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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