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Sep 14.2009
So the day after our first gig we had planned a relaxing day of a few small journeys. First off we were set to have lunch with Sylvain’s parents. They lived just about fifteen minutes from Geneva, so it was a very fast journey to their lovely home in the country.
Sylvain’s mother prepared the most delicious meal. We were all really grateful to get a wonderful home-cooked meal in such a beautiful environment and had a lot of fun playing with their cat, who looked a bit like a tiger and caught a mouse and proceeded to play with it cruelly before our very eyes.
After that we had the opportunity to do some recordings at a church nearby. The acoustics were wonderful and surprisingly reverberant for the humble size of the church. I’ll be releasing these videos on my website and vimeo soon. Just have to do a little mix. We performed a nearly acapella version of The Sad Song, a fully orchestrated version of Death of a Son and All In Our Hands there. We also did a strange vocal improvisation which sounded almost a bit Webernish! hahah, that’s not necessarily a good thing, but it was for us a very interesting experiment and we really got into it. It felt good.
After that we went to my friend Stéphane’s 40th birthday party down near the lake. Stéphane hasn’t changed even a touch since the last time I saw her nearly ten years ago. She’s the same spirited, wildly intelligent person I remember. We chatted with a bunch of her good friends and the Pilots stripped down and jumped into the cold lake - a very impressive feat indeed! Ben was telling me though that as he swam deeper out into the lake the current got quite strong and when a wave crashed over him and filled his mouth with lake water he very quickly swam back to shore!
So from here we drove back to Lyon. We watched Hitchcock’s Frenzy in the van, until the film had about 10 minutes until its conclusion… suddenly I smelled burning rubber. I looked at Graeme who had the same slightly quizzical look on his face. We mentioned it to Mido and Finnian up in the front seat and they had noticed not only that but there was smoke coming from under the hood. We were 18 kilometers from Lyon!!!
After a lot of headaches for poor Mido we made it safe and sound to our hotel. That’s another chapter though. I’ll post about that tomorrow.
Off to a good start!Sep 12.2009
So yesterday was our very first performance of the tour! It was in the Alhambra theatre in Geneva, Switzerland, a place I’ve never seen before. It’s a lovely city, very gentle and… well square. And I mean literally. There are just lots of right angles in the architecture! Anyway, we played as part of La Batie festival. I can’t write too much right now because we’re set to check out of our rooms in 18 minutes and I have yet to pack (!) but the show went well. And a very old friend of mine, Stéphane Mitchell, who had just turned 40 on the very day came to the show! It was so great to see her, and have a chat after the show.
Also, and it sucks I can’t remember the woman’s name, but after the show we had a very long chat with a woman who came with her boyfriend David. He was the one who set up our live performance on the radio (THANK YOU!) and it turned out she was from the Bronx originally, which is where my dad was from, so we had a long chat about Mozzie (slang for Mozzarella cheese) and New York. She had been really moved by the performance of Umbrellas, and described her experience in such a way that really touched me so much.
I’ll tell you, the shows are fun, but really it’s meeting folks afterwards that brings a lot of warmth and happiness. So if you come to one of our shows afterwards, come and introduce yourself!
Here’s an image of Graeme and Scalde just before the show tuning up.
Sep 10.2009
Today we’re having a day off after a solid 5 days of very hardcore rehearsing! Yesterday was great, we got through the set 3 times, and did a few tweaks to The Turn and a couple others… We met Mido the tour manager and Finian the sound engineer. Both really lovely guys. I’m so excited that it’s kind of keeping me up at night though! Anyway, I’m sure once the tour gets in the swing all natural biorhythms will be restored!
Next stop Geneva!
you have to count your blessings!Sep 08.2009
...especially on days like today!!!!
I’m leaving behind all the stuff that went wrong, so here’s what went right!
We got lots of vocal practice in! It really started sounding so nice, the Sad Song did. Practice has made it so that the guys feel so much more comfortable with their vocals and we’re able to build a lovely emotive structure together. It’s quite a lovely experience. I suppose it’s probably a bit like singing in church or something. And actually, we went and sang in the hallway where there was really nice reverb.
EXCITING!: Sylvain suggested we shoot a cluster video of Sad Song in a church near his parent’s home in a few days, so hopefully that will be worked out.
Aside from that, and a lot more practice… well, the day was pretty exhausting. Tomorrow we meet Mido, our tour manager who seems like a very nice guy already, and we will send him off to Geneva with our equipment in advance of our flights Thursday night. We’re all getting so excited, and, it has to be admitted, a bit nervous as well!
our lips are sealedSep 07.2009
Not to sound gushy, but wow… Today at around 2:30, even 3… no maybe later actually… Sylvain suggested we work on another new song. I had been contented with adding Puss and a new version of Sad Song! And honestly, today had already been a bit grueling. Just really hard work… So I was like… hmm…. really? But we all agreed… let’s do another cover.
We discussed doing a cover of one of my favorite songs, Sweet Dreams, the Don Gibson song made famous by Patsy Cline. It would take a bit to arrange that though, so thought we might try my cover of Our Lips are Sealed, the classic Go-Gos song which already had a vocal arrangement. I played them my cover, and within an hour not only had Ben, Sylvain and Jasper mastered the backing parts, and Graeme the bassline, but we had arranged the song to be performed WITHOUT playback! I’m so excited by the progress we’ve been making and can’t wait to share these tunes with you folks!