We’ve been featured on the latest edition of The Hut a weekly podcast featured on Chill on-line radio station but also found here
It’s actually a really beautiful playlist and I’m glad we were included. Ben Eshmade who runs Arctic Circle and programmes quite a bit at The Union Chapel as well as playing the French horn presents and produces the show.
We are playing at Kick The Plug this Wednesday. It’s supposed to be a quality night of music by all accounts so I’m looking forward to it. We aren’t going to playing for a while after this so if you can come along it would be lovely to see some friendly faces. We’re on at 9pm.
So here is the interview i did with Juana Molina a few weeks back.
She makes such beautiful and imaginative music it was a real treat to spend a bit of time with her. Her publicist had told me not to ask her the same old boring questions so i was expecting her to be a bit difficult, or unresponsive but she was actually very chatty. I think most people love talking about themselves!
I was a bit annoyed with myself for not following her train of thought as much as i could have but I did get some interesting responses and I do love hearing about how people go about writing, recording and what their day to day creative lives are like. Have a listen, it’s only about 4 mins long.
Juana Molina Interview
Last night’s gig was lovely, there was a warm atmosphere and i think the start of a good thing at The Brittania Pub.
So this Saturday we are playing with Nancy Wallace again this time she’ll be singing with her other musical endeavour The Owl Service (also a great book). We are playing as part of something called the Daylight Festival at the Union Chapel which starts at midday and ends at 2pm. We’re on at 12.45 and it’s free; there will be cake and tea and churchy things like that. It’s a beautiful venue if you haven’t been and as you might imagine singing just sounds wonderful in there so hopefully A-Line should come through well as we don’t have drums or anything too percussive.
Nearest tube is Highbury and loads of buses are nearby including: 277, 4, 19 … that’s all i can remember.
Here’s a picture Stefan McClean took at the ICA gig a few weeks back.
This Wed 13th May we have a gig at a pub on Victoria Park called The Brittania. Nancy Wallace has been given a residency and asked to ‘curate’ the evenings, so she’s kindly asked us to play. We practised with Nancy yesterday so if we don’t cock it up we’ll be singing together too on our new song. Yes new song. Finally sorting some new tunes out after a run of duff songs that were going no-where, i’m starting to get it together. This is what Nancy looks like:
I just met Juana Molina! I only discovered her last year and was very much inspired. She makes acoustic music with lots of rhythm and experimentation and uses delicious synth sounds.
I interviewed her for my work blog as she’s playing here tonight. I was concentrating on making sure I kept the questions flowing so I’m looking forward to listening back to some of her answers and properly taking in what she said. She’s an inspiration for lots of reasons but having been a successful comedienne and then moving in to making her own music after having a baby she’s pretty much done everything I aspire to!
I’m always interested to know how people who actually make a living from music go about their daily lives. She told me that the last album was started and finished in just over a month. She records as part of the song writing process which I think helps a lot but nonetheless it’s impressively quick. Then the rest of the time she spends working on her house, making clothes and generally pottering about in Buenos Aires.
Anyway, I’ll post a link to the final interview later this week hopefully. I wish I’d taken a cheesy photo of me with her…
Joan Wasser AKA Joan As Police Woman is super great. Only just discovered her and although initially i wasn’t entirely sure, she seemed a bit L.A. session musician, all slick and polished but i am now obsessed with the song Holiday and have it as the continuous background song in my head. Her lyrics aren’t predictable and the production on her recordings is just flawless and makes me want to buy microphones, pre-amps and the like as well as try writing some songs that have more than two chords. This is her talking a bit about the recording of the album. Despite the luscious sound of the recordings it’s interesting to know they pretty much played it all live.
(geek warning) Note how Holiday has a really long intro that sounds like Air’s ‘All I Need’ and then later into the song there these atonal bits of guitar that are like those in Joni Mitchell’s Hissing of Summer Lawns.
We have a gig on Good Friday, 10th April at the ICA as part of their Quiet Nights season. We’re playing alongside The Voluntary Butler Scheme and Gerry Mitchell and I have inside knowledge that there may well be Easter cake on offer. I’m looking forward to seeing Scottish Gerry Mitchell, his spoken word vibe will either be annoying or totally captivating live but I like the recorded songs I’ve heard so far. We’re on first at around 7pm, unfortunately it’s fully booked and our guest list is almost full but let me know if you fancy coming and i’ll see what i can do.
I was given a lovely goose by my sister over a year ago, the spoils of a photo shoot she was working on. A goose shoot i guess. Anyway, it’s been in the freezer all this time and all the official sites tell you poultry shouldnt be eaten from frozen after much longer than a month or two of freezing it. But then i found a site that said, defrost it and smell it, it won’t smell unless it’s rotting. So we defrosted it last night as we had new fresh things to freeze that the goose wasn’t leaving any room for and it didn’t smell, it’s currently in the oven and it won’t be ready until 12.20am. I’m not sure i even like goose but it looks pretty spectacular and golden right now. 
The design blog Booooooom alerted me to the excellence of Kirsten Lepore, animator and director. The fairy cake video is just brilliant but this one has a guitar and silly lyrics.
We had a great time. Proper sound man, organised promoters and really lovely crowd. Couldnt’t have asked for more. And look how well coordinated our outfits are! Thanks to everyone for coming down. x
