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Nov 30.2009
I am! Sorry, the end of the tour was plagued by really bad or non-existent internet connections. Then I returned home and… well, kind of collapsed - a very warm, satisfied kind of collapse, mind you! But still, phew! It’s good to be home! Anyway, onwards…
After the massive excitement of our appearance at the Prix Constantin we drove to Calais. Calais is very close to England, and I’d been told it was quite an industrial town. Anyway, it was a bit of a drive and we arrived late afternoon. As soon as we got out of the vehicle a car pulled up and four people jumped out. They asked if I was Fredo and could I play them a little of my music - they weren’t sure whether they were going to come tonight or not! hahaha! This was truly hilarious and wonderful so I played them a tune and they agreed to come, but only after I snapped a picture of them!
The venue was situated within an odd entertainment enclosure… not quite sure how to describe it. It was a bizarre mix of industrial and monstrous! Here’s a couple shots of the place:
The stage was really wonderful, as the seats climbed up just before it… it felt more ritual to me. And the sound was quite good as well.
Anyway, we did a circular video with this lovely crowd as well, which I will add within the next week on theturn.tv. Here’s an image from it:
After Calais we traveled to Le Havre, but I’m going to give that trip a full blog entry, because there are a ton of pictures! We LOVED Le Havre!!! Until tomorrow…
plenty more on the way
Nov 17.2009
I’m sitting down on my last day in Paris to write a bit more about the rest of my trip. We saw so many wonderful places in our last week. But before doing that, just wanted to invite people to listen to (and hopefully buy!) my friend Bluermutt’s new ep. Bluermutt is a very talented electronic musician who has worked with me both on remixes of my music, as well as with me giving voices for his own music. Please take a listen!
Montpellier - sour to sweetNov 15.2009
So we arrived at Montpellier’s venue Le Trioletto in the afternoon. This day we were supposed to have Soap and Skin opening up for us. I’d heard one of her pieces and found it to be imaginatively produced, if a bit bloodless. Still, the imagination was impressive so I was looking forward to meeting her, as was Sylvain.
We got down to business… the sound check seemed to go very well, and at a certain point a vampyric young woman came walking in followed by 3 men. I smiled at all of them, but neither she nor any of her entourage smiled back. Ahwell… perhaps she is shy.
Twenty minutes later we were nearly ready to do a run-through when we heard a wild rumor that Soap and Skin had cancelled her gig opening for us! Soon enough it was confirmed - apparently she didn’t like the mixing board and found the stage lights too “rock.”
Anyway, we were now slated to begin an hour earlier and had time to do a much longer gig! So we added Cucurrucucu Paloma to the set, as well as decided to shoot a circular video with the audience. We’d done that once before, at the still unreleased Blogotheque Soiree, and it was quite effectively rousing! So tonight during our first curtain call we gave some instruments to the audience, asked them to stand around us in a circle and… well, just started howling away! It was quite fun! Sadly the microphone on my camera mostly just picked up my voice. Next time we’ll be ready with an external mic. But the video is quite a nice souvenir from a lovely show with a very generous audience.
See the video on my website theturn.tv - it’s the small circle there! Later I will provide a youtube link as well.
Nov 13.2009
OK, so this night proved to be just as exciting as it promised to be… We had the great opportunity to perform two songs at the Olympia, which is a very very famous, large theatre in Paris. Edith Piaf and the Beatles have performed there, along with countless others. I had been nominated for the Prix Constantin, an award for music that has yet to have widespread popularity produced in France. (Yes, my label is French, so somehow I fit onto the list of 11 nominees!)
I was sure I wouldn’t win. Especially when listening to the other nominees, my music just sticks out, so I knew it would be an odd choice for the judges. But truly, and I really really mean this, it was just cool to be nominated and have the opportunity to perform in this great hall!
We started the day with a sound check - a completely HEAVENLY sound check! You really have no idea how much the quality of the monitoring system helps out a performance! The crew at the Olympia were fast and extremely good. We practiced the two songs we were set to perform - Robinson Crusoe and The Sad Song - and then in the last five minutes did a really rousing performance of Death of a Son just to feel it in this space. It felt great. Really really great. The crew were really nice too… Here’s a couple shots…
This guy was from the UK, near Manchester. His name is Dom:
So now we had about 8 hours to wait for our time in the show (just around halfway through - we were going on 5th.) Our friend Renaud, who has created several wonderful performance videos with us in the past, suggested he knew a church at which the Pilots could perform a couple songs for video. This church was very near The Olympia, so we agreed it was a good thing to do… a good way to practice our singing as well!
OK… so the church he brought us to is the second largest in Paris! When we saw it we were all completely bowled over! Holy Magdalene!
That said, once we got inside it was actually just a bit too big. Spaces like this don’t appeal to me sonorously. They are so large that in order to have your voice ring out you really have to project loudly. Soft notes don’t reverberate at all, so it’s a bit hard to sing. You might as well be standing outside, or in a very dry studio. It’s a bit offputting.
We did 2 lovely songs by I Am Your Autopilot: Stateside and All In Our Hands. Then we tried The Sad Song and it sounded horrible!!! Pitchy as hell! We started in one key and ended in quite another!
