tick tock tick tock

With the imminent arrival of a baby in the Attwood household, you’d be forgiven for thinking that theres not very much getting done at the moment with regards to Blueneck. Strangely, it seems to be one of the more productive periods for quite some time….im even updating the blog which seems to have been left alone for so long that it has cobwebs all over it. First off… a quick congratulations to Ben (Paget) and Emma who got married a couple of weeks ago. … it was a fun day … Krispy Kreme donuts as the wedding cake was an interesting idea , which I thoroughly approved of. It was nice to see all the members of Blueneck (new and old) at the wedding…its pretty rare that we see eachother outside of a musical environment these days. So Epilogue was released last month. Theres been some really nice feedback about this record. I didn’t expect quite such a positive reaction from as many people… I wanted to do something a little different before immersing ourselves into another vocal album and ive always wanted to write a record inspired by some of my favourite movie soundtracks and composers. It was very much a self indulgent period (ie highly enjoyable!) – I think it also brought out a different side to Rich’s guitar writing aswell…he came up with some really nice ideas – which I think he’s elaborated with on the new album we’re about to start recording. I think that Epilogue is very much a closing chapter to our first three albums…. But I wouldn’t rule out releasing similar records like Epilogue again… it was too enjoyable an experience to not do something similar again. New album – so we’ve been approaching this completely differently to all of the other recordings we’ve done in the past. All of the songs have been demoed (albums have always been written as we record it as opposed to prior to recording) and now we’ve started working on guide tracks at home. The past few days ive been working on programming drum patterns and rhythms in preparation for the first recording session on 1st December – Ive been sending them over to Rich…who then sends back his feedback… which is usually something like ‘its not quite right…try something else’. For some reason i always picture Rich sat by a swimming pool in the sun drinking a Pina Colada whilst giving his feedback on my ideas... Seriously though, we’re giving a great deal of thought to every detail this time BEFORE we’ve even started actually recording…. Its time consuming… and quite often I find myself still up at 3am just tweaking one last thing before going to sleep (I guess with a baby on the way I’ll be used to being awake at 3am anyway?!) I started writing the songs for this album at the same time as starting recording for Epilogue… Theyre 2 very different records – and so it was good fun working on 2 completely different projects. Whilst Epilogue was very experimental and a lot of time was spent just trying out new ideas whilst in the studio, the new songs have been carefully thought about, demoed and discussed amongst the band and producer. Quite often ive found that inspiration has come to me whilst in the car…and so most of the vocals on the demo versions have been taken whilst im driving the car – theres the sound of indicators clicking whilst I make the next right turn into a ‘drive through’ or the windscreen wipers scraping as I experience yet more typiacal English weather.… rest assured there will be no clicking indicators or honking horns on the final version of the record. Well, probably not. We are initially concentrating on just 2 tracks as opposed to working on lots of different songs at the same time. With both tracks, we plan to make videos for early in 2013…we hope to release these to you all well before the release of the next album… as a preview (or maybe as a warning) for what is to come with regards to the next record. We have one more show this year…as some of you will know it will sadly be Oli’s final show with us. Its not a bad final show though, as we will be travelling to Paris to play along with Mono. After that, we have made the decision not to tour again until the next album is completed and ready to be released. We’ll miss touring…but I think its now time to fully concentrate on this record. Hopefully the record will be ready to be released at some point towards the end of next year… I guess we’ll know a little more once we have started recording properly. Few questions answered for you that we’ve been asked over the last couple of weeks: Our Tee shirts are indeed 100 per cent cotton. There is no tablature for the piano parts – I cant read or write music. Sorry! Yes, Rich really IS that tall. no…you cannot have all of the lyrics for Repetitions. And …there MIGHT be a Christmas cover this year… a lot depends on how much time we have…. But im totally open to suggestions as to which Christmas song to cover… ??? I think im done…ive written enough to last another year I think….as always, thanks for your ongoing support Cheers Duncan x

Epilogue and Album 4...

