The Secret

I've just been sorting out our myspace page a bit and put up our latest track which is called The Secret. Its actually a bit of a surprise that one as its a lyric i wrote a while back and wasnt considering it at all till i accidentally came upon it and immediately thought Yeees this is totally right for my introverted theme of adventure, childhood and fantasy we gotta do it! And so off it went to the great orchestral laundry for a good rinsing (ya get me?) and out it came glistening like new with warbling flutes like angels and horns and tubas like heaven and a big secret at the end with a trombone fanfare (thank you Ashley Slater you are amazing, as are you Charlotte Glasson) and some neat shiny, skippy n crashy drums form my old mate and ace drummer Tim Weller.
The lyric came straight after i first watched one of my now fave films 'Wings of Desire' directed by Wim Wenders and i just love the idea of this angel coming down to earth to observe but not experience, falling in love and wishing he was human and how the whole colour of the film changes to sepia at that moment..
Speak soon x

Je reviens et je ne regrette...

Ok peeps we're back! back in the wired up n wireless world of y'all, back from under the channel, oui mes enfants j'ai le desir de devenir une francaise doucement,lentement..But best of all i now have my new Macbook- which means i am free from my broken-down world to roam comme je veux, and that is all i need! altho now i have to teach myself not to wipe my whole hard-drive by mistake as i did the other day with my fumbling impatient fingers.. yes a steep curve of learning is being learned..So thank you for the lovely offers of help with elastic bands and 2nd hand washing machines, but i dont need that s*** no more cos i got a mac ok no credit crunch for me!!??:)AlrightAlright so another two tracks are being mastered at Masterpiece in Fulham London on Wednesday to add on to the 6 trax we already have,and there i think we are going to leave it..and then we are to prepare for a secret live show with our luscious new line-up which will start it all off again.. now Brighton has recovered from the Great Escape crazyness..
Its good to be back!
Rx

total disaster

i've been cut off from practically every technical device in my home and havent been online for 3 weeks now which is killing me so if youre wondering why my myspace has been left high and dry now you know. thats what happens when you dont open your post for 3 months! Anyway they have promised me tuesday so hopefully then i'll be back in touch regular again. anyway, despite no computer, tv, a broken 4-track, fridge, washing machine, and disconnected phone, life has been great (no really!)
We have had another writing spurt for the rest of the album now the EP's done and really tying it up to be finished for June 1st. Meanwhile photos have been done (i'll post some up when i'm back online..) and artwork being developed..so its all good. Gotta go before i'm kicked off my mum's computer. Speak to you Tuesday!!
Rx

its in the bag!

..and finally..we have our 6 trax mastered.. and ready to be turned into an EP. We ended up going to lovely Simon Francis at Masterpiece yesterday just to get them all sittin nicely - and yes we have reverted to our EP plan so all 6 songs are equal and some are not more equal than others! Which i think this is the best way it can be. Great to have a finished product cant believe it. Happiness

are we done yet?

evening all! back to the mastering today as we had to tweak a few things, but Wonderland and its B-side Teardropsfall is done and dusted, since Mark decided at the eleventh hour to add in a whole lot of orchestration (sounds amazing tho..!) And the rest will be in the bag on Monday! But of course you musn't hold your breath (i can hear gasping and spluttering from you all) because after all this is The Mummers which is synonymous with 'nearly done but not quite lets change sum stuff no sod it lets start again'. So well lets just wait till monday eh?
Anyway heres a pic of me practising in the studio with my toy piano which was going on whilst said orchestration was happening ( i never play adult instruments as you know) with my new red-indian jacket i'd just found in the lanes and am very proud of even tho my good friend jess who likes to give me good style advice says it makes me look like a sack of potatoes with a pin-head on top. Nice! Thanks! As you can see i've overdone the blusher on this occasion but never mind, at least it covers up my "sallow skin" as my mother always told me..
Hope you're all good, i think i am..
x

