#chair thrower

[danieldobbsmusic-blog]

Very exciting to see these getting printed! Thank you to anyone who purchased one of these on TeeShout!

[danieldobbsmusic-blog]

Daniel Dobbs, Chair Thrower T-Shirt

Hey, check it out! It's a t-shirt. My next EP Chair Thrower is coming to the internet soon, so what better way to excited about that than getting some t-shirts out to people who want them? Design by Dean Dobbs.T-Shirt design only available on TeeShout!

We’re down to the last 10 hours of this shout for the Chair Thrower tees. We’ve really struggled to reach the target, but it’s still lovely that people want these and have shown their support. There’s still time to get one though, so if you do want one, please buy one within these next 10 hours. The money will be going towards paying off a 5-track EP that I’ve worked very hard on and that is obviously a big help! Daniel

[danieldobbsmusic-blog]

The New Band.

It’s 3:00am, which means it’s time to talk about things going on again.

Now that the studio part of Chair Thrower is done, it’s time to see how we live up to the EP in a live performance! Friday was our first day of rehearsal with the new band, consisting of Tom (Drums), Mike (Bass), Carlos (Guitar) and of course, me. It was an interesting experience for all of us. I managed to transform the cabin into a make shift rehearsal space, or something that could at least fit 4 people comfortably inside. It was hot, it was sweaty and it was exhausting... Despite all this, we have had two successful days of rehearsing a small set, that we are preparing to play at Summer in the City this coming weekend, along with Macmillan Fest in Nottingham in September. This set however, is not the full sound of the band or the EP. Unfortunately due to time and equipment, I’ve had to strip the songs down and make it more acoustic style, but it doesn’t bother me too much... We’re just saving our best tricks for tour (*wink wink nudge nudge plz come*).

Either way, I’ve really enjoyed playing with these guys for the first time and I hope anyone who catches our set enjoys it too. I definitely can’t wait to get back on a stage with a band of my own again. I’m proud of these songs, I’m happy that the musicians involved help make these songs stronger with their performances and I’m happy we get to show them to people. It’s been too long! Daniel

[danieldobbsmusic-blog]

Uuuuu R Naaahht Aloooooone...

MJ reference, but seriously let’s talk about people. Ian and I finished up in the studio and now I’m just waiting on all my amazing friends to record some awesome gang chant/shouty parts before we can finalize the mixes and get it mastered. I think reaching out to people on the internet for these group vocal parts was a pretty smart move for my morale, because I was so taken back with the response. Sure, I expected some of my close friends to volunteer, but I got much more than a few close friends. I guess it’s just nice to not feel so alone during this whole process! Taking the responsibility of a music project on your own can be stressful sometimes, but there’s more to it than the work load. In the past year and half, I have seen both my siblings move out, friends graduate from University and move back home and see people I’ve grown up with get on with their lives. It’s just me and my parents at home now, which in some ways is great, it’s less crazy in the house, but I think it just makes how freakin’ lonely it is here more obvious! I’ve also grown apart from people here and made new friends in other parts of the world that I sadly, don’t get to see often or at all, so feeling lonely and bored is easy. Fortunately, I have a very supportive brother and a group of friends surrounding us that make up for all of that when I get to see/speak to them and the words of support I’ve had for the music I’m making has been overwhelming. People are offering their skills and knowledge to help me make this great and I’ve been taking everything I can on board. At the risk of sounding corny: I may have plastered my name all over these songs and it may seem like a solo project that just revolves around me, but the changes that have been made in the past year and a half make me feel like Daniel Dobbs consists of a lot more than just me and therefore means something to more than just me. Daniel Dobbs as a musical project is almost assembling a crew of creative people, people who are passionate about making things, but also people who are just passionate about creators and want to see them succeed... Which I love! A big thank you to any of my friends who have done something to help since the start of Chair Thrower up until this point. Hopefully when it’s released, things will move forward not only for me, but for everyone else involved. Daniel

[danieldobbsmusic-blog]

I Wanna Throw a Chair Right Now.

Great choice of title. It’s relevant to what I’m doing, it’s punchy and it’s clear.

I’m currently in this awful place of waiting to get back in the studio to finish the EP and I’m not managing to sleep yet, so now’s a great time to just write up what the hell has happened so far and what’s happening.

