A Rock Hard Place...

For those of you who aren't already aware, the Germans are extremely keen on their rock and heavy metal... and they're not ashamed to show it! The number of rock festivals in Germany throughout the Summer is, quite simply, stunning! They also have a number of home grown publications which rival the likes of Kerrang! and Metal Hammer in circulation. One of those magazines is ROCK HARD, a publication which has a circulation in the top 3 of the rock/metal magazines read in the country.

Each month there are a plethora of reviews ranging from established acts and classic albums to the newest releases and demos of unsigned acts. Last month's issue included a review of our own 'The Original Demos 2008', and they gave us an impressive 8/10!

The review as it appeared in the magazine.

For those, like us, whose German is a little rusty, here's a full translation of the review...

"Fancy a dose of Twin-Guitars? Then you should try to get the debut-CD of this quintet's from York in England, because you will get twin guitars (and more) free to your home. This CD with 5 tracks already sounds so good that a contract with a publishing company should only be a question of time. Morpheus Rising was only founded last year but the material could be 25 years old as well. So if you fancy good-mood-Rock/Metal in the tradition of some Late-NWOBHM-combos with special emphasis on meaningful songwriting and very good work on the Guitar (just listen to the solo in 'save the day'), remember the name MORPHEUS RISING."

So, you read what the man said... remember the name MORPHEUS RISING!

All the best,

Grae, Pete, Daymo, Andy and Gibbo
MORPHEUS RISING
...resurrecting British Heavy Metal!

Time to catch up... Pt. 2

Picking up from the last blog...

There was definitely a lesson to be learned after the Speakeasy gig. (And that doesn't mean the one about taping over the mute switch on the Shure radio mic!)

Always, always, book time off the morning after a gig! Don't agree to return the transport early the morning after, don't volunteer to man the office while everyone's at a meeting, and definitely don't leave urgently due reports until that day!! Perhaps the heat on the night made matters a little worse, but there was definitely a serious degree of pain the following morning...

But enough of that.

We've still more to tell about the goings on over the last fortnight. As we mentioned in the last blog, we were confirmed as one of the acts appearing on the main stage of the Sunday line up at U-Fest shortly after the GUN gig. We're sorry to have to let you know that this event has now been cancelled due to Local Council and Police support being withdrawn for the festival. It's a shame, and completely out of our control, but it means we can look for alternative gigs elsewhere... and believe us, we're looking!

The same week we were contacted by one of the bands playing at The Boardwalk on July 8th to let us know they couldn't make the gig... we contacted Joolz at the venue and let him know we might be able to fill the slot with friends of ours. We soon reached the opinion we'd spoken too soon as the first 3 bands we contacted were unable to play! The next day we were contacted by the venue to let us know the headline act had pulled out!

At this point we thought we were going to have to cancel the 2nd gig in a week... NOT good! But no! We received a call from Pete Rutherford, who we'd asked to join us as support with his current band Lost Effect (unable to oblige), to say that Equinox, his previous band, a great sounding power metal trio, were reforming and would be willing to do the gig! An hour later, after discussing matters with Joolz again, we'd secured the headline slot for ourselves, Equinox were confirmed on the bill, and Red Mist Rising had also been added!

It had been a fairly hectic few days.

To add to all the ruckus we'd also had discussions about a single release... Some of you may recall the acoustic track we released last year as a download only charity single for HELP for HEROES. After a number of ideas we settled on the decision to record Fighting Man properly, and to re-record An Ordinary Man and use these two tracks as the release, this time in aid of HELP for HEROES and the Royal British Legion's Poppy Appeal. But this year we intend to build on last year's success. The single will be available as a physical CD, as well as a download at all reputable sites (including your mobile providers!), and will be supported by an extensive National TV, radio, online and printed media campaign... oh! And it will be chart eligible! (Top 40 for MR anyone?)

We'll post separately about the single project over the weekend.

In the meantime, we're all off for a little snooze before going out to see The Supermodels tonight...

All the best,

Grae, Pete, Daymo, Andy and Gibbo
MORPHEUS RISING
...resurrecting British Heavy Metal!

Time to catch up... Pt. 1

We've said it before, and we'll say it again...

It's been a hell of a week! (Well, two actually)

You probably expected a blog before now after our gig supporting GUN a fortnight ago, to be honest the reason we haven't done it before now is that we haven't been able to find the time, or the words, to tell you what's happened over the days since the gig!

First up, the gig itself. As you may expect, we were fairly stoked about the support slot. Members of the band have been fans of both Little Angels (Toby Jepson's original band) and GUN since the early days of their careers, seeing them live on several occasion at venues including pubs, clubs and football stadiums! The load in, sound check and our planned meet 'n' greet all went by at a surprisingly relaxed pace. It was great to meet up with those fans who made it to the Mucky Duck before the gig, some of them having travelled from Banbury, Dorset and Glasgow in order to be there!

We didn't catch much of the $lash Vega$ set as we were getting ready to go on stage ourselves but what little we did see certainly proved that they know how to put on a show and, with the crowd not coming to them, it was great to see them going to the crowd! Then it was time...

It's hard describing your own performance, so if you want to read a review of the gig from an objective point of view check out this blog. From our perspective, we were concerned that the 30 minute slot would fly by in too short a time, but once we got on stage it all just seemed right. Normally you find these things pass in a flash, but on the night everything seemed to calm down, giving us the time to enjoy ourselves on stage and interact with a very responsive crowd. Yes, it had it's moments... losing power stage left during Fighting Man could well have been a showstopper (Steve, after seeing the photos you produced, you are now forgiven!) but Daymo and Pete played on while sorting the issue and we came out of it relatively unscathed. High points from a personal viewpoint (Grae) were Lord of the North and Hold On... they just seem to get even bigger live, and they're great fun to play! Take a look at the photos on the gigs page and you'll see the smiles on our faces, and the fans...

It was a great night, and then we got to see GUN do their thing! A great show and it was especially nice to hear the old classics like 'Steal Your Fire' and the award winning 'Word Up' as well as the first new track which I believe is to be released as an EP in the near future.

Once the live music's over The Duchess runs a club night and stays open till the wee hours, the band took this opportunity to interact with the fans and had a few well deserved cold ones. It was a great night for all involved, and a great opportunity for us to actually meet those of you who have been following us on MySpace and Facebook for the past year or so.

