do not mistake silence for slacking.
sure enough, as my posts on here decay slightly, business picks up somewhat. we're now in the final stages of finishing the album, i have just four days now to finish all the parts before final mixing, and then it's off to be mastered.
so the terror has set in somewhat.
it's a weird kind of fear, the Pre-Album Shakes, the kind which paralyses you with love and expectation at the same time. and in the end, i personally have spent so long around it i can't even see it (or objectively hear it) anymore.
and so, i have deployed the Focus Grope, because if i can't use my ears, i may as well borrow some people's who are familiar enough with everything without having it steamroller them into a corner and beat them into a bloody surrender. not that that's what has happened to me. indeed if i've learned anything recently it's that 8-tracks simply aren't that versatile.
and so, i sit with baited breath as the reactions roll in, my small troop/troupe of wunderkids tasked with pointing out a) a bad part, b) the good parts and c) any suggestions about the tracklisting. i have agonised over this bastard, and as i mulled over the possibilities i'm faced with the indeterminate horror of Having To Wait And See How It Goes When You Hear The Final Mixes.
so yes. trusty focus grope, they have so far done me proud, minus the seven or so people who have remained silent on it, some of them surprisingly so given that they include both of my other limbs of Broken Tail and also Jim at Josaka, and uber-fans Jacqui and Kev. so five of the people who should have been chomping at the bit to hear this have so far delivered a no-vote with a few days to go. if i were you i'd run for the fucking hills now (though i will excuse Paul Tail on account of his dodgy internet and incredible apathy at life, and Jim because he said he'd get back to me on it, which is like a virtual note from your mum).
and salvation has arrived in that i've found someone to master the album, but i shan't speak his name lest he hears the album and pulls out. suffice to say, it's a massive relief to get someone at the helm who could have steered the titanic alright.
suffice to say.
actually, suffice to say most of this post is tongue-in-cheek, that i'm Pretty Happy with how things are going and, at the same time, i'm really fucking hungry. but that's just because i haven't eaten for a few hours.
and away i go.
x
Monday, 12 April 2010
Tuesday, 16 March 2010
falling in love again..
.. and this time it's with Cheltenham.
sometimes i still wake up in a cold sweat thinking of last october, when i had to cancel the hallowe'en show in Cheltenham due to an unfortunately intense bout of flu, missing one of Sam Isaac's last shows in the process. thankfully, they're forgiving folks, and i'm heading back there to the Frog and Fiddle this Sunday (21st), alongside Oxygen Thief, Jim Lockey and many more. i'll be on early evening (6.30ish), but things kick off as early as 4.30 in an all-dayer manner.
other gigs!: Reading with Chris T-T/2000 Trees
next wednesday (24th), i'll return to the Oakford in Reading alongside Chris T-T, who this week celebrates his album launch, Love Is Not Rescue, which i make his seventh studio outing. mad. pick it up from Banquet Records for just £7.99. The gig itself, meanwhile, is free.
http://www.banquetrecords.com/cttlove;jsessionid=41820C908C6BFED515EBBCE8A3DD0D1E
not only that, i'm also confirmed for this year's 2000 Trees festival just outside of Cheltenham, which runs from Friday 16th to Sunday 18th July. i'll be on early on Friday, and if last year's Thursday night performance is anything to go by, it's going to be a blast. the ticket link is below, and also confirmed for the weekend are the aforementioned Lockey & Thief, plus Chris T-T, Frank Turner, Metronomy, 65daysofstatic, And So I Watch You From Afar, Subways, Bombay Bicycle Club and Xtra Mile's Crazy Arm, plus more TBC.
http://www.twothousandtreesfestival.co.uk/tickets.php
Oh, and the Dawn Chorus too, whose latest single was all over 6Music and is ace. which brings me to..
choose your own adventure: only you can save 6music
yes. i'm hopping on the bandwagon a little late, but there's still time to save BBC's best digital music station, 6Music. if you have something to say about the axeing of what is essentially a good starting point for many new bands around the country (as well as being the only station prepared to give Steve Lamacq more than an hour a week), then please do email through to trust.enquiries@bbc.co.uk and let them know why.
plus: a thanks
i received word a few weeks ago that 2008's mini-album This Is Not What You Had Planned recently sold-out. Thanks to all of you who continue to inexplicably pick it up even eighteen months on. it should be back in stock shortly, if you're waiting. i think that's it.
keep safe.
ben.