First off, I can happily say that the EP is so close to getting finished and it’s sounding great, I’m really proud of it, Tom and Mike have been great, Ian’s been amazing, making sure we get the best possible result we can out of every aspect of it. In all honesty with all the constant travelling to London, waking up at 5:00am to get to Kent, working a good 8 to almost 10 hours a day tracking stuff, travelling back to London and back home… I actually feel like I’ve been worked hard. Which is good! I could have chose a much simpler option, but I just don’t feel like I would have got that ‘blood, sweat and tears’ vibe if I did this differently.

Which brings me to the next part. Man I’m stressed! This isn’t a new thing, it’s bound to happen, I don’t need a sympathy card, or a WHSmiths voucher and I don’t need any letters of encouragement, I’m fine. Obviously, there have just been a few set backs and I wasn’t quite prepared for some of them. Tracking the EP has took longer than I anticipated (it’s a bloody tricky set of songs for me!), which is why I’ve booked two more dates. If we can get everything done in these next two dates, I will be so relieved, because I am not in a great financial situation at the moment!

Saying that, the whole process of doing this EP has been so great. I’ve been able to catch up with people, travel a bit, write and perform music, make some new friends and I can finally see Chair Thrower come together. If none of that was at all rewarding, what would even be the point in all of this?

I know that I might show my frustration a lot and I don’t come across as the most optimistic person in the world and well… I’m not! But whatever all of this has been recently, I need it. I’ve felt some awful things for a while and getting back into the swing of this is exactly what I need to not feel awful. What this says to me is that this is important to me and it’s exactly what I should be doing. To hell with dedicating most of my life to a dead end job, Ed Sheeran isn’t the only musician who can sleep on a sofa and most certainly won’t be the last.

Daniel x

[danieldobbsmusic-blog]

Chair Throwers, Assemble!

It won’t be long until I hit the studio up in Kent to record Chair Thrower. Wait, I mean “we”.

For most of this songwriting process, I’ve only really had my own resources to depend on, assembling drums using samples on my computer, writing bass with a keyboard or some beaten up bass guitar and trying to record my guitar work and vocals to the best of my ability just so I can put the arrangements together and hear what my songs are potentially going to sound like. Doing that hasn’t been enough to thrill me though! One of the most rewarding things with writing your own music is hearing it being performed by talented people, such as Carlos, Mike and Tom!

This past month has been great for that. About 3 weeks ago, I headed over to Bristol to see my friend Tom, who I haven’t seen since my 2nd year of university. Since meeting him and seeing him play drums, I’ve wanted him to be in my band, I’m super psyched that we’ll be heading to the studio together to start it all off! Mike is a new face for me, we’ve only really met twice, but he’s sensible, friendly and a great bassist! He came over to The Cabin yesterday to rehearse and learn new parts and it was a funny experience trying to pin all the stuff down right. Carlos is probably one of my greatest of friends. Since meeting him, we’ve jammed, we’ve wrote, we’ve drank, we’ve argued and we’ve traveled around like pack mules together. He’s also a freakin’ gifted guitar player and he needs to realize it... Even if he is the only band member not to be recording on the EP... Listen I’ve got a short amount of time and I know all the damn parts. He’ll be joining me onstage soon enough, as will the rest of them, I hope! These guys and their skills are gonna make my EP sound incredible inside and outside of a studio. Just under a week to go! Daniel

[danieldobbsmusic-blog]

Everything’s Freakin’ Changing.

First off, I’ve had to make a new Tumblr account after being locked out of my old one for so long. From now on, any blog posts about my music and such will be on this blog, so to hell with that old one, this is the real deal. It’s 00:21am and I’m struggling to sleep! I’m a strange mix of excited and terrified, because it is now technically Friday 29th May and today is my last day working at my “proper job”. It turns out that as convenient as it was having some source of income to fund music things, working a job and trying to be a creative person professionally just doesn’t work, at least not for me. I made this decision on my way to Liverpool to meet two talented people play some songs, I was trying to book dates in the studio to record my Chair Thrower EP and I realized with everything that I’ve got planned for this year that the “proper job” is holding me back more than I thought! After conversations with friends over the Liverpool weekend and a long train journey of going over it in my head, I’ve decided to save what money I can and take the plunge. So come 2:00pm today, I will be completely freelance. The plan is to find as much work as I can with the skills that I have, record my new EP, show it to the world and hopefully tour at the end of year. I’ll be talking more about that stuff in the near future. Goodnight and thanks for reading. Daniel x