The day after the gig should have been one of plenty of rest and reflection... in the world of MORPHEUS RISING things just don't seem to go that way. Before lunch we'd had an offer of a slot at U-Fest, the UK's largest unsigned only music festival, which we duly accepted (wouldn't you?)! We also took the opportunity to announce a gig at The Speakeasy in York, a joint headline with new York based metal act Leap of Faith, things were not getting any quieter!

By Tuesday we'd had more gig news. We were originally booked as the second of 3 acts at The Boardwalk gig in Sheffield on July 8th, the promoter contacted us and asked if we'd be prepared to headline the gig? The opportunity to play a longer set, and headline a venue like The Boardwalk was not one we wanted to miss, and so we grabbed it with all ten hands! You can find more details of the gig here.

There are a plethora of other things in the pipeline which, at the moment, are still in the preliminary stages of planning/negotiation and so we need to keep the details close to our chest. What we can tell you is that we are definitely planning more gigs during the Summer and beyond, and have all but confirmed the timings for our first BBC Radio session, and are planning loads more for the next few months.

It's now the day after The Speakeasy gig and we're still reeling from another great night, but you can expect another blog later today, or tomorrow, with more news of what's been happening in the last few days, gigs, a single, and much more...

You can keep up with all the news, as it happens, by following us on twitter.

In the meantime,

All the best,

Grae, Pete, Daymo, Andy and Gibbo
MORPHEUS RISING
...resurrecting British Heavy Metal!

Ready an' Willing!

Well, that's it! The next time we'll all be together is on stage at the GUN gig on June 20th! The rehearsals went really well, and we think we've got eveything covered, even broken strings and self mutilation! We'd like to thand Dan and all the guys at The White Rooms for their help, the tea, coffee and sugar, and most importantly, their patience!

Well, we'll be together a little before we get on stage... we've got the load in, the sound check, oh! And we'd like to invite you all to a meet'n'greet before the gig!! We're aiming to be at The Old White Swan (or 'Mucky Duck' to yokels) at around 6:30pm on the night and we'd love to see you there*. You'll get to meet the band in a relaxed environment, have a chat, a beer, and we'll get to place faces to names, email addresses and user names!

In addition we're pleased to tell you that we will now definitely be able to accept credit/debit cards should you decide to purchase any CDs, t-shirts or other merchandise on the night. We've also just ordered some additional stock to ensure that you won't be disappointed on the night!

So, what are we up to before then? Well, Daymo and Grae are off to see Dream Theater at the O2 Academy in Leeds on Friday night, Pete's off to Bulgaria with Marillion, Andy's working his lighting magic at various venues and Gibbo's continuing his current Mr. Universe bid!!

Remember to go to the Live Dates page and download a flyer for the gig to get £6.50 off the door price (or email us at info@morpheusrising.co.uk to get a txt!).

We're looking forward to seeing you there, it's going to be a great night! We guarantee it!

All the best,

Grae, Pete, Daymo, Andy and Gibbo
MORPHEUS RISING
...resurrecting British Heavy Metal!

* We will do our best to be there on time, but please be patient, as we are not the headline act we are at GUN's mercy with regards to sound checks etc... but we will be there!

Theater of Dreams

...And no! It's not a spelling mistake!

As you'll have gathered from our blog 'Blinded by the Light...' last November, we are huge music fans as well as being musicians. There's no better way to spend a night than watching/listening to either your idols, your peers or your proteges, or any decent musician for that matter!

Just under 2 decades ago I remember sitting up late one night watching MTV and seeing a bunch of guys playing what could only be described as the perfect prog rock 'single' for the modern age... that track was Pull Me Under, the band were Dream Theater (see why it was incorrectly spelt now?!), I've followed them religously ever since, through the highs (Scenes from a Memory anyone?) and, what I consider to be, the lows (Train of Thought)... despite delving further into 'progressive metal' over the last few albums they have maintained the ability to leave me speechless. The new album Black Clouds & Silver Linings (due for release on June 23rd) is, quite simply, stunning! You can check out the 'single' A Rite of Passage on YouTube here. (Not the best track on the album, merely the shortest in its single format!) In addition to the album the band are releasing 6 download only (unles you buy one of the 'deluxe' packages) singles in the weeks leading up to it's release, these are all covers and so far include Rainbow's Stargazer, Queen's Tenement Funster/Flick of the Wrist/Lily of the Valley, Dixie Dreg's Odyssey (and I think Iron Maiden's To Tame A Land is next) so far...

Earlier this week I was asked by a friend if I was going to see them in Leeds, 'Eh?' was my reply... I knew they were playing Download, but I hadn't realised they were playing Leeds on the Friday night of the same weekend!! I've never been able to see them live due to other commitments, so once I realised they were playing 30 minutes away that was it! I went straight to the O2 Academy site and tried to book tickets... SOLD OUT! Never fear! Off to the trusty, but equally dodgy, ebay... 1 search, a couple of clicks and only a fiver over face falue I'm now the proud owner of 2 tickets for the show. At last!

Daymo and I are now counting down the days, hours, minutes and seconds to the gig... Me, because I've been a fan since that night, and Daymo because he wants to be touched the hand of God (well, John Petrucci at least!).

Oh! Did I mention we've managed to get access to the after show as well? Bring it on!

We'll let you know how it went, and possible write a review of the gig here, until then,

All the best,

Grae
MORPHEUS RISING
...resurrecting British Heavy Metal!

Great GUN gig ticket deal!

Hi!

Great news! We've just had it confirmed that any of our fans who are attending the gig will only have to pay £10 (as opposed to the £15+booking or £16.50 otd prices previously published) to get into the show!!

To get this price, you must do one of the following:

• a) Present a flyer for the gig (these will be available from Facebook, MySpace and our site from tonight onwards.)
  


• b) Present a print out of the gig details from our website,Myspace or Facebook profile event pages.
  


• c) Show a text from the band saying you're invited!

Failure to present one of these will mean that you will be charged the full amount at £16.50 on the door.

As a general update to the event, there will be three bands playing on the night. First up are $lash Vega$, then we will be on, followed by GUN.

So, all in all, a great deal for you all... an extra band playing on the night AND over a 3rd of the door price!!

We look forward to seeing you there!

There will be more news and updates before the event, so watch this space.

Until then, all the best,

Grae, Pete, Daymo, Andy and Gibbo
MORPHEUS RISING
...resurrecting British Heavy Metal!

