New Release – Ordinary Man by NorthWoods Soul

New Release – Ordinary Man by NorthWoods Soul

NorthWoods Soul is the music project name for Michael Holmes. Michael Holmes is an English singer/songwriter creating music with meaning. In 2016 the death of his brother spurred him to take action. The result was the writing, recording and release of his debut album ‘Garage Demos’. Holmes has collaborated online with musicians from around the globe, including the US, Australia, Vietnam, Japan,and Chile.

When Holmes is not doing the day job of being a very busy and sought after husband and dad, he can be found writing, singing, and creating his sonic tapestries in his home studio in the UK. Oh, and he sings anywhere for beer…

On April 20th Holmes will be releasing ‘Ordinary Man‘. Here’s what Holmes had to say about his new release:

“The new release is called ‘Ordinary Man’. It’s classed as an EP, but I’m old enough to remember when singles had an A and B side, so I put out the studio version, and a live solo acoustic “demo” version. So two tracks for the price of one!”

“I wrote the song last year and sat on it for a while. It was just acoustic and electric guitar, bass and drums. I played it to a few people and they said it was good, but I knew it was missing a little bit. Then at the beginning of the year, I got a friend to play a bass line for it, and it just triggered a little surge of creativity in me. I contacted another friend to help out with some backing vocals, and another friend put down a keyboard track that ended up as piano. Then it was just a case of mixing it down and mastering it.”

“Well anyone who listens will know what it’s about after the first line won’t they?”

“The lyrics have a special meaning because they are probably the most poetic lyrics I’ve written. There is some nice imagery in there, like the line “returning home, with coffers full of gold, and stories to be told, of lovers cross the ocean”. I’ve borrowed a lot or stolen maybe, from Van Morrison, ‘Into the Mystic’, ‘Astral Weeks’,’Sweet thing’, all of those tracks have great lyrical imagery. Like painting a picture you know?”

“Well I just watched ‘Once’ again this week, Glen Hansard is great in that film, could he sing it? That would be amazing wouldn’t it?”

“I guess all of us independent musicians are just looking for a reaction. People like it hopefully. Maybe they hate it. But I hope they don’t ignore it.”

“It was recorded and mixed in my small bedroom at home, all into my iPad, mixed and mastered on my iPad. My background is playing solo, open mic or solo gigs, so I lean towards the simple arrangements. The track number soon goes up when you add in the backing Volta’s though, you can’t avoid it!”

“I’m looking forward to playing live though. I can give some of my own songs a run. I want to find out how they go down with a live audience. Music is about communicating isn’t it? A recording is only one way though; when you play live you get the feedback you need as a performer.”

admin