Wednesday, 26 August 2009

Well folks...long time no speak!

I've mainly been locked away in studio land.  Someone pointed out that I haven't blogged in over a month...has it really been that long? I guess so...

I'm not at all surprised, I must say.  I've been pretty consumed with writing for the last while; mainly new material for the record with David Holmes.  I spent just under a week at his place at the beginning of the month and recorded about 3 or 4 new tracks which are sounding great.

Aside from that I'm still writing songs for this Soul project with The Roots.  It's funny but I always seem to work better when I put myself under stress.  I go through modes.  I'll be feeling over stretched and start to dry up, then I take on another project and somehow that makes everything flow.  I think it makes me a bit of a nightmare to be around, but it gets the songs out so maybe it's alright(?)...who knows.

Tori Amos has just asked me to go on tour with her throughout Europe (dates here) which is great! Although, it does mean that in the middle of all this concentrated writing I'm gonna be on the road non stop for just over 4 weeks.  We have a couple of days off here and there, but on those days we'll (me and Roger the Tour Mole/Tour Manager) be doing 10 hour drives so it doesn't really constitute a day off.  Not that I'm complaining you understand...just is what it is.  Going to a lot of places I've never been before like Rome, Milan, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland etc

Had a long conversation with the Tour Mole last night about logistics. It never ceases to surprise me, the issues he comes up with.  Here I am thinking this is all gonna be great, we're gonna get to see all these new cultures and he's reminding me that we won't have time to stop and do laundry so we have to think of a solution.... rock 'n' roll eh!  Living the dream baby, living the dream.

Looks like a friend of mine might buy Sunny (my VW camper) from me at some stage soon.  Took some pictures for him today and as I was sending them off, I was looking at them thinking 'why am I selling this again'? ... Truth is, I'm never about long enough to really enjoy it so it seems pointless having it MOT'd, taxed and insured to just sit at the door when someone else could have it and getting use out of it.... I'll miss it though.

We're going camping in it this weekend, a final fling if you will.  Going to a festival in Cheltenham called Greenbelt.  I actually have a couple of gigs there, that I got offered last minute.  Some good artists gonna be there too: Athlete, Royksopp, Duke Special and Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip to name a few...should be good!

Played at Edinburgh Fringe the last week (I think?) and Ryan, a friend of mine showed up with a Foy mask...looks completely surreal!

oooops...can't upload photos... I'll get it sorted and show you next time... in about a month or so.............calm down calm down, it was just a gag...soon, I promise...soon...f