New Year….=Party!!

Ok, so christmas was full o food and some serious work in the studio plus a couple of gigs to keep the hands in , so as we head into a new decade i can’t help but feel optimistic about the year ahead, we got the songs and a hunger to get out and play as much as possible.
So Time to finish these recordings and get out and party!

Feeling so Natural!

Last night was our first performance of some of the new songs that are destined for the next album , how would we cope? , would we be a bundle of nerves?,  would our guitars stay in tune?, would our new instruments function? ah so many variables not to mention the setting up of a massive P.A and lighting rig!.

Well the answer to how the gig went, lays,  i think,  in our smile’s afterwards and  the rapturous applause we received , of course there’s areas to work on and a little fine tune-ing but the works paid off and it really is beginning to feel quite natural again!

tech-no fever …toys for the boys!

Tick tock the clock is ticking and the time is getting closer to try the new songs out live, i cant wait , and we all feel really excited , but a little nervous if im honest at the prospect of venturing out from the comfort of the studio.

The most exciting thing to hit the studio and more importantly our hands and ears is the arrival of some new sonic wizardry , raph has a lovely new nord super synth keyboard which he has lovingly filled with his master crafted sounds and samples, although it does lack the eccentricity of his previous elderly nord cardboard box affair!

Jon meanwhile,  has a lovely new drum pad  which we have filled with sweet nord sounds and some lovely analog 60s organ sounds from our ancient jumbo jem organ, jon is also playing keys on a load of the new tracks so he’s kept busy to say the least!

I have a new guitar….its like got six strings and well its positively old fashioned compared to my compadres new gear!, the nearest i get to knowing much about the techno stuff that raph and jon have is telling mates that raphs keyboard is shock polyphonic! this according to raph is a function invented some time ago in the seventies and apparently not the revelation i had obviously thought it to be! thats the last time i try to sound cool when talking about subjects i know little of!

The gigs will reveal all!…..hopefully more good than bad!

 

H.M.S Victorious

Lost at sea , asleep at the wheel, swimming for glory! all feelings we have been experiencing of late, however.. happy days dear readers we truly turned a corner this week as the songs regained clarity and our minds composure…have we written our best yet? i reckon were close to doing so…mmmm time to set sail soon!

do we sound alright?….YES!

Mmmmmm. well tough week this week, de-constructing and arranging songs is never easy and when you feel under pressure in terms of time and  expectations its sometimes difficult to match the reality with what you know your capable of.

So what does this mean i hear you ask ? well it means were getting there and it means were pushing ourselves to make a really special album and it also means were close to playing out live….Hurrah! and there was much rejoicing in the village!.

Come see  11th December The Boileroom Guildford ……..

bonjour le weekend

Bonjour all,

Today i spent the morning driving my old french car in the sussex and surrey countryside, hoping to pluck some more lyric ideas as i drove, full of inspiration i did indeed return, although i think my head was more full of images of me in some sort of 30’s french b movie ….still might make an interesting song!… or am i going a bit Chris Rea….ah ha!

We had a great rehearsal this week and certain songs are actually sounding like proper songs..roll on more studio time tomorrow.

Au Revoir

Walt

Record! Record! Rehearse>>> Record!…..

Hey Folks,

Well although things may seem silent as autumn casts its orange glow,  all in our world is loud and really pretty exciting as we are currently in the process of rehearsing up all the songs we have started recording in order to finalize arrangements and generally  make sure we produce an album that really excites the ears, mind, and dare i say it the heart.

The great thing about all this work is that it focuses the mind on the job in hand … as each section of a song comes together the song grows or as is our want gets smaller in order to get bigger or maybe even smaller again! the point being is that it feels like we are making an album that really matters,doing something that pushes our ability’s and thats exciting, in fact thats what being in a band is all about.

Walt

Gig night

 

Gig nights for us normally consist of showing up at a venue at half 4 in the afternoon, waiting around for hours to rush through sound-check, getting a bit stressed about something or other and then waiting around some more b4 we play our set. Its a  pretty standard routine for most bands i would’ve thought.