Hey everyone, So we have a new album arriving in October. What can I tell you about it? Well, as you probably now know it's called 'Epilogue'. It's an instrumental album, so (durr...) no vocals. We recorded it with Mat Sampson, the Repetitions producer. It's a soundtrack album, but a soundtrack for a film/story that doesn't exist (well, not outside of Dunk's head). It's not a full follow up to our third album Repetitions, rather it's album... 3.5, perhaps. A diversion that turned into a full scale journey. Without a doubt it's a "headphones" album (one to soak in with your stimulant of choice, if you can be bothered...), but it's had as much love, imagination and time put into it as any other normal Blueneck album, and we hope you like it. Meanwhile, we've already started work on what we're calling Album 4... The full vocal album follow-up to Repetitions, which we plan to release in late 2013. Most if not all of the songs are already written, as is some of the arrangement, which is kinda unique for us. In the past, much of our previous recorded work was started from scratch in the studio. I think the melodies Dunk's put together are some of his best, and the plans that we have for the recording, approach, sounds and collaborations should make this a departure from what you might think of as traditional Blueneck. 'Epilogue' is named that way for good reason... Finally, we're getting prepared to take the band out on tour in October. It's a short tour compared to last year, but we do get to stop by some new countries and play the awesome Denovali Swingfest for the first time in a few years. Then we play our last show of 2012 in Paris with Mono, which we're really excited about. I don't think any of us have actually seen Mono play live before, so we're going to be as excited as the rest of that Parisian crowd to see their show. Hope to see some of you on the road... Rich

pickles ahoy there

blaa blaa blaa, havent written a post in ages, blaa blaa...you know the usual stuff! man...its nearly july already. sometimes it feels like ive stepped inside marty mcfly's delorean and am fastforwarding through time. so...quick update: Recordings - ive been in and out of the studio on a regular basis throughout the year so far as you may or may not know. The instrumental recording is now about 4 weeks away from completion - its been fun doing this project - i guess its a pretty self indulgent record - nothing on there is going to feature on the latest installment of 'now thats what i call music' (what number are they up to on that nowadays? must be like 345 or something?)! i guess a lot of it is the sort of thing that you might drift off to sleep to - so avoid listening whilst driving!...although there's the odd crash and bang here and there - we've had some fun hitting things..hard. the artwork is nearly complete...so it should be available towards the end of september album 4: we've so far approached this record in a different way to the other albums. whereas with the others we have simply gone into the studio with a loose idea and developed it IN the studio, this time we are demoing complete songs...the aim is to have a clear direction of what we want to do with each track BEFORE we take it into the studio....at present theres 16 demo versions we have to choose from. its so far been a lot of fun and also we've discovered a new found excitement for making music we're emailing eachother updates to the demos at all times of the day - so the demo versions are constantly evolving. the plan is to finalise one of these new tracks for later this year - we'll then give you a preview of it ... you'll be able to then decide if youre looking forward to the rest of the album or not! tour - sadly, because theres a lot of studio activity we arent playing live much this year. so its just a short tour in october. we're excited to be visiting new places such as budapest, but also equally excited to be making a return to dresden. we have just 2 dates left to book - im currently helping our booker with those dates as he's on a short vacation. we're hoping to make a return to krakow and also either prague or vienna...as soon as theyre booked we'll post the full itinerary. very much looking forward to seeing some of you there. on a personal note, after the tour is finished i'll have a couple of months off as myself and emma are expecting a new arrival in november - and then normal service will resume (albeit with less sleep!) we'll look to complete recording of album 4 and will coincide it with a full tour. where? dunno. you tell me. we're pretty lucky to get to do these things really. until next time dunk x

Highway to the dangerzone

useless at keeping these blogs up to date are we. whats been happening? well we returned to Athens in January for what proved to be a great time - great show, amazing people. they made me drink too much and i was a little ill up at the acropolis (shhh) following greece, i have been spending time in the studio with Mat (producer of Repetitions).  we've been working together on some soundtrack music and i felt it would make for an interesting blueneck record.  ie an album inspired by some of the great movie soundtracks that i love (apart from the top gun soundtrack - i love that..but fortunately/unfortunately havent been influenced by it!) - so an instrumental album.....its coming on nicely i think - Rich has recently started adding some ideas which have been really interesting..you should hopefully get to hear it this year i'd think. a 'proper' follow up to repetitions is also well under way. we have demo's of what will make up the entire album and have made a start on the recording process aswell ie guide tracks and inital basic instruments recorded etc. so... 2 very different recordings on the horizon. we'll not be playing live that much this year...but we have started booking a 7 date tour for the beginning of october - we'll be concentrating on france, germany areas -Apologies to those that we'll miss out! we'll concentrate on a much larger area in 2013. 2012 was meant to be a quiet year but for music and non music reasons it looks like that's not the case! Dunk

