Super Hard-On. Little Video. Big Video :)

Just a quickie! We've been recording electric guitars this week. All the pedals in the studio seem to have exceedingly rude names, generally comedy sexual terms, like so:

DSC01059.jpg

Funny huh? Great sounding pedals though...

We just recorded this little live and acoustic video tonight of a new song on the album called "All The Time In The World". Chief twinkler Kim Sawford is on piano duties :)

There is talks of the video for our first single "Eskimos To Astronauts" being shot in Stockholm :) Woohoo!!! For those of you without a map in your pocket (or a brain), Stockholm is in Sweden! Yay! I love Sweden. The only downer in Sweden is that they put salt on all their goodies, like haribo etc. That's just disgusting...

I'll keep u posted x

Album Artwork...

Exciting week this week. Lots going on in Ashley - land :) yay!

We have a new website being designed, which should be ready in 2 or 3 weeks, so keep your eyes peeled for www.ashleyhicklin.com yikes, that's scary, my own official website. soon i might have to start doing grown up stuff like washing dishes, mowing the lawn or getting a real job. truth is i can't do anything else, other than music. best stick to writing songs.

The artwork for my debut album "Parrysland" is also being designed, as well as the single artwork "Eskimos To Astronauts". I just got the first draft ideas through from the designers at www.typeholics.de who are complete and utter genius's. FACT. Still a few tweaks to do, but it's rockin my eyeballs already.

Today i went to have a look at a venue i'm playing in Hamburg called Prinzenbar, for a special,

private show i'm playing in april for all the radio stations in germany to come and have a sneak preview listen. WOW-EE-WOO! This is an ashley venue. It's like an old italian theatre with ornate chandeliers that's now a venue for bands. I'm so excited my leg is shaking. No really:

Photoshoot...

Eeeeek! Got all the photos back from my first proper photo shoots, with a full team of crazy people, lights and stylists and cameras galore! Yeah! Scary, these guys actually made me look good :) No photoshop, these shots are 100% what the room looked like, we had smoke machines and lighting rigs. It was the crazyiest location in germany, like an antiques warehouse gone wrong. We were going for a kinda "bohemian-vogue" vibe. Is that even a style? Maybe I should patent it, or make it into a wikipedia article. Maybe it's not even a style at all %) Either way, I'm super happy with these little bad boys, great photos. The first set (above) were taken by Heiko Richard and his team, and the second set (below) were taken by quite a famous german chappie called Kim Frank (who used to be in a little band called Echt)... You can see the rest in these linky-poos:

Set 1 (by Heiko Richard)

Set 2 (By Kim Frank of "Echt" fame)

No.1 in Belgium!!! Eurovision! Learning to speak german. First video...

HALO! It's official, I'm going to Oslo for Eurovision 2010! Yikes!

I co-wrote the Eurovision song for Belgium this year and after 48 hours it's already gone to Number One in Belgium i-Tunes chart! Yeaaaaah!!! The song is called "Me & My Guitar" and is performed by Tom Dice. VOTE FOR BELGIUM!!!

http://www.leedsmusicscene.net/article/12545/

We've been having lots of meetings recently, discussing things like our first music video for the first single "Eskimos To Astronauts". We've been working with a cool video director called Sandra Marschner from Katapult films. She's directed videos for Tokyo Hotel, The Rasmus, Marilyn Manson and loads of other bad-ass acts. There is a cool idea that she has developed for our first video idea based around some cool little creatures called "jumjums". Any thoughts would be nice:

I recorded a little sneak preview video of the first single yesterday on my macbook. It's very happy and dance-able? I that even a word? Who knows... I even tried to speak a little german. Tried is the primary word:

COMEDY BEAR COSTUME - EPK - EUROPEAN SONGWRITING MARATHON - PHOTOSHOOT...

