ally's journal

2010-03-08T20:43:00.002Z

hola. i was in barcelona (then dipped my big toe into the coasta brava) for a little while and had a nice time, but i came back feeling strangely anxious, especially after a dream last night that involved paul mccartney and a drunk woman getting dragged along the road by a car, but that's all for another time. anyway, some things that i appreciated on my trip included: grilled oyster mushrooms, the fleeting warmth of spring sun on my face, moritz beer, sebastian and ana, the beach at barceloneta, the salt air of cadaques, calamari, a burger with caramalised onions at the base of the bun and goats cheese on top of the meat, lost baroque pop music from the late 1960s, proper coffee, borne, home-made olive and sourdough bread, focaccia pizza and a copo of vino, barri gotic, travelling light.

i was on lastfm.com earlier and i found some strange tags people had given to my music. here's the list.

i'm particularly chuffed with 'refridgerators' and 'quiet greenhouses'

finally in this kind of random outpouring of thoughts i have to say that i was sad to hear that mark linkous from sparklehorse had committed suicide :( i remember seeing him a year (or maybe two) ago in glasgow and i very much enjoyed his music.

sayonara,

ally

2010-02-10T14:39:00.003Z

Hello,

I've been immersing myself in films lately, possibly as a distraction to the fact that I'm pretty frustrated at the moment. So, I thought I'd write a little bit about what I've seen just in case any of what I write makes someone want to investigate further.

Fast becoming a director I’m keen to know more about is Werner Herzog and Amazon is doing some great deals on box sets of his work. The other night I watched his rather bleak, poignant - and in parts absurd - outsider movie "Stroszek":

Bruno Stroszek is released from prison and warned to stop drinking. He has few skills and fewer expectations: with a glockenspiel and an accordion, he ekes out a living as a street musician. He befriends Eva, a prostitute down on her luck. After they are harried and beaten by the thugs who have been Eva's pimps, they join Bruno's neighbour, Scheitz, an elderly eccentric, when he leaves Germany to live in Wisconsin. In that winter bound, barren prairie, Bruno works as a mechanic, Eva as a waitress. They buy a trailer. Then, bills mount, the bank threatens to repossess the trailer, Eva wants privacy, and inexorably, the promise of a new life deserts Bruno.

The ending in particular will stay with me for a long time. It’s a lovely film from a wildly eccentric, unique director whose work I’m going to explore more.

I’d never seen “The Godfather” before and I’ll be honest - usually the thought of a three-hour film leaves me a little wary. In fact, I confess to having walked out of James Cameron’s 3D blockbuster “Avatar” after having had enough and knowing my butt was going to be numb for another 90 minutes. I went to the Atholl Arms opposite the Cineworld and got a Guinness instead. I don’t care how great the effect of 3D is (and it is spectacular and very absorbing) but if a storyline is rotten and the characters bore me then I’m walking. “The Godfather” was, of course, epic in every way. I’m looking forward to settling down with part two in the next week.

“The Third Man” was a book I remember being forced to read at school but not appreciating as much as I would now, so it was good to see the film the other night. It’s beautifully shot in black and white adding so much atmosphere and intrigue. Very enjoyable.

Late last night I sat and watched two documentaries that are currently on the BBC iplayer. Sadly they appear to be unavailable overseas, although both documentaries will be available somewhere I’m sure with a bit of digging around. The first was a very curious and subversive Danish documentary which for the purposes of the BBC Storyville series was renamed “King Jong Ill’s Comedy Club”, but is more widely known as “Red Chapel”. Here’s a brief synopsis:

A journalist with no scruples and two Danish/Korean comedians—one a self-proclaimed "spastic"—travel to North Korea under the guise of a cultural exchange. On the pretext of being a small Danish theatre group, named The Red Chapel, they are allowed into the country, but unbeknownst to the North Koreans, cultural exchange is not really what they have in mind. Mads Brügger, the journalist; Simon, the straight man; and Jacob, the ‘spastic’, use humour to challenge one of the world’s most notorious regimes. The troupe rehearse under the watchful eye of government officials brought in to "collaborate" on their performance and make it more palatable for the Korean regime. They are shown the important historical sights by a female government employee, who smothers poor Jacob with motherly affection. Fusing elements of activist filmmaking with theater of the absurd, The Red Chapel is an acerbic romp, as subversive as it is wildly original.

