What this tour needs is guns. Lots of guns.

16 January 2010, 13:54

I’ve been making music and then playing it to varyingly attentive audiences for a few years now. During that time, I’ve been lucky enough to travel all over the world, playing on the same bills as some of my all-time heroes, and unlucky enough to play in Newport to a single drunk woman who fell over halfway through my set, then walked out.
All in all, being a musician has been a mixed bag so far. But one thing has always remained constant. Touring has always been fun.
Maybe it’s because I get to divest myself of all normal responsibilities for a couple of weeks. Or maybe it’s because I get to live like my childhood dreams managed to find their way through the grind of real life and actually come true. Whatever it is, touring has provided me with some of my most memorable musical moments.
I remember clearly the time I gave myself concussion onstage during my very first festival gig abroad, for example. I hit myself in the head with a brand new Fender Telecaster, then had to go to bed early and confused. That’s one to tell the grandkids.

I also once spent quite a bit of time searching for (and utterly failing to find) Bjork backstage at The Electric Picnic.
True story, that.
True, incredibly dull, story.

Then there was the time I nearly got shot in America.
Yeah, that’s right. Shot.
Probably.
Here’s what happened:
I was in Hollywood to do a live session on a radio station. Which I’m aware makes me sound both unexpectedly professional and like a massive, bragging tool. Well, I can’t help that. I’m trying to set the scene here, OK? I’m using all the storytelling skills at my (admittedly limited) disposal, so go with it.
Anyway, I was there for a few days, so I thought I’d take a look around Hollywood, and see what it has to offer. Turns out, it actually has surprisingly little to offer unless the infantile rantings of L. Ron Hubbard play an unhealthily large role in your life.
I was wandering back to my hotel room one evening when five or six police cars suddenly screeched to a stop just in front of me and a dozen or so policemen bundled out, all armed to the teeth.
Various weapons were brandished, including two honest-to-goodness shotguns, held by the smuggest-looking people I’ve ever seen outside of Lynx commercials.

Now. . .I’ve seen a lot of films in my time. I’m pretty sure that everytime this sort of thing happens in a film, at least one of the policemen (usually the chubbiest, friendliest, and unarmediest one) spends a bit of time ferrying the general public to safety whilst the others pump their shotguns, cock their hammers, and do a number of other things that sound suspiciously like euphemisms for being gay.
Not so in real life, apparently.
They all just lined up either side of the door that I was approaching. The door to Hollywood High School, as it happens.
I was already clearly in the line of fire if a crazed, coked-up schoolkid burst through the doors waving his father’s Uzi around with reckless, deadly abandon. And by now, I was pretty sure that was exactly what was going to happen at any second.
So, put yourself in my shoes for a second. You’re English, and as a result, you have had literally ZERO experience of guns so far in your life. Suddenly, you’re faced with about 10 of the bastard things. What would you do?
Here are your options:
1) Run like a shreiking, effeminate maniac. This incurs the scorn and ridicule of the gathered crowds who all seem to be calmly filming the stuff of your nightmares with mobile phones from across the street. On the plus side, you might not die.
2) Walk slowly and casually onwards like you see this sort of thing every day, thereby remaining cool in the eyes of the people you’ll never meet again, but possibly getting a bullet through a part of your body that really works better without any holes in it.

I tried, unsuccesfully, to combine the two. I casually, yet quickly, crouch-walked to safety like a petrified duck, thereby remaining a potential target for longer than necessary whilst simultaneously retaining not a shred of dignity.
Here’s what I learned that day. . .
Guns are terrifying, and can often lead to socially awkward situations in front of strangers.

Now, you may be wondering why I’ve just told you all this. Well, it’s because, in a week’s time, I’m going on tour in Germany and The Netherlands, and I’ll be sporadically blogging about it here, as well as on my myspace (www.myspace.com/cajita), for Nokia Music (http://www.insidenokiamusic.com/) and for Venue magazine in Bristol. 
Hopefully, I’ll have some interesting tales to tell. Maybe I’ll actually get shot this time, and have a story that reaches some kind of conclusion, rather than just petering out uneventfully.

Who knows?

The Ellipsis released!

