding a gluttonous western society. In a modern day society, it seems that the ‘Band Aid’ approach of awareness at Christmas is in short supply and seemed like a perfect opportunity and vital time to write a song that brings pressing matters around the season back into light. After all, given the cold weather and exclusion from this consumer-based demographic at Christmas, it is probably one of the worst times of the year for people outside of society. 

I began working on variations of the lyrics and melody for the chorus. I wanted something that would, something that would summarise the message of the song and be ‘catchy’ enough that it stays in peoples heads. I settled on these lyrics:

Lonely and cold,

I’m alone in this world,

I just need someone to hold me,

and say I’m not the only one,

like this at Christmas time,

walking past like you’re all blind,

I’m alive and I’m breathing,

but my life has no meaning.

I thought that writing from the first-person perspective would have much more impact than an a third-person observation. I feel that it is the general position of most people in society unfortunately to try and avoid the issue, to avoid eye contact and even in cases to purposefully ignore homeless people in the street. Obviously this is not everyone, it’s just an observation of many instances I have seen since living in the middle of a town centre for the last few years. However I thought that this chorus might capture the thoughts and feelings of a homeless person and to put it into a perspective that really speaks to people and hopefully recognises them as human beings and individuals who each have a story, which led me to writing the rest of the lyrics.

Originally I wanted to tell a very specific story about a homeless person who had fallen down a dark path in their adolescence in rebellion to a loving and sheltered childhood, ie.

I was a baby boy in my mothers arms,

always sang a song to try and keep me calm,

don’t worry, don’t stress, your mother she knows best.

When I was 17 I didn’t want the love,

I had the drink and drugs, the tools to self-destruct,

don’t worry, don’t stress, just take a hit of this.

Inspired by reflecting a lot about my upbringing, I’ve come from a family where I’ve been privileged to have been always supported by unconditional love from my family, and at a period in my teenage years, bitterly rejecting it and going down my own dark path which I felt to an extent I can relate to some degree how easily things can slip and descend into something irreversible. I’m fortunate enough to have perpetual support that I am now so grateful for but I wanted to convey the message that less fortunate people should not be judged for their circumstances and everybody has their own story and reasons for their situation. 

Considering the broad context and time constraints of a conventional Christmas/pop song I felt it would be better to expand the message to a more general nature as the song progressed ie.

Just remember the people struggling in December,

to get to bed at night, to get to bed at night.

Cold and alone, doing what it takes, whatever,

to make sure you survive, to make sure you survive.

As I stated earlier, I recorded the whole track using synthesised instruments in Logic Pro X, then recording the vocals on top of this. When asking various people for criticism of the first draft of the full track, they suggested that only the expression of live instruments could match the passion that I was trying to convey with the lyrics and message. From this feedback I set about sourcing some live instruments in the strict time constraint I had, (I had a week before I had to submit the track to the competition I had been writing it for) by desperately emailing any other students I could find that would play suitable instruments for the track. Fortunately I managed to find performers to play trombone, trumpet, violin and viola which I managed to arrange recording sessions (in my bedroom with a microphone and my laptop) one at a time over the course of the week. I then managed to get a studio booking the day before to record double bass on top of this. I found that this hugely improved the timbre and dynamic of the piece, and after several mixes later after an up all night session night of caffeine and hearing fatigue I eventually had the final mix. I then took this to the mastering room the next day and experimented with some higher quality plug-ins including a master tape recorder plug in which really complimented the overall dynamic of the piece.

My favourite part of the piece was the finishing touch at 4:10, where a young girl says “All I want for Christmas, in the whole wide world, is for everyone to be as happy as me”. Inspired by Declan Mckenna’s spoken word outro in Brazil which is based on a YouTube video where a kid is playing Call Of Duty. Seemingly nonsensical and unrelated to the song, it’s a nice touch to the end of the track nonetheless and I thought that a child talking about what they wanted for Christmas would finish the song off perfectly. I wanted to link this back to the idea of consumerism at Christmas and have the child contrast the expectation of what they would want at Christmas ie. presents, material items etc., with something that showed that displayed a greater understanding of altruism and the ‘true’ meaning of Christmas. I managed to record this on a voice memo on my phone recording my housemates younger sister through FaceTime performing the line.

Listen to the track on Spotify here -

https://open.spotify.com/track/7kRb0MRIGGx7MNJUfDrgRb?si=HJcAB59vQ_GRvqVPy8XZ6w

[samburgesspom]

Major Project Log -  Photoshoot 2 (November)

After taking note from the mood board I created after the first photoshoot, I went to a vintage fair and bought some clothes more suitable to the new image I was trying to convey.

