What are we up to?

We’ve done a photo-interview on ANegativeNarrative.com – fantastic idea: 10 questions which you respond to with photographs. Really makes you think. See the results here! They also put a lovely bit of text on there which made me smile: “For years Hope & Social (previously known as Four Day Hombre) have been sniffing inquisitively around…

I’ve been meaning to re-blog this for a while – Ben Denison’s blog about Jason’s last gig at The Well at the end of October. It was a fantastic night and the end of a huge chapter in the band’s life and his words really sum it all up. Thanks Ben… Thank you for the…

It’s taken me 2 weeks to finally get to write this blog – the only excuse being the ever-pressing lack of time. I’m looking back now on the night of the 17th October and our Be the Architect gig – a one off special event in the Crypt, the place where we wrote and recorded…

UPDATE Beautiful pics up by Phil Barber of The Sound Gallery up here: Original Post below: Great gig tonight at Oporto – it was sort of sonically chaotic but all the stops and pulls and pushes and breaths came in the right place. It moved. Great crowd for a Monday, in fact for any night…

Friday is 1st gig day and we’re headlining the “Emerging Talent” Queen’s Head stage sessions. 20 minutes of heaven. Sounds amazing on stage and we’re quite overcome. The good weather threatened the pulling in of people to the tent, but immediately we start, the tent fills to around 800. Awesome response and 20 minutes of…

Just thought I’d do a quick catch up having been a bit quiet for the last couple of weeks. Ed and Rich have been working with another band down the Crypt (not sure I’m allowed to say who am I? Don’t know why not? Help?) (Rich: “yeah you can say – it’s that there Sky…

Good day today – brass recording. James Hamilton (who did all the brass parts for architect) has had one song Animals Dine with me for 2 days and has written a full on orchestral brass part for it. More parts than players but we have several runs at it. The sound is just astounding. BD…

Difficult day ahead. Last night’s track needs finishing – just a few bits. And then if we are to devote Friday to recording brass and still hit our 5 song target we need to do 2 today. I managed to get some lyrics finished last night on the way home and have the basis for…

Incredibly slow start. If you’re working these sort of hours I always find the third day is when it hits you – after that you can keep going for weeks. Or until you collapse. Trying to work around a song we’ve got a very rough idea for – it’s another 6/8 thing but fairly dark.…

Working on a track called Where the Wildness Lives today. It’s been kicking around for ages and this seems an appropriate project to air it. Piano based again – first line “I never believed in the concept of evil” – hopefully gives you some idea of what it’s like. Kick around a format sitting around…

So we’re in the studio to write and record some songs for a new show by the theatre company I work with, imitating the dog. The show is called Tales from the Bar of Lost Souls and is going to be made in Greece in September and will tour in the UK in 2010. Ed,…

Another brief blog – leaving for a weekend of living room gigs ahead. Classic Hope and Social planning – one in Edinburgh, one in London, one in Yorkshire. We’ve hired a car because none of us own one which is reliable enough. Should be great fun though. We’re armed with kazoos and sleeping bags. So…

Very brief blog this one – rushing to do a million tasks before going back down the Crypt but if I don’t keep this up it’ll fall by the wayside. Bit of a brown day – spent most of the day on a slightly trite waltz thing which references Guns ‘n’ Roses songs. Bit odd.…

Late night Thursday (gig in Leeds) and early start Friday down the crypt because I’ve got to go early. We’re in by 10:30 armed with breakfast and lunch for three for under £10 from Posh Slice. It’s usually impossible to make any kind of tolerable sound before midday but we’ve decided to dedicate the day…

Ed and Rich are late turning up so I set about the pump organ. We sort of inherited it via James (H&S trumpet player/brass arranger) and I’ve not had chance to properly road test it yet. What a thing it is. I always find that if I’ve been playing a certain instrument for a long…

Back in to the studio today after a week away – Ed on holiday, Rich working with another band in there and me working on a show called Pedestrian in Bristol. Slow start in terms of music after I suggest that the crypt has just got too messy even for us to work in. Rich…

A response to Mr Trent Reznor’s blabberings (pasted first) from http://drownedinsound.com/news/4137294-trent-reznor-offers-sensible-advice-to-new-bands-win-nin-tickets “Pay-what-you-want model This is where you offer tracks or albums for a user-determined price. I hate this concept, and here’s why. Some have argued that giving music away free devalues music. I disagree. Asking people what they think music is worth devalues music. Don’t…

Just done a Living Room gig at Julia’s in Huddersfield. Lovely. Fans from pretty much the start of it all they’ve been through good times and bad times with us and are such good friends now. Julia’s few words before we played were incredibly touching and, as with so many people who support us and…

Earlier start because of earlier finish. (Now on a train to London for a meeting tonight). We were in for 11ish (always ish with us, well me) and playing straight away. Worked on a fairground/Bad Seeds thing about death or murder or Satan or something… not sure… a little bit reminiscent of These Walls but…

I’ll be quick because I’m missing a program about Rufus Wainwright – and as I’ll miss his opera next Sunday, probably through a hangover, I may as well glean what I can from the TV. So today – started around midday after another morning of frantic emailing, catching up, image creation (with slightly disappointing woodcut…

Hectic morning getting life organised (I’m in the middle of two ITD projects, one of which is being run in Greece, as well as a new project starting next week so mails-a-plenty in the mornings) before heading over to the crypt for 12:30. Usual first day in the studio – setting up, tidying up, putting…

Exciting times. We’re back in the studio today to start some new material. No idea what it’s going to lead to at this point but here we go. I’m going to attempt to blog every day in some sort of diary form whilst we’re in there. I may well fail to do it but I’ll…

It lived up to all expectations of how good it would be, how moved we’d feel to be playing it finally after 10 years of wanting to be there. All the gigs were good but the 45 minutes on the Acoustic Stage and the hour leading up to it were amongst some of the best…

I’ve got 5 minutes to write this before I have to dash but just wanted to say something in the hiatus between tour and Glastonbury. It’s been a really special run of shows – partly because people can finally hear the album but mainly because of the atmosphere created by everyone in the room. I…

At last our album is out in the world (get it now!), free to roam wherever it wants to, free to make the same mistakes as we have and find its own little place to settle down. It seems like an age since we sat down in the Grove pub in Leeds to discuss what…

On the train to Exeter from London now after a great night at the JD set last night. Usual amount of self control means that the tiredness dog is stalking the corridors… Short but thoroughly enjoyable set in a wonderful venue (first time at the Luminaire) and met some interesting/amusing/mental/posh people – thanks to all…

Yes, yes, yes… it’s late, I’m sorry. I’ve taken on too much and dropped the ball – I guess being in a casino at 5am had something to do with my tardiness but legally I’m allowed until midnight to get today’s gift online so here it is… and what a corker. It’s Gone – we…

Alright, alright… better late than never, sorry it’s taken until 11:59 to get this week’s download up. Some lovely photos to use as desktop images. A real treat next week, fingers crossed. Right must dash… my life has been take over by imitating the dog’s Kellerman project…it’s a strange life…

Tired tired but eager to please, I’ll send this message with some ease… to brighten up your Wednesday morn I’ll stifle yet another yawn and drop through cyberspace a gift, a gem we’ve found whilst we did sift the over-flowing file store of JPEGs, MPEGs, Docs galore… 5 live tracks and interview, from holy rooms…

We did the ELFM (http://www.elfm.co.uk/) session on Saturday afternoon and it was an absolute joy… I think the audio will be up on the site on Tuesday and we’re trying to get hold of the mp3 to give away some day soon. Broadcasting for 24 hours from an old Methodist chapel in Seacroft the space…