Alan MX: Different Drummers

I'm getting so excited now about the second album.

I'm off over to Ireland in March to do a Showcase for IMRO in Belfast, but I will also be going into the studio to record the live drums for the next album. This is going to be a first for me as I have never worked with a live drummer before. It's gonna be an experience I think. I'm so used to building beats synthetically by now that it will be difficult to hand over the duty to another person, but the songs that are coming out just now really need that gristle running through them.

On drumming duty is Alan (another one) from LaFaro, who are also signed to STA. I'm so fucking excited to be working with Alan as the drums on the LaFaro tracks are mind bending. I'm not sure whats going to happen really but it's going to be really enlightening to work with someone who properly knows about beats and maybe doesn't see them as geometrically as me. The thing about working electronically is that, especially in midi, everything is square and graphic and it is hard to break that convention, to move away from the longitude and latitude of the grid and view sounds as animals.

The beats on Warpsichord were pretty formulaic and loop based, which worked for the theme of the album, but things have to get a little bit more weird from here on out. the howl is getting deeper, the synths dirtier and, hopefully, the beats more primal.

so Yeah, Alan from LaFaro is going to teach me things and lend me his mind for a few days this March.

Lookee Lookee: http://www.myspace.com/lafaro

Also! Another new thing for this album, I'm going to lend out some vocal duties. I've never written a duet until now, well, actually, I did write a terrible duet when I was younger called Bite the Apple for me and Siobhan Donaghy. No one will ever hear this song. EVER. I really want this new one to be a departure from the last and one way to achieve this is to be less greedy. So I will be working with two surprise vocalists for this album. The tracks will turn up somewhere if not on the album proper, then somewhere down the line, but it's gonna be lots of fun to try things out. I'm booking some Can Can girls too.

This one has come around really quickly actually. Just when I thought I would never write another song and writing another album seemed like a fictional hope, loads and LOADS of new material came spinning out. and I think its quite good. What the critics will say is something I can't think about at this point. Some people were really nice about Warpsichord and some didn't like it, which is bound to happen. I hope to fuck they will like this one though.

That Carter woman is making a huge impression on me at the moment so there will be a lot of her in there, Alan Moore too and some Norse mythology. It's gonna be a big mixed assortment of magical realism i hope and to ensure that it works I am saluting all the magpies i see and enquiring after their families.

The IMRO show is on the 25th of March at somewhere in Ireland that I don't know yet, but I will update of course.

And the next item on my agenda is the second single from Warpsichord; Green Tea. This is going to come as a sort of special edition 2 CD set. and it is SO COOL! basically, there will be disc one, which will have the single Edit (minus fucks) an alternate version of the track and four new tracks which have never been released anywhere before! thats exciting, and it will come as a download from iTunes and a limited edition physical release. Disc 2 is going to have a whole different set of things. First, you will have the Green Tea video, made by Stuart Sandford ( http://stuartsandford.co.uk/ ) which is reaaaaaalllllly sexy and naughty, and five remixes from some really talented and lovely people. This is going to be solely a physical release and will be extremely limited edition, so you will have to snap this up if you want it. I hope you will enjoy this package, it's taken a long time and a lot of effort from people to make it really stunning, it's gonna be worth it.

Speak soon.

Be Good.

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