Recorded a live video with the full-band (string quartet, harp, piano, drums, bass, acoustic guitar, vox) for a BBC documentary about the best up-and-coming bands from Leeds at the weekend. Think it went down really well with the techies in the studio. It should all be mixed by 1st February (fingers crossed) and will appear on the BBC Leeds Website, Graham Liver's BBC Radio show and possibly BBC Look North (television). Will keep you all posted...
In the studio today to lay down some piano & vox on the album. Should be finished March-ish. It's really starting to take shape - production wise, it's got a few thematic ideas which tie all the tracks together nicely (from harp harmonics to electronic beats and lots and lots of strings!)
Playing two gigs tomorrow; doing a live session in Zavvi record shop (formerly Virgin Megastores) and then straight over to the Mixing Tin (which is good coz I like the sound in there). If you're in London at the weekend check out Daniel Flay on saturday night @ Indie-boy's gig in Camden (Tommy Flynn's) - well worth a listen. Hopefully taking the full-band to play that night on the 8th / 9th of Feb if we can get it sorted.
Finding it hard to juggle muso happenings with money making (to live and progress!) at the moment, but what the hell, it's all fun and games - I can sleep when i'm dead I suppose... Was chatting to Dave Farrow (Seth Lakeman's manager) before christmas, and he said "Ash how much do you want this? And how we gonna fund this album?" - Here's how I see it; i've been doing this for ten years, gigged like a bitch, learnt a lot, written a lot - i'm not messing about. I'm pretty lucky in that i've got some talented people in Leeds that believe in what i'm doing, and are making my album (in an amazing studio) for free - absolutely jack-diddly-squat! Now it's at the stage where i'm seriously considering risking serious money on some serious PR... Seth Lakeman got a Mercury Music Nomination off the back of some good-PR, but then again, I've got some close friends who've been stung in the tail by wasting money on PR. Hmm, gonna have to think hard, and do some serious research and talking...
