Thursday, September 22, 2005
My Space
It's official - I'm making an album! It is going to be called Hey, and it will rock your world.
But hang on. Let me bring you up to date.The two new tracks promised last time - Jammed and Time is the Simplest Thing - are now available to download from my new home on the net at www.myspace.com/davidsinclair. You can either go there direct or follow the link from my website, as before.
At the same location you will also find my greatest hit, Dusted & Rusted, together with another brand new song, Fajita Hell, an unusual and bloodcurdling tale of mass murder in a Mexican restaurant. This song, which was again recorded at the Stone Room with Gareth Parton at the controls, features George Andrew on bass and my son, Jack Sinclair, on drums.
It has been a busy summer. We hadn't even got Jammed and Time is the Simplest Thing mixed at the end of July, when Drew announced he was setting down his drumsticks and heading off on his motorbike for a grand tour of Europe. In the following weeks I got a succession of texts from the big man. One minute he was in Cinque Terra, telling me about Byron and Keats and the other great poets who hung out there; next thing he was high up in the Dolomites outside Corsair. That one came in while I was working at the Cambridge Folk Festival. We compared notes. Drew reckoned he was enjoying a 10/10 experience "for earth beauty". With the best will in the world, I couldn't find it in my heart to rate the Cambridge Folk Festival on quite the same level of ecological magnificence.
The texts kept coming - from Lithuania, Estonia, the Outer Hebrides. Which was great. But the songs were starting to pile up. So George and I started working on a couple of new ones with Jack. Jack is a brilliant drummer. He is 14 and plays in at least two regular groups - Ophelia and the Midnight Sessions. He has a ferocious double-bass drum technique and a really good ear for picking up an arrangement. He has helped me knock all of my songs into shape and has proved a constant source of inspiration - not least with his uncanny knack of talking in song titles (Dusted & Rusted and Fajita Hell were both lifted straight from conversations with Jack).
After a couple of rehearsals we had three new songs ready to record. So with Jack installed behind the kit and Gareth in charge of the desk, George and I duly returned to the Stone Room on August 3, and banged down the basic tracks to all three.
By this time, Gareth was deep in Mercury Music Prize madness. From the moment The Go! Team's album Thunder, Lightning, Strike (which he co-produced) had been shortlisted, the man was more booked up than a library. I did get to see him at the Mercury Awards dinner, where he was in a bouyant mood, despite the Go! Team's rowdy masterpiece having been passed over in favour of that strange, sad affair by Antony and the Johnsons. "Everyone's a winner," Gareth reassured me, through gritted teeth.
We slotted in two further sessions at the Stone Room on August 17 and September 8, by which time we had finished another two tracks. And I am going back next Monday (26) with Gareth to finish off two more. At which point I will have nine completed songs. I have got one more still to do, and then I figure my first album will be ready to release. And released it is going to be! Stay tuned for details of when, where and who.
In the meantime, check out the new songs here. ¶ 12:20 am
But hang on. Let me bring you up to date.The two new tracks promised last time - Jammed and Time is the Simplest Thing - are now available to download from my new home on the net at www.myspace.com/davidsinclair. You can either go there direct or follow the link from my website, as before.
At the same location you will also find my greatest hit, Dusted & Rusted, together with another brand new song, Fajita Hell, an unusual and bloodcurdling tale of mass murder in a Mexican restaurant. This song, which was again recorded at the Stone Room with Gareth Parton at the controls, features George Andrew on bass and my son, Jack Sinclair, on drums.
It has been a busy summer. We hadn't even got Jammed and Time is the Simplest Thing mixed at the end of July, when Drew announced he was setting down his drumsticks and heading off on his motorbike for a grand tour of Europe. In the following weeks I got a succession of texts from the big man. One minute he was in Cinque Terra, telling me about Byron and Keats and the other great poets who hung out there; next thing he was high up in the Dolomites outside Corsair. That one came in while I was working at the Cambridge Folk Festival. We compared notes. Drew reckoned he was enjoying a 10/10 experience "for earth beauty". With the best will in the world, I couldn't find it in my heart to rate the Cambridge Folk Festival on quite the same level of ecological magnificence.
The texts kept coming - from Lithuania, Estonia, the Outer Hebrides. Which was great. But the songs were starting to pile up. So George and I started working on a couple of new ones with Jack. Jack is a brilliant drummer. He is 14 and plays in at least two regular groups - Ophelia and the Midnight Sessions. He has a ferocious double-bass drum technique and a really good ear for picking up an arrangement. He has helped me knock all of my songs into shape and has proved a constant source of inspiration - not least with his uncanny knack of talking in song titles (Dusted & Rusted and Fajita Hell were both lifted straight from conversations with Jack).
After a couple of rehearsals we had three new songs ready to record. So with Jack installed behind the kit and Gareth in charge of the desk, George and I duly returned to the Stone Room on August 3, and banged down the basic tracks to all three.
By this time, Gareth was deep in Mercury Music Prize madness. From the moment The Go! Team's album Thunder, Lightning, Strike (which he co-produced) had been shortlisted, the man was more booked up than a library. I did get to see him at the Mercury Awards dinner, where he was in a bouyant mood, despite the Go! Team's rowdy masterpiece having been passed over in favour of that strange, sad affair by Antony and the Johnsons. "Everyone's a winner," Gareth reassured me, through gritted teeth.
We slotted in two further sessions at the Stone Room on August 17 and September 8, by which time we had finished another two tracks. And I am going back next Monday (26) with Gareth to finish off two more. At which point I will have nine completed songs. I have got one more still to do, and then I figure my first album will be ready to release. And released it is going to be! Stay tuned for details of when, where and who.
In the meantime, check out the new songs here. ¶ 12:20 am