Salut! Had a good rehearsal just the three of us today with Paul trying out new guitar sounds and Mark playin 3 keyboards at once (dont ask me how) these being the rhodes + space echo, the moog (wikid analoguey sounds), and the old classic Korg M1 (which was the first keyboard i discovered how to write music on..) And me on Glocks! We're preparing for tomorrow's full band rehearsal with our new line-up which includes Pete davison and Charlie buchanan on trumpets, and Tessa Gilles and Maddy Rix on violins. we are trying to play EVERYTHING live this time and therein lies the challenge!
Then we has a meeting with a friend of ours who may make a short film of Wonderland, and then we had a meeting with the manager who gave us all smacked bums for being so slow finishing our album.. but art is art we cried, and cannot be rushed!
Bon nuit. x

Its 11pm on sat night..

.. and i just got in from Brighton. Have spent every day in the studio for weeks and now i keep forgetting what day it is, i haven't seen the news, i havent had a meal that isn't sandwiches for longer than i can think, and everyone back home has forgotten who i am. But I'm sure its going to be worth it because our album the first is very nearly finished! We've been doing loads of last-minute recording of our live players - a totally amazing new trumpet solo on the end of 'Nightbus' and 'Lorca' - his name is Pete Davison everybody and he is awesome, as is our Joe Giddey on cellos... Only two things to do tomorrow - vocal production on 'Nightbus' and revisiting a mix of 'Somebody Said' and then hey presto off to the mastering suite it is! Well just upstairs really because our trusty Edz who does alot of our sound is going to be doing it as he has the full gear in his control room.
So anyone who was wondering what happened to our EP that we were working on last year.. well its turned into this mini-album because we just couldn't decide what tracks to leave off but this way we can have just what we want on there so thats much better!
On the live side we've been ripping everything apart and have now Pete on trumpet for the next few gigs which is soo coool, and trying to refine everything a bit so it might sound a little different to you if you've been to the others.. but in a good way i hope!
Love to you all, i gotta go and do something else and check out the trains to Brighton tomorrow cos i've heard theres going to be a BIG STORM tomorrow so you know what that means - the whole of England will come to a stand-still..
PS o yes also i want to say sorry to all u myspacers who've left us such nice comments recently.. i'll get back to you all after this bizness is over and my eyes stop popping out of my head! Love u, Rxx

*new plan*

ok so sorry y'all for not writing more regular like.. we got deadlines! Its been manic in the studio as we have 3 new tunes to finish by next week including recording all the live instruments - brass, strings, harmoniums, pianos and saxes. This is because we have a new plan now for Wonderland as a single not an ep, closely followed by... ALBUM! And there is more to this plan but i'm not allowed to tell u yet but its good good good! And at last we can get our sound out there and send it ringing into the ether..yo yeah yes yeeees!

rehearsing in a brixton pub before the Slaughtered Lamb gig..!

heal me sun

amazing gorgeous day today and so warm! I've been stuffing myself with vitamins and anti-cold medecine to try and get rid of this streaming cold so decided sun was the next best thing and took myself and the boys to Brockwell Park in Herne Hill. this is THE BEST park in London I swear, you always bump into somebody, the crowd is so mixed and chilled, and you can sit outside the caf at the top of the hill on a bench and look across London in 360 degrees. Its quite something especially when youre soaking up the rays whilst eating the most delicious (and CHEAP) home-cooked food.. i believe the chef is quite well-known now. Anyway i think i may be beating this cold now thanks to this miraculous bee nectar called Propolis one of my friends gave me which is good cos i've alot of singing to do in the next few days.
O yes and we'll be doing a little pre-gig gig on tuesday in a pub in Brixton at 3 O'clock just cos we couldnt find anywhere to rehearse, so if you are one of the 6 regular drunks in there u might be in for a surprise..
and finally paul just sent me a vid clip of us backstage(in the corridor with 4 bands coming in and out all trying to store gear whilst we get changed) at Monto when we were just about to go on stage. So i'm posting it up just for my own amusement. Oh the glamour of it all!!

