21 posts from 2008

It's been a massive week, massive weekend and a long year.

I'm knackered, nick nacked, completely paddy whacked. It's been a busy year and I've not really had enough downtime, I feel drained and a bit ruffled and am looking forward to getting on a plane today and disconnecting for a couple of weeks, reading books on the beach, dreaming and listening to music. I'm taking my guitar but am not really thinking about writing... I need to reconnect with myself before I can move on, that's how I feel.

This week was cool and busy, although I was really dissapointed to cut the studio sessions short it was the right call. It cleared my head and I have had so much to do getting Drama Queen and Superbug ready for digital release and sorting out the new store at indiestore. So I spent time doing all that out and sorting out all the other things to do at the end of the year which always somehow add up to seem like a huge un-scalable mountain which you have no time climb don't they!

Mad Masters is shaping up really well. Eliza came over for a chill and she put some vocals down on it and another track I'm demoing at the mo. Might well end up on the final cuts. Also I saw Jayson at the studio the other day and heard some of the new tracks which are shaping up for his album release next year - they sounded great and I'm looking forward to hearing the rest! Me and my compadré Chocolate Soufflé have been working on a string arrangement for him, woul be cool if that ended up on the album. I've also been looking at remixes and various other things but more on that next year.

The weekend was great, Max Zastiera, my drummer and the doctore of tempo came up from Brighton to munch some dins and drink some booze and the next morning we caught up for brekkie with my mate Sam who was also coming to stay from Yorkshire. I was completely exhausted but it was nice to feel the start of the slow unwind and great to see them. The boys went off and I spent the afternoon working on some beats/loops and mixing some other stuff for a friend, also kept an eye on the rugby (what a great weekend it was, with the Munster match being so close until the last few minutes and Quins beating Stade at the final whistle with a drop goal after a 29 phase play!) Passed out late arvo and attempted to watch Mothman Prophecies terrified and with my eyes closed for most of it. Caught up with my mate Sam again and then hopped a few parties, was a good eve. Then yesterday caught up with some friends and munched obscene amounts of pancakes at My Old Dutch Kings Road and had a good chill.

Time to go now, gotta reach the peak of the admin mountain before I get on that plane! Realised I haven't written anything about the new release! But this is a personal blog though isn't it... Maybe I'll write another quick one for that in a min... Actually, forget that - you know what, my new singles Drama Queen and Superbug are out today!!!!! ;) You can check the spiel and find out more at : indiestore.com/castlefanous , myspace.com/karimfanoust and karimfanous.com

I was really looking forward to getting back into the studio yesterday, and it started off well...

I've got five tracks ready for an EP release next year and am happy with the group. It's pretty dark stuff but nice to vent that right now.

One is the blues track (Mad Masters) that I've been pedalling for a while and I've been looking forward to playing blues harp on a track of mine for a while (have a look here to see me breaking in the harps). Me and my mate Chocolate Soufflé put together a really quirky but good arrangement over my live track which I recorded at Steve's a few months ago. I'm playing guitar and beating the guitar with a pedal switch (you can hear the switch if you look out for it) and we sat down to embellish it with some 'atmosphere'... We were going to go all filmic and got some lush strings down and then this noise just came out of nowhere while we were setting some sound proofing up in Soufflé's studio. His keyboard started playing this really low bass note grumble, and voodoistic enough it was just the right note. So we sat that under the track. Then we wanted to go all Aussie Aboriginie with an authentic percussion instrument he had lying around but instead a trusty 808 sound intercepted us and we want all electro beat with the track.

I chucked it over to steve for some slide guitar playing. I went to his place last night to hear what he had done and it sounded wild, he's put down three tracks of Cooder style chicago evil slide and I'll comp them together .... I also layed down some 'chicago blues harp' with the help of his old school blues mic (turn it up to 11!) and his Rock Of Lonon all in one amp/cab. Was a good sound and a good vibe.