It won an award last month at the Sundance Film Festival which was great to see. I was really engaged by this infectious, at times comedic, dark, fearful, yet very human expose of a brutal place to live.

Finally, I watched another BBC Storyville documentary (again on the BBC iplayer) called “The Last White Man Standing”:

Tom Cholmondeley, heir to the largest white-owned estate in Kenya, stands accused of murdering a black poacher on his land. THE LAST WHITE MAN STANDING follows the ongoing case and gives an in-depth look at its socio-political context.

It was really insightful and gave a murky glimpse into the disparity between the rich and the poor in Kenya and the injustice that prevails to this day from its eerie, sinister colonial past. It’s a really gripping documentary and I found the very end to be extremely revealing and moving.

So there you go. Mark Kermode’s* got nothing to worry about here, but I just wanted to write about some great films that I got lost in recently. There are times when you have to lose yourself in music, films, books, art to keep sane. It’s got to be better than gorging oneself on chicken dippers of an evening, right?

Working in films is something I’ve always had a wish to do. I’ve always felt that one day I’m going to try to write a screenplay of a dark comedy. The more documentaries I watch the more that genre fascinates me too though. Right now however I want to focus entirely on music and more specifically on getting my new album recorded. I’ve even gone so far as to work out the sequence of the track list and have been listening back to the album (as ten demos) in its entirety. Here’s my provisional track listing. It’s way too early I realise and will mean nothing, but I wanted to share:

The Other Side

Man’s Man

Get Over You

All Day Long

5AM

Monkey Business (or “New York City Zoo”, I’ve not decided)

Everything I’ve Learned I Have Forgotten

The High Street

So Long Goodbye

End Of The Road.

Bye for now,

Ally.

* Mark Kermode is a fairly high profile British film critic.

2010-01-21T16:34:00.001Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdi5024rkIE

2010-01-18T17:39:00.004Z

i'm going to try and drink herbal tea and sparkling water this week and avoid any drinks with a % sign on the packaging. it's been a boozy time lately. i'm kind of in limbo right now as far as the business of music goes. as anyone who has been reading this blog over the last while knows, i've been working away at my home demos while coming up with new songs and it's now reached the point where all the songs and parts are complete and recorded on my very basic equipment here in the flat. along with guitars there's string arrangements, piano, violin, trumpet....... i'm really chuffed with how it's sounding and have it all mapped out for the studio. so, the next thing that needs to happen is to figure out how to record them in the studio. this is the tricky part coz recording in a good studio with good people costs good money. i've recently been taken on by a lovely manager so she'll be out there in music business land letting folks hear the new material. so she'll go in to the offices with the demo cd and while they're distracted listening to the songs she'll be dipping into coats and gathering money from wallets and purses. all this money will then go into a giant pot and once that pot is full, i call the studio and book two weeks. i think this is the best plan.

i want to make this album the best work i've done. i really believe it will be. the music business land is a tough place to navigate these days with many musicians scratching their heads and wondering where on earth the money is going to come from as cds sales continue to take a massive tumble and with streaming generating buttons (tiny fractions of money) for artists. so, with management help hopefully the pot can begin to fill up. i'll still be working away too, trying to create opportunities for myself and my music, just as i always have done and always will.

london was fun, though kind of stressful in a way. i went with ryan, mike and andy who do a really great job of backing me up. we played well i think and everyone had a good time. i think generally though i feel uneasy at the moment, but i just need to try to stay positive and be true to myself. seeing great live music helps - last night i saw laura veirs perform with her band. really beautiful vocals and soaring harmonies. life affirming stuff on a sunday night in limboland.

2009-12-04T11:55:00.005Z

hello. it's a clear, crisp sunny friday in december here in glasgow. it's really cold but that's okay as long as the sun is out. november was miserable with wind and rain battering the city - and my spirits. i've had a productive (albeit boozy nocturnal) week and wrote and recorded a new song which i really like. the album choices continue to grow as time passes, but i feel happy with the collection of songs i have now. the other project i was involved in was to write lyrics and record vocals for a new cineplexx (wonderful argentinian artist currently based in barcelona) song - a christmas song no less! i've never been involved in a musical collaboration before and it was a great experience putting lyrics to a piece of music. i'll have more information about where you can listen to it etc once sebastian (aka cineplexx) completes the song and we find out more. in the future i'd like to explore more the possibilities of remote collaboration. we did a webchat too, with guitars so i could see what sebastian was playing but we just ended up mostly singing our new songs to each other and having a good chat. technology! wonderful!

i'm awaiting news of a show in london in january. will post more once i hear the details. i'm missing playing live at the moment.

i was thinking that if i ever get in to a good studio and record these songs with proper instruments it'll be a real moment for me, having been tucked away here writitng and recording over the last eight months or so. there's one song in particular (an instrumental called 'end of the road') that is very cinematic and i'll probably burst into tears in the studio when that gets recorded:P

time for another cup of tea i think.

