Tune into BBC Oxford Introducing this Saturday (17th October) where they'll be playing our brand new single 'Expansion', out at the end of the month (thanks Tim and Dave!)
Don't forget to come and join us at the Cellar on Saturday 31st for our Halloween party. There'll be limited edition CD singles for the first 50 people through the door, and prizes for the best dressed. See you there!
Showing posts with label The Cellar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Cellar. Show all posts
Friday, 16 October 2009
Tuesday, 22 September 2009
Expansion launch and Halloween party
We're proud to announce that we'll be launching our brand new single 'Expansion' at our Halloween party hosted by Big Hair at The Cellar on Saturday 31st October.
The single will be released on Big Red Sky, and label mates Les Clochards will be joining us on the bill, along with very special guests.
A limited number of CD singles will be given away at the launch, and the track will subsequently be available for streaming from Last.fm and download from iTunes.
Produced by Jamie Masters and mixed by Jimmy Evil, 'Expansion' is taken from our forthcoming second album, due out next year, and is our first official release since Heart of Stone in 2007.
The recording was partly tracked at the SAE Institute as part of our Jack.fm 'Next Big Thing' prize from earlier this year.
We're really excited about the launch, and hope to see as many of you as possible in fancy dress on Halloween. There'll be prizes for the best dressed, so don't hold back!
Our launch will be followed by a mini-tour in November, including a performance at the Carter USM aftershow party at Jamm in Brixton. See the Witches website for more info - more dates will be announced nearer the time.
Eleven songs have been recorded so far for the second album, but we're currently working on a second batch, many of which will be aired at the Halloween gig for the very first time. We're very proud of our new tracks, so come down and see what you think.
See you soon
-Dave G
The single will be released on Big Red Sky, and label mates Les Clochards will be joining us on the bill, along with very special guests.
A limited number of CD singles will be given away at the launch, and the track will subsequently be available for streaming from Last.fm and download from iTunes.
Produced by Jamie Masters and mixed by Jimmy Evil, 'Expansion' is taken from our forthcoming second album, due out next year, and is our first official release since Heart of Stone in 2007.
The recording was partly tracked at the SAE Institute as part of our Jack.fm 'Next Big Thing' prize from earlier this year.
We're really excited about the launch, and hope to see as many of you as possible in fancy dress on Halloween. There'll be prizes for the best dressed, so don't hold back!
Our launch will be followed by a mini-tour in November, including a performance at the Carter USM aftershow party at Jamm in Brixton. See the Witches website for more info - more dates will be announced nearer the time.
Eleven songs have been recorded so far for the second album, but we're currently working on a second batch, many of which will be aired at the Halloween gig for the very first time. We're very proud of our new tracks, so come down and see what you think.
See you soon
-Dave G
Friday, 7 November 2008
Audioscope warmup
Good gig last night at The Cellar - the Audioscope08 warm-up, featuring ACTION BEAT + 50ft Panda + FROM LIGHT TO SOUND + EGYPTIAN DEATH.
Great stuff from Egyptian Death (Oxford's answer to Shit and Shine, with added brown note) and From Light to Sound (good mix of restraint and onslaught , love the name), but 50ft Panda were standout awesome, I need to go see them more often :-)
I wasn't really getting into Action Beat, but I think they were all ill and only played a short set, so maybe worth another look some time...
Anyway, make sure you get to The Jericho Tavern on the 15th for the main event! (Witches are on around 6pm.)
Laters,
Dave B.
Great stuff from Egyptian Death (Oxford's answer to Shit and Shine, with added brown note) and From Light to Sound (good mix of restraint and onslaught , love the name), but 50ft Panda were standout awesome, I need to go see them more often :-)
I wasn't really getting into Action Beat, but I think they were all ill and only played a short set, so maybe worth another look some time...
Anyway, make sure you get to The Jericho Tavern on the 15th for the main event! (Witches are on around 6pm.)
Laters,
Dave B.