Pint 1 9:10

So last night I got to be on the other side of things – First stop Mindwire @ Westival. The west centre go to great lengths each year to put on a cracking weekend festival. They cover the entire venue in grass which is V. impressive and they build a pyramid over the stage which creates a quite unique setting. The grass does in fact make it a sound guy’s paradise and sure enough all the bands sound nice and lush… if a bit quite for my liking!

Pint 2 9:50

Mindwire, who just reformed for this show and maybe one other? played to an almost full house of friends and die hard fans and they didn’t disappoint. All the classics came out the bag. ‘Spread it Around’ was my pick of the night though. Its clear to me Si ‘the dagger’ Morten has still got it!! 

We then hot footed it from Aldershot over to Guildford, ditched the car and headed to venue 2. ‘The Boileroom’ were hosting Redwood tonight who were playing a warm up show for Guilfest in a couple of weeks.

Pint 3 + catch up shots 11:15

Quite a contrast here, there’s nothing like a bit of pre-gig stress to warm the crowd. The hours waiting around had clearly taken there toll on the band!!

Pint 4 + shots 11:30

Redwood blitzed the stage in true ear bleeding fashion, just the way I like it! The band haven’t changed a bit, still wearing the same clothes, still playing the same amps and still playing the same rocking songs!

Pint 5 + flaming sambucca’s 11:45

Good gig. For many now, the end of the night beckons and slowly the crowd lessens. I am thankful that I don’t have to pack down my kit as we head to the bar.

Pint 6 12:25?

So now we move on to ‘the legion’ -  open mic night is in full swing downstairs, hip hop? on floor 2 and thankfully floor 3 has some rock tunes to keep us company!

Pint 7 1:15

Lots of post gig chat and analysis – Met some twins, friends of a friend – sadly not up for a congo though.

Pint 8 1:45??

Start to think about heading off – probably should’ve done  hours ago! Bump into some friends outside another bar who are homeward bound as well… lots of sleepy faces!!

Taxi – 2:15?

Tragically it didn’t take us far, as we spotted a attractive looking burger van with our name on it.

2 x half pounders with bacon/cheese. 2:20

Walked the rest of the way home where Wolfgang was waiting with a wagging tail to greet us  

All in all a good night – thank god we didn’t have any booze at home! My ears are ringing this morning, but that’s the sign of a good night i guess Its not often that you get to see 2 gigs in one night, especially when they are both reforming specially – shame really they were both on the same night as I think both would have been sell outs, most mindwire fans are redwood fans and vice-versa, but no-one did both gigs like us!! haha….

Going for a walk now. bye!

Hot In The City.

London is a very hot place today. I love a bitching hot day as much as any sun worshiper but it does take its toll on ones ability to think rationally. I drove through South London this afternoon, got honked at more times than I care to mention and, without a thought, calmly found myself honking like an italian and flicking the bird at anyone who’d look in my direction. Everyone was at it, we should all be happier than monks on a day out at the nunnery but thats what the sun does to our weak little sun starved minds.

After a winter and spring both spent carefully planning the year ahead, looking forward to a period of prolonged and hopefully productive creativity, it feels disappointing to find myself in this sun induced coma. Just at the point where I need to be at top my of my game, cognitive phaser set to ‘wound aggressively’ I instead, find myself a beer, sit down  and stare at my friends forlornly, hoping that part of their brain is doing some of the work that my burnt out sponge should have completed hours ago. It’s just as well then that I live the British Isles, a place where heat waves are counted in days and not months, because as intoxicating as the beer/sun/garden/snooze combo is, cogent thought is not an abundant byproduct.

Morning after the day before

My first time today as a blogger! and what a thrill, a veritable delight to be able to freely describe what we have been up to of late. Yesterday was spent in the company of good friends and good food and in Raphs case a small hangover left over from seeing the mighty Mr Neil Young, having spent the day wandering around the Sussex countryside we got back to work in the studio as the sun cast its last evening rays and we attempted to get brains back in gear and continue wire-ing up equipment and testing sounds in order to start recording… i have also borrowed what may be the smallest piano on the planet it sounds sooooo good!, i’m enjoying this blogging lark ..its true and i shall endeavour to continue to post the morning after the day before!

Walter