It was the best of times, it was the worst of times....

...and it really is. I've been reading the cheery little book by Dickens, "A Tale of Two Cities" and it's made me think about how close two worlds can be, and how one can be so good and positive and the other quite the opposite. I've got "Choke" by Chuck Palahniuk lined up though, so that should be....diverting...any other book recommendations, let be know below.

In brief.....

* An interesting live review from "Ark Magazine" from a tiny gig we did in Cambridge: "I saw a band more confident in their image and a lead singer who has developed his confidence to the level of Heather Mills in a Hop-scotch race."

* A review from our last minute Brighton gig by XYZ Magazine. They're right that we deserved a bigger crowd, but didn't do too badly for two days promotion! Thanks to everyone who came down at the last minute :-)

* Interestingly, we've been getting increasing amounts of play on U.S. Radio stations...and we're not sure how because we've sent nothing off! "Something About You" was played on WRIR 97.3 FM Richmond, Virginia  last Saturday, and "Get Me" has also been getting played on the Los Angeles station KCRW 89.9FM. Do feel free to email these stations (or your local one!) to request us!

* London station XFM also played us while we were up in Scotland - and they're a station which pretty much sticks to mainstream stuff.


THE TOUR.

We had an amazing series of gigs in North England, especially the two IPO Festival gigs at The Cavern in Liverpool. Leeds and Middlesbrough also deserve a special mention...the latter of which was so good I thought I'd video the people who came to see us:



Our mini Scottish tour with our friends The Trade was a blast, except I'm NEVER drinking whisky again (I'm serious) after the end of show party left me practically disabled for most of the next day. Thanks to everyone at BBC Radio Merseyside, BBC Radio Tees and MFR Radio for the sessions. Just a few shows left of the tour now -

Wednesday 16th June - The Portland Arms, Cambridge.
Thursday 17th June - The Solstice, Peterborough.
Thursday 24th June - Puzzle Hall, Halifax.
Saturday 26th June - The Orange Box, Yeovil.

Our next London gig is Saturday 3rd July headlining at The Garage in Islington, with special guest Maini from Primal Scream DJ'ing straight after our set .


Isle of Wight Festival. 

Jonno and I did a couple of intimate acoustic gigs at the Kashmir Cafe stage at the Isle of Wight Festival, and had, quite frankly, an amazing time. Both gigs were to a packed out tent, and we were then free to see a host of other great performers...not least The Strokes, Paul McCartney, Blondie, Vampire Weekend, Friendly Fires, Orbital, The Hold Steady, Ocean Colour Scene (what was up with their sound?!!) and The Blunt Instruments! Thanks to Doug for everything.


I'm off to New York in a couple of weeks - still working on confirming the acoustic gigs, but I plan on sorting it soon. Looking forward to going a lot - I plan on having a good time!

I'll leave you with a video to "Drift" which was recorded for BBC Radio Tees. You can hear the original recording (and see the lyrics) on my Facebook page.



Much love,

Nigel.

P.S. New set of tour photos on The Foxes Facebook page.
P.P.S. You can now leave a comment below without signing in to anything! So let me know your thoughts!
P.P.P.S. Ask me something. (there's been some good ones recently!)

"'I love the succession of glittering images which distract and amuse yet ultimately do little to quell the boundless sadness at my core." Charlie Brooker.

On the road.

I've a few precious hours free, so thought I'd write a quick update blog as we've now got twelve gigs over the next eleven days and so this is the last chance I'll have to use a real computer!

Let's have a quick look at some of the recent reviews first:

* We're featured on "The Best of Myspace" from the lovely Gill Mills. Click here to listen.

* Remember the pictures of me in the sea in the last blog? It was at The Great Escape in Brighton and Stephen Brolan (as seen right) explains it all here. It's well worth a read!

* There's another review of our new EP, "Depression, Joy and a Moment of Fame" on the Beat Surrender website. We're also doing a last minute gig for them in Leeds on Sunday straight after the England vs. Mexico game.

* A few dark snaps from our EP launch, courtesy of Adam Roberts.

