Douaumont

1. Do you sing, play an instrument or instruments? Guitar, Piano, I used to try my hand on singing, but I myself didn't think it was a big success - so I quit singing in all, and only sing in the confinement of my own home. My timing voicewise is correct, I have no trouble keeping a melody and tempo, but my voice just doesn't have a nice sound. Piano when I was 7, Guitar when I was 21 Did you teach yourself? Piano: no, Guitar yes 2. Are you in a band or bands? Throughout the 80's I was in several bands, but quit performing as I became too busy with my work. A couple of years ago, I started to be active in music again (with help of the computer) and this year I held for the first time in 15 years a guitar in my hand again - it's like riding a bicycle: once you've learned it, you never forget. I was actually amazed how smooth and easy it was after all this time and after a few times practicing, I was back at my old level - inclusing that "rock and roll skin" on your fingertops Piano I only do on occasions, don't have a piano due to space issues and in public I will not play before I regularily have practised. Now I have three projects on the running - there is this rockband that has asked me to play with them as a guitarist, due to my 1980's experiences as a musician, there is Douaumont, the instrumental Moby/Massive Attack clone and there is this new project which will basically Douaumont plus singer which is intended to hit the charts What is the name of the band? Old bands: too many names to mention, mostly ridiculous names as I've played in Garagebands, Punkbands, New Wave bands and the like. New band: no name yet - it's only brand new Douaumont New project with singer: perhaps Douaumont or some new name. What do you play? Guitar in the new band, electronica and composing all the music for the other two. What other instruments are in the band? Band: drums, bass, singer, perhaps Vox/Farfisa organ Do you have a band website? No. 3. Do you write songs? Mainly the music nowadays, some lyrics as well. In the old days I wrote complete songs, music and lyrics, but nowadays I want to focus on music alone and the lyrics should be the task of the singer. But that's just my opinion; if the singer really can't write lyrics, I will write them too, although I don't really like it. Do you have a writing partner? nah, I am way too stubborn to co-operate when it comes to composing or writing lyrics. 4. Do you record your music? Do you use a home studio? If so what gear do you use? I just use software to achieve this. Sequencers, filters, vst plugins and the like Do you use a recording studio? Once, a long, long time ago... Do you have music available on the web? if so where? Yes - YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, BandCamp, SoundCloud, LastFM and I think I've forgotten a few as well 5. What other roles do you perform in the music business? None Management? Label owner? Publishing? Promotion? Other? I am a manager in daily life - but I could not manage my own stuff; don't know, it's just sth that I never liked to do. 6. Are you a tech head? If by tech head you mean sb who's savvy with computers, programming and stuff, then yes. 7. What country do you live in? Ireland, but I am Dutch (hey heck, we're all EU anyway ) 8. What are your ambitions? To have a bigger Top-40 hit than I already had so far (#39 for one week, nearly 5 years ago) 9. Do you draw/paint/write stories/computer art/dance or other creative pursuit? I used to write novels and short stories without much success if that's what you mean. What are your pastimes? Making music (again!), go to the pub with friends, reading, keeping up with my field of expertise. 10. What would you like to get out of Songstuff? I would like to find a singer for this new project that I am working on to get me in the hitparade Preferrably in Ireland, for practical reasons. Also I would like to enhance my lyric skills a bit. Cheers, John