Come Together... All's Going Well!

We seem to be repeating this a lot recently... It's been a hell of a week!

We started the week with a couple of rehearsals at The White Rooms, using the 'big' rehearsal room we were able to set everything up as if we were on stage, stage monitors et al. A BIG thanks to Dan for his help over the two days, and the constant fiddling with the amps/monitors to squeeze that little bit more out of them! We managed to agree on a set for the GUN gig and rehearsed it in various running orders before settling on the one we feel will give you the best bang for you buck. It was a great experience, spending time 'polishing' the performance rather than learning material. That said we did find the time between sets to work on a couple of older tracks and bring another one to'gig ready' status, while adding a new track to the set for the gig!

After the hectic start to the week most of us were hoping for a quiet few days, but it was not to be... Grae ended up at a 'do' on the Thursday night and finished in the bar early (about 3am) and is only just recovering, Pete ended up at the Open Mic night at the Fulford Arms and somehow found himself playing Sweethome Alabama, among others... Pete and Gibbo then paid a visit to O'Neills on Friday night to see The Mothers doing their thing while Andy's been away working more or less since the second he stepped out the rehearsal rooms... Daymo's considering buying himself a bigger two wheeled mode of transport while keeping himself busy at work doodling artwork for MR (don't tell the boss!), and then Pete got kidnapped and, after playing their songs on Thursday, found himself in Manchester on Saturday night to see Lynyrd Skynyrd! (By all accounts the show was great, but his other half had to tell me as Pete's currently a broken man after partying non-stop since Thursday!)

In addition to all that we still found time to do some 'behind the scenes' stuff and are pleased with the results... We've added some more items to the ZAZZLE site (with more to come over the next week or two), we have set up the capability to accept credit and debit cards at our merch stall at live gigs through our US based distributor CD Baby, and hopefully this should be up and running for the GUN gig! (A point to note is that, as CD Baby are US based, any card transactions will be charged in US$, a separate price list will be present on the night for anyone wishing to use a card). We also gave the site a little facelift, added some photos from Tuesday night's rehearsal, re-organised the pages and added some new Members Only content to the site... and there's loads more planned for the next few weeks, so keep checking back!

It's been a great few weeks, we've been to more than a few gigs, individually and collectively, we've achieved great things in the studio, we've got a show ready which you'll all love, and we're being offered reviews, sessions and gigs at a fairly healthy rate! It's all coming together, and doing so nicely. It's hard to believe that it was only a year ago this month that 'The Original Demos 2008' were initially recorded, and actually less than that since they took the form that you know them in now.

What next? Who knows, there's plenty in the pipeline, but we're keeping things close to our chest until we can go firm on them all...

Until we get another breather...

All the best,

Grae, Pete, Daymo, Andy and Gibbo
MORPHEUS RISING
...resurrecting British Heavy Metal!

Time for a facelift... and loads more news!

Things always seem to run away from you just when you think you've got them under control...

Over the last year or so we've joined numerous independent music sites to spread the word and many of them had widgets/apps/badges etc that you could add to a page anywhere on the web. Over that time these things made their way onto our site in what can only be perceived as a haphazard manner!!

Making the most of the Bank Holiday Monday I've done a little housework. The main links for the site have been tidied up a little with the live dates and blog now being accessible straight from the front page, and many of the sub-pages being relocated to somewhere more sensible (to my mind at least!). One downside is that some of the older links in blogs, websites etc may not work anymore so I'm now ploughing through them all to ensure they get fixed. If you notice any that no longer work anywhere on the web then please let us know by using our Have Your Say page or email info@morpheusrising.co.uk.

If you came to the site via our front page you'll also have noticed the logo image has changed a little, not the text, just the image. This is to fit in with the 'cleaner' overall site presence.

We hope you like the look, watch out for more updates and additions over the coming weeks!

For those of you who don't frequent Facebook there's also a new way to purchase band merchandise!! Pop on over to ZAZZLE and you'll see some tentative designs for new t-shirts, long sleved tops and other miscellaneous stuff. Each of the tops can be customised to your liking (an example would be removing the back print from the t-shirt and selecting a girl's skinny vest or changing the long sleeved t-shirt for a hoodie!!, just click on the 'Customise It' button below 'Add to cart' to make your changes). You'll notice that these are more expensive than the t-shirts we have available on our own store, the reason for this is that they are made to order, not made in bulk as our own t-hirts are. Let us know which designs you like and we'll see about getting them produced ourselves and making them available through our own site and reduce the cost to you (hopefully!). You can see the products below:

make custom gifts at Zazzle

On the music front: We're still in the process of booking gigs over the Summer with another date in York to be announced, and the possibility of gigs to be confirmed in Nottingham, Manchester and further afield... we've also been approached by a number of journalists regarding reviews for their magazines/websites and will let you know when they are to be published.

And finally... we've been approached to do a session for radio over the Summer and hope to be able to get details of this to you soon, needless to say we hope to get our hands on a copy of the recordings and make them available to you once the show has aired. Add to that the fact that we hope to be able to record the audio (and possibly even video) of at least one of our confirmed gigs and the possibilities of a live release towards the end of the Summer look like a distinct possibility :)

Now, it's time to prepare... I'm off to the rehearsal studio to meet the rest of the guys...

All the best,

Grae
MORPHEUS RISING
...resurrecting British Heavy Metal!

A long time coming... (Navigating the minefield of Web presence and self promotion!)

Other than yesterday's announcement concerning the release of the eventful.com widget enabling fans to 'Demand the Band!' it's all been a little quiet here since the post detailing our manic week back in April... Trust us, it's been anything but quiet behind the scenes!!

The promotion of a band is getting harder these days, especially if you want to avoid handing your soul to some 'gifted amateur'* who considers himself an expert in management/promotion, many venues no longer organise gigs themselves, handing the responsibility over to a promoter. There are exceptions of course, The Duchess and The Boardwalk being two examples, but these are becoming few and far between. Having said that, it's not hard to get your name out there, the likes of MySpace, Facebook and Last.fm make it easier for bands to get exposure and, to an extent, build a fan base prior to pushing for gigs outside of their hometown. Another excellent example is iLike which offers many of the same tools as the likes of MySpace and Facebook while tying in to the iTunes store and offering an app which bolts on to Windows Media Player and the iTunes app on our PC. Twitter has also become an established tool in involving your fans, enabling interaction on an almost instant basis wothout having to give out your MSN/Yahoo! Messenger details. The problem arises when you want to convert that online interest into tickets/sales/'real' fans... where do you start?

