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