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The past week has been a productive one. We’ve got 19 songs all pretty solidly structured now.  That being said, they could all get cut up or fleshed out and I wouldn’t be able to predict which one.  I’ve never worked this hard on a record before and I thought I worked pretty darn hard on the last Sugar Army record I did. The Birds team has a knack of isolating problems and solving them over time.  Every song has it’s own A3 paper on a wall, with a list of ideas or problems that the song need to apply or solve. It’s amazing how a little organisation can give your brain that extra space it needs.

The band is in a good spot, everyone seems to have respected opinions, there’s no politics or egotistic bullshit. This can really spoil a band. I’ve been there (excluding Birds), I was probably responsible for some of it. We’ve picked up on some older ideas that have been waiting for their time since France.  Binary has a whole new vibe to it and it’s working, more so, as a live band too. Woodwarms also has a new approach and some new sections. The constantly used metaphor that each song is a rubic’s cube, you move one part and the whole thing changes. Song’s are puzzles.

Our producer is arriving in less than two weeks, and that’s exciting.  We’ve had a few skype chats about the songs, and already he’s provided great advice. I like that he gives us a little creative challenges like writing 100 song titles. He’s here for around a month and then we’re all off to Los Angeles together for 14 weeks. Indeed, it will be quite the adventure!

Ian Patrick Le Bern.

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Thus begins some unsolicited theories and observations…

is art is an object or an effect?

This is something that a couple of us talk about a bit… the idea that art, in any form, is not merely a tangible object but an “effect”. I guess the long standing view is that art is something created by a person or persons that has never existed (even poor facsimiles would still possess 0.01% of something unique). So the thinking is that once it exists and one can look at it, touch it, hear it, smell it, taste it…then by default the art is the object, which we “observe” right?

What we discuss is that art “occurs” between the ‘object’ and the ‘observer’. That the term should not be limited to a finite object of creative matter, but to include the intangible field of effect that happens at the moment where the object ends and the connection with the person begins…

here is a drawing which illustrates this:

Now of course, it should be noted right now that our scholarly theories have no foundation in anything academic…other than the school of fine whisky, late nights and good beer!

But we think its pretty cool to think about music in this way:

Regular souls like us will never have a direct connection with many listeners…99% of it will be speaker -> ear of a wonderful stranger or video or whatever…but the if the idea of great focused creativity is to be able to accurately position a listener in such a way that they find themselves completely beholden to what your artistic intention, story or theme IS…then adhering to the law of averages, the more people that you can create a similar “EFFECT” with…then that’s when really cool art is happening…its not the music. That’s not the art in our discussion…it’s the effect is having on the person who we will never know…if any?! Now, of course many people will argue that interesting art will have a completely different effect on people..being subjective and all…which is cool…if that is the artists INTENTION (meaning, if they are deliberately creating a sense of ambiguity or surreality etc ).  But if it is not the intention and there is a general smearing of opinion from one interpretation to another…then has the artist succeeded in moving people in any intended way? Perhaps, but then is that just art for arts sake, relating only to the “object” of art itself and not the all-important connection, of which our patron souls seek? It sort of harks to the old adage of “if a tree falls”. If we made something in the dark, and we nor anybody else saw it or experienced it…would it still be considered art? Or simply something we made?

However, if we illuminated the room…then something happens right? Maybe that’s a bad analogy but it kinda makes sense to me right now.

I suppose the point is…that there is a feeling that great art / music / film / photography / sculpture…you name it, occurs when there is more than one of us (humans) present…that maybe totally untrue, but it’s the current thinking in the white parker camp. And that connection is what odd souls like us value and seek when we are working. I could go on and on, but it becomes circular quite quickly when the stream of consciousness is open and the fingers are not quick enough to capture it all.

ajs.

