Christmas time

I’ve just finished wrapping all my Christmas presents ON MY OWN. Well, pretty much on my own – my friend Emma was holding down the sellotape for me. (As I understand it, Americans don’t call it sellotape, they call it ’scotch tape’. So that’s what that is.) But I’ve never really done that before, so … milestone, innit.

Emma’s staying here tonight because tomorrow morning she’s doing me the kind favour of driving me into London and back. I plan to film a music video for Don’t Look Back, consisting of walking around London while it’s empty, getting cool shots of all the empty landmarks, and then be back in time for lunch with my family <3

I’m planning to do a music video every month for my channel, because I’ve been complacent with that and really should have followed up Holding On with something cool – do you guys have any requests? At the moment I definitely wanna do Hearts, and maybe A Thousand Hours and/or No Sacrifice. But I’ve heard from a lot of people that No More is one of my best songs, so should I do that instead? This isn’t a “whatever you say, I’ll do” type deal, my mind’s pretty much made up, but I will take your opinions into consideration :)

Speaking of music, as I always do in this blog because I’m a boring one-dimensional person, I’ve booked a recording session on the weekend of January 23rd to record the 117% Complete EP, the three-track video game extravaganza. The plan is to film music videos for all three songs and release them on my channel over 117 hours, which is about five days :D

My mum just gave me one of my Christmas presents early, as I’ve just upgraded from a single bed to a double. I say upgraded; it’s not like phone companies, the bed people didn’t put me on an 18-month double bed plan, with 300 free hours of sleep a month. That would be nonsensical. But given that I now have a double bed, I need a new duvet that fits the double bed.

My mum didn’t give me the duvet for the double bed. What she gave me was a duvet cover for a double bed. I said, “do you have a double bed duvet that I can use?”

And in a moment of genius, she genuinely responded with: “no, I’m going to wait till after Christmas so I can get one in the sales”.

Heartfelt Christmas gifts for all xD

x

  • CrazyCatChick
    That sounds a bit like my mum XD
  • Dagerthinkstoomuch
    I loved the bed comment, is was so witty. I think some sort of version of that would fit really well in a song, something about not sleeping for one reason or another and not using up the sleeping hours your mattress company provides you with.
  • cicinxs
    Hey! You should do a video for "A Thousand Hours", it's my second favourite, after "Holding On".I love all your album!! Very inspired!! Happy holidays!
  • I really like How We Were; brilliant album :)
  • Veronica
    I'm so glad you made a video to "Don't Look Back!" That's my favorite song off the album! Also, watching it magically gave my Macbook four more minutes of battery, which must mean that the Apple gods wholeheartedly approve.

    Hearts, A Thousand Hours, and No More are my other favorites... I'd love to see videos for all three! I feel like No More might have a wider appeal than No Sacrifice, but I'm by no means a musician nor a music producer, so I can't actually back that up feeling up with reason.
  • ravisse
    My favorite song of yours is IMPOSSIBLE DREAMS and I love SICILY
  • XD awesome! sale duvets are better, right?

    oh yeah, and i LIKE the idea of a video for No More (and would love to see one), but i LOVE the idea of a video for Hearts or A Thousand Hours or No Sacrifice. they're more fast paced. and we just had a video for a slow one. (good job! i loved it! so pretty!) i'd love to see what you do with the more fast paced songs.
  • rachelmckenzie
    i think you should definatly do a video for thousand hours, that one is probably my favourite song on the album :)
  • Catherine
    "the bed people didn’t put me on an 18-month double bed plan, with 300 free hours of sleep a month" lol. I really like no more and a thousand hours is brilliant.
  • Alison
    you should definitely do a music video for No More. If you want I can email you some photos/vids of the Glasgow lights in George Square since that's like the first line.
    oh and merry Xmas everyone!
  • Verity
    Your mum sounds very wise. xD

    I would love it if you did a video for 'No More', as it's one of my favourite songs of yours. :)

    Merry Christmas!
  • MissSherry88
    I'd definitely love to see a video for No More. It'd be awesome!! :D
    Congrats on the new bed!!
  • Kelsey
    I would definitely say that you should do No More and A Thousand Hours- easily two of my favorite songs of yours. No matter what you do though, I'm sure the video will be lovely, judging from the Don't Look Back video. :)
  • You're such a stereotypical 'male'. Almost 21, and you've only just started wrapping presents.

