Monday 22 July 2013

New album in the pipeline

I've been doing a few days a month on the new album. It's slow going here in the Cilento. The studio owner is quite booked up, especially in the summer as he does live sound. But that suits me fine. There's no hurry.

I've happy with the sound of the songs. It's quite a creamy sound. It's mostly analogue equipment and multi-tracked vocals. These layers give it a very rich quality

Five will be 'produced' this way with other musicians on them, and seven will be just me solo. It's too expensive and would be even more time-consuming to do them all. Not that there needs to be 12 songs anymore. The concept of the album is a loose one in these digital days.

The songs are all about my time here in the Cilento. I've been here two years now. It's hard for a rolling stone to settle down. My girlfriend's father was very sick for over a year until he died a few months ago, from leukemia and that was one of the reasons I stayed as long. Now I'm not so sure what to do. It's very idyllic here in the summer, with lots of visitors and things to do... cycling, beach volley, jamming with friends, festivals, beautiful fruit and food... but the winters are long, in cold houses, with deserted towns

I fly to India on September 11th (cheap flight!) and will stay there for a few months. The plan is no plan. Hopefully Maria can come and visit me. The reason for India is to learn more about Ayurveda, which I'm fascinated by. A largely ignored science of life.

Maria's family wanted to turn the house here into a B&B, but after a very inspiring yoga festival in the north of Italy a few weeks ago, we had the idea to turn it into a yoga centre, come cycling centre, or retreat for group holidays basically... even a dance studio. And then in the summer run some mini-festivals of music and yoga and the suchlike. Only a few in-the-know Germans come this far down Italy, most people stay up in Tuscany, and this would be a good way to get some tourist euros. The locals don't have much money, and even if they did they aren't much interested in alternative festivals and so you need tourists.

So maybe half the year in India and half in Italy. Wouldn't be too bad.

No plans to tour for the moment. It's just not profitable. Takes a huge amount of time to organise the shows, then few people actually come to them, and those that do don't buy CDs anymore. It's really tough for musicians to make money anymore.

I'll do the best I can with the new album. Make some nice videos. Try for a record deal this time with some smaller labels around the world, and maybe that leads to something.

We'll see.

Tuesday 16 July 2013

Jamming with Klaus

Thanks for the music lesson

Bliss beat festival

Just had a truly inspiring weekend at a yoga festival in the north of Italy. Wonderful people and teachers.

Yoga stars

Wednesday 10 July 2013

Studio

Another session in the studio in Ascea. Slowly getting the album together. Drums today with Denis Citera. Top stuff.

Dog food never tasted so good

Garden fresh

Sunday afternoon

Jamming with friends in Perdifumo. A lovely lazy Sunday.

Dog food

Cooking for the carne. Even the dogs in Italy live on pasta.

Mozzarella machines

Hanging with the Buffalo. My friend Anthony from Australia is making his own mozzarella brand - Belmosa.

Back in Italy

My friend Piera Lombardi played a great concert in Valo last week. Check her out.