Nicky Havey August 2019 Update – Music, Travel & Life

It's Been A While...

I had to trawl a long way back through the archives to when I last did one of these updates and it was back in January so I apologise to those of you who like to know a bit more behind the scenes here at Havey HQ. It's been bonkers but I'll try and keep it light and fluffy to not bore you to tears!

Website & Social Media Changes

The eagle eyed amongst you might have seen me make a few changes over the last week to the way the website looks along with the Facebook, Twitter and Steem profiles getting a visual makeover - let's face it, they needed one! For those that are wondering where these pictures were taken, the profile picture was at the Gower coastline in south west Wales and the cover photo is on Highway 6 on the North West coast of the South Island of New Zealand. I love the coast, what can I say? :)

Gower Coast in South Wales - New Profile Picture

Highway 6 Coastal Drive - South Island, New Zealand - Cover Image

Other updates to the website include:

• Front Page - Yes that front page needed a drastic overhaul as well didn't it!
• Website Shop - All music releases have been updated and now have streaming links so you can listen to the track before you decide to buy or run for the hill haha!
• Blog Layout - Featured images are now there to make it easier to find a blog if you're browsing around and I've included the two communities I'm heavily involved with - EMA & PHC (more on that later)!

Travel Adventures

Oh yes, the "Havey's Australia & New Zealand Adventure" blog series has given us plenty of amazing stories and experiences! So far we're up to number 19 and it's likely the series will continue through to at least 50 so there's plenty to look forward to :D The latest adventure took us down the already mentioned Highway 6 of New Zealand and you can find out a little bit more about it by clicking or tapping the image below.

I'll do a summary blog for you soon so you can have an "all in one" place to catch up to the stories so far and get some ideas for when you visit this amazing part of the world! I'll try to do maybe one blog every week or 2 from this point on (real life and music stuff is starting to take a grip!)

Music Endeavours

"OK, all this travel malarkey is all well and good Nicky but we know you make music too". Haha, yes, well, I didn't get a chance to work on any music when I was travelling as it really was non-stop and I enjoyed being away from it all.

Now I'm back, I have started to branch out in to new genres that I probably should have done more of over the years, one of them being Trance. In fact, when I joined a music contest on the Steem network, I didn't realise how much I'd enjoy the challenge of learning new techniques and genres. If you can't see the player below, click here to have a listen in :)

Don't worry though Drum & Bass heads, I still have a plethora of beats coming your way as time goes on and I'll be writing a little more about them as and when they pop up. So keep on the look out for the next few months as things are picking up again! Hurray! For you Spotify lovers, follow me here for the latest releases.

Electronic Music Alliance (EMA)

If you follow me on Twitter, you'll have seen me use #ema or mention my fellow "EMAliens" quite a few times. Back in December 2018, I embarked on a journey in to the unknown with two other music producers from Atom Collector Records - Bufinjer and DaveyHub - as we co-founded EMA. We basically wanted to create a community of like minded, supportive and talented electronic musicians and give them a platform to share their music via playlists, blogs, social media and distribution via our community run label - Electronic Alliance Records.

It's been an "EMAzing" journey so far with 90+ EMAliens joining the mothership, over 2,200 followers on our Twitter and approaching 50 playlists across many platforms such as Spotify. It's been so inspiring to see everyone support each other and it's spurred my creativity on a bit as well. Positive spirals folks :) Make sure you follow us on the social media pages and if you're ever short of a playlist, look no further than our website!

Power House Creatives & Top 3

If it wasn't for the Steem platform, I wouldn't have tried to improve my writing skills and if it wasn't for the Power House Creatives community, with some of the best writers I've come across, I wouldn't be writing any where near as much as I do now. A big thanks to the community leader @jaynie for driving us all on and for her support as me and a crack team of 3 other Power House Creatives set up in a very simple, yet lucrative contest that anyone can join as long as you have an account on Steem.

Each month, the @phctop3 contest asks you what your favourite 3 things are about a specific topic and why. Then you write a post and we ask the Steem community to vote for their favourites from the list of entries. The top 3 entries that were voted for get the bulk of the prizes! Check out the latest post here and if it intrigues you, maybe think about joining the platform and get involved :)

Finally...

There is a real life happening outside of this as well - my brother is getting married later in the year, I have started a new job back at my old company before I went travelling and the hunt begins to get my own place so the plans are there to be more frequent with the blogs but as I'm sure you all know, even the best laid plans made by a genius like me can still be fallible!

Nonetheless, thanks to everyone of you who interacts, leaves a comment or feedback or just shares the blogs and music of this crazy fool!

Take it easy everyone!

Nicky