Soteria Music Blog

After much effort, stress, incompatibility glitches and many other problems not really worth mentioning we now have a result…the new look “Downloads Section” is finally finished!

You can now view the available downloads in three different ways; by artist, by CD release, or in alphabetical order.

Much to no-one’s surprise it has been the alphabetical order downloads list that has really taken the time to collate, organise, link and finally publish. But as of half one this afternoon it is finally all done. With both the lyric/sheetmusic and the MP3s all collated into one convenient place.

The running total of MP3s available currently stands at 42. It is our hope that this year will see that figure increase substantially

Enjoy the free MP3s and sheetmusic.

God bless you, one and all

Jon Richards
Soteria Music: Exec Producer

The debut album of James Saldivar had its second recording session last night. This time it was held in the picturesque location of Truro Chapel. Not only is this a pretty location to do a spot of recording in but to really top this outing off the Chapel is equipped with a full-size, concert Stienway grand piano.

James was incredibly excited to be playing such an instrument, but here’s what happened:

Truro Chapel sits within the grounds of Truro School, (where I happen to work). After making a few enquiries the school very kindly donated the time in the Chapel and the use of the piano to us. We are very grateful for them giving us such a great opportunity.

At around 5:40PM Phil arrived from his work place further down into Truro, and we set about building some recording equipment.

At just after six o’clock Dad arrived several cameras in hand to document the evening in photos.

James arrived shortly after, and with a massive projection of the old S:WMD logo on the wall we set about tuning up and sound checking. By about 7:20PM Kitty had also arrived which completed the compliment of people who ere coming this evening.

So now with all checks complete, two condenser microphones in place, James at the piano, Phil at the make-shift sound desk, Dad at the tripod, Kitty patiently listening in, and myself standing between the lot of them we set about recording the remaining tracks of James’ album.

Everyone who heard the music both us inside and the passers-by outside the Chapel heard some fantastic music played in James’ inimitably smooth style.

By way of a treat at round 9:30PM with the bulk of the work done, we treated Phil to recording his song “Humble Me” with James’ level of piano ability. The result was a terrific but calm rendition of what is becoming a bit of a classic piece around here.

My thanks to everyone who took part and helped with the recording last night; James on the piano, Phil on the sound, Kitty for smiling and helping, Clive for the photos, Nick from Truro School Enterprises, Martin from Truro School Music and of course Tim the school’s caretaker.

We are hoping this will be a great blessing to a lot of people; certainly we’ve been blessed making it.

God bless you one and all

Jon Richards
Exec Producer
Soteria:WMD

Phil and his wife are not the only ones to have a new addition to their family. Last Sunday the Soteria Mag editor; Rob and his wife has a little baby girl, Abigail.

Congratulations to you both.

Last weekend a lot of the phone network in Cornwall stopped working! I tried calling Rob (editor of Soteria:Mag) but I got nowhere. Eventually the network has come back on.

However the ability of Rob and I to call each other is not what I’d like to talk with you about today. Rather today I can now inform you that Soteria:WMD has made a “lite” version of the main website stories. This is to allow fast loading times on smartphones and mobile broadband connections.

So now to access S:WMD in superfast time on your mobile device just go to http://www.soteriamusic.co.uk/lite, or to see this blog on your phone just go to http://www.soteriamusic.co.uk/blog.

We hope you enjoy these new upgrades.

God bless you.

Jon Richards
S:WMD

Last night S:WMD put on a record session inside of Redruth Baptist. Originally this session was to be for James Saldivar to begin recording on his new debut album.

The session was scheduled for 7pm and at 6:25pm I thought everything was in-hand and we were prepared. By half six I found that my camera was broken that meant I quick rush out to my parent’s house in Illogan to borrow one of my Dad’s cameras for the evening. As a consequence of this unexpected trip I was late for picking up the Church keys and Phil Gray! I arrived at Ann Chapple’s house to collect the keys looking slightly out-of-breath when she told me that my rushing around was a bit pointless as James had called her and he was still stuck in Penzance (over half an hour away). I collected the keys, thanked Ann for her help and went to find Phil.

Phil thankfully was waiting on his doorstep for me, and once he was in the car I relayed to his all that had happened in the last half hour. We pulled up outside the Church and called James back to find out what was happening on his end. Eventually it was decided that Phil and I would get things ready and James would catch the next available bus to Redruth. Given that the bus wouldn’t arrive in James’ village for another half hour and then take about 40 mins to arrive in Redruth it was becoming clear that we were not likely to get a huge amount done on this occasion.

We hung up the phone and Phil came up with the idea of using the extra time to work on the other big project of the season, getting more MP3s available on the downloads section. So we could use this time to record some of our back catalogue of songs that have never been heard!

So for the next hour and a bit I stood on RBC’s platform and played though various different songs of the WMD back-catalogue, (this not only includes songs by Phil and I but also my old mates Andy Bryant, Alex Parry and a few others).

After a long time James arrived and after Phil had got him set up and I had made some tea, we were treated to some of the smoothest piano music I’ve ever heard! We kept recording till gone ten by which point everyone was too tired to carry on. James called home for a lift and while we were waiting for the lift to arrive he and I did an impromptu rendition of Phil’s song “Humble Me”. To my amazement James was able to seamlessly just slot into the music and play his piano along with me strumming the guitar with no practice at all! Phil thanked us both and said the he was “humbled”.

So the work has begun. Here we go again then.

God bless you, one and all.

Jon Richards
Exec Producer