Barz In The Car: EP 14 - feat Paul Cree & Conrad Murray (Hosted by X-It)

Easy

Insert sorry I haven’t posted in a while blah blah blah message, there’s probably lots of reasons.

Alas, here is something I did recently that I really enjoyed. Myself and Conrad Murray, were working on a project up in Bedford, called Future Music Makers, teaching beatboxing. We got to work with some local artists, and one of them is the rapper X-It, who does a number of things in the area, putting on for local rappers. One of them is his Barz In The Car format, so me and Con jumped in, had chat, dropped some beats and I spat some bars.

Had a great time up there, and in the car. I love spitting and aside from my kitchen, I don’t get to do it very often, so large up X-It, watched the video and go check his stuff

Peas and ‘taters

Barz In The Car ep 14 - Paul Cree & Conrad Murray (Beats & Elements) - hosed by X-It

Promo verse - Gob Shite 64

This is the second 64 verse I put out this week, in order to promote the new EP, Toast In The Machine

For some reason I couldn’t quite get the camera angle right and the mic was distortingm as I say in the lyrics, I’m no wizard with this stuff, and it’s better than me just having a load of lyrics that don’t ever go anywhere

Toast In The Machine, out NOW https://paulcree.hearnow.com/

If you fancy giving me a little tip, for the price of a pint, would be much appriciated https://ko-fi.com/paulcree

Follow me on any of these platforms

SPOTIFY FOLLOW - https://open.spotify.com/artist/77Io4...

APPLE FOLLOW - https://music.apple.com/us/artist/pau...

AMAZON MUSIC - https://www.amazon.co.uk/music/player...

BANDCAMP - https://paulcree.bandcamp.com/

read all about the EP here https://paulcree.co.uk/blog

New freestyle video - Toy Cars 64

Easy

So I’ve put together a little freestyle promo video, for the upcoming Toast In The Machine EP, Toy Cars 64. It’s a 64 bar-stream of consciousness-type-verse. I like to write these from time to time.

I’m at a point now (and it’s taken a long time to get here!) where I can produce and record my own music, and then a do a bit of simple filming. It’s all quite basic, but if I was able to channel all the frustration I’ve felt, over the years, where I’ve had tons of ideas and lyrics, but not been able to do anything with, I’d probably see us through this current energy crises.

Anyway, I can do it now, so no more excuses and I can only get better with it. If you like it, do me a favour and follow me on the below links, if you use those platforms, it all helps

SPOTIFY FOLLOW - https://open.spotify.com/artist/77Io4...

APPLE FOLLOW - https://music.apple.com/us/artist/pau...

AMAZON MUSIC - https://www.amazon.co.uk/music/player...

BANDCAMP - https://paulcree.bandcamp.com/

read all about the EP here https://paulcree.co.uk/blog

 

 

Another update

 

One two

Greetings. Bonjour. What’s happening?

Thought I’d pen a little update for the site about some goings-on – adding it to the consistently-inconsistent blogs and general updates that already exist on here.

So what have I been doing with myself?

LAGER TIME

Since late October last year, I’ve been regularly writing and recording a podcast / blog using Substack which I call Lager Time (some of which you can see below) I’ve been doing it every week (give or take the odd week off) and tend to share a piece of writing that I’m working and sometimes music, as well as having a general update on what I’ve been doing.

The reason it’s called Lager Time, is because it’s where I like to let off a bit of steam; which for me, I often associate with drinking lager. When I lived in Morden for a few years, with my mate, Dean. I’d often put on a Children’s TV voice and pronounce ‘it’s lager time’ to my mate Dean, whenever I went down to Ganley’s; the big Irish pub in the high street. I used to love going there, sinking a few jars with my brother Nat and chewing the fat.

I’m still figuring out what I’m doing work-wise, post pandemic and where, if at all, I fit in to everything. Even before the pandemic, I had this duel feeling of being a bit lost in the two worlds which I tend to operate; subsidized theatre and spoken word and figured I should try and carve out my own path. Figuring out what and how, is what I’ve been doing since and Lager Time is one aspect of that.

I’m enjoying doing it and gradually getting better at the production aspect of it. I’ve still not quite figured out the best shape of it but I’m excited, as it presents other opportunities. It’s a little platform that I’m slowly building and I’ve got a few ideas for it going forward. Like live-streams, live-events and guests.

You can subscribe directly on Substack, and have an email sent to you every week or you can subscribe to the audio, and have it on both APPLE podcasts and SPOTIFY.

Last week I recorded a live-set, which included a bunch of new poems, stories, a couple of songs and a bit of chat. I’m aiming to do a few more of this over the next couple of months as well as doing a video live-stream.



The big vision, is to be as fully self-sufficient as I can be. Ie – I can produce as much of my own content as I want. Audio, video, graphics, books , music and these are all things I’ve slowly been learning how to do. Earning some dough would be nice too

TOAST IN THE MACHINE

Speaking of music, I’m on the verge of releasing a new self-produced EP called Toast In The Machine. It’s five tracks (two of which I’ve already out put: Whichever Way It’s Blowing and Now, What Do You Wonna Say?) but I’ve remixed those and hopefully made them sound better.

