Kilford The Music Painter

2011 Happy Flash

2012-01-07T16:14:00.000-08:00

Hello 2012 people, I've been very conscious that i haven't blogged for a few months i miss it loads so apologies for the delay. Anyway, so i was just looking through the pictures on my phone tonight in an attempt to pick out some of my favourite moments of 2011 to blog about and i saw this picture. It's by far my fav bit of art in 2011 (other than my own of course ;o) ... I saw it at Frieze, its called Ajar by Gavin Turk and i happen to think its a totally genius piece of work, it makes me think so much... does it have the same impact on you?

Okay...I'm getting back to my phone and looking through the rest of my pics, I will blog next week with more Happy Flashes from 2011 but thought you might like this in the mean time.

Love
Kx

One day in a life of London Fashion Week

2011-09-21T05:32:00.000-07:00

Hello hello. I drove down to see the parents last Friday night to make sure I had a nice chill out because I knew that the next day at London Fashion Week was going to be a bit nuts, and I was right.

It all started at midday when I met Brad (CEO of Big Machine Media), who not only is a very good friend but also looks after my PR. After the “Heeeeeey Killllllll” *note New York accent* we jump in a cab and leg it to Spijkers en Spijkers at Il Bottaccio, Grosvenor Place.

Next, cab to Jacob Klimmie, I totally loved his show and the sense of medieval monogamy which was perhaps not representative of the whole show but for me was specifically brought about by the use of dove prints, the perfect classical music that accompanied the show and my favourite look was this spectacular wedding dress.

I had lunch with Brad and new friends Shelly, Steven, Pablo who were a great bunch of characters, they’ve been involved in fashion for many years so it was great to hear stories about early old Galliano and Chanel shows. Then off to the Fashion Mode shows at The Freemason’s Hall, which focuses on new graduate designers. First up Lako Bukia…here we are all at her show. (yes thats me with my glasses, which by the way i've managed to lose and i'm well gutted about cuz they are the pair i wore when i painted live with Iggy at Knebworth)

(picture robbed from Style & Then Some Blog)

Next up Carlotta Actis Barone, James Hillman and Florian Jayet. I really loved James Hillmans work, as it had a real contemporary edge to it and something that I can see myself wearing, I had a beer with him at the after party and he asked me what my favourite look was from his show…this was it. these trousers are lush eh.

I actually felt inspired by the shows because i've missed being involved in fashion and for a long time I’ve been seriously thinking of designing my own clothes simply because I can’t find a look I like…especially coats, I love coats more than anything.

After Fashion Mode, we jumped into a car and off to sound check for the Fashion Mode party, Brad does the PR for Daniela Brooker who was performing at the party, she's 17 and has already had her tunes played Chris Evans show. Then off to Shoreditch House for a chill out couple of drinks and I bumped into another New Yorker, Alex Davis (I have a major soft spot for the New York accent by the way). Alex owns a label called The Cobra Society which produce totally fab luxury hand made boots (of which Beyonce is a bit of a fan - says Vogue) …for me finding decent boots is a complete pain in the ass cuz of my chunky size 12 hooves, and I sooooo soooo need a new pair….I hope Alex reads this, nudge nudge wink wink kiss kiss cuddle cuddle cuddle :oP

So that was my Saturday at London Fashion Week. Next i want to hit Paris fashion week, i've never been to Paris (i know, thats ridiculous isn't it) and another reason to go is the below picture! this was sent to the studio by facebook fan Lauren this weekend from Paris...its a sign eh in more ways than one, so i just gotta go! :o)

One Love

Things that recently made me happy...

2011-09-03T06:17:00.000-07:00

Gay Pride in Manchester (28th August 2011)

The orchid that Pocket Rocket and 2:1 bought for me

This chimney when the sun hits it

The windows I see when I wake up

My sunglasses shelf (although I need to update my collection)

My new hair style. Slick innit..feat my 'I Love Manchester Tshirt'

Finally figuring out after 6 weeks how to open my utterly shit washing machine!

My thinking street lamp as a ponder over a cigarette

Shoreditch House, The Vaccines & how to holiday when single?

2011-07-21T13:16:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I painted live at Shoreditch House with The Vaccines. The weekend before I was painting Anthraz at Knebworth …Anthraz, Vaccines…see what I did there!...get it?? Anyway The Vaccines sounded great and …. Oh, before I go on, I am a bit worried that this blog is turning into a sycophantic ass kissy “oh its great, your great, we are all great” kinda thing, but as you know I only paint music I love…which is why stuff about my painting is always positive. I will write about some depressing none-music painting shit soon I promise.

So back to The Vaccines, you gotta see them, I simply love “If you wanna” and they played it on Sunday during a very intimate acoustic set, i love acoustic sets because for me it brings the songs back to basics…plus on top of which they are proper top blokes. You can see loads of pictures from the gig on my Facebook page...This is the boys doing If You Wanna at Glasto...quality tune eh.

For all you Americans reading this, if your in New York on the 6^th Aug you gotta go to Escape to New York as they are playing the same night as my mates Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros (who i painted live with earlier this year in london) its like two of my fav bands in one night man! Final thing about last sunday…massive hug out to Jessie and Vannessa at Shoreditch House, for being so very lovely.

Okay, I was gonna finish the blog here, but some depressing shit just jumped into my head and I did promise some depressing shit to you right. Here’s the kafuffle, I need a holiday, big time. Problem is three fold (1) I hate travelling alone (yeah I’m soft like that) (2) I’m single i.e. no woman to sit on a beach with (3) all my mates are not single. So upshot is I’m confused and was considering OSHO in India for a chill out or/and contrasting it with a Krav Maga boot camp (hard core Isreali military police self defence shit).

So, any suggestions on what to do in such predicaments would be gratefully received or failing that if you happen to know the following lovely ladies.. tell them to give me a shout if they want to relax on a beach for a bit, Katie Melua, Adele, J-Lo, Anne Hathaway, Claire Forlani, Jenifer Aniston, Patricia Arquette (in her True Romance days), Emily Blunt, Keira Knightly, Denise Richards or Rachel McAdams…have you seen “Time Travellers Wife”, I watched it the other day and Rachel is in it, soppy I know but, I’m not ashamed to admit that I do have relatively regular romantic film tendencies.

Speaking of Denise Richards, I read in GQ this month (by they way Dylan Jones if you're reading this i have a great cover concept) that Charlie Sheen got paid over £1m per episode of that programme he used to be in, that I never watched and cant remember the name of….crazy shit that.

Catch you soon.

One Love

Kxx

Painting Anthrax & Turbogeist at Sonisphere...music to bite your tongue to.

2011-07-11T17:40:00.000-07:00

That pic on the left is me this time last year after i just painted live with Iggy at Sonisphere 2010 and became the first painter to paint live on stage at Knebworth. This may not be much to some, but to me it’s a proper big deal. The reason it’s so important is because I started painting noddy little pictures of music about 8 years ago, as I sat at my kitchen table and dreaming of painting music for bands on stage as an artistic representation of their music from that specific performance. At that time everyone I knew (apart from a very special one or two) thought I was a complete muppet.

This weekend I painted at Knebworth Sonisphere for the second year running, during the Anthrax gig on Friday and Turbogeist on the Sunday.

Painting Anthrax was awesome, they’re one of those childhood rock bands that i was nuts about, I mean I remember drawing their logo at home and and school. One of the beautiful things about what I do is being able to look back through the important music in my life and then paint that very same music live, its quite a privilege. This is the final painting, which Anthrax described as a “messterpiece” (I’m soooo robbing that word when people ask me to describe my work from now on).

Sunday I visited my twitter mate Jeremy in the Gibson Bus, I’ve never felt like I’m a good enough guitarist to own a Gibson but I may just have to practice more and treat myself. I’m gonna head down and see the Gibson studio in London soon which I’m proper excited about.

I left Gibson and legged it to the jagermeister stage to paint with Turbogeist. When I met the guys I was surprised that they had seen the vid i posted two nights before, which was just a piss take vid (although i do love Adele and Sonisphere), but for those of you yet to experience the lyrical genius that is me singing (pretty badly) about Sonisphere in the style of Adele’s Someone Like You, here it is.

Back to Turbogeist, they are shit hot, FACT. I was painting next to Josh on drums, who I have to say was smashing them to bits which had a big influence on the painting. I didn’t see the performance because the music pinned me to the canvas, but I do remember turning around having a mutual affirming nod with Jimmy as he swigged some tequila between songs, I also remember Luis coming over mid way rubbing his hands on the painting and then continuing to play the guitar… which added a bit of colour to his Fender.

The other thing I remember distinctly is that that Turbogeist caused me to almost bite my tongue off, Van Gogh may think he was pretty 'ard cutting his ear off…but you try biting your own tongue off and I’ll be impressed!

It happened during the guitar solo of the last songs, i was well into it, and for any of you that’s seen me in action, you know I get into it when I’m in my little zone. The end of the solo was marked by Josh smashing back into the song as I landed from a jump at the same time, which was the exact point I forgot to move my tongue back far enough, it proper hurt, I proper screamed but noone could hear me.

To wrap this rather long blog up, I leave Sonisphere 2011 with fond memories and that’s all thanks to everyone at Sonisphere and Kilamanjaro (particulary Stuart and Steve for looking after me), the bands and their management, the stage crew, Alison, Martin (from Degeneration Films) who was recording the weekend and of course Guy Levy on photography.

Theres loads of pics and a vid coming to but in the mean time come and say hi on facebook. I for one am off to listen to some humpback whale music for a few days as a come down to my weekend of metal.

One love

Jude and I, our first song.

2011-06-03T12:58:00.000-07:00

So, as i mentioned in my last blog, i happened to spot a sad looking guitar in a dodgy 2nd hand shop in manchester...and i had to have it. Facebook Fabs' suggested names for him (yes a guitar has to have a name)...and i decided to go with Jude which was suggested by the lovely Nadine (@daysofjune on twitter)...and to make him even happier I wrote his name on him in Swarovski.

So, since last week Jude and i have been spending a lot of time together, so far we've written half a song together. Here is the first couple of verses for your reading pleasure.

We'll keep you updated on how this develops, i have a feeling that Jude and I will be booking a studio pretty soon :o)

One Love
Kx

The things I've loved recently...

2011-05-28T01:46:00.000-07:00

Manchester. I love Manchester. I love that people call people 'Love' in Manchester. I love that Manchester has made me call people love when I’m in London...and at the end of text messages.

One Love (my monthly music painting installation in London). It was One Love #13 on the 23^rd May. I painted two great bands, Buildings and then Orlando Seale & The Swell who were both fabulous. Check all the pictures out on Facebook.

I spotted a very sad looking guitar in the window of a 2^nd hand shop in Manchester, I loved it immediately, so had to buy it. He is about to be named by Facebook fans and made much much happier (yes it is a He).

I’m loving my photography buddy Charles Moriarty, he shot me recently…I really love this picture, I will be running a competition with some of his other other shots so keep an eye out!

I’m loving Double Denim. Hell yeah I’m rocking the look a lot. I'm gonna start a Facebook Double Denim appreciation society or such like and take pictures of people i spot double deniming hahaha

Love my Bose headphones, I love the Bose sound. I also love cleaning my ears with ear buds, so Bose get double love.

Finally, I loved Cliff Richard's tshirt (yes you did read that correctly) that he wore whilst singing a version of Devil Woman (love that song).... 'I'm Nearly Famous', quality.

One Love.

Memories make Resurrections

2011-04-24T06:49:00.000-07:00

Sorry its been so long since I blogged. To be completely honest I’ve had a deeply upsetting few weeks and couldn’t bring myself to write anything. I experienced the loss of someone who was, for a very long time, an incredibly important person in my life…so it totally slammed the brakes on everything else in my head and heart.

This experience caused me to think lots about death, living and love. I’ve realized that I’ve found solace in wonderful memories, because these memories brought about an inner presence.

You may know by now that I’m a big fan of Paulo Coelho and Eckhart Tolle, both of which have Christian references and talk about how important it is to live one’s life with a connection to the present moment, the universal oneness that people are starting to realise more and more. With that in mind, as I’m sitting on the train surrounded by chocolate on Easter Sunday I think about what today really celebrates, the resurrection of Jesus.

Whilst I’m a Christian, I wouldn’t say I’m particularly religious, I know that’s probably not the best thing to say today of all days, but I do know that Jesus said he came to help mankind live 'abundantly', and that he lives 'within us'. For me these are two critically important life messages irrespective of your religious views. The first being, to make your memories living your life with that connection to 'oneness' (which is tough i know!), the second thing which I’ve realized recently is, our memories of the people we’ve loved and lost are actually their resurrection and as long as we have memories, they are not lost at all, they are celebrated and alive within us.

الحب واحد, 一愛, jedna ljubav, ایک محبت, jedna láska, en kærlighed, een liefde, ibig isa, un amour, μια αγάπη, एक प्यार, ein ást, satu cinta, Is breá amháin, un amore, いずれかの愛, 하나 사랑, jedna miłość, um amor, o iubire, одна любовь, Оне Лове, ena ljubezen, moja upendo, หนึ่งความรัก, bir aşk, một tình yêu, un cariad...One Love.

Kx

Someone Like You

2011-03-23T15:36:00.000-07:00

I’ve been listening to this incredible song by Adele pretty much all day and had a rare moment with it a few hours ago, just shows the power of music i suppose.

The piano is like a button that, when switched on make both sides of my throat swell and pulsate, my top eyelids get hotter and sting my eyes slightly. It feels like my corneas are now tear police at a crying riot holding back the tears that are being shoved forward violently by the music creating a build up of pressure, that occasionally gets to the point where my vision is blurred and i cant see the keyboard.

