Tour Blog #4 - Backwards and Forwards.

To what is becoming my extended family, I hope you are all fine and dandy.

The ‘Caves’ tour is half way done and the single drops next Monday (October 15th) and I write this having had a distinctly lovely last week performing in all manner of venues throughout the North and Middle of England. The band and I (and hopefully all of you) have indeed experienced some of the most exciting musical evenings (and sometimes day-times) since we set out on this adventure and I want to thank you all for coming to the shows - I’m hoping we can catch up with each other sooner rather than later. We are, after all, back on the road soon.

We have performed on a balcony half-way to the roof of what used to be a 19th century music hall in Nottingham - surrounded by fairy lights; At a candle-lit church in my hometown to the most respectfully quiet of audiences; In the Manchester streets overlooked by the monstrous and vast town hall and surrounded by burgers made from all manner of animals; And at our Camden Town-based friend The Dublin Castle with a band gear storage cupboard that feels  like even if it was a magical room taken directly from Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, it would still be too small to store our gear in. All were fun-filled musical evening’s and I want to thank all of the bands we played alongside including our friends The Rash and Elle Robertson who joined us in my hometown and helped make it a solid few days on the road.

We head back out on the road shortly for some rather exciting shenanigans in the South. Bring the acoustic noise.

Love xx

Tour Blog #3 - Mills and Steel.

Friends, I hope you are keeping well.

It’s been a riveting few days of shows and video shoots, and I’m feeling slightly sad to have left our temporary home in Sabrina and Ben’s living room in a lovely Yorkshire village. After recovering from the exhaustion and excitement that was Newcastle on Thursday evening, we made our way to the significantly closer Escobar in Leeds for our Friday evening show.

I say significantly closer, however, what I fail to mention is that with the navigational wizard that is Sabrina, you could be forgiven to think that we had traveled from much further afield - via Scotland maybe. In all eventuality, we made it to the city, around about 2 minutes before sound-check. So all in good time then.

Leeds was a lovely show, and I want to thank all the people who came out to see us - it made our night better from the stress that was a distinctly uncertain sound engineer. We really hope that despite the technical difficulties, you all enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed performing it to you. Despite us pulling strange faces, the show was indeed a pleasurable one, and we hope to see you brothers and sisters again soon.

Saturday marked a gap in the tour schedule, so naturally, we thought we would make a little video for you. As it happens, we had scheduled in a short with the Yorkshire based ‘Tea Sessions’ who have previously produced live video’s for artists such as The Travelling Band and Sam Airey, however, it was a heavy night, and the kind chap who offered to head up the shoot, had to cancel. No problem though, and as I’m finding with a lot of aspects of this industry - sometimes you just have to do it yourself.

We chose a derelict building near Halifax known as Old Lane Mill in which to shoot. The mill is the only one of its type left in Europe apparently, and was definitely a pretty eerie space to be in. So after dodging piles of asbestos, making our way up some rather precarious stairways, and shimmying around ledges, we found ourselves with some rather nice looking footage and sounds in a beautifully darkened ambiance. The video won’t be ready for a while, but it will look something like this:

After an afternoon at the mill, we headed back to our temporary home for our first hot meal of the tour, the journey again hastened by the wizard master of navigation - and this time Snoop Dogg the Sat Nav was joining in the fun.

Following some well earned sleeping time we traveled south to play at West Street Live in the city of Steel (and students) - Sheffield. It was freshers week and a ‘carnage’ night. For those that aren’t aware, that is a night where students buy a t-shirt and get shit-faced. So we made some new drunken friends in the street and  played a cheeky half an hour set to a lovely crowd of people. It looked like this:

Cheers Sheffield! Until the next time…

I have so far discovered that particularly in the north of England, motorway service stations rarely seem to function correctly at night. Just an observation.

Love minus the tea this time (I have run out of tea-bags) xx

Tour Blog #2 - Newcastle, Newcastle.

Alright Brothers (and Sisters of course).

Last night was the first date of the ‘Caves’ tour up in Newcastle - our first time playing this far north. 

We stopped over in Leeds to break up the journey and its probably a good job we did. After some last minute rehearsing, we set off for Newcastle knowing full well that the A1 motorway was closed due to a lovely English week of precipitation. It’s okay we thought, Ben suggested that using the A19 wasn’t a problem. That is, until it closed. Oh. 

After sitting in a traffic jam on a motorway diversion which is diverting us to a road that is also closed, our hopes of seeing the sights of Newcastle preceded to disintegrate. That’s enough ranting about traffic and rain. These are all things I guess we come to expect and they were all stresses overshadowed by the evening that followed.

In all honesty, it indeed was a great show made complete by lovely singing dancing audience members, foot-stamping and our first encore - something we should perhaps be prepared for in future. We also had the absolute pleasure of being supported by some excellent up and coming Newcastle based artists Natasha Haws and Matt Stalker & Fables. They are wonderfully talented and helped to provide a wonderful atmosphere, and we sincerely hope our musical paths cross again soon. Love to them.

So we arrived home at 3:30am, with smiles on our faces, and the thought of sleep on our minds. Naturally, we ended the evening with a cup of tea.

Tour Blog #1 - Leeds Stopover + Forge Sessions

Evening folks,

How are you all faring? 

Its a busy busy time right now with all manner of exciting things going on. ’Caves’ is out on October 15th and the official video premiere’s at midnight on the 1st (this Sunday!). As I write this I am at Ben’s (my percussionists) place in Leeds, halfway to our the first stop on our UK tour at The Head of Steam in Newcastle.

With all manner of video’s and recording’s emerging over the coming days, I only though it right to blog about the latest video release and free download - ‘Caves’ Forge Sessions.

The video and recording were taken from a session the band and I worked on with producer Tom Gittins at a lovely studio in an idyllic location in Warwickshire called ‘The Forge’. This took place on two separate days - the exact dates of which seem to elude me, but instead merge into a single time boundary identifiable by Olympic celebrations and the occasional emergence of the sun. 

Being used to producing my own work, it was with great anticipation that we went into The Forge with Tom to record a version of ‘Caves’ which we wanted to be a fairer representation of our live performance at that time, and one which, in its honesty, encompassed more of an exploration our individual rooted influences as musicians - to have some fun experimenting with sometimes genre-bending idea’s with some added home-made instrumentation for good measure.

If you have minute, and are still with me - check it out below. The track is also up for free download at my website here.

Keep your eyes open :D, there are lots of little things on their way to you over the coming days.

Speak soon.

Love Fitz xx

‘Caves’ Release & Tour Details

Hi Guys,

Thought it was about time to write a little blog post in regard to the news I announced on Sunday. If you didn’t see it, this’ll bring you up to scratch. 

My new single ‘Caves’ is set for release on Monday October 15th 2012. I’m extremely excited for you to hear it! I’m really happy with how it sounds, and I think I’ve set the standard for the rest of the album. I’ll be putting out all sorts of little media bits on the Facebook page in the run up to the release, so keep checking back for those.

In concurrence with the release of ‘Caves’, I’m heading out on the road with my friends to play to you. Details of all the shows are listed below on this lovely looking poster that our friend Robin (OurKid Apparel) has kindly designed for us.

Hopefully see you on the road!

Love

Fitz.