buzzy eagle

Happy New Year, Christmas, etc etc..basically anything i've missed...
Well...2011 was fun...it also dissapeared before we knew it. We finished and released Repetitions and also embarked on our longest tour to date yet. Once again we met and made new friends, but were also lucky enough to catch up. and hang out with old friends too...its a very privileged position we are in.
Highlights of 2011? Theres too many to mention really - It was great revisiting places such as Dresden, Leipzig and Freising where we met up with old friends, visiting Ukraine was also an amazing expeerience. The people there were so kind and wonderful to us (except the slightly corrupt policeman that wanted to take all of Rich's money for smoking outside - maybe a lesson that smoking truly is bad for you!?). Interesting and beautiful country that i'm sure we'll re-visit at some point.
We also embarked on a short UK tour supporting The Pineapple Thief in December (great band, coming out with a new album in 2012). We dont often play many shows in the Uk, so this was a nice change. Playing as the support band doesnt always mean that many people listen to you, but I must say that the fans of TPT were an amazing bunch of people that gave us a lot of time and respect...we made a lot of new friends on that short tour. good times.
So whats in store for 2012? Well at the moment i'd have to be honest and say that from a blueneck perspective it looks quiet. We have a show in Athens at the end of January...and thats it! We're currently having talks about possible tourdates, but nothing is confirmed as yet...so it could be a REALLY quiet year...coming after a busy year it will seem a little strange i guess. Obviosuly we'll keep you updated on developments if they happen.
On a personal level, i'll be back in the studio from next month onwards working on some new songs which maybe arent destined for blueneck. i'll initially be working with just Mat Sampson which means its going to be a fun time at the very least. This new 'project' will get some kind of release later in the year (album/ep/who knows). We'll set up a new webpage/facebook page to give you updates on the project as soon as theres a name for it (theres currently a stupidly long list of name ideas but feel free to post any ideas on the blueneck facebook page!)
so thats about it for now....really looking forward to seeing some of you in Athens...and MAYBE we'll see some more of you at some point in 2012...otherwise theres always 2013..or 14... :)
laters
dunk

brown bears

hello again campers.
its been a while...or at least it SEEMS that way...a lot has gone on since i last wrote...we were about to embark on what was our longest tour yet...and it already feels like it was an age ago that we came back.the days have tended to blur into one massive crazy memory for me.
First off it was a great tour, full of some amazing experiences...we are so lucky to get to do what we do...thankyou to EVERYONE that came along, helped out, shouted drunken abuse at us (yes...thats you, drunken man in Cadca!!). Theres so many memories that we've come back with from this tour it would be impossible to list them all without boring you. we revisited some amazing places and discovered some equally amazing new places.
Paris was wonderful, Leipzig now feels like a second home, Dresden was as welcoming as ever, Cadca was ...well..cadca ;-) , Kiev was an amazing experience where we made some amazing new friends (and also appeared on morning TV there!! weird), Magdeburg was surreal but ridiculously enjoyable...man...the list goes on...we finished the mainland european tour in a church in bochum which was great and then the whole tour finished off with a hometown show in bristol with our friends Deafhorse and The Pirate Ship Quintet. This was the only show we played with Sandy guest appearing on cello...was a great way to end it all.
Like i said...i could go into depth about each and every show...but i wont...just ask me if you want to know my views on a specific show...i remember them ALL!
Its hard coming home and not playing anymore...but luckily we have some UK dates in December supporting the wonderful Pineapple Thief - these shows should be great...so hopefully we'll see a few of you along at one of those.
We've also now started planning for next year...it looks like late Spring we'll be visiting France, Portugal and Spain...the latter two countries are places we've never been before...so this will be cool...we'll be doing this with another Denovali band alongside us for the whole of the tour... ;-)
Theres also lots of other stuff going on in the pipeline... This week ive been in the studio working with Mat again - we're working on a couple of different projects and its so nice to be back recording again (even though this is NOT blueneck stuff)...the temptation is to just stay there, carry on recording....ive never been one to resist temptation that well...
christmas is nearly here again!!..so i guess we'll be dusting off those old christmas tracks that we've recorded over the previous years and once again offering them to you all as a free download....who knows, if theres time we may well add another this year...i REALLY enjoyed doing white christmas last year, so it would be nice to do another...i already have a couple of ideas on what to do.
like i said...this post/update could go on forever...so im trying to keep it as short as possible....so i'll leave now....oh...you may have noticed a link we put up ...it was for an HBO show promoting an upcoming big boxing match in the USA..it features Pneumothorax towards the end of the show....pretty surreal seeing your music alongside 2 guys beating the shit out of eachother...but it was nonetheless very flattering to be asked for permission to use the music...i have no idea who the boxers are...im told theyre pretty handy....so, er, good luck to you both!
theres probably other stuff i should be writing about...but it doesnt spring to mind just yet....like i said earlier...if you have any specific questions just ask....best place is tfacebook i suppose.
till later
much love
dunk