13 October 2009, 20:05

 

 

This coming Thursday is the official UK release date of my debut album "The Ellipsis".

That's Thursday 15th October, just in case you're confused.

 

I'll be celebrating by having a launch party at Mr Wolf's in Bristol that evening. That's the evening of 15th October. 

 

There'll be brand spanking new CDs for sale, as well as all kinds of fun, party-type shenanigans going on. There'll even be alcohol available to buy from the bar, so you don't all have to stand around awkwardly looking at your shoes all night and avoiding eye-contact with everyone.

Yup, it's going to be pretty special.

 

Here's a facebook event thing for it: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=136813434794 

I don't have a facebook account, so I don't really know how that all works, but I imagine you will.

 

Now, I say "official UK release" because, in actual fact, "The Ellipsis" has already been released in the US. As a result, it's also already available from a variety of places, including itunes, amazon, spotify, emusic, napster and, of course, nokiamusic.

 

So. . .if you literally can't wait for next Thursday (that's the 15th, remember), then by all means, go to any of those stores and buy it now! 

Here are some links, in fact:

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=325012016&s=143444

http://www.amazon.com/The-Ellipsis/dp/B002IKCE36/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1255097092&sr=8-2

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Ellipsis/dp/B002IPFJBA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1255097140&sr=8-2

http://home.gb.napster.com/GB/en/ns/view/artist/?artist_id=12559668

http://www.emusic.com/album/Cajita-The-Ellipsis-MP3-Download/11578489.html

 

However, if you wait until the launch date (that's Thursday 15th October) then you can get a special version of the album directly from me at www.theellipsis.co.uk

 

Here's why it's special:

It'll be at a higher bit-rate. Most digital stores compress the music files down to a tiny size, and there is a resulting loss of sound quality. The download at theellipsis.co.uk will be high-quality. 320kbps mp3 DRM free, if that means anything to you.

It'll also have a more extensive digital booklet with it, with photos, lyrics and all sorts. You won't get this at any other digital store.

Finally, it'll be cheaper. I'll charge you £5 for it, whereas most other places are charging over £7.

 

So. . .it'll be cheaper and yet better if you buy it directly from me. 

 

"How can this be?", I can almost be bothered to hear you scream. Well, I'll tell you. When you buy it from me, all the money you spend will go directly to me. When you buy from digital stores, I'll only get a cut. So I decided to make it worth your while buying directly from me with a deluxe download version. 

 

What's that you've got there? Is it a pricing strategy? 

Oh dear, it seems to have come apart in my hands.

Oh, what's this? An envelope? Well, you'd better keep it away from me. I'll just wind up pushing it.

Yeah?

 

 

So, to sum up:

Consider yourself personally invited to the launch of my debut album at Mr Wolf's in Bristol on Thursday 15th October. 

I shouldn't have to tell you how much it would mean to me if you came and helped me celebrate, but I will anyway. 

It would mean a lot. This is more exciting to me than Christmas and my birthday all rolled into one. 

 

Also, buy m y album. Buy it from wherever you like, and buy it whenever you like, but do buy it. I'm really proud of it and I want as many people as possible to hear it. Tell other people about it too. I'll treat you right if you do.

 

One last thing: I've had a free EP up for download on my website www.cajita.co.uk for a few months now. This will be coming down as of the 15th October. It's all old stuff, and I don't trust you all not to just go for the free option even though I've just spent ages telling you you're special. So. . .if you haven't downloaded it yet, go and do it now, cos there's not long left.

 

Free EP!

18 November 2008, 14:37

Hello you. . .

There's a free EP for you right bloody here!

 

Go to "downloads" on the right there and click Free EP.

Pretty easy, no?

 

Go to it.

Jay

x

recording an album - part 5!

14 October 2008, 10:33

Hello you. . .

Here's an album blog for you. It's been ages since I did one of these, so, as ever, apologies for that.

The first thing to say is that it really is, honestly, sincerely, truthfully and genuinely very very very nearly done. I have all the songs recorded, I have all the arrangements in place, all the instruments have been recorded and everything's oh so very nearly ready to be mastered and sent to Denmark, where it will hopefully be released.