2009-11-10T02:03:00.003Z

for me these conditions seem to produce the songs. i'm feeling a bit down and fearful, the days are becoming shorter, the nights seem darker, heavier. i've got the lights low and a set of blue fairy lights are flashing on a wall, giving a kind of neon effect. i can hear the rain tapping on the pavement outside. there's hardly a sound, except for the raindrops and my guitar playing really softly. so, i was strumming, gazing out the window and a song came. musically it's done, i kind of know what it's about and i'll flesh out the lyrics from what i've improvised into my recorder and what i'm feeling right now. i feel like i've got a bit of something out that was eating in at me. it's a strange yet cathartic feeling.

maybe the song is rubbish. as always, time will tell. as i was standing at the window looking out after hitting the 'stop' button (i think i've been playing this song over and over, tweaking it for the best part of an hour) i saw a woman jogging. truly a curious sight. i've never seen a jogger at 2am. so, even if the song turns out to be absolute nonsense and never sees the light of day, at least the sight of this jogger ploughing through the soggy streets at 2am is a new experience for me. right, i'll go to bed now and listen to the rain bouncing off the leaves and the wheelie bins. shine on you crazy jogger...

2009-10-13T15:07:00.001+01:00

Asian tour video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbWwA_WSOek

2009-10-08T18:59:00.002+01:00

i went to the cinema (a great cinema in glasgow called the glasgow film theatre - i'm very lucky to have this place nearby) on saturday afternoon and watched this lovely film - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/6251655/The-Beaches-of-Agnes-review.html which was really inspiring. if you're looking for a bit of life-affirmation or just want to get away from your own thoughts for a while, i'd highly recommend this flick. you need not know anything about agnes and her work. i didn't and thoroughly enjoyed the movie.

i've been working on two new demo recordings, one of which seems to have the words 'san francisco' in it (well it does when i'm singing a guide vocal) and i've no idea why. san fran is a place i'd really love to visit though. it's pretty catchy and has some almost spaghetti western movie-style trumpet arrangement in it right now. i'm not quite sure how to describe this part, it's almost like a call to arms or something. anyway, this might change - i'll fiddle around with it some more, but lyrics ain't coming to me at the moment. which takes me back to the film i saw on saturday. when i'm feeling lyrically bankrupt i usually indulge myself in films, books and music. lately i've been listening to the last silver jews album which has some great songs on it and some cracking lyrics. i've been taking advantage of my library card too.

my laptop cable was broken so i've not been able to edit the asian tour footage, but i've no excuse now. i will embark on that very soon. i think a beer would help the editing process for sure. in other news there are some important things happening in the background just now, i just need (as always) to be patient. at least the music is flowing, that's the most important thing, right?

over and out for now :)

2009-09-15T12:56:00.002+01:00

and so i reappear, like a freshly plucked whelk. the tour is over. my rest and relaxation time after the tour is over. the warm, thick, humid air that enveloped me is over. and now, alas, i'm at a loose end as we spiral towards the shortening days of winter..

enough of the flowery chat - the tour was an amazing experience and a success. singapore was beautiful with that skyline behind us as we played the outdoor stage. taipei was warm both in temperature and friendliness too. 'stinky tofu' isn’t really for me though. the hotels were lovely, the transportation smooth, the people so friendly and we were really well looked after, every step of the way. manila was raw, more grassroots, edgier but great in its own way. japan was what I’ve come to know and love - an assault on the senses, friends, food, perfectly-served beer, karaoke, tiredness. i loved the two weeks. it was wonderful. came back last week and decided i needed to reflect and take advantage of having time to myself, so i did just that and didn't go online, tried to read my book, watched some films. but now i'm back in the game, though i'm craving some fresh excitement…..

a little tour video will be forthcoming…

2009-09-03T18:53:00.001+01:00

New blog update at www.myspace.com/allykerr or www.twitter.com/musicallykerr

2009-08-29T19:35:00.001+01:00

For some reason I can't update this as easily as I'd like. So, please visit www.myspace.com/allykerr then click on blog to read these entries for the duration of the tour. Thanks!