Tour Update

Hi
So we're less than a week away from starting the European tour on 11th October in Paris. Its been a hard couple of weeks - i'll explain why...
we got a call from the company that we are hiring our van from to say that we were not allowed to take the van into the Ukraine or Romania....basically the insurers would not allow it for whatever reasons they have....so we had to quickly find another company that would let us drive into these countries....most of the companies all said they couldnt do it either , but then one company said they could....all seemed fine....but then we had a call on Monday to say thatthey could not in fact do it after all...so it not only left us with no way to drive into Ukraine and Romania...but also left us with no van at all for the whole tour! stressful times.
To cut a long long LONG story short we have had to cancel 2 of our shows in Ukraine and the show in Romania....we're REALLY gutted that we have had to do this, but honestly there is no other way.....we have cancelled the shows in Lviv and Chernivitsi...but we are still able to play in Kiev as we will be taking a 15 hour train journey to get there...hopefully some of you that were coming to the other Ukraine shows might be able to make it to Kiev.
We are REALLY sorry that this has happened....we will loook into a way of playing Romania soon...I promise.
So its not pleasant news im afraid....we've really tried out bet to make everything work out as best as we can.

We play our first show for nearly a year tomorrow night in Southampton. Its going to be a new experience playing with Chris on drums instead of Johnny...but he has put so much hard work into learning the songs.

We look forward to meeting you all on this tour.....a lot!

We'll also be announcing a few more dates for 2011 very soon...keep an eye of facebook etc....

Thanks for all the support guys...xxx

dunk

update

bonjour etc

just a quick update...

firstly we're aware that blueneck.com is currently being given the tag of being 'potentially dangerous' by google....we've now had the problem fixed, but we're now just waiting for google to unflag us as dangerous criminals that are out to get you all...shouldnt be long.
Theres also a problem with the site in taht we cannot update the store...meaning we cant add the new album or t-shirts in there....we have someone looking into the problem and as soon as its done, the new album and tees will be available to you all. excitement. perhaps.

the other thing is the tour...we've had a frustrating few weeks because a lot of the promoters that have said they will book shows for us are now not replying anymore...so it looks like we're now going to have to cancel those shows and start the tour a bit later as obviosuly there is no time to book a replacement show (unless you'd like blueneck to play in your living room?) - maybe the promoters heard that blueneck are 'potentially dangerous' and got scared? maybe.

so unfortunately the following shows are now no longer on...sorry to those people that had planned in coming along...its REALLY not anything to do with us...its just as sad and frustrating for us ...:(

10/10/11 - Belgium
11/10/11 - Germany
12/10/11 - Germany
29/10/11 - Paris

not the most joyous of updates...but it matches the downright miserable english weather today at least.

laters
dunk

from a great height...

Hey all, Rich here. Thought I'd drop by and say hi...

Thanks to everyone who has spent their hard-earned cash on our new album 'Repetitions'. We're very, very proud of it and we hope you feel like you've got your money's worth. We're getting a lot of positive feedback which we appreciate. Any one of you that creates music will know how much it means to us when we hear that one of you has taken a particular song to heart.

We've been living with some of these songs for over 2 years now (some of you may have heard one or two of them when we were touring The Fallen Host) so it's great to be able to share them with you. One or two of them have been recorded in totally different styles to how we arranged them to begin with, so it's interesting that we now have 'definitive' versions down on record. Only a couple of months ago 'Sawbones' sounded completely different. Only a few months ago we were arguing over tiny details, tracklistings etc etc. It's so nice to be finished and be looking forward to playing live.

Repetitions was always intended to be a very different album to The Fallen Host. Warmer, more tender and less agressive. But it's interesting that when rehearsing, many of the Repetitions songs instantly get harder-edged. The guitar volumes get dialed up in volume, as do the drums. Sawbones, again, is a lot of fun - tribal beats... It even gets Dunk doing an odd dance. Surely that in itself is worth a ticket to one of our shows? :)

With 3 albums worth of material, picking setlists for our October tour is difficult but we're now at the position where we know the songs we're planning to play on most nights. I hope that if you've seen us before then you'll get a few surprises this time round. We've deliberately tried to dust off those songs that, at the end of a show, people have come up to us and give us a friendly telling off for not playing. I'll let you guess what they might be.

One last thing - I'm always interested to hear what fans of the band are listening to. So let us know on our Facebook page. We have a lot of miles to cover in the European tour so we'll try and listen to everything you tell us about.

