Monday, 14 January 2008

A belated Happy New Year to you. I meant to post before now but I've been busy getting into my new studio, which is working out pretty good so far...

This is a funny one, because I want to post but my body's screaming "it's 6 o'fecking'clock!!!! go to bed will ye!" Thing is, I was in bed and was sleeping fine, until I had to get up with Ella at 3am, then that was me. I couldn't get back to sleep. I lay there trying to fool myself. I knew fine rightly that that was me up but I didn't want to tell myself, just in case...

My mind's been racing. It does that in January. Most people don't like January, but I love it. It's sort of a nothing month. It's the month were there world breaths a sigh of relief after the consumerist onslaught of the festive season, thereby not paying too much attention to what needs done. Rather more concerned with February and just getting through the first month as peacefully as possible and without getting too blue about the come down of Christmas. For me it's one of the best months. The year's just begun; a blank canvas, and no one breathing down your neck to make the first mark. You've got time to draw up the blueprints. I love that.

So I've been in my new studio, which overlooks Deptford Creek and the Laban Dance Centre (a beautiful building), just preparing for the year ahead. A year that I'm quite excited about.

I just got the final mix of the Free Association (David Holmes) remix of Be With Me and I love it. It's gonna be released in April (all being well) on a AA side vinyl. In fact I'll be hoping in the car in a few hours to go and work on the A side, which is another remix/re-approach of Shed A Little Light. I'm working on this with a couple of guys that call themselves Future Cut. They're great guys with a wonderful feel. Not like anyone I've worked with before but I find that exciting. They're most renowned for they're work with the likes of Lilly Allen and Dizzy Rascal, so it'll be a bit of a departure for them too I imagine.

In the first week of February I'll be going into Studio with a guy called Leo Abrahams, for ideas and inspiration more than anything else. I've got some new songs that I think he'd be great at dealing with. He has a wonderful touch when it comes to creating atmosphere, in and out of music for that matter. In fact Leo's new record is out this week, and will be single AND record of the week on iTunes. It's a compilation album called 'The Unrest Cure' that features songs by KT Tunstall (the single), Ed Harcourt, Brian Eno and myself among others. Definitely worth getting in my opinion. There's another artist on there too called Bingo Gazingo, a spoken word artist from New York in his 80's. He wrote a wonderful piece called '2000 years from now', to which Leo put the music.

After this I'll be on tour in Ireland and the UK.  There are dates in but I just want to have them completely confirmed before I put them on the site.... keep an eye out here for them.

Then, in the blue corner, wearing the Star Spangled trunk we have the contender - a trip to the USA in March. There are a few reasons for going out. I have some gigs lined up in Texas and Nashville and possibly one in New York (not exactly close together are they!?), but more than that I'll be visiting my old home town of Canton Oklahoma. Joanne and Ella are planning on coming too, so it'll be the ideal way to experience it again. We'll be heading out with a camera to make a short film; a road film I guess you could say. But, in the same way that Jim Jarmusch doesn't really know what his films are about, I'm not really sure what I'll be shooting or why. I'm gonna let the landscape decide all that. One thing I'd like to capture if possible on this short trip is my own personal musical journey from purity to circus. By that I mean this... The first music I ever remember hearing was congregational singing in the house. My Dad was a preacher in a Church in Oklahoma, that didn't allow instruments (which is beyond me as to why), so everyone relied on their voice to make the piece work. Although it's a strange thing for a Church to decree, it worked just fine for me because it was all down to the voice. The point being, when I grew up it was with a love of the voice more than music and the sort of music that first touched me was old hymns, which I still love to this day. I can't stand the new music coming out of the Christian sector (if that's what you call it?) but these old songs seemed to be birthed in pain. They have blood and guts, sin and redemption, heaven and hell. The people that wrote those songs, did so because they HAD to! There was no desire for the royalty payments, no designs on touring, in fact no need for any recognition whatsoever! And I think it shows it the songs, they're stepped in integrity.

So the rough idea is to start filming in my old home town, then film the road journey to the gigs in Texas, which are at an industry festival called SXSW (South by South West). In one sense this place is wonderful, because the streets are filled with the sound of music. There isn't a single bar in Austin that doesn't have music for this week. Music from all around the world too...Japan, Iceland, Russia, Germany, France, no National is unrepresented. On the other hand, the entire premise for the festival is not like Woodstock was or like Glastonbury is, but rather there's a focus on getting signed, cutting deals and (a dreaded word for me) 'networking'. I have to switch off from the reality of this issue as it turns me. Yet what can you do? We all need to make a living, just that I make my living making music and that often seems like a contradiction in terms!

I can't see that I'll ever be ab;e to capture that in such a short space of time, but I'll certainly be painfully aware of it when I'm gigging. However, I think maybe the trip to Canton will be just the fuel I need to go and do the gigs I need to in Texas(?)

It's now 7am... have I really been typing for that long? I hope it hasn't taken you that long to read it.

We haven't even spoke about April yet, when Joanne and I are going to tour the artwork from the Album with gigs in Belfast, Dublin, London and who knows where else...?  But I'll have to fill you in on that another time....

Right, I'm off for a cold shower, followed by a poached egg on toast washed down with a warm pint of Guinness [that's what us Ulster folk do you know...]