New music from BV and FTR

Hey groovers
I'll have to start using code now for the bands as the names are too long. Actually FTR has a nice ring to it.

Mastering the Blue Valentine CD next week in Melbourne at Dex Audio. Haven't been to a mastering session since Festival studios in 1994 for the first Figtree Renaissance CD. Work has started on the cover which will be a nice shiny 8 pager with lyrics/recipes/giveaways and horoscopes??

Figtree Renaissance started work on an EP as I said in the last post. You can have a preview of one of the tracks called WYSIWYG
Follow the links to the track
Have a few cool ideas for the EP and one includes samples of Simple Minds and Donna Summer. Very chic but powerful. I'd better not give away too much too soon, but then I could never keep my mouth shut.
A licensing company in the UK called makin-trax.co.uk are interested in licensing the WHOLE first FTR album for soundtrack use in advertising, waiting for a contract proposal to be sent.
Ben Cox [Mixer/Loopman] and Carina are comin up to Mudgee over the next few weeks so we might even end up in the sttudio, who knows, depends on Daves availability. Gimme the computer now!!!!
Carina had a huge gig last week in Sydney for the launch of the charity she has co-founded. She has lots of new lyrics which is good because I have lots of music.

Discovered a really cool act from the UK who rock in a totally different way. The Noisettes sound like a cross between Nina Hagen and the Stooges. Check out their clip for "Don't give up" on their myspace page. One review said she sings like Billie Holiday on PCP. Love it!!

Started 2nd Figtree Renaissance album?

Last week saw the final mixes of the Blue Valentine CD completed. Tuesday I think. I'm not sure anymore as I developed "Log cabin fever" and started to lose the plot a bit.
Friday and Saturday I went back to the studio to work on "Avenue" and "Wysiwyg", tracks which were put down in 2004 at Sunpower.
I wanted to segue straight into the next project.
In hindsight it probably wasn't a good idea.
There is so much more to Figtree Renaissance, it is a very complicated beast.
Blue Valentine is traditional music. Traditional in the sense that it draws from Blues, folk, country and pop music, It uses acoustic instruments as its base and there is not much keyboard work.
Figtree Renaissance is exactly the opposite. All drum loops, computer generated keyboards and because everything is written on the piano the keys are different from your usual guitar songs.
Dave Miles and I found that we discarded a lot of the keys sounds from 3 years ago, especially on Wysiwyg in favour of new ones created on the day.
We did a lot of editing and a lot of the stuff was still being loaded over from old programs to the new "Cubase" program now up on his dashboard. By the end of the second day we both realised this was only going to be a demo of sorts for the internet site.
I will be taking the plunge into computer composition territory at home with a computer that Dave has built for me in return for drum lessons, so I will be doing a lot of pre production work, bringing down the studio costs.

Cletis Carr [Publicity/webmaster] has established contact with a European licensing company and they have a copy of the first Figtree Renaissance CD. There could be some soundtrack licensing on the way and they have Saatchi and Saatchi on their books.

Editors nightmare

I haven't posted for a while as I have waited for feedback on the book.
The critics have spoken and the thing needs a LOT of work.
Too wordy, weighty and some passages meander needlessly.
There were some good words as well but as a famous crime writer said "your worst enemy is praise"

I will have to go over it again and cut....cut....cut.
One story looks like it will have to go to the recycling bin for now and may appear at a later date.
Lucky I wrote those other stories recently.
The Blue Valentine CD is taking up all of my time at present with mixing/marketing and it looks like we have Cletis Carr on board to handle Figtree Words and Music marketing/publicity which can only be a good thing.
The book has been shunted to the back of the bus for now, though the printers are ready to go at a moments notice.
Speaking of writing I woke at 3.00am last night, the rain softly falling and the wind creating ghostly noises through the big old house I live in, and wrote 2 new songs.
I even had a dream about 1 of the songs after I went back to sleep involving a Goth girl, a celtic manuscript and a haunting gaelic funereal version of Dear Prudence by the Beatles [all very weird.......who'd want a mind like mine]
One of the songs even has a character already [Maddy Henry], is in B#/C and is 3/4. All the parts are there including an Irish Flute. I better get the guitar and mandolin out this morning

2 new short stories

If its possible to have writers block and at the same time write 2 new short stories then I am a walking conundrum
I am sitting here staring at the computer screen and wondering where to go and how, why and when.

