HELLOme – A guide to dreaming, believing and manifesting

At the age of 52, and having reached what seems like the beginning of a

new chapter in my life, I have been thinking lately about all of my

experiences, mistakes, hope and dreams, and how I have managed to

reach the place that I am in now. A review of the journey so far in order

to move forward positively into a Brave New World!

My background is in music production, and I have had plenty of success

in the past, selling in excess of 8.5 million albums, when CD’s were all

the rage before downloads dominated. Later I became a production and

music technology lecturer, and it is here, where I first found the

beginnings, of the answers, to what I had been missing with my

manifesting so far! While teaching my students ‘Sound Theory’, I

needed to research for material, and find those hungry minds, more and

more interesting information to hold their attention, in a sometimes

quite boring subject. In the process of all this, I stumbled upon a whole

world of data and eye opening information that I never knew existed

before! Yes, I had indeed fallen down the Rabbit hole and emerged with

the realisation that, the gap between Science, new age, and other belief

systems, is now narrowing faster than at any time, and thanks to the

internet, people are beginning to find out more about the bigger

questions in life..

I had already been interested in “The Secret” and the Law of Attraction

for quite some time, but now I started seeing connections between

them, and this new information that I had found. A new path had

opened up to me, and it finally led me to becoming a Clinical

Hypnotherapist and Sound Healer. That will make more sense as you

read your way through this book.

I definitely had what you might call a “Eureka moment”, a massive light

bulb in my head, an epiphany, call it what you will, all I know is I felt

quite strongly that I must share it with you.

Trying to write all of this down is quite a task because the journey for

me, from then to now, has twisted and turned like a travelling carnival!

Also, I have never written a book before, and didn’t think I had it in me

to be honest! Life is full of surprises! In my life, I have been blessed with

multiple life-spans of experience and happenings that have led me to

write this book.

Many times my friends and those around me have told me to do just

that, and before I get whisked away on another adventure, I thought I

would make a good start now.

Chapter one is a compressed version of my life story so far. I didn’t

include this section just for a little bit of background, or interesting

reading “About The Author”. I wrote this chapter because my story

contains events that I want to use as examples of real manifesting,

without even realising it, in the chapters that follow.

This isn’t one of those books where the author is a multi millionaire, and

now telling how you can be one too! I am still very much on my own

path to where I am going, but I have been lucky to achieve so much of

what I wanted already. This luck, for want of a better word, has given

me the golden gift of hindsight. I can review and show you some of the

events in my life where I totally manifested success into my reality, and

where I also manifested disasters too, but that’s what life is all about,

isn’t it? No matter who you are, we all have new destinations to visit,

new dreams, we are all looking up to the next level, and “one mans floor

is another mans ceiling” as my old friend Muzz Murray used to say all

the time, and I guess now, I understand more what he meant.

I hope that what I show you here, changes your life as it has mine!

Music, love, passion, money, success, dreams, manifesting…….the

conclusion?

Read on…..

HELLO me

So….I wrote a book last year!!!

Most of my friends won’t read a whole book, and those who have bought mine usually read my life story, the first 2 chapters, and miss out on the important part. So I have decided to put excerpts of it here and see how many lives I can help, because, in my opinion, this is real life changing stuff!! It frustrates me that I can’t spread the things I have found wider and faster….so watch this space, and enjoy 🙂

What it takes to be great!!!!! the producer’s view

As most of you know, I have been doing what I do for a long time now, and because of this, I can pass on some nuggets of wisdom that I have found on my path to the illusive hit! Whether it be a hit song or a hit artist or group.

What is also useful, is that I have been right where you are standing now! I have been in many bands, many recording situations, record companies almost giving my band a deal, then falling at the last moment. The ups the downs, the self-doubt, the constant questions we ask ourselves! The jealous feelings of “why are they successful and not me?” – “I am as good as they are! I am doing the same things!” the question is…. are you?

The biggest and most important thing in recording music… is the moment you decide something is good enough!

When you hear yourself making excuses for things, it is the slippery slope and you will run into all kinds of problems!

Let me make it clearer.

Is your timing perfect? Or are you making excuses saying things like “that’s ok .. it’s human feel, we don’t want it too mechanical” – let me tell you now, musicians who play ‘tight as fuck’ sound like musicians who are tight, not robots! Try telling bands like Toto they sound like machines!

