Good News

Life takes some strange twists and turns. I feel like the sun is shining on me right now. As some people have already heard, last night I was able to put the finishing signature on a new record deal. Epitaph Records will be releasing both Love Ire & Song and any future releases in the world outside the UK.

Anyone with even a passing knowledge of punk rock will have some inkling of how fucking awesome this is. For many years (and this is pre-myspace) the Epitaph logo was a badge of quality that meant I would buy the record, regardless of what it was. In so doing I got into almost all my favourite punk bands. They're still one of the best labels in the world, and they're independent to boot. It's also really important to me that they've accommodated me staying with Xtra Mile in the UK - those guys are my family, and there's no way I was going to jump ship.

So yeah, this is a new beginning for me, internationally speaking. I'm in a good mood. Thanks are due to Charlie, Tony, Carolina and everyone at Epitaph, and all the people who've been supporting me and what I do for the past few years. Big love. I feel like Gwyneth Paltrow at the Oscars all of a sudden. I'll shut up.

I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight

I had a weird day yesterday. A family funeral was followed by the extremely bizarre (yet awesome) Jonny Awsum show, and finished up with an altercation outside a nightclub. I know, I know, my own fault for trying to get into Bacchus in Kingston (nothing else was open), but yeah, they're cunts, avoid at all costs.

The good people at Radio 1 have put up a cool couple of video interviews I did with my good friend Mike Davies when I was in Los Angeles last month. They can be found on their website here. Was I drunk after the Viper Room show? Yes I was.

I'm trying to get in touch with a guy called Callum. He keeps mailing me but I can't mail him back because o his privacy settings. I'd usually avoid posting this kind of thing publicly, but given that he seems to think I'm an arsehole for not replying, it's starting to get on my nerves. If anyone knows this guy and has a way of contacting him, can you ask him to email me? Thanks.

As some people have already found out, there's a plan afoot at the moment to re-release the first Million Dead album, "A Song To Ruin", sometime before the end of this year, with the fabled live DVD that never was. The guys at Xtra Mile have decided it's time, and some legal disputes have been cleared up to everyone's satisfaction, so it looks like this is actually going to happen. I don't have a date yet. I'm pretty happy about this - that record is totally out of print, and personally I prefer it (marginally) to "Harmony No Harmony". I mention this now because I'm interested in anyone who has any photos of MD tattoos. In particular I'm trying to get hold of Simon from Sevenoaks, who had a great MD tattoo on his back. Drop me a line if you can help.

Finally, I'm confirmed to play at the difficult-to-spell Pitka Kuuma Kesa Festival in Helsinki on June 27th. At last, I'm going to Finland.

Steady Hands Forget To Remember

Propagandhi was boss. So good to be reminded why I fell in love with punk rock, and how great it can be when it's done well, or, in this case, to perfection. I was down in the moshpit with Ben (Million Dead) dancing like it was 1998. I feel stiff and sore like an old man today, but hey, that's suffering for your art (what?).

Tickets for the Cheltenham Town Hall show on 23rd July will go live onsale from this link tomorrow morning. They've been onsale through the 2000 Trees website for a week and a quarter of them have gone, so get shopping! I'm also going to be doing my smallest UK show this year the next day at the Queen's Hotel in Weymouth. Tickets for that are available from here.

In other news, I'm exhausted. The new songs are squatting in my mind like a particularly tenacious bunch of hippies, keeping me awake at all hours with suggestions, quibbles, alterations, and whether or not THAT stop should be there or not. Gah! All feeling good though, we've essentially finished learning the songs now and are moving into military drill territory, where we just play them over and over until we can't play em no more. My band fucking love me.

Blog Machine

Wowzers, I'm getting into the swing of this blog thing, it's almost worth checking back daily or something, haha. I write from Oxford, week 2 of rehearsals for the album kicked off today and we're back at the grindstone. It's a hugely self-confirming atmosphere - we all start feeling like real, pro musicians when we take a 20 minute break for Nigel and Matt to discuss the cadences of a keyboard run, or when we piece together a four-part harmony, or argue over blue notes in a bassline. It's also exhausting concentrating on everything all the time for 8 hours a day, and I'm glad that we decided to do 3-4 days a week rather than go at it constantly. Breathing space is a good idea. Anyway, as of today, we have Pass It Along and Poetry Of The Deed added to the "done" pile. Should have everything down by the end of this week, and then we can start drilling them until we're tight as a gnat's arse.

I have just been confirmed for the lineup on Y-Not Festival. It's a great festival to be part of whatever the case (this is my 3rd year there), but I requested to play especially this year because it's also a sister festival for 2000 Trees. Hopefully some people who have bought the joint tickets will catch a set after all. It'll be solo as the band are on holiday (not together..) but it'll be a blast nonetheless.

Propagandhi on Sunday, oh yes...

