When we write and upload these blogs, other than a few stats the website gives us on how many of you read it and roughly what countries you all live in, we don’t really get much of a picture. I imagine a good majority of our readership have seen the band at some point, perhaps we’ve shared some drinks and even slept on your sofa. But I’m also told a good proportion of you have never been to a gig, maybe never listened to a track, and definitely not offered up your sofa. So then the next question is what do you all read it for? That demographic is more interesting to me - the bass player - and if pushed I’d probably break it up as follows:
40% of you are our friends and extended family, people who live in the band’s home county and who we often see smiling in the crowd, or smiling on the beach, or smiling in the Co-op. You read mainly because you like us and want to keep half an eye on the next gig, or the last one (shame, you missed a good one too!)
30% of you are our fans from further reaches; friends we’ve made in Holland, Belgium and other countries we’ve left piano leads in. Friend’s who have a copy of our album thrust into their hands upon leaving Judi’s glorious campsite and welcome us in. You read for a dose of Anglo nostalgia and a glimpse into what we get up to when we aren’t making a mess of your sofa.
A good 20% of you are musicians or are at least interested in music and use these as a guide for how not to do it. You avoid all the pitfalls that we make continuously and your band are now getting all the gigs that we didn’t.
5% are the singer’s ex-girlfriends. You’ve heard half the songs are about you and want to keep tabs on any future releases!
At least 3% are bots because robots like reading too and some of these stats don’t add up. I mean 624 readers in Russia!?
And the final 2% are our current partners and family members trying to work out where the hell we were all weekend and what that strange smell is now we’re back.
And while I’m in the mode of completely-made up statistics I’d like to add just a couple more. Of this very diverse readership I’d split you up as follows:
A wicked but small 5% of you know of our reputation for misadventure and tune in to hear us fail. It hurts but we appreciate your loyalty regardless
A further 5% of you don’t necessarily want us to fail, but definitely don’t want to miss it if it happens. That’s fair.
And the remaining 90% of you, the resounding majority, are on our side and are rooting for us. You chuckle at our misadventures but you smile at the silver linings.
So this one goes out, partly for that 20% who are embarking on their own musical journeys and keeping tabs for any tips to help them along the way, but mainly for the 90% who like hearing that we sometimes get things right.
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| Belan Hall 1887 |
Belan Hall has featured in these blogs before back when we recorded our second album Haul Away so I won’t go into too much detail there. It’s a grand wooden lodge in Mid-North Wales, it smells like wood-smoke and old books on the inside and wet grass and wet sheep on the outside. Despite part-owning the place The Singer still needs a list of written directions to get there (phones are of no use here) but when we do it always feels like home.
The plan was a simple if not fairly ambitious one. Rehearse and record the selection of new songs we’ve had shaking around in our pockets before they gather too much fluff. Capture them well enough to imagine as a finished product without it needing to actually be one. What the hell’s the point of that you - and our partners left at home with small children - may ask? Well while recording Haul Away we arrived slightly naively with too few songs and even less idea of how they should sound. This time we want to sit with these songs a while, play them in all the places we like to play music; sat by the fire with friends, in the kitchen on a quieter day, and our old forte - the car stereo (preferably during a long drive home if the singer has any sway over it). This recording will be the blueprint of our next album, but I imagine we’ll shuffle the deck a few times and add in a couple more aces over the coming months.
The tentative target was ten tracks in only three days, tentative because during Haul Away we struggled to complete three tracks in that time. But although it’s easy to draw comparisons to the Haul Away sessions this was to be very different; there wasn’t the same pressure and we weren’t the same musicians. I’m not impartial but I like to think we’re a lot better now and certainly far mellower, which counts for a lot when you have tracks to record, dinner to cook and fires to light before dusk and you’re sat debating whether to add a second shaker part to the chorus. The old us would have argued hours away over these small decisions, the new (older) us didn’t waste the energy; the group decision was enough. It tells all that we drove away from Belan Hall after three days with not ten but twelve songs recorded, and perhaps the best of the bunch being penned that very weekend, on the veranda, glass in hand; the sort of occasion we imagine it being replayed in.