Have completed 2 new short stories; the ones I was talking about in the last post.
Trivial pursuit and Globule.
Both deal with paranoia and obsessive compulsive disorders. I took a leaf out of Haruki Murakami's book in regards to JUST LETTING THE STORY TAKE YOU WHERE IT WILL. It was a lot of fun!! Both in the first person and so in a round about way are auto biographical.
It was sometimes painful writing them as they could so easily apply to me and its easy to see how a vivid imagination can sometimes tip over the edge into madness. I could have kept writing both of them till the cows came home but pulled up to get some semblance of order and rhythm. I was also spinning myself out!!
Even though I say I have writers block I feel I can easily slip into a rhythm and somehow seem to have found a key of sorts to letting [it] flow.
I suppose subject matter is the problem I face and some sort of timetable for what I am doing.......hence the why and when of the first statement.

A few copies of the manuscript of Flora and Fauna are circulating amongst friends in the business and I am dying to get feedback so as I can take the next step forward. Will they scotch the whole thing as amateurish twaddle? Will I have to rework whole stories or drop some totally.
If anyone is out there reading this you can go to the words page and read 3 for yourself, then you can tell me if they are crap or not.

Am reading something different at the moment and no its not the Regal Appointment notices in the Herald. Its a book that got a bad review in the Herald a few weeks back but also got a vague bak handed compliment. "A taxonomy of Barnacles" by Galt Neiderhoffer, a New York girl who has made [produced] almost 10 films but has made her first foray into the world of novels. I can see why it was criticised for mistakes in grammar/syntax but it is proving a good page turner and I suppose that is all that really matters in the end.

New Ideas for fiction.

Have a few new ideas already for some new stories.
I have 2 ideas for novellas which I don't relly feel ready to go with and a half developed novel which again I do not want to go with just yet. They may never see the light of day as I have moved on a lot since then, but as ideas they are handy to have around.
Like songs, some of which I rework in different forms 10 years down the line into something totally different they are handy receptacles for a different approach.
The ideas I do have have been kicking around for the last few weeks and come form newspaper articles or just some little occurrence that sticks in my head. One even came to me this morning from a trivia night that my group 'Blue Valentine' played at. I'll write them down before I give away the titles.
As I said in a previous post the first draft of 'Flora and Fauna' Book 1 is ready. I think I can almost safely look at it now as I have read 2 novels [Idea of perfection/Kate Grenville...Treasure of Montsegur/Sophy Burnham] over the last week and there is now a good reflective space between me and the work. Found a brilliant cover idea which is going to be worked up and already have some interesting feedback. Will try to get it up on the website soon.
Book club meeting was last Wednesday night and it is starting to gel as a group. Fantastic discussion and great to get differing views and perspectives on the work in question, which this month was 'The secret river/Kate Grenville. I had to review it in 350 words and had a ball putting on my critics hat.
Fantastic writing/journalism exercise.
It coincides nicely with the start of my freelance journalism course. I now have the first modules sitting in front of me.

The first little blast of winter arrived today and the temperature didn't get over 19 degrees.
Think Lou and me will have a roast tonight.

Crossroads

Mark this date down.
I am literally at a crossroads........

Its only just colouring outside. Dawn is approaching.
On the table in the sunroom lies the completed first draft of "Flora and Fauna." It has been collated, printed and put together in A5 form and all 14 stories are ready for "reading"
I have spoken before of my "Gang of five". Editors/Book shop owners/Avid readers and ultimately friends whose literary opinions I value and respect.
Now.......finally it is completed to a stage where I am confident enough to show it to the world.
Self publishing is a risky business. One must have confidence in ones own judgment.
Hopefully the input from my critics will propel the work to a fitful conclusion.

I have been self editing for weeks/months now and can no longer see the forest for the trees.
I won't look at it now for a week or two.

Also at the crossroads of music.
The Blue Valentine CD is almost finished and ready for mixing.
The direction of the music coalesced as it went along and a lot of songs and ideas fell by the wayside. Now it seems to have a voice of its own.
I am now collating rushes and takes from the 2004 sessions of the Figtree Renaissance "Stone Fruit" project.
It is the next project to sink my teeth into.
The show must go on

Flora and Fauna Progress

Only have 3 stories to finish revising to get to the First draft phase.
Fear of flying
The most beautiful couple in the world
Grapes and Lightning
I have been sending the completed ones to Pirie and he has been formatting them into A5 bookform with fonts, woodcuts, etc. They are easier to read and when seen in the actual bookform are better to digest and review.......plus.........................they are easier than A4 to hold!!!!!
There should be 3 to have a look at soon on the WORDS page.
One of the 15 stories, I have decided to leave off the book as it seems to want a larger treatment that isn't served well in short story form. It's called Maze Maker and has 3 different timelines and features a talking/dancing statue from Greek ancient history/mythology. It has become a maze itself and has definitely taken on a life of it's own.
If I get stuck into the last 3 today/tomorrow I should have it all finished and then can finish off the Blue Valentine CD in peace.
Amen

When is history "History"?