We were very lucky last year in that, due to our charity single for HELP for HEROES, we received a lot of interest from radio and websites prior, in all honesty, to doing anything else of note with the band. We have since kept that interest alive by ensuring we are active on our own site and all our social networking profiles, we've been seen 'out and about' as a band. We've made a point of interacting with fans at other band's gigs, we've been in the press, we've pushed ourselves on local, regional and internet radio, we've done it all... except get the gigs!

Yes, we played live last year, but not as much as we would have liked. We were also offered 2 or 3 gigs late January/early February of this year which we were unable to commit to due to 'real' life commitments and the illness of my wife. Then, once we were all back home and raring to go there were no gigs available! So we've had an apparent period of inactivity since last Christmas.

Over the last 2-3 weeks we have been digging away in the depths of the internet, trawling websites, social networking sites and the like, searching for contacts at venues throughout the country trying to book gigs. We've been lucky so far with two of the first batch coming up trumps and resulting in gigs in York and Sheffield. These gigs however are at venues who organise their own nights. Which brings me back to my first point: it's getting harder to promote your own band these days, despite the abundance of tools you can use to make people aware you exist...

It's a bit of a paradox really. You can't get gigs unless people know who you are, and people won't know who you are unless you gig. (I'm not counting the umpteen friends and businesses who will automatically jump on your MySpace and Facebook profiles). The simple answer is to send emails, electronic press kits, 'snail' mails, physical press kits, promo CDs to everyone in the business you can get the details for, the difficult part is what comes next...

Once you've found their details (there are some excellent resources available such as The Unsigned Guide) make sure you understand how they wish to be contacted... some will ask you to email or call them prior to sending anything in, some will only accept contact through their MySapce profiles, others will only accept requests to the promoters they use. You must understand how these people work in order to proceed at all!

And once you've figured out who to send what, and when, you send it... and wait...

It's a bit like a job application, in fact it's exactly like that. You may hear from some straight away with a yes or no, you may receive a polite 'We'll consider you in the future...', you may receive nothing. The important thing is knowing how long to wait before you chase it up, you mustn't stalk these people, you will distance yourself from those you need to befriend if you hassle them on a daily basis. There's no strict rule here... just play safe!

All this may sound a bit 'doom and gloom' ish, but it's not meant to be! It's a challenge, and it's there to be overcome... and overcome we will. In our case we've all been in this game long enough to know that tenacity, obstinacy and shear balls are what it takes. Read the biog of every established act and they'll say that you need to just keep banging your head against the wall until one day/night it all falls into place... so we're just going to keep on banging our heads!

Add to all the sedentary admin and promotion work the fact that we have been working on new material (some of which has been uploaded in rough cuts to Facebook, ReverbNation, iLike and this site with an exclusive on the ReverbNation site!), polishing the old material and working on the actual set/show for the upcoming gigs, you'll perhaps be able to forgive us all for not updating the blog!! Next week will be great fun with several rehearsals and more writing sessions! (And I'll be sketching out my ad-libs for between the songs... what? You didn't think we made them up on the spot did you!!)

We're hoping to be able to announce more gigs within the next week or so, we've got an exciting announcement to be made within the next few days (for more than a hint check our tweets!) and there'll be more merch available in the not too distant future...

It's been a long time coming, but it is coming together...

Slainté,

Grae
MORPHEUS RISING
...resurrecting British Heavy Metal!

* I will qualify that statement by asking you to check out the number of 'promoters'/'managers' who use hotmail, gmail or yahoo email accounts to do business. It's a given that, in order to present a professional business front, you should at least own your own domain name! (And bands should also take note... once you're past the practicing in your bedroom stages of your career a simple MySpace profile is no longer sufficient. For as little as £20 you can own your own site name, produce a website and have your band's own emal addresses).

On the rise... (Your chance to influence where we play!)

Having announced the first two gigs of the summer in York and Sheffield we're only too aware that some of you will be wondering whether we'll be playing near you soon... We've targetted our gig requests according to the details you have all provided on our mailing lists and site memberships and are currently awaiting responses from venues across the country.

If you want us to play in a venue near you then please take the opportunity to 'Demand The Band' on the widget below... The widget is created by eventful.com and can be used by the band, promoters and venues to guage whether a gig is feasible in any particular area, so the more of you who use it, the more likely it is we'll play near you!!

View all Morpheus Rising tour dates

We're hoping to announce more gigs over the next week or two, so if you want to influence the decisions, hit the button!!

All the best,
Grae, Pete, Daymo, Andy and Gibbo
MORPHEUS RISING
...resurrecting British Heavy Metal!

A week in the life of...

It's been a helluva week!

While Grae was 'up North' revelling with his family over the Easter period, the rest of the band decided to unleash their distinctive brand of joy and happiness on the unsuspecting partygoers of York... needless to say both Grae and Gibbo, Pete and Daymo were feeling somewhat the worse for wear on the Sunday (Andy had been working and so was for more sensible than the rest of us)!!

As if that wasn't enough, Anne-Marie Helder had taken a short detour from her current support of the Ultravox tour to support Nick Harper at The Duchess in York on the Monday night; we couldn't miss that one, could we! Anne made it perfectly clear that she was feeling kind of nervous... with members of Mostly Autumn, Morpheus Rising (for whom she has become the 'de facto' Official Photographer) and other friends and musos she knows it was hardly surprising! The gig was sublime with Anne's performance proving she can stand up there with the best of them. Watch out for a review of the gig at some point.

Tuesday was a well earned day of rest... for us at least. We received our first independent review of The Original Demos 2008. Gypsy Cinnamon, who writes the Graceful Degradation blog covering music, movies and all things entertainment, is a freelance journo who has been published in the likes of Kerrang!. She has written a great review of our demo EP, you can check it out here.

Wednesday was a different story. As most of you will know by now, two of the band members have significant commitments with other bands; Pete is the guitar tech for Marillion and has been busy with the 2nd leg of the Happiness Is The Road tour and the two conventions, Andy is the bass player for Mostly Autumn. As if that wasn't enough they both work extremely hard as techs, lampies, riggers, you name it, and this makes scheduling the MR sessions and rehearsals a logistical nightmare!!

