I am concerned about the mental welfare of my drummer, Max Zastiera. He is studying Pharmacology at Brighton Uni (hence his nickname 'The Drum Doctor', 'The Doctor of Tempo' or for short 'The Doc' .) Our conversations are becoming increasingly bizarre. Before a gig one should be discussing variations in set list order, how we are going to 'smash the place' (from a musical point of view), or what we had for dinner last night/watched on the tele. However, recently while observing the support act, Max leaned over and started mumbling something about agonists, competitive antagonists and dope response relationships. I was already lost at this point but then when he began to talk about electrolytes, nicotinic and muscarinic cholinoceptors and adrenoceptors related to the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system I began to fret. In fact, Lord V (Vinzenz Benjamin, Lord of The Bass) had to 'intervene' and point out that it was perhaps not quite the right time to be discussing these things...
Max, if you're reading this, we're here for you mate.
Well peeps I just had the pleasurable experience of being flown out to Norway to play a gig in Jonas B, Portsgrunn.
Dudes and Dudettes it gives me great pleasure to tell you that in a lovely twist of fate (or perhaps even as a result of talent and hard work, but my mates would tell you otherwise) I have been awarded the accolade of Best Singer-Songwriter in the Glasswerk New Music Awards at AKA London last night.
"The awards are to reward the best new music around the UK and to highlight the musical depth and diversity of the current UK music scene"
"Hosted by Tony Wright (Terrorvision/Laika Dog) and Peter Brame (BBC Fame Academy)"
"The Glasswerk New Music Awards want to get themselves firmly established on the musical calendar and more importantly highlight the breath taking array of music talent in the UK."
Was quite a fun night I must say and I even had my own 'VIP' section which I lay down in and made funny noises. I also put on a smart jacket and an arty scarf for the occasion. The event organisers invited me to play a couple of songs at the after party which I was bricking it about because thanks to beautiful England Rugby getting to the final I lost my voice over the weekend, which didn't help my gig on Monday either. Nothing like adrenalin though and the whole thing was a blast. Huge thanks to everyone involved, was good to meet some new musical nutters, and as I said in my shambolically brilliant acceptance speech it was a lovely bit of encouragement as the only other prize I've been given for music was for a clarinet solo when I was a tinkle at eleven years old.
Luv yas. Pics soon.
Fanous
Had a funny experience yesterday. Took a hundred copies of the album to the sub-distributor's (Pinnacle) warehouse. It is in Swanley off the A20 which is a pain of a drive for us central Londoners as you have to drive through London across the river and via Peckham and Lee which means loadsa traffic. 25 miles took over an hour and a half to drive, which mean't a three and a half hour round trip and lots of boredness and huffing and puffing (after I'd listened to my DJ Format and Biggie albums twice in a row each).
Anyway, got there and saw THOUSANDS of cd's being offloaded and stored etc. It made me feel like an ickle dwarf. There was a freight truck there with a loader taking boxes of cd's off which was mad, but I suppose normal really for a distribution warehouse. So in trooped lil' ol' me with my four small boxes of 25 cd's. The lady said put them on top of a pile of about 1000 cd's of a band with a completely random name that no one will ever hear of and I was off, while saying a little good luck speech for my babies (fly away my little ones, and don't stop until you are in someone's cd player).
Got back, annoyed and drained from the drive and an email comes in from our distributor Wilf telling us we had just sold out on pre-orders and needed to drop some more in asap. DOH! Great news, but I'm not looking forward to becoming very familliar with this drive!
Upside was that me and the boys played the bedford in the evening and smashed it up good style.
Cheerio,
Karim
Ok let's face it you're gonna find out sooner or later that I love my rugby. Years of playing school 1st team rugby,
Allright nuff rambling. The world cup is here and I have been looking forward to it! So much so that I have dished out guitar money to buy a hard disk video recorder because most of the time I am out playing live so will miss so many of the matches.
What can I say though, from the ones I have seen it has been a great start to the tournament, for the best reason possible, and that is to watch the 'smaller' nations do well! I must have woken up most of my neighbours watching the Ireland v Georgia match and screaming in excitement at the tele at 3am after coming back from a gig. Georgia were unlucky not to win that match. Japan v Fiji was brill in the last 15, Namibia pushed Ireland and the biggest 'upset' of all and what a better way to start the tournament as a spectator: Argentina beat France in the opener. I was playing with my band at the time and remember being excitedly gobsmacked as I looked up the result on my phone after the gig.
A couple of weeks ago, tired, stressed and dreary eyed I headed out of London to spend the weekend with some friends. Man did I need to get out of London I was down in the dumps big time. Anyway, having got to Sandhurst in record time (despite my evil sat nav trying to distract me and take me somwhere else completely - as usual) I felt the weight start to lift (take a load off... ). In fact, as soon as I hit the motorway in the sunshine I started to feel the weight lift. Sometimes London is like that. I love it to death but you need to run every now and then. I was lucky that it was a beautiful afternoon and a beautiful afternoon means a beautiful drive. It was so good to see Andy and Heidi again - they had invited me to play at their wedding last year while Heidi went down the aisle and I was the most nervous I have ever been playing a gig anywhere. Anyway, a picture of a relaxing weekend, I found Andy chopping up leaves and playing with funny gardening machines as soon as I stepped in. Their barbeque is really a spaceship I think, but a spaceship that cooks very well and they had prepared some gorgeous food (fresh from the local butchers, apparently Will Carling goes there).... A couple of bottles of champagne, some glorious cuts of meat, and healthy amounts of hard core cheesecake later, and quite a few beers too, me and andy found ourselves giggling by his new toy. Well, it's not really a toy, more a big portable chimney. Brainwave, let's get the vodka out and breath fire (pity health and safety wasn't around)....anyway, the pics say the rest!!!!!!!! Don't try this at home kids.