Recently, we played a gig at Trafalgar House, which is the mansion in Wiltshire given to Nelson's family after the Battle of Trafalgar. (I've included links in case you're not clued up on one of the most important person and battle in British history!) More recently, it was used in films such as "28 Days Later", "Pride and Prejudice" and "Emma". Being uncouth musicians, we were most excited about it's connection to the famous zombie film, as you can see:

Last night's gig at the Oakford Social Club in Reading was good, until we had to stop because water started pouring through the ceiling which the organisers seemed to be concerned might have led to us being electrically fried - not a bad way to go.

Coming up we've got:

27th May - Music Cafe, Leicester.

28th May - Cafe de Paris London.

29th May - Blyth and Tyne, Blyth (this is going to be mental)

30th May - Northern Monkey, Leeds - plus BBC Merseyside Session.

31st May - Liverpool IPO Festival (Cavern Club then the Cavern Pub!)

1st June - The Keys, Middlesbrough - plus BBC Tees session.

2nd June - Cafe Drummonds, Aberdeen.

3rd June - The Voodoo Lounge, Edinburgh.

4th June - Maggie Mays, Glasgow.

5th June - The Doghouse, Dundee.

6th June - Hootananny's - Inverness.

That's all for now! I'm off to audition to get a busking licence on the underground. Should be fun.

Do keep up to date on the tour by following The Foxes Twitter page. Oh, and I've changed the comment form so you can leave a comment without going through the stupid hassle of signing in to something. So say hello!

Much love,

Nigel.

P.S. I'm going to put up the full set of sea photos from Brighton on my acoustic Facebook page shortly.

P.P.S. I handed my petition to the General Medical Council earlier this week. Do take a moment to read, and please sign if you agree.

P.P.P.S. Ask me something.

'Excessive grief, like excessive joy, is a violent thing which is of short duration. The human heart cannot long remain in either extremity. The gypsy had suffered so much that surprise was now the only emotion of which she was capable' La Esmeralda, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.

So, how goes the big tour?!

Well bless my soul, thank you for asking, it's going incredibly well! Since my last blog we've played 16 gigs including The Camden Crawl, the Great Escape, Taunton, the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth, Dundee, Aberdeen, Stirling, Newcastle and London. We've had national airplay on BBC Radio Two, countless playlists on commercial and BBC local stations - even KCRW 89.9FM in Los Angeles played us!

We've had some incredible gigs confirmed including.....the Isle of Wight Festival! We're playing on both Saturday and Sunday, and I'm rather looking forward to seeing Paul McCartney, The Strokes, Crowded House (I don't care that they're not trendy, 'Woodface' is a classic album!) even Biffy Clyro should be a laugh. Click here for the rest of the main line-up.

Our new EP, "Depression, Joy and a Moment of Fame" is also out now! As you may or may not know, we finance and release everything ourselves, so please do support The Foxes and buy a copy!

Download from iTunes.
Download from play.com.
Physical CD from Norman Records.
Physical CD from play.com
Download from Amazon (U.K.)
Download from Amazon (U.S.)
Physical CD from Amazon (U.S.)

It's available from loads of other places, but that's quite enough links for now. The EP is a taster for the full album which we're recording at Sawmills with John Cornfield. We won't be making any more copies of the EP once this run is sold out, so get it while you can!

I've put up a selection TOUR PHOTOS (carefully edited of course) which you can view on The Foxes Facebook page by clicking here.

There's a competition on my acoustic Facebook page - you just need to work out where the title of my latest song comes from - it's called "Third Movement" The winner wins a whole host of goods which I'll post anywhere in the world. There have been several entries so far as you can see on the page...all very far from the mark, but some good guesses!

Within the next two weeks, The Foxes tour will take us to Bedford, Leeds, Brighton, Reading, Leicester, London, Blyth, Liverpool, Middlesbrough, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, Inverness and Basingstoke! Hope to see some of you there.

I'll also be playing some acoustic shows in New York in July while visiting friends - more details to come.

Much love,

Nigel.

