Playing some shows….

So, the time has come to get some music together for some shows I’ll be doing in the UK starting next week. I’m kinda undecided what to play, part of me wants to play some things that have been out on record, part of me wants to play lots of new stuff, part of me wants to play one long 50 minute piece of music and part of me wants to run a fucking mile and go nowhere near a stage…. That is always my dilemma, of course, you know like having so many things that I could do and then doing something else just for the sake of it. Thank goodness I don’t have a record company breathing down my neck saying… promote your new album dip shit….. Well, I just don’t really want to play stuff from continental, just yet, not at least while performing to the film lumiere with just my guitar and my lil laptop… No, I think the pieces on continental will really come to life in a live situation with some other musicians on board… That, and it’ll give me someone to talk to on tour, which will be quite a novelty in itself.
I go a package in the mail yesterday and it was finished copies of Everlasting and Waiting For Dawn which Vinita at Rocket Girl sent me and I have to say it feels really nice actually having them in my hand after talking about them here for so long. Anyone who comes to my performances may hold them in their hand as well, but not before parting with some cash in order to keep the Guthrie children fed and clothed. I’ve made some postcards as well, you know, a little series of five cards based around the theme of what I’ve been doing recently. They are very chic indeed and no home should be without a set.. Look, bottom line is, when you come to my show bring lots of cash and possibly some lo carb snacks as well… It’s difficult to put a price on good art, very difficult at least for the artist as his livelihood depends on it but one thing I can guarantee is that either my performance will be priceless or the look on my face as my computer crashes again, I break a string or I realise that I’ve played the whole set with my fly open, will be priceless… mmm experience talking here, folks…Whichever way it’s all in the interest of entertainment, innit?
I can’t describe with words the feeling of elation which I experience while doing a performance which goes smoothly. However I can make a good stab at describing the awkwardness of when I fuck up beyond belief… I don’t have one of those faces that hides things too well, you know the professional, hey that wasn’t flat, it was jazz face, nor do I have a bass player to make faces at, to trick the audience into believing it was him who fucked up… So I can do no more than invite you all to share in my humiliation but politely ask that you refrain from pointing and laughing….To say I feel exposed when onstage on my own is an understatement but, wtf, that’s what I do so I shall now shut the fuck up and get on with it….
Soooo, what else…. I’ve been tweaking certain elements of Lumiere and I’m happy to say that I’ll be showing the widescreen version wherever possible… Also been amending little parts here and there which I wasn’t happy with last time I did an cut.
I shall, whenever I get the chance, try to do a daily weblog while doing this tour. I say ‘whenever I have the chance’ as I don’t expect to be able to get online every day but I’ll do it as often as possible…
As I understand things I’ll be having a few guests, at some of the shows, after the film to make some little collaborations and I’m looking forward to that immensely.
So all is well…pour l’instant

me, preparing my calm cool and collected look for my forthcoming performances

Waiting For Dawn….

I’ve made an another EP called Waiting For Dawn…
The tracklist is as follows..

1 darkness of the heart
2 amber
3 sunshine after midnight
4 waiting for dawn

mmm, don’t know when this one will get realeased either….

Sleepless….

Some details of an up and coming show here…
I’ll edit this post later when I have a moment to give a short description of what we hope to do..

A few words from Mr Harold Budd…..

It was 4 days, but a last piece discovered and quickly recorded on Friday at some inexpressibly dull interlude as it was all being downloaded off of Pro Tools. Really only three and a half days : twenty-one pieces (an astounding number that seems at the moment very non-astounding : if it’s there, do it).

There are some beautiful pieces waiting, napping in those files. Except for yesterday’s surprise piece, I wanted to avoid hacking around fruitlessly for more — more we did; I didn’t want to ruin the vibe Robin and I had going: when it happened, we knew it and simply went with it.

Harold Budd

and I picture I stole from Jack….

Anatomy of a recording session : day 5

So, the fifth and final day of the session was very fruitful indeed. After talking with Harold we felt that we had probably achieved enough in the previous four days and proceeded to listen over to some stuff and prepare the files to be exported from this session for later work chez moi, but as creativity was in the air, listening started to seem like a chore and it suited us more to take advantage of having a studio at our disposal and so we started to do what we seems to come natural, namely creating something a little improvised, thematic and emotional. This is not cold music, it seems to have drained me of my emotional resources, it’s been intense and very reflective of the mood that we’ve been in. Overall I think we’ve worked well together, or pieces have been varied although they all seem to be in context with what I would have hoped for. They’ve been sometimes improvised, sometimes structured and have really captured the essence of the energy in the room at this time. I feel that we’ve probably both willingly bent a little to accommodate each others style and the result is more than a sum of the two individual parts. What more can I ask for?
The next time I work on these pieces it will be to get into the details. All work should have beauty not only within the essence, but within the details. I will, hopefully, have a little more perspective than I have at this time and will see this work through to it’s conclusion with out upsetting it’s delicate balance.
Now I’m going to the beach…

My heartfelt thanks go out to Tom, Aaron, Loredana, Rachel, Tony and Scott who made our presence at SF Soundworks most welcome indeed.