Category Archives: music

Diana Stones Glass Cage Press kit link and info

Diana Stones Songs, glass cage, music, Musings

http://www.reverbnation.com/rpk/dianastone

About Diana Stone

Diana is a performing composer and musician playing Piano Violin & Guitar, synths and other stuff. She was a founder member of Rock/Roots band Elephant Shelf and also the Delta Ladies. She composes in a variety of styles from pop to rock to Jazz and and classical music .Diana is also expert in multi-media recording and music production.

Glass Cage is the name that Diana’s solo projects use.

have been playing various instruments since I was about 15. I started on Harmonica, because it looked easy and it was cheap. I didn’t get on that well with it though. I had always enjoyed the Piano but where I was living it was not possible for the familly to have one frustratingly. We tried to get my Grandmas old piano, but sadly we lived in an upstairs flat and could not get it in. I made do with something called a reed organ, which was a bit like a harmonium with an electric blower. I did learn some basic things on it though. I also had a guitar which I made serious efforts with too. One instrument I had always really liked was the Violin and I started playing that too. It was very difficult to start with and I gave up for a year or so, but for some reason I thought I would have another go at it and started again.

Fast forward a few years and I had been messing about with second hand tape machines and making recordings by bouncing sound from one tape recorder to another. I had a fairly stable job and at that point the Mk1 Teac Portastudio first appeared. Well I had to have one. By this time I had started to build up an interesting collection of Instruments keyboards guitars and so forth. I had rarely played live though. I was a bit of a techie and when I discovered you could create something called an mp3 file and put it on your website, there was no holding me back. I have a lot of music on the web. Everything from completed tracks to demos. The material spans roughly from about 1995 till the present.It covers a lot of musical genres as I have always been diverse in my musical tastes. I am still exploring musically and trying to learn something new along the way. Time passed and having assumed that I would not be doing anything much live ever, in 2004 I was invited to join a band. I have carried on with my personal musical out pourings till now, but have also played around 2200 odd gigs as well. That’s something I never thought would happen. Its funny how life takes you in different directions than you expect.

https://soundcloud.com/dianastone

 

 

The last song this month is Golden Ticket

Diana Stones Songs, glass cage, music, Musings, whatever, ,

I finished a song a day or so ago. I slightly messed up the final transfer of the mix so I had to redo it. Its  fairly conventional sounding tune for a change. Straightforward one might say in many ways.  As I type this we have gone from a heatwave to conditions more like the beginning of November in the space of a week or so. So I am sulking as I cant go out to play mostly due to the dread C19 virus messing things up bigtime. I dont expect much sympathy as you lot can’t really keep calm and carry on either can you? 

So here is the song first in case you dont want to read all the whinging first.

I am glad we got that bit over first. So back to the whinging then.  Some people are relentlessly upbeat all the time.How do they do it and what are they on?  The walls continue to close in on me I am afraid. I have been trying to open the doors but the wind is blowing them firmly shut again. The damp is making my bones complain again.

I cannot say I have ever felt as isolated and out of touch at anytime in my life so far as I have during the weeks since March 23rd this year when lockdown restrictions were formally introduced in the United Kingdom. Everything is strange and surreal. Even the most mundane activities as we go to the shop masked like cowboys with bandanas as we buy a hand of bananas. The novelty has worn off now though.
Will we ever get back to normal? I am not convinced its going to happen anytime soon. One year, two years, longer perhaps. It’s hard to imagine really. So far we have had restrictions for 159 days.  And we are still here.

if only I still had something to say.

“Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

“He that can have patience can have what he will.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“Why is patience so important?”
“Because it makes us pay attention.”
― Paulo Coelho

 

What next? Here’s a bit of a catch up blog post for August 2020

Delta Ladies, Diana Stones Songs, disabilty and health news, glass cage, music, Musings, other, Piano

Here’s a bit of a catch up blog post for August 2020

 

  • Delta Ladies,

    It’s proved very difficult to try and keep the act going. So much of it was created by the personalities of those involved as much as anything else. Whilst I had tried to keep the band going there has not really been anyone that so far was the right fit. Not for peoples lack of trying I hasten to add. Often simply because of we had always been a “let’s see what happens on the night” sort of band with a lot of freedom in what we played. Often Vicky would chuck in a number we had not played for months at random and not always in the same key that we had played it in before.  On another occasion Vicky came up with a tune on the dulcimer that was sort of Scottish sounding slow air and we played it at a gig having not heard it before that evening. Sadly we did not even have a demo recording of it so its lost to the world That’s not in everybody’s comfort zone which is quite understandable. Its not just about playing or performing ability, it’s about practical issues. Being in the right place and having the time to be involved without it clashing too much with other commitments. I had hoped to restart this year when of course Covid -19 and lockdown hit.  That was a real blow as I had just got myself back up off the floor after Vicky’s death and was beginning to feel a little more confidence again.

    I am still plowing on with the other music I make and record in various forms as much as possible, but that’s a rather solitary pursuit in the main at present. I am lucky that I have what I need to create. It’s useful to be able to play the range of instruments that I do. I released two albums of some of my most recent material which you can find here.

  • 2020 Vision
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/2020-Vision-Diana-Stone/dp/B084FSKQ9C
    and
    Not So Sure
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Not-Sure-Explicit-Diana-Stone/dp/B08DXLFYZX
    Released on August 7
    These are also available on Itunes and the other usual suspectsI am doing some remote collaborations from time to time to as fortunately current technology allows this fairly easily. Very different from the old days of posting cassettes to each other for collaborations.
Trying to keep cool in the studio
  • Health and other stuff.

    I have had a lot of bother with my back and related conditions which I am working on improving but it’s been a bit up hill. I have also got quite depressed primarily because of lack of face to face contact with people I know are quite a distance away from where I live so I don’t tend to be able to meet people casually.

    I don’t regret moving from London as the countryside here is wonderful and only a mere 5 minute stroll from my front door. Our next door neighbor even has ducks in his back garden. I haven’t really got properly integrated locally for all sorts of reasons and Covid-19 has not helped much either with that.
    Being a somewhat introvert depressive makes life a bit uphill too.