2009-08-28T12:30:00.001+01:00

www.twitter.com/musicallykerr has a link to the latest tour video..

2009-08-25T08:33:00.002+01:00

i'm lying here, typing, drinking (tea - it's 8.40am) and thinking about the days ahead. today we leave for singapore. i'm packed and ready, i think. just need to do some last minute tasks this morning and drink more cups of tea. i'm excited and always a little nervous before i head off to the airport. i'm going to be keeping the blog up to date all things being well. also, i'm going armed with a little camcorder, so there will be some video footage as we stumble along from city to city.

i can't find my ear plugs. does ryan snore? i've no idea. i hope not. a kind person gave me a very nifty travel scale yesterday so i can keep a check on the luggage weight. very important that. my mini laptop is awash with top-flight entertainment. movies i'm particularly looking forward to include "anvil - the story of anvil", "the curse of the jade scorpion", "strangers on a train", "the thin blue line" (my documentary film-maker friend assures me this is an amazing example of the genre). what else? 0h, the wilco tour documentary "ashes of american flags", "juno" and a few more i can't remember. plus some episodes of "frasier", of course. nothing says "relax" to me like watching "frasier". hopefully i can fire that up in times of stress or irrationality due to tiredness. it's televisual macaroni cheese. comfort tv. ah, good old frasier.

got some swimming trunks for performing in taipei. nah, i will save them in case we manage to find a little time to have a steam/sauna. the hotel in taipei has this facility so hopefully i can take advantage of that.

so, i think i'm prepared. we've rehearsed around 23 songs, so that's quite a lot of material. be interesting to play some new ones.

right, it's time for a secondary cuppa.

2009-07-04T20:02:00.001+01:00

just a quick one to say i'm dj'ing tomorrow (sunday) in glasgow from 4pm - 7pm. more info here!www.myspace.com/thevinylfling

news of further dates on the asian tour will be announced very very soon..

2009-06-17T11:02:00.006+01:00

saturday night's full band gig was great fun and sebastian (aka cineplexx) and nick garrie (both were on the bill) enjoyed it very much too and played great sets. here's a photo of me playing with my sparkling new backing band:

thanks so much to ryan (guitar), mike (bass) and andy (drums). they play in a great new band called the 17th century. i thought they were really excellent on saturday night. unfortunately this is the only photo i have and andy's invisible, but once i get more i'll put them up. it was a magical night and great for me to play more than just acoustically. we did two new songs last night - "man's man" and "the other side". there should be a couple of youtube clips up over the next few days.

plans are still being worked out for the asian tour in late august and early september with baybeats 2009 in singapore being the first stop. more will be announced just as soon as it's all tied up.

it's chucking it down (raining heavily) here. it's a shame but i can't complain; it's been glorious in recent times here in glasgow, both in experiences and in weather. i think a little downtime and rain is probably in order..

i'll leave you with a few photos sebastian took from the west end festival parade which took place on sunday.

i have an image quite strongly imprinted in my head from sunday evening walking to a venue where i was going to do a DJ set. everyone had gone home after the parade and the streets were quiet and calm but i spotted a solitary banana shuffling off home down the empty street.

2009-06-11T15:05:00.001+01:00

hi there. i'm very pleased to confirm that i'll be heading out to singapore to play the baybeats festival on friday 28th aug. i'll be doing an acoustic set and a full band set. more info at http://www.baybeats.com.sg/2009/

right now other dates in southesat asia are being discussed so i'll post more once they're confirmed. show time on saturday. full band in glasgow. looking forward to it :)

2009-05-18T15:09:00.002+01:00

hola. i've felt a bit flat since i came back from madrid. it was a really great mini-tour (does two gigs count as a tour?) with some wonderful people, great hosts, tremendous tapas and bucketfuls of booze. i caught a cold on the last morning and shuffled back to glasgow to a few days of boiled eggs and cups of tea. i feel much better now, thanks to a couple of afternoons of steam room indulgence and good films. i think sometimes i never know when to stop when i'm away! but that's just coz it's all there to play for:) quite a few people i know had the cold before i went away, so at least i didn't sucumb to it before the shows. i think last week i was trying to figure out a few things too and people weren't responding so sometimes that can get a bit hard. it's a tough place out there in music biz land, often it seems like quite a lonely old battle. but i just needed a bit of time out to buff up my armour :P

there are a few things bubbling under that i really hope will come off for late summer. as soon as i know more i'll write more. fingers crossed. the demo recording is still going well. i recorded an instrumental song recently, provisionally entitled "end of the road" which will either be the last track or track five on the new album. i'm really happy with it...it feels quite cinematic. still no news on when 'proper' recording will begin. meantime the groundwork will continue..

