**MOORFOGG- Christmas Single!**

If we were to release a Christmas single this could well be it. Screw everyone else!!
Mr Fogg sent us through a remix of our song Moorwood late last week and on a cold, damp, flu riddled day I had a bit of a moment. Have a listen, if you like it pass it on to your friends..we will make it available to download from our website between Christmas day and New Years day, some kind of virtual stocking filler I guess. We're also working on the 'Race Christmas Message 2008'..more of that to come.

Now please go and check out Mr Fogg.

www.myspace.com/mrfoggisapopstar

listen to some more songs + coalition stores stocking the single.

6 IMHIW album tracks and full length ones at that are now up on our myspace page,

www.myspace.com/raceuk

we are very busy but should have lots to show for ourselves pretty shortly

In the meantime you can now get yourself a copy of 'I get it wrong' in the following shops and towns..

SISTER RAY LIMITED LONDON
WALL OF SOUND RECORDS HUDDERSFIELD
RESIDENT MUSIC LTD BRIGHTON
SPILLERS RECORDS CARDIFF
SELECTADISC LTD NOTTINGHAM
REFLEX NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE
PICCADILLY RECORDS MANCHESTER
ACTION RECORDS PRESTON
AVALANCHE RECORDS EDINBURGH
AVALANCHE GLASGOW

s'laters.

**’I GET IT WRONG’ out today+ last week+ reviews**

'I get it wrong' is the first single from this new album and is available for download today on all the usual sites, physical release will follow in a couple of weeks..(for various reasons) but is also available at gigs and through being one of the stakeholders..we hope you like them, feel free to ask for them from us directly too, i'm sure we can shove copies in the post. It also includes the B-sides Maisie and Here I Lay, which we are really pleased with.

couple of single reviews below..

THE RACE I Get It Wrong 8/10
Long under-rated anthemicists return with more shivering unabashed big music, this time like The Open taking on The Killers' Smile Like You Mean It. Belongs in arenas, not pubs. John Earls, Teletext.

THE RACE – I Get It Wrong (Shifty Disco) – Another single from The Race, they do seem to just glide along semi-lost in their own lush indie rock world and now and again pop up with something that reminds you that they're out there and has you wondering why they aren't far bigger news and all over things like the NME. I think this maybe the first the fruits of a new album, then again I may be wrong, someone will correct me when I get it wrong. Lush indie rock, tiny epics and an ambitious sound that really does sound like it should be coming from a big stage or a daytime alternative radio station on the same playlist as The Cure and bands like Snow Patrol, Arcade Fire. Three more fine hopeful ambitious alternative indie songs, three more impressive tracks from a band who really deserve to be doing more than just gliding along in their own lost world. Sean O, Organ.

We had a wonderful time of it with the gigs last week, Jess was very proud to wear her Super badger for the first time and i'm so sorry to those in Windsor who I offended by screwing up the game of Hangman mid set..I honestly thought I was going to win(!). The Chilli Con Carne in Brighton was top notch and made a wonderful change from eating restaurant food every night..much more homely.

This week we are very pleased to be heading back into Reading prison, Its been a big source of inspiration over these past two albums as it sits smack bang in the middle of our town and I often think of the boys inside as I walk past in the fresh air, Its a gig I've been looking forward to very much.

For those in the know, the 'Come on Over To My Place' Winter Tour is looking really good, thank you so much to all the stakeholders who have put in their requests so far, keep them coming and we shall get onto the logistics shortly. We're also getting set for the belated Stakeholder and friends bonfire night at Andy's house..its set to be a classic, Gra is very keen to host the maggott racing..I'm not sure how that will look, but hopefully we'll have some apple bobbing too..its still not to late to get involved with the Stake stuff, its all on our website.

wrap up warm,

dan
www.inmyheaditworks.com

more stuff.

Jess has been stealing bits of footage off our phones in order to piece together a little studio diary from when we made the album..




We're playing three gigs next week ..previews/ticket details are below..get cutting and pasting as i still don't know how to make links work on here and can't be bothered to waste time trying to figure it out!