Woopie Doodie! We have an EPK! An officially finished EPK all sparkly and beautiful! Big spanks to the team behind this video :) It was shot in London, Hamburg, Exeter, Leeds and Scarborough, and basically condenses all my musical adventures over the past 11 years into a few wee minutes. Clever eh? You can watch it, rate it, date it here:



I got back last week from an absolute marathon of songwriting - 3 weeks trecking across europe writing with some of the biggest producers and songwriters in the biz, including the teams behind Marit Larsen, Skunk Anansie, Novastar, Amy Winehouse, The Sugarbabes, Leona Lewis, James Morrison... The list goes on I won't bore you. All nice folk. Yipeeee! I think we now have a first single, it's the big song i've been looking to write for about the last 11 years :) Now I think we have it, all will be revealed keep ure panties on! We're recording it properly next week. I didn't get to see much of the cities I went to, but I did take a few pics. I took a gondala from hamburg to oslo, then to brussels, then rotterdam, then back to brussels (stupid i know), then smokey london town, a bicycle to berlin and then back to my little pad in hamburg! Wowie wow! Tired? Yes. Happy? Very. The new songs rock. Here are a few pics of my journey:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=148214&id=506532821&ref=mf

In other news, a friend of mine had a big gig recently, and asked to go onstage and dance like a mother funker in a comedy bear costume. Fun times! How to get lady attention very swiftly, wear a comedy bear costume. Try it, it really works :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMJ6jKD7Evw

I had my first ever real photo-shoot with a proper team a few weeks back, a stylist, make-up dude, lighting rigs the works. Bit weird. Friggin cool though. We got some surreal pictures for the artwork and for the website. Like semi-iconic pics? They actually make me look pretty dapper! Ha! OMG! Amazing location for the shoot. It was like a fairytale fantasy land. Quite trippy. Like vogue meets hobo. Very me really :) Perfecto location. It was actually this antique collector's house. Was insane. The family were loveies though, made me honey tea and shit. High-five! My management took a pic on a camera phone that you can see below, chow chow amigoes for now!!!

Abbey Road / Mini Tour of Germany / EPK!

Just got back from a mini-industry tour of Germany. From Berlin to Hamburg, then Cologne and Munich! Was awesome. We played stripped down acoustic sets with just cello, piano and guitar - it went down really well, smiles and clapping and laughter and drunkardness :) We've had lots of great offers from some important industry partners already and we've only just got back from the tour! Well well worth it, thanks to anyone that came down and everyone that made it all happen...

We recently went to have a look around Abbey Road in London which was freakin amaaaaazing - We are looking at doing a live recording / live dvd showcase for the industry in early 2010 and Abbey Road seems like the ideal location. Arghhhhhhhhhhhh! Exciting!

And finally, we recently shot an EPK and it has just about finished being edited. Looks really cool, can't wait to reveal all.

Band Rehearsal - Live Footage - "She Is Love"...

Live on Balcony TV...

Just finished a long week of co-writing in london. Was good fun, worked with some amazing writers and wrote some wicked songs. Also played on balcony tv hamburg a few weeks back, it's now on-line - I even spoke a word or two auf deutsch :) Heading up to my hometown Scarborough to play a show in a little wooden boat tomorrow - fun times! Then back to hamburg to work in the studio on the album - we're doing string arranging at the moment which is my fav, I luuuuuuuuurve strings...

Twitter...

Just a quickie to say I have succumbed to twittering :)

http://twitter.com/ashleyhicklin

Let's follow each other!!! But not in a weird kinda way :)

Record Deal Signed!!! / Yamaha Guitar Sponsorship

It's official! We signed the final paperwork for our record deal with Ferryhouse Productions / Warner Music! All very exciting. There will be a signing video on-line shortly. 2010 is gonna be a fun year working with this team. Looking forward to touring the record, which is starting to sound wwwwwwicked. Franz Plasa is a musical genius!

In other news I have my first sponsorship deal :) Yaaaaay! Big smiley face! Yamaha guitars sent me a new CPX15N Acoustic and it's absolutely bloomin beautiful. Probably the nicest guitar I have ever played, and i've played a lot of geeetars. Massive thankyou to the peeps at yamaha. Go buy one just like mine you won't be disappointed...