A producer wants to capture a performance yes, but he wants to capture a GREAT performance, on EVERY track, because if he doesn’t, the accumulative effect of all those sloppy takes will sound like shit, he will never be able to make it sound great, no matter who he is!

The combination of multiple sounds all playing in the same moment of time is a wonderful colour and pure chemistry, anything else is like presenting a wedding cake that is sagging in the middle and falls apart with the slightest movement.

Play with consistent dynamics, what I mean is, the chorus section should be played with the same energy as the other choruses. You don’t want the overall sound to change in comparison.

Tuning!!!!!! Fucking tune your bloody guitar ALL THE TIME!!! Sorry but this pisses me off big style!

Just before a take, tune it mate! AND…don’t play ‘spirit of the radio or Thunderstruck between takes!

1. It’s annoying because others in the studio are doing something important while you are waiting and
2. You will make your guitar go out of tune and
3. Grow the fuck up!

I owe all my success to the great people I have recorded, and I am confident that I also played a part in their personal development as a musician. We got it right together !!

So …. boys and girls, get your part right!

Play in time and in tune and almost better than your abilities, practise all the time, even Eric Clapton practices so why not you?

Do this and you may just have a chance at the big time…

don’t do it and you will most certainly be one of those coulda, shouda woulda people that annony everybody in pubs.

Rant over 🙂

 

Back in the UK….again

Well dear friends, so much has happened since my last posting I don’t even know where to begin! Oh yes….so there I was in Krabi, enjoying life, riding my motorcycle, drinking vodka shots at the “Funky Bar”, though not at the same time 🙂 Tinkering about in “Krabi Road Studios”, playing with my son Richard and introducing him to the better restaurants in Ao Nang. Life was just dandy!  Then it happened! His school went and changed the teachers, from good ones to not so good in my opinion! I used to help him with his homework, especially English, and I noticed that the questions were more focused on language and culture, I recognised that this was EFL, English for foreign language – not English literature. My son and all the other kids in International school can speak English perfectly, they should be learning the same thing British kids are learning. Sure enough, I was right! So Richard and I decided to head back to the UK to give him a chance at his GCSE’s which were getting ever nearer!

We set ourselves up in Norfolk near my mum, as she took a turn for the worse with her health, another reason to be back in the UK!

Well all that was almost 3 years ago. Richard aced his GCSE’s and is now in college studying Digital graphic design and animation 🙂 Mum is still hanging in there, and I am facing yet another bloody winter here 😦 Of course, plotting my return to Thailand as I write this update 🙂

Over these 3 years I wrote a book called “Hello-Me” which I will rattle on about in my next update.

Peace

Last day of school

Pre Christmas update 2015

AoNang Krabi

Hi readers, WELL! what and eventful time I have had along with a couple of ‘life lessons’ thrown in for good measure!

Moving down to Krabi has been the best thing I did in a long time for many reasons. There is a good deal of peace here, when you want it, and cleaner air provided by the sea. Rainy season is over now, but even when it’s raining it is much better for me than the traffic clogged, sweaty, distracting Bangkok. (I hope I don’t have to eat my words).

 

More importantly, I have had lots of invaluable time with my son Richard, who is thirteen now, and loves hanging out with me. That was my main purpose for moving here!

 

So….I began in October helping put the finishing touches to Krabi Road Studios and waiting for the SSL AWS 900+ to arrive from the UK. This place is so beautiful due to its’ surroundings and the equipment is top notch. The studio is well designed and very well thought out. My role in all of this is to help the owners put Krabi Road ‘on the map’ using some of my international connections and achievements here in Thailand.

I introduced one of the bands I have previously worked with into the situation to ‘road test’ the studio, even though we were waiting for the mixer to arrive. The recording went very well and the sound was great!!

The mixer arrived plus the installation engineer Peter Higgs and we set about plugging it all in! That took us five days start to finish!

The day after the mixer was all connected up, the band returned to record three main vocals to test lyric versions. Unfortunately that was the end of it! And for reasons I don’t want to go into here, but almost nothing happend and it seemed to be blown up out of all proportion which has led me to believe that there is more to this than the reason I have been given!  To be honest, is looks to me like when you appear to be no longer useful to somebody, THEN everything is revealed! I am no stranger to this, after all I have been in the ‘entertainment’ business my whole life. The only thing to do is to move on, never look back and leave that particular door closed for good!!