My brain doesn’t quite realize there’s tears trying to get through because I’m a geezer and I don’t cry easily, but my heart knows very well what's going on because it is beating faster as each emotive lyric resonates deeper and deeper sparking flashes of memories that have been locked away dormant for a long time and when they wake up they jolt me making my lips hold each other with an awkward nervousness as if they were two people about to kiss for the first time.

Every line of the song wakes up another memory, every jolt puts more and more pressure on the tear police, until the moment finally arrives and the tear police think “fuck this”…and one tear gets its freedom.

Loadsapainting.....One Love #12

2011-03-20T12:38:00.000-07:00

Don’t you just love sunny cold Sundays, best type of days other than hot sunny Sundays! Anyway, I’m not a weather chating person, back to business. Its been a bit of a mad one this month, what with painting Alice Russell a couple of weeks ago and then Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros the same week, and piff paff poof a week later its One Love #12….my monthly music painting installation where I invite musicians to The Social to have their music painted.

You might not know this but every month fan (Josh Bloomer) shoots other fans in the creation of a one love video that precedes the gig. This month two fans did a cover of One Love and did 'that' one love walk from Oxford Circus to The Social. I’m kinda thinking that getting bands to do a cover of One Love on that route would be cool every month eh?

So I’ve got another couple of great bands to be painted this month, first up are Air Castles, if there is one thing I love is really simple and great piano riffs and with Air Castles the first two songs I heard of theirs both had it, Broken Watches and Quietly.

Last up is Paper Crows, think avant-garde meets unexpected synthy sounds with very interesting beats and your close to what this two piece are all about. They’ve already been pointed out by Paul Lester (Guardian’s new band of the day journo)and I got to say, the man is right!

I just finished chatting to some of you on live stream, am really sorry for the echo thing, dunno what that was but big ups to Nadine, Kelly, Sylvie, Kaye, Aiden and you other guys...i will reschedule another one soon. In the mean time hit me here for the One Love #12 Event Page on Facebook and proper important, don’t forget I stream this live for all you guys that cant make it and you will be able to watch here at 8:30pm tomorrow (12^th March London time)

See you there

One Love

Painting Live with Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

2011-03-14T01:26:00.000-07:00

I was watching the film, The Pursuit of happiness the other day and there’s a bit in it when he finally gets the job that he’s been working towards for ages and he says something about life having special moments of happiness.

Well, I had one of those last night, as I was painting live with Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros who I’ve been waiting for in London for well over a year now. I only paint bands whose music I love, but occasionally I paint live with bands who are personally very close to my heart because their music has at some moment in my life touched me profoundly. Iggy was one, The Charlatans another, Black Eyed Peas were and Paul Weller too….Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros are one such band.

The gig wasn’t just a gig, it was so much more. It was a very unique experience because the band had curated various installations of art and music in other parts of the Old Vic Tunnels. My favorite being the sun and the moon, but there were people doing portraits, a harpist, a guy walking around with a wooden horse and gorgeous women dressed up in what I think was Victorian dress. All this added to a vibe that was incredibly difficult to define other than it being a special inclusive connection to fans. Furthermore this unique interactive connection with the audience was further compounded by the way the band entered the stage, through the middle of the crowd lead by a large drum booming in the air. This i thought was just brilliant.

I had a cigarette with Jade & Rome during the day and a chat with Alex, a few other bands members and their manager later on. The thing that struck me immediately was the genuine friendly, chilled out nature of everyone, which was clearly the source of the magical vibe. For me this magic shines though in their music, it’s the this magic that hooked me on them so long ago and on a fundamental level its this magic that makes Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros what they are, and what they are makes me happy, I like being happy.

In terms of the actual painting, I don’t remember anything from the experience other than when Aaron (I think it was Aaron) came up to me during a song saying it looked cool and that he’s been watching me, oh and I also remember the whistling at the start of Home, which was their last song, but I don’t remember painting it. All I remember is the the feeling, a feeling of freedom to express music in that moment, which was both beautiful and exhausting.

Overall, this was a very special night, with a very special band and I feel incredibly special to have been part of it. However, the only problem being the music painter is that i miss the actual gig, in that i saw the music but not the band...so my mission now is to actually go to their gig and see them perform at some point soon. From the pictures on the night it looked amazing, you can see them all here, if you're quick and tell me which one is your fav you may win something from this actual gig so check them out!

As a final note, and this is important. I've talked about happiness in my own little peice of music painting world on saturday, and for that moment it is all I focus on. However this is experienced in the context of wider thoughts for those close to my heart that are fighting serious illness, who inspire me to appreciate the importance of our time, health and dreams, which are far too often forgotten.

My thoughts are also with those in Japan, I've just used this British Red Cross link to donate some money, use it too if you want.

One Love.

So much music to paint such a fab time!!

2011-03-10T15:45:00.000-08:00

So I’ve just painted with me old mate Alice Russell, I had to leg it to Euston after to catch the 9:40 back to the studio and get ready for Saturday, i'm sitting on the train covered in paint actually, but still look cool :o) Anyway am gutted because I didn’t get to speak to her after and have a cuddle, I’ve painted twice with Alice and I’d do it every day if I could. Big kisses to you Alice love xxxx

Other stuff, and this is soooo exciting. You know I’ve been banging on about Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros for the past year, using them in the One Love #4 video, getting DJ’s to play them in Dubai etc… well I’m painting live with them on Saturday! Am so pleased, because it almost didn’t happen, they’re playing at The Old Vic Tunnels which is a teeny little venue with a small stage and they are a big gang! so there was a good few weeks of anticipation to see if they could fit me on . But, it turns out they can, although its still gonna be a squeeze, but to be honest, after painting The Charlatans at The Social everything seems spacious. This is the picture of the stage Alison sent me today as she was chatting to their manager. God I’m so buzzing about this one its untrue.

What else, well One Love #11 was rocking with Missing Andy, your so going to see those boys a lot more and of course I also painted the wonderful Charlene Soraia who I reckon would also make a great stand up comedian. Tallulah Rendall had her album launch and my painting was in the show which was very sexy.

Finally, I’m not a big trainer guy, I’m much more of a shoe guy, but I got myself a pair of Adidas Samba (with illuminous strips), and you know what I love em! Erm, what else, been eating shit load of marks and spenser Belgian choc covered raisins, been trying to figure out why I need a iPad, been designing shit load of stuff, especially coats, coats, I love coats, and my new bespoke coat is ready very very soon. Oh and I bought a gorgeous little rubber bracelet from Swarovski, you guys gotta get one, 20 notes for some sparkles, so very very worth it.

Okay am outta here. Will be back after I painted with Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros yeeeeeeeeey.

One Love

We come One (Love)

2011-02-11T10:28:00.000-08:00

hey hey hey, so my One Love monthly live music painting installation has its first birthday on 14^th January, yeah valentines day, this monday, physically in London, electronically all over the wooooooorld. I started One Love because I wanted to build a home where great musicians could come and have their music painted in addition to me going out and joining them on stage at their gigs. I also wanted people to be able to come to an intimate venue and experience music painting close up, and finally I wanted it to help the charity I have supported for years The Sam Buxton Healing Trust. So a year on, we did it and when I say ‘we’ I mean we as in you too...it wouldn’t have been achieved without all of you guys on Facebook and twitter, seriously.

When I look back over the last year, it makes me tingle to think One Love has grown so much, 50 odd thousand of you have been wearing your One Love stickers with pride. When I looked behind me as I was painting at Knebworth with Iggy last summer, I saw what 50,000 people looks like….trust me, it’s a lot! Plus 600 original One Love paintings have been sent to fans all over the world and thousands of you everywhere have been watching One Love live online every month. Check out Josh's vid that he did summarising a One Love year...cool eh.

So, to celebrate One Loves 1^st birthday and for the 11^th installation I called two totally awesome bands. First to be painted will be Charlene Soraia, I’m always on the look out for amazing solo artists with incredible gifted vocals, and you will see and hear that Charlene is exactly that.

Then, in contrast, after Charlene we are going indie rock with no other than Missing Andy, really cant wait to see these boys, you've probably seen them splashed over the sun, sky tv and BBC. Check our this vid from when they played on Sky. Awesome eh! I know i have an eclectic music taste...but i'm Indie born and bred so proper pleased the boys are celebrating One Loves bday!

Right, One Love #11, Valentines night 14^th Feb, The Social (2 mins from oxford circus), 8pm…click here for the Facebook Event page thing, tell me ya love me on twitter here if you want :o) One Love this simply has to be the fabbest thing to do on valentines night (however complex your love life situation is I reckon)!

Grab your £5 ticket from here now because we can only hold 150 people (all the dough goes to charity). If you cant make it in person you can join us online by clicking www.themusicpainter.com/live at 8:30ish.

Oh, one last thing...to celebrate the One Loves 1st birthday, i'm giving away a special edition original piece of art to the 4 main fan areas i.e. Facebook, Twitter, physical audience at One Love #11 and also live streamers at One Love #11. I have created only 20 of these and 5 will go to each fan group. To win one...Facebook fans write 'One Love' on my wall. Twitter fans put #onelove in your tweet...the rest of you will get instructions on the night.

Cool, see ya there.

One Love

My 10 most important songs of 2010

2011-01-26T04:27:00.000-08:00

Sometimes a song touches you at a specific moment in your life and it leaves its mark on you forever. This blog lists 10 of my most important songs of 2010, all of them left a mark on me, it was bloody difficult to get this down to just 10 but here goes:

Songs 10 – 2 in no particular order:

Last of the Ladies by The Courteeners: from the moment I heard this song I was hooked. The haunting vocals and spectacularly beautiful lyrics that describe a feeling that everyman wants I’m sure. I was sitting on a beach on my own in Australia with this on repeat for like a whole day.

Red by Daniel Merriweather: this is the song that my sister and I sing in our pretend x-factor auditions. Every time I hear this I see us in the car singing it out loud using blackberrys as mics. Love ya sister.

Girl on a swing by Galen Ayers: I’ve always loved the extreme delicacy of Galen’s voice. She visited my studio and performed her new solo stuff as I painted it, no audience, no live web stream just musician and music painter, it was beautiful.

Empire State of Mind by Jay-Z feat Alicia Keys: For me, this could possibly be my song of the decade. It’s the piano, the drums, the lyrics and Alicias vocals are just incredible and never fail to make me smile. It took me a year to paint this song and I finished it in 2010

Deaf Dumb and Blind by Angrydan: Another One Love musician and i have to say one of the coolest people I met in 2010, also one of very few CD’s that I leave in Betsy (my car) because I listen at least once per week, it chills me out.

Somebody to Love me by Mark Ronson: This song jumped out from the album, loved Boy George's vocals too. I had lunch with Mark in 2009 in NYC at the time he was writing the album, so it was awesome to hear the outcome and then bump into him at MOBO’s and Freeze Festival in 2010.

Home by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros: I absolutely love the connection that Edward and Jade have in this song. “Holy moly me oh my you’re the apple of my eye, aint never loved one like you” what a great lyric, I have flashbacks of laying in Hyde Park looking a the sky smiling to this song. I cant understand how it hasn’t been a hit in the UK, I have to paint these guys live and I'm sure our lovely buddies at Rough Trade Records have already sent my love to them yaaaaay :o)

Love Lust by King Charles: I remember seeing the video and totally loving the opening vocal and lyrics, a few months later I was painting King Charles at One Love and when The London Evening Standard did a story on me they used a whole page photo of me painting them. These boys are gonna be proper massive.

MY MOST IMPORTANT SONG OF 2010

I wanna be your dog by Iggy & The Stooges: I remember being on stage at Knebworth Sonisphere with Iggy to my left, those huge opening chords, I remember purple, fucking loads of purple and i remember screaming out as 50,000 people in the audience were doing the same. That moment will be with me for the rest of my life for sure, as will this song! Here's the picture which i think was taken very close to that moment....and heres the song too....hope you enjoy.

If you want to add some of your most important songs, whack em in the comments if you like :o)

One Love
Kx

Musical Beauty, Dare to Dream and music that makes me man cry!

2011-01-25T11:34:00.000-08:00

Wow, 2011's first blog. Well I had a wonderful chilled out Christmas with my parents and Sis, was so cool to hang out with them and eat stupid amounts of quality street (except the green triangles, i dont eat those ones), I hope you lot had a wicked time too.

Before I start, you should know that I totally fkn hate January, more than anything (well most things), lots of shit always goes down in January for me and this january was both the exception and the rule.

The exception being One Love #10. Wow, what a night, the first One Love of the year, to be honest with you I was considering cancelling it because I didn’t think anyone would come what with it being January and all, but oh how wrong I was!! It was such a beautiful night, such wonderful music, such a great crowd of people and hundreds of you tuned in online to watch live...so thank you all very much.

I wanted One Love #10 to be relaxing and beautiful, Gwenno (who i painted first) is usually jumping around in The Pipettes but she performed her solo stuff at One Love #10. I knew she had a gorgeous voice but the real gorgeousness of it hit home during sound check, incredibly beautiful voice, beautiful lyrics and a very beautiful lady too.

Next i painted Alexander Wolfe, who was in the NY Post top 10 to watch in 2011. I met Mr Wolfe during the John Cage 4:33 recording at Dean Street Studios and we just clicked instantly, then I went to a gig in December which was amazing. Luckily it was dark cuz he’s one of very few singers that can instigate a 'musicpainter man cry' hahaha and that puts him in my 'man cry music charts' with the likes of Neil Young, Elton, John Lennon, Anthony Hegarty, Adele, The Courteeners, Oasis and I proudly admit it, the occasional listen of Goodbye My Lover! (click on the artists to hear the man-cry-song) So yeah Gwenno and Alexander Wolfe...love ya both.

