JO KELSEY.
'I Won't Go' Single Release!
Because it's Christmas, we're releasing my favourite song from the EP with some extra bonus material on 25th December!
A while ago we spent a day in the studio with the guys from What?!, hit record and started jamming! The extra-special super-secret hidden side to this release is one of the tracks we made that day.
To buy/download these for yourself, visit jokelseymusic.bandcamp.com
'Lie To Me' EP Launch!
We're excited like crazy that our second EP - Lie To Me - was released on 5th November! It's now available for download and purchase from our online store - jokelseymusic.bandcamp.com and on iTunes, Spotify, EMusic etc.
I'd like to say a huge thankyou to everyone who helped to make this release happen - in particular Niels Bakx, Rotem Haguel & Jamie Murray for their musical talents, Jay Stapley for having us in his beautiful studio, Andy Jackson for mastering, and of course all of our friends and family who've put up with us along the way!!
The launch show was at The Bedroom Bar, Shoreditch on 29th October where we played tracks from the EP with afew brand new ones too.. it was a great night and afterparty, massive thankyou who everyone who came down and made it a success!
"We All Fall Down" Single Release
The first single "We All Fall Down" from our upcoming "Lie To Me" EP (out on Nov 5th) is out now! You can hear the song and watch the video on youtube below.
Many thanks to Rotem Haguel, Jamie Murray, Jay Stapley and Andy Jackson for helping to make this possible.
Language Is A Virus From Outer Space
On the 11th of October 2014 I will be performing with We Are Children (We Make Sound) as part of a night celebrating the life and work of US writer William S Burroughs at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. It's going to be an eventful, cross-artform night with many different performances through various media.
I'm pretty nervous to be playing keyboards for this one, we've had a 30 minute piece written for us by Gavin Briars especially for this performance, so it's going to be intense!!
For more information and tickets follow this link - Language Is A Virus From Outer Space
.. And it was a success!!
Here are afew photos from a great night!
Back in London!
After a crazy few months of travel, gigging and having adventures we're back in London! We had a wonderful time in the Netherlands, and played a really special show in Niels's (guitars) hometown Maastricht for all of his friends and family. After some more fun, music and travel we ended up in Sunny Beach, Bulgaria where we did 2 weeks of shows across the resort, afew radio takeovers, alot of chilling in the sunshine and generally making mischief. We also made some video diaries of our experiences, so follow the link below to see what went on!
Now we're back in London to detox, catch up on some sleep and get to work on releasing our second EP!
Bulgaria Video Diaries...
Cafe De Pieter, Maastricht, NL
Summer Tour '14
This summer I have some awesome gigs lined up and am heading out on tour! After afew dates in London, we're heading to The Netherlands and making our way down to Bulgaria for afew weeks as residents in Sunny Beach! I'm doing the first part as a duo with Niels Bakx on guitar, then Jamie Murray is joining us on drums/percussion for some sunny beach madness... Its gonna be a fun summer with lots of photos/posts/videos of our adventures to come I'm sure.
We also have afew limited edition pre-release copies of our new EP 'Lie To Me', so if you catch us in Europe make sure to get your copy!
..I guess that makes me an MD!?
Life as a musician is always interesting, it can be a pretty tough industry so I always try to keep myself open to new opportunities and take every chance I get. One of the things I love about working in music is that there are so many different paths to take; some weeks I split my time between being a songwriter, performer, teacher, agent & businesswoman.. among other things!
This gives me the chance to constantly work and connect with new people, get fresh perspectives and work creatively with musicians from a wide variety of styles and backgrounds.
This month I got the chance to lead my very own choir, from arranging the music to running rehearsals to conducting them on stage at the prestigious Kings Place in London!
The night was in rememberance of those who lost their lives during the World War, when Moorfields Eye Hospital was hit by bombing, so in true style we were all dressed in full army uniform, and even had afew veterans and the Chelsea Pensioners join us to perform!
After just 2 weeks of preparation, nerves and cramming rehearsals the night was a great success and I'm incredibly proud of what was achieved - especially given that many members of the chior had never sang before in their lives!
In The Studio Again..
I've been doing alot of writing lately, working together with my guitarist Niels to create a new sound. Think acoustic blues, rock, chilled out with a little bit of soul in the mix. We had the pleasure of being the first to record with Jay Stapley in his brand new studio; 'Driftwood Studios'! We headed out to Mersea Island with the band and had an amazing time making music and taking in some fresh air and inspiration...
The EP is 5 tracks long and will be released later on this year.
My Matchbox EP is available now!
After months of hard work, I'm very happy to say that Matchbox is now available!
My main store is http://jokelseymusic.bandcamp.com where you can download the EP, or buy one of our limited edition CDs (they're made from recycled materials so are extra good!).
You can also find Matchbox on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon MP3, Google Play, Deezer, Rhapsody and e-music.
I'd like to say a massive thankyou for all of the support so far, i'm really grateful and it means that I can keep on doing what I love, so thanks!
..I'm in the paper!!
The local paper for my hometown - The Solihull
News wrote a nice feature about the EP release,
check it out!
And The Times!
Okay, so it's not the Times, but part of the series, so I say it counts! I had a really cool interview with the Harrow Times, who wrote up this Q&A all about Matchbox and breathing in the music industry.
And here's a link to the online version:
http://www.harrowtimes.co.uk/leisure/music/11042626.Q_A_with_Jo_Kelsey/
Matchbox EP Release & Launch Party
I'm very excited to say that my EP 'Matchbox' will be released on 3rd March 2014. It's been a really long time coming and a serious lot of hard work, so I really hope you all like it!
The EP will be available on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, Google Play and eMusic.. aswell as from my online store at Band Camp (http://jokelseymusic.bandcamp.com).
Of course, I'll also have as many CDs as I can carry at each of my gigs!
We're also having a launch party on Sunday 9th March at Belushi's in Camden. I've got some great friends Dear Joy and Danny Toeman playing afew tunes too, so it's gonna be one not to miss!
In the studio!
(01.01.14)
In the summer afew members of my band and I locked
ourselves in the studio for the day and made some live recordings of our favourite Kelsea tracks... Lots of backing vocals, grand piano and soul! Right now these tracks are being formed into a little EP, if all goes to plan it will be ready to release by the end of January, which makes me very happy! ..we might even have to book afew gigs to show off all our hard work...
(27.11.13)
I'm really excited to say that I've been back in the studio lately,
working on some new solo material. It's still early stages, but
there's alot of piano, vocal harmony and soul emerging...
I've set myself the challenge to produce as much as I can on my
own, so it might be a while before theres anything that sounds
very nice to listen to though!
For updates on how it's going, follow me on facebook here!
Gigs and Gigs and Gigs....
(01.01.14)
That was the craziest December
I've ever had! Aswell as 5 new weekly
students, I've been gigging 2-4 nights
a week, all across London... Although
we're totally knackered now, it gave
us the chance to get our set really tight
and sounding good! Right now I'm
taking afew days off, and then we're
right back on it for our first January date at
Bison & Bird on Sunday 5th.
(27.11.13)
I've been pushing the promo hard lately and got myself a pretty full calendar of gigs coming up for the rest of the year! Every weekend you'll be able to catch me somewhere across London playing an acoustic set, plus afew originals gigs every now and then! We're also working on our repetoire and adding in some new songs in time for Christmas, it's gonna be cheesy!