Fern Teather - Fern Teather - Blog

What have I been up to?

1/14/2018

Hey blog readers.
Happy 2018! I should also say happy 2017, as I failed to write any blog posts last year (sorry!!). I was still making music though!

Last year I played at some awesome venues and festivals, and am currently on the lookout for places to play this year. If you have any suggestions or would like to book me yourself, please let me know!

I also finished the first year of my Music Production course and started the second, which has been taking up a lot of my time.
I'm enjoying it a lot and learning how to record and mix new music for you, as well as improving my songwriting.
I'm actually working on an EP for everyone's favourite percussionist extraordinaire, Sam 'bongoboy' Thurlow for one of my uni projects, which we're both very excited about!

I'm looking forward to sharing new music with you this year. I've got a lot of new songs on the go, and will be testing them out at gigs (so make sure you come along to some)!

I've given my website a bit of a makeover, so feel free to have an explore.
All the new photos you can see were taken by Sam Thurlow in his other guise as 'Sam Thurlow Photography and Design'.
You can see more of his work here: http://www.samthurlow.co.uk/

I'll try very hard to blog more this year and keep you updated with things!

Hope you all had a great year :)
Fern x

Music video and NMG Award Nomination!

8/22/2016

Hi everyone - long time no speak!
Hope you're all well :)

I've been super busy since my last blog entry, so thought it was time for a new one. Hope you enjoy reading it!

1) I filmed a music video!

A little while ago my friend Sophie Pol Simon sent me information about a competition run by a company called DCAS (Donut Creative Arts Studio) in Chesterfield. The prize was to win a few days with them to film a music video, so I figured it was worth a shot and entered with my song 'Outside of the Lines'. A couple of weeks later I found out that I had won!

Everyone was keen to get the video filmed as soon as possible, so I drove up there the following week and had a jam packed three days planning and filming what I'm sure will be a great music video!
I made a last minute decision to vlog the whole process, and I'm SO glad I did because this is such a cool memory to have captured on film.
The highlight of course has to be getting covered in powder paint, which was thrown at me by some of the DCAS team and my mum (I'm sure it was the highlight of her trip too)!
Give the video a watch to see what else I got up to.

I had so much fun in Chesterfield and really enjoyed working with the DCAS team Rachel, Megan, and Laura!
I was also super impressed with DCAS as a company and would love to see something like it in Suffolk one day. They work with young people up to the age of 19, and encourage the community to get involved in creative hobbies such as music, dance, art, etc. I think it's such a cool place to have, because I don't think people have the opportunity to experiment with these sorts of things enough. Even when these things are taught at school, students can be so focussed on getting good grades or sticking to a certain brief in creative subjects that they don't actually get a chance to be creative. DCAS gives these people the opportunity to just have fun and experiment with different things, and I think that's great!

Also, Chesterfield is a beautiful part of the country - especially Linacre Reservoirs where we filmed most of the music video. If you ever get the chance to visit I'd highly recommend it :)

(Check out DCAS's website to find out more info)

2) I was nominated for an NMG award!

On Friday night after just getting home from my first day at FolkEast (which was incredible by the way), I saw this pop up on my twitter notifications:

I was (and still am) so surprised, excited, and grateful to have be nominated in such a cool category! The actual awards ceremony is on the 14th of October in Cambridge, and you can buy tickets here if you'd like to come along.

I think I've covered everything I wanted to cover in this blog post, but I'm sure I'll make another one with some more updates soon!
Like my facebook page to make sure you stay up to date with everything :)

Have a good week!
Fern x

I Was in A Musical!

6/24/2016

Hello! first of all I must apologise for not updating this blog enough.
I'll try really hard from now on - promise!

Just before Christmas I was asked if I'd want to do some recording and perhaps write a song for a new musical called Guardian Angels.
I actually have a lot of experience doing musical theatre and it's something I've always enjoyed, so of course I jumped at the opportunity!
After recording 21 songs with David Booth in Debenham in a very short amount of time the album was finished. You can buy it here, or listen to some of the songs on soundcloud! This is the one I wrote.