Ok Ok shameless plug I know, but I'm excited about this after a lot of hard work getting it ready! You can pre-order my debut album Stir Crazy right now! The official release date is October 1st.
You can find it here:
Hope you don't mind the shameless plug and if you do buy it then happy listening!!!!!
Cheerio,
Karimo
Whippee very excited to say that 'Perfume' was played a couple of times on BBC Radio 6 Music recently, once on Nemone's daytime show, and on George Lamb's show too... Right, time to celebrate, but will do my best this time to avoid dislocating my shoulder!
:)
Well I managed to dislocate my shoulder the other day after one too many beers and a bit of a ruck.
I have subsequently experienced this very strange phenomenon which people call 'having more time on your hands'.The world moved out of the fast lane for me... Why don't we take things a bit slower these days? I experienced a feeling I decided to call ' the stillness' and was completely freaked out. Is this where so many of our problems come from? We're running running running and when we stop or are forced to stop we don't know where we are or why we are there? Our world moves quick.
Here are some lessons I learned and some things I did in the stillness.
1) LOVE MUSIC . A friend of mine once said 'Music is my Church'. John Mayer said 'Music...It's the last gold circle. And you're standing in it.' Another friend said 'Without music, I'd be really bored.' Joni said 'When I think of your kisses my mind sees songs'. Love music, it's important...... One of the things that I love about music as a language or form of communication or community, is its accessibility. Even if people are tone deaf and can't play an instrument or sing they can still feel a beat, and they can move to it. I can sing and I can play, and man do I love a beat... Charlie Winston talks of a disease called 'The Beats'...I've definitely got that.
Anyway, in the stillness, me and my intact arm have been trawling through my whole cd collection and have been living it up. We travelled through John Coltrane and his favourite things, got our rocks off with Primal Scream, took five with Dave Brubeck, courted and sparked with Joni Mitchell, got stuffed by the MC5, jived to Breakestra, moved to the Meters, got stung by The Black Crowes, freaked and funked up by Parliament, soothed by Harry Connick Jr., bluesed by Bonnie and lifted by Bruce at The Point. And this is just the half of it. We also managed to sort and find every AC/DC album I own (that's all of them) and the rarities, and figure out which ones are lost. I even managed to listen to a couple of albums from start to finish....that is an unusual pleasure. And all this on 'crappy' hi fi speakers, not astronaut grade studio monsters. Priceless....
LOVE MUSIC..... IT'S IMPORTANT.
2) ONE HAND TYPING . Man, in the stillness, I have learned that one hand typing is a real pain in the left arm if you know what I mean. But it has reminded me that we can say things with so many less words and so much more meaning.
3) GIVE PEOPLE A CHANCE . In the stillness, the Mad Masters run around like raging inferno hounds. We are too cynical, why don't we give each other more of a chance...
4) IF YOU WANT PEOPLE TO BE NICE TO YOU, WEAR A SLING . In the stillness I have discovered that human nature is still basically kind and compassionate...but only if you are an invalid. Ordinarily these people would be bumping into me, closing doors on me and generally giving me dirty looks.
5) CUTTING FOOD WITH ONE HAND.... is difficult. I went for breakfast with a friend and we laughed at my efforts. You can't cut a sausage with a fork, you don't get a clean slice, just a mushy lump, which squirts at you. She offered to cut my food up for me. I said no.
6) SIT BACK, CONSUME, LAUGH AND BREATH OUT. Had a couple of great eve's in the flat with friends and food and music and copious amounts of Lech (Polska lager). That was good.
7) BE PREPARED TO LOSE CONTROL. Because sometimes you will.
8) IT'S ALL ABOUT THE SONG . Not being able to play has taught me that I love playing guitar, but I love songs more. And in the words of the mighty: 'The song remains the same'.
These are some lessons I have learned and things I did while placed in the stillness. Now give me my arm back, I wanna run again...
Man I feel like I was descended upon like musical prey last night at the Baxter 'family' gig. At one point with Charlie Winston, Vashti, the whole band and Tom Baxter smashing their way through a beautifully spanish tinged 'tell her today' I felt blown over. Indeed it was a family affair, ordinarily a cringeworthy moment but when you see all these people on stage and so naturally in this musical moment it is something else. Check out baxer's new album 'skybound' - it has REAL musicians on it, PROPER playing, it was recorded with a LIVE feel, it is produced really nicely (you actually have to turn the volume UP for a change) and most importantly the songwriting is top notch and filled with rich and varied musical styles and ideas.
www.myspace.com/tombaxter
Was anyone else there???
Luv Karimo