Making the most of the periods over the last few months when other commitments have meant we couldn't rehearse or gig, Grae has worked on several sets of lyrics for material we had there waiting. Wednesday was the day we put them down on tape (metaphorically speaking of course!). Over the one day session we managed to get rough internal working copies of 6 new tracks, these vary in style ranging from fairly smooth rock songs to AC/DC style stadium rockers to HUGE rock anthems and coming to rest on the dark and brooding style of metal... an eclectic yet interesting mix! It was a great session and the resulting 'Internal Use Only' CDs have some real gems...

It was a hard day’s work and, although we planned to record on both Wednesday and Thursday, we decided to give the session a miss on Thursday in favour a full rehearsal on the Thursday night.

After resting most of Thursday it was off to The White Rooms to have our first rehearsal in quite some time... after the cobwebs were dusted off our recollection of the older material we fired through what had been the set for our Boxing Day gig last year, the 5 tracks of the demo EP, and then we dug in for some thrashing out of the new material...

Six new songs in one rehearsal would have been quite an achievement, in fact it would have been a bloody miracle!! We had listened to the roughs while setting up the kit for the rehearsal and, like the true democracy all bands are, Gibbo decided which songs we'd try out that night! (Only joking DOOD!)

Hold On was a no-brainer, a straight forward rocker it was the first track which Daymo recorded a solo for, and what a solo!! It's a great, powerful track with a much simpler structure and melody than the other material, expect to hear it rounding off some of the future shows... it ROCKS!

These Four Walls is just mean and dirty. A real AC/DC style riff, with lyrical content which wouldn't be uncomfortable in the company of Dirty Deeds or Big Balls, this track sees Pete and Daymo bouncing licks off each other throughout the solo, it's something to behold!

The final new addition was the track which has been available as an instrumental on our ReverbNation profile for some time as D116. Brave New World is no longer the working title... it is THE title. The song delivers on all the early promise of the instrumental with another apocalyptic style lyric from Grae with a melody that'll have you screaming along in no time. There's no other word for this, it's HUGE!

The mood throughout the whole rehearsal was great. Everyone was buzzing and the new material certainly made everyone up their game that little bit. It feels as if a huge hurdle has been surmounted and we're now on the road to bigger and better things. A friend on Twitter said earlier this week that she found getting past the 'half-way' point of a project a difficult process, we didn't really understand what she meant until this rehearsal. Without being aware of it we had hit a stand off, the first 5 tracks had come together so quickly, An Ordinary Man had just happened, we weren't used to waiting for our muse, or even really having to work for things to come together... what happened at that rehearsal was a watershed, we have moved forward and not just in shuffling steps, we've made great leaps and bounds towards what we want to achieve!

That would have been a great week in itself, but we received an email today which we're really pleased with... The Original Demos 2008 is now live on CD Baby!!

We are only too aware that many of our listeners and fans are spread across the globe with a large number being in the US and Canada. As a result we have decided to make The Original Demos 2008 available via CD Baby, this means that they are distributed direct from CD Baby in the US reducing postage etc. We hope all our international fans will take advantage of this facility, it's something we intend to continue from here on in.

We're looking forward to a chillaxing weekend now, before we get back into the rehearsal studio early next week...

As we said at the start of this blog, it's been a helluva week!


Remember, you can keep up to date with everything MR, as it happens, on Twitter, follow us here.

All the best,

Grae, Pete, Daymo, Andy & Gibbo
MORPHEUS RISING
...resurrecting British Heavy Metal!

Free Music? All of it? Surely Not?

Ok, here we go...

Over the last few weeks there has been much said about the future of the music industry; will it survive as it is? Is the CD dead? Should YouTube pay royalties? Should music be available free online?

This last one is a 'doozie' as they say. Over recent months a plethora of established names have made their latest releases available for download, for free, prior to the release of the physical CD: NIN, Marilyn Manson, Radiohead to name but a few.  Marillion even took the unheard of step of releasing their latest album to P2P sites (torrents etc) prior to its release... John Wesley has made his entire back catalogue available for download for free.... the list goes on...

We've done a lot of thinking on the subject and, in time honoured tradition, we have come to the conclusion that what's good for them can't be bad for us!!

You will now find the tracks from The Original Demos 2008 (yes, all 5 of them!) available as free downloads on Last.fm, ReverbNation , ilike, Facebook and BandCamp.  Now, before you get all uppity and start shouting "But I've just bought them all from iTunes!!", please don't panic! The downloads which are available for free are not of the same quality as those which you pay for.

The tracks available for purchase are all taken from the original masters of the tracks and converted directly (by Apple, Napster etc) for their own point of sale.  This means that they are of a much better sound quality than tracks which have been made from MP3 versions of the tracks.

As an example, if you pop over to Morpheus Rising's BandCamp page you'll see that you can't download the whole album for free, you have to select individual tracks and, if you choose to take the free downoad, it is only available in the lower quality MP3 version whereas the paid for versions are available in multiple formats including lossless audio flormats such as FLAC and Apple Lossless (which means it's exactly the same as we recorded it!!).

The idea behind this is that it will allow more people to hear our music, and it will allow people to let others hear our music and, once those new listeners realise how much they like us, they'll come and purchase the better quality downloads or even the physical CD... well, that's the theory, and it seems to have worked for those musicians we have spoken to who have taken similar steps.

We realise some of you may have opinions on this, and may feel quite strongly about the subject, please, feel free to get in touch and let us know what you think.

We can only wait...

All the best,

Grae, Pete, Daymo, Andy & Gibbo
MORPHEUS RISING
...resurrecting British Heavy Metal!

Jumping the gun...

As some of you may have noticed, the new Morpheus Rising Online Store is now available for your retail therapy pleasure!

Now, it may seem a little premature as we are still awaiting the T-Shirts and CDs to complete the stock.  We hope to have the T-Shirts in the middle of next week, and the CDs in time for the weekend, but we just couldn't resist showing off the new merchandise!



Although the colours appear to be solid dark blue or black in the photographs all the items actually sport the fading dark blue to black you can see on any of our logos, and they look great!

In our opinion the must have item is the Keyring Bottle Opener, it's the perfect size to stop you losing your keys, it's great for opening the next 'cool one' and... it's got your favourite band's logo on it! What more could you ask for?

