Many, many revolutions of the Earth later...

Damn! It's May 2020, and the world has changed beyond recognition.

2019 was the tenth anniversary of recording 'Dealing With Liquids.' Sure, the album wasn't released until June 2010, but the recording was where it all happened. where we blood sweated and cried our way to fulfil our muses every desire. I can't believe I just wrote that awful waffle. Best ignore it.
Anyhoo. By my reckoning we should have had at least another album a year. But no. Life is never that simple, is it?
No it's not.

So what happened between then and now? Glad you asked. We went from a three piece to a five piece gigging band. We played gigs up and down the country. We even had a manager for a while.
Then it all fell apart....

Here we are in Winchelsea:

Left to right - Martin Haslam, Bass. Nick Ward, Drums. Mark Wright, Guitars. Mick Dorey, Keys. Nick Calvert, Guitar and howling.

Somewhere else entirely:
 

Left to right - Mick Dorey, Keys. Nick Calvert, Guitar and howling. Mark Wright, Guitars. Nick Ward, Drums. Martin Haslam, Bass.

Here is a link to our YouTube page with some songs live at The Fiddlers Elbow (London), and the two videos we produced.

Sincerity Machine is next for videoization (or whatever)

We've decided that all the songs on 'Dealing With Liquids' will eventually have videos made for them. Some will be purely performance driven whilst others, like 'Spring of Teal', will be more.

The next one is going to be 'Sincerity Machine.' The lyrics tell a story, and the story will become a video ... which is often easier said than done, I should bleedin' well cocoa (whatever that means).

So, here's the lowdown. Mick is going to be the aged east end crook. Hahahahahahahaha! ;) for some reason Nick coughs uncontrollably.

Umm, more to follow as the project kicks off. In fact, I'll do my best to keep a detailed blog of the production.

Video for 'A Spring of Teal' finished!

We shot a video, cut it, liked it for a brief moment or two - probably because it was our first effort and we were excited - then decided it was pants. And it was (is, but it won't see the light of day)!

So we shot part of another one which was good - including the amazing sculptural look of massive wind turbines and a trio of me!

But it was only the first half of the video. So we shot the rest of it on the beach and that was good, too. The thing is we are a three piece and I was the only bod in it ... which is not good for a first 'band' video.

So we all went back to the beach on a sunny sunny day and had fun. Now we were cooking! And after a few hours editing said video was complete.

Check it out! A Spring of Teal - video

Dealing With Liquids - a critique

The album isn't being officially released until the 1st June, which is to give us time to get a response from the industry and those within. Needless to say we've sent a few copies off to those we consider friends, and one of them, Kapitano, a fine singer songwriter, has written a detailed critique.

It's well worth a read, and he has included some interesting archive footage of our first festival gig in 2005.

It's all too much - or - I need a brain

'scuse the stressed, verbose, typed (and probably misspelt), mental disgorgement hereafter.

I am one. One. and not a very conscientious one either. I keep making awful decisions: like blogging - or rather multiple blogging. One blog I could cope with. Two, maybe. But I have three on blogger, two on sites I belong to, and another two for the band. I say 'the band', but as the band was originally just me I guess they're mine too. Definitely, as nobody else seems interested in taking them over. And the thing about blogs is that they contain personal writing. Not, I'm sure, that in the grand scheme of things the writing is in the slightest bit worthy. But it's mine, and some of it is mildly amusing. To me at any rate.

So what on earth do I do with them all? Merging them would seem ideal, but there's another problem rears its ugly head: personas. I'm me here, but in two of them I write under a different name. So who am I? And who cares?

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Web Sites! I was told the other day that the Kamakura site was old fashioned and needed sorting. what type of sorting it needed wasn't forthcoming. Slag me off if you want to, but at least give me some idea of why. old fashioned just doesn't cut it. What does it mean? The site didn't have a tweed background, and there wasn't even a hint of an aspidistra anywhere in sight.

So I've put up a temporary site instead. From it you can visit one of the many blogs, buy the album, and contact us. One day - sooner rather than much later - there will be a proper site in its place. One day. Then I have another couple of sites to update, too.

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After the artwork problems were sorted out earlier today the album - Dealing With Liquids - is being replicated. Probably as I type. I can't wait, and though I know the material too well to want to listen to it again I am drooling to slip a real honest to goodness replicated CD into the player. There could well be other bodily fluids involved too! ;)

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I'm away to slip under the duvet and fly off to dreamland. Night y'all.

Struggle

It's a bloody struggle, that's what it is at the moment. Too much to do and neither the hours in the day nor the drive to get it all done. Frankly, I don't know what's come over me (no lewd jokes please). I seem to have drifted off into a headspace that is ruled by 'Meh'. I used to be full of get up and go but it's leached away into a mental subsoil ... which is crazy!

All the excuses under the sun can't detract from the fact that we now have a finished master ready to be replicated and sold. It is what we've always wanted. What we've always dreamed of. Yet no we have it I can't get it together to finished the artwork and send it off.

I've got through all the other stuff you have to do to release a CD. Joined the PPL, got ISRCs for the tracks. Hunted around and got a distribution deal with CDBaby.com. Yet the last step is proving the hardest.

On reflection it's more than likely that I din't want to do it because it'll mean I then have no excuse ... and what happens if it's actually crap? I know it isn't. Actually, I know it's not just good, it's very good. But then what?

So you have a CD .... Then you have to make people aware of it and get them to buy a copy - and that is the process I'm terrified of. I'm not, and never have been, a salesman: it's just not in my nature. We need a manager and we need an agent to get us gigs. NOW!

#Heartfelt sigh#

Ah well, I'm sure it'll all be okay in the end. Or, as Mick says, "It's always darkest before dawn."

Ave all.

'Dealing With Liquids' is mastered!

Finally we have a master, and I can honestly say that it's good!

I've been in awe of Pink Floyd ever since I first heard 'Dark Side of the Moon' back in my sister's flat when I was a teen. 'Wish You Were Here' is probably the most influential album I've ever heard. So it was with utter delight that I found www.tubemastering.com. Tube Mastering's Andy Jackson is one of Dave Gilmour's engineers and a bloody brilliant mastering engineer. I know this because we now have an album he's mastered, and it's so much better than any of the mixes we attempted to master. Crystal clarity and fidelity at even the quietest volume.

It's true that if you master yourself it saves money. But I think that it's a false economy, especially if it's your first album. The one niggle I had was that we couldn't attend the session and had to trust he'd be true to the material. But it didn't matter. The result is amazing. Okay, so that's a personal opinion. :)

Now we have to get the artwork finished and the replication dealt with.