I promised some of you Facebook fans I’d answer your questions, so here goes. Nope, I don’t do resolutions, I do aspirations and I’m still developing them for 2011. Styling for me this year is all about the ‘coat’ and I’ve got two being made for me at the moment by London’s fabbest rock-chic tailor, I can't wait! I’m a grower not a shower, that’s all I’m saying. The meaning of life is to paint the best goddam painting in the world, then be happy, or maybe visa versa. Style tips for men - lipstick is okay, if you like it - lippy it. The sky is blue because blue light has a smaller wavelength and it gets slapped about big time by the gas molecules in the air and some hits your eye, hence you see blue skies. The 2011 tattoo is a Galilean Aramaic translation of Dare To Dream (the language Jesus spoke) this is it here, I love it so much that its going to share my forearm with my One Love tattoo.

Okay, that’s it until next week. In the mean time my next One Love (#11) is gonna happen on the 14^th Feb, yeah Valentines night (click for the Facebook Event). If you want to come down with your lover, that’s great, if its complicated or your taking time out between lovers thats great too, if you got lots of lovers, hurry up and pick one (or more than one if thats your thing) and come down. Its going to be an awesome night and not only because its Valentines, but more importantly it’s One Loves first birthday yaaaaay, i cant believe we've been doing this a year now!!!! So reserve your £5 to charity ticket now online from here because the 150 tickets are already flying out the door like One Love shaped hotcakes!!

More to follow real soon, sending you love and light wherever you are.

One love

Thank you for 2010 !

2010-12-20T09:25:00.000-08:00

I’ve been reflecting on 2010 this week and want to take a moment to give thanks for some of the stuff that made it a very special year. 2010 was a biggy, oh my was it a biggy…firstly my monthly One Love live music painting installations started in Feb 2010 and its grown so very much, its had great press and people know its where great musicians come to have their music painted, and not just not just in London either, hundreds of you guys have been tuning in from all over the world to watch the live stream of One Love each month, which blows me away!

I’ve painted live on stage with so many amazing musicians this year, there’s simply too many to talk about (if you are interested after you read this you can click here and see the list so far). BUT, I have to mention the experience of painting live with Iggy at Knebworth and whilst this experience cant be put into words, the flashbacks will be with me until the day meet my maker and then some. Actually I’m probably going to have my headstone inscribed with “p.s Sonisphere/Knebworth/Iggy…fucking rocked!” and if by that time I can have a monitor in my headstone this will be one of the videos looped on it hahaha.

In 2010 I’ve had the pleasure to meet and work with so many truly wonderful, creative and talented people who I am sure I will be working with for years to come, again there is just too many to list but very special were Alison, Josh, Guy, AKW, Carl, Martin, Dylan, Beth, Steve J, Stuart G, Francis, Dan, Brad... everyone else you know who you are.

I wont bullshit you, behind the scenes it’s been a tough year too, painting pictures isn’t the easiest of paths to take (yes even when your paintings are as fkn fab as mine :o) I’ve learnt a lot about love, a lot about life, a lot about loss, a lot about me, belief and trust and yeah I made some pretty fucking big mistakes too. But as the door closes on this year I’m smiling, I’m incredibly grateful, I have no regrets and I’m extremely excited about stuff coming up in 2011.

I will say this, and I know some people take the piss when I say this but i dont care. If it hadn’t of been for you guys on Facebook, all of your comments, continuous support with sharing my art, suggesting to friends and being involved in One Love (and buying merch – which you can from here ;o) I really don’t think I could have done what I have done this year. So thank you for being with me the whole time, like I said the painting path is a tough one but having you lot strutting with me is really special.

After I’ve posted this blog I’m going to be offline for a while because I need to have a cuddle with my brain and get it in shape for 2011. I will be back in the new year in time for January’s One Love #10 (17^th Jan - FB event thing here) which is gonna be really great!

Until then, I’m going to miss you lot on Facebook loads (and Twitter), I just hope you’re still gonna be here when I come back!! So, my final online words in 2010 are to you and your families, I wish you all a beautifully happy Christmas (or happy holidays if your not the Christmas type) and a proper shit hot new year.

One Love.

A white website xmas for Cage Against The Machine

2010-12-13T01:40:00.000-08:00

I was painting live during the recording of Cage Against The Machine at Dean Street Studios, and as you know John Cages 4’33” composition is void of notes, and as such my painting is void of paint. This doesn’t mean that its nothing, for me (albeit I’m obviously bias) it’s a critically important live music painting because when you first look at it you think it’s a white canvas. However this is not the case, it is far from 'just' a white canvas, it is a blank canvas with nothing on it, the painting represents that moment of clarity which is usually when the most profound ideas come to you, it symbolizes potential and hope...and so, out of the nothingness comes everything.

I had a moment of clarity myself on friday, as I was thinking about showing this online and an idea came to me on Friday, I had a vision where I saw loads of websites using this painting on their whole front screen at 4:33 am and pm for 4 minutes 33 seconds. To any passer by it would just look like a white screen, but to those in the know its much more than that!

This installation is now programmed into my website and will commence today to mark the release of the Cage Against The Machine track. The clever guys at Idea Junction have also set up a special page on my website with a video from me and where you can download the code and replicate the painting installation on your website too.

So this is a call to action to webmasters and friends everywhere, it doesnt matter what your website is, you can still take part. I’m not sure how many of you will replicate but this but I had to do it because the thought that if you go online at 4:33am or pm and you just see loads of blank websites supporting Cage Against The Machine would be brilliant.

If you want to replicate this installation go to this special page (www.themusicpainter.com/433) where you can download the zip file containing the image, the code and the install guidance. My web guys at Idea Junction are on hand to help if you have any problems, their email address is in the readme file.

One Love.

Painting Cage Against the Machine 4’33”… Come on feel the noise!

2010-12-09T01:47:00.000-08:00

This isn’t meant to be a history lesson but for those of you that don’t know, John Cage was pretty cool (yup he’s dead). He was an American composer and one of his famous compositions was a piece called 4’33” which instructed the musician to not play anything because the piece consists of the sounds of the environment that listeners hear while it is performed. What a lot of people don’t know is he trained with Arnold Schoenberg, who was also a composer but Arnie was the dude that inspired and worked with Kandinsky in the early 1900’s, and whilst I totally kick Kandinsky’s ass :o) its these creative historic links, the concept of an avant-garde piece of music being number one for Christmas whilst helping important charities that really flicks my switch.

So on Monday 6^th December I joined a load of musicians in Dean Street Studios, the musicians were there to record 4’33” and I was there to paint the music as they performed it. There must have been 60 odd musicians that turned up including The Kooks, Mr Hudson, Dan Le Sac, Imogen Heap, Orbital, Gallows, UNKLE, Ou Est Le Swimming Pool with Dick Carruthers filming it all (Oasis film God) and producers extraordinaire Paul Epworth, Clive Langer & Charlie Rapino doing their stuff in the booth.

So we all crammed into the live room, I was standing next to the piano behind Mr Hudson, Chas Smash and Joe from Ou Est Le Swimming Pool with Suggs on my right. We had a count down and then, for 4 minutes and 33 seconds people were silent. This tiny clip is 30 seconds before the recording started.

We started, my paints were open on the floor ready to be used and both of my hands were on the canvas as I got into my usual painting zone, but for the duration I didn’t see any colours, which is not a surprise considering there were no instruments being played. So I applied no paint on the painting, yes the completed painting is void of paint.

Photo by Carina Jirsch

This painting is shocking, because is a true representation of the music, it highlights that nothingness doesn’t exist, there were no notes in the recording but that is what made it special and similarly there’s no paint on the painting and that’s special too. This painting prompts the viewer to question what they are looking at, indeed if you’re like me it will make you ask questions of yourself. When I install this painting I am considering putting a restriction on the viewer, in that, the viewer must look at it for 4 minutes and 33 seconds. If you agree, feel free to say on a comment below.

Big shouts to some proper cool people from the day, Joe from Ou Est Les Swimming Pool and XFM Eddy Temple Morris for pulling it all together, Mr Jones, Luke from The Kooks who I have to paint one day, Mr Hudson too, the gorgeous Alice Russell, Alexander Wolfe, it was a pleasure to see Dick do his stuff. Oh yeah cheers to Chas Smash for the almost twisting my head off, Dan La Sac, who’s track Thou Shalt Kill will always be with me, the boys from Digeneration Films who did the live streaming and of course Jazz, Valerie and the guys from Dean Street Studios, and finally John and Julie, the wife of Dave who is also an artist and the dude who started the Facebook page campaign in the first place, fair play.

So, this is what you do now. You go to the Cage Against the Machine Facebook Page, check it out zap to iTunes and buy the bloody thing. Personally, i think you're gonna love it. Plus as you buy it remember you’re actually helping the following extremely worthy and underfunded charities: CALM, British Tinnitus Association, Nordoff Robbins, Youth Music, Sound and Music.

One Love.

'THAT' Gay Times naked shoot for World AIDS Day

2010-11-29T03:30:00.000-08:00

The phone rings a month ago and its my publicist, Brad, who in his New Yorker accent says “Kils baaaaaby, you wanna get naked for Gay Times’s Terrence Higgins World AIDS Day edition?”, half a second later I've said definitely. For two reasons, firstly those of you that know my history will know I’ve always supported AIDS charities such as Elton John AIDS Foundation, I was co-creative director for POSITIVE and ran music painting workshops with AIDS orphans in South Africa (which is an experience that will always be with me) so doing something to help Terrence Higgins Trust just seemed right. Secondly, and honestly, the exhibitionist in me just really wanted to get all my clothes off and be photographed te he.

So, a few additional personal training sessions later, I’m stood in a very cold underground car park in a London hotel with an Aston Martin, with make up artists, shoot director, the editor and photographers for Gay Times magazine totally naked…and you know what I loved every minute of it and had a great laugh with the crew. Actually I just had a FB fan post a photo from the magazine itself, I didn't brush up too bad eh! :o) I've also signed one of these for the GT auction so if you want it, keep an eye on GT site.

Now, it's very seldom that I blush, but this behind the scenes video from the shoot did make my cheeks go a bit rosy have to say!

This was all good fun but it’s important to remember the real serious side to this shoot and the reason I agreed to do this in the first place, 33 million people are still infected with HIV, and over 7,000 are infected every day, that's proper scary numbers eh! There is some good news though, the latest UNAIDS report said that global incidence of HIV infection declined by 19% over the last 10 yrs and the number of AIDS-related deaths is less because of the wider use of antiretroviral therapy.

But, and its a big BUT this doesn’t mean job done, it means we’re going in the right direction and I think there's a risk that when people read a glimmer of good news about stuff they think ‘oh cool, that’s all sorted, we should put money into something else now’. This is totally not the case, its more important now to keep the pressure on, to keep funding new and creative ways to fight the epidemic if the target of Zero new HIV infections, Zero discrimination, Zero AIDS-related deaths is to be achieved.

So fair play to Gay Times, Terrence Higgins Trust and everyone else around the world who is taking part World AIDS Day campaigns.

One Love to you all.

Radio 1, One Love and UK Festival Awards!

2010-11-21T12:16:00.000-08:00

So, what an awesomeasaurous week.

It all started early Sunday morning when I joined Ras Kwame on Radio 1, I sketched some of his mix which was really cool. It's great when you meet someone that just knows his music so very very well. There was something very cool about the four of us bobbing in the studio at 6am on a Sunday, I wanna do it again. Also met Edith Bowman (very cute) and was reminded how fab the scottish accent is.

Then on Monday the day started fab with a new delivery of paints straight from the Daler Rowney factory just in time for One Love #9. I sketched Left Step Band who opened up with massive beat thing going on, they really have a unique sound, plus they are proper cool fellas. Go check em out here.

After Left Step Band I painted Zarif, totally different acoustic set and soulful vocals to die for, I loved painting her, even had a little dance half way through which is a first. There was such a great vibe at One Love, Monday night people are just so goddam cool - check all the pics out here!

Then Thursday its Festival Awards at the O2, I installed two paintings this year that were created live with Skunk Anansie at Sonisphere and Buena Vista Social Club at Standon Calling. I was right pleased to unveil them there, it just seemed natural with the vibe of the night and all that. Big shout out to my Sonisphere, Standon Calling and Robertson Taylor buddies and big thanks to The Festival Awards for being very cool, I had a top night fueled by Smirnoff blueberry I might add yaaay.

What else, had loads of interviews over the last couple of weeks and I've got some telly stuff coming soon too, oh and live live painting as part of the Sessions which will be very cool with Tallulah Rendall first and then Tom Hodge's Paganini Rocks, which does rock I tell thee. Oh that reminds me, Rob Da Bank is going to be there too talking about the Paganini Rocks project and also big up to Rob for Bestival winning best Major Festival this week!....more on this later.

The other thing i have been doing loads is googling myself, yeah I ain't afraid to say it either i'm a self googler and proud of it. The beauty about doing this is i get to read the blogs that people have written about their experiences of my One Love installations and my paintings and how it makes them feel, its really special and thats why if someone has taken the time to express this I'll sure as hell take the time to comment on it. So big thanks to all you bloggers out there, I shall be listing them soon.

One Love.
Kx

One Love #9 with Zarif and Left Step Band!

