Live in the APPLE STORE - City showcase / Gigs / Festivals

Lots coming up on the gigging front, all listed below. Really looking forward to playing in the flagship apple store on regents street - come watch - City Showcase is the 7th, 8th and 9th of May this year. Many thanks for having me back it was ace last year :) It's a big festival of fashion and music for London...

www.CityShowcase.co.uk

We've also been asked to play a Cool festival in Holland with the full band - CONINCX POP FESTIVAL!!! Sounds amazing... Road trip, most of our band have never been to Holland before. I've told them it's just like the movies:

GIG LIST - Come see us:

29 Mar 2009 20:00	BBC Raw Talent Introducing - In session in the North - Full Band!!!	Hull, Northeast
19 Apr 2009 10:00	Recording	Hamburg, Hamburg
20 Apr 2009 10:00	Berlin	Berlin, Berlin
21 Apr 2009 10:00	Berlin	Berlin, Berlin
21 Apr 2009 10:00	Berlin	Berlin, Berlin
7 May 2009 12:00	City Showcase - APPLE STORE - REGENTS STREET!!!	London, South
8 May 2009 12:00	City Showcase - APPLE STORE - REGENTS STREET!!!	London, South
8 May 2009 20:00	Constitution - Bugbear Promotions	London, London and South East
9 May 2009 12:00	City Showcase - APPLE STORE - REGENTS STREET!!!	London, South
4 Jul 2009 0:00	Conincx Pop Festival - www.conincxpop.nl	Netherlands - Elsloo, Limburg
28 Aug 2009 18:00	Tenby Folk Festival	Tenby, Wales
13 Sep 2009 10:00	Acoustic Gathering IV	Scarborough, Northeast

I recently did some co-writing with an amazing singer from Holland called Airto Edmundo! Wow! He's like Stevie wonder meets Cullum, then they go for coffee with Paulo Nutini and John Legend, and they're served a few Lattes by James Morrison and then they all go play some records with corrinne bailey-rae - they sit and listen to john mayer and eat cakes. Great combo! Anyways, we wrote an amazing song called 'I Lost My Smile'... Check him out, he's the king of covers... Thanks to Lawrence Van De Eede for setting this session up - u da man! :)

He makes Nutini look pathetic - This guy's got soul, real soul:

Home Studios...

We have been settling in to Home Studios here in Hamburg. Franz Plasa and you lovely techy crew, if you are reading you are a lovely bunch and very accommodating, but if you make us try sour-crout juice ever again I will snip ever cable on your brand new swanky SSL desk :) Only, joking, it wasn't that bad, and hey my muscles feel a lot bigger:

MY MUSCLES:

I have met some cool people while I have been here, including Tokio Hotel's manager and an amazing string arranger / player called Stephan Pintev. He works on all the major projects in germany when it comes to strings. My kinda guy :)

He is gonna work closely with me on my own album to make sure the Orchestral parts are tip top. We are using an amazing set of players...

STUDIO:

Big big love to mathias for helping us move our stuff into our new house, and techy 'vitally' coz it was his birthday yesterday :)

PLATINUM RECORD IN SWEDEN / BIG MOVE TO GERMANY

It has been a long time since I last posted! I have been stupendously busy:

A) I MOVED TO GERMANY!
I made the big move to Hamburg (Germany) to be closer to my record label team, producer and my publishing team. It has been a massive life changing experience so far, and my german is slowly getting better. I can even order a beer and schnitzel! Ha! :) Many thanks to my management for helping me move all my worldly belongings and my studio over yonder waters. It was a fun trip :)

B) I HAVE BEEN CO-WRITING ACROSS EUROPE!
I have been co-writing for other artists around europe which is all very exciting. I've had my first cut in Sweden which is amazing. I co-write five songs for the album including 2 of the artist's singles - The album is looking like it's gonna go platinum and the first single comes out next week and should hit the number one spot fingers crossed!!! Massive thanks to Marten and Lina in Stockholm for being such good hosts and amazing writers. U r ace :)

SWEDEN WAS COLD!!!

