try harder

yesterdays news

JL and I arrived at The Void yesterday morning around 11.00 am to find RJ, Boyke, WJP already there. We had a good strong cup of coffee, listening to the stuff done on Friday. I can honestly say I liked most of it. 'Del. Kinki' and 'Umbrella' sound absolutely magnificent.
Mr. Kloos put us straight to work after a second cup. RJ took care of bongo's, cowbell and various shakers. Did some bass myself and JL left traces of his crazy pedal hopping just about everywhere. Most of the time was spent on various keyboard parts: piano ('The Charm'), synths ('Try me/try harder') and M-tron ('77', 'Sleepy Head')...
More M-tron than your average prog-rocker could handle actually. Let's just say we've enjoyed ourselves.

smoke quantity

word

Word from the Void. Ted and WJP have done a whole lotta recording today. Good work, I presume, as WJP sounded pretty content. Boyke got there in time for diner. The usual visit to a great Italian restaurant round the corner, I reckon. After a good meal they'll propably get some more stuff done tonight. JL and I will join the guys tomorrow morning.

back to mine (17)

optimism

As we're getting ready to go back into the studio this Friday and Saturday, we seem to be more confident than ever about the music we've recorded so far and how to continue. That's a great feeling, I can asure you.
We're well aware that we've got loads of stuff to do before we've actually got an album to release. Recording is the fun part. When we've finished that, there's still editing, mixing and mastering to deal with. See if we can mess things up brilliantly in the process...

watch the tapes

doctor's orders

Being forced to stay at home is a drag. My doctor thinks I need the rest to solve the stomach aches that have been haunting me since late August. I've chosen to simply obey her and try to make to best out of it.
A positive side of having all this time on my hands: getting the chance to listen to lots and lots of music. In Rainbows, a selfmade Simon and Garfunkel compilation and Robert Wyatt's Ruth is stranger than Richard are among the current favorites.
I'm also deeply impressed by Wouter van Veldhoven's Ruststukken on Belgian Slaapwel Records, 'a small record label specialized in music to fall asleep to'. It's a charming concept for which WJP's brother has made an almost perfect soundtrack. Almost, there's too much happening to actually fall asleep listening. But beautiful it is.
You can get your own copy here.

untitled

life isn't fair

'Life isn't fair. It's just fairer than death, that's all'.

These are not my words.
I came across this line in a magazine, a little while back.
Thought I could maybe use it in a song, so I wrote it down on a little piece of paper.
With the sad news we received from Boyke, these words seem appropriate.

We wish Boyke, the Kooijmans' family, their relatives and friends,
all the strenght and love in the world.

memory man

holier than thou

If my latest blog entry wrongly gave you the impression we're getting lazy, I certainly owe some of my band mates an apology.
RJ has produced an amazing electro/ambient/minimal/whatever track. My cup of tea. Sure thing.
Meanwhile WJP is 'doing' On a breeze, mixing it himself on his computer. Seems he has borrowed a few of Ted's electro harmonix pedals to make our vocals sound a bit more out of the ordinary.
Now I wouldn't call that doing nothing.

fool for you

let us just be quiet

All quiet here. No action what so ever.
We'll be back in the studio, October 26th.
Hopefully we'll be together next Saturday.
And there is talk of a gig early next year.
Just talk so far, but who knows.
Love, SJ

back to mine (16)

in rainbows

Radiohead are back and earlier than expected. That's a good thing, them being more than possibly the best band in the world. I'm really excited about them not having a record deal, not even wanting a record deal and just releasing their new album 'In Rainbows' themselves. Is this a *** up the corporate arse or what? You can download the album from october 10th (for a price determined by you, not them) and pre-order the record from the Radiohead website as of now, so it seems. I will.