I have read two novels recently based on the the life of Johannes Vermeer, the famous Dutch still life painter circa 1665. One was "Girl in Hyacinth Blue" by Susan Vreeland published in 2000 and the other "Girl with a pearl earring" by Tracy Chevalier published a little later.
"Girl with the pearl earring" is now a feature film starring Colin Firth as Vermeer and Scarlet Johannson as the girl....... It has done very well thank you very much and everyone TALKS ABOUT IT.

If you go to any true Biographical site on Vermeer the details of his life are very sketchy indeed and only 40 or so of his paintings are accounted for. Most are of his daughters, Magdalena and Maria. His wife features a few times as does the patron who is vilified in Girl.... as a lecherous maid molester.
The real life painting of girl........ is of Magdalena and NOT his maid.
To me it has opened up a whole ethical and moral conundurum, of which, I too as a writer have to take heed of.
The book and subsequent film of "Girl with the pearl earring" are far better known than "Girl in Hyacinth blue" which stays closer to the truth.
The portrayal of Vermeer and his relationship with the maid [even though it was NOT consummated in the book/film] to this writer is spurious and smacks of slander. What of the outcry if the sober and pious Johann Sebastian Bach was submitted to the same treatment in a book/film. I suppose the same thing occurred to poor old Salieri with the fallout from Amadeus.
It has opened my eyes as to subject matter and the responsibilities which I have. Not to make easy gain from a real life figure by distorting the truth.
The Irish have a saying..........."Never let the facts get in the way of a good story"
Mmmmmmmmmmm?????

Back in the saddle.

Had my first students for the year yesterday and have more this afternoon and tomorrow afternoon. The first thing I do with any new student is get them playing a proper beat as soon as possible.....engage them as it were. Get them interested, confident and excited that they can play the damn thing. Then a few weeks or maybe months down the track we get into the more technical aspects of the theory of it.
Work has definitely picked up on the book front and after discussions with Pirie yesterday we have a time frame of one month to get it knocked over and ready for publication. Louise picked up a typo which I had not spotted in one story and Fiona from Blue Valentine and Agnes both picked up on "Boy and his birds" appearing unfinished. I had a quick read yesterday and sure enough a new twist, to the story of the autistic boy who spoke to birds, started to appear....am writing it at the moment
Found the final woodcuts for the remaining stories which are going on the title page of each one and we are now happy with font. I am generally keeping all mornings free to write for 3-4 hours, then all the other projects can happen around that.
Cletis has updated all the pages and new mixes of Blue Valentine Sunpower sessions are up as is the Diary of the making of "Stone Fruit" Also reviews of Lime Spiders Annandale shows and the new mixes of live album which Jason Blackwell is doing at the Opera House.

Blue Valentine had rehearsal last night with Andi and Drew. Our first show with them in this Friday at the Wine Bar in Mudgee and we have evolved a mini-set with them which goes off on a hillbilly'swing/country blues angle and I must admit a lot of that stuff was really rockin'.....Four till late/Robert Johnson...Move it on over & Hey godd lookin/ Hank Williams plus my 3 new originals and some other folk and Irish stuff and new life has been breathed into the Gillian Welch songs....should be interesting. Fairly loose at present but as Andi said "as long as we finish on the same note!!"
Looks like I have finally nailed down Ged to come up during the first week of March to lay down extra guitar/mandolin.