I then found myself back in Bangkok at the SAE doing a masterclass which went very well, I had a chance to catch up with my old mate and trooper Brett Radisich 🙂

 

Back in Krabi I began connecting the SSL to the computer for automation and test run a couple of songs for mixing and learning the desk.

 

 

Another trip to Bangkok for the “Music Move” launch which was great as I saw loads of my old mates in the Thai music business.

And there is even more news on my horizon so watch this space!!!

“dear nobody, are you sure I have worn out my usefulness?…

…..I think not :)”

Krabi-Road Studios

It is truly amazing when you wake up one morning and realise that you have achieved another one of your big dreams. This morning is one such morning! For the longest time I wanted to build a residential studio like “Rockfield” here in the paradise of Southern Thailand.

In fact, in 2008 after my trip to China, and meeting my good friends at the “China Europe Business Development Group” at the Jackie Chan charity concert I almost found the investors to actually help me build it! Sadly with some of the political events in Thailand, it was delayed and finally all investors went cold! And that was that!

Now, 7 years later, and a little wiser, here I am! I have joined forces with a man who had a similar vision who started building the studio and accommodation 3 years ago. When we install the mixing console next week, the studio will finally be complete.

Increasingly over the past few years, and as technology keeps on developing the recording process has changed. Some good things but also some bad things have emerged!

For example: When computers and digital recording first entered the control room, in no time at all, artists were cutting and pasting performances as if they were working on a word processor! This is indeed a useful tool, and saves time when you are playing exactly the same part, ie> the chorus section of a song is played multiple times. So now we no longer need to play a section more than once, or we can choose the best one and duplicate it!

To me the problem with this is it makes the whole process very clinical! We are becoming surgeons and losing the musicianship. When I produce, I ask the artist so perform in a linear way and not stopping at the end of chorus/hook 1, because the way they play at the end of the bar when they are going to continue, is sometimes quite different if they are going to stop playing. Conversely, when they “punch in” to resume playing, I can always hear that it takes half a bar at least to get into the track. Finally, because we are human, it is so easy to affect a performance negatively by stopping and starting, it also makes the musician a little lazy when it comes to learning the arrangement.

I think that recording and making music needs to go back a step or two and remember what it was like to play with inspiration, because that is the thing that touches the people, the vibe, the feel, not just a bunch of chords and notes. There is good reason why the great classic artists are who they are, and it’s nothing about copying, for that we have karaoke!

Inspiration, Love and music 🙂

So now I am at the helm of a brand new ship, and will navigate through the restless waters of the music business, and conquer many territories!

I present to you ….Krabi-Road Studios “putting the inspiration back into recording”

Where ever I Lay my Hat

I know what you are thinking!! Will Simon Henderson ever settle down in one place for more than a couple of years? I think this is a family thing! My mum and I were always moving so it is second nature to me. Moving, re-inventing myself over and over, but….I have really had enough of it to be honest, not to mention the cost of it all. So I am back in Thailand after all. I arrived in Bangkok and set up house with my nephew (Kear – Mummy Daddy) but after a couple of months I have grown tired of Bangkok and it’s insane traffic jams, pollution and of course the Erewan shrine bomber! I am seeking a more peaceful existence these days, I am 50 now and need a bit of sea air again 🙂

I am moving to Krabi in the South of Thailand (again) where my son lives with his mother. I shall buy a motorbike when I arrive to blend in with the locals, although it will probably be a bigger custom style as I look funny on one of those girly bikes,

Although I am still working for a large record company in Bangers, they are happy for me to fly up and meet, then carry out the work in my own space!

Talking of which, brings me on to my new subject, and something that will no doubt make me very busy for the foreseeable future.

I will not include much in this post, but lookout for my next post for more details 🙂

“Krabi Road Studios” will launch very soon!!

End of Term at ACMR

So I am now in my last term teaching Music Production at ACMR, it seems I update this blog every year, and I always also seem to be having news about moving on, or starting again in a new place. Well no exception this time!

