Day 426

Tuesday September 3

It’s the second birthday of the Ramshackle Collective so of course we’re there. Lots of acts on tonight, so just the two songs each. Just a great night and lovely to be playing in here again and see a good few familiar faces after a few weeks away so to speak.

Day 452

Sunday September 29

Yeah, not much to write about in September. It can be like that sometimes. A bunch of cool nights out and stuff around Camden and wider London, but nothing too Diary related.

But that all changes first thing this morning when Maja suddenly starts talking about possibly going to see Frank Turner somewhere in Europe. I introduced her to his music a month or so ago and she’s very quickly become quite a fan. It seems she’s woken this morning with the idea to go and see him somewhere and turn it into a Now Hustle opportunity. So, where in Europe to go? We toy with the idea of Antwerp for a while. That would be cool. We felt we really connected with that place when we Now Hustled our way around it on our second European tour. Then we see he’s playing in Madrid where I lived for six years before heading off to the Costa Blanca to start Mark’s Diaries, and then was off to London. This is a whole million words before The Diaries began. I consider those million words to constitute prologue and often said I had that feeling even while writing them. 

We have a think. I have a think. Do I want a holiday return to Madrid? I decide I do, and with that it’s done. We going for pretty much a whole week in mid November. While we’re looking at Frank’s itinerary we see he’s doing a gig in Japan and doesn’t have support organised for that yet. Using Maja’s Japanese experience as a possible in, we decide to email him on his publicly available email to see if we could jump on that and play with him. A few days later he actually replies. He tells us that unfortunately the slots already gone, but he adds, ‘Always take your shot.’ Brilliant. Thanks Frank. We will. We reply with great thanks for getting back to us. Onto Madrid.

Day 456

Thursday October 3

Oh wow. OK. Finally finally we have a first release for the debut Album. Rock’n’Roll Tree. For those who have been with us for a long time and have impressive memories, you may be aware we put out I Like You (Better When You’re Naked) way back when while we were even still living in Ireland. But shortly after putting it out we decided it wasn’t quite right, so quietly took it back down off the platforms. Not too long after that it was all systems go to make the return to London, so recording totally stopped. We’ve been on it sporadically in London but also a lot of life getting in the way, not to mention the move from Shoreditch to Camden. But we’ve kept plugging at it, learning and improving and studying. Now we’ve reached our first self mix and master. We’re sure there are plenty of other studio lessons to learn and we may well return to revisit this. But we’re on our way now. Every song of the debut album HEᒐ is at the final stages of recording. We also have what could well be the second album completely written, with some of those songs mostly recorded, and a third album is almost written too. So once we’re done with HEᒐ we can just keep right on recording and releasing. 

With HEᒐ taking much more time than we ever envisaged at the beginning, we decided that we would just put out each song as it came up. Once they’re all out we’ll repackage them as the debut album then continue immediately onto the next one. It’s also possible that a lot of recording of the next one could well happen in tandem so that may well progress parallel to the final stages of HEᒐ. As I said, a lot of it is already recorded.

With Rock’n’Roll Tree out now, the next two songs to come out will be How You Rock’n’Roll then Insanity, probably in that order or maybe just simultaneously as they both race/stumble to their own respective finish lines at around the same time. As I write this in the first week of November, we think Insanity is done bar final tweaks, while How You Rock’n’Roll is being just that little stubborn regarding final mix and mastering, but we’re on it. In any case, the complete performances are now in for both.

Following these two will be I Like You (Better When You’re Naked) round two of this iteration essentially. We’ve recorded this one more times than we care to remember at various stages on our studio journey so we really wanted to wait a little on what we hope is this final push and work on a few different songs before jumping into this one (again). But yeah. Track number four seems about right. After that it’s currently up for grabs as to what order we continue in. Fire is in decent shape, but I think we’d prefer another upbeat one to come out after Naked. But the next two are there or thereabouts and Naked will hopefully not be too far behind. Which means that after so long, we’re in sight of having a third of the HEᒐ out and about. 

We’re not at all expecting any kinds of listener numbers on these in any kinds of initial stages. It’s more that they exist, that they’re there. We’ve been talking about picking up on the Now Hustle in London, something we’ve barely done here. We think that’s the best strategy for playing regularly and maybe building up some interest in our studio recordings as people see us play live then check out the recorded stuff. Then it’s a case of seeing if they can build any kind of momentum from there.

