Where Have You Been? The Video...and my theory about Pie!

In the past few months, I have been learning about Origami and Stop motion animation, I have decided to take both those things and fuse them together and this video is the very result of this.

A lot of care and patience has been put into the making of this video and I can honestly say that I am happy with the end result. Even after layers upon layers of valuable cello tape being used and re-used then thrown away on the floor, sugar paper and origami paper being cut up, ripped up and screwed up..the question is, has it all been worth it? I think it's safe to say that the answer is indeed..yes!

I wanted this video to be almost like, a world being created, the background, environment, the animals, everything really! I really liked the relationship between the two main characters, the Tortoise and the Bird and how they meet friends on their adventure running away from a fire breathing Dragon! I was also interested in building the relationship between these two characters without dialogue and even facial expressions!  

This is all rewarding work and from all the comments and feedback given and particularly the last video, I would just like to say a massive thank you! You have all been very supportive and given honest and genuine feedback and without you all, this wouldn't have been at all possible!

Just to also give you all a heads up, I am working on another stop motion...again, not to give away too much, it will be a good 'un! Let's just say it will be my most ambitious work..but I think you will like it!

In other news...was in the studio last week and started work on two new tracks for Little Known Records upcoming album! they aren't finished yet..so just like when I'm making stop motion..you will just have to be patient I'm afraid!

To conclude this post...I had a bit of a thought the other day...I kept thinking about how people say that, "I have fingers in too many pies"...I don't really see a problem with this, I like pie! :) 

My Father's Son, the video.

After a lovely sunny day and much walking on the downs, once again, me and Mr Rhys Bendix Lewis got together to shoot a music video for the track, "My Father's Son". After working with Rhys on, "The Games We Play" and "Lights, Camera, Ransom", we both approached each other and we both agreed on the idea of a music video. And like the previous films, this was a lot of fun and because of the nature of the track, we felt we wanted to do something simple and honest. The finished product has once again gone beyond my expectations.

My legs were very sore the next day, (those hills were a lot steeper than it looks) but it was all worth it! I am very pleased with the end result, the video has a really nostalgic feel to it and the scenery is really beautiful.

It was fantastic working with Rhys as always but it doesn't end here, we have more plans in store! I will not be saying anything for now as I don't want to give away any surprises...

But what I can reveal, is that I am halfway through my next music video for "Where Have You Been?", another stop motion animation that I am excited about releasing!

I will also be recording with Mike Anderson from Little Known records in two weeks, the next month will be very exciting indeed!

Little Known Sessions, Mucky Duck, Brighton, 2nd of May

Keep this in your diary folks! I shall be opening but make sure you catch Lizzie Holt, Peter Bailey and Anna rice, all lovely artists who deserve your support. See you there x

From The Creators Of Lights, Camera, Ransom...

Just a quick update, things here have been a bit quiet but that will all soon change...

My legs have just about recovered from a lot of walking around, up and down the downs outside of London, I met up with a very good friend of mine, Mr Rhys Bendix Lewis, you may remember him from such shorts such as The Games We Play and Lights, Camera, Ransom! We met up to shoot a video for the track "My Father's Son", it's looking very good so far and in the next couple of weeks or so it will be available online for all to see.

Also on the horizon, I am halfway through my next stop motion, a video for the track "Where Have You Been?", it's coming along nicely and it's also helping me maintain my Origami skills! You will see what I mean in the next few weeks I'm sure, will keep you posted.

To round this little update off, to rest my legs from walking so many hills, I then ventured back to Brighton to rest myself on the seafront and did a small session with Little Known records! Videos coming your way shortly. I will also be heading into the studio with Mike Anderson in the next couple of weeks, so new material is on it's way!

And lastly, thanks to all of you who took the time to view my video for "Are You Listening?", good feedback all round. More vids to come, stay tuned!

Are You Listening?

A video that I've been working on for the past 3 months. It's been like climbing Everest, but it's finally over.
This is my first shot at stop motion, a lot of patience has been required for this but it has been really fun! Despite the often stressful times when things kept falling over or sticky tape not quite doing it's job, it has all been worth the hard work I put in.
I had an idea for the story in my head, I just kind of went along with what I could create and what resources I had around me, I feel as a writer this is what help me be keep fresh with ideas and to keep creative. I didn't know what was going to happen next, so even when I was making this, I was excited what was going to happen at the end!