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hello,

well, if the prophecies are true..this may be the last year for all of us on earth!?…i hope not…who knows…?

either way..there are a million things to do.

after a little break, of sorts, wednesday see’s us all together which is the last period of writing / start of pre production…we are still sitting at about 20 odd songs / pieces which will be cut down again…we really have a strong culture or blueprint for this body of work now…it’s gonna take us a while to make this record, due to the nature of the material…but we can promise, it’s not like you’ve heard the band before…which is both really exciting and kinda scary! we have begun great communication, emails, shared coffee’s, talked society and politics with our creative partner who will be working on the project with us.

on that note, we feel this record (with all due respect to our previous work) is the first time we actually have a purpose…we have this, kind of, artistic – thought evoking whiteboards board full of text, quotes, imagery and so on…to remind us and ask us the big question…which is:

why are we making more music?

nobody “makes” us do this…so we kinda feel, we better have a pretty good reason to put more work out there amongst some really special music that we’ve been listening to.

we talk alot about society, change, technology, human interaction and responsibilities to one another, the advent of new communication and its effects, decisions, relationships, sociology, philosophy and our “own” philosophies…

in the past, although we have a sense of pride regarding what we have created (there is always things which we love and of course, like any artists, things that make us cringe)…but its quite apparent to us right now, that we haven’t been as thoughtful and purposeful as now. that’s not necessarily a bad thing…but its taken that time and concurrent learning curve, to lend us a footing in the current thoughtful landscape.

all that said. the music is sounding heartbreakingly big and beautiful…instead of focusing on the up / down nature of volume and dynamics…there is a great new dimension of forward  -  back dynamics and a sense of playing with musical focus, which pushes and pulls around some really stunning vocal passages…lots of focus of s different kind on cadences and trying to achieve a sense of really forward sounding, hymnal, communal-esque pieces…

everyone is banging on still about how rock is dead….maybe its just not being done right…i can understand why people are bored with rock music currently and perhaps let down by what is floating around…i totally get that and hence why people crave  those nostalgic moments of music of bygone era’s…i don’t feel we are abandoning rock music…but i think deep down we are trying to find our own modern spin on something we love…without buying too much into the idea of creating nostalgia…sure, its a great feeling…but it also has limited scope in moving forward in time…so who knows..we may nail this…we may not. but we’re going to kill ourselves trying to make sense of this!

really looking forward to spending time with my creative friends in a couple of days.

yours, in thought today..

ajs.

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bit of a quiet one this week as have been redecorating the working space a bit…its mostly about the new lights…we are also looking for a good ole cheap scotch cabinet if anyone has one?! hah i think we feel its becoming less of a studio and more of an “everyday distinguished gentlemans drinking / movie watching lounge”. also looking for one of those taxidermy type boards with the fake singing fish on it (just in case you know of anyone with said item…)

it seems we have finally settled on a creative partner for the project too which we are all really happy about. its gonna be really cool. “creative partner” really been helping us to focus on the really important things around the songs and to encourage “no settling”. this has been really helpful in songs like binary which had become a bit of a intro / v1 / pre / v2 / pre / ch / bridge / pre / ch type standard arrangement, which now has become almost 2 songs with a big watery chorus right in the middle…and ironically enough…stepping away from that standard approach has given us a structurally stronger piece….complete with unusual structure.

counter to the above mentioned…we have found also some great truth in the Orwell quote: The absence of limitations is the enemy of art.

but, to be honest, there isn’t alot of our comfortable standard approaches on this body of work anyway, structure wise…so its an everlasting battle of the balances between that ” songwriting point of difference” and adhering to what we all “feel” is a classic arrangement…it takes a lot of listening and listening to find the answers…and alot of time at the piano for glenn and myself. …the hard part is picking when to fight that left of centre instinct and when to just let your inner pop craftsman bleed out.

we regroup as a whole in a few weeks…this is starting to feel really magical…esp. around the festive season!

but for now,

let us illuminate y’all with a photo i took this afternoon of our new ‘budget’ lights…

speak soon…

adam.s.

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happy friday!

so today we are trying something a little different…we have a good amount of material, but we are stripping all vocals and working  to kind of ignore everything we have written melodically….a bit of free association i guess in terms of throwing any random ideas at it…or free improvisation…we had tonnes of really great melodies etc etc….but we may find something really interesting with this process…if we dont..then we still have more than we need.

we are also pretty close to sorting out the planning side of actually heading away making this thing for early 2012. which is, all at the same time, exciting, motivating and terrifying….when you’ve been writing for a year or so it helps to have a bit of a deadline to work towards…decisions have to be made at gun point…and varied visions should find a meeting point.

a.s.