P.S. Check out the new BILL HICKS film!
P.P.S. There's a good chance I'll be on "The Wright Stuff" on Channel 5 on Monday (24th).
P.P.P.S. Ask away. It can't get any weirder.
P.P.P.P.S. Heather's photoshoot.

"I admit I've got a shit taste in music. I've no qualms about it" - Random punter at one of our gigs. Worryingly, he really liked us.

"Where's the nearest website?" - Random guy who took one of our flyers, after I explained that to listen to our music he'd need to go to our website.

Some people have STILL not seen the video to "Get Me" -

Start of UK tour - crazy busy!

It's spring! I'm writing in glorious sunshine looking out across the English Channel, with nothing but plumes volcanic ash between myself and the sun! Since coming back from America I've been insanely busy with a whole host of exciting things. One of which includes making the above trailer for the documentary I'm putting together for our U.S.A. tour back in 2007 - I've just gone through all the hours of video footage, and it's going to be hilarious! Thanks to my adorable friend Lucy (who's only fault is her love of Oasis, and her insane cat), I had lunch with the drummer from Blur, Dave Rowntree at the famous Groucho Club in Soho. He is a vegetarian who drunk water while I had steak and gin, but he was a thoughtful, interesting and generous man, who dabbles in politics, computer programming and animation directing as well as being a drummer in one of the biggest bands of the last 20 years! Blur's new single "Fools Day" is available for free download via their website now.

Our UK tour is now under way after a brilliant first gig in Epsom, and here's what we're doing (click on this or any other photo for the full whack size) :


This coming week, we're playing up in Dundee, Aberdeen, Stirling and Newcastle. Really excited about being on the road again, and only slightly worried about Aberdeen because of what ALWAYS happens after a gig there. Good days. Here's a little after gig report from "Native Tongue" in Epsom:




We've finished sending demos to John Cornfield at Sawmills, and will be setting dates this coming week for recording our first full length album - hopefully in July. It's going to be a belter, the hardest part is deciding what songs we can't fit on it! I'm afraid "Trauma Town", "Lover, Killer" and "Bill Hicks" are all to be left off it.

I've answered 340 questions so far on http://www.formspring.me/nigeljthomas - do keep 'em coming, your questions have been very amusing lately! And remember, you can ask me anything.

Finally finished reading "Walden; or Life in the Woods" by Henry David Thoreau. A tough book. I don't agree with everything he says about how to live your life, and what you should do (while I agree with him that you should be able to enjoy your life whatever you do, and find joy in just sitting watching the sun rise for example, I don't think it's something that you should spend ALL your time doing, and lacks any ambition and drive to use your skills and to grow) - but this is still very relevant -

"...if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavours to live the life which he has imagine, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind him, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favour* in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the licence of a higher order of beings."

Having had a little time to myself, I've been writing (and recording) new songs almost non-stop, so do drop by my Facebook Music Page for a listen. I'm now giving away mp3's of my songs for free, so email me nigel@thefoxesband.com telling me which you'd like and I'll send them over when I've a free minute!

I'll leave you to check out the Spring shoot (click here) I did on a beautiful sunny day in Cambridge with the highly talented Heather. We had the best ice-cream in the world too.

Much love,

Nigel.

"Healing may not be so much about getting better, as about letting go of everything that isn't you - all of the expectations, all of the beliefs - and becoming who you are."

P.S. I'm really looking forward to seeing the new Chris Morris film, "Four Lions."
P.P.S. George Washington was naughty.
P.P.P.S Links to Twitter and all The Foxes and my other pages in the convenient "links" box on the right hand side.

* I've upgraded the spelling to British English.

Somewhere in America...the U.S. Mini-Tour

First off, have a look at the video above to "Get Me" which is the first track from our new EP, "Depression, Joy and a Moment of Fame." It was made entirely by piecing together clips taken on my N82 phone from the recording session, and I'll be making a full documentary type affair when I have a moment of time.

Incidentally, we're still looking for someone to make a video to the last track on the EP, "Country Low" - please get in touch if you can help, or if you know anyone who can (cartoon style or animated especially welcome!) nigel@thefoxesband.com

And so....to America.....(former British colonies, couldn't afford the tea, now prefer coffee so could have just left the tea anyway...)