hopefully i can fire some photos of the madrid trip up here sometime soon. i don't have the photos just now but will get them this week i reckon. oh, here's the poster for the next gig. it'll be my first glasgow gig in almost a year and i'll be unveiling my smashing new backing band :)

2009-04-30T18:26:00.004+01:00

this is a photo of me (hello) playing in london on thursday night at the green note (thanks to nigel for letting me use it). it's a perfect acoustic club to play i think, especially for a solo show. the set up was great and i thought the people really cared about the music and their venue. i was really at home here. it was fun to try out some non-album songs and i did one called "monkey business" for the first time ever. my set mostly consisted of songs from my latest album 'off the radar' but also a couple from the first one. immediately after coming off stage i had a surreal conversation with a guy who was wolfing down chocolate with wreckless abandon. my mind was still digesting what had just happened over the forty minutes of my set and i was heading briskly (or possibly running) towards the bar coz i had a right thirst on. anyway, the guy in question told me he'd enjoyed the set and would i prefer to possess crab claws or tentacles. the unexpected nature of the questioning continued and towards the end of our bizarre q&a session i noticed that he was holding his phone in a way that suggested our conversation (or my bemused replies to these unusual questions) might be being recorded. so, maybe it'll appear online one day. my fingers - or possibly crab claws - are crossed that it won’t however.

gin and tonic is my new drink. usually i'm a beer / wine / jack daniels guy but i don't know, i seem to be enjoying this drink lately. also, i noticed that i seem i suffer no ill effects from it. i'm sure this theory will be shattered (along with my nerves) as i push it to its limit one night in the not-so-distant future. coming back from london i saw mark lawrenson from bbc tv's 'match of the day'. i was contemplating trying to whip a bit of his moustache, but i didn't. i got another gin and tonic instead and watched some planes taking off. at glasgow airport my guitar was a no-show and when i was reunited with it the following day, i noticed the guitar case was cracked. ah, the power of the 'fragile' sticker. the case looked like it had been on an adventure. madrid next friday, hopefully that'll be an adventure too. i'm looking forward to returning to spain :)

2009-04-21T15:02:00.003+01:00

coffee and cake mid-afternoon. i love it. i'm eating banana bread actually. it's really tasty and a great way to utilise nanas that are pretty much at the decaying, bruised and battered stage. i've just put the acoustic guitar down for a while to think about my set list for the solo gig in london on thursday. i'm having trouble deciding which of the new songs to play. i'm having to decide what key to play one of them in coz on the demo recording it's got a female vocal that comes in and struggle as i might, i just cannot reach the notes. so, i'm playing around with that and also some whistling on another track that i've recorded as a demo and which has some flute/strings kicking in at the beginning. i'm getting on well with the third album demos. i'm at about eight tracks that i'm sure are going to be on it and i'll record a few more. i reckon ten to twelve tracks on this one if i'm really happy with each one. no room for messing about here. oh no.

i'll say bye bye now, but look, here's a mug available to purchase at the link below :)

http://www.cafepress.com/allykerrmusic

2009-03-31T19:19:00.003+01:00

i finally made a facebook page for my music. there was an ally kerr 'group' already kindly created by someone else and then on christmas morning (maybe someone abroad who doesn't bother with christmas) another person set up one as a 'musician' for me (and which looks like it's my own page), but both pages were static, so i decided to make one myself. the problem is that there's people who have joined on the other two but no one on the official one:) so, if you want to come over you can find it by going to facebook and searching for "ally kerr - musician (official)". it's very well hidden just now sadly!

it'll be updated with gigs/news etc. i think. the best place though is always my website. there's so many places out there with the potential to hold all this info.

twitter. i'm not sure. i'm still not convinced. but, i signed up anyway. you can find me on twitter at www.twitter.com/musicallykerr . i think i'll do a few, see how it goes. i'm not sure it's for me, but we'll see. is it a lazy person's blog? 140 characters. not a lot of room there for messing around. it would be good on tours i think. i'll see how that goes.