2010-11-08T06:37:00.000-08:00

One Love #9 on 15th Nov, wow, almost double figures. Anyway for those of you that haven't heard of my One Love installations, its the place where great musicians come to have their music painted each month, by yours truly i.e. Me.

The greatness continues this month with first up ‘Left Step Band’ (who I will be sketching). I was gonna write about them, but they define themselves perfectly and better than I ever could! “big fucking drums….A Natural Mysfit groove collective, The Rivvum, The Rebel, The right move from the Leftfield. The toast of London smeared with the sweetest jams. Beats so fat they clinically obese. Get some LSB on your USB. Wildstyle”….brilliant. My favs are ‘Live for Today’ and ‘Rebels of the Frontline’.

Next up we’re gonna get souled right up, Zarif (who I will be painting).

Tough to know where to start really, firstly she’s gorgeous (did I say that out loud?) …um. Well, if Beyonce thinks she’s cool enough to have supporting her on tour then that says something right? Billboard, The Guardian and News of the world have all been going on about her. Personally, I think any woman (or man for that matter) that can sing Nirvana’s Lake of Fire without totally fucking it up is just fine by me. Her album is recently out called Box Of Secrets, my fav song is ‘You Take The Darkness’ which isn’t on her myspace so you’re just gonna have to grab the album to hear the absolutely beautiful vocals and acoustic guitar on that track…hope she plays this at One Love #9.

Don’t forget if you can’t physically be here, you can still watch online cuz my friends at Digeneration Films are clever bitches and stream the whole thing live online to here www.themusicpainter.com/live

Right, I’m just back from the gym all pumped up and need to go self perv in the mirror at my new found boobies.

One Love.

Do the Facebook event thing HERE and invite squillions (which is actually a word) of mates to watch online...if you do invite loads write on my FB wall and tell me ...I might send you some cool stuff.

Reserve your tickets right now from HERE! ...this will ensure you are one of the 150 people that are allowed in! (all the £ goes to www.cancertherapies.org cuz whilst we are all ultra fkn fabulous, we’re bloody nice people too)

The bands I've painted live so far...

2010-11-03T09:04:00.000-07:00

I've never really had a look back at all the bands I've had to the pleasure to paint live, until now. I didn't realise how many I've painted over the years. Most recent at the top.

Most recent live painting with I Blame Coco at Freeze Festival

37. Tom Hodge at Station Sessions
36. Tallulah Rendall at Station Sessions
35. Zarif at One Love #9

34. I Blame Coco at Freeze Festival

33. Akala at One Love #8

32. Ras Kwame at MOBO Awards

31. Laurel Collective at One Love #7

30. Buena Vista Social Club at Standon Calling Festival

29. Alice Russell at Standon Calling Festival

28. Iggy & The Stooges at Sonisphere Knebworth

27. Pendulum at Sonisphere Knebworth

26. Skunk Anansie at Sonisphere Knebworth

25. King Charles at One Love #6

24. Swami at One Love #5

23. Rotten Hill Gang at The Cobden Club

22. Fran & Josh at One Love #4

21. The Woodentops at One Love #3

20. Stairs to Korea at One Love #4

19. John & Jehn at One Love #1

18. Artwon, Artown, Artnow at Tacheles, Berlin

17. Cerys Matthews at Union Chapel

16. The Magic Numbers at The Social

15. The Woodentops at Queen Elizabeth Hall

14. The Charlatans at The Social

13. Ernest Ranglin at Ronnie Scotts

12. St Etienne at The Social

11. For a Minor Reflection at Nasa, Reykjavik

10. Baaba Maal at BBC Television Centre

9. Kasabian at Royal Albert Hall

8. Status Quo at Porchester Hall

7. Damon Albarn & Brian Eno on Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise

6. Paul Weller & Robert Plant at Porchester Hall

5. Black Eyed Peas at Sun City, South Africa

4. The Charlatans at Brixton Academy

3. Feeder at Birmingham NEC

2. Kaiser Chiefs at Brixton Academy

1. The Feeling at The Academy Birmingham

The band that popped my live painting cherry. The Feeling

Anyone else you think should be on this list?? I for one can think of hundreds!

One Love.

Painting live with I Blame Coco

2010-10-31T03:51:00.000-07:00

I’ve just painted live with I Blame Coco at the Freeze Festival, and I don’t wanna wait to get home to write this incase the tingles go, so I am writing this as the painting and I are being driven home.

I don’t have ‘best’ gigs, one gig is not ‘better’ than another. But sometimes there is a little something extraordinary about the experience, I had it with Black Eyed Peas and more recently with Iggy at Sonisphere Knebworth….and you know what, I had it tonight. I met Coco earlier during the day, she actually studied art and really understood what it is I do. Oh and I checked to see if she was going to play my fav songs Party Bag and Selfmachine, fortunately she was.

I walk on stage with the band, and assume my position. Coco comes on the music starts and boom, pink straight through the middle of the virginal white canvass. I was between Alexis on drums on the right (who smashed the shit out of them) and the keyboards to my left. I remember feeling zapped by all of the instruments at the same time as I was being coated head to toe by some beautiful vocals. I don’t recall much from the experience other than loads of red towards the ends, and the electric guitar prompting slices of yellow during Ceaser I think.

Usually when I paint live I am aware of the crowd to some extent, but for some reason this time I didn’t notice the few thousand people behind me. All I recall is feeling as if I am standing in the middle of the keyboards, drums, bass, guitar and vocals with all of the music coming into me. I do recall at one point between songs, as I was kneeling down, I felt this hand on my shoulder, which totally surprised me because I’m not usually touched as I paint, but it was Coco saying alright, which made me jump at the time but was very cute in retrospect. So yeah, I Blame Coco, thank you, it was one of the most special live painting to date. Oh, you can pre-order her album her debut album 'The Constant' which is out 8th November, its awesome! You can see all the other pictures from the gig on my facebook page.

After I painted I watched New Young Pony Club, I have to say there are very few things in this world more beautiful than a gorgeous woman smashing the shit out of the drums. I bumped into Mark Ronson for the second time in a week, he thought my hair and side burns looked cool, actually I’m sure he was taking the piss just like everyone I know seems to be doing at the moment hahaha. Of course, he smashed out a great set, the highlight being Somebody To Love Me, god I love that song.

One other thing about Freeze Festival that’s worth mentioning, the great vibe, it was very cool (forgive the punn) and a great mix of talent, from music, amazing ski jumps, great mountain biking tricks and to top it off I’ve have never seen so many beautiful blonde women in one festival!

Special thanks to Rich, Katie, Liam, Gav, Sam, Arch, Cat, KT, Alex, the stage manager who’s name I cant remember and Josh Bloomer for photography. But thank you all for being so cool.

Right, I've got to go and sketch in a fans living room today...catch ya later! haha

One Love.

One Love #8, MOBO Awards, Hot Tubs and nude shoots!

2010-10-23T10:55:00.000-07:00

I had one of those great mad busy weeks last week. Monday was One Love #8 (see all the pictures here), Vices went down a storm, I had lots of texts this week about them. Then Akala, this energy force just jumped on stage and boom, hearts and minds are captivated which is really great to experience. I for one will be catching them on tour cuz I kinda miss out on the bands when I am sketching and painting at One Love. Anyway, seriously advise you lot to check Vices on tour here and Akala here. Oh and a special word to all the onliners that watched this month, there were about 300 of you so I'm right chuffed you lot enjoy it from your computer screens too! (special thanks to Digeneration Films for doing the live stream for free!)

Then Wednesday headed up to Liverpool for the MOBO Awards and painted with Radio 1's Ras Kwame, it’s the first time I'd met Ras and I have to say he is one cool muvva! I painted his DJ set which was totally awesome mix up, that reminds me I must get his set list! Afterwards, I went and chilled in the artists area and caught up with Mark Ronson briefly before he went on stage and had a doughnut-off with J2K from Roll Deep. Special thanks to Junior, Reema and Chris for looking after us.

Back to London with vodka and pineapple still running through my veins, I went to the Kilimanjaro/Sonisphere party which, from past party experience with these fab lot tends to be awesome and this was no different. The party was at the faaaab Sanctum Soho Hotel, which is co-owned by Iron Maiden so theres no surprises that there's a hot tub in the roof garden bar. This hot tub being the main cause of me waking up the next morning having lost my pants and shirt and feeling the FEAR hoping I didn’t do my Will Ferrell impression from Old School...which wouldn't have been the first time!

Friday headed to Camden to see LeeLou’s first gig, you probably havent heard of LeeLou yet but I can guarentee you are gonna be hearing much more of this girl. There is something ultra sexy about a woman who gets up and proper gives it some punky power on stage I reckon.

So next week is chokka already, Monday I’ve got a video shoot in the studio for a student film, I’m gonna try and catch Rachael Sage’s gig (remember the gorgeous new Yorker from One Love #5…well her album is on the Grammy pre-shortlist!) and then Vices on Thursday. Between that I have 4 interviews and then I will be topping off the week with a nude photo shoot for a magazine on Friday (yeah I did say nude, more info to follow!!!) and I think I am painting live at a very cool gig after that, which I’ll tell ya about when its all agreed.

Okay, breathe out….One Love.

Music Painter MOBO Mania

2010-10-10T05:03:00.000-07:00

We’re all going a bit MOBO marvelous in the music painter camp at the minute. Next Monday (18 Oct) I have my One Love #8 installation at The Social (2 mins from Oxford Circus). For those of you newbie’s that haven’t been to previous One Love installations, its the place where great musicians come to have their live music painted, I sketch the music of the first band then paint the music of the second and if you cant make it you can watch it live online...yeah we're clever eh! :o)

For this months One Love I will be painting Best Hip Hop MOBO 2006 winner and 2010 Nominee Akala, his XXL track is still bouncing around my brain man, grab this album!! It's...funky as hell XXL, funky as hell XXL ! Hot tip is for him to win Best Hip Hop yet again it again this year!

But before Akala, Vices will be smashing the night open, now you gotta check out their recent album, The Wind I Walk Into (produced by Jeff Saltzman-The Killers), its shit hot and i just love 'Love Dog'! Really cant wait to hear these boys live!

Then just two days later I’m off to Liverpool to paint live at the MOBO’s on the 20th! I’m going to be painting live at the pre-show VIP party. But get this, I’m painting a live DJ set and not a live band so this is going to be a total first for me. I will be painting the set of Radio 1 DJ Ras Kwame so I’m pretty sure his mix up of dance, hip hop, RnB experimental tunes are going inspire a very very interesting painting! I don't know if there's still some tickets left to the MOBO's but check it out here and whilst your there have look at my interview with Reema Kumari Jadeja.

Right, see you all on monday 18th at One Love #8, 7pm at the Social. Oh, I strongly suggest that you book your tickets online right now, it takes 2 seconds and you'll be confirmed as one of only 150 people. BOOK TICKETS HERE (all of your fiver goes to The Sam Buxton Healing Trust)

if you cant make it there in person, don't worry cuz it's all streamed live for you from 8:30pm (London time) at www.themusicpainter.com/live ....check out this cool 2 minute fan video we made for this months installation...cool eh?

One Love. Kx

Eat Pray One Love it!

2010-10-05T04:22:00.000-07:00

Had a really lovely week last week, here’s a quick round up. Monday went to see Eat Pray Love, and totally loved it, I mean really totally loved it, i actually went to the cinema 3 times last week to see it!! Although, I’m pretty sure the film will prompt a global increase in 1) Divorces 2) Tourism to both India and Bali.

Tuesday I announced that I’m going to paint Akala at my next One Love installation on 18th Oct (for those of you that don’t know its where great musicians come to have their music painted every month, by me of course). Akala won best Hip Hop act at the MOBO’s in 2006 and is nominated for it again this year, the awards take place just 2 days after One Love #8 actually. I’m really pleased he’s playing, not just because of the music (i'm addicted to XXL & Yours and My Children!) but, like me, he focuses on mixing the arts up and making it more inspiring and accessible to young people…and that’s important shit man. Check out his website and Hip Hop Shakespeare stuff…proper cool. Anyway, get your ass to One Love #8 (18 Oct @The Social) to see it all go down, and don't forget it will all be streamed live so check out the Facebook event thing! I also announced that Vices will be opening up One Love #8…I’ll talk about them in more detail a bit later (check out Love Dog in the mean time!).

Wednesday was also fab, was hanging out at The Arts Club and had an interview with Reema Kumari Jadeja from the MOBO Awards, who turns out to be related to the Swami crew who I painted at One Love #5. Anyway, fab interview, although weirdly I found myself more interested in talking about Reema than myself (doesn’t happen very often!!) haha…mind you, she is veeeeery pretty, can speak 7 languages, is a DJ, Journalist and wears sparkly shoes…need I say more!??

From there I ran over to Beach Blanket Babylon in Notting Hill (love that place) for Tallulah Randalls single launch for Ghost On The Water, this particular song involves a pole dancer, Amy Richardson Impey and what she was doing was pretty incredible I tell thee!

Friday I woke up to a fab portrait of me that Facebook Fan Sara Brittain created…it made me smile lots! Then saw pictures of Russell Brand wearing my bracelet that I wore when I painted live with Iggy at Knebworth / Sonisphere which was kinda cool cuz only a few people own those little beauties. Then to the gym for a big old work out…couldn’t help do a little self perv in the mirror afterwards (as you do) and realized that finally I have a little bit of peckkage coming on….only taken a year! Yaaaay!

Saturday was in the studio to paint the whole of Mark Ronsons album, which I have to say is fucking great, my favourite is Somebody To Love Me with Boy Georges vocals, his vocals are just bloody brilliant!