THE FLIGHT THERE.

It ALWAYS rains on the day I leave for America, whether to New York, LA or in this case, Salt Lake City in Utah, via Detroit. We flew Delta, and thanks to my friend Amber, we had first class seats on plane. It was quite an incredible experience - as soon as you sit down in your giant chair, they offer you orange juice or chilled champagne, which you drink while looking through the well stocked toiletries bag they provide you, resting on your full size plump pillow. After take off, I mulled over my good fortune with another drink while casually nibbling some of the warm mixed
nuts while watching "Curb Your Enthusiasm" - really very funny.

Because I stole a menu, I can tell you that for my first course that evening, I had the Caprese Salad with mozzarella, tomato and basil (with a warm wheat roll of course) and for main, the roast chicken breast garnished with olives and tomatoes, accompanied by sweet couscous and sugar snap peas. For dessert, I merely went for a natural vanilla ice-cream sundae, with strawberry sauce and chopped nuts, garnished with a pirouline cookie.

Before this turns in to a food blog, I'll just tell you that I was GUTTED that they ran out of my first choice of pre-arrival light meal (the roast chicken breast sandwich) so I was forced to somehow shovel down a cold salad plate featuring smoked salmon slices, potato cucumber salad and tomato, accompanied by bread sticks and fresh fruit. How I managed, I'll never know as I lay back flat to sleep...

LANDED.

Amazed to see snow in Detroit, thought about cars, then flew off to Salt Lake where we were picked up by my lovely "American sister" Karen Ashman who took us to Karma Banks beautiful house and where I met up with some wonderful people I'd not seen in SO many years! Karma made me a sandwich with enough meat for a large family (it was delicious though) and we enjoyed the most amazing spread before playing some songs to a packed out room and having a great evening generally. We stayed at Zach's house (Amber's friend) and got to sleep at around 7am UK time.

Monday 1st March.

After Amber made us a form of "French Toast" with butter and maple syrup which was the nicest thing I've ever eaten, we headed out to look round the centre of Salt Lake round Temple Square - it was great to see how well everything was looked after, and it really is a pretty place. Everywhere you turn, you can see the most incredible mountain range in the distance. I STRONGLY recommend you try a "Jimmy John's" the next time you're in the States. Their bins, aka "trash cans" have an interesting suggestion too, as you can see from the photo....

The afternoon show was at a coffee shop called "NoBrow" - and we played "au natural" without a pa or amps, with glorious sunshine coming through the window (see photo above). I'm grateful that so many of my Utah friends came along to see us play, and I think they enjoyed it almost as much as we did.

That night, my friend Rob Turner who is a master of the local music scene (he also works for Disney films, and kindly took us to lunch on set) took us out and we had a rather jolly evening. I won't go into details, but the guy at the Carl's Junior with the gun DID like us apparently, and it was nice to meet some more people from Zach's apartment!

Tuesday 2nd March.

Today we experienced "Taco Soup" for the first time in our lives, courtesy of the Draschil family (it was delicious), whom we then performed for them in their living room. There were about a thousand children there, but it didn't feel like it as they were all so well behaved and danced around to our songs - it was a real pleasure to play for them. I also found a new friend in the form of "Grace" - who wouldn't let go of my hand! We played at Club Velour later that evening, and watched some other very talented people play too - it was still very hard to get used to how friendly every was to us...even strangers were chatting and buying the our CD's. It was a refreshing attitude. We had a delicious "In 'n' Out" burger on the way, back, and I drunk more Dr.Pepper than is really healthy for a human.

Wednesday 3rd March.

This was the day we went for a quick drive in the mountains and got a bit lost, going a mere 80 miles out of the way! It was very pretty though, so that made up for it, though we arrived rather late at the Ashman's for a lovely dinner (with tasty cool whip...like Angel Delight, but you have it with the main meal!). We almost didn't make the gig at The Vertical Diner after that, because Amber's car was so exhausted from its mountain drive, it gave up about a mile from the venue. Karen saved the day, and we made it to the gig just in time to leap on stage, and have a great evening.

