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Guest Blog: Esperi

We recently asked some of our roster to take part in writing some lovely words on our blog. These guest blogs will run a few times a week until Christmas and then start again in January. Kicking-off proceedings, we have the wonderful Halina Rifai of Olive Grove Records and Esperi (Chris Lee-Marr).

Words from Halina - Daydream Management / Olive Grove Records

Esperi released his special Christmas split double a-side today. Chris Lee-Marr and I (Halina) decided to do a joint blog to let everyone know what has been happening and our thoughts about it all to show both sides of this beautiful coin.



I manage Esperi under Daydream Management, but my good friend Lloyd Meredith and I decided to release his special Christmas release Made For Life/Snowman under the guise of Olive Grove Records. It wasn’t a hard decision as we both absolutely adored the music.

As a manager and someone that is releasing this record on a personal label then it is something that is quite a significant responsibility. Essentially you have someone’s life in your hands and Chris is one of the only significant other people that I can cite as submerging his whole being in his music.

When making the decision to manage and support an artist like Esperi it is as easy as breathing. You see the emotion, time and energy that they put into things and you then realise that it would be a travesty not to help them.

From a label perspective Olive Grove Records only release what we love. We heard the new Esperi tracks and some people may think that being a manager may make me biased, and maybe it does, but only a tiny element. If I put my hand on my heart I would still release his stuff even if I was not managing him.

From a management point of view, Esperi is one of the most sonically perfect individuals I have come across. His outlook on his music, life and the world is something that I believe many people should take note of and in some ways has made me a better person, or so I like to think.

The journey taken so far with recording the album has been somewhat emotional. I won’t sugar coat things, it has been incredibly hard at times and you somehow doubt yourself, but when the releases are tangible it is worth every grain of work.

I was going to say that next year is going to be the start of something special, but the fireworks started a long time ago.

I will let Chris explain a bit more about the release, his influences and what he has coming up...

Esperi speaks...

Music means the world to me, there is a lot of meaning in the songs I write for myself (memories, stories, feelings...) and I hope there is something in the new release that will mean something for the listener as well. I like to use organic and interesting sounds in layers around in my songs, which are usually about my life experiences or something I feel strongly about, but in a light hearted laid back kind of way.



This next release the Made For Life/Snowman single is two tracks that were written with winter as a common feature in the song, so we decided to collaborate with artists and friends in making the artwork as a handmade packaged felt snowman with scarf and song title stitched on for an extra nice touch. "Snowman" is a home recording I did on my own except for female vocals by Cat Lee-Marr, but "Made For Life" features bass by Kevin Black of the prog / post-rock band Laeto, drums by Jon Adam of the tech / math rock band Vasquez and the Korda String Quartet, everyone involved are amazingly talented people and dear friends and they'll be on the forthcoming album In A Moment Emotion Sentiment and future records and live shows I hope.

I shot a video for "Snowman" in my garden with my dogs as a tribute to the first one I built with my Dad which Is what the song is about. And the photo of me as a kid is outside the house where I grew up. I also have a few Christmas shows coming up - Wed 15th at the Scottish Church Hall Dundee, Sat 18th at Festive Fest Su Casa Ayr and the 22nd at the Olive Grove Christmas party at The 13th note Glasgow - all winter themed with the winter single and Esperi knit wear on sale!



Working with Olive Grove Records has been amazing, Halina and Lloyd are hard working and passionate about what they are doing and I'm forever grateful for all their help and support, just real gems. I hope to do more with them and to also work with others, I love meeting new people with a great passion for what they do.

The forthcoming album is going to sound a lot bigger than the current live shows, more layers of sounds and general sonic weight than I can manage live as of yet. A big percentage of acoustic instruments/sounds, like acoustic guitar, voice, bells, kalimba, xylophone, chimes, melodica, percussion, drums, toys, strings, double bass and field recordings but also electric bass, rhodes piano, electric guitar and whatever else we might find that works. It should have an interesting mixture of sounds and songs that come from the heart. The title of the album - In A Moment Emotion Sentiment - comes from the idea that we capture tiny moments in life that can mean a great deal to us, the tiniest little moments that last a heart beat but stick with you forever and the thought of them just takes you back there and floods you with emotions.