The creator of Guardian Angels, Chris Brindle, and the cast/band/crew (from top to bottom going left to right: Nathan Bradley, Ben Sylvester, Josh Mellor, Babs Rudall, Corinne Willson, Fern Teather, Sam Thurlow, Vicky Clubb, Hollie Evans, Izzy Roy, Selina Lumber)

Guardian Angels tells the story three actresses who get stranded in Harwich after auditioning for the end of the pier show. They end up going to a pub where they meet a singer/songwriter (played by yours truly) and a saxophonist, and together the five girls decide to write their own musical about their lives. Of course they can't do it without the emotional (and financial) support from their families and friends, and some are more willing to help than others!

Myself, Hollie Evans, Izzy Roy, and Corinne Willson performing 'I Want A Panto For Christmas'.

Last week we did our five performances of the musical as part of the New Wolsey Theatre's open season in Ipswich, and they went really well!
Thank you so much if you're someone who came to watch.
It was so much fun to combine my singer/songwritery world with a musical theatre one - especially since it was an actor/musician show, meaning the majority of the band were also in the cast. However while most of the band stayed in a band corner and came on stage occasionally, myself and Selina Lumber spent most of our time on stage playing our instruments in character. As I wasn't sat with the band most of the time and couldn't have the music on a stand in front of me, I ended up writing the chords for 16 songs out on post-it notes every night and sticking them to the top of my guitar. They only fell of during one performance and didn't even make it to the floor, which I consider a success!

My post-it note collection after the last show!

The cast, band and crew were all so wonderful to work with, and I can't wait to see what the future of the musical brings.

Here are some videos of songs from the show, including a very enthusiastic Izzy Roy singing 'Holiday in Harwich' on location, and a video of me tap dancing in 'I Want To Dance Like Fred Astaire'!

'Hiding in the Dark' Album Release!

11/6/2015

Last Friday I launched my debut album 'Hiding in the Dark' at the DanceEats! Café in Ipswich, and I couldn't be happier with how the evening went! Keith Sadler played an awesome opening set with Jonathan Coy and Sam Thurlow, and everyone who came along was so lovely and supportive. It really made the night magical!
I wanted to make this post just to tell you a bit more about the album and all of the amazing people involved.

I started recording this album in May with David Booth at The Recording Booth, and spent a total of 12 and a half days in the studio (although it feels like longer as the days were quite spaced out)!
My aim for Hiding in the Dark was for it to be an accurate representation of what I sound like live, with a few extras, and I think we achieved that! I really loved experimenting with different sounds and instruments, but it was really important to me that if someone listened to the CD after hearing me live they wouldn't think "this sounds completely different to the girl we heard playing".

I want to say a massive thank you to David for making my songs sound the best they can sound, and for providing such a creative environment to throw ideas around in (even if some of them didn't work). It's so nice to work with someone who gets involved with the music as much as David does!
I'd also like to say a huge thank you to Sam Thurlow for going to the studio with me almost everyday and being so helpful with the whole album making process. Not only did he do a wonderful job on the percussion, but he also designed the album cover and took the cover-photo (along with most of the other promotional photos I've been using)!

It would have been incredibly difficult to have made this album without everyone involved, but I genuinely couldn't have done it without David or Sam. They're stars! ★

↑ Sam, myself and David.

I'd like to thank all of the amazing musicians who played on the CD:
Lucy Sampson on Backing vocals, Andy Trill on bass, Jonathan Evans on cello, Sam Thurlow on percussion, percussive guitar, and backing vocals, and David Booth (yep, he played on the album too) on drums, percussion, guitar, backing vocals, mandolin, keyboard, and bass!
I also want to say thank you to my grandad for letting me borrow his piano accordion :)

I was only able to fund this album because of everyone who pledged to my Kickstarter campaign, so last but by no means least, I'd like to say a humongous thank you to everyone who pledged!
Although I'd saved up enough money to get the album recorded, without you it would just be a single disc sitting on my computer table in one of those cheap plastic CD pockets.
I'm so incredibly grateful for all of your support!

I also really appreciate all the positive feedback the album's been getting. I'm so glad people like it!

Hiding in the Dark is currently available to listen to on Spotify and Amazon MP3, and will also be on itunes and other popular streaming sites soon.
You can buy a physical copy of the CD by clicking here!

