okay, so i plan on getting some sound clips up on the site as soon as things calm down a bit with recording and rehearsals. this weekend has totally flown by, i can't believe it. i was recording the album at east kilbride all weekend and i'm really delighted with how it's coming along. there's 3 tracks to be finished off then the mixing to be done. this week i've got to rehearse a bit for the upcoming show at king tuts on saturday supporting camera obscura. it's all very last minute with tickets and stuff so do gimme a shout if you fancy coming along. i need sleep though, i feel i've been on the go since i left for london......
i got back from london last night, had a lot of fun there for a few days. but now it's time to get organised. i've got a few gigs coming up, details of which will be posted in the news section tomorrow i hope but i'm pretty excited about them. i also picked up the guitar for the first time in a week or so and wrote a song. it's weird, i think if i leave the guitar alone in a room for at least a week then pick him up he seems more happy and receptive to me and we begin to sing songs together. for some reason i started playing these two quite sad chords and it struck me as interesting so i starting singing over the top of them. then next thing i'm sitting on a chair and i've written this complete song. it's very very strange. i can't consciously sit there and write, doesn't work that way for me. i kept repeating this key phrase over and over. so a few mins later i have given birth to this new creation. luckily there's no umbilical chord to snip and very little blood involved. i feel quite satisfied. but whether it's actually any good or not of course will become known in time. if i start singing it randomly over the next few weeks or if it's quickly forgotten, only time will tell....
i'm going off to london for a few days tomorrow staying in a nice hotel in shepherd's bush. apparently alot of musicians stay there coz it's very near to the shepherd's bush empire. i'm staying there coz my friend's girlfriend works there and she's got me a great discount. maybe i'll run into someone whose music i really like, i wonder who is playing that venue over the weekend. sometimes though it can be bad meeting people you really look up to. if i met wayne coyle from the flaming lips i wouldn't know where to begin. duglas met him at t in the park and the two of them were discussing santa apparently. what would i ask wayne about? would i be disappointed if i were to meet him? who would you really like to meet? i remember seeing thom yorke walking along ashton lane in the west end of glasgow a few years ago. my over-riding memory was that he was tiny. he was small enough to fold up and fit into a duffle bag. he was off into the cul-de-sac for a drink, clutching some records. on the subject of london i've got no gigs planned there this time, but hopefully later in the year i'll have one or two sorted out, most probably acoustic spots coz logistically they're easier to manage. i'm trying to set up some band gigs in glasgow coz we're rehearsing again. hopefully we'll be doing a support slot then a headline show in september...
there's a documentary about jeff buckley on bbc two tomorrow night, it reminded me that i always meant to listen to his music. i remember nearly buying 'grace' once but didn't have enough money. i must check out his and his father's work...such a tragic family.
i had a really great day yesterday recording some more tracks for the album. we got far more done that i'd inititally thought we would and laid down a good part of three tracks - 'someone's got a crush on me', 'i feel fine' and 'calling out to you'. it'll be fun building them up and getting the vocals and harmonies done. i'm going to give alot of thought to these songs and the other 3 we'll be recording. i'm torn between a few songs actually. but if they don't appear on the album this time they will again next time.....
it's been lovely and warm too, really enjoying not seeing grey clouds. so refreshing, everything seems so alive.
i'm still feeling quite spaced and not as switched on as usual. maybe it'll pass, i hope so. maybe the sun will recharge my brain or maybe it'll melt my heart......
it's a belated review, but grandaddy were great on thursday night despite complaining that they were dead on their feet having not slept for days and having toured for the last 3 months. it was the last gig of their tour and they went out with a bang. glasgow audiences are really receptive to bands and this was no exception. the reaction would definitely have carried them through. they're back in scotland in august, playing edinburgh this time.
i've been pretty busy trying to plan this album, what tracks to include, getting all the recording dates fixed up, co-ordinating the people who'll be helping me record. i'll also be rehearsing some songs that i've never played live this week. i think i've been a bit scatty with everything else recently, so if my english is all over the place in this blog then please forgive me. i've been making lots of silly mistakes recently, i think because i'm preoccupied. i think the strangest thing i've done is put the kettle in the fridge instead of the milk. i also tried to eat a raw mushroom. i'm a space monkey for sure.
so i'm off to see grandaddy tonight. i've seen them before and they were great so i'm looooooking forward to it. the QMU is a sonically pleasing place to catch live music too. it always feels quite intimate in there. i was lucky enough to catch the white stripes when they played there a couple of years ago and the sound they made blew me away.
i just heard someone talking about tim henman and wimbledon. 'henmania' huh? i find all that union jack waving 'go on timmy', stuff really tiresome. release a large hungry wolf into the court and let's hear them all sing 'land of hope and glory'... tim's face would go whiter than a pair of his freshly washed cotton y-fronts.
the news section of this site hasn't been touched for a while. it's partly for a couple of reasons i guess. one is that there is no real musical news of note just now coz i'm focussing on selecting tracks and going into the studio to record 5 or 6 for the album in july and august. i've also been writing a bit too. gig wise there will be one happening in edinburgh on august 14th and i will post up details about that soon. it'll be great fun coz the fringe festival is happening during august as i mentioned before and the place will have a great vibe. the other reason for the lack of updating is technical probs or my inability to use the computer very well sometimes. but it'll be fixed. soon. at least i can still use my trusty old blog. i'll also be putting some sound clips of the tracks i've been recording as i realise it's been a while since the last lot of mp3s went up.
i had a weird dream the other day. well, it was weird but really nice. i was flying on a quantas plane to visit australia for two and a half months to play a gig with glasgow's finest jangle merchants, teenage fanclub. i know two and a half months is a long time for one gig, but hey it was my subconscious in control. i remember scrambling around amongst knee deep piles of paper in my flat desperately hunting for my passport and panicking coz i didn't have anything packed. i often have this kind of dream where i'm going off somewhere but i am not organised at all or i forget something last minute. i wonder what it means? sometimes i dream i'm still at school and i suddenly find out i have an exam yet i've never actually been to any of the classes. actually that used to happen a bit coz in one of my final years i told my geography teacher i was going to an extra class of biology and i told my biology teacher i was going to an extra class of geography. and i ended up going home. sneaky huh?
If it's all gone to pot
Then come down and just stop
And consider your lot
You've made it this far
Think of the trees or the birds and the bees
And the feeling you get when you catch a sunset
Hope is just never ending
Hope is the future mending
Hope, you wlll always be my friend
If you've slept through the years
On a blanket of tears
Then I am with you
Just close your eyes and you'll soon realise
That the world isn't real
It is just a feeling
Hope is just never ending
Hope is the future mending
Hope, you will always be my friend
i've never put any of my lyrics on the site before today. so this is a new one for me.