London.
http://www.clubfandango.co.uk/gig.php?id=1065">

Brighton.
http://www.brightoncalling.com/previews.html


Windsor.
http://www.bandmeup.co.uk/FIND/common/sitehost.asp?SURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Efirestationartscentre%2Ecom&SNAME=The+Firestation+Arts+Centre++%2C+Windsor&SEMAIL=holliekennedyAtRePlAcEhotmaildOtRePlAcEcodOtRePlAcEuk&SID=422

Think thats about all for now other than to say that any stakeholders reading this are very welcome to come to our belated bonfire/fireworks night at Andy's house on December the 6th, give us a shout if you can make it and we'll tell you more. Stakeholder 'I Get It Wrong' singles will be in the post on Monday despatched from the mighty Shifty Disco. Its all getting very interesting.

Finally here is a little interview i did last week for a website called MuHead.
http://www.muhead.com/index.php/blogs/other-stuff/the-race-e-interview.html

and we were in session on BBC Berkshires 'the session' last Sunday, listen again on their website if you like.

Regards.

dan

The first single..I get it wrong.

Water Rats

Its so good to be playing again. There's a short tour starting to take shape around the single in november, and we look forward to seeing you there... We can't WAIT! If you want us to come to your town, let us know...

If you've forgotten what we look like.. here's a lovely piccie someone kind sent through - thanks Mr Miller...!

Jess xx

Car Accident.

Race drummer and all round good guy Andy was involved in a car accident last night on the way home from a gig in London. His car flipped onto its roof but miraculously he was unhurt and was able to crawl out of the window without any cuts or bruises. We went today to pick up his things from the car before it was scrapped, he was listening to our new single at the time and eerily it had stopped at the moment his car flipped..we pressed play today and on it went, unfortunately the stereo was pretty much the only thing left of any value. Andy is understandably shaken up but other than that ok. We are very thankful that he is ok, life and health are so easily taken for granted.

While Andy had the afternoon off we finished some filming for the second version of the video for this single, it is looking very beautiful indeed, the gig last night incidentally was a very special one..we were on unusually early (7.30pm) but the room filled out nicely and there was a wonderful light show which helped set the scene nicely. We now have a new manager by the name of Mr Roy Eldridge. He is a gentleman and has a wise experienced head, he is also good and tall which I think is always an important attribute in a manager/getting things done. We look forward to getting to know him better and making our first steps together.. rather like a romance. You will like him.

We got the promotional copies of our single and album back from the manufacturers yesterday and are now looking forward to our team getting into the full swing of letting people know that we are back and have something for them to hear. We are hopefully going to head up to London on Monday to personally hand deliver the first couple of copies too..I think we learnt from Pass It On that nothing beats making the effort to hand over your music in person. Next friday night we are headlining the main venue at Reading Students Union, it should provide a nice hometown gig for this month and non students can come too..I think its £4 on the door without NUS, bargain..and its freshers week.

not long now..

We are still here, don't go away.

x

Cottage Industry.

Another crazy week of getting things ready and trying to meet deadlines, in three hours on Monday afternoon I wrote and recorded my lyrics for a new b-side with Gra. By Tuesday night we were running a little behind so had an 8pm artwork meeting at the del Rio's. We we have to have the new single and the album promo artwork ready to pass on to the Shifty Disco tomorrow. We were struggling for ideas and I was keen to get home to my little family so I asked Jess for some paper and paint (the others laughed)..this is what happened, I wasn't sure but they seem to like it so it may well stick. I then went back home and left them to it. 'My work here is done'. Highly amusing.

I was thinking this week that we exist very much as a cottage industry with us each having numerous roles within the band/partnership. As well as our musical jobs, between us we seem to cover;

bus driver
recording engineer/mixer/producer
tailor
baker
graphic designer
communications executive
first aider (!)
comedian
tough guy
athlete
merchandiser
drummer
dog walker
caterer
masseuse..

I guess the tricky/easy part is trying to work out who does/is what.

Tomorrow thankfully we shall get back to our favourite way of passing time with a gig at the brand new Windsor Arts Centre (old firestation) its with our old friends Sennen who are on a national tour, we'll both be playing an extended set so it should be pretty good, doors are 7.30pm and we shall be on at 8.30pm, early night..yeah.

lots of things..

