A holiday message from Uncle Matt
Don't you just hate it when people leave out of date blogs posted on their front pages for months at an end?
It's like going round someone's house in April and finding cobwebbed Christmas decorations and ancient-old-man's-balls-balloons dangling everywhere. it just screams 'DISTRACTED' or possibly 'DEAD'. It certainly suggests 'I'M NEVER COMING BACK' . And who could blame you...
So I apologise. It's my fault. I have been distracted, but I'm not yet dead.
How's things? Really? Oh well...
I started 2008 in Los Angeles which is in America. (WWWesscoasss') (west coast).
I was there producing an album for a band called KaiserCartel. They are two elementary school teachers from Brooklyn. One is called Courtney and is a girl. The other one is called Benjamin and is a boy. Courtney (guitar, vox, piano, drums) is extremely cat-ish and Benjamin (drums, vox, guitar, birthdays) is extremely dog-ish. You would expect them to just chase each other around the studio the whole time yapping and hissing but they didn't. Not all the time. They both have wonderful voices and make music that is simultaneously eccentric and classic. They use no bass - I like this because you can really hear the kick drum and the thrum of the acoustic guitars.
I made Courtney record the sound of their house to put into one of the mixes because I wanted the place that the songs come from to be in the recording somewhere but it got left off in the end. That means I've got a recording of their apartment which I like to listen to and imagine I'm not me. But them. And they're not them. But me....
The album we made together is called 'March Forth' and will be out in June on bluhammock. I'm proud to have been involved in it. I suggest you check it out.
Why am I writing in such short sentences? I guess I'm thinking in short bursts to save energy.
After mixing their album (mixing hurt my brain) I turned my attention to the mighty 'lung. I decided to celebrate my independence by recording a selection of lungsongs from the 3 records in an all-new twinkly acoustic style. Me and Ben (brother, younger, hairier, big hands) and Dave (over-talented, sweetfaced, hairy, medium hands rising to large by late afternoon if bongo-d) are doing it. So far it sounds rather lovely. Maybe next time I'll let you hear some... If any of you have any great titles for an album of acoustic reworkings I'd be interested to hear them. Otherwise it'll probably be called 'ACOUSTICON 4: SOUND BEYOND SOUND'.
Help me.
Hope your Aprils go well,
love from
matt
x