Sunday, went to the Tate for my monthly meeting with Mr Pollock, who sends his regards. I love just sitting on the bench staring at Pollock Summertime 9A!

One Love.

Yesterday...all my headaches were so far away!

2010-09-23T15:34:00.000-07:00

I’m never ever ever going to go out partying again, ever, like ever ever... in fact i'm going to buy a house in a forest and chop wood, paint pictures and become a total recluse. Today I was hung over like never before, but perhaps its payback because yesterday was very fab.

Yesterday started fabulously with confirmation that the ultra cool MOBO Award winning musician I wanted to paint live at the next One Love #8 (18th October) is going to happen… I will be announcing who it is very soon.

I went and starfished under a tree in hyde park in the sun, doing my daily visualizations and thinking shit up as I waited for Anika (Aka: Jetset Violet) art blogger and rather brilliant poet. Who, also happens to be one of very few people in the world whose sunglasses collection kicks my ass...utter bitch!! So we strolled down Sloane Street (crossing only on green men) and life updating each other as we headed to Tallulah Rendall's 'artists gathering'.

Tallulah is bringing music and art together in a very special way, for each song on her forthcoming album called ‘Alive’ she has got another artist to create a work of art about one of the songs. So last night all the artists met up for the first time and watched all the videos (click here to see the artists). My song is the title track and I painted it in her garden a while ago as she sung it live which was really cool. I had a right laugh with the other artists last night, of note my smoking partner Charles Moriarty, my ‘odd’ partner Beshlie Mckelvie, digital sparing partner Brad and a very interesting blogger who founded ElectroQueer. Gray Joliffe and Zandra Rhodes were also there but I didn’t chat to them cuz Moriaty kept squeezing my arm after I told him I had bicep implants (which of course I haven’t). Anyway, go and check Tallulah's new single 'Ghost on the water', if you are quick you can do a pledge thing and come to her single launch party at the end of the month.

I left Tallulah's at about 10:30ish and jumped in a cab to dover street to meet James from Forbidden London for a couple of beers. We swiftly necked a few long islands and went to Funky Buddha….and from that moment on I have absolutely no recollection of anything that happened (which is very worrying indeed), all I know is I woke up on another friends sofa at midday with the worst headache I’ve ever had and a bizarre random hair that had grown on my ear....it was at this point I realized it was full moon!

Dancing Dudes, Special Condoms and great One Love vibes

2010-09-21T16:38:00.000-07:00

My One Love installation is about art and music coming together and for those of you in the know you’ll understand that when you bring these together it makes something very powerful, something indescribably powerful. Yeah of course I’m bias, cuz I’ve been smashing them together for years but…

This is what people feel at One Love, every month people always say to me that the vibe was great, and this makes me happy… One Love is my equivalent to a gallery and whilst the creation of a painting and the live music is the nucleus, I really believe that the vibe of One Love is actually part of the installation too and that includes the presence of the audience, the filming & live streaming, photography, people working at the social, the fans that make the trailer, and now the online fans too…who by the way loved the fabulous 'Dancer Dude' in a suit (who I still haven’t been able to track down to give a free t-shirt to!)

Last night was no exception, I sketched Scarlette Fever first and wow, a belting voice, one of those annoyingly talented singers that dont move a muscle when they blast out this amazing vocal. Keep an eye on Crash n Burn, gonna be right up there in the club charts for sure. Oh, I have to show you this, Scarlette gave me a condom, her own branded condom, Scarlette Fever condoms hahaha brilliant, what a woman….not that I need a lot of them recently, but that’s a whole other blog! hahaha

Next up I painted with Laurel Collective, now in my previous blog I suggested they are like a psychedelic Ian Brown. Well, they’re not at all really like that live, I was totally wrong, I think I focused on one myspace tune too much. Anyway, they are a collection of awesome vocals with harmonies that meander around the instruments like the pink bit on a giant flump but with loads more E numbers hahaha! The problem with being the music painter is I am looking at the canvas and so I miss the performance, but I will definitely be going to see these boys soon!

So, If you missed it you can watch it all HERE, better still come to One Love #8 which happens October 18^th and i can tell you now that you're in for a proper good surprise next month!!! In the mean time, i'll see you on my facebook page.

One Love

Back on it for One Love #7

2010-09-17T07:51:00.000-07:00

So I’m back! Yay! I’ve been travelling for what seems a fkn lifetime and my ass is still as white as Caspers…gutted. Anyway One Love #7, my monthly live music painting installation for those of you that don't know, and somehow missed the whole page spread in the Evening Standard, its the place where great musicians come to have their music painted. Wow man, we didnt do a One Love in Aug so I havent painted in ages!! the last time I painting live was with Iggy at Knebworth for Sonisphere, at the end of July and I’m still buzzing from it...

Right, back on it with One Love #7 on Monday, yer this Monday 20^th and I cant wait to give it some! First up, I'm sketching red hot Scarlette Fever who has just been jumping around in Blackpool for the illuminations festival with Robbie Williams. Top listen on myspace I would say is 'What would you do' or 'Cheatin Man', hmmmm wonder what that’s about…anyway moving on pretty swiftly, Scarlette Fever's angsty optimism pop is gonna wake us right up ready for a psychedelic slap n tickle from Laurel Collective who i will be painting.

Lotta people going on about these boys including The Maccabees who they recently supported, Keisha Buchanan...and me of course! Laurel Collective have got some seriously cool sound going on..I'm actually listening to Flame Thrower right now and I'm fucking loving the upbeat psychedelia and occasional Ian Brown esqueness...(wow that was some sentence eh)...i love this sound and cant wait to get into it live.

Right, click here for the Facebook Event Page and invite a zillion people if you want, its all going to be streamed online live as usual from HERE – it’s a good idea to pop over there now and sign up then you’ll be able to join in the live chat on the night as you watch it (special thanks again to Digeneration Films for doing the vid stuff!). Oh and also, I’m giving away some cool shit from my online store to online guests this month…well one or two (and a couple of people that come in person too dont worry)

Those of you coming in person, get your little bottoms to The Social, Little Portland Street (Oxford Circus tube) on Monday, thats September 20^th around 7:30 ish. I’ll be the one standing outside chain smoking no doubt.

Right, later, One Love….lets have it.

My Fans are more than Fans! So I pay them 15%!

2010-08-28T07:01:00.000-07:00

I’ve launched my online store recently, in the store you can buy limited edition prints, fabulous organic T-shirts and other cool One Love stuff. But, the thing I am most excited about on this store is the fact that I am paying you 15% of my online sales in cash, yeah I’m talking to you, my Fans and I’m talking proper hard cash!

Check this little 1 minute vid out before you read if you like, its pretty cool.

Why am I paying cash to Fans?

I fundamentally believe you are more than just a Fan, I care enormously about what you think of my art work so that makes you my primary art critics, you’re the people that energize me on this music painting journey and you’re the people I speak to when I have wobbles, that makes you my friends and finally you are the people that share my art to other people. The latter makes you my marketing mechanism which is critically important to my artistic survival…yeah I’m not going to shy away from using the word ‘marketing’ because its very true, its not a dirty word, its a fact. Absolutely every click on share and every friend you suggest to my Facebook page really does make a real difference.

Art tradition says that if you want to be successful painter you will need to be represented by a commercial gallery and / or you’ll have a couple of dealers dotted around the world on whom you depend to sell your work. Well, this ain’t me babe, I’m here to prove that the rigidity of such art traditions are out of date. I totally believe that together we are making new traditions in a new world where technology enables me as the artist and you as the fan to not only co-exist closer than ever, but to co-exist in a way that is mutually beneficial and much more fun!

‘Sharing is Caring’ so what do I do now?

It’s entirely up to you do as much or little as you want. Basically, if you like my art work just share it with your mates on facebook and twitter. I’ve designed my website so its easy peasy to share everything. If you want to earn money from clicking ‘Share’ make sure you tell your mates to put your name into the ‘who told you about the music painter?’ pop up box when they buy something, and you will get paid 15% in cash of whatever they spend.

Finally, I had two totally amazing conversations yesterday with fans who want to take this to a whole other level, a level that I never even considered until yesterday. Get this, one of them wanted to set up their own website to promote my art and get paid the 15% on anything people buy, what a great idea!! The other person wanted to put posters up at university about The Music Painter telling people to put their email address into the “who told you about the music painter’ pop up box on my site, again, brilliant idea !!

So, my “Sharing is Caring” online store actually works, our Artist / Fan relationship is getting closer and I didn’t realize it at the time but ‘Sharing is Caring” can also be a platform that allows fans to be more creative and earn more money (if they want to).

Its been hard to keep this blog short, I am just so fucking passionate and excited about “Sharing is Caring” because it really is a new world, we really are the first to adopt this model in such a way and I truly believe that this model has the potential to change the way art and possibly even music is sold and promoted across the world.

So, in the mighty words of Faithless, who totally blew me away at V Festival by the way..."we come one!"

One Love

- Visit my online store here: http://themusicpainter.com/store/

- If you have other creative and cool ideas like the 2 fans i mentioned in this blog, zap your thoughts to studio@themusicpainter.com

10 Days of madness and fabness

2010-08-13T04:36:00.000-07:00

Okay so I gotta write a blog about the last week or so, its gonna be tough to keep this below a squillion words. First up, there was One Love #6 where I painted live with King Charles, who I have to say were fucking great and very different I still have Love/Lust going through my brain. Then I was off to the studio to get ready for Sonisphere. My last blog talked about Sonisphere and Iggy in more detail but I’m still on a buzz from that, you know I love being the first to do stuff and being the first painter to paint at Knebworth is a fucking good feeling (well I think I’m the first I haven’t been able to find any others, and I’m sure as hell the only music painter in the village I know that). But painting Pendulum and Skunk Anansie, both amazing bands, for those of you that haven’t experienced the power of Pendulum, I suggest you do. Skunk Anansie, are a great memories band and Skins voice is just as spectacular as I remember all those years ago.

The Pendulum painting is being donated to Nordoff Robbins, it should make quite a pennies for them, so me and Sonisphere guys will be putting our brains together shortly and will no doubt come up with something ultra fab.

Then there was the Evening Standard story, which was pretty great, didn’t think it would be a whole page with overspill onto a second and very pleased that my ass didn’t look too big in the picture. It was cool that Connie really understood what I’m all about…even though I don’t quite know what the word contrived was referring too…oh well, she’s still a babe ;o)

Couple of days later, Standon Calling, ultra cool festival, really relaxed and friendly and bloody great food, organic and home made stuff! So I sketched loads of bands like Metronomy, Liars, These New Puritains, Clock Opera and holy fuck Etienne De Crecy was just totally amazing, also great to see Fran & Josh doing their thang, Magic Numbers were booming as expected. All the sketches will be online pretty soon. On the Saturday I painted on the main stage with soul sister Alice Russell, massive voice for a gorgeous dinky thing. Finally, on the Sunday I painted live with Buena Vista Social Club, definitely up there in my favorite gigs because the music was awesome and I really felt a bond with the band who, during the performance came over to see how the painting was looking and gave me a thumbs up which was cool, plus one of the ladies meandered over as she was doing some kind of sexy cuban hip shuffle and had a little peek. God I wish I hadn’t forgotten all the Spanish I learned at uni because I could tell that I would have a right laugh with these guys…if only we could communicate with more than sign language.

So now I’m in the calm after the storm, I’ve decided I’m going to learn to play the harmonica. I've still got gold glitter over me from Standon Calling, in fact I've even got a 'disco dinkle' hahahaha, god knows how it got down there! I’ve also been smashing the shit out of the gym, I’m on the way there in a moment actually, it’s a punch day today so the punch bag is gonna get it. I’m an usher at my mates wedding on saturaday I’m looking forward to it actually, looking forward to wearing my pink Kurt Geigers that’s for sure, not looking forward to the immanent Sunday morning hang over. Got my hair cut again, its really short this time, fucking love getting my hair cut and chatting to the guys at Percy & Reed, it was actually Adam from whom i stole the phrase 'homosatchel' which i now use to refer to my One Love tote bags hahaha love it…I miss my hair sometimes, we had some good fun me and that do, i'm gonna make some paint brushes with the massive bag of hair i kept.

So finally, as you know my One Love live painting installation happens on the 3^rd Monday of every month, but this month (August) the venue is closed (The Social on Little Portland street) so I thought what I would do is a live video chat thing, which is cool because I feel like these last 2 weeks have been just insane so it will be cool just to have a chat with you lot. So this is where i will be at 8pm on monday 16th for our video online date :o) The next One Love is the 20^th September, I've already done an event thing on facebook for you, see how organised i am!! so you better put it in your diary now cuz its gonna be wicked!!!

Okay, off to play slapseys with the punch bag.

One Love
Kx

Painting live at Sonisphere 2010 - Knebworth

2010-08-04T11:48:00.000-07:00

This is probably one of the hardest blogs I’ve ever had to write because its about one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had. Its Sonisphere weekend and I’ve just got back from painting live with Iggy & The Stooges on stage at Knebworth and before that I painted with Pendulum and Skunk Anansie. But painting at Knebworth, I mean wow, the place where The Stones, Oasis, Pink Floyd, Zeppelin, Queen have all walked on stage and given it some; so painting there just felt totally fucking great and surprisingly comfortable I have to say.