We are crazy busy trying to get eveything ready in order to promote the first single in October and the new album release in January. In times like these we tend to split the work out a little, Gra has been recording and mixing the b-sides for the single, James is sorting out artwork with our boy Tom, I'm desperately trying to write lyrics and push through my fuzzy head/new baby mode, Jess has been working on t-shirts/videos and Andy has invested in a new cymbal and has done lots of recording with it?. Last night we played Greenbelt Festival which was good..it was Maisie's first festival and probably the most baby friendly festival you could ever go to, saw a bit of iain archer and an american lady with a ukeleli (?) she was good. Moorwood went down beautifully which for me is always the sign of a good gig, the quiet songs are always the hardest to pull off.

I'm supposed to be writing out all the lyrics to the album but I really can't be bothered, I keep putting it off as I am so slow at typing. We found out this week that IMHIW will also be getting a release in Japan on Korofune records which we are delighted about..bring on the tour!! We're also going to be making our way over to Italy in November to support the release of Be Your Alibi over there and to eat some nice food/play gigs and to meet our italian team, gigs over here are starting to come in nicely. We're basically planning on working our butts off between now and January to give this album the push it deserves and to give it a good enough platform for loads of new people to hear it.

All the new dates get put up on our myspace page, so check it daily as they are coming in fast. If you don't own Be Your Alibi you can buy it from www.oxfordmusic.net for £4.99..supermarket prices!! and it means that more profits get hrough to us than through the usual bigger places. Stakes are doing so well. I keep hearing terrible stories about bands being dropped all over the place and industry people losing their jobs and that directly affecting the bands who they are responsible for-- its really harsh. We count ourselves lucky to be on such a solid record label and with an awesome well thought out way of making it all work financially where we know that our music will actually get released! My friend Tim introduced me to seth lakeman yesterday, he spoke alot of sense and thought the Stake idea was very clever indeed. I should have offered him one come to think of it.. (details are on www.inmyheaditworks.com )

I had better go, I can hear crying. Tomorrow begins with a cooked breakfast at james and jess' house. yum.

*NEW VIDEO*

Paternity leave is over. I'm back. Yesterday we shot the video for the next single; I get It Wrong.

We were working with a new director Mr Rob Evans who is probably one of the most enthusiastic people we have ever had the pleasure of spending a day with. We were kindly allowed the use of Reading cattle market for the day and a wonderful group of volunteers basically made it all happen. I still can't believe that people would give up a whole day to help us out like they did yesterday, the least i can do is thank them here..( I hope I got everybody's name)

Dan Appleby, SFL,

Lou Evans, Nicola,

Kelly Lambert, Mr Fogg, Rachie,

Dave Newton, Catalina, John,

Estie, Gabrielle, Rob,

Beth ,Mr Capoeira (sorry), Nathan,

Rufus ,Hettie and all the cattle market people..

You guys were unbelievable on a cold, wet, precious Saturday. We can't wait to see the results, feel free to try and figure out what we did and how we did it from the pictures, we're back rehearsing hard this week and finishing off the two b-sides for the single which should be out in October. Thanks for all the messages of congratulation, fatherhood is good, I learn so much every day. Today has involved several bouts of projectile vomit. dan

Further on and Further in

There's a buzz about the race camp this week as the 1st race baby has arrived - Maisie Faith Buchanan arrived safely on sunday evening, weighing in at 5 lb 6 oz. Everyone doing wonderfully, Maisie is beautiful.

Dan's got a couple of weeks of on paternity, so its up to me to keep the blog fires burning... The rest of us are as busy as beavers, recording B-sides (instrumental only....!) - a new song called either Mower (grae's influence) or 'Ones and pieces', which is something big G said by accident, but i thought was cute. And then possibly stabber, which we really should've renamed by now, which is a wicked song with a beautiful french horn outro... (any out there play the french horn?)

We're also planning what is turning out to be our most ambitious video to date. It'll either be an amazing Gondry-esque piece of art, or we'll have to start over. I have to make a whole world out of cardboard, love it. We're working with a director chappy called Rob Evans, and this is his passion. He's got some great ideas, and I'm very excited.

Looking forward to another hometown show on the 16th, in our favourite little sweat box, the rising sun arts centre. Its gonna be awesome. The Oakford gig was wonderful, complete with singalongers to the new songs, which is always very nice.

Catch you later bill and ted

Jess xx

#PAINT!#

Photographer Chris Harris came to take some photos of us on Monday. This one was taken in St Laurence Church in Reading whilst the church bells were being rung by the local bell ringers/peelsters(?). After an hour long session they came down to find five half naked racers wandering around covered in paint, they didn't really know what to say to that.