Whatever happens or doesn’t happen on any of the above, with the first song Rock’n’Roll Tree now up and ready, and with the promise of more imminently, we’ve given ourselves the possibility of a chance to start to make that momentum happen.

You can hear Rock’n’Roll Tree here: https://open.spotify.com/album/6Lyf94fOEYfhbkI9VKmZR4

Day 458

Saturday October 5

Our first track is out, the others are now soon going to be on their way. It’s time to get some real photos done. Davide Mazzantini, someone I know from the London blues scene, recently released a video and photoshoot to go with it. He’s one of the main guys when it comes to running blues jams and does his own musical bits and pieces too. We liked how his latest releases looked so last week I got in touch with him to ask who he worked with. The answer comes back, along with an email address. Charo Galura. We got in touch with her, discussed budgets, times and durations, and arranged a three hour photoshoot for today.

Once contact was made, the discussion and organisation was Maja’s domain as the two girls spoke about ideas, style, the kind of music we played and how we wanted to come across. And what locations we might use.

Me and Maja went to the cinema last night and when we came out, rather than walk straight back home, we wandered around Camden thinking of what places we might prefer. On the canal, down the main music strip, around the markets. So many iconic backdrops. And yes, we totally want to do it in Camden. Everywhere we saw seems cool until we realise, oh, it’s going to be Saturday afternoon. None of it will look like this. It will all be totally rammed. We have a think, then start to consider places right round where we live. It’s still completely recognisable Camden, but maybe it will be quieter. For a reminder, we go take a walk right around home, and yes. These places really could work. We have a plan.

By the time Charo comes round to ours early afternoon today, we have a plan. The first place is going to be pretty much private. Super close to us a new store has opened. Warren Evans, a family run workshop and showroom specialising in beds. It’s all set in historic railway arches with a wonderfully cobbled front area. We’ve met and spoken to Warren before and he’s been really interested in what we’re up to. So we asked his permission to do a shoot in his place and he was very happy to let us work away there. 

So this is where we start. We’re in good company for our first photoshoot. It was right at the gates of this place that Amy Winehouse had the very first photo of her taken that made its way into a newspaper, The Camden New Journal. At the back of the carpark is a raised walkway area that is so out of the way that you can’t imagine anyone using it. Well, we do now. We turn it into a stage and perform for our first photos as we get things kicked off. This proves to have been a really good idea as it means we can get used to the camera and performing in this way without being self conscious about passers by. This new instant experience will come in very handy later on as we will find out. 

We start with Maja posing solo, holding up the mic as if playing live. Oh, and yes. We have brought a microphone and a guitar with us. As you might imagine, it looks a bit stiff and stilted. Like when someone says to you, act normal. After a few shots, Maja suggests we forget posing it and just try actually playing live for real and having Charo just shoot around us like a gig photographer would. Sure. So that’s what we do. The place we’re standing at almost looks like a real stage so it’s perfect. And, showroom over there aside, it’s essentially private. So even better. Now we’ve properly started and first location down.

I won’t go through the whole shoot, but it’s a really fun afternoon with some great ideas from Charo with whom we make a great team of three. How to pose, where to go. Sometimes even just me and Maja interacting normally while Charo shoots as we try to forget there is even a camera there. It all works so well.

Right round the corner from Warren Evans’ showrooms is Jeffrey’s Place, the street Amy Winehouse was living on just as she became famous. It actually features and is mentioned by the Amy Winehouse character in her most recent biopic which was partly filmed right behind where we live. We have to go and get some pictures done there, so we do, and make sure to have at least one also featuring the actual street sign. We use a few more locations in and around here, then we head off to what could be described as Camden’s second high street. I have no idea what you’d call it. It’s more a collection of mini high streets all shooting off of one crossroads which itself is crossed by one of Camden Town’s famous Camden Town railway bridges. It’s here that we get one of the best shots of the day and, quite frankly, one of my favourite ever band or musician photographs. And I mean, ever.

We decide to just go for it. Right here, in the centre of one of Camden’s most populated thoroughfares and right in front of the overground station, we launch fully into Rock’n’Roll Tree as Charo moves and shoots around us. If it’s not quite a traffic stop moment, it’s certainly a pavement stopping moment. It is definitely certainly a movie moment. Hopefully we leave a little of ourselves there in the memories of those who just happened to be walking past and through at the time.

Oh, and yeah. Here and at a few other places where we do the whole let’s just play a song and be photographed thing, we notice passers by stopping and filming. So out there, we have no idea where, other people have their own videos of us doing our thing around Camden Town.