"Green Lights Up Ahead"

We had an amazing day at the studio yesterday with Sophie Solomon, the genius violinist!

Soph plays violin solos on two tracks on our new Temposhark album as well as singing some backing vocals with me and Sean! All sounding GREAT!

Check out this video to hear a sneak preview of her violin parts and also to discover the name of one of our new album tracks, as leaked by Ms. Solomon mid-interview, ha!:



In other album news - I have begun singing vocals for all the album tracks... going well so far... more news soon!!!

R.xx

"Nobody Knows Me Like You Know Me"

Thursday and Friday were brilliant. We marched ahead with the first single, which now has all kinds of wonderful noises, it's really bouncy and I can't help but laugh because the lyrics are so bitchy, but in a nice way, if that's possible. :) I'm really excited for you all to hear it!

You may wonder why no blog updates. Well I'm currently in bed with a stinking cold, so I'm fighting it off in order to begin singing next week. I blame it on the underground, I think traveling daily on London tubes right now is like inviting all germs to come and stay, with big open arms like 'Come on cold, come hang out with me!'.

Anyway, it's not all bad. Check out this painting which was emailed to the blog on Friday by a very talented Temposhark fan in China. Yes China! So a big thank you to Sicibom! Your painting has really lifted my spirits, and it's really cool to know that you're listening to my music all the way on the other side of the world. :) Life is good.

Check it out! It's me via the very colourful eyes of Sicibom!

Have a good Sunday everyone, and with a little luck, Sean and I will be back to work tomorrow. R.xx

"Hit Me With One Of Those Funky Basslines!"

Hello gang, we're back...

Yesterday we were working on the first single for the album, it's a really catchy, fun song - I'm really happy with the new sonic additions.

And today Mark's been here at the studio to play bass on that track, and also another slower one. Hadn't seen Mark for a while as he's been in Israel touring. Good Mark!

Oh and I've somehow managed to get my cold back having just recovered last week, argh! But as I start singing on Monday for most of the album tracks, I'm doing my best to recover quickly. All in all, I'm feeling particularly cranky today.

Anyway, check out this video we just filmed, sorry if it's a bit darker than usual but it is quite late now and the lights were dim:

"It's, Oh, So Quiet"

It's strangely quiet in the studio today while Sean edits the drums recordings from earlier this week! Although it's a pretty silent process, it's luckily still very colourful...

"We Missed You Hissed The Lovecats"

Sean and I are back in the London studio now, with Sean hard at work editing all the drum recordings from the past 3 days spent in Cookham.

Here's one final clip from Cookham, this is me yesterday morning with the coolest cat in the universe, Newbie. Oh and listen out for a sneak preview of one of our new album tracks at the end of this clip:



In response to a number of emails about the previous blog dated November 5th titled "Music Can Be Such A Revelation", yes you are all correct... the fish in the studio screen-saver are in fact Clown Fish, not Gold Fish nor Angel Fish as Sean so smugly corrected me during the video clip! Ha! Just like Finding Nemo!

R.xx

"Pack Your S**t And Get The Hell Out"

Our final drum recording day is over in Cookham, but here's one more clip for you:

"If You Believed They Put A Man On The Moon"

Exclusive: I have landed on the moon!

Er... OK, so I'm actually in the Cookham studio garden, with two chickens, but I'm not that far off as the chickens are from space. Durr.

This is the proof - filmed for you earlier this morning:

"Music Can Be Such A Revelation"

As promised, here's a little video from the recording we're doing here in Cookham.

This is Mathis warming up before recording his drum parts for the title song from our new album... Good Mathis!!! :)

Check it out:



And our Cookham progress update so far: we've now recorded drums for 3 whole tracks! Woohoo! Two more songs to complete tomorrow, then all done for Mr Richet's magic drum kit.

I'll write tomorrow, hopefully with a fascinating video clip of me on the moon, well almost... you'll see!