Thursday 4th March....trying to get home.

This was the day we were meant to be going on Fox 13's "Good Morning Utah", but they pulled out at the last minute because of some big news story, and they couldn't fit us in! Very annoying, as I've been told Channel 2 also wanted to have us on that day. Next time!

After very many fond farewells, we flew out of Salt Lake and arrived in the afternoon in Atlanta JUST IN TIME to miss our flight home. Running across terminals with your bag and a guitar at high altitudes after days of being stuffed on American food is NOT RECOMMENDED. Fortunately, there was a flight back at 10.50pm that night which we waited for and, as good fortune wouldn't have it, was full so we couldn't get on. Our friend Richard Ryea who runs a label in Atlanta (and whom we stayed with when The Foxes toured the U.S. in 2007) came to our rescue, and kindly put us up that night. The next day we caught a flight to Minneapolis (therefore going AWAY from home) but from there finally managed to get flights back to London, dealing as best we could again with the limitations of first class seats.

Thank you to Amber, Karen, Zach, Rob and everyone who made our mini-tour so amazing. We'll be back soon! I'll be putting up the full photo collection soon, and a little video. I think everyone agreed that my American accent REALLY was making progress by the time I left. A few more days, and I think I'd have passed for a local....er...maybe....

I've written FAR too much, so will leave you here with a song from our fantastic gig at The Barfly on Saturday. Looking forward to the big tour!




Much love,

Nigel.

P.S. Have a look at our latest photo shoot here.
P.P.S. Why not join my music page by clicking here?
P.P.P.S. Thank you for all your comments while I was away - I really enjoyed reading them, even if I couldn't reply!

"You're very annoying, stop taking photos" - What Jonno's expression said for most of the trip!

New EP, tour and American adventures!

The picture of beauty above is the front cover to our new EP, "Depression, Joy and a Moment of Fame." It's an original piece of artwork by a very talented artist called Owain Thomas (no relation...that I'm aware of). Do check out the rest of his work. It's not finalised, but we're looking at a release date of around 12th April, with a big UK tour (and maybe Europe if we have time!) in April/May. The new tracks should be up soon too. Exciting times...I love touring, despite the long drives, sleeping in random places and the dodgy petrol station diet! Lots of gigs already booked across the country. Check out our gig listing on our Facebook or Myspace page.

Mastering, the final touch to the tracks, went very well with John Davis at Metropolis, and he dealt with our usual pestering to meet Damon Albarn, etc very well. Also need to thank John for having us at his birthday party, which is responsible for my very sore head this morning! Our producer John Cornfield also drove all the way up from Cornwall to be at the session to. What a guy! Here's a little video clip of the mastering - check out his three GIANT speakers (that John later climbed on...)

In other news, Jonno and I are heading off to Salt Lake City in Utah for a week to play some acoustic gigs, and hopefully do a few TV and radio spots. We've got one gig booked already at the Vertical Diner on 3rd March, and should have shows every night if all goes well, thanks to my good friend Rob Turner, a local music scene legend! We're also going to be flying first class, thanks to the lovely Amber who works for an airline and is getting us a rather amazing flight deal! Having never flown anything above cattle class, I'm going to be an excited little child on the flight - sorry Jonno, but I WILL be taking stupid photos and video, and making a fool of myself.

Speaking of the U.S. it's looking very likely that we'll be doing a week of shows in Los Angeles in June for various industry folk...but I guess we'll let the public in too! Anyway, more details to come. Mmm....In 'n' Out burgers.....

Big thanks to Laura at Exposure PR for giving us a host of clothes and shoes from Ben Sherman, Levi's, Original Penguin and Farrah. We've several photo shoots coming up, so look out for them then...and at gigs of course.

I'll leave you with this video clip in the van after John Davis birthday party, where the following can be ascertained:

1. Steve is the drummer.

2. It's dark at night.

3. Alex loves "penis."

I've probably left out loads of exciting things, but am too tired to think at the moment! Oh yes, we've just been confirmed for the main stage at a major UK festival. Can't tell you which one yet though.

