A series of profiles of the things we’re stocking and the people who make them. If your work is in the shop and you’d like a feature contact Pete.
Rich Batsford is a pianist and singer whose album Valentine Court came out earlier this year.
What are you selling in the shop?
Valentine Court – my album of contemporary solo piano music. It features 40 mins of music that is meditative in overall tone whilst encompassing some intense and emotional passages. Philip Glass with a heart.
How do you make your work?
I write all the music myself by improvising at the piano, watching out for ideas that appeal to my sense of what is musical and developing them until they become finished pieces. Then I practice them and usually record them into the memory of my digital piano before recording them from there into a studio.
Where else do you sell your work?
Its available on all the usual online retailers altho of course if you buy it that way you miss out on the beautiful 8 page booklet and Mandy Kasafir’s amazing painting Completion which comprises the front cover.
In Birmingham, who’s work do you admire / find inspirational?
Ive always loved Mandy Kasafir‘s artwork which is why I asked her to paint the cover of the album. Musically I love and admire The Destroyers, the CBSO, Marc Reck‘s DJing and the work Jon Cotton and Jo Hamilton have been doing lately is a particular inspiration for someone like myself who is trying to take responsibility for his own output both in terms of creating the work and managing its production, distribution and promotion. Likewise I have great fondness for some of the people whove are doing so much “behind the scenes” work in Brum, the likes of Robin Valk, Andrew Dubber, the Capsule Girls etc.
What’s your favourite tool of your trade?
My only tool is my Roland FP4 digital piano although my next album is going to be songs so I will shortly be investing in a half decent vocal mic.
What’s your favourite place in Birmingham?
Where do you create your work?
In my living room in … Valentine Court.
What would you do with the upstairs of the shop if you had the chance?
I tempted to say put on an acoustic gig because I think theres a lot of good acoustic solo acts around and a scarcity of quality gigs, but Im taking a bit of a break from event promotion for now!
