6.40pm

Hello,
Three days into the recordings and its all going swimmingly,
The weekend was good, as we settled into Stockholm. We decided to have a competition to see who could spend most of their expenses before we even made it into the studio. Its an easy thing to do here. Kenny seems to have won the competition for who could get stung the most for drinks after getting charged £12 for two irish coffees. Jari was introducing us to some of favourite restaurants and bars. Stockholm is a very busy place to be on weekend nights and the kids are out in force having a tincture or twenty.
Things nearly didn't get off to such a great start when someone drove into the back of my car about two minutes from Prestwick Airport, luckily no damage was done to passengers or car, and the woman who drove into me apologised for hitting the car and had only done so cause she was looking at the traffic. Next time i'd advise looking at the traffic in front of you so you can see when it stops at a roundabout.
We almost missed the plane cause we were having a tincture in the bar des voyages and didn't realise they were planning on taking off twenty minutes ahead of schedule, but we made it in the end, Nigel sprinting down the corridor was greeted by the gate staff on walkie talkies telling their colleagues on the plane that the last one was on his way, and its ok, cause he's running...
Anyhoo, i'll away and let someone else tell you something,

cheers, Gav

4:52pm

We're all falling over ourselves to write to you because we feel like we've really got something to say and I've made it to the laptop first while we're doing a song I'm not playing on. I can hear Lee's cymbals smashing away and Nigel, also currently absent from song creation, doing his office work next to me.
Stockholm is amazing and full of leaves. I always feel a bit homesick on the day I travel but can't help feeling happy here, doing this. I loved the bus trip from the airport, listening to Cole's Corner, looking out the window in the dark. It's the kind of album that demands that kind of sentimentality.

The band have been impressively sociable, out every night before starting recording and spending all our money on liquid refreshments. Our eyes are smarting from the late nights and early mornings. Our stomachs are soggy with over-priced evil hotdogs and the fingertip callouses are growing. In other words we're having the time of our lives.

love Carey

Butterflies

Hello there,

I've got butterflies in my tummy. We're all off to Stockholm tomorrow to record our next album. Crikey! It's quite daunting really. We've only ever recorded in one studio really, and we've only ever worked with lovely Geoff Allan. This time we'll be in a strange country, in a strange studio, with a strange man in charge. Actually, I take the bit about the strange man back. Our producer Jari Haapalainen is not strange at all, he's very nice you know. It's going to be great and I hope you'll like the results.
Well, I just thought I'd say cheerio to you all and ask you to wish us luck. Sounds like I'm heading off to war or summat.

Bye for now and take care
TRacyanne

Post Pre-production Pre-production

I work nights sometimes, and it's only when I get home at about 8.30 in the morning that I realise I shouldn't have had three cups of coffee in the last two hours. I repeat this idiocy regularly; I'm a slow, slow, slow learner.

So, now that I'm resigned to self-inflicted insomnia, I might as well prattle awhile. At least it'll keep that tyrant of a manager at bay. Blog! Blog! Mau! Mau!

We're doing some more pre-production this week. In other words the producer is (hopefully) coming back to Glasgow for a couple of days rehearsal to help guide us toward something very very special. I need to get a few hours sleep, but not too much, or I won't sleep tonight and oversleep tomorrow. So much to do. Parts to remember/scrap/learn/change. My favourite thing about being in this band is about to start in a few days time.

My least favourite thing in general, or at least in my Bottom Five (there's another idea for you, Nigel) is American Pie by Don McLean. It's just come on the radio. Surely I'm not alone in hating that song, in all its incarnations? I feel ready to force myself to sleep now. Mmm, whisky...

Don - I know you'll be reading this - I mean you no offence. Vincent (Starry Starry Night) is the true classic. Just beautiful.

Goodnight
Kenny

some bampot should blog

I'm going to apologise before I even start. It's been ages since I blogged. Sounds like a confession or something. It sort of feels like one to be honest! Our manager just sent us all an email saying 'some bampot should blog'. I'm scared of him so I'm going to.
When the band decided to have a blog page everyone was under strict instruction to never let a day or two go by without blogging. We haven't been very good at sticking to that have we? Anyway, I'm sure you're all sick of me going on and on about how difficult I find it, so again I'm just going to tell you about a few of my favourite things at the moment.

Coles Corner - (the new album by) Richard Hawley. It sounds big and romantic and you should all run out and buy it if you know what's good for you.
Green Tea with Jasmine - A cup of this sorts me out in the morning good style.
Zoe Strachan (author) her new book is called Spin Cycle and it's set in Glasgow and based around three women who work in a Laundrette. It made me want to work in one actually! Hmm.

All for now,

Tracyanne

You couldn't make it up

Wow have you seen our new site? Good huh? With all these photos of us stuffing our faces on tour we are really spoiling you. How will we be able to keep up our miserable persona now eh?
There's even an oppurtunity to enjoy the ultimate music lover/interweb geekery crossover and talk on the forum. I can imagine kids joyfully skipping through the cyber fields where we are the flowers and animals and thanking their lucky stars they discovered us.
I have housework to do now.

Carey x

Pre-Production

We spent the weekend in a studio (well, two studios to be exact) in Glasgow with Jari, our producer for the new record, doing some pre-production for the recordings. Its exciting times as we put the finishing touches to the new songs prior to travelling over to Stockholm for the session. Meeting Jari was great, a nice time was had in Mono and in the 13th note over veggie/vegan dinners and we got through a lot of work in the studios.

Its new ground for us working with a producer, up until now we've produced ourseleves, apart from eighties fan, which Stuart Murdoch worked on for us. This is the first time we'll have recorded in one long session as well, up until now we've been stuck recording over weekends whenever we had the time to go into Cava. Its not long now until we're off, and everyone is desperate to get into the studio. We're aiming high with this, determined to make our best record yet. The songs are sounding really good, and we think you're going to really like the new record.

Gav