The Long Road to Peterborough
I'm currently in the back of Central Station in Wrexham, towards the end of the UK Softcore Tour. It's been a blast so far, pretty draining considering we've had no days off (15 shows in) and we (well, me n Jacob) have been dutifully drinking whatever gets put in front of us, like the big grown ups we really are. The shows have been great though, London and Leeds in particular stick in the mind. Good crowds, good times. We ran out of our first run of softcore tour CDs, and are now down to making them the old fashioned way - burning CDRs in the back of the van.
After the end of this I have a run of more UK shows (including a jaunt across the Irish Sea), and then I'm into the studio for the first session for album #2 (working title: "Love, Ire & Song"). This is being interrupted by a stateside jaunt, mostly on the East Coast but possibly over to LA and San Fransisco for some shows too, we'll see. Then back to the UK and back to the studio (a farm near Winchester) to finish the deed. I'm really excited about the new songs, and I'm beavering away on production and arrangement ideas. I know absolutely everyone says this, but I'm super excited about the next album; I think it's going to be much better than "Sleep.." in every way. You may or may not agree, and I may or may not succeed, but at the time of writing signs are good.
This tour has generated two interesting pieces of correspondence. First up was a correction from a zoologist (a first for me) on the subject of a drunken rant of mine about pandas (long story). Safe to say I'm now corrected on the issue, haha... The second was someone calling me a cunt for saying (from stage) that it's not as impossible as it often seems (and as we're often told) to do something vocational with your life. I said that it takes a lot of courage and hard work, but it's not the reserve of supermen / "artists" or whatever. The great myth of the music industry is that success / survival is down to some touch of god or something. It fucking isn't: it's down to hard graft and the bravery to carry on through the hard times.
Why any of this makes me a fuckhead I'm not entirely sure; maybe, reading between the lines, my erstwhile correspondent was ruffled because I pointed out that she's pissing her life away in Woolworths when she could do so much more, if she had the guts. Who knows?
After the end of this I have a run of more UK shows (including a jaunt across the Irish Sea), and then I'm into the studio for the first session for album #2 (working title: "Love, Ire & Song"). This is being interrupted by a stateside jaunt, mostly on the East Coast but possibly over to LA and San Fransisco for some shows too, we'll see. Then back to the UK and back to the studio (a farm near Winchester) to finish the deed. I'm really excited about the new songs, and I'm beavering away on production and arrangement ideas. I know absolutely everyone says this, but I'm super excited about the next album; I think it's going to be much better than "Sleep.." in every way. You may or may not agree, and I may or may not succeed, but at the time of writing signs are good.
This tour has generated two interesting pieces of correspondence. First up was a correction from a zoologist (a first for me) on the subject of a drunken rant of mine about pandas (long story). Safe to say I'm now corrected on the issue, haha... The second was someone calling me a cunt for saying (from stage) that it's not as impossible as it often seems (and as we're often told) to do something vocational with your life. I said that it takes a lot of courage and hard work, but it's not the reserve of supermen / "artists" or whatever. The great myth of the music industry is that success / survival is down to some touch of god or something. It fucking isn't: it's down to hard graft and the bravery to carry on through the hard times.
Why any of this makes me a fuckhead I'm not entirely sure; maybe, reading between the lines, my erstwhile correspondent was ruffled because I pointed out that she's pissing her life away in Woolworths when she could do so much more, if she had the guts. Who knows?
posted by frank at 5:50 PM
6 Comments:
RE: making a career of music
I think a lot of this has to do with the bad times - you have to have the self-belief, will to succeed and a modicum of talent - to weather them, which all points to the traditional suffering of "an artist"
Or - its easier to believe that a good protestant work ethic is the only requirement when you have some song writing skill and a reasonable voice in the first place.
Share the details of the zoologist please, you stinking panda hater.
The zoologist wanted me to know that conservationist groups only use pandas for advertizing and that actually very little of their cash goes to pandas.
Bar steward - hard work and artistic proficiency are not completely separate. Of course you need some basic aptitude in the first place, but as they say, practice makes perfect. But anyways, what I'm saying doesn't just apply to music - I don't think everyone should be a musician. It's more about doing something vocational, rather than putting your life on hold for most of your life in the interests of not dying. If you see what I mean.
Cease the day, procrastination is the thief of time?
you should of set a panda on her. problem solved.
Heard you play with some girl now? Is that true? What's up with that?
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