The feedback has all been positive and this is what it's all about for me, entertaining people!

No toys were harmed during the making of this video...and no, I didn't eat that fried egg after I put it on Skeletor!

Another stop motion video is on the way, this time I'm putting my newly found love for Origami to use thanks to Bianca!

In other news, I will heading to the studio in May to record two tracks for Little Known Record's next compilation album. I am very excited to be working with Mike Anderson, who is a great producer and a great friend. The two tracks I am contributing are gonna sound fantastic and it will be a lot of fun. There will be some updates on that so stay tuned.
I also finished filming a music video with Mr Rhys Bendix-Lewis on the downs outside of London, was a very hot day but fun nonetheless. The video is in the process of being edited but will keep you posted on when that is finished also.

Thanks for reading and thanks for the support. x

Update from December..

As previously mentioned, I have been slow with the updates but I am slowly but surely getting there and I will bring more news very soon.

But for now, here is an update all the way back from December, (not that far way but feels like an eternity) some photos of the Into Giving gig. Was a fantastic gig at the Hope in Brighton. A great night with great entertainment and lots of money raised for a good cause. I'm not able to give a figure but thanks all those who came and contributed. I also managed to sell out all physical copies of "My Father's Son EP" which all proceeds went to the charity. Thanks once again those of you who brought a copy.

Also was truly special to share a stage with We Walk In Straight Lines, Laura Ward & the Risen Road, Trails and great comedy from James McDonnell (aka Jamish!) I hope to share a stage with guys again someday in the future.

More photos of the gig to come and course much more from me on the way. I am half way through work on a special stop motion video. I am working as fast as I can but much patience is going to be required...stay tuned!

Happy Belated New 2012!

It's only just come to my attention that I haven't written anything for a while but I would firstly like to say that at the start of a shiny new year, much is starting to happen already!

2011 was a fantastic year but the future looks very positive indeed.

So what to expect this year... I've already almost finished writing EP #2. The working title at the moment is "Flying Solo EP", not quite sure about that name at the moment but going to stick with that for now as I quite like it. So far it will feature 4 new tracks and to be recorded in a studio just outside of Brighton with my mate Dan producing it.

So far, I'm currently directing my own stop motion animation for "Are You Listening?" off "My Father's Son EP", nothing quite like a bit of late promotion but creating stop motion takes time and a hell of a lot of patience.

As well as that, me and my buddy Rhys Bendix-Lewis, lovely chap who directed, "Lights, Camera, Ransom" and "The Games We Play", we are set to shoot another promo video from another track off the first EP. Stay tuned for that!

And in other news, I have recently been confirmed (I knew about this for months but wasn't sure if I was actually allowed to say anything so here's my chance!) I will be recording two brand new tracks for an up coming compilation from Little Known Records. I am very excited and will be working with some stunning artists, for more info check out the links:

littleknownrecords.com
www.facebook.com/littleknownrecords

I can't give away much more but there is a lot to expect from me very soon and as we are only in February, I think it is safe to say that this will be an exciting year and I honestly can't wait to share what I have in store...you are in for a treat!

For now, tune into this site tommorow night from 9pm www.radiofreebrighton.org.uk, one of my tracks from "My Father's Son EP" will be played on the show with Johnny and Pete. Please don't miss.

Happy New 2012 everyone!
x

'Tis the season to be INTO Giving!

Okay guys, it's almost that time of year again. Please please please come down to the Hope, Brighton on the 16th December. Doors open at 7.30pm. All in aid of the charity INTO giving which helps fund education to disaster stricken parts of the world. Please be there to not only support the bands but most importantly the charity!

It's going to be a great night with some brilliant bands such as Tree House Fire, We Walk In Straight Lines, Laura Ward and The Risen Road and Trails.

Trails have also just finished recording a cover of the Toto classic, Africa. They have released it in aid of the charity and you can download it here.

I will be playing a couple of cheeky Christmas covers also and it's all for a good cause so please don't miss this guys. See you there!

Pictures from The Hope...and it's almost that time of year again!