Cambridge Folk Festival

8/11/2015

There's a lot of amazing local festivals, but my favourite by far is Cambridge Folk Festival.
I've been going for the past 4 years and it's always such an amazing atmosphere!
The first time I played there was during an open slot on the Milkmaid Stage when I was 15, and it was actually my first time playing my songs in front of an audience! The past couple of years I've had booked slots on the stage, and this year Sam and I were one of the Milkmaid showcases :D

Heres a photo of the Milkmaid tent before it started filling with people later in the day!

Our set was at 11:30pm on the first night of the festival, but we stayed for the whole weekend to watch everyone else play and there were some amazing acts!

Some of my favourites were: Frank Turner, Joan Baez, Rhiannon Giddens, Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino, Skinny Lister, Hattie Briggs, Passenger, Joan Armatrading, Anna Pancaldi, The Demon Barbers XL, and The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.
I know there were lots of other amazing acts too, but unfortunately we couldn't see everyone - the only downside of festivals!

The weather was beautiful :)

I decided to sign us up for an open slot in The Den, which is a lovely tent at the festival for more 'acoustic' acts, completely ignoring the fact that both of us were coming down with colds.
We only had time for 3 songs so we got through it and had lots of fun, but went straight back to our tent afterwards and made ourselves some lemsips! We were determined not to let it ruin our weekend.

There's always something so magical about CFF. I think it's the fact that everyone is there for the music, and that the standard of the music is always so incredible! Everyone's so polite to each other too, and it's such a happy place - especially when the weather's as nice as it was this year!
There's always lots of great options for food too which always helps :D
You can tell that so much work goes into this festival (something I also noticed with Secret Garden Party this year).

Trying to decide who to see!

I really enjoyed the mix of music at the festival this year - it really pushed some of the boundaries of 'folk' which I thought was great, and there were lots of unique bands and artists.
Rhiannon Giddens comes to mind straight away, because a lot of her lyrics were from traditional English folk songs but the music had a real rootsy, world music twist to it. Her band were playing a really interesting combination of instruments too!

Joan Baez and Joan Armatrading were amazing (as I knew they would be), and both managed to fill the main stage as soloists throughout lots of their songs. Passenger actually played his entire set with no band! There was a lovely moment in Joan Baez's set when she sang 'Imagine' by John Lennon and everyone in the audience sang along. The same thing happened with House of the Rising Sun. and it really showed the community spirit of the festival.

I also feel like I need to commend Passenger and The Ukulele Orchestra on their stage banter because it was hilarious!

You should definitely check out all the acts I've mentioned in this post :)

If you get the chance to go to Cambridge Folk Festival in the future I would really recommend it. It's always one of the highlights of my year, and I leave it with so much inspiration for my own music!

Kickstarter SUCCESS!

7/8/2015

Hi guys!

I'm REALLY pleased to announce that my Kickstarter campaign was successful!
My target was to raise £2,000 in 30 days, and my campaign finished on July 3rd with £2,280.

Screenshot from Kickstarter!

Thank you to everyone who helped me achieve my goal!
I'm blown away by the amount of support I've received, and really pleasantly surprised by everyone's generosity :D

I've been in and out of the studio a lot, and have been vloging the experience on my facebook page, so if you'd like to see what I've been up to go to facebook.com/fernteathermusic (and maybe give it a 'like' too!)
I'm really pleased with how the album's going, and I can't wait to share it with everyone!

Hope you're all having a great week,
Fern Xx

WE DID IT!

6/15/2015

Hello!

I just wanted to let everyone know that on June 13th my Kickstarter campaign reached it's target of £2,000, just 10 DAYS after it's launch!
Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who's helped me get there!!!

My Kickstarter page will remain open until July 3rd, and any extra money I get will continue to go into the album, and towards promotional gigs.

All rewards will be sent out over the next 3-4 months to people who have pledged. (Remember if you haven't pledged already you still have until July 3rd to do so!)

Click on the image below to watch me announcing this great news on my facebook page!

Help me make my debut album!

6/3/2015

Helloooo!

In my last blog post I told you all that I'd be launching a kickstarter campaign to help fund my debut album.
I'm very excited (and a bit nervous) to announce that my campaign is now LIVE!