We can't wait to see the T-Shirts! If the quality of the other merchandise produced by Awesome Badges is anything to go by then they'll be stunning!

We'd like to assure all our US/Canadian (and other international) listeners that we have NOT forgotten you and, once we receive our stock of CDs we'll be setting up a CD Baby outlet so that you can purchase the CD without incurring international shipping costs!

In the meantime why not pop over to Queensrÿche.com and check out the new American Soldier album... it sounds great, and it's definitely an interesting idea for a concept album!

All the best,

Grae, Pete, Daymo, Andy and Gibbo
Morpheus Rising
...resurrecting British Heavy Metal!

The rest, as they say, is history!

OK, after the enforced downtime over the last couple of months is now truly drawing to a close and we are now gearing up for a period of frantic activity, and we mean FRANTIC!

If you follow the band on Twitter you'll know that we are in the process of purchasing merchandise and CDs, we hope to have t-shirts, badges, stickers and keyrings available to purchase by the end of this month with physical CDs of 'The Original Demos 2008' available soon after.

In addition, once the band are all back home next week we have a photo shoot scheduled. We will once again be using the awesome skills of Anne-Marie Helder to capture our best sides and enable us to get some new images online.  We'll let you know as soon as we get our hands on them!

As if that's not enough we're currently in talks with a PR company in relation to our next release, this will include at least one all new track and may include a re-recording of one of our existing tracks, keep checking back for more!

And finally... you may have noticed that the weather is imrpoving, and that can only mean one thing!  The music festival season is fast approaching!  We have approached a number of these festivals with a view to appearing on the 'Unsigned Stages' and we'll keep you up to date with any news of success both here and on Twitter.

You will be able to help us with appearing on at least one of the festivals, the Road to V competition is now accepting submissions (which we have done) and we're currently updating our profile on thier site and deploying the widget they provide.  Once the registration period is over (it closes on the 12th of April) you will be able to vote for your favourite bands!!

We'll let you know once the voting period begins, we hope you'll help us open this great festival!

So, all in all, it's a busy period and we're only going to get busier! We'll be back in the recordng and rehearsal studios over the next few weeks and will be announcing gigs in the not too distant future!!

Rise with us...

All the best,

Grae, Pete, Daymo, Andy and Gibbo

Morpheus Rising

...resurrecting British Heavy Metal!

Are we there yet?

It's hard to believe but it's a year since Pete and Grae first got together to discuss what would become Morpheus Rising!

In that time we've written sufficient material for more than a standard album (and thrown most of it back into the melting pot!), released a charity single, been interviewed live and played on local, national and global radio stations, appeared in 'real' newspapers, we've been mentioned on Dave Gilmour's blog (yes, that Dave Gilmour!) and we've seen our first commercial release appear on iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster and IndieStore... not bad considering the limited esposure we've had and the fact that other commitments meant we had to turn down the gigs we got offered in support of the release!!

But all is definitely not lost!  We have made use of all the well known social networking tools to help us in our bid for global domination and more than a couple of not so well known ones... ReverbNation is akind of social networking site for independent musicians where you can build a fan base, show off your music, and generally pimp your wares.  There are also a number of charts on the site broken down into Local, National and Global charts by genre.  Morpheus Rising have fared consistently well in all of these charts but, until today, didn't really realise how well...

We are placed in the top 3 percent of ALL the charts in RverbNation where we appear!!  This includes the Global All Genres chart which has over 184,000 acts listed!  Our positions are as follows:

Global All Genre: 4473 out of 184,897 (Top 2.4%)

Global Metal: 136 out of 4781 (Top 2.8%)

National Metal: 10 out of 391 (Top 2.5%)

Local Metal: 1 out of 30 (Top... er, TOP!)

These positions have been fairly consistent over the last 3-4 months and we'd like to thank all of you for helping us achieve these great figures... how about we for a Top 5 National Metal placing now... or push into the Top 100 Global Metal?  To help us, just point your broweser at our ReverbNation page and click on the Widgets tab under our status and spread them on your sites... let your friends know, and we'll soon be there ;)

Or you could simply add this code to your email signature/blog/website to let people join our newsletter!!

<a href="http://www.reverbnation.com/morpheusrising?add_email=true"><img alt="Mylinks_join_mailing_list" src="http://cache.reverbnation.com/images/my_links_badges/mylinks_join_mailing_list.png" /></a>

The above code will produce the button below:



We look forward to seeing you soon...

All the best,

Grae, Pete, Daymo, Andy & Gibbo

Morpheus Rising

...resurrecting British Heavy Metal

Patience is a virtue

...I'm sure you know how the saying ends?!

Well, fortunately for us, we exercised a little patience and sat waiting quietly while our listeners increased, the 'scrobbles' racked up, and eventually it all paid off!!

What are we talking about so excitedly? Last.fm of course!!



Morpheus Rising now have our own Last.fm radio station!!  That's right, you can now tune in to our very own station and listen to our material alongside those other artists which our listeners deem to be 'Similar Artists'... so far we're in pretty distinguished company: Iron Maiden, Metallica, Whitesnake and Alter Bridge to name a few!!

Why not pop along to Last.fm and listen to us online (if you have an iPhone there's a free app here).

If you're in the dark about what Last.fm actually is then here's what Wikipedia has to say about it:

"Last.fm is a UK-based Internet radio and music community website, founded in 2002. It claims over 21 million active users based in more than 200 countries. On 30 May 2007, CBS Interactive acquired Last.fm for £140m ($280m USD). 

Using a music recommendation system called "Audioscrobbler", Last.fm builds a detailed profile of each user's musical taste by recording details of all the songs the user listens to, either on the streamed radio stations, the user's computer or some portable music devices. This information is transferred to Last.fm's database ("scrobbled") via a plugin installed into the user's music player. The profile data is then displayed on the user's profile page. The site offers numerous social networking features and can recommend and play artists similar to the user's favourites.

Users can create custom radio stations and playlists from any of the audio tracks in Last.fm's music library, and are able to listen to some individual tracks on demand, or download tracks if the rights holder has previously authorised it. Registration, which is free, is required to acquire a profile but is not necessary to view any part of the site or to listen to radio stations"

Rise with us...

All the best,

Grae, Pete, Daymo, Andy and Gibbo

Morpheus Rising

...resurrecting British Heavy Metal!

