New Album Sessions (25th & 26th January 2010)

And we’re off. Tuesday we pressed the big red record button and started laying down stuff for the new album. Tentative steps at first working on a little track called Ripples Rock My Boat. Really good day’s work but in some ways a tricky one to start with because we’re trying to get a mixture of lushness, playfullness and weight… not easily done. Very simple drum loop complimented by a great Eno-esque sound from Ed. Love the sound but the problem with those soundscape noises (think Heroes or in-their-pomp U2) is that they immediately give a track weight – very useful in some instances but when you’re trying to give it a lightness of touch or humour then it can be stifling. Trouble is it sounds so damn good. I think the answer lies in backing vocals (again as Eno says “I’m starting to think that all the world’s problems could be solved with either oyster sauce or backing vocals.”). And a great vocal/lyric. I’ll get the notebook out.

Rewind to Monday – spent the day going through tracks we have so far. Some great stuff. I won’t lie I was worried about this album. Through the making of Architect we had a real sense of being a gang because we’d been together through the 10 years of Four Day Hombre and spent so much of our lives with each other, things didn’t need to be spoken or expressed sometimes for us to know what was going on or where we were going. Same with any long relationship. Jase only left in October so I didn’t know if we’d be able to get that feel so soon. It’s different for sure but it’s refreshing and seems to be working a treat so far. There’s still a swagger and I hope maybe a lightness of touch that’s so hard to get. So far there are at least 3 killer tracks and that’s all you need to base an album on!

Other stuff…

Lovely email from Tom Robinson asking which song we’d like played on his show.

Booking dates for a tour in April – hope we might fit in some living room gigs as well – anyone fancy it?

And Ed is turning (back) into Rick Wakeman

I’m off to read Paul Morley’s interview with Brian Eno

Simon