We shall be back playing in Reading tomorrow night for the first time in ten months, Oakford Social Club..onstage at 11pm (free entry) it shall be very special indeed.

last night.

Thanks to everyone who came down to camden last night, it felt so good to be on stage just playing again and not doing all the other stuff that comes with being a band..a big release. We now feel rehearsed up and ready to go-the new songs seem to work and we're looking forward to introducing some more next weekend in Reading. This coming week shall involve photo's/planning a video/discussions with potential new management/rehearsals and perhaps even squeezing out a precious baby (depending on who you are). It could well be life changing.

~Stake Eating and Drinking~

We had a jolly old time in Notting Hill yesterday evening with our team and some of the stakeholders, the Uxbridge Arms very kindly gave us half the pub which was decorated very tastefully with some bunting and we ate a selection of jessie made cakes to mark the occasion. It was all very fitting and civilised. There are plans to do similar perhaps in Reading as it was just so good to meet up and for everyone to feel connected in what we are trying to achieve together. It always helps with the bigger picture. We keep hearing lots of crazy stories as to where these pass it ons are popping up. Please leave us a message on the website so we keep tabs on them. These stake holder get-togethers are going to be a whole lot of fun..driving home last night I started dreaming of social committee's/jumble sales and even stake-holder weddings!! deary-me. Its all game on now for the purple turtle in camden next thursday. It can't come soon enough. 'Bring on those changes, open up those doors'.

PS//We are well over half way to our stake holder target of £25000 after just three weeks, there are still stakes available through www.inmyheaditworks.com so get involved- you shall be in very good company.

Have a nice weekend. Most of us shall be at Club Velocity in Reading tonight.

7 days left..

There is exactly one week until the stake availability finishes. Thankyou so much to those who have already requested them. Its been amazing to see so many people place their confidence in us and our music..for anyone else who may be interested the article below explains it all really well. We would love to have as many individual stake kolders involved as possible. There are plans to wet the albums head next week with the stake holders. All will be revealed on tuesday the 1st of july the day after the stakes cease to be available.

http://www.totalmusicmagazine.com/news.htm

www.inmyheaditworks.com

wowzer!!

shifty sent us through a list of stakeholders so far this afternoon, !!!wow!!!! thankyou so much to each and every one of you so far that has bought stakes..we are so pleased that firstly you agree that it is such a great idea and secondly, you have shown such belief in us and our music..we are walking a few centimetres taller now (perhaps) which is great for me but probably not so much for james and jess. We are plotting a little get together to wet the albums/stake holder agreements head.. we thought it would be great to meet some of you and unveil a little more of the plan for the next few months,, watch this space, you shall be informed shortly after the final day of stake holder availability on the 31st of june..under two weeks left, keep them coming in!

phew..

Its been a long hot week of hurtling around trying to get the pass it ons' into 100 pairs of hands. I think we have about ten left and they are suddenly becoming much more precious to us as the number reduces. Its been really good just letting the music go (quite literally) and handing it over to people for their reaction. i just really hope that people don't sit on them and appreciate just how much we want them to travel. We're now starting to turn our heads towards the album release which shall be in the autumm.. the stakes have been selling really well which has been so encouraging for us, there are two weeks left before they all get allocated out so please get involved now if you think its something you fancy (inmyheaditworks@shiftydisco.co.uk) even if its just to buy one stake. We want as many different individuals owning stakes as possible, so in theory that could be several hundred people all having a personal reason for keeping a beady eye on our progress..sort of like a fantasy football league thing but with a band?!

Our manager for the last 4 years Vanessa will shortly be relinquishing her role as she wants to focus solely on being a mother-she will give birth in 5 weeks time, this shall be really sad as she has been a part of us since day one and has been instrumental in all the things we've achieved to date and particularly in allowing us as a band to never have to worry about the mechanics/logistics side of things. We shall definately miss her alot. Huge respect is due. We have been so lucky to have wonderful/honest people of integrity working with us thus far, we just hope we can find another manager of similar quality. Watch this space.

Any feedback on the songs on pass it on (which are also on our website) would be much appreciated as we shall be shortly turning our thoughts towards single choices and video's..any ideas are always welcome.

thanks dan

..Pass It On.