I would just like to thank everyone who made it to the Hope on November 17th. I had a really good time sharing the stage with some great artists who were also fantastic. It was a genuine pleasure to share a stage with Lee Paul turner, Sophie Yau and Soapy Jefferson. (Apologies for often getting the names mixed up as Sophie Jefferson and Soapy Yau!) To not only perform at the Hope but to also headline was such a blast! (yeah I ended up playing last as the other guys needed to go home early!)

Here's a couple of pics from the gig....courtesy of my lovely Bianca....

I will be returning to the Hope next month in December for a charity Christmas gig on the 16th. I will be sharing the stage with some other great bands such as Tree House Fire, We Walk In Straight Lines, Laura Ward & The Risen Road and Trails. Please don't miss out on this great evening for great music and in support of a fantastic charity which is supporting education for international students. Please follow this link for more info on the charity and the event. I will also be selling physical copies of My Fathers Son EP for £1 each, all proceeds go to charity!

And of course...not to ruin any surprises...I will of course be throwing in some Christmas covers for good measure...in the spirit of things of course!

Other announcements to be made very shortly...oh yes, it doesn't end here....stay tuned!

My Father's Son EP available now!

The wait is finally over! My debut EP is available to download for just £0! That's right...not a single penny. Go to lewismckale.bandcamp.com to download the whole thing absolutely free!

MY FATHERS SON EP:
1.My Fathers Son
2.I Think Too Much
3.All Or Nothing
4.Where Have You Been?
5.Are You Listening?





Just wanna say a massive thank you to Pat Blann for all his hard work that he's put into this EP, I feel kind of bad that it's got my name on it as I feel this is his EP too.
As well as Mr Blann, there are other people along the way I couldn't have done this EP without, Bianca, my family and all my friends and of course a special thanks to Frank Turner who inspired me to continue writing songs and this is where exactly where this EP comes from, a conversation I had with that very man in a pub in Camden.

I would also like to dedicate this EP to Kalan Fletcher, a friend of mine and to lots of others who unfortunately passed away a couple of weeks ago. I worked with him at the Blind Busker and he was a lovely, smiley fun loving chappy who was taken away from us way too early. My deepest sympathy goes out to him and his family and if you wanna write a message then please follow this link.

It doesn't end here though...there is much more to come but you will just have to wait! In the meantime, please download the EP and please enjoy...

And also remember, I'm playing at the Hope this Thursday and I've also just been informed that I'm playing last..so in a way I'm kind of headlining! Please come and support me in my first Brighton headline show!

Soapy Jefferson @ The Hope, 17th November.

One month from now I shall be supporting the fantastic Soapy Jefferson alongside some other great acts such as London Commands You, Lee Paul Turner and Sophie Yau.

Click here to book tickets, please come down and show your support for these fantastic artists, I am very excited already and also check out my good friend Pat's promotion company, Little Bear Promotions. With events like these, the future looks very awesome for this company. Please show your support and if you're in a band, do get in touch with them.

On the night, I will be playing new songs from my forthcoming EP, "My Fathers Son". Which is coming very soon (apologies for the tease, it is coming, keep watching this space) and I may even play a couple of even newer tracks from EP #2...yea that's a little bit further in the future but again, watch this space...

Music, Movies and...Zombies!

I noticed I haven't put on any posts up lately, not that there's anything going on because as it happens it has been a busy Summer! I just recently finished recording my debut EP with Pat Blann of Little Bear Promotions. It's taken us a while but we finally finished finished 5 complete tracks at both his place in Brighton and then Southwick.

My debut EP will consist of 5 tracks and will be up for download very soon and will include the track "Where Have You Been?" and it is entitled "My Father's Son EP".

There is much planned but I don't want to give away any suprises...

In other news, I am now on IMDB which is very exciting as I've always wanted to be on this site. Don't know why exactly but I guess it's because IMDB is like the bible to me! Anyway here's the link http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4452858/

And in some other interesting news, I also am on ZMDB too. You are probably asking yourself what the hell ZMDB is?! Well it's basically IMDB but with Zombies! Now remember when I mentioned there being Zombies in Lights, Camera, Ransom... well it apparently qualifies as a Zombie movie and now I have my own profile here too!
Check it out, all very interesting stuff http://www.trashvideo.org/zmdb/view/index.php?page=movie&id=5834&type=movie&mode=date&key=&start=0

More exciting things to come...stay tuned!