I want to talk about the Iggy experience first because I've been a fan for a very very long time, so I’ll talk about everything else in subsequent blogs. Generally I don’t remember much when I paint and painting with Iggy was no different, although I can recall some flashbacks such as the immense amount of power the Iggy exudes. I remember the absolutely incredible first three chords of ‘I wanna be your dog’ smashing me in the back and seeing loads of purples and blacks. I remember turning around and Steve Mackay looking at the painting and giving me an approving smile and nod between songs, I remember looking over my shoulder and seeing so many thousands of people. I also remember Iggy getting some fans on stage and actually having a tug of war over a fan with a security guard. Finally I remember walking off stage, totally shattered, completely moved, grateful, thirsty, hugging Alison and sparking up a cigarette but most importantly as I walked I remember I felt an inner change in myself a total artistic paradigm shift and I’ll write about this in more detail very soon.

For now though I want to talk about another great thing about Sonisphere and that’s the people. You wouldn’t think it but its one big massive 55,000 people strong family and that goes for everyone from the fans, to the bands I painted with and their management and crew, they were all so very cool as were the stage crew, security, bar staff and all the people managing and co-ordinating the festival too. I really want to say thanks to these people right now before I paint the next picture even. All of them contributed to me painting in their own special way. So here goes, first up Stuart Galbraith for having the vision and belief that fusing art and music adds a unique dimension to such a significant festival; Steve Jenner my online opposite number and beer buddy, Zac Fox, Debbie Scorah, Nick Levitt, Heather McMillan, Jennie Stogdon, Lucy Levitt, Stuart, Alice, Fish and Mary in Artist Liaison, Dan Walsh, John Gibbon & the guys at Brit Row and last but far from least the stage crew - Mikey Apollo, Deano, Frankie, Paul and Pete Saturn and the Stage Miracles crew.. particular thanks to Chalky for his final comment to me, nice one guys, what stars you are for making it run so smoothly...I'm already looking forward to our paths crossing again!

Of course not forgetting the Kilford crew, Guy Levy is the reason you all get to feel what i go through via photos, and Josh Bloomer who is no longer a facebook fan but a key part of our team came along to film it all, and of course Alison the one that makes everything happen - thanks babe.

One Love
Kx

One Love #6, Painting live with Iggy and Iron Maiden at Sonisphere

2010-07-15T15:33:00.000-07:00

I’ve been painting live music for a long time, I have this list of iconic music I have to paint before I die (i'm serious i really do), I’ve had the pleasure of painting alongside some of those icons as well as other fucking great musicians..the painted list includes people like the charlatans, Robert plant, Damon Albarn, Black Eyed Peas, Paul Weller, Ernest Ranglin, Magic Numbers, John & Jehn, The Woodentops, Cerys Matthews, Status Quo, Deep Purple, Fran & Josh blah blah fucking loads more blah… name drop name drop name drop…but you catch my drift right.

So hopefully you will understand the personal importance it means to me that over the next two weeks I get to tick two more off my icon list, the mighty Iggy Pop & The Stooges and Iron Maiden…I’m painting them at Sonisphere Festival, which is happening at Knebworth on 30th July – 1st August (I think I might be the first ever painter to paint at Knebworth – hmm I must find this out cuz I like being the first to do shit). I’ve actually painted Bruce Dickinson before, I was painting with Deep Purple and he joined them. Shit man, he was powerful enough on his own so Maiden full force is going to be just rocking. I’m really looking forward to the drums actually which might sound weird but Nicko is one of the best I’d say, we shared a dining table a few years ago, I was pissed at the time but I’m sure I promised to swap a painting for a snare drum, hopefully he was pissed too and won’t remember that!. Iggy, Iggy Iggy Iggy, fuck me, he’s like a proper personification of rock-starness! I feel like was brought up on Lust for Life, i was 2 when it came out, it’s part of me man! I don’t have many other words to describe the profundity of what this experience is going to be if I’m honest, so I will just leave it here, with this, and let you imagine what the painting is going to look like!

But before all that at Sonisphere, this coming Monday (19th July at The Social - 2 mins from Oxford Circus) is One Love #6 and I am just as bloody excited to be painting King Charles, actually I can’t lie King Charles, I fucking love you man but Iggy and me go back 32 years, so I admit I am a teeny bit more excited about painting him. Anyway, I have been trying to get King Charles to play at One Love for ages, they had a tour with Mumford & Sons last year, then King Charles had a near death skiing accident in Feb and if you have a read of his blog you will appreciate how this has influenced his outlook on life, you should read it, it’s rather moving. Maybe we all need to have a snog with death to make us realise we are alive, and we are here to inspire and be happy, "we deserve to be happy" someone once said to me, and she is right. I love this line from King Charles single Love Lust “You’ve the strength of the Greeks you are God’s masterpiece you’re every triumph every victory I believe in every breathe you breath” shit hot eh, check this out.

Opening up for us on the night is Claire Nicolson, I sketched this folk rock chick last year at Kimberly Festival, she rocks!! Right final straight, the other great thing about One Love is that my mates at Digeneration Films are live streaming it again. all the info is on the facebook event page and this is where you can watch online starting around 8:30, you can see last month’s live stream footage here if you want, also keep an eye on my facebook page for all the info....see ya there.

One Love

Kxx

Paint, Pain, Wisdom, Rollercoasters and big bums!

2010-06-30T08:15:00.000-07:00

The last 7 days have been a total utter rollercoaster ride. First there was One Love #5 which was so damn cool, Racheal Sage gorgeous and fabulous singer. Swami, just totally rocked the place as I knew they would. We had a great turn out but what was also magic is we had hundreds of people watch online because this is the first month we’ve live broadcasted One Love to the internet! and whats more you can see it now if you missed it here...bit like Sky Plus! Or check out the video diary here. Anyway, totally ma-hoooo-sive thanks to my friends at Digeneration Films for making that happen! Check their site out, they are an ultra cool talented bunch!

Next up, total change of subject and opposite to the One Love high. A dentist from hell. I went to get my wisdom tooth taken out, but the tooth wasn’t anesthetised properly because it was infected (which the bitch didn't spot on the xray). She cut the crown of the tooth off, took out the nerve and tried to take the tooth out...all without anesthetic. By far the worst pain I have ever had, I was proper man crying, sweating and shaking until I removed myself from the chair half way through and called a friend almost passing out as I ran outside. All i could think of was the similarity of pain that Dustin Hoffman had in Marathon Man (click here & go to 2mins 45secs!) I know they say you cant spell paint without pain, but that takes the piss! Anyway enough of that, then there was the England game, actually fuck that too it doesn’t deserve space here.

So, back to gorgeous music and great art. I saw Cery’s Matthews play Tuesday night at The Arts Club and did a bit of guerilla sketching, despite being interrupted by some very drunk, over friendly Welsh dude. Although I’ve painted Cerys live before I think I am gonna invite just her and her acoustic guitar to One Love cuz she sounded really special. Then there was Raven, my fav string quartet (not that I could name a lot of quartets) but there’s something very cool and exciting about them…oh, and they are all very beautiful too.

Other stuff, I’m all gearing up for some big big big shit over the next couple of weeks, I’m painting with some of my personal life long legends at an amazing venue at spectacular festivals! which I cant wait to announce to you guys starting Monday 5^th July! There’s some awesome competitions, my online store is finally going live, wicked special edition prints and t-shirts coming out, then of course One Love #6 on the 19^th July…So, as you lot know, when I get excited I post loads on facebook, so brace yourself cuz I am mr fucking excited at the moment!

Oh I finally bought a man skirt, but my relatively small and surprisingly firm bum really does look unfairly big in it…so I haven’t worn it yet, I think I may be wearing it wrong! Either way, ladies I feel your pain!

One Love

One Love #5: Live music painting live online tonight!

2010-06-21T04:34:00.000-07:00

Every month I get pissed off because so many of you guys want to come to One Love but cant on account of a little problem called geography grrrrrr….so I knocked around some brain cells, had a chat with some mates at Digeneration Films and I’m proper pleased to say that we are such leading edge technologists that One Love #5 is going to be live streamed to the internet so everyone can watch the night unfold.

There will be two sessions streamed at One Love #5

8:30pm - 9pm: I will be sketching live with Rachael Sage

9:30pm - 10:30pm: I will be painting live with Swami

all you have to go is go here to watch, but, listen up go here right now and set up an account, it only takes a minute or so and you don’t want to be doing it at 8:30pm tonight cuz you’ll miss some stuff. (all London time!)

http://www.ustream.tv/user/themusicpainter

Again special thanks to Digeneration Fims who are getting paid a pie and a pint for doing this for me because they want to help raise cash too for The Sam Buxton Healing Trust …top guys!

Okay, this is the first one and it’s a test too so fingers crossed it works fabulously! See you there :o)

One Love

Kx

Ps. if you are in london and wanna come its The Social on Little Portland street

Super Saturday Song: Signed EP give away!

2010-06-18T23:56:00.000-07:00

The week before One Love is always a bit of a kafuffle week for me, so a song that calms my brain down is just the ticket. This week my Super Saturday Song is from Angrydan! and its called Deaf Dumb and Blind. Personally I think its only a matter of time until this is charting right up there, and I would say Deaf Dumb and Blind is definitely in my top 10 so far of 2010 right up there with Home and Sitting in a Bar.

Angrydan! played at One Love #2 and people went nuts about and his EP called The Notorious Furious was gold dust on the night, so I managed to blag a few copies and some stickers for you lot this week and all of them are signed by the man himself (and me of course). If any of you are going to Glastonbury, be sure to check him out, his life set is fucking great (24^th June 8pm Greenpeace tent / Green fields)

So if you want one of these signed EP’s, same as always, zap an email to studio@themusicpainter.com with your address and the 18^th, 19^th, and 20^th email received will win the CD’s. And be quick, the last CD went in an hour or so last time.

Don’t forget, One Love #5 on Monday, see you there.

One Love

21st June - One Love #5: Great just got greater!

2010-06-13T06:59:00.000-07:00

My One Love live music painting installation is a massive pain in the ass to organise each month, you wouldn’t believe how much effort goes into it. But it is worth every bit of bum ache I tell ya, I was in the studio shooting the paintings this week and each one is filled with such great memories of great music and great people. It truly feels like an important story is being created and you're all part of it.

So, on that note, great music…I’m painting Swami (see my other blog just on Swami) at One Love #5 on 21^st June and before them I will be sketching the music a fabulous musician called Rachael Sage!

Rachael is one of those musicians that pops out and boom I’m hooked on a song. I’m completely hooked on 'There is Passion' from her new album Delancey Street which was released just last month on iTunes and doesn’t hit the shops here in the UK till September. (read a fab article here in The Wall Street Journal). This is one talented New Yorker, she's been sharing stages with Sheryl Crow and Natasha Bedingfield, she’s a Grand Prize-Winner in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest and Independent Music Award Winner ... I was lucky enough to grab her before she jets back across the pond for her USA tour.

There is Passion has been on repeat the whole time I’ve been writing this, god I’m looking forward to hearing it live!

If you haven’t got your ticket online…suggest you do it right now cuz there’s only 150 capacity at The Social. Do it online here (all the £5 ticket dosh goes to www.cancertherapies.org.uk ) and keep an eye on my facebook page for some exciting shit coming up :o)

See ya there, One Love

My 1st Super Saturday Song - For a Minor Reflection

2010-06-05T04:21:00.000-07:00

Over the last few weeks I've been sent a load of music, electronically and on CD from bands and record companies who are interested in playing at One Love, its brilliant because I get to hear loads of great stuff (and some not so great too) plus of course its awesome that people are hearing about and getting into One Love. I don't know about you but every week there is always one song that makes me tingle, so from now on I plan to tell you what that was for me and I shall call it my 'Super Saturday Song' is, it might be new or it might be old and what's more, if I was sent the CD I'm going to give it to you...I like CDs for a short time, just to see what the band designed, then once I've seen it I'd rather just have it electronically.

I may or may not blog about the Super Saturday Song each week but wanted to for the first one, so my first ever Super Saturday Song is "Sjaumst i Virginia" by Icelandic boys For A Minor Reflection . Its track 7 off their forthcoming album which is out in Iceland this month (not in the UK till September!) called "Höldum í átt að óreiðu" (Dont worry, I have no idea how to pronounce it either), this isnt even online yet but the boys were kind enough to send me a signed copy before everyone else gets it. Now I'm not just writing nice shit about these boys because I've painted live with them or because they sent me the CD. Its just that i was listening to Sjaumst i Virginia (track 7) and it touched me, it inspired me, it charged me up. The first 3 notes of the track, made the hairs on my arm stand on end from the outset and I could feel my energy and determination levels boost up as i listened.

Its a bloody long song, like 15 minutes or so and of course no vocals but neither matters. In that time, it wrapped itself around me and I found myself being totally reflective (kinda ironic given their name) about my personal life journey and where its taken me, the miandering guitars and drums of this song somehow took me back to important stages of my life, people, happy times, sad times too, but overall it made me look back and be grateful for the things I've had, and have today in my life...I even sent a couple of nice messages to people close to me as i listened to it telling them that i am grateful they are in my life, maybe that sounds a bit soppy, but I don't give a fuck.

It also got me thinking about inspiration, a few people told me this week that I inspire them, I don't believe there is a more profound complement that a person can give to another. But being told this for me is relatively new, and also, dont get me wrong I know I'm the greatest painter in the whole wide world but, I've never realised fully that what I get up to inspires people to the point where they want to paint, or create something in some other creative field like music, fashion or film, or even for someone to believe in One Love so much that they have a tattoo of it (which a fan called Rebecca has recently had done)...inspiration is important, without it the world wouldnt change.

Anyway, For a Minor Reflection, thank you for the signed CD and for Sjaumst i Virginia. Now I must give it away, so if you are reading this blog and want the above actual CD (signed by the boys, and me) just email studio@themusicpainter.com with your address, if you are the 20th email, its yours (you better be quick). Eveyone else has to wait a week or so before you can buy it...so check the boys out on facebook in the mean time.