I have also been working in Belgium with a great little team of crazy-ass EMI writers (big shout to Ginger and Jerry!)... Ginger is a very successful american songwriter/artist and jereon is a songwriter and producer extrodanaire who recently co-produced the new 'Novastar' album 'Bangor'. If you've not heard it you haven't lived, it's massive over there and in Holland. Check it out by clicking here: NOVASTAR The strings are creamyyyyyyyyyyy arranged by Bob Porter :)

We spent a week in Belgium and wrote some amazing tracks for loads of projects, including the music for the 12th World Championships in Athletics held in Berlin this year. It's shown in 192 countries. Watch it!!!

BELGIUM IN THE STUDIOS - they had some amazing mics and fender geeetars - i fell in love with a mustang:

My next stop is Denmark, I am heading out there to do some more co-writes for a few different european and maybe even far eastern projects too. It's still pretty hard to believe that I am doing my dream job and getting paid for it, going from country to country writing for other people. Mental, it's far far away from serving pints of carling to prats in the scrubbiest pub in East London's Bethnal Green. thankyou to anyone and everyone who has made this dream possible, you have changed my little world for the better. I hope to fill your ears full of poptastic music :)

Mashley xx

Record Deal...

18 Nov 2008 20:00	The Original Songwriters @ The Fym Fyg Bar (Bethnal Green) WITH STRING QUARTET!!!	London, South
20 Nov 2008 20:00	The Bedford - With STRINGS - Live Webcast...	London, South
24 Nov 2008 21:45	Chinawhite - FULL 10-PIECE BAND!!!	London, London and South East
27 Nov 2008 20:00	London Unplugged@ Blagclub Notting Hill Gate	London, South
2 Dec 2008 20:00	Soho Revue Bar - London Unplugged	London, London and South East

So! Gigs coming up are above. Come see us at some nice little swanky venues. Full band chinawhites will be fit. As will the show with the fabidosi string quartet at fym fyg bar in bethnal green. Alternatively come see me as a loner struttin my thang :)

Since our big EMI Publishing signing party gig at pigalle, it's been meeting after meeting, from visionary a n r, to songwriting collab opportunities, to our boys at EMI publishing UK, to non-visionary a n r! Ha! We've been offered an amazing record deal from german partners for the GAS region (germany, austria, switzerland), a major distributor and some major european marketing companies and venue owners. It guarantees us a 50 date tour for 2009, an amazing marketing budget, our own tour bus and our own apartment in hamburg. It also pays for us to finish the record with a great budget, which means we are defo getting my favorite orchestra in on the job! Eeeeeeeeek! Get in. Woop woop!

However, now it would seem that the majors in the UK also want to get involved. If they don't make offers before we sign the german deal in december then all that's left for them is licensing our project out at a later date for a much higher cost to them, territory by territory. Roll on december...

Ashmeister Caricature / New Gig Photos / Fruitcake Music

So I was minding my own business on a weekend away in Paris, when a little old man collars me and asks if he can draw a charicature of me because apparantly I look 'interesting' !!!

At first I was obviously dubious that he wanted money out of me (of which I have none), but he reassured me that it was a freebie and that he was merely using me to generate an audience for himself. Thus, I agreed, stood there for 5 minutes and 'voila' - Cartoon Ashmeister! I actually quite like it!

I've added a few new pics from gigs over the last few weeks, this one below was @ The Cockpit supporting Luke Pickett (Courtesy of Lexington Photography)...

In other news, i've been chatting to Jon Uren from Fruitcake Music Management (home of Tom McRae, Thea Gilmour, Kevin Devine, Jim Bianco etc..), a singer-songwriter focused label and management company. Jon took an interest in my material during my Leeds 'Bright Young Things' showcase back in 2006, and has now requested a copy of my proposed debut album. He's currently looking to expand the management side of things, so we're planning a meeting and gig event in the not too distant future.

I've also been talking to one of my all time heros - a chap called Simon Hale (he's a string arranger for the likes of Duncan Sheik & Ian Brown). Oh my word what a nice chap! He compared me to Duncan and really likes my material which is a massive massive personal compliment. Speechless...

Think that's all for now, over and out, Blogster Ash x