Seven Stages Of Design

A secret ambition of mine has always been to do voice overs for cartoons. Ever since I was little, I always thought it would be a really cool job to do voices for animations and also computer games!

Well, a friend of mine got me to narrate his short animation for the 99% website, and here I am fulfilling my secret lifelong ambition!


Seven Stages of Design (a new designer's guide) from Howard Stagg on Vimeo.

Check out more of Howard Stagg's work at http://www.howardstagg.com and to see more fantastic animation, http://www.vimeo.com/how4now

Where Have You Been?

For quite some time I've been going on and on about writing songs and never actually getting round to recording them and sharing etc.

The time has finally come...I would cue a little drum roll but I don't play drums very well, which is why I stick to just playing guitar!..so it is my great pleasure to present my first recording of a track entitled, "Where Have You Been?".

Where Have You Been? by Lewis Mckale

I would like to give a massive shout out to Mr Pat Blann for helping me record all this and putting up with me for countless hours! I'm currently teaching myself harmonica at the moment so I let Pat do the harmonica work on the recording which sounded great!

Keep a look out for Pat's promotion company too
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Little-Bear-Promotions

More news coming soon, it's been busy at the Mckale camp!

Lights, Camera, Ransom! at the Arc Network screening and a trailer!

It's been over a week since LCR got screened and got watched for the first time, that's how useless I have become these days unfortunatley. So the time has come to shed some light (ooh see what I did there?) on Lights, Camera, Ransom!

For some time..I have been meaning to one day write my own movie reviews..which may very well happen but for now, you can be judge of my reviewing skills! I will review a short film that I co-wrote and star in which, to be honest, could be hard to review but I will take all this into much consideration and review LCR to the highest standard.

Before the film started, as someone who was involved with this project, we shot this film for quite some time. It never was a slow process, it was an interesting process in a way that the rehearsals was like writing our own script. After working solidly on our characters and dialogue, I had a very general idea in my head of what this project was going to look like on screen.
As soon the film started, when the title appeared, it suddenly became very beyond my expectations. When I say this, I mean in a positive way. I am in no way trying to say that I expected less, but the structure of the scenes was layed out differently and it worked so much better than orignally planned. If anything, it brought out the comedy and with having it's very choppy editing, made it more comical and I found myself laughing so much, even though after retaking scenes over and over, watching it for the very first time was so refreshing.

Whilst watching this movie, I got this sense of a mixture of both Clerks and Be Kind Rewind, the most interesting character in this whole project was Lenny (Dick Douglass), at the beginning of the film, he is introduced as this big time gangster..but by the end of the film he then comes across as a father figure...again I can't reveal too much but he is certainly a very interesting character in this movie.

I didn't tell anyone this, but at the end I felt a little bit emotional. It took me a while to figure out why this was and then it dawned on me, I realised that this is a movie about making a movie and this is a subject that I can relate to and when you get to the end product, it's a very rewarding and special moment...I won't spoil the ending for any of you as the end production is just incredible!

Hope you enjoyed my review...if you did then I may write more like these in the future.

I would just to thank everyone involved with this project, Tom Clear, Natalie Nelson, Dick Douglass, Kirsty Jeffery, James Lane, Dan Mitchell, Lisa Thorne, James Lee Hunt, Jenna Cole, Martin Sorenson and David King and of course Rhys Bendix-Lewis for his hard work and for being such a great guy to work with. It really pays of, working for someone as great as Rhys who really looks out for his crew and actors. On behalf or Rhys and the rest of the cast and crew, and sorry to anyone who's name I haven't put down, I honestly cannot dream of a nicer bunch of people to work with who all worked so hard. This is certainly a movie that is worth watching for all the hard work put in by everyone, from the crew to the make up artist to the extras..eveyone involved has put so much effort in and now you can see the trailer..I will post more info on when LCR will be available to go and see but here is the trailer for now. Enjoy!


Lights, Camera, Ransom! Trailer from Rhys Bendix-Lewis on Vimeo.

Other news yet to come. Stay tuned...