sometimes i still wake up in a cold sweat thinking of last october, when i had to cancel the hallowe'en show in Cheltenham due to an unfortunately intense bout of flu, missing one of Sam Isaac's last shows in the process. thankfully, they're forgiving folks, and i'm heading back there to the Frog and Fiddle this Sunday (21st), alongside Oxygen Thief, Jim Lockey and many more. i'll be on early evening (6.30ish), but things kick off as early as 4.30 in an all-dayer manner.
other gigs!: Reading with Chris T-T/2000 Trees
next wednesday (24th), i'll return to the Oakford in Reading alongside Chris T-T, who this week celebrates his album launch, Love Is Not Rescue, which i make his seventh studio outing. mad. pick it up from Banquet Records for just £7.99. The gig itself, meanwhile, is free.
http://www.banquetrecords.com/cttlove;jsessionid=41820C908C6BFED515EBBCE8A3DD0D1E
not only that, i'm also confirmed for this year's 2000 Trees festival just outside of Cheltenham, which runs from Friday 16th to Sunday 18th July. i'll be on early on Friday, and if last year's Thursday night performance is anything to go by, it's going to be a blast. the ticket link is below, and also confirmed for the weekend are the aforementioned Lockey & Thief, plus Chris T-T, Frank Turner, Metronomy, 65daysofstatic, And So I Watch You From Afar, Subways, Bombay Bicycle Club and Xtra Mile's Crazy Arm, plus more TBC.
http://www.twothousandtreesfestival.co.uk/tickets.php
Oh, and the Dawn Chorus too, whose latest single was all over 6Music and is ace. which brings me to..
choose your own adventure: only you can save 6music
yes. i'm hopping on the bandwagon a little late, but there's still time to save BBC's best digital music station, 6Music. if you have something to say about the axeing of what is essentially a good starting point for many new bands around the country (as well as being the only station prepared to give Steve Lamacq more than an hour a week), then please do email through to trust.enquiries@bbc.co.uk and let them know why.
plus: a thanks
i received word a few weeks ago that 2008's mini-album This Is Not What You Had Planned recently sold-out. Thanks to all of you who continue to inexplicably pick it up even eighteen months on. it should be back in stock shortly, if you're waiting. i think that's it.
keep safe.
ben.
Sunday, 7 March 2010
don't hold your breath
so you might have noticed there was no free mp3 in the utter write-off month that February became.
well, notice no more, it's here:
Hold Your Breath (2010 version)
just over three years on from the original's initial release, this is an updated version, originally recorded as a b-side before i realised exactly how many b-sides i have recorded now. so here it is, all yours, to relive days gone by.
so i guess that takes care of February.. we are in March though, so it's time to offer something else: an alternative version to the upcoming album version of 'Toil'. three versions of this song exist - the full band version from the upcoming album, the version that starts as a cover of Jay Z's '99 Problems' which will likely never see the light of die for obvious copyright reasons, and this acoustic-only version. it's a little more personal than the 'proper' one, if decidedly no-frills, but it's worth a free punt nonetheless..
Toil (alternative version)
b. x
Friday, 26 February 2010
february is cancelled
it's taken nearly four weeks to settle down, and i haven't even settled down.
february was/is a blur of recording action, and tomorrow morning i'll be up with the birds (assuming birds get up at 8am) to head down to White House and mix a few more songs. by my calculations, there'll be just three left to finish by the end of tomorrow, and that's a great feeling. i can't wait to get this record out from under my feet and.. then who knows what i'll do? it all depends on how the record is received and how things pan out in 2010.
i've been confirmed for 2000 Trees on the Friday, the same day as Frank Turner is playing alongside a host of other excellent folk types, so there'll be at least one festival date this year even if you do all have to wait until July. i'm also now playing with Chris T-T at Reading's Oakford in March.
oh, and i finally took a holiday, off to Florida. i have a feeling i'll be seeing a lot more of it, although perhaps in the future i'll refrain from booking gigs on the same day i fly back to the UK. i slept for ten hours on a sofa bed in Brighton which has apparently never been described as 'comfortable', although i swear it was the best night's sleep i've ever had, and ten hours counts as two nights' sleep for me these days. thanks to the lovely people of Stick In A Pot for extending their home to me.
fingers crossed for tomorrow.
