HOME Volume 1

a 15 track album from an exceptional bunch of artists
File under Leftfield pop and Folk flavours

So there I was, standing at a bus stop in the pouring rain, thinking to myself, right-I must log on and catch up with everyone online when I get home (instead of worrying about how bloody wet my clothes were;).

How times change eh, it used to be once upon a fairytale that I would go to a bar, a pub or a cafe to meet up with friends and catch up on what’s going on.

Social networking has changed that to a degree in recent times.

Of course we leave the home and have some good old face to face social contact (and long may that side of it continue in my opinion) yet so many people also do it in the modern way-get online and log on to facebook, twitter or in the case of myself and all the artists on this album, it was MySpace where the dots were joined.

Online I have met some truly wonderful people, people full of life, full of joy, full of fun, sometimes full of alcohol(naming no names;) ,full of humour and in all cases chock full of love for good music from all around the globe.

The beauty of it is I now know so many new people and yet for most of the artists we have not met face to face or needed to (they have been like the most marvellous neighbours who have a good old chat over the garden fence on a sunny Sunday, instead of outdoors it has been carried out online instead).

The force of the internet in the case of HOME has been a fantastic thing.

Any road up.....To the story of HOME

I have been listening to some wonderful online music online from a range of under the radar artists, with songs I would return to again and again. For a while I had been thinking wouldn’t it be lovely to put out a FREE compilation sampler of all these songs from all these wonderful artists so that more and more people can discover and enjoy their music for themselves but would I have the time, the energy, would people want to help make it happen?

During a conversation with my good online friend Bobby Wotnot (collaborator of HOME Vol. 2) I was over the moon to discover that he (like other friends) had been thinking the self same thing.
Whoosh, that was enough of an incentive to make us think-YES-lets make this happen.
We checked in with fellow friends and collaborators to get their feedback.

With a very positive response ringing in our ears, off we went to start planning this album, ably assisted by friends like Pete, Duggy and Wim to name but a few.

Album titles were battered about for a while before settling on HOME.  ‘Home’ seemed to sum up so much about what this album was ultimately about-a collective of like minded artists, producers and musicians making their music in the main from their own homes.

Very often the music is written, recorded, produced posted online and sold from home.
I see it as a lovely musical cottage industry, where sharing ideas and advice are offered freely and collaborations are undertaken in the spirit of shared musical inspiration and friendship.

The feel of the music on this compilation also suggests a warmth that you only find at HOME, the special feeling it evokes when you are away from it and what it feels like to come back to.  For Vol.1 of HOME I have selected music that I really enjoy listening to, that brings a smile to my mouth, a glow to my cheeks and a spring to my step. This compilation gives me a similar feeling to sitting in front of a toasty warm fire and recollecting good time/good memories with good friends.

If you catch me smiling, don’t just sit there-come and join me and smile too!  Oh and the music style you may ask,

Here on Volume 1. of HOME you will find splashes of folk, leftfield wonky pop, acoustic guitar loveliness with even the odd dash of electronic and latin flavoured doodling.

This is not the mainstream, this is not a movement, this is a collective group of under the radar artists that deserve to be heard-Artists making the music they love making-I invite you to listen and enjoy HOME.

Thanks to all the artists for being involved and for allowing us to showcase their special music, please go and check them out further for yourself as this is just a taste of what these artists can do.  Special thanks for their help to Bobby, Pete, Wim, Duggy, Jeanne and my lovely wife Dawn who has always been there with a second opinion and a wise word.

I’m HOME, the lights are on, come and join me

Johnno (aka Snippet)