Here's what I'm loving at the moment... Crosses EP, King Creosote and Jon Hopkins' "Diamond Mine", Jon Hopkins' "Insides", the last Bon Iver album, Bohren & Der Club of Gore's "Black Earth" (everyone knows this is a classic now, right?), the soundtrack to John Carpenter's movie "The Fog" and The Best of Lightnin' Hopkins. Every one a gem.

See you on the road....
Rich x

NAWTY!

So the last time the blog was updated we were still mixing the album....seems like an age ago now...but i guess it was only like 4 weeks ago or something like that.
So where are we now? Well Denovali have started the pre-order prior to it hitting stores on September 23rd, and theyve also made the MP3 version available as of now....
im also aware of a fair few sites that have made it available as a 'naughty' download...
Ive been asked a few times what I think about this....My opinion might be a little different to some others...and thats that I'm not really against these sites sharing the album...it CAN actually help a band out from time to time...a number of people have come up to me at various shows and whilst buying an album from us, they tell me that they indeed have had the album a long time after downloading it for free but are finally getting around to buying the album...i beleive if you fall in love with an album, you eventually want a physical copy of it...and you'll buy it one day or another...possibly....even if you dont, youre likely to go see that band live if they happen to roll into town to play a show. That in itself helps a band to survive...

So whats the band doing now? Well we're now currently rehearsing for the next tour in October. Its tricky as we're having to learn how to best play some of the new tracks live...we're needng to stretch ourselves a bit more this time...which isnt such a bad thing - For instance we've got Oli playing violin aswell as guitar (not at same time mind!), myself whacking additional drums, Ben and Rich swapping instruments and also Oli playing organ too (not at the same time as the violin or guitar)...its a challenge....but actually quite enjoyable i have to say.
The other major thing for rehearsing for this tour is the fact that we no longer have Johnny on drums...he had to unfortunately bow out and take a step back from the commitment of touring with blueneck - it must have been a really hard decision, but he has a young family and his priorities lie there - we miss him a lot - you have to remember that he's been a part of blueneck since the beginning...but I guess these things happen. good luck jonky!
So we now have a new drummer called Chris Copsey who has been working tirelessly to learn a bunch of blueneck songs - things have finally started to gel over the last couple of weeks and we've been able to start adding in more and more songs to the setlist. so welcome aboard chris!
So what can you expect on tour this fall? well we'll be playing a mix of old and new as im sure you'd expect...we've also been working on one older track in particular that we've not played live ;-) - i also see that we're playing with some other great bands aswell along the way...which is always a bonus.
hopefully we'll see some of you along the way...

cheers
dunk

socks and pants pants and socks rice and cheese cheese and rice

STILL mixing....we're about halfway there now - it'll be all finished and wrapped up in exactly a week from today...fact.

sometimes you need to just distance yourself from the whole mixing process for a while...so this morning i took the opportunity to do this, whilst driving in my shitty car. (im reliably informed i have the shittiest car ever...its not even a cool shit...its just shit...please buy 3 albums each of the new album so that i can afford a cool shit car...as opposed to a shit shit car...deal?)

er...yeah...so im in the car....and managed to forget about mixing for a while by means of;

a) seeing a 13 or 14 year old boy on his way to school sporting a MASSIVE morrisey style hairdo...tres cool i say...i wonder if he knows who morrisey is? or whether his hairstyle is MEANT to be like that...maybe his mates say his hairstyle is shit...and not cool shit...just shit....i shouldve stopeed him to ask him....but you cant really do that here in the UK...youd get arrested.

b) best way to distance yourself from listening to melancholic shit like blueneck all day? listen to something completely different - preferably something youve not listened to in years...maybe something from your youth...so this mornings listening ear candy was guns n roses - appetite for destruction...awesome album...it made me want to rewrite the blueneck album completely...and grow my hair long...and probably some other stuff too...like..er...drink a bottle of jack....but i was driving...and it was 9am...so probably not a great idea....although pretty rock n roll

c) - i found that its possible to raise my goblet of rock whilst driving....you just need to drive with your knees....this is not an endorsement btw....but its fun....especially when people driving the other way see you doing it...

d) the UK really isnt such a shit hole when its sunny yknow...