x
february was/is a blur of recording action, and tomorrow morning i'll be up with the birds (assuming birds get up at 8am) to head down to White House and mix a few more songs. by my calculations, there'll be just three left to finish by the end of tomorrow, and that's a great feeling. i can't wait to get this record out from under my feet and.. then who knows what i'll do? it all depends on how the record is received and how things pan out in 2010.
i've been confirmed for 2000 Trees on the Friday, the same day as Frank Turner is playing alongside a host of other excellent folk types, so there'll be at least one festival date this year even if you do all have to wait until July. i'm also now playing with Chris T-T at Reading's Oakford in March.
oh, and i finally took a holiday, off to Florida. i have a feeling i'll be seeing a lot more of it, although perhaps in the future i'll refrain from booking gigs on the same day i fly back to the UK. i slept for ten hours on a sofa bed in Brighton which has apparently never been described as 'comfortable', although i swear it was the best night's sleep i've ever had, and ten hours counts as two nights' sleep for me these days. thanks to the lovely people of Stick In A Pot for extending their home to me.
fingers crossed for tomorrow.
x
Saturday, 30 January 2010
pre-divorce jitters
hello from amongst the boxes.
today, my five and a half year tenure at here at what was affectionately own to all - well, most.. ok, at least some - as Marwood HQ comes to a close, memories put into storage, their actual physical presence to be lost forever from the moment the door shuts for the final time.
i have had my best and worst times here, and i'd like to think the former outweighs the latter. i recorded This Is Not What You Had Planned almost in its entirety about twelve feet behind where i lay now, i wiped a tear from my cheek as i finished the final take of 'You Can Hold On Once' ten months later crouched on the floor to my left (i still can't believe, given it was only three tracks of mine, how problematic putting my part of Exclamation At Asterisk Hash together proved to be) and have spent most of the past fortnight cross-legged here, putting together bits of the album slowly. it's all done by the end of March - the dates are in the book. from then on: artwork, mastering, promotion, release, relax.
tomorrow evening i leave here for the final time, away from the intermittently-leaking bathroom ceiling, the paper-thin walls and the shitty boiler, over to a first floor rented room in the house of a friend of a friend. he is nice, the room is nice, the area is.. sketchy, but where around Reading isn't? the past few days were spent measuring the dimensions of all my important stuff, of the corresponding widths and depths of my new home to decide in advance which parts of my life must be given the boot. in fairness, most of it is coming with me by some miracle of feng shui. provided my measurements are right. did i mention i'm shit at it?
but in truth, i'd rather be staying. i hate leaving anywhere, and this is the first place i called mine since i left my parents' ten years ago. to go back to living in someone else's house feels like, and is, a step back, and i have made no secret that i am worse off now financially than when i was working in a supermarket at 16. but, these things must be done. i don't want to leave, but i have to leave. for the greater good, as Inspector Butterman would say.
to all who sailed in her.
x
today, my five and a half year tenure at here at what was affectionately own to all - well, most.. ok, at least some - as Marwood HQ comes to a close, memories put into storage, their actual physical presence to be lost forever from the moment the door shuts for the final time.
i have had my best and worst times here, and i'd like to think the former outweighs the latter. i recorded This Is Not What You Had Planned almost in its entirety about twelve feet behind where i lay now, i wiped a tear from my cheek as i finished the final take of 'You Can Hold On Once' ten months later crouched on the floor to my left (i still can't believe, given it was only three tracks of mine, how problematic putting my part of Exclamation At Asterisk Hash together proved to be) and have spent most of the past fortnight cross-legged here, putting together bits of the album slowly. it's all done by the end of March - the dates are in the book. from then on: artwork, mastering, promotion, release, relax.
tomorrow evening i leave here for the final time, away from the intermittently-leaking bathroom ceiling, the paper-thin walls and the shitty boiler, over to a first floor rented room in the house of a friend of a friend. he is nice, the room is nice, the area is.. sketchy, but where around Reading isn't? the past few days were spent measuring the dimensions of all my important stuff, of the corresponding widths and depths of my new home to decide in advance which parts of my life must be given the boot. in fairness, most of it is coming with me by some miracle of feng shui. provided my measurements are right. did i mention i'm shit at it?
but in truth, i'd rather be staying. i hate leaving anywhere, and this is the first place i called mine since i left my parents' ten years ago. to go back to living in someone else's house feels like, and is, a step back, and i have made no secret that i am worse off now financially than when i was working in a supermarket at 16. but, these things must be done. i don't want to leave, but i have to leave. for the greater good, as Inspector Butterman would say.