[samburgesspom]

Major Project Log - Smokey Joes Gig (08/10/18)

Being able to watch clips of this performance back I have learned a great deal in what I want to improve in my performance.

On stage I felt that it went great, I performed the first two songs solo with a backing track, and then the last two with Toby alongside performing guitar and vocals over the backing track.

The crowd response was very positive and overall for a first performance I feel it went fairly well, however in retrospect I cannot overlook the fact that the title of this particular song (above) is a perfect fit for the major flaw in the performance. I think I channel too much aggression into my performance and it prohibits my voice control and ability to keep up with the flow of the rhythm.

If there's one thing I take from this performance to improve on, it will be to calm down and not project so much, after all I have a microphone, I don’t need to yell every syllable. The performance would do better with a bit more dynamic range anyway.

I also feel that performing to a backing track makes it quite limiting as to how entertaining I can make the performance, clutching at straws with a tambourine to try and add something a little bit more engaging.

My next step will be to learn to use Ableton and find a way to perform my tracks live using software such as that for an overall more engaging performance

[samburgesspom]

Major Project Log: Mmxviii Gig Promo & Preparation

As this was my first gig, understanding that this would be my first opportunity to create an impression on a live audience I wanted to ensure that a combination of both new listeners and followers of my social media pages ie. peers would be present. I made sure to plan promotion accordingly by posting a casual video of myself and my housemate performing one of my tracks Retweet in a farcical manner on 30th September (9 days until gig).

The video was taken as a selfie using my iPhone to add to the nonchalant style of the visual. It followed myself and my housemate walking through our flat performing the track, whilst engaging in various irrelevant activities such as taking washing out the tumble dryer and getting a baking tray out of the oven. I wanted to both be able to introduce this track for its artistic merit but also with the character and personality to be engaging and entertaining.

With the video titled on Facebook as “Hello MTV, welcome to my crib”, the aim was to create the illusion of being constantly active and engaged with our music in our household with the hope that it would create some sense of comical value, I would much rather be perceived as easy-going and not taking myself too seriously, as the image I portray in stills in my opinion displays a very pretentious, arrogant look and I would therefore aim to contrast this with my enthusiasm and light-heartedness in performance.  

This video ended up doing really well, with a very fast engagement and response. In less than a week the video had hit 1.2k views on Facebook with 36 likes and 20 shares without any paid promotion, which I considered a success given that page only has 148 likes, limiting the organic scope.

On the 7th October, the day before the gig I posted another piece of promotional art. I created this by simply blowing e-cig vapour over my bedroom floor and heavily editing the image to bring out a vintage tone in the colours.

I feel like both these promotional pieces were crucial to my preparation for this gig and potentially beneficial to the audience turnout on the night.

[samburgesspom]

Major Project Log - Moodboard

I’ve created a mood board styles and fashion that I feel would reflect my artist sound and image. I like the items which are smart and well-kept and how they contrast with the loose-fitted, oversized ‘grungier’ clothes. I would like to incorporate both these styles together for my artist image, juxtaposing the neat with the disheveled as I feel it defines the character of my style and music.

[samburgesspom]

Major Project Log - Photoshoot 1 (25/10/18)

[samburgesspom]

Major Project Log - Proposal

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What, Who, How?

What is the purpose of my project? -

To document the process of my development as an artist from anonymity to however far I manage to achieve. 

I want to take everything into account, trialing different styles of music, my image etc with the aim to have gained a greater sense of my musical identity by the end of the project, therefore having a clear, defined audience.

Who is my demographic? -

Hard to gauge at this stage as I am ‘testing the waters’ of my genre/sound.

Facebook statistics would suggest that my promotion should be focussed on the current demographic of an 18/24 year old predominantly male audience.

How this will benefit me? -

The beauty of this project is that the development and experience will be hugely beneficial regardless of the outcome.

With an ambiguous end goal - provided I put in the work to achieve everything I set out to do - I will consider +20 likes or +200 likes a success as I am treating every step as a learning curve in the development process of boosting my credibility as an artist

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What I’ve achieved so far?