hmmm....i'll probably find theres other things to enjoy the day with today - and create some space between mixing an album and 'enjoyment' - but for now i'll make a return to listening to blueneck mixes....im ready to hear some more didgereedoo now (true)

if you get a minute...maybe let us know via the wonders of good old facebook what your own personal 'great albums from your youth' would be...
im sure theres some beauties

yiassou...(cant remember how to say goodbye in greek...but this'll do)

dunk x

nam nam nam

Hey,

As most of you may well now know, we've now finished the recording process of the new album and are now currently in the process of finalising the mixing of the record.
I know that some people/bands really love the mixing side of making an album, but I must admit i'm not one of those people.
Blueneck, being blueneck, tend to get a little obsessive during the mixing stage, and more often than not, you tend to find yourself listening over and over and over again to the same track, listening for the minutest of details that may or may not need changing. You also have the problem that everyone seems to hear things differently and will have a different opinion on something. It can be very frustrating...but hopefully by the end of it, it'll be a rewarding bit of time spent on this.
We're about a third of the way through mixing and i must admit i'm really pleased with how everything is sounding so far.
For those of you that wanted to know..we've named the new album Repetitions..basically because every song is EXACTLY the same. ;-)

Its kind of a bit sad now we've finished recording...i already miss that side of things...so ive started toying around with new ideas that can be used somewhere - blueneck or something else perhaps.

We'll hopefully show you some sneak peaks of the new album at some point soon...but until then...just sit tight..

cheers
d x

O O O

... the robots have malfunctioned and they have been returned to the factory for repair work.

sooooo...a pretty quiet week really - mainly preparing for the last recording session - finalising lyrics - (yes - we shall be printing them all up in full the album artwork booklet*)
we've said goodbye to approximately 1 minute and 43 seconds of the record by butchering a song - much like going to the barbers, but hopefully more classy than a barber's haircut - not saying that a barber's work isnt classy....er

so not a whole lot going on...so ive had a little time to think about random things...and one thing was to try and think of what i'd perceive to be the most important albums to me - both musically and influentially...
there was literally thousands - well...not thousands..but yknow.
anyway...i thought i'd list them here....maybe some of you that read this could post up what your top 10 'most important' albuums are over on our facebook page?
ive tried to think of records that inspired me as a kid, and records that have blown me away and made me fall in love with music all over again...heres my list...i decided it best to trim it down to 10...in. no. particular. order.

oh...by the way...low were excellent...and the rehearsal went well...i'll talk about that particular thing some other time as it deserves a blog of its own..;-)

Cult of Luna - Somewhere Along the Highway
Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
Godspeed! You Black Emperor - F# A# (Infinity)
Tears For Fears - Songs From the Big Chair
Sparklehorse - Its a Wonderful Life
Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
Radiohead - Kid A
Low - Things We Lost in The Fire
Mogwai - Happy Songs for Happy People
Pavement - Wowee Zowee
Howard Jones - Humans Lib
Arcade Fire - Funeral

ok...spot the deliberate mistake...theres 13 albums here...which is a cooler number i think...so i'd be interested to hear about your most important albums (any number goes! extra points for doing 13!) - post them over at www.facebook.com/blueneckuk

cheers
dunk



* a lie

Gunslinger shoots fake rabbit.

at some point someone else from blueneck will post a blog...until then, you have to put up with me. maybe im actually the only member of blueneck? the rest are robots - just like in the film westworld (one of my favourite films) - hopefully they wont malfunction at our next tour and kill everyone in the crowd (diclaimer: only makes sense if youve actually seen the film!)....that would put a dampener on the whole evening i guess.
er..yeah....so this weekend we (ie me and the robots) have a busy time. Tomorrow we're off to see a favourite band of ours, Low, - ive not seen them live before and have always meant to..and nows the opportunity. They went off my radar for a bit, but i recently acquired a copy of the new album 'c'mon' and its great...inspiring me to listen to the back catalogue once again. great band. looking forward to it...and we're also going with our producer mat sampson...i think quite possibly its the first time we'll ever see him in an environment that is NOT in the studio....hopefully he doesnt burst into flames when he actaully goes outside...or soemthing like that.
Saturday, we then have the first (yes first!) blueneck rehearsal of this year....its actually a REALLY important rehearsal for reasons that i'll go into another time...so we've hired some rehearsal space for the day and hopefully things will be clearer when we come out that evening. hmmm...that all sounds a bit mysterious and intriguing...its not really...but well...yknow...
it'll be nice to actually play a few songs as a band together again actually...and also maybe start working on interpreting some of the new album tracks.
Sunday - i have a day out with blueneck's official/unofficial/great friend and photographer whereby we'll be taking some shots for potential album artwork....we have a lot of ideas that we're umming and ahhing over at the minute...but its always good to have as many ideas as possible...we've not yet come across the absolutely perfect album artwork for this album yet....and we need it finalised by the end of june really.....so yeah...that'll be a nice few days .