to all who sailed in her.
x
Wednesday, 20 January 2010
a midwinter picnic
just a quick one - this Sunday (24th) is the second Midwinter Picnic, organised by politically-charged super-songwriter Chris T-T, and i'm honoured to be invited to play.
running at West Hill Hall a few minutes walk from the station, it's a charity alldayer which is an organisation well worth your pennies. i think it's seated, i heard a rumour it's BYOB, and at £12 it's a touch more than your normal hard-earned, but for your money you not only get me and Chris, you also get The Singing Adams (ex-Broken Family Band, who i seem to miss more every day for some reason), Dry The River and Thomas White (of Electric Soft Parade & Brakes) amongst others.
the last clutch of tickets are here for your buying pleasure:
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/60152
xx
running at West Hill Hall a few minutes walk from the station, it's a charity alldayer which is an organisation well worth your pennies. i think it's seated, i heard a rumour it's BYOB, and at £12 it's a touch more than your normal hard-earned, but for your money you not only get me and Chris, you also get The Singing Adams (ex-Broken Family Band, who i seem to miss more every day for some reason), Dry The River and Thomas White (of Electric Soft Parade & Brakes) amongst others.
the last clutch of tickets are here for your buying pleasure:
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/60152
xx
Monday, 18 January 2010
so this is Christm.. oh, no, wait, it isn't anymore
heh. sorry. time gets away from you.
happy new year? it's far too late to bid a teary goodbye to 2009 (which turned out to be one of the greatest years in the history of human life, if you're me and/or my immediate life) so i'll just say: thanks to those who came along for the ride, particularly Barry (Oxygen-Thief), Jim (Lockey) and Frank (Turner), everyone who came out to the tour, faces both new and old, and anyone who made the special gigs that much more special, from the decade-closer at the Union Chapel, to the best rainy day ever at 2000 Trees in the summer.
but onwards, and upwards. the past few weeks have seen me neglect everything, ever, in my bid to track down a new place to live at the end of the month. i've found one, it's all on, and business can now resume. after five and a half years, i'll be sad to leave this place. not this place, where the walls are too thin and the heat escapes so readily it's impossible to heat, but the paths i walk every day, and that old guy who has eyes like a teddy bear.
still, the irons are in the fire, the wheels are slowly turning again.
a couple of points to note:
Evening Post's one to watch for 2010
the lovely Jenny at BBC Introducing took it upon herself at the turn of the year to write an article about how 2010 should be my year. it's good to have people fighting my corner without even the need to ask:
http://www.getwokingham.co.uk/entertainment/music/s/2063611_music_bens_looking_forward_to_2010
(yes, the link is from the Wokingham edition, but it's the only one i could find)
the Rising Sun Arts Centre gig on 26th Feb is now not on the 26th
but on Saturday the 20th. Tom Williams couldn't make the 26th after all, so the 20th will have to do.
tickets here: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/68510
hello, you.
x
happy new year? it's far too late to bid a teary goodbye to 2009 (which turned out to be one of the greatest years in the history of human life, if you're me and/or my immediate life) so i'll just say: thanks to those who came along for the ride, particularly Barry (Oxygen-Thief), Jim (Lockey) and Frank (Turner), everyone who came out to the tour, faces both new and old, and anyone who made the special gigs that much more special, from the decade-closer at the Union Chapel, to the best rainy day ever at 2000 Trees in the summer.
but onwards, and upwards. the past few weeks have seen me neglect everything, ever, in my bid to track down a new place to live at the end of the month. i've found one, it's all on, and business can now resume. after five and a half years, i'll be sad to leave this place. not this place, where the walls are too thin and the heat escapes so readily it's impossible to heat, but the paths i walk every day, and that old guy who has eyes like a teddy bear.
still, the irons are in the fire, the wheels are slowly turning again.
a couple of points to note:
Evening Post's one to watch for 2010
the lovely Jenny at BBC Introducing took it upon herself at the turn of the year to write an article about how 2010 should be my year. it's good to have people fighting my corner without even the need to ask:
http://www.getwokingham.co.uk/entertainment/music/s/2063611_music_bens_looking_forward_to_2010
(yes, the link is from the Wokingham edition, but it's the only one i could find)
the Rising Sun Arts Centre gig on 26th Feb is now not on the 26th
but on Saturday the 20th. Tom Williams couldn't make the 26th after all, so the 20th will have to do.
tickets here: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/68510
hello, you.
x
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