"More"

Hi gang,

The video shoots went off with a bang. Check out this photo from the first shoot for 'The World Does Not Revolve Around You'. It looks like the single will come out in September so not long now. In the meantime, check out the holding page with a brand new forum and shop at www.temposhark.co.uk

Me on set for 'The World Does Not Revolve Around You' video.

I did a gig this week at Worthless, a gallery exhibition space inspired by the downfall of Woolworths, set up by the team behind cool website Pollocks. It was a stripped back gig, just me and Leila singing with keyboards. We did a mixture of new and old songs, I even played 'Don't Mess With Me' on the piano at the end.

The Worthless exhibition where we played live this week.

Last night I was at Tracey Emin's beautiful new exhibition, we had an incredible dinner to celebrate at The Albermarle restaurant in Brown's hotel. Mark Hix rules, it's his new restaurant! The whole evening was very glamorous! Nice to catch up with my mates and dance the night away at Tracey's studio afterwards too.

One of Tracey's neon works on the wall at her studio party.

Tonight (Fri 29th May) we're doing a full band gig at EQ blog's club night at Underbelly, Hoxton Square. It's free to get in so see you there.

R.x

"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

"FL-FL-FL-FL-FLEX"

We know. We've not updated the blog since the 10th October. We apologise.

To make up for it, we've made you this video. After you've watched it, I will explain why I've not been blogging. All will resume as of today, so fear not! :)



So what have I been up to? Well, in London this week it's Frieze, a massive art fair which sends the art world into overdrive. This all kicked off on Sunday for me at Tracey Emin's afternoon lunch in east London to celebrate her new Traveling Chess Set. I got to meet Jerry Hall there for the first time who, for the record, RULES!!! And we got to share our lunch with many other amazing people such as Kate Moss, The Kills, Tim Noble & Sue Webster and Kenny Goss...

Then sadly I spent Monday in bed as I had a terrible cold and was determined not to be ill for the rest of this week.

On Tuesday, I returned to Sean's studio and we worked on our new song, which is Song 2, and the mix was completed. The song sounds huge, it's a big hearted slow track but for some reason doesn't feel slow. We were using the word ballad a bit to describe it, but that's a word which seems to confuse people. Either people love that word or they can't stand it. Whatever. It's a ballad as far as we're concerned but not produced to sound like a ballad. Confused? Good.

So that was very exciting. After that we started Song 3... but for some reason we didn't post a blog that day as we finished very late and forgot! I also went out on Tuesday night to the White Cube party in central London with my dear friend Rachel Kneebone and we ate lots of amazing food and I even got to dance beside Lily Allen!

I spent the whole of Wednesday at the Frieze Art Fair in Regent's Park which was incredible, if tiring. I love to see all the different artists work under one roof. It gives an amazing overview of what's going on in the world right now, as there are artists from almost every country in the globe! I discovered two great new artists there yesterday, which is a bonus! I invited my mates Stella Vine, Annie Kevans, Eva Vermandel and Shona to come with me, and we loved every second. In the evening I went to another dinner, this time for USA gallery Lehmann Maupin, at Aspinalls just off Park Lane. Super glamorous, I felt like I was in a James Bond movie, there was even a casino there!

This morning, Thursday, we had a visit from a friend of ours who listened to some of our new music. It was great to be able to play him the songs and hear his encouraging words. It's good to play songs to people as you're going along, so we don't feel like we're in some cave far from the sun! I also enjoyed hearing them played, having had a day out of the studio, as I was almost hearing them with new ears. And the best bit was that I loved what I heard! Phew... ;)

We continued work on Song 3 for the rest of today, as you've probably just seen in the above video. And actually, Sean is now very happy with himself for his keyboard tricks have worked their magic already.

So, all in all, it's been a mind blowing week. And there's more tonight at the ICA. Woohoo!

"Home And Dry"

I was at home today as Sean had to do a writing session with another artist so I got the day off! Back to work tomorrow though, yes it's a Sunday but when we record we forget about the conventional week and work pretty much every day! This means after a few days in the studio, you forget what day it is, and you don't remember any 'days of the week' until the album is completed and you return to the world outside!

