A good fun weekend away we had at the Summer Cherry Festival in Adelaide. It’s a tough drive to do in a weekend, a lot of sore bottoms, a lot of nasty roadhouse food, and a lot of open spaces, pink lakes and road works.
It’s interesting; I’ve noticed there seem to be road works on every major highway every time we drive them. It’s like by the time they fix the highway all the way to the end of it, it’s time to go back to the beginning and do it all again. So there are always those painful 110 zones that have been altered to 60 for a good 10kms in between towns that test your patience.
The drive to Adelaide is usually much better than the drive home. We always start early on the way over, getting the first 3 hours over with before the day seems like it’s really begun. But the way back always sees us sleeping in after a late night, and the day getting to 3pm in the afternoon and knowing we won’t be home for another five hours.
Time in the car is always quite hilarious though. Habits and behaviours of people who you spend half your life with really become engrained in you without realising. Let me share a little light. Rob does this weird teeth clicking thing that is constant. He doesn’t even realise he’s doing it, but I notice it the entire time. Byll will have these intermittent abrupt awakenings where every 15mins or so she’ll half yell ‘do you want me to drive’ while she’s basically still asleep. Josh will always drive the car like he’s kicking back on the couch, one hand on the wheel, head back, cruising. And I will to everyone’s absolute frustration put on the same couple of albums on repeat, until Rob claims the Ipod with a Triple J Dr. Carl or John Saffran podcast.
There’s always a lot of sleeping in preparation for your 2 hour driving shift, a lot of seat swapping, discoveries of new unknown public toilet locations, food stops and long conversations about producers and their work. So there you go, an idea of what it’s like being on the road with us!
Beth
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Sunday, January 10, 2010
A new year, a new album...
For every January of my 2 decade and a bit life, I have been in a place called Mallacoota holidaying with my family. Mum, dad, my sister and I in the same house, on the same hill, over looking the same amazing view of the Inlet year after year. It’s the best place I know, a typical small coastal town scenario where it’s quiet as a mouse throughout the year, and then come summer it doubles in size and activity. But this year is the first time I am not there.
Instead, we are spending January writing and demo-ing for our second album in Josh’s home built studio in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. It’s a bit strange being in Melbourne at this time, I had no idea how quiet this city becomes and how awesome it is driving around streets with half the usual traffic. I like it. So far, we have put down seven tracks with a bunch more in the pipeline. They are all sounding great and it’s making me more excited by the day about the year ahead.
Having said that, demo-ing is just the beginning. First you have to write and finish the songs, then you have to arrange them, then you demo, then you talk strategy for how the album will actually be made, with who, with what money, when, where, etc, etc. Then there’s working out who and where to mix it, master it, how you will be releasing it and so on. But this time at the beginning of such a project is probably the most exciting, or at least it is for me. It’s the creative part. There’s nothing more exciting than writing a new song. You never know when one will come; it’s usually at the most inconvenient times. For example, when you have to be somewhere, late at night and you have to get up early or when you just don’t have enough time for whatever reason. So when that little wave of inspiration comes, you have to ride the wave for as long as it will go and that’s when something great comes out. Songs come from experience. Life on a day to day basis can become so routine and boring if you let it, it happens to me all the time and that’s when the inspiration stops. It’s when we do something crazy, out of character, new and unknown. That’s when the spectrum of emotions starts pouring out and falls into songs.
So I want to say thank you to any person or place who may have inspired this next bunch of songs. Whether we loved or hated you at the time, or were put through a positive or negative experience because of you, you are all little treasures, and invaluable.
Beth
Instead, we are spending January writing and demo-ing for our second album in Josh’s home built studio in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. It’s a bit strange being in Melbourne at this time, I had no idea how quiet this city becomes and how awesome it is driving around streets with half the usual traffic. I like it. So far, we have put down seven tracks with a bunch more in the pipeline. They are all sounding great and it’s making me more excited by the day about the year ahead.
Having said that, demo-ing is just the beginning. First you have to write and finish the songs, then you have to arrange them, then you demo, then you talk strategy for how the album will actually be made, with who, with what money, when, where, etc, etc. Then there’s working out who and where to mix it, master it, how you will be releasing it and so on. But this time at the beginning of such a project is probably the most exciting, or at least it is for me. It’s the creative part. There’s nothing more exciting than writing a new song. You never know when one will come; it’s usually at the most inconvenient times. For example, when you have to be somewhere, late at night and you have to get up early or when you just don’t have enough time for whatever reason. So when that little wave of inspiration comes, you have to ride the wave for as long as it will go and that’s when something great comes out. Songs come from experience. Life on a day to day basis can become so routine and boring if you let it, it happens to me all the time and that’s when the inspiration stops. It’s when we do something crazy, out of character, new and unknown. That’s when the spectrum of emotions starts pouring out and falls into songs.
So I want to say thank you to any person or place who may have inspired this next bunch of songs. Whether we loved or hated you at the time, or were put through a positive or negative experience because of you, you are all little treasures, and invaluable.
Beth
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Reflections on a year...
The days leading up to time-marks such as New Years, Christmas, Birthday’s, etc, never quite seem to sit well with me. You would think that one would look forward to them as a chance to celebrate, party, let loose, use them as an excuse to do something out of character, or as an excuse to do nothing at all. Some use them as an excuse to spoil themselves, over-eat, spend a lot of money or indulge. Some see them as a reason to be well behaved, a reason to keep the peace or swallow words that would much rather be spat out in full force. And others see them as a chance to reminisce, reflect on what has been, treat someone else, write something from the heart, be honest or catch up with neglected family or friends.
For some though, it seems to be a time when they spiral into a subtle state of anxiety, uncertainty and nervousness. Seeing it as a small reminder of what they haven’t done, haven’t ticked off their ‘to do’ list for the year or what they ‘will’ or ‘will not’ do in the form of a new year’s resolution for the year to come. It’s not the best feeling when it gets to the end of another year and the little piece of paper that you stuck up on your mirror which lists ‘things to buy for 2009’ and ‘goals for 2009’ only have a couple crossed off the ambitious list of ten or so! Neither is it encouraging when your New Year’s resolution is the same as last years because you didn’t actually resolve what you wanted to resolve the first time around…
But at least we can cherish the fact that with each new year that goes by either marked by a birthday, Christmas or New Year we get that little bit more intelligent, learn a few more new things, expand our vocabulary a bit more and meet a few more varieties of human. That’s good enough for me!
Beth
For some though, it seems to be a time when they spiral into a subtle state of anxiety, uncertainty and nervousness. Seeing it as a small reminder of what they haven’t done, haven’t ticked off their ‘to do’ list for the year or what they ‘will’ or ‘will not’ do in the form of a new year’s resolution for the year to come. It’s not the best feeling when it gets to the end of another year and the little piece of paper that you stuck up on your mirror which lists ‘things to buy for 2009’ and ‘goals for 2009’ only have a couple crossed off the ambitious list of ten or so! Neither is it encouraging when your New Year’s resolution is the same as last years because you didn’t actually resolve what you wanted to resolve the first time around…
But at least we can cherish the fact that with each new year that goes by either marked by a birthday, Christmas or New Year we get that little bit more intelligent, learn a few more new things, expand our vocabulary a bit more and meet a few more varieties of human. That’s good enough for me!
Beth
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