Looking To The Future

It's always that irony when writing something like this blog, when you've lots of time to write, then there's nothing to write about, when there's no time for anything, there's lots to write about. And so here we are - I've finished my Masters degree (results end of the month), which also coincides with finishing the first Honour Before Glory recordings

But it's a brief respite - in a good way, as I'm dissapearing for a lot of October, but will be back with a vengeance afterwards.

HONOUR BEFORE GLORY

I have now finished the first Honour Before Glory recordings, and launched the compulsary Myspace page. You can listen below via the power of Soundcloud.

All the tracks were recorded by me at House Of Mook, and feature help from the talents of Simon Fogal, Jon Foulger, Francis McCrossan, Fran Rodgers and Dave Martin

After Germany, I'll be playing with Damien Jurado at the Brudenell Social Club in Leeds - and then will be trying to do some more recording.

http://www.myspace.com/honourbeforeglory

HOUSE OF MOOK NEWS

After returning from Germany with Sometree in November, I'll be bedding myself down in House Of Mook and recording lots of bands. As ever, get in touch if you're interested here

The first fruits of Mook are being unveiled though - Just Handshakes (We're British) are releasing a split 7" single with my other faves Yonderboy. Listen and order the track through their respective Myspaces.

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Other than that? Business as usual

Soundtrack to this post: Yonderboy, Papercuts

Academia

I've got a few things I want to write about on here - most prevalent being attending Bingley Music Live on Sunday to see Editors debut some new material (an interesting and enjoyable experience) and then there's tonight's Mercury Music Prize fandango

But unfortunately I'm consumed by my Masters degree which I've touted on here before, the hand in of which is just 16 days away

As written previously, this ties up with the current 'development' of HONOUR BEFORE GLORY - academically I'm supposedly discussing the relationship of artist & producer. I say supposedly because it's a hard thing to be subjective about.

So at the moment I'm concentrating on making the best record possible and that's going pretty well - it's quite exciting finally hearing the realisation of songs that I've been developing for many years - some ideas have been floating in my head since before ¡Forward, Russia!

Simon of Leeds football hero's FC Lokomotiv has provided the pounding rhythms and at the moment I'm spending my days fucking them up and adding squealing noise over the top. Hopefully some majestic melody's will be added by myself and other people who can sing.

The plan is - a version of these songs (I'm currently working on 3) will be finished for the end of the month. I'm hoping by the time I go to Germany I'll be happy for the songs to be released into the world. But we'll see... there's a lot to do in a short space of time

Soundtrack to this post: Editors / Quack Quack / Get Well Soon

Ellen & The Escapades

Ahh, how the blog world can escape from you. Apologies to anyone still following the blog for the lack of anything interesting. I have found twitter a great outlet from an immediacy point of view, but I'm hoping to kick start this again, as I have a couple of interesting projects underway. First though a recap of somethings I've been upto:

Throughout some of the last few months I've been helping a band called Ellen & The Escapades, the result of which is partly some cool videos we shot to introduce them to "the world.' They released a single "Without You" a couple of weeks ago, and launched with a stunning gig at Leeds Holy Trinity Church - seriously one of the best gigs from a 'local' band I have seen for many a year.

The reason my helping the band manifested itself in these videos, was to fulfill obligations for a Masters degree I'm currently undertaken. Without wanting to sound pompous or just like a plain idiot, I've enjoyed working with a few 'educational' institutes over the last few years, promoting an awareness of doing things for yourself in line with what we did with DTTR and the Russia. This last year I've had the opportunity to get involved on the learning side, which has been fun, and I'm hoping they'll be a more to come on both sides, as I'm getting a bit 'involved'

Soundtrack to this post: Will Oldham 'radio'