Tonight I've been playing the keyboard in my flat. This is where a lot of the Temposhark song ideas come from... when I write alone this is how I do it - really simple, me and a piano. I prefer real pianos but this keyboard is perfect for my London flat as it's not as noisy, I can just put on headphones and disappear... I love it.

Me in my writing room in January 2008, by Stephen Dupont.

Some songs from my last album, like Not That Big, Winter's Coming and It's Better To Have Loved, were written in the middle of the night on this keyboard... at 4am when I'd wake up from my sleep and suddenly need to write! This time round, I've written LOADS of song sketches, verses and choruses, and then taken these to Sean's studio and we've co-written completed songs out of those initial sketches.

It's proved a really fun way to work, but I also really love writing directly over Sean's backing tracks, where he creates a music track - drums, synths or other sounds - which I will then sing over, it's instant, whatever comes into my head. It's good to have different starting points for songs, as these different methods provide different kinds of songs, keeping it interesting.

I get inspired by so many different things. There's never one set way that I'll write a song. Sometimes it's something someone will have said to me, that can give me a song title or a strong lyric... at other times, I'll read a book or be reading about an artist I love, and a phrase will spark off a whole thought process.

A keyboard, earlier.

Othertimes I sit in my lounge, play the piano, and a whole song appears out of nowhere... usually sparked off by an extreme emotional feeling - like if I'm furious with someone it'll all pour out into the song... or if I'm feeling super loved-up, it's the same thing...

I used to stress a lot if I was finding it hard to write a new song, if I felt like a creative block had hit, but I've learnt over the years (I've been writing songs since I was 13) that you just have to relax, and not to beat yourself up too much! The moment I chill out is always when something really great happens...

Sean and I both keep a lyric book too - where we'll jot down lyric ideas, as and when they come to us. As a songwriter, well for us anyway, this is something that becomes part of your everyday life. If I forget to take my book out with me, I usually end up making notes (or even singing into the recorder/answer phone) on my mobile phone - last week I got to grips with the Note Pad on my new iPhone, just in time before I forgot an idea!

I think it's important to write songs as much as I can... I like being productive... and in fact I'm at my most happy when being creative. I may not even realise that it's happening, but if I go for a few weeks without writing, I get into a bad mood! So it's something I need, something I can't live without.

Bottles by Julie Verhoeven.

These awesome bottles were made by my dear friend, the artist and illustrator Julie Verhoeven, and sit right next to my piano and often provide inspiration as they remind me of Julie's world... she's magical and inspiring. I love her! I took these off a table she had decorated at Maureen Paley Gallery's dinner last year at Claridges - it was a very posh night, and when I was leaving I asked Maureen if it was OK to take some souveniers, and she said YES!! :)

***

As I know I'm not going to get much time off until late December, I decided to go into central London this afternoon and walked around for a good 5 hours! I was exhausted by the end of it as I was speed walking, which is a bad habit of mine that my friends will all confirm - I tend to annoy most people walking with me! I'm like 'People I'm walking!' and off I go... ;)

I went to the INCREDIBLE National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, filled with Saturday tourists, I really enjoyed the Love exhibition currently showing. It has one of Tracey's embroidered works in it, and a wicked work by Grayson Perry, a small ceramic sculpture of a rabbit. The whole show was great, and the best bit is it's free to get in, so if you live in London, visit it before Sunday 5th Oct when it close (next Sunday).

I then walked through a sunny Green Park, by Buckingham Palace... I'd never actually walked there before and enjoyed seeing the ponds, really pretty. I arrived after about 40 mins at Tate Britain and saw the new Francis Bacon exhibition. GO SEE IT! Really fascinating. The only thing that annoyed me was that all the paintings were in big frames, behind glass, and I would've enjoyed it much more if they'd been out of the frames... but what a LEGEND!

Funnily enough, Metronomy (who remixed our Temposhark song Not That Big), was doing a live gig at Tate Britain while I was there today, so that was cool too! It reminded me of when we did our own live gig there a while back, nice memories! I'll try and set something up for when our next album comes out, as I love playing in unusual venues!

Anyways, after window shopping for a while, and walking LOTS more, I popped into White Cube and the Royal Academy in Green Park, then I came home and started writing...

Right well that's enough for now, I'll be back at Sean's tomorrow so speak then...

R.xx