colleen

After 3 months of almost non-stop recording and mixing, MY FIFTH ALBUM IS OFFICIALLY FINISHED!  The album won’t be released for a while due to the heavy schedule of the label releasing it, so you and I will have to be very patient, but fear not, in 2015 it will come (I will be able to announce the release date publicly in November).

It was my first time recording and mixing an album during the spring and early summer, what’s more in near-perfect conditions, so this album is by far the one I’ve enjoyed working on the most (90% pleasure / 10% pain – whereas for some of my albums the balance was closer to 50/50! ;-) The mastering remains to be done, but now it’s mostly time to relax and rest, prepare for the live shows and some possible other surprises, and enjoy the summer…

I will be posting other photos that I took during the recording process once we get closer to the release date.  I *really* cannot wait for you to hear it, as well as play it live… I will play a couple of live shows in autumn 2013, but you can expect a lot more shows (hopefully on both sides of the Atlantic) once the album is released.

Wishing a wonderful summer to you all, and as always thanks for your time and support!

When I started releasing records in 2003, I was immediately asked to do a mix to be played on radios. From as far back as I can remember, I’ve always loved making compilations for other people, so doing those mixes has actually been one of my favourite activities whenever I have a new album out. I put so much love into them that I think it’s just a shame that most of them are not available anymore, so I’ve started a Mixcloud page where I’ll be uploading all of the mixes I’ve done since 2003, in chronological order – I’ll try to do this once a week, and hopefully you’ll want to join me and have a listen!
Here is the first one, from May 2003, accompanying the release of my first album Everyone Alive Wants Answers.

Talking of unavailable material, I also recently realised that there is one song of mine that’s now virtually unavailable physically and which I still love, entitled “Good Morning Sunshine”, from 2002. It wasn’t included on Everyone Alive Wants Answers because it had already appeared on a compilation and on the Babies 7’’ released by Active Suspension at that time, and with hindsight, I kind of regret it, although it’s there in some way anyway, since “Goodbye Sunshine”, that does appear on the album, was based on the same samples. Here it is 12 years later, for all those of you who didn’t get the chance to hear it.

Those of you following me on Facebook will already have read these news, so I apologize for the déjà vu, but I’m not forgetting those of you who are not so keen on Facebook, which is why I’m also posting these news here. Please remember that you can still check out my Facebook page even if you’re not a Facebook member! I will probably update the Facebook page more often than this news section, as I find it quicker to use for small updates and posting photos.

In case you missed them, here are a couple more photos of my studio where I’m currently recording my fifth album.

As always thanks for your support! :-)

I’m super happy to share a link to a great short film done by LA filmmaker Colin Kennedy who has spent the best part of his life filming great skateboarders (he’s behind the amazing “Quik” film). Even if you think you don’t care about skateboarding, watch the video and you may well change your mind! Colin chose my song “Geometrìa del Universo” from my last album The Weighing of the Heart as the soundtrack to this new film entitled “Form”. It’s being premiered today on the Berrics, one of the biggest websites in the world dedicated to skateboarding, as part of the Redirect project with RED cameras. Check it out here!

Starting with the bad news and ending with some good news…

I have unfortunately had to cancel my June show at San Francisco’s Exploratorium. I’m very sad about this, as are the organisers, and the reason for the cancellation is very simple, and not very surprising if you’ve read my previous references here and here to this concert and what I needed to obtain: the famous work visa for non-US musicians. Despite their best efforts, the museum was not able to obtain the visa on my behalf. I won’t comment on this any further, as I think the situation speaks for itself… However, I will definitely do my best to obtain a visa by other means in the future, as I do want to play the US again very much… It will happen some day my American friends, despair not ;-)

After years of resisting Facebook, I have finally decided to drop down my defenses and create an official Colleen page. I spent about three hours trying to see if there was any way I could transfer the 4,000-something “likes” of the Colleen community page that’s already out there, but even though the internet does give information as to how to do this, the reality turns out to be quite different and a huge hassle: there is actually almost no chance of getting the transfer, so I’ve just given up and hope that *you* my dear readers will get the ball rolling by Facebook-liking me and sending the info to anyone you think might be interested! Thanks a lot! :-)

Much more importantly, I’m delighted to tell you that last week I officially started recording my fifth album. I’m extremely excited about this, as for the first time in my life I can finally work in the conditions I’ve always dreamt of: indeed, some of you may have read that I recorded my last album, The Weighing of the Heart, under rather extreme circumstances, recording really late at night, and only for a couple of hours at a time, due to a noise issue during the day at the space I rent as my music studio / rehearsal space. Well, late last year, the miracle happened, the landlord agreed to change the doors and windows, the work took place, and even though the studio is not 100% soundproof, I can now definitely record during the day in what is now a truly lovely environment.

It’s my hope to have the album finished by the end of the summer and ready for release in late 2014/early 2015, and I will of course update you as soon as there is concrete news on the subject. Here are a couple of pictures to put you in the mood of the studio, which as a homage to my beloved Lee Perry I’ve jokingly nicknamed The White Ark… I will put some more pictures on Facebook, and just cannot wait to share this new music with you!

As always thanks for your support :-)

Back from Stockholm with quite a few things to share with you !

Here is the short feature that Swedish national TV SVT did on me in their culture programme Kulturnyheterna, with short excerpts from one of my new songs entitled “Captain of none”.

The whole song can be seen here. It was recorded at 10 :30 in the morning, which meant I had to do a quick set up and soundcheck before 10 o’clock, not very easy for someone like me who is not a morning person at all (and even less so after a full day of travelling to get from Spain to Sweden!), and it’s actually pretty hard to sing just an hour after getting up and not having even spoken with anyone yet ! The floor tom that I play in the last section of the song is unfortunately very low in the mix… which just makes me feel like going into my studio and recording the song for real ! ;-)

Last but definitely not least, the concert I gave for Art’s Birthday Party in the beautiful Södra Teatern on Friday night is available in streaming here (to navigate within the stream point your mouse on the timer at the top right of the screen and the time bar will appear). I think it’s one of the best concerts I’ve given since going back to playing live last year, and it’s also really well recorded, so I’m very happy about this being available.

The setlist is as follows :

Ursa Major Find

Lighthouse

Once upon a time there was a pretty fly (cover from the film The night of the hunter)

I’ll read you a story

I’m kin

The weighing of the heart

Captain of none

I’ve been especially excited about playing all the new songs, and you can follow the lyrics to them in the updated lyrics section of this website.