Setting Things Straight

I return from the wilds of Birmingham, where I have been availing myself of the talents of Mr Matt Hunt, tattooist extraordinaire. I got a Hans Holbein Jr woodcut done on my right arm to match the Nambucca Rooster on my left. Pics when it's not covered in ink and blood, haha. Also, Matt is awesome, and so is his shop - check it out.

In continuing discussions, kicked off by the 2000 Trees / Offspring thing, some points have been raised. Some of my friends have been telling me to leave off getting involved in this discussion, but it's important to me and I don't want to come across as aloof or not bothered. Anyways. The first thing is, people have been making comments about what I "represent", and in some cases about feeling let down by my recent decision. In the first instance, I'm uncomfortable about "representing" anything to anyone - I do this because I want to make music and share it. The rest is trimmings. Secondly, if I am to represent anything, I'd like to be thought of as an honest, hardworking and humble musician, nothing more and nothing less. Within that I do my best to play as much as I can for as many people as possible, to be totally accessible to anyone who wants to talk to me (I note that none of the haters have actually emailed me), and to do this in such a way as I'll be able to keep doing this and even be able to pay my rent too. I feel uncomfortable when people project much more than that onto me (though I recognize it often comes with the territory), and I'd respectfully ask that people respect me and my choices.

That then brings us onto the other thing I want to talk about - politics. There's been some discussion of my politics over the years, and more intensely recently. I don't actually want to go into a massive exposition here - it's actually no one else's business and I can't be bothered - but some ground points serve to be made. Most of all, I am not, nor have ever, ever been, a socialist. When I was younger, say, in the first half of Million Dead's existence as a band, I was a pretty convinced left-anarchist. Those days are long, long gone - the very first song most people heard by MD ("Breaking the Back") was about my disillusion with that scene (and the second, "I Am The Party", was about how my personal politics are irrelevant anyway). Nevertheless, there was some political and social commentary in that band, but I'd characterize it as left libertarian. There's an important difference.

In the time since then, my ideas have shifted - as most people's do between the ages of 19 and 27. A little more experience of real life has changed the way I try to find solutions to what I see as the essential problem - people's capacity to be horrible fucks to each other, whether as organized government or in the form of large monopolistic corporations. In the past I guess I thought that boycotts and demonstrations might "smash the system" and then we could all live happily ever after. I don't believe that any more. I started having to pay taxes, rent and so on, and stopped only hanging out with other middle class anarchists. My essential libertarianism is more in the middle ground now.

I suppose it's an easy assumption in some ways - I have songs with words like "anarchists" and "Thatcher" in their titles, and I sing angrily whilst playing acoustic guitar. That makes some people immediately I'm a leftist / socialist or whatever. Well, here it is. I'm not. Sorry. And most importantly of all, so fucking what? I'm a musician, making music. When I creatively address politics, I sing about being a normal person trying to find their way in the world. Please don't try and make me a flagpole for whatever it is you want to salute. I will make the choices I feel are right for me, and it is not now nor ever will be anyone else's business. If you find that disappointing, it's your problem I'm afraid, not mine.

Sorry if this comes across as harsh or petulant, I'm just trying to be thorough. It's also a disconcerting experience, seeing vast assumptions being made about you and your personality on the internet by total strangers. Also, thanks to the people who have commented / mailed being nice about things. Hugely appreciated.

In final news - an interview here, and tickets for the Cheltenham show here. More festival news (for the UK) in my next update.

The Rehearsal Diaries

So, I'm slowly emerging, battered but not defeated, from the fall-out from the post below. Most people have been really cool about the news and the decision, for which I'm grateful. Obviously, a lot of people are disappointed, and I'm worried about apologizing again in case it starts to sound worn out, but hey, I'm sorry. Something I didn't stress enough before is that 2000 Trees is a fantastic festival, and definitely worth attending with or without me. Some people have been pretty harsh about it, which does keep me up at night a little. I hope no one feels like I'm "ditching" the UK or whatever. It's not like that at all - a quick look at my gig list hopefully proves that. I guess I'd just urge those who are angry to put themselves in my shoes on this one.

In other news, we just finished day 2 in the rehearsal studio. I'm going to post some photos up as soon as I've figured out how to get them off my swanky new iPhone. Things are progressing really well, I've been pleasantly reminded how damn good the guys in my band are, and my confidence about the album is currently soaring. We have 8 songs down now - The Road, Live Fast Die Old, Sunday Nights, The Fastest Way Back Home, Dan's Song, Journey Of The Magi, Richard Divine, and Try This At Home. Matt's been playing around with crazy shit like Mellotrons and so on. The mandocaster made its first appearance today. I'm planning on decorating Tarrant's little corner with emo posters, and maybe the headline from today's Sport (which was too good to miss) - "Top Tennis Babe Has A Willy" (seriously). Good times.

