Matthew Nellis

games, music, tech, design
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    April 10th, 2009MattSong a Week

    Well the journey is finally over. Song 52 of 52 sees a return to the homeland. You never forget your first postcode:

    Download ‘AB15 For Life’ [ mp3 | ogg | flac ]

    Featuring DeProfit aka Kirk De Freitas! A school friend I grew up in with in Aberdeen. Also featuring backing vocals from Tennille De Freitas.

    Aberdeen, apart from being cold wet and grey, was a great place to be raised. A lot of my friends are still up there, and I’m well overdue a visit. Some have moved on to other parts of Scotland, some to England and some even further a field. But no matter where you are now, its all about where you came from. And that’s what the song is about. You never forget where you came from because that’s what’s made you who you are today.

    Its been an absolutely fantastic year. A year that has totally flown by  too. The premise of this song a week was to learn as much as possible about songwriting, guitar, production and just music in general and I’ve definitely learned a great deal.

    Its really been a bit of a rollercoaster ride. Each week my life was governed by the song; putting time aside each day to sit and write, recording when I can, then frantically trying to get a song together by the Friday. I basically had little to no social life!

    Some weeks would be an absolute joy. The feeling of knowing I had a good song idea meant that writing and recording it was a piece of cake.
    And some weeks it was just plain hard work. When everything on the guitar sound the same as previous weeks, or just sounds plain rubbish.

    But it was an incredible experience overall. Something quite frankly I’m relieved is over, but with not a single regret. Thank you to everyone who took the time to listen to the songs and give me feedback. It really meant a lot, especially during the tough weeks. I hope there’s at least a few songs from the collection that you enjoyed and might listen to again.

    A lot of people have asked what I’m going to do now. Well, in the immediate future I’m not going to do a thing! At least for a month I don’t think I’ll even contemplate writing a song. After that, who knows. I’d like to write a proper album, and not be constrained to a 1 week time limit. I’d also like to perform some of these songs acoustically at some point. I’ll be sure to keep you all updated!

    Cheers, Matt

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    April 3rd, 2009MattSong a Week

    So, the penultimate song. Here it is:

    Download ‘MotoNick’ [ mp3 | ogg | flac ]

    Its a song I’ve been meaning to do since day 1, but as things went I just never got round to it. Its about my brother’s friend who set off last year on an epic journey round the world with his motorbike. You may also guess correctly that his name is nick.

    His year long journey, much like mine is coming to an end so i thought it’d be nice to do a song briefly chronicling his experiences. You can read all about his adventures on his website. A jolly good read at that!

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    March 27th, 2009MattSong a Week

    Just for the record: I don’t actually own a car. But if I did….

    Download ‘My Car’ [ mp3 | ogg | flac ]

    Living in London you see a lot of these ‘Car Guys’ around. Zooming along in their BMWs and Mercedes, most of them frankly look like twats. Especially if coupled with a bluetooth headset and sunglasses. I imagine they live in their own little world in which their 4 wheeled companion is the centre. They also like to check out the ladies, and in return the ladies check out them. Or their ride. I’ve never been sure which they’re more interested in.

    Also, only 2 more songs to go! I can’t believe I’m almost there.

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    March 20th, 2009MattSong a Week

    Its a song I’ve been wanting to cover for quite a while now, and what better time than when you’re low on ideas? I’ve tried my best not to slaughter the good work of Colin Hay. Hopefully he’ll forgive me…

    Download ‘Waiting For My Real Life’ [mp3 | .ogg | .flac]

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    March 13th, 2009MattSong a Week

    Here’s the song. You might be able to tell I was pretty hungry when writing the lyrics…

    Download ‘Are You Hungry’ [mp3]

    Its always been a mystery to me… omelettes that is. Essentially the classic omelette is just cheese, egg and milk. Cheesy eggy milk… doesn’t sound so nice when its put like that. But the result is the main thing: a delicious meal.

    The .ogg and .flac versions will be uploaded later tonight. I’m just in a bit of a rush so don’t have time to do it now!

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    February 13th, 2009MattSong a Week

    We’re living in tough times at the moment but remember, things can always get worse:

    Download ‘Things Can Get Worse’ [ mp3 | ogg | flac]

    Short and sweet this week. The simple premise that no matter how bad you may think your life is at the moment, it could always be worse.

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    February 6th, 2009MattSong a Week

    Well, again was a bit rushed this week and ended up doing the final mixes on headphones on a plane to Germany so I’m pretty sure the mix isn’t right:

    Download ‘The Stare’ [ mp3 | ogg | flac]

    Its a common situation most men will be familiar with. You don’t mean to say the wrong thing, but inevitably you do and that leads to all sorts of unfortunate situations. I guess its part of male nature; at the best of times we require some sort of mental United Nations, a committee to veto any erroneous opinions before we make it public knowledge. Our intention is never to be mean; sometimes we just don’t think.

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    January 30th, 2009MattSong a Week

    Was a bit rushed this week, but the song came out ok I reckon:

    Download ‘Credito Crunch Part 2′ [ mp3 | ogg | flac]
    So we’re officially in a recession now, and our old foe Credito Crunch has really taken its toll. He’s a fearsome competitor, too fearsome for our heroes Bernanke, Trichet and King. This song is an aftermath of the events in the first song, and who knows; there may even be a third installment in the future.
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    January 23rd, 2009MattSong a Week

    Its about a pig. But not just any pig. Its a sticky pig!

    Download ‘Sticky Pig’ [ mp3 | ogg | flac]
    So there was this game me and my flatmates would play in our old place. The game was called Sticky Pig and the rules were very simple. You take one sticky pig, throw it on the ceiling and then try to get it down. I felt this ancient game merited it’s own song.
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    January 16th, 2009MattSong a Week

    Entering the final stretch now, the last 12 songs are upon us! Here’s song 40:

    Download ‘Dimensions’ [ mp3 | ogg | flac]
    Simplicity was the key here. I wanted to write a song about particle physics but soon realised that it wasn’t sufficient to just read out a wikipedia entry. It really interests me though and I often wish I paid more attention to sciences at school. Perhaps in another dimension I’m working at CERN. Which would probably make a good song subject; unfortunately depsite the song being called ‘Dimensions’ it doesn’t really go into that at all. In fact, its doesn’t go into much detail at all!
    Musically I wanted to go in a Carps direction, try something stripped down with just bass, drums and some synth. Strangely, I came up with the bass line trying to write some reggae bass for a future song. It sounds nothing like a reggae bass line, I know…
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