Holidays

It's been a long time between posts. I've been away up the coast with a "Special friend" and having a very special time. First holiday in years and it was lovely to get the sand in between my toes. Didn't go near a computer or guitar for the whole time. One day was spent at the beach twice and in the pool twice. Racked up a lot of kilometres and saw a lot of NSW. Always surprises me how stunningly beautiful this country is. The area around Gloucester and Dorrigo in particular bear similarities to the Garden of Eden.
Came back to a very sizable inbox and a lot of work and organisation to catch up with.
Have renewed vigour to get the ball rolling this year and get ALL the stuff out ie Blue Valentine CD, Figtree Renaissance Double CD and the "Flora and Fauna" book of Short stories. I'll have to get the skates on bigtime.
Carina is back from Sweden and we are meeting up in Sydney this weekend and might start even doing some shows [Figtree Renaissance] with a pick up Rhythm Section she knows.
I also had inspiration for a novel/set of stories relating to Trees that have been introduced into Australia......Pepper/Willow/Camphor Laurel.......just early days but a good germ of an idea.
To work.
I have to get the second set of 3 stories to Pirie to format with the woodcut title page. He's done the first 3 [Oz, Treehouse and The Cat's Influence] Now I have to pick the next 3 which are ready....or as ready as they ever will be. Work on either Maze Maker/Dysfunctional B&B.

Advance Australia Fair

Traditionally Australia Day is the hottest day of the year and when I most dream of moving away from the heat of Mudgee to some place on the coast...preferably the South Pole!!!!!
The gig offers have started coming in for Blue Valentine www.bluevalentinemusic.com everything from blackboard appearances at the Cobargo Folk Festival where my good friends in www.wheelersanddealersmusic.com are playing to the Blue Mountains Folk Festival in March.
Ged Corben is hopefully coming up Mid February to put down Mandolin and Guitar on the CD and we have been auditioning and rehearsing new material with some local players. I jammed in Sydney with Ged on some of the new songs I have been writing and he is excited about them as much as me.
I have already started taking bookings for Drum students and only have 4 spots left. I only need 12 students to earn $300 @ week.
Will be going up the coast next week, after out inaugural book group meeting, to sit on a beach for a week before it all gets frantic again.
Happy Invasion Day

Lime Spiders gigs

Truly awesome!!!
Nothing like playing a www.limespidersmusic.com gig to shake out the cobwebs from your system. 75 minutes of frantic shamanistic mayhem where you are transported to another plane of existence. I once said to friends it was better than sex........and I now think it's on a par at least.
Friday nights gig at the Cambridge Hotel in Newcastle was shaping up to be what is politely phrased "a funeral gig" or in other words a bit of a flop. Not many people [about 100] but boy were they into it!! They were grabbing the crowd barrier and shaking it up and down. One guy was leaning into the speaker box and turning his head around like an old hippie, his eyes rolling back in his head. Ben Gillies the Silverchair www.chairpage.com drummer was in attendance and I had a nice little rave with him and I had a great talk to some fans afterwards until the wee hours.
Saturday dawned hot and I was nursing a bit of a hangover and couldn't wait for the load out and drive back to Sydney to be over. The part of Newcastle we were playing was the West End and it was a dump and seemed stuck in a time warp economically and socially. Nothing has changed much in the 15 or so years since I last played here. I went for a little drive down to the beach end, as I waited for the other guys to surface, and it was much more salubrious with cafes, expensive cars and generally more gorgeous people around.
The drive back seemed to take forever and it was boiling hot on the F3 to Sydney. Lucky it wasn't Sunday we were travelling as a bushfire broke out near Berowra closing it for a day or two.
After a cold shower, feed and snooze back at Ged's place I felt like a million dollars and headed off for soundcheck at the www.annandalehotel.com. Met up with Jay Katz form the SBS Movie show who runs a B Grade movie/DJ night extravaganza out in the beer garden. He remembers me from 3 years ago at the Sounds of Seduction/Flickerfest festival at the Bondi Pavilion when I tried to storm the stage to play a drum solo and get a girl inside one of the go go dancing cages.......Outrageous behaviour but he was good humoured about it and only had words of praise for the Spiders. Also made some good contacts with MMM Radio in Wollongong and Dum Media in Sydney. I'm always networking.......hey I'm a Leo!!!
Soundcheck sizzled/cracked and popped and was VERY LOUD. People were applauding it.
I decamped back to Ged's for a rest and Zen lockdown to focus for the show, arriving back at the Annandale just as the drumkit is being set up. No alcohol and no food for 3 hours before I play. It's just too physical and I am not getting any younger [well maybe in the head!]
The crowd is down on our sellout appearance in May but the gig is a blinder and by the end I had timed my run to perfection and was slamming into the drums fearfully. Consensus seems to be that it was better than the last May gig and we operate more as a unit now. A few of us retire back to a nice little pub on Parramatta Rd.
Sunday is even hotter and it is 35 degrees by 10am in the morning. I feel elated after the gigs and drive back to Mudgee a very happy chappy. Long live the Spiders.

