Been a LONG time...! My apologies.
Last time you heard from me on here, it was the beginning of Summer, and I had just released a Summer song, complete with video. It is now, well, dark. It is full on Autumn, with very few leaves left on the trees. Have I been twiddling my fingers? Have I, HELL! As if I would do such a thing - terrible for future arthritis, so I'm told. Let's start with my Summer:
It all started with a fabulous review from Pancham_b at the New Artist Spotlight - pretty cool to start things off. It is quite a privilege to get this spot - it's normally me doing the reviewing here (!) so it felt rather special to be the reviewee rather than the reviewer.
I also managed to get some FM radio airplay too - a damned difficult thing to get these days. Thanks to Sarah Appleby at Hailsham FM, and to Bryony Brook at Frome FM for playing and publicising the track!
Somehow in the last few months I have managed to attain the NUMBER ONE spot on the New Artist Spotlight Top 20 charts, FOUR TIMES!! Twice with Europe in the Summertime and twice with my previous single, The Birthday Song, making a comeback!
Europe in the Summertime has seemingly done rather well, having just hit 100,000 streams on Spotify alone (I only just realised this right now as I was checking my stats!)
This frankly astounds me, when I actually attempt to take in this figure. I am stunned. Very pleased and proud, but stunned. Can't be too bad then.
Luckily, Europe in the Summertime was chosen to be played on the Vix Essentials podcast, which is syndicated to tonnes of UK radio stations - what FUN!! Speaking of which, I was praised by Vix himself and by Ed Eagle on the show for something entirely different. The main thing I have been busy with over Summer and actually since April, is mixing. I have become an official fully-fledged sound engineer for anyone who would like to hire me. And so far, it's going very well indeed!
I started mixing for clients because artists kept telling me how great my own songs sounded. I never thought about it, really. Just quietly did ma thang. This perfectly coincided with wanting a fresh start in terms of earning a living. I needed something more suited to me and what I do best. Something that most people cannot do. I started. It is working well. The clients are very happy. Hurrah! My mixing/production seems to have gathered the popular term: CC Magic!
Here is a playlist of songs I have mixed so far
on my mixing journey (Apple Music & Spotify):
I am now an official SoundBetter mixing engineer.
(tap the badge to read some wonderful reviews of my mixing and production skills)
Almost finally, I have a new release out now that I haven't mentioned on here because it was all quite a rush. A fellow artist by the name of Skinny Dippers (Ryan) released a fabulous song in September of 2020, called Panties. He admires what I do, I love the song and what he does - we had an idea. I made my first official remix! Or more like re-make. Ryan gave me all the stems (separate audio tracks) from his original session, and I created something entirely different from it. I ended up only using his vocals, inventing everything else from scratch. I mentioned there was a bit of a rush to do it quickly - We decided it would be great to release it in time for the one year anniversary of the original song. And so we did. This did however mean that everything from my intial idea, to the final mix, was done by me in 24 HOURS.
HERE IT IS!
Panties (Charles Connolly Remix)
And FINALLY finally, a barrage of the most incredible praise I have received over Summer for
Europe in the Summertime
It has made me truly shiny-eyed.
THANK YOU ALL!!
CC x
(yes, more music is on the way)
Great blog Charles! Nice to take stock and enjoy your progress and achievements 😄👊
Awesome update, and yes I hope you'll be mixing my new material in 2022 BTW love the remix of Panties! and also Connolly Corner! Respect!
Congrats for all your achievements and as you said "yes, more music is on the way" - cant wait to hear them!
We want more music, Charles! Get to it. Love your stuff. A great year indeed. I want your Christmas song in a hallmark movie.