Finally, my friend Sean now has a blog, and it's worth its internet weight in gold. Check it out.

Please, PLEASE Don't Kill Me

Heavy lies the head that wears the crown, innit. The last few days have seen me quietly agonizing over some really painful decisions. Well, I say painful; in the end, having to chose between two great options isn't exactly excruciating, but... well, you'll see what I mean. In a frankly overwhelmingly awesome development, I have been asked to open for The Offspring on their summer run of arena shows in the USA. "Smash" was one of the first punk records I ever bought, and I'm blown away to even be considered for the shows. From a "career" point of view, it's also great - playing to many thousands of people a night across the States is an opportunity not to be sniffed at.

Now, the bad news. The dates clash with some pre-existing commitments, in the way of UK festivals. Principally, both T In The Park and 2000 Trees Festival fall under the shadow of this tour. Thus I have a dilemma, and have been agonizing.

In the end, I've decided to go with the Offspring shows - it's simply too good an opportunity to pass up. However, I'm painfully aware of how this is going to piss people off. I was super-excited to be playing T this year, and 2000 Trees is, as many know, a festival very close to my heart. I haven't missed a year yet, and it's going to suck not being there. So, to start off with, I'll openly apologize to anyone planning on seeing me at either festival.

Apologies, empty words, only get me so far. So, we've set about trying to make amends in the way of shows. Firstly, I'll be playing a show later in the summer in Scotland. Secondly, I'll be playing a show at Cheltenham Town Hall on the 23rd July, let's call it "2000 Trees The Aftermath". This show will be £5 in (the cheapest we could make it), and will feature a full band set, as well as Mr Jim Lockey in support. It's being co-promoted by the 2000 Trees team and tickets will be exclusively available through the 2000 Trees website from Tuesday 14th April. I know these shows won't be possible for everyone at the festival to make, and for that I can only say sorry. I hope people understand the position I'm in, and my reasons for making this choice.

The Offspring dates can be found on the gigs page. Thanks everyone.

Fare Thee Well Ol' Yanksville

The San Francisco show, I'm pleased to say, revised my opinions of the town. Fickle of me, I know, but it was gratifying to play a great show to a packed bar. With heavy heart I bade farewell to Steve Soto and the band (thanks again to him, Mike, Veikko, Mike and James) and got into the Look Mexico Mobile. It's an old bus that's been converted to run on vegetable oil, which makes touring cheap and makes everyone smell of chips. It trundles along happily and comfortably with a double bed in the back and room for everyone to sleep. So, after a night in a communist squat in SF (after which I ran headlong into the open arms of McDonalds) we drove north.

While not quite as bad as west Texas, northern California certainly does go on a bit, beautiful as it is. Our aim to get to Portland in one day (a day off) eventually came off, but some Olympic-standard faffing on our part, plus some hills (bad news for the bus) meant we got into Jordan's house at 4am. Portland is great, very bohemian, with weather to make an Englishman feel at home. A cool-as-hell show ensued (complete with old friend Josh English), after which we descended into debaunchery which is best left undocumented.

Portland to Nampa, Idaho, was a long slog through dramatic scenery which reminded me of Scotland, alongside a massive river. I failed, alas, to see the state of Idaho in daylight; we arrived late, played a small but cool show, and then set out for Utah. Our original plan was to drive a few hours and then stop at a motel, but we hit a blizzard in the mountains. A couple of hours of extremely tense, fraught driving, with visibility at zero, jack-knifed trucks and more, left everyone too wired to sleep, so we drove on through to Salt Lake City, arriving at 8am.

Grubby and tired, we had two shows in Salt Lake City (SLC). It's virtually impossible to get drunk in this town, as the beer is mandated at 2% and the liquor is obviously watered down. The first show was great fun, the second not so great. We met mormons who told us they'd be alcoholics if they had one sip of a beer (?! God help me), so we drank their share for them. Annoyingly sober, we decided on a hotel, as another overnight drive might have killed us.

Our final day took us on yet another mammoth drive through Wyoming to Denver, Colorado. This country is bafflingly huge. I have yet to think of a good reason for Wyoming to exist - the emptiest landscape I've ever driven through, hundreds of miles of nothingness, which has a kind of survivalist appeal for a short while but soon becomes relentlessly depressing. It was with some relief that we finally pulled into the mile-high city, where, in a mirror image of SLC, it's very easy to get wasted because of the altitude. After a careful beer with Virgil from Suburban Home Records, we played a final intimate little show at the Marquis Theatre (with support from Chad from Drag The River). Another sad farewell to the LM crew, and I was in the car with my sister, off to spend some family time in Longmont.

So, there it is, my US travels. Thanks again to Look Mexico, Steve Soto / Twisted Hearts, Caitlin, and everyone we met / stayed with / rocked along the way. Good times, and I should be back for a tour in September, all being well. Now to the UK, to start working hard on album 3...