There are 100 of these. I guess they are kind of a cross between a chain letter and a library book (?). They contain five songs from the new album. If you receive one the idea is to have a listen and then pass it on to someone you think will like it as well as someone you trust to pass it on. We will hopefully be able to track them through our new website,, this weekend we've started giving them out, ,lots of travelling and explaining to do. The new songs from the album will be up on our myspace on monday. Just watching the football- it feels good to be impartial, perhaps a sweepstake is required.

www.inmyheaditworks.com

www.inmyheaditworks.com

.............

LOTS going on behind the scenes, this shall be a busy week..here it all begins, it feels like we've only just begun, can't wait for people to hear the album, apparently Mr James Dean Bradfield has been digging it. Nice start. Should have a new website up this week which shall explain it ALL.

i'm tough.

(Being tough wasn't required after all..the teeth came out fine and i felt totally normal all day although i did try and ham it up just a little bit with the others to get out of humping amps up fire escapes and things. It didn't work).

escape great.

We played our first gig of the year in a downstairs club in the middle of friday afternoon..strange concept but it felt so good to be playing again, it kind of took me by surprise just how loud we are onstage compared to our practice room when we first came in after 4 clicks...!! I wore a jumper and a coat which were hastily removed..schoolboy. Much fun and good response to the new stuff although we are by no means gig tight yet, much work is in order but the plan is to spend most of the next 6 weeks doing some random gigs and rehearsing ready for the summer onwards so we will definately be up to speed pretty quick. We forgot to write out enough of the set lists so we ended up scrabbling around in the dark a bit trying to figure out what was coming next. I have really missed gigs. We spent the rest of friday afternoon squinting on brighton pier. Jonathan from our publishers gave us an education in the delights of dolphin derby an absolutely great £1 game where you have to throw various balls into different scoring holes to get your dolphin to move forwards ( a bit like horse racing) they had a polish matey commentating but he didn't have much of a patter- his excitement had obviously dwindled in recent times..we managed to persuade him into a frenzy of 'go, go, go's' but it didn't seem to help my performance at all.

Brighton was band central..we had a game of spot who isn't in a band, which was quite fun but didn't last long....we were about to start another game of (shouting out) 'oh look its the pidgeon detectives!' at every band that walked past us but then bottled it as dave eringa rocked up to say hello which was nice..he got in on some derby action before we left to start our commute home. Home to my local rude boys drinking cut price lager on the bench, wonderful contrast to identikit bands.

PLAYING again

tomorrow we play the great escape festival at an afternoon party thing for artrocker and our press lot starling (its free and anyone can come)..should be good, will also be nice to meet up with mr eringa afterwards when he finishes some panel type thing..i think we are ready to play again, i've been learning some new glock and keyboard parts and mr del rio has been warbling his voice into shape. We've also just confirmed a last minute gig at the jericho tavern in oxford on tuesday as main support to a norwegian lady called ida maria? apparently she is good..I will have had two wisdom teeth taken out that day so it should be more entertaining than usual, tough tough tough guy. Must dash to a final practice now,, album should be mastered in a couple of weeks and then we can finally get moving. Hooray

BACK ---> WOrk.

Today is the first day of rehearsing before we get back into touring again..got a gig next week at great escape so need to try and remember what it is to play live, i think this is the longest we have ever gone without a gig (5months!!!!) am itching to get back on it,, not even sure what songs we shall play, think i'll let the others figure it out, debates tire me out and no doubt today will be hot and sweaty in our room..will have to try and fashion some kind of vocal p.a together as our speakers were nicked the other week in the burglary. Had a lovely bbq on Reading beach last night, managed to get a baseball pitched straight into my noise early on, think its broken again but it seems to have flattened the bend from the first time..i'm looking good if a little purple... see some of you next week in brighton x

birds.

word up..last night we got in as many last games of table tennis as we could muster before the sun went down on the final day of the making of this album. It was a sad moment but will shortly be replaced by the sun rise of day21, the birds of brixton are getting rowdy (04.47am) poor gra needs to be ready to blow up balloons for his sister-in-laws wedding back in Reading 5 hours time (10am) he shall look fresh indeed. james and jess are sleeping in various studios and here i am yet again representing..stepping up to the plate..putting it all on the line..being the real deal, peace off-safety in numbers. x

Trucking On...

