NAEPLANS - Album / Web Artwork

NAE PLANS, the clue is in the title. An album made on the hoof, on the cheap, stripped back, bare bones, ragged, uncouth and warts and all really quite beautiful.Nae Plans appeals to me greatly, it’s process is in my mind what good music is all about. Capturing magical moments of random, musical synergy which are simply impossible to recreate with sequencers and click tracks. My youth very much centred around jamming with my friends in garages, kitchens, front rooms, tents and camper vans. This is where a genuine, natural euphoria for music can be found. Locked in a groove with other human souls, your fingers will surprise you with unconscious and startling ability that could never be unlocked through conscious structured learning or practice. The relationship you have with other musicians and an ability to collectively tap into an unknown and mysterious reserve of talent , makes you feel like a time-traveller perfectly in tune with the space time continuum. ‘Nae Plans’ was very much in this ilk and warts and all, it’s a project of which I am very proud to have been part of. I trust that it will inspire and influence the folk music community to be a little less professional and seek out the wild and beautiful chaos that exists in music, to value personality, integrity and emotion over technical perfection and audiophile sterility.The album artwork for this project focussed on a sense of place, using Hamish's Grannies house as the main visual inspiration. Folk music is essentially wrapped up in peoples lives and heritage, or at least it should be. Folk music is music of the people and the artwork tried to reflect this. In the end after much discussion about getting vinyl made and even cassette tapes, we decided to make only 100 cd's and sell them at the launch. They were all hand numbered and each disc was signed by Hamish and Adam, every one has been sold.There has been much experimentation with this release, the Album launches were certainly a big success but so far the online download sales have been poor. It would seem that to get any project to grow out with the Scottish scene is pretty difficult. Indeed it is a problem that I am currently wrestling with in regards to my own work. To my mind this project has much more substance than just the musical performances and how they are presented. Form a journalistic and general interest point of view I think the concept is just as sellable the music itself. Indeed I believe that Nae Plans is a concept that could grow and grow, it has great potential to be a great little bastion of experimental creativity in music, film and culture. There are plans to get other duos and record them in the same manner. My outlook on this is that Nae Plans will be a slow burner that will endure rather than making a big splash and then slowly receding. Time will tell.Until then go forth in the present with flair and good humour.Get the album and copious amounts of other cool stuff @ http://naeplans.co.uk