The Original Demos 2008, Over the Air

As stated on the News item on our Homepage we have been holding some info back regarding the release of 'The Original Demos 2008' which went on sale on Boxing Day last year!  The initial release was available from iTunes, NAPSTER and Rhapsody but we also submitted the tracks to an additional source textatrack.co.uk, but we decided not to advertise the fact that it was available from there, until now!


Now, before you cry foul, we withheld the information for a reason... we weren't happy with how it worked, and weren't sure that the functionality was right for you, our fans.

All that has changed and we now feel that the functionality and capabilities of the site are sufficient that we would be happy for you to try them out.  So, what is textatrack, and how does it work?

Firstly, it's a new way for you to buy our material using your mobile phone... you send a text message (SMS) to a short code number and, depending on what you requested, you will receive a PIN code to download the track on your PC, or you will receive a link to download the track directly on your mobile phone!!  These downloads will count towards the Official UK Singles Charts just as those from iTunes UK store etc...

For example if you send 'track 1900' to 83262 you will receive a message with a PIN code to redeem at our textatrack page and download Fighting Man to your PC.  If, however, you text 'track 1900 m' to 83262 you will receive a link to download Fighting Man direct to your phone.  Both methods will cost £1 which includes the operators share of the messaging costs, the mobile download method will require a data connection to be used and may incur further costs.

Please ensure you verify your data download charges with your operator before using this service. 

If you are an O2 or 3 Mobile customer, we strongly recommend that you verify that you have a data add-on package before you download a track. You could incur significant costs if you do not have a data add-on pack.

PLEASE BE AWARE THIS SERVICE IS CURRENTLY ONLY AVAILABLE IN THE UK!

The details of the numbers to text are as follows:

Track	PC Download	Mobile Download
Fighting Man	track 1900	track 1900 m
Save The Day	track 2159	track 2159 m
Those Who Watch	track 1960	track 1960 m
In The End	track 1962	track 1962 m
Lord Of The North	track 1847	track 1847 m
All text messages are to be sent to 83262 This service is currently available in the UK only! All Text Messages Will Cost £1

We look forward to hearing your thoughts on this new service, and hope you agree that it is a fresh new way to make our music available to you on the move!!

All the best,

Grae, Pete, Daymo, Andy and Gibbo
MORPHEUS RISING
resurrecting British Heavy Metal!

Back in the saddle...

Two entries in as many days!  Wow!

Things are back in motion!  As you'll have seen on the Home page we've uploaded two new sets of lyrics on the Songs page, and we hope to have listenable versions of the tracks for you soon...

Hold On is a straight forward rocker which has had more than one incarnation over the last year or so... initially it was the 3rd (ish) track Pete and Grae had written together and was more or less complete about the same time as Those Who Watch but it seemed to go flat and very soon the entire lyric, other than the hook, was dropped and something else was looked for.  Over time the track became a studio warm-up for Grae's vocal sessions and it never got past that, until Daymo heard it one day and staked a claim!  With the second guitar, and a new solo, the track gained a new lease of life and it's been worked on slowly since early December...

These Four Walls is a direct result of too much of the rock'n'roll life (if such a thing is possible!).  Written after a few trips away and much listening to the likes of AC/DC and Airbourne between sessions of copious German Pils, These Four Walls is one of those all out, 'balls out', rockers that make the crowds go wild and bang their heads 'til the soun comes up... it'll be great, we promise ;)

Pete and Grae are now discussing a schedule over the next week or two for working on some additional material which we hope to have ready fairly soon...

The hiatus we discussed early in January is still ongoing and at the time it seemed, to us at least, that it may be a bad thing, but in hindsight perhaps the break is just what we needed?  Three of us had worked pretty much solidly on the project since it came together early in 2008 and, especially towards the end of the year, it kind of grew a life of its own and took over everything... in the current climate it's important that we all keep at least one foot firmly bedded in reality and this break has enabled us to do that, find our footing, get a bearing, and head off in the right direction.

2009 can now move forward, and MR will make the most of it, we'll continue to work behind the scenes for the next few weeks fine tuning the material, working on the set, and then... well, you'll just have to come and see, won't you ;)

All the best,

Grae, Pete, Daymo, Andy & Gibbo
MORPHEUS RISING
resurrecting British Heavy Metal

Big wheels keep on turning...

Hello again!!  It seems like far more than a fortnight since the last entry here... but that's all it is!







Things haven't quite gone as intended (do they ever?), Pete's back slightly earlier than planned with Marillion and is currently hibernating (catching up on sleep before he's off again next month), I haven't written, or sung, a word for nearly 3 weeks despite my best intentions, it just wasn't meant to be... but things are on the up!



I've kicked the habit successfully (smoking, that is) and I'm beginning to feel an improvement in my chest/throat/lungs and my vocal tone/range, even while speaking there is a distinct change to my voice.  Here's hoping it translates to the material once I get back to the studio!



     



Despite the lack of real activity since Christmas the overall movement has been onwards and upwards... the activity on Last.fm, ReverbNation and those sites where our Demo EP has been made available has continued to increase while streaming on both Napster and Rhapsody and sales on iTunes appear to be on the increase as well... all great stuff, especially as we've done little to promote anything for over a month!



I'm now in a much better headspace than I have been since Christmas (between giving up smoking, issues at work and illness at home it's not been a good start to 2009!) and I intend to have at least a couple of new tracks to work on with Pete over the next week or two... and perhaps revisit a couple of the older ones as well!  It's amazing how things change, this time a month ago I intended to have 5 or 6 tracks at least at the guide vocal stage, instead I'm still filtering through ideas and concepts which may or may not flesh out to full lyrics.. I've found my voice again, all I need to do now is find my muse!



I'll keep you posted as the lyrics progress... watch this sapce!



Slainté,



Grae

A little further explanation

I know we stated that things would be quiet for a while but I'm only too conscious that in this life no news isn't necessarily good news!!



I've posted an update on my MySpace blog which you are more than welcome to read and then you will, of course, feel infinitely sorry for me and offer your support!! :)



Back in the real world, we're hoping to get together sooner than stated and work on some new material, and revisit some of the older songs... we'll keep you updated of course, but in the meantime be sure to pop over to Last.fm and give us a listen, leave us a shout and share us with all your friends!!



We'll see you soon...



Orrabest,



Grae

A bumpy start...