D-Troit has been working like a beast and we are almost done mixing in brixton, we're back in reading for a few days but will head back on thursday for two more days to tie up all the loose ends, hopefully the album will be mastered next week. Its been such an intense period but so worthwhile, we can't wait to play it to people. I played some of the songs to my parents yesterday and they were impressed that they could almost make out all the words(!) Praise indeed. As soon as the album is finished and our team have it in their hands i think things will begin to move rather quickly and i would imagine that the album will be released towards the end of the year, we have a few more tricks up our sleeves first though including a French release of Be your Alibi in the last week of May,followed by an Italian release in June..more details to follow.

panic over.

Gra is off the chocolate eclairs, I think he was just missing home or something.

We have just had a lovely lazy afternoon in brixton outside in the sun playing table tennis, having a bbq, watching the football- drinking ice cold beer...oh and listening to a couple of mixes. Life is good.

* STEAK *

Is on its way. Our record label have come up with an ingenious way of offering people who believe in us a way of sharing in the profits from this album (for the next 5 years) in exchange for £25 stakes which will enable us/them to give it a push big enough to actually have a chance of selling a large portion of race...---> make profit for the stake holders/us /them, this will probably be a fun thing for people who like maths.. I think its only available in house right now but there will hopefully be some stakeage left (there are a limited number) for regular people like you and me..the more people involved and taking ownership of this lovely record the better! Its a quality idea so sit tight and i will present it when i can.

We are having our final rest day before we hit the final 5 days of mixing. I have the first two songs downstairs playing in the lounge and I'm finally allowing myself to believe that we are going to end up with a record that we have so longed for in terms of being understood musically/mentally etc by mr eringa..he has a gift. We decided to just let him get on with mixing the first song yesterday and not say too much about how we hear it in our heads, 4 hours later that very sound came out of his speakers and jess began to giggle with glee. We were very happy.

I'm worried about Gra, he seems to be addicted to chocolate eclairs, 2-3 every night although i think he may be smuggling down more away from the group. My beard for the football comp next week is looking pitiful I'm not sure whether to give it a trim or just ride it out? Strange times.

at the dairy.

We are in brixton..cooking on gas. My vocals are all finished so i have a warm fuzzy glow inside - a bit like the last day at school. There is a very nice house attached to the studio for us to exist in, it has a wonderful aga, I'm not sure if we are allowed to sit on it? Driving in yesterday I noticed lots of young mothers with posh coats and alloy/off-road/slick buggy type things, lots on my mind I guess?

I'd rather have an old school pram any day.

Today I am going to explore brixton and finish my book.

robbed.

Big Dog (james) went up to our practice room this morning and was rather impressed that the door was open and one of us was obviously back hard at work..unfortunately that wasn't the case and he spotted that our trusty door had been levered open. Thankfully our local rude boys/girls weren't too hot on music stuff---lucky us. The room is very precious to us so its wierd to have shared it with some uninvited guests- no doubt they now know what we look like and who we are too from some of the posters -how wierd. Hello if you're reading this by the way..

When we get out of the studio next week we are playing in a football tournament with some bands in Reading..I'm not sure if it has a name yet..we are forming an alliance with our friends ok tokyo. It should be fierce. I've put the word out and J has already started growing his play-off beard.

Pretty cool huh?

PAUSE.

We loaded out of keynote studios last night at 3am having spent the day finishing off all the extra bits of recording we needed, it was a long old day but puts us in a really good position for the start of mixing next week and the last bits of vocals that need doing first. It was an even longer day for J and Gra who then undertook a 3 hour return trip to chez eringa with a van load of his gear, I hope they got back ok. We now have exactly 6 days to relax and think about what we have done before we start a further 8 days at the Dairy in Brixton.. Perhaps the most productive 10 days of our lives have just elapsed. I wonder. On record it seems to work too. Thanks D-Troit.

hhmmmm...

we have 3 days left of recording in Reading and the pressure is definately on to get everything recorded in time. If it were just guitars, drums and vocals things would be easy, but we have glockenspiels, broken tambourines, jingly bells, daggy keyboards and welsh sounding male voice choirs to consider- no expense spared.

Heads are beginning to fuzz and afternoon naps are becoming the order of the day. We will get there I'm sure. Challenge Annika stylee. Today my friend ben came over and took some photos, I really like them.

HOW.