if i was to twitter right now i'd maybe tell about how today whilst ambling down towards the post office i saw a schoolboy scoop up a pigeon in his friend's hat and try to hurl it into the fish 'n chip shop. it was rather disgusting but the bird was fine. i really dislike pigeons. not a big fan of birds i have to say. my friend told me about the time he was waiting for a taxi in town on a saturday night and saw a guy scoop up a massive dead seagull and run around freaking everyone out with it before dumping it in a wheelie bin. that's a nasty image. birds in city centres. hmmm. not convinced either!

as i mentioned on twitter about the demos before i'll mention the subject again here. i'm going to continue with the demo recording tonight. i've got a new one called "the other side" that i wrote a few nights ago then recorded the next day. i really like it so we'll see if it holds up.

bye for now,
ally.

2009-03-04T18:41:00.003Z

hola! i was playing at an indoor festival in barcelona on saturday night and had a great time. here are a few photos from the trip :)

we see dawn in the scottish sky.

getting to grips with elementary spanish and enjoying a little wine.

a wander down to barceloneta on a sunny friday afternoon.

minifestival poster inside the apolo 2 venue.

performing with miguel.

then joined by sebastian.

miguel, me, sebastian.

me and miguel after some tasty beer.

i thought this looked like a food face from the other way up.

all you need - beer and absolutely delicious prawns.

we had a great trip with wonderful hospitality. here's one of the songs from the forty minute set we played.

2009-02-17T03:20:00.002Z

the flat is really quiet now that i've decided to stop recording for the night. the birds outside the front window (and the back for that matter) are making a hell of a racket mind you. it reminds me of late nights / early morning in summer. very odd that they're so noisy. maybe they're getting their own back after i've been up late recording and they're sick of it. actually, a neighbour complained last week. i honestly couldn't believe it. i'm a very considerate neighbour; in fact i hate neighbour noise. so the fact that i was the culprit was a bit of a shock. i was working on songs till 5/6am but it wasn't loud. however, i want to practise what i preach, so i've turned the volume right down and use headphones more. i really don't think it was louder than maybe someone watching tv, but i can help ease the neighbour's suffering so i'm quite happy to do so. it doesn't affect what i'm doing either which is a bonus.

so, i've been working on a few songs lately, all of them demos. i've completed and mixed one, need to re-do vocals on another and i was just adding parts to one tonight. i'm really happy with these ones so far. hopefully i'll be able to go to the studio later in the year, but i'm really enjoying the process of working on them in the comfort of my flat, with the jolly birds outside for company.

right, i've made a promise to myself to go to bed now, so i will. i could easily sit up till 5 or 6am, but i've a lot i want to do (non-recording wise) tomorrow and i'm terribly bad at getting out my bed/scratcher/kipper.

so, i'll bid you good night.

ps. i'll go to bed and these songs will be going round and round in my head. this is always the problem with late night recording for me. oh well, at least it was a productive night and i've managed to avoid sparking open cans of beer as is usually the case. a few nights off beer is definitely in order..

2009-02-02T21:49:00.005Z

is it too late to say happy new year? i think probably after lunch on the 16th of january it's socially unacceptable to wish someone good wishes for the rest of the year. so, i won't wish you a happy new year now, but i was secretly wishing every one good wishes on the 15th of january, just after i'd eaten a rather large spoonful of cold baked beans. i love cold baked beans. is that odd? well, not cold, but rather lukewarm, in their just-taken-out-the-cupboard state. did i ever tell you that i once had an arguement with a particularly annoying/patronising/overbearing scottish old dear (kind of 56-60 years old) who was insisting that a cheesy beano was melted cheese on toast with beans on top. i maintained it was beans on toast with melted cheese on top! it all got rather heated, my passion for the subject representing the fact that she had irritated me for a least an hour up until that point with her theatrics and attention-seeking manner towards us youngsters. anyway, you'll be relieved to know that it all ended quite calmly and we split a can of diet sprite, had an arm wrestle and chuckled. oh, i just invented one part of that make-up scenario up, but i won't tell you which.

i've been keeping my head down recently, concentrating on making some things blossom in the spring time. i've been scattering seeds in a musical sense. i'm off to barcelona at the end of this month to play at minifestival and it's just had a great write-up in spain's premier music magazine rock delux. for that gig i'm going to be joined by the very talented team of miguel (the felt tips) and sebastian (aka cineplexx). after that i've a couple of solo treks, one of which is to the big smoke (aka london) and to madrid for a couple of shows in may. i'm looking forward to the trips.