The only things I have left to do now are get Jim over to record various trumpet parts for various tracks and record all the vocals for every single song. At the moment, I can't do the vocals, cos I've got a great big cocking cold that refuses to budge, no matter how much medication I throw at it. It just hangs around behind my face like some kind of idiot recalcitrant teenager, refusing to leave its bedroom. That's a poor simile, but nevermind. I'm ill, so cut me some slack. I've had this cold for about a month and I just sound horrible and mucussy all the time. Boo. I also can't record Jim just yet as he has some kind of virulent chest infection and, the last time I spoke to him, he had been told by his doctor not to even talk too much, let alone spend an entire weekend playing trumpet for a frustrating idiot with no real idea of what he really wants from the trumpet line he's insisting on having. (That would be me, by the way.)

So. . .anyway. . .songs.
My whiteboard looks all clean and ordered now. . . the only songs on it are the ones that will be on the album. 10 songs. 10 one- or two-word notes. Sweet.
I'll go through some of the other songs in later blogs I think, but for now, here's a few highlights. . .

There's one called Walk, Don't Walk, which I've mentioned before, I think. It's a mandolin song with no chorus and a time signature change at the end that still sounds weird to me, even though i've heard it hundreds of times now...plus, obviously, I wrote it, so it shouldn't sound weird. A couple of interesting things to say about it - well, it has, as I say, a mandolin as its lead instrument - I guess that's not really as rare as it used to be since the whole REM thing, but it's essentially a dancey tune in 6/8 time, so it's still a bit interesting, I think.
Lyrically, it's about that thing that happens to you after a while if you're a recreational drug taker. You start realising that you don't actually feel like doing drugs anymore. This happened to me a while back and since then I've been toying with the idea of one final, big blowout, just to say goodbye. I don't know if I'll do it, or if I've already said goodbye without knowing, but there it is.
Hmmmm. . .I don't know if that's slightly too candid for this kind of thing, but fuck it, it's the truth, so it'll stay in. I'm quite excited about the song in general, because halfway through there's a big change and a choir comes in. I've written a choir arrangement - something I've never done before - and I'm going to get a choir made up of my musician friends and some other singers to sing it. I sketched it out recently and made my housemates sing all the parts I'd written, so I could hear what it sounded like, which they were surprisingly happy to do. I think it's going to sound like a lovely big gospel choir, which is exactly what I want. I don't know if it will work, but I can't wait to find out. . .

A few weeks ago, I had a ridiculously productive, fervent, almost manic song-writing bout. It resulted in what I can only describe as the most songs I've ever written in the shortest amount of time ever. I got four prety much complete songs out of three days, which is unthinkable for me. . .especially when you consider that, two years ago, I was struck with the most crippling writer's block I've ever experienced, leaving me unable to even put two notes together for about a year. I've completed all four songs now, but already discarded one as it just wouldn't fit in with the rest of the album. I may well come back to it in a few months though. I have a habit of cannibalising old music and old lyrics if I know the songs they come from are now defunct.

One of the songs I wrote during this pretty prolific period is called Daybreak. It's the song I'm most proud of at the moment. I think it's possibly the best thing i've ever written. . . I don't know how high the bar had been set by my other songs in all honesty, but there you go. It's one of those rare times that the lyric and the music come together so easily, it makes you think that maybe you're not as in charge of the whole song-writing process as you would like to think. I won't bother telling you what it's about because it's one of the most open lyrics I've ever written, so it'll be pretty obvious when you hear it, I think. Although I often think that, and I often hear differently from people. . . It's got nice chopped up guitars and a beat inspired - if that's the right word - by the Missy Elliot song Get Your Freak On, which I've been listening to a LOT recently.

Other songs worthy of note at the moment are The Ellipsis - which is a prime example of "sadtronica" with some really nice chord changes in it and Falling, which I think will be the album opener.
Falling has been a particularly difficult one for me to get up and running. I didn't know what sort of beat to use, so I asked Sy to come up with something. He did, and came back to me with a beat that I've chopped up and used as a basis for most of the other beats I've used in the song. I also needed a real bass part in it because all the synth bass parts I came up with didn't really feel right, so I asked my friend (and Glow's bass player) Rob to play it for me, because I'm not really good enough to do it myself. He agreed and came up with a brilliant bassline immediately. Lovely stuff.
The song starts with a couple of minutes of massive, full-on, old school ravey, acid-techno type stuff, so I'm going to put it at the start of the album, because it seems to work there. Hopefully.