Today we are having a day off.

I thought I'd would have a go at explaining how we are making this album.
We have 18 days to play with, 12 for recording and 8 for mixing and final overdubs.

Last sunday night mr eringa travelled down to Reading with james with a van load of gear, this was quickly merged into the set up at the studio through the night ready for when we turned up at midday on Monday.

The drum room was decorated and lit and then James, Jess and Gra were set up with their instruments in the room with Andy and their amps in other sealed romms/cupboards.. and hundreds of ambient microphones thankfully there is loads of space in the studio to do this. We then recorded up to four songs a day recording all of the performances and changing the drum sounds/mic set up depending on the song. This ended Thursday night for us. Dave then set up a wall of of amps in one room and a row of cabs in another in which to record the guitar and bass sounds back through..this took over 4 hours and and looked complex, we had tea..gra then returned until 4am to re-amp the bass back through the amps and get the perfect sounds for each of the songs with the performances that had already been recorded. Friday lunchtime james and Jess began guitars and the plan is to do two songs each day with me putting down vocals for those songs each night. Dave then sends us home and stays up putting it all together..the man doesn't sleep!

His attitude is that he wants us all to be fresh to perform and and he does all the rest, so I've been spending alot more time at home than I thought.. Its been such a fun experience and its great not sitting around in a studio all day long getting cabin fever.In fact yesterday Andy was banned from the studio because he had a cold

The vocal stuff has been an eye opener too..all about the performance/performer.
Another live room is all lit up with a little stage to stand in, totally seperate from the others..incredibly personal, he gets a perfect mix in the headphones and then passes them over then gets me to sing the song through about 4/5 times and then thats it. I've not even heard any of my vocals played back yet but the others seem excited and he is a perfectionist so i trust him. He then stays on at the studio and puts them all together ready for the next day. I don't know how he stays so focussed for hours on end but we are loving it. Mr Newton from our label came down yesterday and contributed well to us thundering through a few more crosswords. We like him too.

cooking on gas.

We are now into day 5 of the recording process. We have 18 days in total to play with. We are recording in a studio near a lake on the outskirts of Reading..its remote but equally close to our beds+sleep+morning jobs. Our producer dave eringa has been playing a blinder and we are all relaxed and having an amazing time, today he built a wall of guitar amps and speakers to record guitar sounds through, James, Gra and Jess began to dribble with glee. I went and got my hair cut. I always look about 15 after a hair cut, I think its something to do with having a double crown.

I shall try and take some pictures tonight when I go back. Before we began recording Mr Eringa spent an hour or so putting up lights in the live room..'you have to get the right vibe man'.

I like it.

finally.

The last few weeks have been so frustrating as our plans for recording have changed on a daily basis. It really messes with your emotions as you never know whats happening/ who with or where. Last night at 5.50pm a deal was finally struck with all of the interested parties and we were able to celebrate james and jess' wedding anniversary with some cocktails-although inside we won't quite believe it until we actually start recording stuff. We shall go hard at it for 10 straight days in a studio near Reading, then take a short break before commuting to brixton for a further 8 days of mixing in a posh studio. To say we are relieved would be a huge understatement. We have also just confirmed that we can play the Great Escape festival in May as we should be all done by the end of april...there are so many exciting ideas about how we are going to release and promote the album but first we need to nail it in the studio. We start bright and early on monday.

ps. the studio has a lake next to it!

24hrs later.

Our room of doom has dramatically been transformed back into the hit factory ( in my head at least). Today we met up again after working seperately for the last couple of weeks and played through the album as it stands. A huge relief. Meeting up together is good for the soul and i now feel completely different having spent the afternoon with the others as opposed to a computer and a microphone. I have missed them. We began bouncing around loads of ideas about how we would like this music to be heard (and then remembered that we need to have the album recorded first)...very exciting and equally resourceful I think. Secret squirrel.

From trying to write as many songs as possible, we are now aiming to trim the fat..10/11 contendors are in the pipeline plus a little nubbin perhaps. Today we axed 2 songs and it felt GOOD.

a race blog.

This is the start. We are currently finalising details in order to get our butts in the studio with a producer called Dave Eringa..we need to get cracking. I'm bored of writing, Gra has aptly named our practice room 'the room of doom', today for the first time I knew what he meant- bring on a change of scenery.


www.daveeringa.com