Thinking out loud

Just came back from my 4km walk. It's about 7.15am Thursday 18 January 2007.
I know this seems silly to be so pedantic about time and dates but I'd like to set the tone for you, also remind myself and check this gismo out.
Came back thinking about the Mandolin I'm looking to buy down here and how I was going to go about learning, playing it and how it would sound on www.bluevalentinemusic.com stuff and finally and most importantly how I would go about singing at the same time as playing it.
Also gave some thought to impending releases on the Figtree label.
After reading a review of some Lime Spiders stuff going back to when we released virtual double A sides.....Slave Girl/Beyond the fringe.....Out of control/Save my soul, it got me thinking maybe, just maybe Blue Valentine should release an EP first up with the first 4 songs from the mooted, virtually recorded album. This would leave us free to concentrate on those songs, get some product out and take more time over the full album, especially seeing as a fundamental change has come over the whole band with the veering towards more Roots music, additions in personnel and the new songs which are flowing......just thinking out loud. I mean who is ever going to read this????!!!!

Just had an email to the www.limespidersmusic.com website requesting information on Dave Guest who was the first bass player with the Spiders. Considering he played with the band before 1982 it should be interesting to see if Mick can remember or track him down. I think there has been officially 4 bass players for the band including Warwick Gilbert from Radio Birdman and Phil Hall from the Dropbears and Sardine V. Our current and longest serving bassist, Tony Bambach, is definitely the best and the funniest.
The two rehearsals couldn't have been more polarised. Mick was slightly under the weather at the first one and my injured toe on my bass drum foot was giving me grief, making me tetchy and with our overall rustiness it was lucky we didn't break up from the tension which built during practice. Then again the band has broken up and got back together so many times!! The second one was sober and full of fire and brimstone and a few smashed drumsticks. Now for the gigs!!
Mixing of the Live CD is going on as we speak at the mixing studio at the Sydney Opera House of all places. Jason Blackwell does some work there and managed to get us some downtime.

Have some time off in Sydney to myself and have been catching up on some films. Will probably head for the Art Gallery as is my wont and might browse through David Jones Food hall, looking at all the lovely food I can't afford; the ultimate foodie tourism pursuit.

Currently reading Gould's book of Fish, Richard Flanagan.

Monday 15-1-07

Its the land of blogs.
Cletis my webmaster has introduced me to writing and posting my own stuff which he'll post onto my website. Watch out; I'm cut loose now.
Still have so many things I want to get up and get going with but not being particularly web or IT savvy is difficult at times.
This week is Lime Spiders week. I drive down to Sydney tomorrow for rehearsals Tues/Wed and we play the Cambridge Tavern in Newcastle on Friday and then the Annandale on Saturday. The mythical Live CD we recorded at the Esplanade, St. Kilda in 1998 is being mixed by Jason Blackwell [Megaphon Studio] and Shock Records are set to release it.
Last week was a bit of an epiphany for me as I learnt/wrote about 6 new songs, all firmly entrenched in "Roots" music. Fiona from Blue Valentine has been into that stuff all the time I've known and played with her but I seem to have resisted for some reason. Might be that as a rule I hated country music. The more swing/skiffle/fast blues styles have always sucked me in and everything from Robert Johnson/Leadbelly thru to Django Reinhardt has always excited me.
It started with hearing a Leadbelly track on the latest free CD from the great people at MOJO magazine. "Ella Speed" is a dirty-get down-in the swamp-knuckle dusting-mother of a song and seemed to link to a song that Fiona had just discovered [The ballad of Frankie and Johnny] which Beth Orton does on the Harry Smith Songbook DVD. Both are about murder.
I took to playing that fast style of rolling country blues and before I knew it I was playing some Robert Johnson, Hank Williams songs and had written another 2 [Blown away, From the cradle to the grave] to go with the 2 I had written over Christmas.
Will be looking for a Mandolin whilst in Sydney. Ged's going to help out. I have an old musical friend Andrew Pringle who is a pretty mean Guitarist/Bassist coming over for a Jam this morning and Fi's boyfriend Andy is going to start helping out on Lead Guitar.
The Blue Valentine CD was discussed and it might take more of a Roots music direction with some of the pop songs coming under the Figtree Renaissance tag. Also I think both CD'S should come out at once. That way it will be easier to publicise both at the same time.
Ciao for now.