Monday, 3 November 2008
More Last.FM goodies
Friday's Halloween gig at The Cellar was a good one, and it was good to see all the ghosts and ghouls out to play :-)
We were giving out a CD with some new songs on - 5 tracks which may or may not make it onto the album next year. We've still got a few left so you might be able to pick one up at one of our next gigs, but if you can't wait until then, head over and have a listen to all five on Last.FM.
Keep it unreal,
Dave B
We were giving out a CD with some new songs on - 5 tracks which may or may not make it onto the album next year. We've still got a few left so you might be able to pick one up at one of our next gigs, but if you can't wait until then, head over and have a listen to all five on Last.FM.
Keep it unreal,
Dave B
Friday, 31 October 2008
The new tracks are here!
It's finished! Five new songs. First radio play last Saturday on BBC Oxford, free copies going out at our gig tonight.
And you can listen to them on our MySpace profile and download them for a limited time.
We're very pleased with it - different from the last lot of recordings, but still very much Witches.
Maybe some of them will be on the next album, maybe not - too early to tell. But at least we have some new stuff for you to listen to in the interim.
When we did the last album we circulated some work-in-progress stuff to get some early feedback, to help shape the final album. So we're doing it again.
Tell us what you think - don't hold back now.
-Martin
And you can listen to them on our MySpace profile and download them for a limited time.
We're very pleased with it - different from the last lot of recordings, but still very much Witches.
Maybe some of them will be on the next album, maybe not - too early to tell. But at least we have some new stuff for you to listen to in the interim.
When we did the last album we circulated some work-in-progress stuff to get some early feedback, to help shape the final album. So we're doing it again.
Tell us what you think - don't hold back now.
-Martin
Wednesday, 22 October 2008
Halloween party and EP launch YEAH
It's the most wonderful time of the year. No really. Much better than snow and potted evergreen trees and bloated parental turkey-based meals. For the first time ever, Witches have managed to book a gig that actually falls on Halloween. Admittedly, this does mean we'll be up against every other sod that has the same idea, however we'll be in The Cellar which is, as everyone knows, the discerning rocker's venue of choice.
Joining us on 31st October will be The Hellset Orchestra - both of us will be performing headline sets - and there will be ample support from the likes of Thumpermonkey Lives! (sounds like some kind of early nineties Amiga 500 release) and the mighty Von Braun, favourites of ours and regular haunters of Martin's studio (it's not been the same since).
We've realised now that we do actually have to release something, being that we've been banging on about it being an EP launch for some time now. We've recorded five songs. Some or all of them will be with you on the night. We're still deciding. Maybe we'll chuck them all in the bin and then set fire to the bin shouting 'no no no no no' and then there'll be nothing. Who can say.
One thing is (reasonably) certain. This stuff is work in progress. Before the last album came out we circulated a free CD of nearly-finished songs just to see what people thought of them, and that worked well - it got us lots of feedback and helped push the album in the right direction. I feel we're at that stage now, which is kind of exciting and daunting all at the same time.
Anyway, enough of all that - there'll be prizes for the best dressed, and there'll be free CDs for those nearest the stage. Plus four ace bands and DJs till 3am. Tickets only available on the door (£5), doors at 8pm, first band 9pm. We've been putting in the hours in the rehearsal studio putting together a live set that will rock your brains. Where else are you going to be? At home with your kittens? We will find you.
- Dave G
Joining us on 31st October will be The Hellset Orchestra - both of us will be performing headline sets - and there will be ample support from the likes of Thumpermonkey Lives! (sounds like some kind of early nineties Amiga 500 release) and the mighty Von Braun, favourites of ours and regular haunters of Martin's studio (it's not been the same since).
We've realised now that we do actually have to release something, being that we've been banging on about it being an EP launch for some time now. We've recorded five songs. Some or all of them will be with you on the night. We're still deciding. Maybe we'll chuck them all in the bin and then set fire to the bin shouting 'no no no no no' and then there'll be nothing. Who can say.
One thing is (reasonably) certain. This stuff is work in progress. Before the last album came out we circulated a free CD of nearly-finished songs just to see what people thought of them, and that worked well - it got us lots of feedback and helped push the album in the right direction. I feel we're at that stage now, which is kind of exciting and daunting all at the same time.
