As I explained last time I’m writing and demoing new songs at the moment and sometimes the easiest way to capture a new tune is to make a quick video. I’ve decided that rather than practicing the songs for months with a band then spending weeks in a studio trying to get the perfect version, that it might be fun to share some of these songs with people at the time of their inception so you’ll hopefully hear how the songs develope and progress towards the finished article.

The song that follows, “The Ural Winter“, was written this morning, filmed at about 18:30 and was uploaded earlier this evening. This represents the quickest turn-around from writing to public “release” I’ve ever had. I hope this doesn’t show to much in the quality of the song. At the moment I’m not sure how I feel about this tune; it’s too fresh for me to have an opinion. I’m certainly not sure if it’ll make it on the next album at this stage, but at the very least it’s a song that didn’t exist this time yesterday, and that’s a nice feeling.

Less chatter! Here it is, I hope you enjoy:

If you missed the first of these video demos you can see the last one here.

All the best,

Tom

See you there!

Tom

BOXING CLEVER: Tom McShane
Genre: Indie / Alternative
From: Belfast, Northern Ireland United Kingdom

Tom Mcshane is a singer songwriter from Northern Ireland who takes you on a tour of his emotions with his heart firmly pinned to his sleeve. Like a mellow, melancholic David Ford or Will Oldham if he’d been brought up on the streets of Belfast instead of Kentucky Tom reaches right into your chest tugging at your heart and leaving you breathless. Such honesty is rare in a scene that emphasises style and fashion over passion and should be treasured by anyone with a passion for music.

Tom has recently released a single, ‘Fighter’, a lo-fi tale of a son following his boxing father into the ring. ‘Fighter’ was released as a split 7″ single with fellow Belfastians, the altogether more mainstream sounding indie pop trio Escape Act (of which more tomorrow).

If you’ve grown tired of run of the mill singer songwriters like David Gray then Tom McShane has arrived to restore your faith.

Thank you kindly, sir!

Tom

I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be performing at the Stendal Festival on Saturday 16th August along side the likes of Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly., David Kitt and a host of others. For the full line-up check out www.stendhalfestival.com. 

Tom

Last weekend Nick took a trip to London to meet with buyers from Rough Trade East & West and Sister Ray. The single is now available in all these stores. I tagged along for the ride and we made a bit of a weekend out of it. We stayed with Nick’s sister, Judith and her boyfriend Giovanni. They were hospitable to the max and showed us a great time. They have the most fun friends too. Also I got the opportunity to meet up with a very old friend who I hadn’t seen in the longest time. The trip was quite literally, all good.

So this weekend the tour rolls on. We played two shows on Friday, an afternoon show in Dublin and an evening show in Belfast:

Fighter/God Says Tour Date 2a // Tower Records, Dublin // 4th July
On Friday we played another in-store, this time a full band set in Dublin’s Tower Records with Escape Act. When we arrived Yo La Tengo’s “And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out” was playing over the tannoy. A good omen and no mistake. James and Neassa at Tower were really nice too.

Escape Act were up first and played a blinder. It was very fun to watch the shoppers, pulled away from their browsing, foot-tapping appreciatively. They have a new song, I must find out what it’s called, but it really slays me.

Our set seemed to go down well, but none of us could hear each other on stage which made things a little tough. Playing at low volume can be a bit restrictive. The simple fact is amps just don’t sound right when turned down low, or at least I’ve never managed to make that work. But we played are hearts out none the less and folks seemed to, as they say, “dig”.

We ended with “Guide” and as the last chord hung in the air, the music from the store PA faded in once again. But no Yo La Tengo this time. “This sounds terribly familiar” we thought the opening notes of my “Departures” mini album began to emanate from the speakers. Amusingly, the first track from “Departures” is “Guide”. Still, we played it well so at least it wasn’t a “now here’s how that should’ve sounded” Shooting Stars moment!

Escape Act, Conor and Ross loaded their gear out and hit the road straight away in order to reach Belfast in time for sound-check. Nick left to retrieve his car from the carpark leaving me to mind our equipment. Standing in the shop, the only remaining member of our party while the entirety of my last release blasted across the store made me feel more than a little self-conscious. I buried myself in vinyl browsing!

Fighter/God Says Tour Date 2b // Lavery’s Attic, Belfast // 4th July
Back on the road again and the race was on to get back to Belfast in time for sound-check. However, us being a bit smart, or so we thought, we’d arranged for our Belfast support, Serpentine Smile to be at the venue from 18.00 so that load in and sound-check could commence in our absence. However, when we arrived at 19.30, we found them waiting patiently to get on with this, as they had been since their arrival at 18.00.

You see, we had originally booked to play the Pavilion but as the Pavilion is currently being renovated, the management shifted us to the Attic in Lavery’s. This is a new venue in Belfast of which we had no previous experience. As it turned out, by day it is a pool room, part of the larger pool area on the top floor of Lavery’s. In the evening the tables are moved, the hanging lights are taken down and the room becomes what is actually a really great venue. It’s a great shape/layout and it’s got a great PA. The stage is strange, dangerously high (they store the pool tables beneath it) and it runs the width of the venue. It’s not terribly deep, so there’s always a fear that one might fall off it, also there’s a rather large gap between the stage and the wall right behind the drumkit which struck fear into the hearts of our percussive contingent.

Anyway, the problem was that sound-check couldn’t commence until that section of the pool room closed (the main pool area remained open for the duration of the show). This was not explained to us when we made arrangements for the two obliging chaps from Serpentine Smile to waste a large part of their evening sitting about:

The show was great though. There was a great turnout and we shifted some vinyl too, which was very encouraging. There was one, to use the Belfast vernacular, “Spide Ballbag” who watched almost the entire show from the door to the main pool room, his trusty pint of Harp in hand. I asked him if he would like to come in. He said, “Fack aff, why the fuck would I pay in when I can watch the whole thing for free from here, like?”. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Belfast.

We’re heading back to Dublin in an hour to play our Whelan’s show. Also we’ll be doing a spot for Balcony TV too! Can’t wait!

Road trip!

Tom

In the run up to the release of Fighter/God Says (the upcoming split seven inch single I’ll be releasing with Escape Act) I’m going to be giving away some free music. For the next three weeks I’ll be making three session/live tracks available for free download through my Myspace music player, each only available for one week. Each track includes includes full color artwork, lyrics and track notes.

This week it’s a cover version of Nina Nastasia’s “That’s All There Is” from her wonderful “The Blackened Air” album. To any fellow Nina Nastasia fans out there, I really hope I haven’t butchered it!

This track was recorded for the BBC’s Across the Line show in January of this year, a couple of weeks before the Fighter recording sessions at Start Together. The BBC session was produced by Paul McClean and engineered by Ciaran Tracey. 

Download it now from my Myspace. 

Tom