i've also been keeping my head down and concentrating on new material. quite recently i've been getting into home recording to make demos so i'm just quietly working my way through some of the songs i've collected in the last couple of years, trying to see what sounds decent, what sucks, what needs to be fleshed-out lyrically. it's no good to polish a turd. i hope i won't be doing that - i've not got the constitution - so i want to take some time to really consider the next album, the tracks, the production etc.

mercury rev's 'endlessly' has come on. great song. next up is 'se telefonando' which is by an italian singer called mina in the 60s. it's a morricone composition and it's amazing. i opened itunes and i guess it's playing some of the tracks i was dj'ing the other sunday. that was a great night. i really enjoy dj'ing and i miss it from doing the viva melodia (club) that i used to run (and which i suspect will return). a friend from japan who i spoke to at the tokyo aftershow party got in touch about something yesterday and the communication reminded me a lot of that crazy time in coins bar, shibuya. you know how sometimes one song can bring an experience crashing back? well at this particular time it was 'breaking the ice' by mojave 3. what a song. my friend was telling me what i was recommending that she buy at that party but it's all a blur to me. a combination of touring, exhaustion, booze and adrenalin rendered me a blurry, grinning mess. but not as bad as one individual who was enthusiastically screaming as i was dj'ing. i last saw him sprawled out on the ground just outside the door at about 4am. he was fine though, don't worry :) good memories for me, though i suspect a damn sore head for him. wow what a ramble. sorry 'bout that! bye for now :) oh, here's the mag article i mentioned earlier.

(click to make bigger i think)

2009-01-21T12:15:00.002Z

Winter-Time by Robert Louis Stevenson

Late lies the wintry sun a-bed,
A frosty, fiery sleepy-head;
Blinks but an hour or two; and then,
A blood-red orange, sets again.

Before the stars have left the skies,
At morning in the dark I rise;
And shivering in my nakedness,
By the cold candle, bathe and dress.

Close by the jolly fire I sit
To warm my frozen bones a bit;
Or with a reindeer-sled, explore
The colder countries round the door.

When to go out, my nurse doth wrap
Me in my comforter and cap;
The cold wind burns my face, and blows
Its frosty pepper up my nose.

Black are my steps on silver sod;
Thick blows my frosty breath abroad;
And tree and house, and hill and lake,
Are frosted like a wedding cake

2008-11-24T16:38:00.005Z

hola! i was really happy to discover that the amorino animation had been selected by an american newspaper's website as their music video pick of the day. the paper serves washington dc in the usa and is called "Express" ... it's a part of the washington post company. i was happy but surprised as it's often so hard to get heard. it's obvious of course that there's sooo much information floating around out there on the internet connected to music, be it videos, words, sounds, images and it can be a bit overwhelming. it got me to thinking whether artists / musicians are now encouraged to blog too much? it seems to me that we're all being informed that interaction is the key to keeping close to your audience, but is something being lost in the process? is it becoming too much like a process? i'm not sure, but the more i think about it, the more i'm inclined to think that it's nice to have some mystery in the relationship between artist and audience/fan. if writing is just a forced exercise then i actually think that can be quite damaging and a little revealing. i look forward to reading certain artists' words because i know they're selective, they're good at editing and when they write, even short bursts, i know i'll usually get something from it. however, i do think it is interesting to have an insight and i hope that in my writing i'm expressing myself honestly and giving anyone that cares to read an insight and not an excuse to climb into the washing machine. being able to communicate directly without the approval / manipulation of journalists / media / third party is liberating too of course.

so, these are my thoughts today. to blog or not to blog, that is the question. today the answer was yes. it just felt right and i wanted to. i wrote fiction and words before i wrote music or even picked up the guitar and i enjoy it when i'm in the right mood. but of course sometimes i'm introverted and it's my guitar i reach for, rather than the keyboard. i wrote a song the other evening actually. it's passed the test and i've been singing it to myself on and off for days. the one before that seems to have failed that test. that's how it goes.

oh, please look out for the new messageboard (we'll give it a try, see how it goes - the last one was relatively active but was killed by spam) and also a more dynamic news page.

now, if you'll excuse me i have to go and smear cumin onto a lamb chop.