Matthew Nellis

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

This week, a song to honour the wonderful charity that is Childs Play.

Since 2003, over 100,000 gamers worldwide have banded together through Child’s Play, a community based charity grown and nurtured from the game culture and industry. Over 3.5 million dollars in donations of toys, games, books and cash for sick kids in children’s hospitals across North America and the world have been collected since our inception.

This year, we have continued expanding across the country and the globe. With around 60 partner hospitals and more arriving every month, you can be sure to find one from the map above that needs your help! You can choose to purchase requested items from their online retailer wish lists, or make a cash donation that helps out Child’s Play hospitals everywhere. Any items purchased through Amazon will be shipped directly to your hospital of choice, so please be sure to select their shipping address rather than your own.

When gamers give back, it makes a difference!

It really is a terrific charity, and its just a shame there’s only 1 participating hospital in the UK. Hopefully that will increase over the years.