Kickstarter is a crowdfunding platform, which allows you to pledge anything from £1 to help me make my album. In return for your generosity I'll send you rewards to say thank you (the more money you give, the cooler the rewards you get)!

Kickstarter uses an 'all or nothing' system, meaning if I don't reach my target amount of money in a set amount of time I don't get any of it.
Because of this I need to try and get as many people to see it as possible, so I'd really appreciate it if you could share my page with your friends :)

I'd love for you to watch my kickstarter video below, but if you want to go straight to my campaign page just click here!

EXCITING NEWS!!!

5/28/2015

Hello!
Hope you're having a good week :)
I have some really exciting news...

I'M MAKING AN ALBUM!

I posted a video announcing it on my Facebook page which you can watch here:

It has lots of information so I'd love you to watch it, but I'll write a quick summary here in case you can't:

• I'm recording an album with David Booth at 'The Recording Booth'.

• I'm really excited!

• Over the 3 days I've been in the studio so far, I've filmed various clips of the recording process. I plan on continuing to do this every time I record, and will be uploading a short vlog to my Facebook page every week!
The video above starts with Day 1's vlog, before I go on to explain everything else.

• I'm working on a kickstarter campaign to support the album which I will be launching very soon.
For those who don't know, kickstarter is a crowd funding platform which allows you to pledge different amounts of money in return for rewards (eg: CD's, wristbands, and other limited edition merchandise).

• Once I launch my kickstarter campaign I only have a certain amount of time to reach my funding goal, and if I fall short of my goal I don't get any of the money at all. This means I'll be talking about it as much as possible, and I'd really appreciate it if you would help spread the word too :)

• The process is going really well so far and I can't wait to share it with you!

If you'd like to go to my facebook page click here, or click here to sign up for my mailing list.

My First Blog Post (sort of)

2/21/2015

Hello :)
I started a blog a little while ago on tumblr, fernwritesthings.tumblr.com, but I'm also going to start blogging on my website!
I might still use my tumblr, but I think this is going to become my primary blog for the time being.

I'm not entirely sure what to write, so I think I'll just tell you a few facts myself and my music :)

- The first instrument I learned to play was piano. I took lessons for about 2 years when I was 8, before realising that it wasn't really 'my thing'. I can still play a little bit, but wouldn't call myself a pianist!
- The first instrument I owned, however, was a tiny nylon strung acoustic guitar. My Dad is an amazing guitarist and used to try and teach me to play when I was very young. I never really took it seriously till I was older, but I'm sure some of the tips younger me was taught helped me pick it up again so quickly when I got older.
- The first time I played my songs to people (besides my parents) was in 2011 at Cambridge Folk Festival!
My family had decided to go to CFF, and I had my guitar with me so I could play in our tent. We discovered a great folk tent one night on our campsite, running open mic style slots. My Dad convinced me to sign up as I had my guitar anyway. It was great! I remember being very nervous, but the folk club who ran it (The Milkmaid in Bury St Edmunds) asked me to go along to their club. I became their resident artist for about a year!
- I tried learning clarinet and saxophone when I was in school, but I just can't get on with woodwind instruments at all!
- There are lots of bands and artists who inspire me, and they're quite an eclectic bunch!
- My 5 main inspirations are Laura Marling, Joni Mitchell, Fleetwood Mac, and Neil Young, and The Staves. I was a bit of a 'theatre kid' growing up, so I've always listened to lots of musical soundtracks which I'm sure have also had an effect.
- Over 2013 and 2014 I played more than 200 gigs!
- I studied performing arts at college, and really enjoy acting and dancing as well as singing.
- I'd love to do more theatre work one day, but at the moment I'm very happy just doing my music :)
- This year I'm trying really hard to gig in new places. The Suffolk music scene is AMAZING, but I really want to explore the rest of the country.
- I'm also going to write more this year, cause I have much more time on my hands than I did in 2014!
- I started my youtube channel in 2011, but stopped posting videos after the first few months to focus on my GCSE's.
- I've recently got back into it, and am now trying to post a new video every week! Please check it out, and subscribe if you like what you see: www.youtube.com/user/PurpleCanaryx

Let me know if you liked this post! I will try to keep my blog updated as much as possible :)
Thanks for reading,
Fern x