A Facebook page, Instagram, Soundcloud and YouTube account

A ‘face’ and name that is recognisable across all platforms

Several promotional images and videos for upcoming releases

Lazy Boy music video

A catalogue of about 5 or 6 songs which are fully ready for release on major platforms and performance

I am currently in the process of building a Spotify account with four tracks ready for release

I have begun designing artwork for particular tracks to generate more engagement on streaming platforms and social media through visual aid

Organised relationships with Film and TV students for promo & music videos and a photography student for photoshoots & profile shots

I have recently performed my first gig at Smokey Joes, introducing my sound to a new, local audience 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Key Project Challenges

Sound, Style & Image -

I want to establish an aesthetic that I aim to retain as a consistent theme, to create an image that compliments the style of music and character

I want to continue creating music and using market research gained from the release statistics to develop a greater understanding of the music I really want to make and equally what is received well, ie. what I’m good at

I want to have eventually achieved a sound that I intend to remain consistently throughout my development as an artist so that I can have a fanbase that grows with my progressing sound as opposed to having a multitude of different music from different genres in which only particular songs will grab particular audiences

Social Media & Engagement -

Having yet to establish a fanbase I am relatively unheard of to anyone outside of my social media inner circles 

After 5 months, my first music video Lazy Boy has only generated just over 800 views. 

My Soundcloud has only 6 followers and very little engagement 

I need to invest time and money into promotion, and work out how I can expand my interest and engagement outside of my social circles

Performance -

I want to be able to extend my performance visually by incorporating more live music and less dependence on recorded tracks

I am aiming to solve this by looking into ways I can develop my tracks into a more enticing live performance, perhaps by investing into a loop pedal or similar hardware

This will allow me to build elements of the track through the live performance such as Cajon, SPD and other instruments

[samburgesspom]

Screen and Sound Task 1

(1) Braam Task - https://soundcloud.com/samb03/action-film-1-braam

This first task was an attempt at recreating the ‘Braam’ sound used by Hans Zimmer. I began by making a THX-esque bass synth by using automations to make the gliding filter effect. I then added some tremolo strings to give a suspenseful unease to the character of the track with then the pulse of a stomping percussion and timpani to accompany. The ‘Braam’ then transitions through to the next section comprised of a french horn and trombone with an emphasised snarl using distortion and reverb.

(2) Fingerprint Task - https://soundcloud.com/samb03/braam-task-2-bnce

For this piece I wanted to make more of an atmospheric soundscape of airy synths to contrast the intense instrumentation of the ‘Braam’ task. To accompany the airy synths I wanted something to hold it together but keeping a cool, loose rhythm so I used a swung rhythm. I wanted it to sound reminiscient of an old jazz dancehall I tried to create some ambience using a lot of reverb, muffling it slightly filters and then using the iZotope vinyl plug in to add some age to the sound of the audio. I wanted the ‘fingerprint’ type idea to be very bold and obvious in the sound so I used a marimba and eastern string synths to cut through the muffled, depths sound of the accompaniment. To blend the transitions I used a reversed bounce of a heavily reverberated recording of the ‘fingerprint’ to bring the motif into light in the mix.

[samburgesspom]

Networks & Communities - Project Evaluation

For the performance we wanted to create a demonstration of our concept that would be entertaining, informative and convey our ideas of integrating networking and music using a social media platform.

As we couldn’t realistically develop an app in the given time, we decided to express this creatively with a performance which hypothetically presents the app, using live sound to emulate how the app would generate melodies based on the users information.

If we were to improve on this performance in any way I would suggest that we should have given more time to rehearse just to ensure that the performance was tight and seemed more as one big live performance with consistent music as opposed to the stop/start routine of beginning a new song each time. The initial idea was to have each profile’s song transition smoothly into each other which did work effectively at some points but also lacked the tightness of the band at other times.

Overall I am happy with the final outcome of the project. The development over the module is clear and the final performance went more or less how we would have liked it to. The individual roles in our group were clear and we each carried out an essential part of the performance. This module has taught me a great deal about collaborative work and integrating technology and social media into music. I am glad that the module helped us to develop this concept into a hypothetically working app and I intend to look further into the concept next year to see how it could be developed practically.

[samburgesspom]

Networks & Communities - Process

On Tuesday 29th May we will be performing a demonstration of our developing dating app concept - ‘Harmonious Hookups’.

The concept is that the app user would input their hobbies and interests. Using computer algorithms built within the app, this information would then be generated into a distinctive melody, unique to the user.

The app user would then be able to compare their melodies amongst other potential matches and the app would recommend matches based on your similar interests ie. complimenting melodies.

[samburgesspom]

Networks & Communities - Project Proposal