Taser Guns & Tarot Cards

I need some optimism here, my blog is looking a bit bleak, so I will write about last night. The PV Squadron played a neat little pub called The Railway Tavern, not too central to town as to get the usual host of crackpots and drunks, but not far out enough as to not get an audience at all.

We had a whole host of tech problems surrounding my bass amp last night, quite plausibly a dry joint around the DI - there was that horrible underwateryhissy sound and quite a bit of swearing. Amps really aren't built to last anymore.

Anyway, halfway through a relatively frustrating gig when we usually have our break, I went and sat with Ozzy and Pip, when a fellow pub-goer came over to us randomly and asked if we believed in tarot. Both I and my friends nodded and she asked if she could test her new cards out on us. We agreed and so were led outside to a table and a couple of chairs.

My past card was Kwan Yin, which refers to recent sacrifices, my present card Pele refers to certain creative events, while the one I was most interested in was my future card. This turned out to be Rhiannon, the card that points to ideas and aan ongoing project that wants to take off. This matched up exactly with what has been showing up when I have had my tarot done in the past 6 months. Ever since about, October, maybe longer, the future card points to an idea or project that is still formulating but will be successful. I think I know what that is, let's hope it works.

On another note, I am losing sleep because of a stalker... Does anyone have a taser? He is harmless as far as I can tell, but I could do without it.

The Fragile

It was a random day, waking up at stupid o clock because of noise on the A303 is a pain, but once I'm awake, I'm awake. Two hours later, about six, I got a text, much to my surprise.

It turned out to be a day of plans, much discussion, county-hopping and real randomities.

I met with Kitty at 12 at the Mills and within an hour, on a spur-of-the-moment dig, we were high-tailing it across the border to Wiltshire/Viltosheeristan to pick up an ally going by the name of Emzebah of Wintahsloca, a noble rogue living in the back of the middle of the front of nowhere(there was much concern as to cultural differences, "Do they speak English in Wiltshire?" "Dunno, but I haven't got my passport" and so forth). Stopped at Wintahsloca, and hit the road again, three rebels without a cause/clue, whichever one prefers.

Got to a pub in the strange land of Viltosheeristan, in a place called Armpitton, where we fuelled up on the local commodities and trinkets, much discussion about men, music and other random things, all the while scaring the locals (thanks to Emzebah of Wintahsloca for translating :-D ).

After offending many Viltosheerstanis we made a swift exit, kidnapping Emzebah as a guide to get us out of the strange land, dropping her off at the border at Wintahsloca, before fleeing the native llamas and arriving at an outpost/freehouse on the 'Ampshire border, and planning a very exciting side project as a distraction for the trauma experienced in Viltosheeristan. Once fuelled on coffee, it was back to the mills for a jukebox root before we decided to call it a (very random) day.

So, yes. I have optimism in the form of a nifty little side-project of two bored bassplayers. It's been discussed and kicked about before, but I think it could work. Lots of hope and sparkly things here.

Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile - "I won't let you fall apart."

I am in something like shock. I am sat worrying so much it hurts and asking whichever higher power that happens to be listening, "Why you?"

Given To Fly

I'm the one coming back for you,
When you fall behind
And I will always shine for you,
When there's no light to find.
So, don't turn away, no, don't ever turn away,
I'm always by your side,
Let's leave this place, ah now, let's leave this place,
For where chains will never bind.

Brave the fire, we're alive
Never to burn, only to fly

Here's to never giving up so don't give up on me,
Follow me to where I stand,
No more words now, let's go home,
I think that you can understand.

Brave the fire, we're alive
Never to burn, only to fly
Brave the fire, we're alive
Never to burn, only to fly

The skies may change, but we remain,
Once we were here and we will be again.

This is a track of mine that I came up with the concept of in about October/November time. It started with a pretty nice folk rhythm and a riff that followed it in D minor, a chord I can't escape no matter what the fuck I write. The weird thing about it was that it's one of those that you don't really have to really try. It's like it wants to be written so you just breathe life into it and BAM! you've got something that's come directly from your solar plexus (that bit just at the bottom of your ribcage where you feel those big, heavy emotions).

The lyrics followed on nicely, at the exact right point and place in time. I'd recently met a confidante, someone I had a lot in common with and it was weird that after 5 years of feeling the way I did, my subconscious SOS that I'd been sending out all that time got heard by someone on the exact same frequency of reality. It was also pretty neat to have something flow that wasn't the usual right-wing political folk I'm rather apt at or other such "angry" material. I was standing on the other side of where I'd been before when I wrote it. "Given To Fly" is a general working title...

The recording process was brilliant. We kept it nice and raw - like folk-rock should be. We started with acoustic guitars, generally making up the structure as we went along; there's some brilliant studio banter between me and Becca from the live room which I'm sure either Emili or Dan probably have a copy of somewhere. Drums came next and Auver put down such a brilliant drum track, this amazing shuffling rhythm with hot rods - something the guy deserves a lot of cred for, considering there are a few shaky points from the guitars (done in one take!) - kudos to you, Auvs!

Put down a basic folk-rock bassline, going between tonic and fifths, boosting the rhythmic importance, followed by some dodgy improvised mandolin. Not long after that Becca put some vocals down - absolutely gorgeous vocal texture, watch out for this one before she's too famous to speak to any of us :-)

We still have to add the piano to it but I am very happy with the progress. It started folk and has wound up amazingly country, but I cannot enthuse how awesome it is working with Becca, Auver, Emili and Dan. Pretty crazy, especially with the drama lot running past, screaming every few minutes, but awesome. The in-between pub trips and theory-skiving also rocked!!

I think it's going to be on an EP thingy. A couple of tracks from Becca, Auver and me - we can't think of a band/project name but Da Capo is one that's been kicked about like an old muddy leathery football.

The credits and production notes for it should look something like this.

Da Capo - Given To Fly
Music & Lyrics - Bev M
Vocals - Becca LJ & Bev M
Guitars - Bev M & Becca LJ
Bass - Bev M
Piano - Auver G
Drums - Auver G
Production/Recording/Mixing/Reallyconfusingtechshit - Dan M & Emili B
Photography - Emili B (couldn't ask for anyone better! Em is truly a legend and all out incredible with a camera.)