THanks a lot to those of you that have all been buying stuff from the blueneck store...its really very much appreciated...it helps us out a LOT too. we'll keep all of the prices reduced until the new album is released as long as we have stock left...we're getting low on certain sizes and styles but i'll try and keep you updated on anything that is about to sell out.

tour - its very nearly finalised...apparently we're still waiting to book some french dates (hoping to once again visit Paris at the very least) - but as soon as its all finalised we'll announce all the dates.

album - as said...its nearly done...still very much on course for september release...warning...this is a slooooow album, ben paget has been falling asleep to it on regular basis over the last 2 weeks. ;-)

keep all your comments and messages coming on facebook...we appreciate them all. ....

so yeah...thats about it....i'll hopefully have programmed one of the other blueneck eveil robots to write a blog next time...meaning a waffle free zone.

hmmm. waffles. now im hungry.

dunk

BUSINESS EXECUTIVES!!!!

another exciting update from blueneck towers...

so its now May...and i just came across a few posts here and there on the worldwide web hinting at the fact that we'd said that the album would be released early 2011...oops....that kind of didnt happen....i guess we kind of got distracted with other things - this often happens with blueneck in all honesty...we state a date that something will be finished, we then get distracted and then that date passes and we realise that the initial date stated was particularly unrealistic....its much like life athome really...i'll state a time that i'll be ready to go out or meet somebody...and then an hour later i'll turn up....i'd like to think that people see it as a charming trait of my personality....although in reality i know its probably annoying as fuck....so...sorry on all accounts of stating unrealistic targets!
that said....i do beleive we'll stick to our latest promise of finishing the album completely by the first week of july...the sessions last week went well - we had sandy in for a loooong day of cello which was as usual sounding sublime, and we also had oli trot down to the studio to play some off the cuff violin - its the first time ive heard him play violin...and man can that boy play (although he'd try and tell you otherwise!)...hopefully he'll be persuaded to take his violin along with him on tour this autumn...rich thinks he wont....i think he will....lets see who wins!!
so yeah...where was i? oh yeah - recording - so we're pretty close to having finished all the recording - we have one more week booked in to finish off everything such as vocals and any extra bits of sauciness that needs to be added and then we'll start mixing
once thats finished we then just have to wait for it to be released (september) - so it'll be a matter of finding something to do in that time....obviously we'll start rehearsals for the tour - i also need to get around to finally doing the vocals for the new alpha album - plus we have a couple of other little things we'll be dabbling with. more on that some other time.

last week a couple of members from the pirate ship quintet turned up at the studio - for thos of you that are fans and were worried theyd dissapeared off of the face of the earth, i an confirm theyre still alive...and STILL working on their debut album...i thought blueneck worked slow...but these guys are ridiculous! i think it'll be worth the wait though...it'll be great to play a show again with them oin november at bristol - oh yeah...tickets for that are now on sale over at bristolticketshop.co.uk (search for blueneck) - tickets are going to be pretty limited for that - so get onit.

think ive waffled enough....oh yeah...thanks of you that have bought stuff from the blueneck store this week...it always REALLY helps the band out...just in case you havent checked, we've reduced EVERYTHING in the store...

thanks for your continued support...we'll have something for you real soon...

dunk xxx

505. 345...

So this week, and next we're back in the studio...we're trying to get this album wrapped up by the end of June and so now we're getting to the time when we have to take things just that extra little bit more seriously, so no more experimenting with stylophone solo's or bagpipe playing (hmm...)
Tomorrow, we'll be looking at the one track that has been a bit of a problem for us...its a track that prior to taking it into the studio, we were really confident about...but it just didn't work out...no matter what we tried....so in the end we scrapped it completely and started again....it now sounds completely different to how we intended...but also a lot better...sometimes i guess things work out like that.
i also start vocals this week...which is a good indication of how far along with this record we are as i always prefer to leave vocals until the latest possible moment...i think it gives you a better idea of how the track 'feels'...yknow?
Sandy is also in for a cello session which will be a good day...basically i'll be sat on a sofa listening to him play...each take will be perfect...but he'll still say he needs to do one more take...musicians eh!?

we decided to put on our own show for the end of the european tour..this way we get to choose where we play it and also who we play it with...we've not played in what theoretically is our hometown (bristol) now for quite some time - so it'll be nice.
we've managed to track down the pirate ship quintet boys and persuade them to come and play on the night...hopefully by that point they may be near to releasing their much anticipated debut album!!..? We'll also have a new band called deafhorse playing - they've been getting some really good feedback for their first few shows...all in all it should be a great evening.
... and yes...we DO plan on playing more UK shows...at some point.

we'll try and upload some more video this week (and next) from the studio - we've been a bit slack on the video taking front for this recording - but in our defence..its VERY dark down there (lighting wise - not mood wise!)

