Norwich
Miserable Man is a one man band project that started as an idea on a tiny Indonesian island. One man feeling Jamaican inside - getting older with a smile on his face, waking up in front of the azure sea, and sleeping under coconut trees - thought how nice it would be to play reggae oriented music for all the folks out there...But returning to a freezing Europe this same man found himself fired from his job, evicted from his flat, Vespa-less (confiscated by the Italian police for having no apparent insurance!) and without much left in his bank … It was then that he started to call himself the Miserable Man! He needed a change… so he left for Norwich, in the UK on the advice of his friend Mani: Norwich was busker friendly and he was sure to like it…!? And sure enough, he felt immediately at home there. He started busking every day in the city despite the below zero winter temperatures and his reverb pedal battery getting frozen…But at least he saw that there was no need to look for a job, because the perfect job had found him!
It had never been his intention to play covers but one day he went to the streets with a ‘reggaed’ version of the famous Coldplay hit “Fix You” and saw that it was working and, more than that, it was fun to play in this new light, so he started to re arrange more pop tunes to please the punters, as well as continuing to compose his original songs…In those cold months, many hits were Miserablized, including songs from The Smiths, Tracy Chapman, Pink Floyd, Bruce Springsteen, George Michael and Elton John - the heroes of his childhood - plus more recent songs from the likes of Radiohead, Travis and Snow Patrol.
The spring arrived, and he moved on from Norwich and travelled all around the south of England. He was finally able to do two of his favourite things together: travelling and playing music…!
…So why does he still call himself Miserable Man?
Sometimes he replies, “‘cos I’m giving all my happiness away to other people…”; and other times, “‘cos only sad people can play cheerful stuff, when you’re happy you don’t spend your time writing happy songs!” Whatever he says, Miserable Man has a sad part of him that goes out in empathy to all those who are abused and oppressed and suffering …everywhere…not only in Third World Countries…
They were among the creators of the Blues, the source of all black music.
So, what can we expect from a Miserable Man?
His task is to play uplifting music that will bring to mind classic tunes with the energizing twist of Jamaican ska and rocksteady. He loves to play in the morning, for the crowds going to work, and he likes to think of music in a quantic way: music is vibrations, and humans are vibrating atoms too…! The daily busking lifestyle gives Miserable Man all the proof he needs that people everywhere love music and respond to this kind of vibration exchange...
Miserable Man is happy to think that he does one of the oldest jobs in the world: a minstrel, the vibe provider. He loves to see how the right song at the right moment can just stop people during their daily race; make children dance so crazily that the surprised parent can’t help taking snaps and videos of them; make old people feel young, and make disabled people smile and move to the rhythm of the music.
Miserable Man is his own music festival per la strada… Norwich, Cambridge, Ipswich, London, Brighton, Kingston, Canterbury, Bath….you can find him nearly every day somewhere! The busker life was a fresh world for him to discover, and because of it he has made new friends and discovered places and feels like he is just beginning… Playing on the streets not only improved his singing skills, but also provided him with good exposure; the result being that he started gigging in pubs, playing at private parties, festivals, weddings, even University kitchens !! …And always sending out this message of love, peace, hope and brotherhood ‘cos Miserable Man plays his music keeping his heart tuned to this frequency. He likes to blend pop, as a universal communicative way of making music, with ska, reggae soul and afro music: the music of the earth, where we all belong, where we all come from, where we all will go back to…
Miserable man is here to cheer you up, with his pop steady soulful music.
He tries to be a free musician in a not so free world; he tries to deliver a simple and clear message; he’s trying to be the change he wants to see in the world.
What more could we ask for?
So there we are, on our way somewhere, and there he is playing music we recognize, music that touches us somewhere we’d forgotten all about; there he is, buoyant and rhythmic, giving us lyrical encouragement daily -
Miserable Man … One simple guy x
May your life be your example.
Peace
MM
Miserable Man’s tracks
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