    Not taking the piss out of your face. If anything. I find it endearing. xD
  • SageKiller
    Yay for Christmas sales! And great job on wrapping the presents by yourself! I think you should just do a music video for each of your songs...they're all awesome! (But definitely do one for No More, that's my fave :D)
  • emmachupein
    No Sacrifice is the song that comes on my iPod and it makes me get all smiley and make some sort of happy noise
    so i'd really REALLY LOVE a No Sacrifice video :]

    Happy Holidays!<3
  • Bri :D
    I like Impossible Dreams a lot... it's one of those songs that I can't help but listen to a million times.

    OMG OMG I can't wait for the don't look back video ^__^ such a sad song : ( but i love it.

    i love all of your songs the lyrics are kind of cheesy is it supposed to be that way? lol i love a good cheesy song
  • Oletha
    I have the same bed problem!
    A Hearts video would be awesome, but it would have to be just as epic and bouncy as the song itself.
  • Merry Christmas, Alex Day.
  • So THAT'S what sellotape is. As for music videos, "No More" would be fun to see. But I really do like "A Thousand Hours." Whatever, your call. And congrats on the bed upgrade! I'm in desperate need of a new one myself. Happy Christmas!
  • Kate8D
    Can't wait to see the music videos. I'll be getting Parrot Stories on Christmas, I saw my mum wrapping it a few weeks ago =D Merry Christmas x
  • TheLunarFire
    It's called "Scotch Tape" because "Scotch" is a brand that makes sellotape. Technically its still called sellotape. In regards to your music Hearts and A Thousand Hours are my favorite! If you're doing music videos, I'd be very interested to see those on film.

    Have a happy Christmas, Alex!
  • Not true - 'sellotape' is also a brand, just like Scotch. The technical term for both would just be adhesive tape :)
  • Issy
    Doesn't have quite the same ring to it though- I vote 'sticky tape'.
    ....and 300 hours of free sleep a month is a pretty decent amount- do you reckon if that sort of deal were possible, they'd freeze time for your free sleep, or would it just be that you weren't allowed to be woken....:)
  • Christy
    You've already done/are doing my favorite ones, Holding On and Don't Look Back, they're in my top played on iTunes. No More would be fantastic though, and maybe Impossible Dreams.

    Happy Holidays Alex! I hope you have a great Christmas!
  • failer
    Do a music video for Hearts. I am literally in love with it, seriously!
    happy holidays alex day.
  • SSB1
    I don't want to comment on that post. I just have some questions for you and general Chartjackers comments and I would be very interested for your take on what I have to say.

    Following Chartjackers I saw you on the 5.19 show...how did that come about and what was it like?
    Also, do you have a good relationship with the BBC now and can we expect to see you on more programmes soon?

    I know you say you are content with the Chartjackers experience but if I was you I would feel very disappointed by it. You had a good opportunity and in my opinion I was frustrated with what you did because I like what you do and felt you guys had the ability to make the project more fascinating and unique. I really wanted you to find a band maybe and playing instruments would add something especially for live performances. Get some really cool people in there because I felt that personality is as important or maybe slightly less important than musical ability in a situation like this, just look at Jedward. The people involved should have been a little bit nuts and eccentric perhaps to compensate for the relative shyness and awkwardness of Charlie and Johnny. This would have enhaced your lame music video of dancing around a tree because you would have some really outgoing people. You could have given the musicians involved youtube channels and get them to push it as well through daily vlogs just filming what they were doing and stuff, give them twitter accounts and facebook fan pages and myspace and blogs and push it on the through as many avenues of the internet as possible. Get on the street and hand out fliers, busk, rent a hall and just play all day while handing out free lemonade, dress up in fancy dress and drive around in a mini with the song blaring out and get out to talk to people and let them know whats doing on. idk but there were a shit load of opportunities to get your message heard that I felt you didn't explore nearly fully enough.

    The live shows on the webcam and in real life did really well...maybe you should have done 2 or 3 of them. I saw you gots lots of advice from bollocks people in the music industry - that black guy and his wife who were singing coaches who you went to see without your singers lolz - and you should have also sought advice from people from the interwebs on how to make impact and promote through there.