R.xx

"Eric B For President"

Hello, we're in a different studio for 3 days!

We've driven down to Berkshire. We're in a place called Cookham which is really near to where I grew up when I was a kid funnily enough! It feels lovely to be back here.

We're lucky to be working with a great mixer and producer called Tufty and it's been so much fun so far! He has a great spirit, and always have a very joke to tell us. Mathis has been playing like the demon that he is! The first two tracks are completed now, so three more to do over the next two remaining days... woohoo! The real drums are SO incredible on these songs, they've giving the tracks a breath of new life. Really lifting them up. Sean and I are getting very over excited. I'm filming lots today, so look out for a video coming up next!

Ooh, I'm loving the screen saver!

I'm also particularly happy for the USA today. Great news that Obama won the election. I stayed up as long as I could last night, finally went to bed at 3.30am UK time just after he had won Ohio... it was clear by then that he would be the 44th president. Congratulations to all our friends in the USA for this historic change. The future is bright.

"And The Drums, The Drums, The Drums"

Mr Richet doing what he does best.

Today we headed over to our west London rehearsal rooms to rehearse 5 of the new songs which Mathis will be drumming on this coming Tues, Wed and Thurs in Berkshire. Sean ran through each track with Mathis working out what's needed and how we want it to sound. I got more and more excited as it went on, hearing these 5 songs loud in the rehearsal room, and with Mr Richet on live drums, was so exciting... I can really feel the album coming to life! Woohoo!

Bang!

We'll be back at Sean's studio tomorrow preparing the 5 backing tracks for the live drum recordings... :)

R.xx

"And Now You Hang Your Life In Frames, And It Moves Me"

Hi everyone,

November has arrived and we're happy.

Track 4 is coming along REALLY well now, I'm thrilled with it. Sean has been hard at work on the production for the track. Not only is it probably the most epic track we've done on this album, but it also feels a bit like a Bond track, I could imagine 007 catching an evil villain to this one! Maybe one day! Ha ha... I always think it's good to have BIG dreams...

Here's a little clip of Sean adding some guitar this morning onto the last section of this new song for you to enjoy:



I spent the whole of Tuesday writing words to another song for the album. It was half written, I'd started it a while back in the middle of the night. It's a very personal, deeply emotional song, so it was quite tough on the emotions to pick up from where I'd left it all those months ago - but it feels good to know that it's now completed. We're thinking it could end up as the closing track on the album. We'll see.

By the way, when the album is released, some of you may spot that the lyrics to Track 4 were inspired by art... this is partly because on Wednesday and Thursday, I was in Edinburgh with Tracey Emin and some friends, which was the most amazing trip I think I've ever had (and the main reason why I'd not updated this blog sooner).

Edinburgh is an incredible place, I feel really connected with it now, and am looking forward to future Scottish trips to get to know Scotland better. Not only are the local people really cool, AND THEY SMILE A LOT in comparison to us Londoners, but the actual spirit of the place itself - the architecture, their galleries, and their food (especially the fresh fish) is second to none. We did some gigs in Glasgow a few years ago and I have a soft spot for Glasgow too, which is a very different kind of place, grittier, perhaps cooler in a way, with a very unique spirit.

Luckily for me, I saw Tracey's show two more times during this Edinburgh visit, which once again lifted my soul to new heights. It closes on November 9th, so if you've got time this week GO SEE IT! Click here for more information. And if you can't make the trip to Scotland, it will be travelling next to Malaga in Spain and then on to Bern in Switzerland so if you happen to live near those cities I know you'll enjoy the exhibition. Otherwise, I recommend you buy the accompanying book as it's a great insight into 20 years of Tracey's art.

Tomorrow (Sunday) we're rehearsing in west London with Mathis as 3 days next week we're heading to a recording studio in Berkshire where we're going to record Mathis' live drums for 5 songs from this new album. VERY excited! More updates soon...

R.xx