Then sat down to record a couple of new tracks. The vibe lost me and it didn't go that well. I've decided I want to do completely live takes whenever possible from now on, singing and playing at the same time. Steve got a great sound and his new studio complex with it's tracking rooms is shaping up really well. He got really good sound and separation between my voice and guitar. But my mojo deserted me. My right hand was too clunky (it's an intricate picking song) and the rhythm (that is such an awkward word to spell) was off. I've been playing and gigging too much and think I'm a bit worn out, also it feels like these songs are too new, I need to play them in a bit more - the structure is fine I just need to let them sink into me. These things seem ok outside the studio but when you go in and are recording at such high resolution the little things show up and become big things very quickly. Have another session booked tonight but I think I'm just gonna go pick up my gear. I've done enough recording to know when things aren't right and things don't feel right. No rush as I've got my new double A to put out this month and this EP can be wrapped up early next year....

Shame because I was looking forward to it.

Oh, and I'm pleased (or not pleased depending how you look at it) to see that steve is his usual charming self. 'I love being me' he said. 'You're right Steve' I said, 'I know', he said. 'Meeeaow is that a cat wailing or someone trying to play the harmonica?' He said. 'Not you and your bloody mojo again' He said.

..... but it will be soon I promise.

We were nailed by the South Africa on the weekend. Biggest defeat at Twickenham in history. That cuts deep, deeper than an away loss because it is our home ground, the hallowed ground.  South Africa were magnificent. I bumped into Bakkies Botha (their second row) on the street the other day and he was MASSIVE. A huge beast. To see him sprint across the field like a back to make a try saving tackle on Delon Armitage was impressive, inpsiring and reflective of the South African team. Total committment and athleticism. Ouch.

76-0 . That was the score when we lost away to Australia just after Clive Woodward took over and before he made us world champions. I hope this is the same situation, but something feels different. Back then we had Dallaglio, Johnson, Back, Hill, Leonard. I hope individuals grow into the same stature. How has it got so bad? People say we haven't been nurturing talent. This seems weird after the trumpeting of our academies and club development schemes. Whatever the problem is, it is deep and needs fixing. I stick behind Johnno, we have to get behind him and the team and support them while they grow.

I'm going to Twickers this Saturday to watch the All Blacks game. It will be bittersweet. My first trip to see the mighty Blacks play at the hallowed ground. Probably to see us get pummelled.

On another note there is so much going on at the moment, I'm struggling to take it all in and make sense of it. Struggling to fit the pieces together and figure out what is going to happen. Waking up to see pictures of Bombay in tatters and blood on the streets is difficult. Then to turn pages and read about how your government's ruling party is in huge amounts of debt, as a company, as an organisation. Recession is here, deflation, whatever you want to call it, and we are borrowing and spending more to heal it? It makes sense to economists, but to a layman it sounds wrotten, perpetual. Just like that Woolworths has gone under, MFI is going under, the world economy is contracting, China's economy is growing nevertheless but can't keep up with the growing workforce. All these economical structures and organisations based on such a weak platform. It feels like the world is about to descend into fully blown bollocks anarchy.

I'm listening to Pendulum's myspace at 9:30am... it's doing my head in.

Moments... music. Intertwined. Forever trying to gain control. Control being a futile proposition. Moments are independent and on a different plane, we can never catch them, but we can experience them. I'm always trying to stay in control, of my life, of my music, of my creativity, of the path to my goals. I'm starting to understand I never will be able to. 

I need sleep.....

Last night I finally felt tired and it was wonderful.

There are usually straightforward ways to describe the weather in London: dreary, wet, cold, cloudy. Sometimes in Summer we can use : sunny. This year it is even simpler: weird. Today I walked out of the house with a jumper feeling cold and seeing clouds, I came back overheated and with my eyes squinting from the sun, and this has been happening all summer (in reverse too and all sorts of combinations)... We haven't really had a summer, but we haven't had one season either. All these changes bring a really weird energy with them: inconsistency, moodiness, doom, glory all in two hours. Combine that with the recent full moon and I am feeling: weird.

well i've been in bed with flu for a couple of days and enjoying the stillness once again. been working hard day and night on music recently and an all day outing to the rugby season opener at Twickenham fuelled by guinness and bad hot dogs finished me off (in the nicest way possible)...

..... today couldn't get any better... I am a happy man :)

I've been captivated by trees recently.... they are majestic entities.