London Show
Current mood: contemplative

Its been a while but then I always start my blogs by saying that. I should either write more blogs or stop saying it... Anyway this is more of a promotion than a blog, or rather call it an invitation. As many of you know Erin and I have spent most of the last year away from home but now its over and we are back and to celebrate I thought it would be fun to play a show in London. Then I thought about it and apart from the Apple Store show I have never played a solo show in London. Plus I have songs from my new album which will be out in November so all good causes to play a show...

It would be very nice to see as many of you there as possible to join with us in celebrating everything we love and do what we love the most. Its a venue called Synthetic and it's hosted at a very cool pub in Stockwell in South London called the Cavendish and its on Thursday the 31st of July. The details are in the upcoming events listing on my page. So see you there! love Roger

I will have some preview CDr's of my new record to give away and some badges! Erin will have some EPs for sale including an amazing remix by Dntel.

4:22 AM - 8 Comments - 10 Kudos - Add Comment

Where does it go and if we found out where, could we go there....
Current mood: artistic
Category: Life

OK well of course I am talking about time... Interestingly we always say "where does it go"? It goes where it always goes which is 180 degrees from where it came from and no we can't go there. We can visit the past in some ways but not the future, or can we ? hahah OK ..

Well its been nine months since I wrote a blog here, life has been difficult if not to say impossible at times but as usual Spring brings new light and flowers and happiness to everything.

My new album is finally finished and sent into the label and pencilled in for a late Summer release. It has been a difficult and at times very easy album to make, when it was difficult it was horrible and went it was easy it was unnerving. The last record was so momentous and so special to me, it came at the right time out of nowhere, saved my life, well more like a rebirth. Anyway you could say it was a tough one to follow and I have always thought that about first albums. You have your whole life to make that first one, its the sum of all those experiences then you have a year to make another one. I didnt want it to be the same yet I didnt want it to be different. I wanted to explore new areas but like the first one I didnt want to know where I was going, which was impossible.

I spoke very grandly of how I was going to approach it and how it should sound and what it would be like but its all bollocks as it is what it is , it just comes and finally bit by bit it did. The first song came in January 07 and the last in January 08. The first was inspired by a collection of clothes and images and an idea of tiny stitches and embroidered patterns and that theme kind of ran through the whole album.

If the first record was brought sweeps of colour, primary colours, this one is tiny pixels of very delicate tones. The first one had different colours for each scene whereas this one uses a friendly palette of sounds throughout ....

Anyway thats it and its called " Songs From The Silver Box". The title has multiple reference points and anyone who knows me will be able to pick them out... Yes I will leave it at that.
My best friend Ian Wright will again be designing the cover and the packaging, we decided it "wouldn't be right" if anyone else did it.

I really would like to take this opportunity to thank Kevin at Worlds Fair for his continued support. He will be releasing the record on his Great Society label and really his faith in my music has been inspiring throughout. I would also like to thank Erin and Lenka for singing and Bryan and Dave for programming but more of that later....

In the meantime I have a new music page on Facebook, it all seems a bit cross redundant but hey whatever ! So please go and become my friend, I will love you forever I promise....

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Roger-ODonnell/9158211963

12:03 PM - 22 Comments - 34 Kudos - Add Comment

Charlie

I just deleted my last Blog, there seems little point in raging against the machine especially one as big as the music industry and it's Summer which is no time to rage against anything right? Over the last few years the Summer has started to mean more and more to me, not sure why but sitting here in my garden as the Sun goes down at half past eight in the evening its difficult to visualise mid winter when its dark at four o'clock. It makes you wonder why we don't follow the sun around the world, love in Australia for the winter ... wait a minute hahah there are obvious reasons why we wouldnt do that ... but maybe Brasil ? Or do we need the changes in season? Are they part of the way we cycle and live, I think they are, especially for Europeans. So scratch that idea, its the suffering through the shit that makes the good bit even better ... hmmm not sure about that either. Anyway, I am very lucky to live in one of the most beautiful places in the world and about this time of year its unbelievably beautiful.

We feed the birds and anything else that comes along and we seem to have befriended a Crow, his name is Charlie, obviously and we make him peanut butter sandwiches. He is very demanding and even though we have fed him today he is sitting on one of the chimney pots on top of my house crowing ! One day he came and looked in the kitchen window for us, it had been raining for a week and we hadnt been out in the garden so he came and told us he was hungry. Now I feel guilty as I dont have anything for him ..... So apart from all this birdwatching and sun loving what have I been up to ?

I am about 85% finished a new record which will probably be released in February, It had a working title of "Prince of Time" but I thought that was a little too prog or pretentious or something, its now called "Songs from the Silver Box". Its a more ambiguous title, less descriptive, we will see how long it lasts. I have been collaborating with other people on this record, so far I have 3 different singers and one of the bands from my label has done some drum programming. It's difficult to describe where its gone from the last one, its gone sort of inside itself. If you think of the last one as being painted in broad brush strokes this one is pointelist... so from Rothko to Lichtenstein. Why do spell checkers all have to be American ? Why cant I spell "realise" with an S ? So the album, its really a lot about fine detail I think and its very much more rhythmic with percussion or beats on every track. I have so much more of an affinity with the Moog now than I did when I made the last record, instead of it being us getting to know each other now I know it inside out and I more define sounds than discover them. My black Voyager was back at the factory for the last 6 months being serviced and adjusted, I just got it back and have been using it non stop. Amos the guy at Moog who is in charge of that kind of stuff did an incredible job on my instrument, he has made it come to life. It is real artistry to do what he does, the subtleties in tone and touch are now just incredible and I can't thank him enough. Bob would be proud.

Charlie is still on the chimney and still crowing at me...

A few weekends ago we went to the Alll Tomorrows Party festival in Somerset which is the next county over from here. Martin and The Notwist were playing so we went mainly to see them but ended up staying for the whole weekend. It was really really interesting, Im not big on going to concerts but this festival was a good opportunity to see a whole group of bands from supposedly the genres that I like. The bands ranged from the absolutely ridiculous to the sublime. I was standing there watching all these awful bands and wondering what the fuck was going on, have I completely lost the plot ? Obviously yes hahah ... but wait do I really not know whats good and whats bad anymore ? The the Notwist guys said you have to see this Japanese band Cornelius, so we did and it was absolutely fantastic. It was everything I think a band should be, sound, look and behave like ... so at least there are 4 Japanese guys who think like I do and the audience liked them as well. I was watching them surrounded by musicians and every one of them had their mouths open! It was pretty funny to watch ... So can somebody tell me what the fuck is going on with all these "alt country" bands ? I also saw Wilco ! They sounded and looked just like the fucking Eagles .... Then there was Slint who I really wanted to see ... complete rubbish .... but worst of all and if you really want to have a laugh go check Bats for Lashes or something like that ... I nearly fell over laughing ... ok enough from me its cold out here now and Charlie is hungry ... Roger

1:01 PM - 7 Comments - 16 Kudos - Add Comment