One Love
Kx

One Love Installation #5 - Painting Swami live (21st June)

2010-05-25T10:22:00.000-07:00

For the benefit of all you newbies...One Love is my live music painting installation that happens the 3rd monday of every month, I invite great musicians to The Social [London], I sketch the music of the first two bands and paint the music of the last. So, the coolest of the cool musicy arty people come to see us make One Love each month and every penny goes a great charity http://www.cancertherapies.org.uk/

So, One Love #5 - here we go! The following is taken from my blog 24^th June 2009: [The day I painted live with Baab Maal at BBC Television centre] “..I sketched on stage with other bands before I painted Baaba Maal including The Proclaimers, Mica Paris, Trans Global Underground and a band called Swami, who I really really like. I described them on twitter as prodigy meet the black eyed peas and then have a fight over a bhanga drum….it’s cool man, really cool!”

I remember writing this, and I also remember being on stage sketching them and like 20 seconds into the first song thinking “holy fuck, this is amazing”. You can check out the live sketches of three Swami songs I did on that day from here. So after the gig I told them that I have to paint them one day and 11 months down the line I’m proper pleased to announce that Swami are headlining my One Love #5 installation (21^st June) and I can’t wait to paint them.

There's so much to say about these guys, firstly, they are going to blow you and me away, that’s a given… so if you want gentle finger-tapping Monday night you should stay at home with Deirdre and Ken! If however, being spun around by pumping British-Indian bhangra drums, zapped by alternative electronica and massaged head to toe by beautifully hypnotic vocals is your cup of tea, then come and drink tea with us, we shall be drinking it abundantly because there’s gonna be a shit load of it to share around. I mean just check this video out from BBC 2 DESI DNA, its rocking man.

And thats whats going to be in The Social with only 150 people capacity, its gonna be uber intimate me thinks. Also, check out their other stuff here I’m listening to She’s Mine, shit hot isn’t it, then Ching and Hey Hey. You can also grab hold of their Greatest Hits album on iTunes.

I gotta say, we are bloody lucky that the timing for One Love #5 worked out because the guys are in the depths of the recording studio at the moment with their next album, then they are jetting out to Canada for their tour and what’s more…I understand that One Love is the only gig they are playing in the UK this year! So massive thanks you guys!

Right, the Facebook event page is here, so go check it out and keep an eye on my Facebook page for details.

One Love

Kxx

Welcome to the new real world!

2010-05-21T02:47:00.000-07:00

Someone said to me the other day that "this virtual world of Facebook stuff is all just a bit silly isn't it". The person didn't mean it in the strength in which it has been received by me, but I am grateful cuz it got me thinking and a bit charged up actually, so much so that I needed to blurt out my feelings on this subject to you lot.

This person wouldn't be the first to comment on how extremely focused I am on online interaction, which is fair enough because I am online loads and I do mean loads. But, I have to say that I unequivocally, completely and utterly disagree in the absolute fucking extreme that this virtual world of Facebook stuff is all a bit silly. Did I stress that strongly enough for you guys?

For me as an artist, as a visual artist slash performer, whatever the hell you want to call me...I view online interaction as my absolute main route to touch people’s lives, and in so doing I have my life touched too...and trust me, I'm big on touching, I want to touch and be touched every day, all day damn it hahaha!! Yes I know I paint live every month and nothing can really beat standing one metre away from someone painting a fab picture, but online is very different but very nearly as fab and I believe this is because dispite the fact we have a billion miles of cable between us, our interaction touches at an emotional level.

Lets talk about online emotions for a second, if I post something to facebook and don't have a thumbs up in 2 seconds I frown (so I hope you thumbed this up!), so maybe I am insecure and need your endorsement? I get majorly uncomfortable if I am off line for more than 10hrs (which is extremely rare) and not interacting on some form of technological platform, is this normal? is it a modern day addiction?..... well I say fuck it if it is, who wants to be normal anyway... This is who and what I am.

For me, having you guys from Facebook (and more recently you nutters on Habbo) request a song that you want me to sketch is great, seeing the download numbers each month increase, seeing my fan count go up relatively quickly (although annoyingly not as quick as that sausage roll that wanted to be more famous than Cheryl Cole!!), seeing fans post One Love photos on my wall, and especially seeing young people actually create paintings about songs because my work inspired them is beautiful. Feeling the emotional interaction and energy exchange to and from you is very special and nothing is more important to me. Actually I just had a proof of my first book done, and this is the last page…see how important you lot are!!!

The reason it is so important to me is because I really don't think I would be able to do this music painting stuff without you guys, yeah I'd be able to paint every so often but nothing like I am now.... Not without the energy I get from you lot, take my one love installation for example, there is no way on this earth that would survive if it wasn't for you guys. Whether or not you can actually come to it or not, the fact you share the videos and events even if you're in Oz, USA or Indonesia is amazing and it helps, more than you know.

Finally, my closing statement is that the technology I am working on with my web guys at the moment is going to fucking blow your CK’s & Victoria's Secret off you, it is totally in another stratosphere to anything I have ever seen. The only reason for this is we put fans at the centre of everything, yes we have the brains to be creative with this technology but it’s you guys that inspire it…and you probably don’t even know it!! Well, you do now I suppose.

So, for those people that think the virtual world is "a bit silly", firstly the virtual world just does not exist all there is is one real world. Secondly its time to wake up, smell the dust on your keyboard and make a decision whether or not you want to stay in the dark ages along with the traditional art world. I for one am having far too much fun exploring in this new world, the real world.

Right gotta dash..got a webcam date hahahahah (joke)

One Love.

Kilford's dodgy One Love #4 Video Diary

2010-05-19T00:41:00.000-07:00

I’m not a great fan of reading at the moment, I prefer to watch n listen. So with that in mind I did a video diary during the day of One Love this month, which was done on my blackberry and so is pretty shit quality (hence the title of "Kilfords Dodgy One Love Video Diary) but it gives you a little insight of the day, including the sound checks of Eliza Newman and then live painting with Fran and Josh. I’m going to do one of these each month now, its fun. So go get a cup of tea before you watch this cuz its 5 minutes long but i think you will enjoy.

Where is Kurtz I hear you say, these boys boomed it so much that my midrange camcorder couldn’t handle their noise, so you are just going to have to go and see them, and see them you should if you feel like being slapped about a bit – I know I do.

Eliza Newman played second, and wow, I was reminded of my love affair with Icelandic music it really was very beautiful and I am still singing Ukulele Song For You. Last up, Fran and Josh, I painted with these guys as you can see in the dodgy diary, so you can see why i said that they are the only band I never want to paint again. They really were spectacular and you just have to listen to the screams in video to see what I mean.

Big shout out to Standon Calling festival who I worked with on the line up of this month, also it was really cool to see bands of One Love past, AngryDan! was there shouting about and giving it some, Galen from Siskin who is a fab regular now I think. Of course our very own DJ AKW who plays an eclectic range of great tunes all night at every One Love for us. Also really great to see gorgeous Heidi (who i cannot live without @ Percy & Reed), and James from Forbidden London who did a great preview of One Love this month...thanks for that mate!

Okay next month, the band I am painting with at the next One Love (#5) on 21^st June are already confirmed, and you lot are going to totally fucking love them so keep an eye out! Finally, thanks to all you people that got your bums to One Love, and also thanks to everyone that helped by posting the event to their wall and stuff, no-matter where you are in the world that really helps and is so very appreciated...finally its really cool to meet you Facebook people at One Love and put faces to Facebook..hahahaha. See the pics here.

Right, till next time.

One Love.

Announcing One Love #4 - 17th May

2010-05-12T12:59:00.000-07:00

First things first, the video for this months One Love installation was filmed and produced by Josh Bloomer. Josh is a Facebook Fan and is about to go to film uni and you know what, he's put me in shit. He's put me in deep shit because the video is so damn good that i have no idea what i am going to do next month!

Onto the music, it would be fair to say that over the years I’ve painted live with an eclectic mix of music, from the utter Booming power of Black Eyed Peas, to a 50 piece choir on a Greenpeace boat with Damon Albarn playing the keyboard right back to Robert Plant knocking me over with Good Times Bad Times.

So with this eclectic foundation I always try and be ultra eclectic with my One Love installation each month, so this month I think it’s hard to get a bigger dose of eclecticness! (I think that’s the right way to spell it). So same as usual, I’m closing my eyes and listening to the music and this is what I see.

Fran & Josh: “Lady Lay” - I’m in my studio an hour north of Barcelona, big place, standing in the garden and spinning round and round in circles to the point where I am dizzy. I’m doing this because I’ve just painted a masterpiece, I spin and spin and spin, puffing on a cigarette in one hand and a bottle of oaky red wine in the other, then, boom. Collapse on the floor, still puffing away and look up and the clouds as the world carries on spinning and I swig on the wine.

KURTZ: “Running Faster” - I’m legging it crazily down Regent Street just like the opening scene from Trainspotting, not because I’ve robbed someone but because I need to get to my moustache trim booking at Libertys which I am late for. So I am jumping though everyone, then the beat slows down as I fall over in slow motion…its okay I’m not hurt, I get up, the beat kicks in again and once again I’m up to full sprint. You won’t believe this, but I didn’t know the name of the song as it was playing in a closed window but I’ve just seen it’s actually called Running Faster hahaha

Eliza Newman: “Ukulele Song for you” - In a sweetshop, testing out the sweets with a nice lady…having a bit of a lught great big lollipops. And when the chorus comes in the drums make explosions of skittles in the air and I’m standing there with my mouth open. This is one of those songs that sound really happy, but listen to the lyrics and actually its pretty sad, I love songs like this. I have a bit of a love affair with Icelandic music it has to be said.

Right I’m going to shut up, I will see you on the night at The Social (2 mins from Oxford Circus), be there for 7ish straight after work, grab a pie, have a beer and some bubbles, then get ready for all this music with live sketching and painting from me.

Hit the Facebook event thing here

One Love

Birthdays, Boats & the Big Man Upstairs

2010-05-02T00:48:00.000-07:00

Had a really nice day today, it was my Sisters birthday so we went out on their boat with some friends, chilled out, drunk some bubbles and did very bad back flips off the back. I was in charge of the playlist and so had a big mix of old school and proper classics sbooming out all day. We sailed to the creek, which for Dubai is possibly the only place where you can see real culture for a short moment in the form of abras (water taxis) all over the place and old rickety boats full of all kinds of stuff for export, it was a different world and one I like. Although I'm pretty sure the sailors were a bit bored of my sister waving to absolutely everyone she could see, it was funny to see her bitter dissapointment when just the two tourists on the packed abra returned a wave on one occasion..the rest of the locals no doubt muttering "yeah whatever" in arabic.

Then we sailed back to the marina in the dark, that was great not only because the Burj looks gorgeous at night but because it was a moment to think, fortunately some amazing thought provoking tunes were on too. Made me think lots about One Love, where its been, where its going and how far it’s come in a relatively short space of time. I also thought lots about taking stuff too seriously, a friend of a friend died recently at 29 years old in a racing accident, this made me realise a couple of things (1) I worry too much about the future (2) I need to be more childlike and take things less seriously. (3) I need to be more direct and open (I am pretty high on all of these already but I reckon i need to crank the volume up a bit). Finally This may sound silly, but it also made me realise that I need to give my Facebook password to my Sister so she can set my Facebook status to something beautifully humorous just in case I get the nodd to see the big man upstairs, or maybe i should do some video like the old guy from Brewsters Millions. Would hate to leave without being able to zap a status update to you lot! Hahahaha.

I’m going to go for a walk in the marina, I feel like writing some poetry, maybe even a song.

One Love.

About One Love #3

2010-04-22T02:15:00.000-07:00

I’m writing this with a big smile on my face whilst telling myself i must not write a novel i must not write a novel. Before I start, I’m not sure if you have ever curated a monthly event/art installation, but it’s really tough, it’s even tougher doing it on a Monday night because generally people don’t want to move their cute little bums off the sofa. BUT for One Love, the coolest of cool do and that makes me tingle! There was something very magical happening at The Social on Monday and the secret potion was great musicians, a load of ultra cool people…and a pretty fab painter too haha.

Sketching with Dan Clews was first and what a perfect set, I mean really perfect. It was so bloody good that we wouldn’t let him off stage until he played his new single again as an encore! That’s when you know you’re watching something special. “Move too Fast” is out on Monday, play listed on Radio 2 and it’s going to be big!

Then up rocks gorgeous Tallulah Rendell, think Nico, Edie Sedgwick & Blondie go to Manolo Blahnik’s house for tapas and your almost there. This girl is creative-rock-chic personified with a nuclear voice! Her album comes in a Ltd Edition book, I’ve got a signed one …with a couple of kisses too, yay.

Next I’m painting with Stairs to Korea. It was insane to paint actually because there’s just loads going on in there, absolutely loved “All of your friends” and remember white and reds during that massive chorus. Keep an eye out of his new single ‘Paul’ on BBC 6 Music this week.

Finally, thanks to some special friends for coming, Franky (who got me onto Facebook just 12 months ago!) Galen from Siskin (the first to play at One Love #1 and so forever special) and Marcus Killian-Thompson producer extraordinaire who I last saw playing guitar for Rod Stewart on Jonathan Ross. Oh I have to tell you about Paul the sound man, he’s in The Lucky Elephant and their self titled song is being used on the Late Rooms TV advert at the moment check it out, it’s a proper happy track!