Much love,

Nigel.

P.S. Part two of the Yeti Tour video is now up - check it out now, if you please!
P.P.S. A new song on my Facebook page.
P.P.P.S. CHECK OUT MY BAKING SKILLS!!

P.P.P.P.S. You can ask me silly questions, safely veiled behind anonymity by clicking here. 221 questions answered to date!


"Happy Birthday to me!" - John Davis, yesterday.

"He didn't really say that, but it WAS his birthday yesterday" - Me, right now, to you.

Sawmills - Day Four & Five

Day Four.

The final day has been perfection - we had a lot to do...overdubs on all the tracks, guitar parts, vocals, percussion, claps...."chuka chuka's" (you'll understand when you hear them!)...but we got it all done, and the tracks sound amazing. Really...we worked together in a way we never have before...John Cornfield was fantastic to work with (yes, I'm full of it tonight, but it's all true)...let me tell you about the tracks, in the order they'll appear on the EP:

1. Get Me. A track unlike any we've done before, and one I wrote quite recently...it starts with just guitar and drums, and is a short, tight, exciting track with a huge middle eight. I'm making a video to this track from footage from this week....lots of people seem to love the lyrics to this track too.

2. Something About You. We got this nailed in just a couple of takes because we were so full of excitement and energy! The big climax at the end of the solo is breathtaking! It's full of joy, which I can remember when writing it.

3. No Reply. I'm not sure what to say about this one. The first part of the track is just vocals and two guitars, and has a very melodic Sinatra feel to it (you'll probably disagree with that entirely....I just want to sing swing and jazz!). It was written a few years while ago about how someone I cared about drifted away from me.

4. Country Low. This song had the most tracks by far - 69 individual tracks at last count! My brother Ian came down to put piano at the end, and it has a huge crescendo to the end. Though we were uncertain whether to do this track or "Run" I'm VERY happy with the end result. I wrote this song in the garden as it started to rain at my parents house in Somerset.

We've got to be up early and leave by 11am at the latest, or the tide will be out and our boat will be stuck in the mud. The only low point of the day was when I smashed my head on an open cupboard door. The agonising pain was really quite diverting from the coffee I was trying to make.

We're having a bit of a party now, which started in the studio with a bit of tipsy playing and has moved into the main house where we've found a big megaphone and...well....that's enough for now!


Day Five.

We all managed to get up and load the boat before the tide went out! Here we are about to board ship with John outside the studio (click on any of the photos in this blog for the whacking great full size versions, or just leave them for nothing to happen).




The drive back took hours and hours and hours. We're all a little sad to leave our little forest studio home, but it's likely we'll be back for a much longer session in the summer. We're also all totally thrilled at how well the recordings have turned out...it'll take a good couple of weeks for John to complete the mixing and then the mastering by our main man, Mr John Davis, who did all the previous singles.

Anyway, here's a little snippet of video from the studio when Jonno was doing some guitar overdubs to "Get Me" - full documentary to come in a couple of weeks! I'll also be putting up video tasters of all the songs in forthcoming blogs.

Much love,

Nigel.

I'm going to be working on the second part of the 2008 tour video now, so it should be up this week...it's far naughtier. First part here, well worth watching!

P.S. I've had no phone signal (apart from the few moments I've had a walk in the woods) so that's the reason I've ignored any texts etc)
P.P.S. I've had hardly any time free (apart from the time I've spent doing these blogs) so that's why I've not replied to emails and Facebook messages.
P.P.P.S. There are no spelling mistakes in this blog Alexandra!


"Thumping great dynamic, I love it" - John Cornfield, yesterday.

"Goodbye" - John Cornfield, today.

"Goodbye John" - Us, today.

The Foxes Facebook.
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Do ask me something interesting too by clicking here.


