new tunes

the first six songs for the new record are now set in stone. it's taken a couple of months of writing alot of tunes, around 30 i think from which i've taken these first six and have endless lists and little bits recorded here and there for the 2nd half of the record. when i made my little "glue" last year, most of those songs i'd been playing at shows for ages so it was really easy to decide which songs i wanted to lay down, apart from a couple that came at the very end. but this time i round it felt like i had something to prove...only to myself that i could string together a bunch of songs that work together as a unit. something you can listen to from start to finish for 40 minutes or so and get taken to different places .. a little trip of observation, nothing more. so i wiped the slate completely clean and decided i wasnt going to work on any tunes that i'd written before this summer. it's almost there. thank goodness. spending days..and days on end working on new stuff trying to kick start creativity and then you kind of forget what sunlight looks like. it's not the easiest thing in the world trying to make something that's going to make others enjoy it hopefully as much as you do and not be too self indulgent in the songs. especially the lyrics. me me me. no one wants to hear it little man. i do have stuff i can post already but i'm going to wait till all the arrangements are finished and then you can listen to the end result. which i know you're gonna love ;) also this time round i have a band so arrangements and getting parts down takes more time. i dont like just arranging new songs in the practice room 'cause what usually happens is songs get arranged "from A to B' so if the drummer plays something everyone's going to play around that , likewise for the guitar part or whatever. so i'm working with everyone individually first and getting them to play what comes natural and see how they each interpret the part..then, left to my own devices i mix and edit everything and what comes out at the end should hopefully be what no one expected in the first place. that's the plan anyway. so just thought i'd give you a little update on what i've been up to as i dont really "blog" as much as i should. there's a reason for that though, people that enjoy talking about themselves are usually wankers so it's best left to others to do the talking.
havent got many shows lined up in the next month or so, i'm playing the edinburgh fringe festival next week and a couple of random shows in oxford and the midlands..i think. touring should start again in october, there's a week of shows in november in italy that i should be doing with the whole band and then i'm sure a few months of random train journeys and sleeping on strangers' floors to get my music out to all you good good people.
stay well
xx