Right. . .I think that's almost your lot.

Couple of other things I've been up to recently - I've got a song coming out in various different places soon. It's Don't Panic, which I really see as an old song now. It's kind of the first proper song I did as cajita - I'd written songs before it, of course, but it's the one that really cemented the vague idea I'd been having about cajita - you know, the beats, the synths, the guitars, the harmonies etc - so it became, not a blueprint, but definitely a kind of milestone. Anyway, that was years ago now, so I've started to see it as an oldie. It's coming out on a couple of label compilations in America which you will be able to buy from itunes and places like that. There was a weird legal thing involved in one of the releases which I thought was quite funny. They wanted exclusive rights to the marketing, reproduction and selling of the song for the next 5 years, but I'd already licensed it to other companies during that period, so obviously I couldn't do it. Their solution was a genius piece of lateral thinking lawyerliness. I sent them an email saying I couldn't license it exclusively and they sent an email back saying what they wanted from me. It was a two line email that just essentially said: "just call the song something else". So, the song coming out on Sound of Style records will be called "don't panic (exit edit)". It's exactly the same as the other edit, but legally different. Apparently. I don't know whether that'll stand up in a court of law, but it was fun to encounter legal issues immediately anyway! Hopefully that's a sign of things to come!
There's also a song coming out here in the UK in Bristol. The good good people at Art Scare records have put Stand-up Comic (or a version of it anyway - not the one going on the album) on a compilation that you can buy from them now. It's got lots of other great acts on it too, so you should definitely check it out. Go to their myspace for more details.
A couple of my songs are going into a local film as well. The songs are Stand-up Comic and Monster. The film is being edited as we speak I think, so I don't really know much about it yet, but I'm really looking forward to seeing it. More on that when I know more!

Finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, my website's now up and running. There's not much there at the moment and nothing that's not on my myspace, but there will be soon, I promise. The much-vaunted free download of all the old songs will be going up soon, so keep your eye out for that.

No more gigs booked at the moment. Trying to get the album finished first.

Right, that really is it.

Thanks then, love you bye, thanks, love you, bye, take care now, byebye then, ok, see you later, thanks, bye, you take care, mind how you go, thanks, bye, thanks, love you, take care.

Jay
x

1 minute, 22 seconds of funny.

22 July 2008, 17:20

If you have a spare 1:22 (and let's face it, who doesn't?) then why not give this a go?






Proper cajita update soon, I promise - lots to tell, too!
Jay
x

America, Bjork, and cajita's forthcoming album - an update.

16 June 2008, 13:03

Hello you.
Well, it's been ages since I've done a proper one of these. I've got quite a lot of stuff to tell you about, so rather than chopping it all up into bite-size chunks, I thought I'd just sit and type and not stop until I think I'm probably done. As a result, what follows may be disjointed and nonsensical, but that's fine with me. I mean, look at William Burroughs - he made a living out of 'disjointed and nonsensical', before all that unpleasant spouse-shooting business.
I've gone off on a tangent already. I'll try to reign that in.

First things first. . .I've just put up a version of Bjork's "Unravel", which I've been playing around with recently. I don't know anything about copyright laws (except that they probably exist), but I've made it downloadable for you if you want it. I think it's quite good.
I spent a bit of time being semi-obsessed by the original not too long ago. Does listening to one song more than five times a day qualify as "obsessing"? I certainly hope so.
As far as love songs go, it's pretty cocking perfect. I saw Adem do it a while back and it was beautiful, so I tried it myself and found it's a really easy song to cover because it's so simple. Needless to say, mine is longer than the original and has a lovely bit of trumpet from Jim at the end. We've done it live a few times, but I don't think we'll make a habit of it.
Thanks to Nathalie for the encouragement to record it, otherwise I probably wouldn't have.

So. . .I went to America a few months back. Here's some things I learned:

1) Flying over beautiful ice formations and listening to Sigur Ros might be cheesy, but fucking hell, it works!