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hi again,

we have been physically absent for a few weeks…travels around the place for various meetings and holidays etc etc for everyone.

back in the saddle this coming week. that old saying: the more you learn, the more you realise you know very little…or something to along that path…applies to writing a tonne of music too. we have a fair amount of material, but as we dig deeper…shit. we have lots to do before beginning in the studio…a couple of us have started (although trying NOT to bring in more and more new ideas until we flesh out the older pieces) on a few more new bits…who knows where these will end up?!

our biggest challenge now is matching the sonic sentiments with the right lyrical / cultural dialogue…most of the songs / ideas and melodies exist…but now the really important / challenging and also exciting bit…is finding the literary voice of the record…im not sure how many bands work like us (maybe many?)…but 99% of the songs…we’ll write the music..then melodies..then work the music back around the melodies…i guess its a gut feeling thing, to which, kenny usually adds his words. im not even sure what it is like to be in a band with one person writing the songs in entirety…seems weird to me personally… but works for many great artists!

the approach is a little different this time around as these nature of these songs ask for a lot more interwoven connection..i think we are getting stronger and more mature as artists and we are certainly driving ourselves mental over this! haha but its totally worth it. it all needs to make sense with regard to the ongoing conversation with strangers..

so hopefully (very hopefully), we now begin a last multi-month burst of putting this framework together before we bunker down to try and capture this project…

using the word project very purposefully…as i think our new headspace has pledged for a place in an unfamiliar creative house.

thanks for listening..and will be updating more regularly from now…

and so begins our first attempt at putting together a tiny snippet of film from recent writing endeavours. more soon!

a.j.s.

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and I’m wide awake, but this morning isn’t like any other because for the first time in something like fourteen years Portishead are on Australian shores and I will be catching their performance tonight (I’ve had to veto talking to Sparki and Berney who saw them two nights ago). I’ve spent countless hours listening to this pivotal group from their two amazing albums in the nineties up to the more recent and equally if not more impressive Third…gee I’ve still got Dummy on cassette somewhere…but what I found interesting upon reading several interviews with Geoff Barrow were some of his thoughts on the eleven year gap between their last two records. Obviously there are many factors, but to touch on that he has recently fallen back in love with music again and there wasn’t a hell of a lot that was inspiring to listen to for quite a while there kinda got me thinking…

…as some mornings I question myself whether I dig most music as much as I used to, whether I even personally like what we’re doing as a band and if I’m as excited about it as I should be, is there other music that will satisfy me more, will I still enjoy this for years to come, do we need to be making this statement???? Then I get out my notepad, switch on the Marantz, fire up the demos and think what the fuck were you just talking about!! “The band has never dug this deep or come this far before and these are just the first generation demos!” Perhaps it’s natural to question the be all end all at this part of the process, but upon becoming lost in our new ideas again I’m reassured that this material has total feeling and it’s a body of work that we’re feeling so connected to….and this is still just the beginning. Slight panic attack over…back to ‘The Rip’.

A.W (Oliver Sacks)

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with everyone taking a little “me” time at the moment until early december…studio time is minimal, but still progressing. berney is in working on some bass ideas for for various bits with anyone bugging him ..heh. i’ve been at home on my piano trying to provide some more points of difference to some of the songs that have a bit too much repetition in the chords and phrasing…and watching the princess bride :) glenn is visiting peeps back home, mr weston is trying to find a tropical home and kenny…well..he’s probably neck deep in prog rock and snacking on his beloved little bites of chocoalate.  a few of us had a breakthrough on the end of “redefining” …with its hymnal epic, yet understated positivity. its amazing what can happen when you break down to just two chords. hallelujah! add to that some pitch bent dreamy haze and you have yourself another moment to add to the new collection.

went to harvest festival yesterday and it was really inspiring…portishead just sounded otherworldly..incredible. mogwai, the national, holy fuck, tv on the radio and the flaming lips all killed it. such an incredible environment to take in some of what we consider to be a handful of the most beautiful bands in the world.

a.s.

the national. beautiful.

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