well thats it from me...ive got a ballache of a headache and so i need something to nullify it.

dunk x

lilitu - lyrics

ok...you guys ground me down...so here's the lyrics to lilitu
dunk x

a still born boy who didnt get to where
your mother felt, if you'd have come from there
your baby arms, that never grow
you save yourself, from a desperate soul

once again we lost
all control to lust
once again we loved
and never got to end

a mothers pride, i want to take you down
a degutted child that didnt show
to raise tender, an unholy child
despise your gender and every other life

once again we lost
all control to lust
once again we loved
and never got to end
(x2)

liliths child
she'll hold you down
you cant get by
by burning out
(repeat)

diesel.diesel.diesel.diesel....

So...its been a while. As ever we've been real slack with updating the website and posting blogs etc...although we HAVE got better at keeping updates flowing on (what seems to be) everyones faithful friend, Facebook lately...but maybe thats due to the fact that having access to such social networking tools is a lot easier these days. ie its seems to be on everyones phone/ipad/ipod/whatever the latest gadget is.

Anyway..we're close to finalising the third blueneck album and so I guess its inevitable that we're going to start posting blogs and updating things a bit mor! scandalous.

So...since Rich's last blog, we've come on a lot further with the record and we've now got the entire album tracklisting down in some form or another. I think the whole process has gone really well, and ive enjoyed making this album immensely...the only drawback has been the availability of the studio, which has held up the album recordings from time to time.
We're due back in the studio very soon and we'll have Sandy coming in for a day to try out some cello ideas on what we have...its one of my favourite parts of the recording process...sitting for a whole day listening to cello. good times.

So people have been asking us what to expect...well, i think essentially its still very much blueneck...but its far more vocal heavy than say The Fallen Host...its certainly less heavy too, but I think theres still a really intense feel to everything It'll probably also be apparent that we've recorded in a different studio with a different producer..theres a lot of depth to the sound...we've been spoilt for choice with a vast array of vintage amplifiers, old valve mics, a ridiculous selection of guitar effects, a melletron (my own personal favourite!), a VERY ancient piano and a ridiculous choice of analogue synths at our disposal.
We've also been creating a lot of the effects in real time too...playing along with the track as opposed to editing effects in afterwards...its all been a lot more hands on...which is kind of more enjoyable for us as a band. Our prucer Mat (Sampson) has kind of pushed us to work more in this way....so, if you dont like the album...just blame Mat!

So yeah...we have a deadline to get this finished by June, so that we can release in September...and then we head on out to the road to travel around Europe for just over 3 weeks which will be great...ive really missed playing live and meeting old and new friends alike.

We've not planned anything for the UK as of yet...but im sure we'll do a couple of shows later in the year...

well...until the next blog...

cheers
dunk x

2011 Update

Hello friends,

We thought that maybe you'd like an update on the new album, and also our plans for 2011. Here's the news...

As many of you know, we've been working on the follow-up to The Fallen Host on-and-off for the last 6 months or so. It's progressing well, and we have a lot of the album close to completion. We now hope to finish these songs, plus a few new additions, over the next 3-4 months. Which means that we'll likely have the record finished by late Spring and ready for release in late Summer. Thanks for being patient with us - we promise to try and make it worth your wait :) The next chunk of recording will be happening in February and we will definitely try and share some of the sounds/experiences/mental breakdowns we have along the way.

We're also planning a number of tours to promote the album. These are all currently at the early planning/scheduling stage, but we plan to play more shows this year than in any previously. We had a fantastic time on the road in 2010, we made many great new friends (hello to you all!), and we're certainly missing drinking white russian cocktails for breakfast ;) So you can expect an extensive tour of Europe and maybe (just maybe) a few shows much much further afield... Exciting stuff, but I can't say any more on that for the moment.

In the meantime, don't forget that you can talk to us directly on our Facebook page
www.facebook.com/blueneckuk

Rich x

Oops!

So this morning it was pointed out to me by an eagle eyed fan that i'd totally forgotten we are playing in Stoke on October 16th...hence I neglected to state this fact in the last update...we do infact have 9 gigs left...not 8...and we ARE playing alongside our labelmates Heirs at Harrys Bar in Stoke!...Hopefully thats cleared that one up then!

I also noticed that there seems to be a bit of confusion on the internet regarding us playing in Camden, London....we ARENT, (as suggested on a few places online) playing at the Dublin Castle...we ARE playing at The Unicorn, Camden on October 15the....which evidently is a FREE show....how nice.

i'll try and take more care with my updates in future....thanks for noticing Ben!

cheers
dunk