It’s not that I can’t stay still and settle, I wish I could, but external pressures in life quite often dictate what we must do. It just wasn’t going to work, bringing my son out to England this time, work did not seem stable enough to make such a wrenching move for him, so it was decided against. If I ended up here in the South coast with less hours or no job at all, I wondered what a multi platinum rock producer would do in Bournemouth! And the answer is move again! and that would mean moving schools again for my son, and it just didn’t seem worth the risk.

So……next stop BANGKOK

more news later 🙂

Another South

So the job is going well at the ACMR and I am getting settled in!

I am teaching 30 students, 6 subjects so it is full on and lots of lovely paperwork.

I have moved down here to Bournemouth, in the south of England, it’s quite nice here and the beach is good for English standards.

After lots of lessons in the MIT classroom, we are now back to my office – “The studio”, which is obviously where I am most at home.

I can feel this is where my students want to be also – so here we are learning how to mic up a kit 🙂

The Beautiful South

As I begin this post I wonder what it is I want to say! I seem to be reinventing myself all the time reader, and I am sure it looks that way to you!  Leaving Thailand, going back to Thailand etc. So yes, I am still a producer, but as you know I am also a teacher and lecturer. It kind of makes sense to me that I was 80 percent producing and the other teaching, and that as I grew older the teaching would finally take over the production. Just me being in England means I will be producing much less, perhaps still mixing because we can use the internet to do that!

As for the Thai music business, I have seen many changes in my time there, I was lucky in a way because I was part of the massive rock revolution that happened there. Unfortunately, the so-called businessmen over there have no clue about creativity, they only understand ‘factory’ and little by little they made it almost impossible to work there. They copied the West (as usual) and invested all their attention into “Talent Shows”. After a lack of interest shown to the real creatives, all the labels died including GMM Grammy and many of the top people abandoned ship!

After helping Iconic Records launch properly and get a decent roster of artists, I found myself in that same old situation where I became the companies secret weapon, but ‘familiarity breeds contempt’. One thing I have learned is that if you give yourself 100% exclusive to one company, they start treating you like shit! Especially if you are a foreigner, because it pisses them off that they can’t really publicly show you off! So after several empty promises about sorting my work permit and not messing me about (too much to go into) I quit that company, and quit the Thai music business. Don’t misunderstand me! It’s not Thailand or Thai people, it’s the rich bullshit promises and falseness that I can no longer deal with. So don’t expect to see my name on anything new out there any-time soon!

After helping a friend of mine launch an on-line business animating peoples pets for Christmas messages, I saw my chance to leave Bangkok and head down to the South of Thailand where my son was living with his mother.

I borrowed a guitar, worked out a 3 hour set and started singing in a bar to subsidise my income after the animation job went quiet post Christmas. Low season was on the way and the bar owner I worked for, was another asshole, and I could see this was leading nowhere, and as I guessed, I got ripped of when it came to pay day!

My son and I were walking on the beach one morning and talking about the future. He made it clear to me that he wants to live in the UK, and he caught me at a time where I was really wondering what I should do. You see, if you want to live in Thailand, you have to be able to live on a pittance, not quite enough money, the trouble is, if you make more than that, you are asking for trouble! People will get it off you somehow, and if you REALLY make BIG money, you can disappear – and not in a good way.

So the “just scraping by” life is not for me, I have a son to take care of and a life to live!

I was told by my friend that the web animation business had some serious interest, some famous, very famous investors were going to throw money at the business and I would have a very nice salary. I knew this could be yet another ‘red herring’ but you never know!!

The day after I arrived in England, everything that was promised fell away one by one, my accommodation,  and I was looking at another up hill struggle yet again. So I quickly moved back to my mum in Norfolk.

So where are we now?

I came back in March, created some private courses teaching music production in London, the web business (pet animation) let me down and never delivered anything it promised, so the teaching was a Godsend (thank you Universe)!

From the moment I hit British soil I started job hunting for a teaching role in music production, and after a couple of sniffs, I have one. Not bad for 4 months! I just passed a teaching course which is needed for my to work in the UK.

I also created my own on-line course which I am currently putting Thai Subtitles on with the help of my good friend and engineer Tanapong Ounpigul.

So thinking on your feet is the message of the day – keep smiling – and keep going because you never know what is around the corner.

I start the new job in September 🙂