11 days in, and 2009 and has had it's ups and downs already!



As we mentioned in the last blog, the end of 2008 saw a huge increase in activity for the band; the release of the charity single, a new guitarist, the recording of the EP, the release of the EP, the gig... it all happened so fast!  And 2009 looked set to continue in the same vein.



But things never quite go to plan in the real world, do they?  And, unfortunately, the real world is what it's all about at the moment.



We've been offered a number of gigs over the last day or two which, after much deliberation, we have had to turn down.  This was not an easy decision for any of us, we want to be out there, playing live, giving you what you want.



There are several reasons for the decision and the following is what we can tell you just now...



First off, Grae had the flu over the Christmas period but persevered and performed both the Freeway and Morpheus Rising sets on Boxing Day. It was a risk and he feels that, at present, he is still paying the price for that decision.  His throat was damaged by singing through the illness and he feels it is best that he doesn't attempt to sing for another week or two to allow things to improve.



Secondly, Gibbo has somehow managed to perforate an eardrum over the holidays and is currently operating in mono!!  Even limited exposure to loud noise (such as you would find at rehearsals or gigs!) could damage his ear further... and it's not worth it.



Both of these should be cleared up in a few weeks and the intention was to start looking for gigs towards the end of this month... but once again, reality bites.  As anyone in the industry knows, unless you are gigging constantly, signed to a major label or raking in the royalties, you don't get paid!!  And there's the rub... we all have commitments in real life and need to be able to pay the bills.  So, Pete is off on tour with Marillion again at the end of the month and has further commitments with them on and off into April as well as other jobs lined up over the period.  Andy has plenty of work lined up for now, not to mention his commitments with Mostly Autumn over the next few months.  In addition, personal circumstances have meant that Grae has had to take some time off work over the last week or so and, at a really hectic time in his schedule, is going to have to concentrate on that aspect of life for a while...



All this means that the aspirations of the band will have to take a back seat for a short while.  We will still try to arrange some more gigs, probably not before March, when all of the members are available... and once things calm down we will be back with a vengeance!



But the news isn't all bad!



The time we now find ourselves with will be well spent.  Grae is currently working on the lyrics for a couple of new tracks which the band have written over the last couple of months, Pete is producing some amazing work and Daymo is adding his personal touch to some of the older material as well as the newly written tracks... a couple of the tracks we intended to air online have been sent back to the drawing board for a re-work, and they are being worked on as we speak!!  The two latest tracks look like becoming storming pieces of work building on the style we have forged with tracks like Save The Day and Fighting Man.  Once we're happy with the material it will be recorded and you'll get to hear it, so please be patient ;)



Add to all this the fact that Grae can now recover gracefully from the damage he did to his throat and things are looking great.  He's got back into the habit of doing vocal exercises and is beginning to gain some of the range and power he felt was missing in some of the recordings he did over the last year.



From a performers point of view all of this has been very frustrating but, in all honesty, it can only be good news for the band.  We now have the time and space to produce the songs we have written, as we saw them, rather than something close, we have the time to hone the set and get ourselves back to the top of our game and that can only be a good thing.



We'll be out there soon, bigger, better and more determined... we'll see you there!



All the best,



Grae, Pete, Daymo, Andy and Gibbo

Morpheus Rising

resurrecting British Heavy Metal!

Holiday in hindsight...

It's been a hectic few weeks... time off from work doesn't necessarily equate to 'time off', especially at Christmas.  Preparing for the family visits, friends coming over, shopping for gifts, decorating the home, cooking, learning lyrics for a complete set you've never sung before, writing new material, releasing your first EP... it all adds up to a frantic time :)

 

But it was fun... all of it!!  The visits from friends and family were great, the parties were an experience (traumatic for some!!) and the gifts were greatly appreciated by all.

 

Then there was the gig.  There is a saying that no plan survives contact with the enemy, and this was definitely the case with the Freeway gig on Boxing Day.  As we'd said all along this was a Freeway gig with Morpheus Rising appearing as guests to play a couple of numbers.  Unfortunately the Freeway vocalist had made arrangmeents over the period and was unable to make the gig, in order to avoid a cancellation several vocalists were invited to sing numbers from the set...  As the day approached the other vocalists dropped like flies, other commitments, holidays etc. meant that they were unable to perform on the night and with only a day or two to go it ended up with Grae looking forward to the task of performing the entire Freeway set, and the Morpheus Rising material.  All was going well, the lyrics were printed (in case he forgot them on the night) they were rehearsed around the home and all was set, then...

 

On Christmas Day Grae woke up with another, unexpected, gift from good ol' Santa... a healthy dose of 'man-flu'!!  You could feel the tension, panic was everywhere, and Google was pummelled for quick and reliable remedies for sore throats, wracking coughs and impossible levels of congestion... ginger tea with honey, lemon and honey tea, no 'normal' tea or coffee, gallons of water, benelyn, honey, sudafed, more ginger tea, more honey... and a good dose of port all aided in the partial rescue of the night.

 

As Boxing Day progressed the remedies were continued and things seemed to be ok for the gig... 5 tracks in and it was the Purple Medley, the cracks were beginning to show, as Woman From Tokyo sounded out from the PA the high notes began to croak a little, only one more track to go until the MR material and it was looking decidedly dodgy!!

 

The set began with Save The Day which sounded great,  the band managed to power through the track and the voice held up to the challenge of the long high notes.  In The End and Those Who Watch followed and were similarly despatched with professionalism and power, then it was the turn of Fighting Man... half way through the cracks became a gaping chasm!!  The chorus had to be dropped an octave and things were looking dire for the finale of Lord Of The North, but it held together, in fact it did more than that, the song rocked, it was awesome!!  Despite the tentative rendition of Fighting Man and the pressure felt from that performance the shear power and drive of Lord Of The North carried it onwards and upwards, a great end to the Morpheus Rising set for the night... and then it was back to the Freeway set...

 

Some guest vocals from Olivia Sparnenn (Mostly Autumn, Breathing Space) helped to finish the night off in style and saved the last vestiges of Grae's voice for the after show banter...

 

All in all a great night was had by all... it was Freeway with a difference, and the Morpheus Rising material went down well, it's now time to concentrate on the year ahead... 

 

Bring it on!!



All the best,



Grae, Pete, Daymo, Gibbo and Andy

MORPHEUS RISING

resurrecting British Heavy Metal!