Loading the boat. It's amazing how much stuff you can fit in it:

Sawmills - Day Three

Today was a long hard day - but incredibly worth it. I woke up late, which was fine as Jonno was busy early doing some guitar overdubs. After a stern dose of medically necessary and industrial strength coffee, we then spent around four hours working on "No Reply" It has several tricky time changes, and despite exhaustive attempts, we weren't happy with any of the takes. So we left it and started on "Something About You" which we perfected in just a couple of runs - it has a really great vibe to it, and sounds just how I'd envisaged the "band version" when I first wrote it. It really is special.

It was quite late by the time we'd finished the vocals, but we launched straight in to "No Reply" again and nailed it in the first take. As John said, "It sounds like you're enjoying yourselves now!"

It's been pouring with rain for most of the day. Whoever decided that having a roof on the studio was a good idea, I commend you. We would have been both soaked and electrocuted otherwise.

Tomorrow we're doing overdubs of certain backing vocals, guitar parts, hand claps and various other bizarre noises. My brother Ian is also bravely leaving his cat for the day to come and add some piano to the end of "Country Low" (there's a baby grand in the studio).

I know you'd kill me if I left you without a...erm...food update, so for lunch we had real Cornish pasties, and dinner was a sumptuous spicy Spanish pork casserole. Lemon cheesecake dessert was as doubly enjoyable as it was listening back to the four tracks in the control room. There MIGHT have been a little bit of childish dancing around at how good they sound! Not me though.

I'm sorry there's not more to report tonight - it has just been a very long day of solid studio work, without time to explore the forest or drown one of the guys in the river for a joke.

We're relaxing and watching "Carlito's Way" now. Oh, Alex has just passed me a cinnamon biscuit. What a nice guy.

Much love,

Nigel.

P.S. I do love reading your blog comments (it'll be quite embarrasing if there are none to this one now...)
P.P.S. I've tried to decide which track sounds best, but I can't! They're even better than I thought they'd be.
P.P.P.S. The same links as yesterday: The Foxes Facebook. My Music Facebook. The Foxes Twitter. Do ask me something interesting too!
P.P.P.P.S. We're all exhausted, but happy.
P.P.P.P.P.S. That's enough!
P.P.P.P.P.P.S. Is it?
P.P.P.P.P.P.P.S. Yes.

"There's no law against cheescake in the control room" - John Cornfield, today.

"Can I have Nigel on his own? Twice? " - Alex Douglas, today.

Sawmills - Day Two

We've just finished fourteen hours solid work, and despite my having only managed to get to sleep at 6am, it's gone extraordinarily well!

So far, we've pretty much completed the basic tracking for "Get Me" and "Country Low" and I don't mean to hyperbolize, but they really are truly sounding quite fantastic. Spending the first evening getting the right mics in place (two for each guitar amp, and about a thousand for the drums) and checking the levels really paid off. The sound is actually quite different from our previous singles - still the same energy and excitement, but far more rounded and full. As you can see from the quote at the bottom of this blog, John seemed fairly impressed!

So far the trickiest part has been getting the tempo right as we're not playing to a click track, as this is far better for getting something with a bit of feeling and soul, not some regimented piece of manufactured pop.

The studio is incredibly secluded, and there's ZERO phone signal, so there are few distractions from making the best music we've ever done (in the studio at least...there's such distractions as a pool table, internet, digital satellite TV, loads of DVD's, computer consoles and beer up in the main house...) Dinner tonight was steak and stilton pie, with potatoes, salad, vegetables and hot buttered rolls courtesy of the lovely Ruth!

I've been doing plenty of filming, so will be putting together a recording documentary at some point. You would have seen some footage tonight, but Geve's computer is just not playing ball. It's not even changed for the game.

I genuinely can't wait to start again tomorrow!

Much love,

Nigel.

P.S. I've just heard on QI that people who sleep just 4 to 7 hours a night live LONGER than those who sleep 8 or more. RESULT! ;-)
P.P.S. Did I mention how fantastic the tracks are sounding?!
P.P.P.S. Some links: The Foxes Facebook. My Music Facebook. The Foxes Twitter. Do ask me something interesting too!

"To be honest, I'm fucking amazed" - John Cornfield, today.