bring out yer dead!..

September 25, 2008 at 12:04pm

yo peeps! owz it goin?
hope everyone had a great summer? it's nice to be back, and great to see the unsigned chart pages have been flourishing in our absence. as many of you know, we've not been around these parts for a couple months. basically we had a well-earned summer break, with each of us going off to pursue various other projects, and having holidays and stuff...

also over the last couple of weeks we have been locked in a decommissioned nuclear bunker, putting the final touches to our first album. with every new cd i am reminded of the huge amount of work that goes into it. firstly there was meeting after meeting to discuss the music side of things, resulting in meself and davey having an intensive over-dubbing session [thats not a euphemism for us bumming each other btw], getting all the incidental bits and bobs that nobody will ever notice mixed onto the tracks. this basically involves hours and hours of standing in soundproofed rooms surrounded by microphones, being told through the cans to go: 'oooh' here and: 'aaah' there. and sitting with fingers poised over piano keyboards, waiting for that one second to strike a note, mis-timing it and having to do it over and over again.

then there's the cd artwork. again, after several meetings sat round various pub tables, we finally decided on a name for the album. then it was more meetings to discuss the general direction for the visual theme of the album. getting on for chucking-out time, bleary eyes and a table over-spilling with notes, scribbles, crisp packets and empty bottles, we finally agreed on what to do. and it basically resulted in me having to scale an 8 foot wall [taking the skin off of my arms in the process] in order to commit a not-quite-banksy-esque act of mindless vandalism on some 'un-developed' land in the city centre of stoke on trent. which was nice...

the album is called 'and the word was...', and is basically an account of what we have been up to over the past two years. the tracks are compiled from mainly three recording sessions [4 x tracks each session], the first of which was completed way back in december 2006! the four tracks from this session have been left completely 'as is' and seem to fit right in without any noticeable hiccup in terms of production continuity [which is testament to the skills of mr shaun lowe our producer]. the most recent session was march 08, those tracks being the 'jewels in the crown'. we think...

so. that brings me pretty much up to date. at the moment i am having a day off from everything, in order to update the websites [this page, myspace and theclayfaces.com], also i have the dubious honour of producing all the other promo materials such as posters, flyers, postcards, the afore-mentioned web duties, design of merchandise: new t-shirts etc etc... and whats the first thing i'm doing? this blog! hahar, old habits die hard...

on the gigging side of things, it's gonna be a great autumn/winter as we tour the new album. we are at the time of writing, about four gigs into the warm-up dates, and the tour proper will kick in on the 4th october @ the m19 bar in manchester, with more fantastic dates to follow through to the end of the year...

anyway, as i mentioned, full gig list and album info will be posted during the course of the day, so stay tuned - can't wait to catch up with everybody!

laterz ya freekz