2) The Hollywood sign is definitely as cool as you think it will be. Especially when you can see it from your hotel room window. . .



3) Forgetting to take your camera with you when you do a live radio session in Hollywood means that you won't have any pictures to show people of your live radio session in Hollywood.


4) When someone shows up at a gig of yours wearing a home-made cajita t-shirt, it's a really good feeling - even if they are practically the only people you're playing to. (Thanks Sanna! x)



5) Americans are much nicer than you could ever expect them to be. Everyone I met, from the airport security folk to randoms on the street were absolutely lovely. That was nice.

6) Guns are TERRIFYING.
I should probably explain. I was wandering back to my hotel room one day, listening to my ipod, feeling quite worldly and generally just pretty happy with myself. Suddenly, five or six police cars screech to a stop just in front of me and a dozen or so policemen bundle out, all armed. Various weapons abound, including two honest-to-God shotguns held by the smuggest-looking people I've ever seen outside of Gillette commercials.
Now. . .I've seen a lot of films in my time. I'm pretty sure that everytime I've seen this sort of thing happen in a film, at least one of the policemen (usually the one that looks the friendliest, chubbiest, and unarmediest) spends a bit of time ferrying the general public to safety whilst the others pump their shotguns, cock their hammers, and do a number of other things that sound suspiciously like euphemisms for being gay. Not so, apparently. They all just lined up either side of the door that I was rapidly approaching (the door to Hollywood High School, as it happens - not even going to go into that).
I was already clearly in the line of fire if a crazed, coked-up schoolkid burst through the doors waving about his father's Uzi - and by this point I was pretty positive that's exactly what was about to happen.
So, put yourself in my shoes for a second. You're English and as a result, you have had literally ZERO experience of guns so far in your life. Suddenly, you're faced with about 10 of the bastard things. What would you do?
Run like a maniac, incurring the scorn of the gathered crowds who all seem to be calmly filming the stuff of your nightmares with mobile phones from across the street? Or walk slowly and casually onwards like you see this sort of thing every day, thereby remaining cool in the eyes of the people you'll never meet again, but possibly getting a bullet through a part of your body that really works better without any holes in it?
I tried to combine the two. I casually, yet rapidly, crouch-walked to safety like a petrified duck, thereby remaining a potential target for longer than necessary whilst simultaneously retaining not a shred of dignity.
I repeat, guns are terrifying. And they can also precipitate socially awkward situations.

7) New York is awesome. It's a massive place that all looks like Woody Allen's old films. Back when he was still making films worth watching.
It also looks like Ghostbusters. New York Public Library made me happier than it should have done, in all honesty.

Here's a picture of me playing in New York.



If the video from the radio session ever makes it to youtube, I'll put it up here straight away. I did an acoustic version of "Unravel" on the show as well as acoustic versions of lots of my songs, so I'd be pretty interested to see what they were like.
A full three-piece gig we did the other week was also recorded, so I think there'll be a couple of live tracks up here soon (if they aren't awful, obviously!).
The website's nearly up and running. . .when it is, I'm going to put all the old songs that aren't going on the album up for a free download. That shouldn't be too long now.

Finally, a very brief word on the album.
It's progressing. I've got almost all the songs now. I've got them in the right order in my mind. A couple are just sketches still, but the rest are fully formed. I need to spend some time doing the vocals for them.
I tried to give a really old song - "First" - a brand new electronica makeover (it was originally just a guitar song), but for some reason, it just wasn't working for me. So I've given it to some very special friends to do. That one's going to be all them apart from my vocals. Can't wait to hear what they've done with it.
More on the album over the next few weeks. That's what I'm concentrating on now, so there'll be regular progress made.


And finally-finally. . .If you're reading this and you're in Bristol, then get down to the Thekla on Thursday night - 19th June.
We're playing a GWR fm night with Nova Robotics (who are fantastic - see my top friends list thing) and it's completely free!
We'll be giving away free CDs and everything.
Come and say hi to us, why don't you?


Right, I think that's it for now.

Thanks then, cheers, thanks, bye, love you, bye, thanks, cheers, bye bye now, thanks, cheers, bye bye.

Jay
x