I’ve been dabbling with music production for about fifteen years but never taken it that seriously. This is the first time I’ve attempted to mix and master my own music and mate, it’s hard! Though I’m treating everything with this project as a learning curve and I have zero expectations, I’m thinking maybe I should give it over to a proper producer / engineer as at the moment, it’s not quite sounding but I hope to have it all finished by next month.

 

RISE

Someone who is a proper producer, is my good pal Conrad Murray. This week he put out this track, RISE (OUTSIDE) which was one of the first track we wrote for High Rise eState of Mind but never ended up using. Have a blast and you can hear me singing on the chorus with Lakeisha Lynch Stevens aka Kiki.

MAKE YOUR OWN BED AND HOPE FOR THE BEST

I spent probably the first six months of this year re-writing this show, it’s now ready to go into production (I think) but I now have to go through the rigmarole of getting Arts Council funding to make that happen, so watch this space… have a look at some of the stuff I’ve done in the past with it…

WORKSHOPS

Aside from all that, I’ve been leading projects in theatre, music and spoken word with Dream Arts, City Academy, Wildcard Theatre, National Literacy Trust with future projects coming with Green Shoes and Mountview. I’ve also helped a couple of mates out with writing wedding speeches, If anyone is interested in any of the above, don’t hesitate to get in touch

So that’s it for now

Thanks, as ever, for the support

 

Paul

Made In Isolation: Little track and video →

Greetings

Happy new year and all that

How was yours? Mine wass sick, I was in America, Dallas, but I was sick, with COVID but it was still sick.

So yea I got the dreaded Virus whilst my wife and I were travvelling around America. It’s odd, in the back of my mind, for the last few months, I’ve felt this fear that at some point, the virus would catch up with me. And it did. It weren’t that bad.

Luckily for me, I got it whilst staying at my sister-in-law’s house in Dallas and was able to stay there for the duration of the isolation. Hate to think what would’ve happened had I been stuck in a hotel (and how much that would’ve cost?!) no one else in the house got it either, which was a relief, I felt quite guilty for a while, that I’d ruined Christmas, like the Grinch, or 2020 Boris. Weather was alright too, I sat outside for a fair amount of it, by the swimming pool. Yep, the swimming pool. Texas has space. I can feel any sympathy you may have for me rapidly diminishing as I write this. Didn’t lose my taste buds either. Ate some banging food and was well looked after. Sympathy gone.

Anyway, all of that aside, I was quite fatigued and spent a lot of my time in the spare room, one of three spaces I could sit in and a friend of my wife’s, Clay, asked me why I wasn’t making any music and filming a little timelapse. So I made some music and filmed a little timelapse. Made the beat on Imaschine, wrote some bars, set my phone up in the corner of the room, with this fish eye Lenz I got, and BOOM I made this. All on the blower. It beat mindlessly scrolling through You Tube. Took a bunch of time-lapse videos whilst out there, might try a few more of these type videos, it was fun.

M.Y.O.B (A.H.F.T.B) / / PART 3 -TROLLY BOY

Here’s the next instalment in the Make Your Own Bed (and Hope For the Best) story development

Needs a bit of work this one but I least feel like I’m getting better at making the video’s.

Progress, mate

Make Your Own Bed (and Hope for The Best) - Draft Story Uploads

NEW YEAR WITH A NEW SHOW (FROM LAST YEAR) BUT WITH A NEW NAME

So we all know what happened last year. COVID and that, which in my game, meant cancellations, shows, workshops, projects, the lot. I’ll spare you the ‘it’s been a terrible year’ caper but it has, however, there were a few minor victories, which I’m claiming hard.

This time last year, I was getting ready to go and do a full one-hour preview, of my new work-in-progress show, WORK. Which is about, yep, work, as in all the jobs I’ve done since I was newspaper when I was twelve; I’ve had a few. 

Did the show, it went well though I knew there was a lot of work (no pun intended) that needed to be done before it was anywhere near ready for a full run, I was still testing out ideas at this stage.

I was booked in for a two night preview at Camden People’s Theatre in April and by the end of that I was aiming to have a finished show for the end of the year-then CRASH-BANG-WOLLOP, COVID.

ABSENCE MAKES THE HEART GROW HARDER

To be fair, it was probably a bit of a touch. I decided to leave the show for a bit and focus on other things. Anyway - I’ve since been back on it, having had a bit of a hiatus and have come at it feeling somewhat refreshed, starting with the name, which was never gonna top anyone’s Google searches, was it?!

So, WORK is no more, it is now called Make Your Own Bed (and Hope For The Best)- which sums up my working ambitions, from when I had to leave home and fend for myself.

I’ve rewritten quite a lot of it and have added quite a more stories. I’m now in the process of trying to trim it all down, so being that we’re all stuck in doors, I’ve decided to film it in small episodes and stick them up on You Tube. Just me going through that process is useful and even better if people watch and respond. I’ve already uploaded the first part and have the second part ready to go.

HAVE A BUCTHERS BELOW

p.s I’m provisionally booked for two nights at CPT in June, fingers crossed it goes ahead but until then, you can see my boat and hear my dull tones on the video

Peas and taters

Paul

Bar Crawl Freestyles

Bonjour

After getting a fiarly decent repsonse on Instagram, for all the stuff I did online with RAW 64’s of BOREDOM, I’ve been going back through the pad and dropping a few freestyles on Instragram, over some of my favorite instrumentals, then sticking them up on You Tube.

Here’s the first three