Okay I am nearly finished the blog now honest! My final point is that I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the only person feeling that magic on the night, I don’t know how to describe it but it’s what happens when live Art and live Music come together and get it on - See the pictures here.

So, see you at One Love #4 on 17th May….keep an eye on my facebook fan page for details.

One Love

p.s. It’s important to know that no-one gets paid to perform at One Love, which is suprising given the quality of the musicians eh!...but every single penny goes to www.cancertherapies.org.uk and we all think thats worth the effort. So big thanks to everyone involved.

That sketch only took him 3 minutes to do…that’s shit art!

2010-04-16T17:28:00.000-07:00

I read this about me online somewhere and it made me smile. But actually, if you think about it, its an interesting comment because it opens up a larger question about the links between creation time and validity of art. So, as an artist what is the time limit that you have to spend creating a piece of art for it to be a valid work of art?

My answer is simple, as long as you need. For me, when I sketch I am sketching around the colours I see during the course of one listen of the song, so that’s all I need, nothing more, nothing less (they are all here by the way). When I paint music live, I start on the first note of the gig and end on the last. The painting isn’t touched after that because it has to be a true account of that live music at that time which is usually around an hour or so which isnt much time to create a 5ft x 7ft painting (which is the usual size of my live paintings).

I was reading some stuff on Damien Hirst the other day and of course lots of critics slated him for not actually painting his dot paintings himself. He simply said that just because the Architect doesn’t lay the bricks doesn’t mean the building is less credible and I think that’s a fucking good point. Another artist that springs to mind is Martin Creed, my favorite of his work being the screwed up pieces of paper. How long does it take to screw up a bit of A4 paper? Not long, but its great art and the greatness isn’t based on the time it took him to squeeze the paper. Finally, if I remember rightly, Paul McCartney woke up during the night and wrote Yesterday in a couple of minutes, so is one of the most played songs of all time shit?

In The Independent article Emma Love said the speed in which live paintings are created is a “skill”, until that point I had never really thought about it because it’s just what i do, but she is right it is a skill.

So, two final and very important points. To all you young art students, my advice to you is to take the exact amount of time that you believe you need to create your art, if your teacher says its shit because you only spent 4 minutes on a sketch, tell them to call me and I’ll give them what for! Secondly, to viewers of my stuff, my art is created in the presence of complete freedom. If you are to truly appreciate it, you need to allow your mind do the same…if you can’t do that, i'm afraid that's your problem.

One Love

One Love #3 : 19th April

2010-04-06T17:29:00.000-07:00

It’s One Love #3 on the 19^th April, I can’t believe it’s number 3 already, infact I cant beleive its bloody April already! Anyway so, here we go, another list of shit hot musicians for me to sketch and paint live with this month. I’m going to describe the acts Dan Clews, Tallulah Rendall and Stairs To Korea by choosing one of their songs, closing my eyes and typing about what I see (yes I can touch type).

Actually i want to mention one thing that is fucking me off at the moment which is the terms "headline" and "support" yeah I know everyone uses it but i dont like it because it seems elitist, the whole point about One Love is that the music is ultra cool. I dont grade musicians, they are playing at One Love because I think they are great...some i sketch and some i paint, the truth be known i've wanted to paint all of them so far but its just not physically possible. Anyway, enough digressing....lets hit it...eyes are closing and i'm pressing play.

Dan Clews “Move too fast”: Sir George Martin said he is “Too great a talent to ignore”, that’s a bit of a big deal i'd say. Its 19th August 1969 and I’ve been painting for the last 3 days at Woodstock, I’m driving a pink Lambo Gallardo (although mine is convertible) stupidly fast on some long dusty road in America, the music is up so loud that the picking of Dan’s guitar intertwines itself with the roar of the engine, the sun is on my forehead, I’m wearing black aviators, I’m smiling, I’m puffing on a cigarette, I am feeling free and fucking fabulous. Go and check his official stuff yourself but I’m going to leave you with this great bit of real life, him playing on a train. Shit hot!

Tallulah Rendall: Hope Tonight. My life is being lived in fast forward mode to the drum beats, I can see things flashing by, people, friends, events and expriences. But then all of a sudden it slows down to normal pace, there is a beautiful woman reading a poem she wrote and in that moment everything is right and happy and as Tallulah says, there is hope. Love it, I'm not going to write anymore because i think thats pretty profound (i dont mean my words - but the fact a song can make me feel like this). Have a listen for yourself here.

Stairs To Korea: “All of Your Friends”: I’m inside a giant game of KerPlunk climbing up through the straws and each time I touch one it makes a beautiful sound which miraculously is in tune with all the other straws, they sound addictively gorgeous. Big colourful marshmellows falling down on me and they make a great sound as they hit me and the straws too. I look through the transparent plastic wall and see Will, his nose almost touching the plastic as he peers in smiling and singing at me “we are participants me and you…”. Then the chorus kicks in, someone pulls a straw out which makes a massively powerful guitar chord noise and I fall down banging into all of the straws on the way down, and I start again and I just want to do this forever. Check it out here and close your own eyes if you want.

One Love #3 happens 19^th April always at The Social, everything is on the Facebook event thing so click here - and dont forget, no-one gets paid and every penny of the £5 door charge goes to The Sam Buxton Healing Trust, doors open at 7...see you there.

One Love

Before you ask, I wasn’t drunk or high when I wrote this I just have an overactive imagination gland!

Festival Painting, falling ceilings and Noel Gallagher for number 10!

2010-04-03T05:56:00.000-07:00

I wanted to write some stuff that is not just One Love as that seems to have absorbed my blogs recently. I’m a big fat ball of excitement at the moment, because I’m close to telling everyone about some fab festivals that I am painting at this year. In a couple of weeks I’ll be painting at One Love in front of 150 people and then a few weeks after that I’ll be painting infront of 60,000, both of which get my juices flowing I tell thee.

Oh get this, you’ll probably laugh but I had a bit of a surprise last night, I woke up at 3am because the whole of my bedroom ceiling caved in on me as I lay in bed, and I do mean the whole fucking thing, not a tiny bit, the lot! It knocked the wardrobe over onto my bed too. I was very lucky that I didn’t get seriously hurt actually, not exactly a near death experience but makes you realise that the roof can come down on you any time out of the blue.

Another thing that’s taking up some brain space is the Election. What a complete fuck up this. It feels like a bunch of kids slagging off each other saying “my dad can have your dad” if only they would just focus on the challenges and then put together some decent believable solutions that they would be held accountable for…dream on Kilford I hear you say.

I really think the Conservatives need to sack the PR people who advised them that putting Gordon Browns face on their posters and dissin him would work. At the same time David Cameron is in the mists of his Tony Blair metamorphosis and we all know what happened there.

Then there is Labour, does anyone really have faith in Gordon Brown to lead us into a better world? I actually feel sorry for him, I’m sure he is a nice guy, and I am sure he is really trying. But, he got the job by default, most would argue that the financial fuck up is down to him, which I actually think is a bit harsh. Then we have Lib Dems, same old same old really. Non descript as ever. Nick Clegg may be the new kid on the block but he stands up and says fairness is at the heart of everything. Right okay, so fairer taxes is their number one priority…that’s the biggest load of bollocks I’ve ever heard, will any government ever make taxes 'fair'…its completely an utterly unachieveable so they are buggered from the start. But fundamentally, I just don’t feel like any of these guys have the energy, skill or the leadership ability to get the MP's to actually do stuff let alone drive our nation into a new chapter and I for one dont want to vote for any of them.

We desperately need an Obama, someone to excite us, someone we would actually believe could do something…alas no such luck for us, all we've got are three dried up John MaCain’s….. all of which are as much use and equally tasty as last nights left over plate of McCain oven chips as far as I’m concerned.

We need massive change, someone real should be Prime Minister, a non politician, actually if Reagan can do it anyone can! In fact that’s it, I’ve got it, Noel Gallagher, that’s who I would like as Prime Minister. No fucking about, tells it how it is, doesn’t bullshit you, will kick peoples ass if stuff doesn’t get done and writes fucking great songs. Surely I can’t be the only person that thinks this….you know what, sod it I’m going to set up a facebook page and see! “Noel Gallagher for Number 10” …yay!

Click here if you agree with me and join the facebook page.

One Love

About One Love #2

2010-03-23T18:04:00.000-07:00

Have you ever been somewhere and thought to yourself, “fuck, this is special, I don’t know why yet but it’s very special”. I wonder if the Sex Pistols felt it after their St Martins College gig a month before I was born in 1975, or Alan Mcgee felt it when he saw Oasis take stage at King Tut's Wah Wah Hut club in 1993. Well Last night I felt it, I felt the indescribable specialness of One Love. It wasn’t just about the painting or the music individually, it was the overall vibe of coolness, intimacy and creativeness.

So up first, sketching Angrydan (still love that name), he had the whole audience standing there thinking “yeah man, this is awesome, its nuts and its awsome”. I want to say this now because I’m sure of it! That Angrydan’s Deaf Dumb and Blind song will be making its way to your ear drums via a top 10 chart position very very soon and you read it here first! I’m looking forward to the day I write a blog that just says “I told you so”. Get his music here!

Next up Pope Joan, I love it when bands look the part and Pope Joan had a natural cool styling going on. These boys were another love at first hear for me and live just made me love them even more. Outstandingly powerful vocals, awesome arrangements, I remember jumping like a nutter as I sketched next to the cataclysmic booming of the drums…and to top it off, Mark had a great moustache. Get Pope Joan here.

Rolo and Mal from The Woodentops, I said it last night and I will say it again, we were in the prescense of greatness. Rolo had his acoustic Mal on double base, there was a raw intimacy there that is somewhat unexplainable. Everything else disappeared and only great, deep, emotive, raw profound music was left. I didn’t want it to stop… and then it didn’t stop!! They played for what seemed two hours because my knees were wobbling with exhaustion. I remember turning around to Rolo after a song and saying “fuck me is that it” and he said, “yeah okay” although I reckon he would have happily played for another couple of hours! Special, very special. Get The Woodentops songs here.

Okay I have to stop myself from writing a novel about this…so, One Love #3 happens 19th April bands will be announced soonish from here and there are a load more fab pictures there too!

One Love.

ONE LOVE #2 line up: 22nd March

2010-03-05T00:33:00.000-08:00

Wow, what a line up for this months One Love (#2) installation. I'll be sketching and painting live with great musicians all over again on the 22nd March at The Social, if you get there after 8pm you're gonna proper miss something special...(fashionably late is so last season at One Love)

Special Guests: Rolo McGinty & Mal Darwin of The Woodentops
(on at 10ish)
The Woodentops, oh The Woodentops The Woodentops The Woodentops The Woodentops. I painted with these guys at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London in October and I can still remember everything about it because it was just fucking amazing in every way, the stage is slightly more cosy at The Social so this will be fun! Rolo is the only musician I have ever painted live with who wanted me to paint him, his guitar and his drum kit during the actual performance. So when a rock n roller struts up to you on stage during a gig and tells you to paint his guitar whilst he's playing it, what do you do? I tell you what you do, you paint it! So I’m extremely chuffed that I will be painting live with Rolo and Mal as they headline One Love #2, they have just finished their European Tour and they’re going to do something a bit special for us, something a bit minimal, a bit acoustic with double bass...fuck I can’t wait! Go and get their stuff from itunes if you dont have it all already.

The Woodentops feels like: Eating a spicy pizza as you jump into a swimming pool filled with Krug (rose) making you tingle all over beautifully.

POPE JOAN

(on at 9ish)
These ex-art student Brighton boys are on the front cover of The Brighton Source this month and have been described as left field pop with a big dose of Brian Ferry thrown in for good measure and I reckon that’s not a bad description at all. For me though it’s a lot more simple, I just felt really excited when I heard their single Centurions for the first time, which by the way was voted as No.3 in Source Mag 2009 top songs. Then I saw this video of them live and it felt like electricity was being zapped through them out of the screen to me. So that’s it, job done, it’s like love at first sight, I don’t need anything else to know that these boys are fucking cool. Zap yourself their album here on itunes.

Pope Joan feels like: R2-D2 gets pissed, has a 3 some with Johnny Ramone’s Mosrite guitar and a synthesizer… at the same time as playing the drums spectacularly well.

ANGRYDAN

(on at 8ish)

What a great name! Okay here is a man that if you’re like me is going to make you think about yourself, because you’re going think “why the fuck do I love this guy”, your gonna try and liken him to other bands to comfort yourself but it’s going to make it worse because you won’t be able to. But that doesn’t mean you’re as musically ignorant as the ironing board I’m looking at, oh no it just means you haven’t heard anything like this before, and you know what that’s okay! My biggest fear is painting a picture that looks like another painter (eeeeew I just had a brussel sprout shiver at the thought). But, for those of you that need a little steer, I suggest you picture this in you rmind…The Gorillaz, Just Jack, The Streets and Fat Boy Slim are having a fight over a synthesizer in one of those weightlessness machines ….Go check out his latest video, 'Deaf, Dumb and Blind' its bloody awesome, from his latest EP 'Nortorious Furious'. Angrydan featured in my One Love video this month and he did the absolutely shit hot cover of One Love as the backing track for the video too!

Angrydan feels like: That moment when you are just falling asleep where everything goes beautifully surreal.

So there you have it, all the details are here on the facebook event thing, or hit me on my fan page to keep up with all my shnizzle.

One Love
Kx

p.s. Doors open at 7pm, £5 (on the door only), every penny goes to Sam Buxton Healing Trust
pps. everyone gets a black envelope (make sure you keep the code on the front) two people will win some bubbles and 2 tickets to next One Love.