Hello everybody,

The main reason for this blog is to say a huge thank you to every person who has supported our third album and helped it to reach number 31 in the UK album charts.

Your support is the reason why we are able to function as full-time songwriters and your faith and loyalty lets us really just focus on the task of making music. It is such a relief to know that you give our music a fair listen, without preconception, before making an honest decision as to whether you like it or not. We are completely appreciative of this.

Whether you have pledged, or downloaded, attended a gig or sent a message of goodwill – thank you 🙂

Me, Mickey, Matt and Steve had a lengthy meeting last December in a pizza shop in Banbury just before Christmas 2013 and decided two things: that we wanted to release music ourselves, totally independently and that we would try and make the next year our most productive ever.

We (I say we but in reality I mean Mickey), wanted to record and release 3 EPs and an album before the end of 2014, this was despite the fact that we currently had NO songs recorded and Mickey was due to become a Dad for the second time in March. Luckily we quickly revised our plan.

In setting up the little label we really wanted to learn about the machinations of releasing music but also to make sure that every aspect of what we did was treated with care and attention – without the distraction of ££$$$PROFIT$$£££. Logically we knew that having an office in the house (or a pizza shop!), recording in a garage, and creating videos and music ourselves (along with getting Mr and Mrs Coles to act as our distributors-to-the-power-ten from a house in sunny Jarrow) would make our overheads next to nothing – selling 100,000 albums was therefore never a goal – it could only ever be a byproduct, and without this pressure we happily set to work.

I think we all from the start had the idea of maybe having a top 40 album as a target – we’d never achieved it before despite the advantages of being helped by both major and independent labels, and so we really did have a point to prove in that – why can’t you do it yourself.

We have had a lot of help and support along the way from Steve and Amber our agents, Mr. Steve Tilley, AIM, Believe and our families – but we still feel like we have grafted.

I want to avoid this blog being over-sentimental but we aren’t often people who enjoy the moment and we do all feel that this one is something to cherish.

Mind you, we’ve already started planning the next one 😉

x

Hello everybody,

Hopefully you are well 🙂

Our new album Hope is Just a State of Mind was released on Monday into the world. At the start of last year we all sat down together to plan this release – doing everything ourselves: from making cups of tea, to choosing packaging, creating artwork to writing the songs. We had a surreal little target of a top 40 album.

We don’t often place much emphasis on numbers or charts put we really wanted to attempt something that so far had eluded the record labels we had worked with – almost taking our independence to an illogical extreme. A lot of this was based on people like you – people who have supported our music for years and years in many different forms. It gives us a great deal of confidence as song-writers that we have an open minded audience who seem to judge music on its merits and not on perception. You either like it or you don’t. This total honesty is something we very much appreciate.

Yesterday we received the news that the album is currently sitting at number 18 in the midweek charts – already due to the fact that yet again, you have been incredibly supportive of our music.

It would be truly fantastic to keep the album where it is, so all we would ask is that (if you haven’t already purchased the album) you might follow the link below, and if you like what you hear then maybe spend a couple of pennies!

If not no worries 🙂

iTunes ~ http://found.ee/Hope-iTunes
iTunes Deluxe ~ http://found.ee/Hope-Deluxe
Google Play ~ http://found.ee/Hope-GooglePlay
Amazon ~ http://found.ee/Hope-Amazon

Thanks again

Rob, Mickey and Matt

x

I think that this is really the most emotionally honest song that I’ve ever written, and also one of the simplest – it is just a message to my little boy William: my hopes for him. It’s a very optimistic tune and took place so late on in the recording of the album, that it became clear that this was the song to open the album.

We only realised once we’d finished recording it that it doesn’t really have a standard form – our songs often follow a particular pattern A B A B C A B, where A would be a verse and B chorus, C coming as a middle 8 or lift towards the end: but this song ignores it all, and the fact we weren’t really aware of it that until we’d completed it shows (in theory) that it works…

The form for this song is A B C D E, which is quite bizarre but I think it just happened during the writing process as there wasn’t a point where we imported an idea from elsewhere, it just all occurred naturally.

Once again Jack from Bwani Junction recorded the drums and I remember it was a really beautiful session – I don’t use that word lightly, and I definitely feel Jack put a lot of feel and emotion into the drum and combined with Mickey’s spacious drum sound, it gives the song a great deal of depth – I love the drumming on this song….

Building upon the percussion was quite easy – we worked on each section individually and the parts didn’t need too much sculpting. Before long the middle of the song was formed with only the beginning and the end remaining. All the acoustic guitars were then recorded in Mickey’s kitchen, and even though the fingerpicked, sparse sound isn’t really something we’ve done before I think it bookends the song nicely.

There were then just the vocals to do…. I normally don’t enjoy recording the vocals as I am quite mathematical about it – I do a certain amount of takes and (to be honest) over-think certain notes that often I create a stress about nothing, but I think the subject matter of this song really helped and it was actually amazing to sing – it just felt right. Often for us, aspects of recording (asides when I do guitar takes) are quite controlled – but this was like singing a song live and I had a real adrenaline rush when recording it. Sometimes being emotionally unhinged when you are recording a song has quite an impact when you listen back later – it’s normally unusable, but in this case it worked perfectly. Again, the backing vocals seemed to stick to the lead part well and recording them was a bit of a doddle.

For the beginning of the song, we again did something quite different for ourselves – Mickey really wanted the start to be one-take and conversely the last thing we recorded for the album, so on the 27th of December we set up in Mickey’s kitchen. I know the start is quite strange but he wanted to capture the element of live performance – I take a drink from the tap, then walk to the microphone, pick up my guitar and play. As with the end it is quite empty but works nicely I think….

The final additional part that I want to mention is the spoken section. When me and Mickey were little our Mam and Dad would set up a tape recorder when we played just for memories sake – I suppose it was the 1980s version of an iphone, and I remember listening back to these recordings when I was older. I’ve always wanted to do this with me and Mickey’s little boys, William and George who are the best of friends: overlaying it with some of our music.

One Saturday afternoon we did just that, and then over the course of an evening I loved editing this 2 hour long recording into the conversation you can hear on the song. That very good, oh-oh, oh no, where are you? Back home. Me back. Sit down here. OK….. It’s funny, but it’s my favourite bit of any song we’ve ever recorded, and it’s not really us haha….

I suppose the thing I am proud of with our music is the fact that we’ve always followed our hearts and stayed true – we do what we love, and we work very hard but we’ve never compromised ourselves for it. If I could pass one message onto my little boy, other than how much we love him, is just to be true to himself and keep an open mind – there’s always more to learn…

Cut all the pages
from a magazine
I must preserve
the right to dream of
my boy William

Power to the unions
Cannot save my soul
I’ve lost my faith in
rock and roll: tell it to
my boy William.

When you reach that low
At your nadir
When they creep up beside you
And whisper nothing in your one true ear
I hope you resist
And you stand so tall
And that grief will desert you
Leave a message on your bedroom wall

There’s more to this than meets the eye my love
Don’t drown your dreams stay true but
Try as I might
There’s much to learn and much to sow my love
But try as you might

All is burning
All is burning
All is burning now.