    There were SO many people who were so passionate about this project that they would have been amazingly effective if they were formally organised into some type of street team promoters, who could meet up and be given task to go out and do. Also you could have gets about 40 or 50 people in a team, which is achievable given how many people turned up to your gig at short notice...one of which had about a 12 hour round trip to get there (found that out when I spoke to them) but its totally understandable you didnt speak to them cos ur had lots of teenage girls telling you that you were amazing so fair enough lol.

    "oh thanks for doin an assembly"...NO! aiming too small and you could have tried to go to schools and do an assembly with people to get the message to all your schools/old schools/universities/colleges and this could have got to thousands of people if you even did 5 schools.

    It's a shame to me that you limited your promotion and didn't try things that were more outrageous and attention seeking even when that Ravi guy told you that's what you should do and get involved with double decker buses. Just off the top of my head....get on an open top london tour bus and throw off fliers and sing the song on it and wait for them to tell you to get off cos this would have been a lot better than that rubbish radio protest that you did. This would have the best opportunity of getting you onto radio, TV and newspapers especially if you tipped them off you were doing something mental like getting Charlie's purple man in speedos to take to the streets of London or Bath/Bristol (I forget which one he's from) to promote the song. Maybe thats because you didn't have the confidence or self belief in the song, which wasn't amazing and I think Reggie described as being high school musical like.

    At the end it was almost like you guys had ran out of ideas by posting videos going "Oooh we're 35....or no wait we're 36....oh please buy the song we're 38....oh yay we're 36 again...etc...etc blah blah blah..." I was very confused by this cos you guys seem so creative but you we're doing anything proactive and engaging with people.

    I know I dissed those singing coaches earlier but they gave you the one piece of advice that I thought really stuck with you guys that you had to sell and promote the song like your life depended on it and I just thought that your effort was a little ineffective. TBH, I just wrote this in a few minutes but given a whole day I would have been able to come up with hundreds of ways to promote the songs that were better than not even getting into a radio station and twittering Russel Brand who obviously isn't interested cos he's having sex with Katy Perry.

    You might percieve this as a little bit harsh and unecessary but like I said I was very disappointed/frustrated/angry with your efforts cos it was totally possible to get a top 20 hit and I think that you may regret this as a wasted opportunity not only to get a high charting song and raise more money for charity but to showcase your ability, drive, initiative and creativity.

    I know that one of your responses might be that you didn't have the time to do all this but you had such an enthusiastic and passionate community behind you that wanted to get involved (me included) and they would have done most stuff for you. The lack of organisation of them was a MASSIVE mistake. OH, new idea=getting a small army of purple men on the streets cos I definitly would have done that.

    Thank you.
  • This is all well and good, but it's not exactly an experience we can learn from. We're not planning to do something like Chartjackers again. We had those ten weeks, we handled them in the way that we did, and I think that there's little if anything to be gained from analysing it with hindsight. I appreciate everything you've said and you've made some great points, but the knowledge would only have been useful if you'd told us what you thought while the project was taking place.
  • itiselizabeth
    A big quilt is a must. I have also just upgraded to the double bed malarky but don't have a double mattress yet as the shop closed on the 22rd and we missed out... hmm.
    I hope you get the footage you need!
    Merry Christmas Alex!

    OH, my Mum told me to tell you she is loving the Twilight videos. :D
  • I can't wait to see the music video- it sounds amazing.
    I've always though No More might be a nice music video, or Impossible Dreams, but No Sacrifice will be awesome too. All of your songs are good, so yeah.
    Have a great Christmas! <3
  • Marie
    Today I my birthday, and as a present for myself I bought Parrot Stories, which I loved! I just wanted to say thank you for sharing your music with us and for making my birthday great :) Merry Christmas!
  • Lewis
    Wrapping at the last minute?

    You... you MAN!
  • CathyKitCat
    No more is my favourite song of yours so it would be really nice to have a video for that. That idea of empty land marks should make for a really cool video too! :)
    Merry Christmas Alex x
  • Alice
    congratulations on your new bed :)
    i'd love you to do a music video for don't look back, as your holding on video was amazing. no more would be a great song to do a video for, but all of the songs on your album are brilliant, so i'm not fussed! :)
    have a great christmas! x
  • Biaa <3
    haha smart mom :) merry christmas!
  • Amy x
    I definatley think you should do a music video for no more and no sacrifice, but I also think you should do Don't look back because that is a beautiful song and how we were because it is just generally awesome :) And im very pleased for you on your bed upgrade :) x Happy Christmas x
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