the quiet life

Its a beautiful sunny day and I got up late today for the first time in sooo long and feel great! I've been running on about 5 hours a night recently and yesterday when i got up i had no voice (much to the joy of everyone around me) and after a rehearsal in brighton that ended at midnight last night and a horrible drive through the fog back to London i thought i deserved a little treat! Aah the peace in the morning as the rest of my house left at 9am and i lay there with the sun streaming through the window dreaming and just letting my mind wander.. then waking up again after a dream in which my car got towed away in brixton an i got ANOTHER 3 points on my licence which means i'm banned cos i've already got 9. Well nothing wrong with a good dose of reality i guess..
Anyway rehearsal was quite lovely- its for the unplugged gig at The Slaughtered Lamb on tuesday and its just with 2 violins, cello, rhodespiano and me on vox! And as its just us we rehearsed at Marks tiny but perfectly formed top-floor flat with cups of tea and candles and no loud stuff to contend with and i must say its great to actually hear the parts for once! So i'm very much looking forward to tuesday and trying out The Mummers songs in a very different way..o yes and we're also gonna do the new ones we've just written..
So heres to sleep and sun, quiet music, and life..!
x

a new old song

hey hey we have new music! remember when i said we were re-visting a song from the past? well heres a clip of the instrumental, mark is working on the brass parts as we speak.. and paul and i have changed the verses completely, u will hear it shortly! Its light-hearted n tongue-in-cheek and in complete contrast to the oh-so-sad 'nightbus' (see the rehearsal clip a few days ago)
And.. thanks all who came to the water rats on tues, nice to see new myspacers there..
love luv lv x
[URL=http://www.zshare.net/audio/7065296a8855a5/]walk blog clip.mp3 - 1.27MB[/URL]

rehearsing for Water rats gig..

trying out a new song..

Evening! Just a clip of us trying out one of the new songs that emerged from our recent writing session...its slow, it feels a bit 50s, its gonna have gorgeous strings in the Henry Mancini style and its called 'Nightbus'

growing pains

Sorry but this isnt really about music.. but am just noodling away after having turned on the tv whilst putting away a month's load of washing..
Newsnight was on and i found myself tuning into a discussion on climate change and economc 'growth'. Cos for ages I have considered the word 'growth' as a bit of dirty word.. like when the news reports that "consumer spending is up" its like encouraging a foul disease in my high n mighty opinion. But AT LAST HALELLUJIA (how do you spell that?) the big guys are talking about the need to slow growth in the traditional sense to tackle our planet's problems, and instead find a new SUSTAINABLE type of growth which does not necessarily use more energy and resources, just more labour.
Obvious init? Back to the good old days?

Laterzzzzzzzzzzz

Hello friends

..and a Happy New Year to you too! Yes i know its already the 11th Jan and all that festive stuff is sooo over - dont know about you but it seemed just a mere blip this time with everyone ready to go again by about jan 3rd, albeit slightly tired and wan-looking after the communal illness we have all shared.. eugh! So after the few days of indulgences and a brief trip to the mountains for some fresh air we are back in full attack!
It is very nice to be having two writing weeks - both this week and next.. all three of us and also The Manager are working in our separate places emailing stuff back and forth, playing stuff down the phone at midnight, discussing beats, tempos, key-changes and finding bits and pieces preciously discarded from our Mummers archive that now somehow seem right! We think that we have moved on with our style since 'Somebody Said' and we are EXCITED..
Also as an experiment we are re-working an old song from the past which never got a proper release but seems to suit what we are doing at the moment.. will keep you posted on that one.
So, looking forward to this year which feels like a year if change (those ones always start by pretending everything is as normal)with everyone becoming more aware of the world around them dont you think? Or am i just hallucinating from the after-effects of norovirus?
Anyway Heres To You me dears..
Ricex