So we went back to the Olympia to wait, quite on edge. Some of the more humorous moments were when we had to have our faces made up! Here’s a shot I snapped of Graeme having his face prettified…
But all our anxiety melted when it finally came time to perform. It was just one of the most exciting experiences of my life… waiting backstage to go on…
It reminded me quite a lot of Robert Altman’s Nashville, kind of felt like we were performing in the Grand Ole Opry! The crowd was so warm, the sound so luscious. After the two songs we went to the front of the stage and were interviewed by the charming host of the show, and even that was a blast!
Here’s a shot I took during the interview period of the audience:
After the show we met a bunch of really nice people and went to the after party. I met a very lovely woman named Dounia who chatted with me for a long time. Here’s a shot of her and her friend, who’s name sadly escapes me:
Also we met a very feisty woman named Emily who kept challenging the Pilots and Scalde to ping pong! We took a photograph with her as well:
After the party, and after we packed everything into the van, I snuck back to take a few shots of the crew as they took the stage down… I love the look of a stage after a show. There are so many markings on the floor, so much debrit of creativity, and the electrical charge of the evening’s performances still hangs in the air.
Nov 13.2009
After Lyon came what we thought would be the climax of the entire two leg tour: our show at La Cigale, performing as part of the LesInrocks Festival. And indeed it was fun. But the audience was very noisy throughout, or at least the part of the audience that was around the bar. Usually during the Turn they are more quiet. It was a good experience to have, as really all experiences are good for a person who has such little performing experience, but we would have been happier if it had been a little more quiet! So, despite it’s being a fun night, it was a wee bit frustrating.
Following LesInrocks we moved on to Clermont-Ferrand. This night proved to be another slightly odd night, as the band playing just before us was extremely energetic - really big, strong music! It makes a big difference, the kind of music that you follow, and truly I would have preferred this band to follow us! They were really nice guys too. Starboard Silent Side was their name and one of the members of the band was really kind to us after our show. I really like nice musicians!!
LYON!!!!!Nov 12.2009
Sorry to have disappeared for a while! We’ve had a really busy schedule and very poor web access, so I haven’t been able to write!
First let me tell you about the gig in Lyon, which went very well! We were opening (with an hour long set) with Patrick Watson, who it turns out is a really really cool guy. First of all, I’m sure he won’t mind me writing this because his gig was just awesome, but the guy really can drink! And drink he did before his show! He got very jolly indeed. We were all really charmed by his personality and quite impressed by his show.
Anyway, here’s a shot of us outside the venue:
For some reason, nearly every photograph I took of the band showed the person in a crazy light! We were laughing hysterically in the van the next day, especially at the following two shots:
It was quite a jolly atmosphere at the show. The crew were all really nice as well, and the dinner they served was yet another superb meal!
This venue is also kind of the perfect size. Not too big, not too small. Just right. Here’s a shot before the show:
And how did we perform? Well, considering this is the home town of Scalde, the show had some added significance so it was one of the more memorable ones for us. Here’s a shot of the smoke-filled theatre with the crowd mostly lost in the mist (but apparently happy!)
Le Fou du Roi / Mansfield Tya
Nov 04.2009
Yesterday morning we all woke up quite early (sadly all the guys from the UK had only had a few hours sleep this night and the night prior!) and went over to perform on a big radio show in France called Le Fou du Roi. When we arrived at the place, and as we were guided down the hall towards the space where we were to play I could hear tubas and trumpets rehearsing. I distinctly heard part of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, which thrilled me. The studio itself was MASSIVE, with a good sized area for an audience as well! This was much more than we expected, so everyone was totally thrilled.
Rehearsal/sound check went well, and the performance even better. It was a lot of fun! The coolest part is that we did a cover and had piano accompaniment provided by Franck Gelibert. He was only supposed to play during the cover (we did Downtown of course!) but we asked him to play along with Robinson Crusoe as well and it really added a wonderful dimension and depth. Here’s a shot of Monsieur Gelibert:
Here’s a couple images of Sylvain waiting barefoot to enter for our second song:
Here’s an image of the space I took as I was leaving the stage:
We’ve twice played alongside the wonderful duo Mansfield Tya. They make very intense, spare, extremely beautiful music, and played a song on the show just before us. Here’s a shot of them backstage:
And their cool sound engineer… SonoS:
I’m writing in my hotel in Lyon… or actually, about 20 minutes outside of Lyon. Tonight we will play a gig with Patrick Watson. I hear he’s great!
What?? No Pictures???Nov 03.2009
Hello folks,
Yesterday was the official first day of the second leg of the tour and I have no images whatsoever to show for it! This was partly due to the fact that the first gig, a performance at a women’s prison in France, would not allow cameras. It was a really special show actually. The women were very honest and real and despite the fierce language barrier and guards all around us, I think we all really enjoyed ourselves.
At the end of the day I did a small gig in an Art Gallery called 12 Mail. It started out with 5 songs to cluster video accompaniment. Then I tried for the first time some solo live improvisation using 4 banks of live loops. I was very happy with how well that went. It was a bit difficult at first, but once I got into it the piece was really fun and wild. Then the guys joined me for a live performance of the Sad Song the way we plan to do it at the Prix Constantin, with video accompaniment. And then finally I just did a bunch of karaokes of my own tunes, and Cucurrucucu Paloma.
This morning we play on the radio, and then off to Lyon! Nice start so far!