Anyway, enough of all that - there'll be prizes for the best dressed, and there'll be free CDs for those nearest the stage. Plus four ace bands and DJs till 3am. Tickets only available on the door (£5), doors at 8pm, first band 9pm. We've been putting in the hours in the rehearsal studio putting together a live set that will rock your brains. Where else are you going to be? At home with your kittens? We will find you.
- Dave G
Friday, 17 October 2008
Mixing the EP Mixing the EP
Hi Witches fans - Martin here
Dave is complaining that he always has to write the blog - so I'm having a go.
Recording an album is a funny old game.
You spend hours in the rehearsal studio writing songs and everyone has their own bit which they've written and you finally go into a recording studio to record it and finally everyone gets to hear what you do properly.
Why now? Well - when you rehearsse you have a drummer in the room with you - so everything is really loud and while you get the overall sound and feel - nothing is really clear.
In a recording studio it's - well - different.
You start by all standing in the room with headphones on - and you play the song - much as you would in rehearsal. Then everyone complains that they can't hear anything properly because you all have headphones on - and everyone wants to hear something different. This is acheived by having a headphone mixer - so each person has their own individual mix of how they want to hear the song - so for example the bass player will want to hear lots of drums and bass and a bit of vocal so they know where the changes come - but the guitarist (me) will want to hear just the drums and guitar and a bit of bass and a bit of vocal and definately the keyboards - so you all have to adjust everything.
And finally you press the record button and you're off.
Then you get this thing called Red Light Fever - which is when people suddenly realise that this is it - and you are putting something down for the whole world to hear (or your mates - depending on how good and popular you are) and panic sets in - and the first few takes of a song are always rubbish - because people need to relax a bit.
But finally you get there.
But actually you're not there at all - because all you really wanted to record was the drums - everyone else is plugged straight in so there are no loud amplifiers in the room to interfere with the drum recordings. Once you get the drums down - you then start recording each instrument individually.
And at this point - you get to hear what everyone else is actually playing - because what the engineer hears is again different from what the band hears - and he has solo'd your part and is listening to it under a microscope so to speak (can you listen under a microsope?) - and so is everyone else who is not playing - and you find out that what is being played on one instrument doesn't neccesarily tie in with what someone else is playing - and you have to change it. Sometimes this can be a bit of a political exercise because people can be a bit presious about stuff - and sometimes it's easy.
It also means you finally get to hear properly what is being sung - which can sometimes cause great hilarity - I remember one occasion back in the days when I used to think I could actually sing and fronted a band when i got to the end of the vocal take and there was a long silence - and then a voice came out in my headphones saying - "er - could we maybe take a look at the lyrics Martin - there seems to be a few concerned faces here".
I always imagine that happening in the studio when "Gay Bar" was recorded ....
So there is potentially a lot of compromising - although I reckon that the less you have to compromise because you're all reading from the same hymn sheet - the better the song is - and the better the band is.
Finally - after all that - everyone has played - and everyone has sung - and you have brought in additional people to play stuff to make it sound even better (or worse) by adding flutes and cellos and saws and bagpipes and stuff - and you end up with loads and loads of music - and you then have to mix it - to get all the levels right - and make sure everyone is happy.
In the old days of tape - you had maybe 24 channels to play with - which meant that you played your instrument once because you couldn't do 16 guitar takes - there just wasn't the room - but now in the digital age you can do 16 guitar takes and keep them all and then pick the best bits - which is great unless you're the one who is deciding what the best bit is.
And finally when that is decided - and everyone is happy - well - you're done.
But it takes forever to get it just right. Back in the days when we'd load all the gear in the van and head out to the middle of nowhere to a studio and record everything live in a day and come away with a finished mix having handed over our bouncy cheque it was all so much easier - but it was also so much worse - I have real problems listening to some of that stuff now.
So anyway - at the moment - we are in the middle of deciding what stays and what goes and whether we really wanted to put that bagpipe on the song anyway (I can say this safely because there is no bagpipe on anything - more by luck than judgement though - the bagpipe player had a blowout in his bag and couldn't play).
But on the bright side - 3 of the songs are pretty close to being finished - and the other two have some minor decisions to be made - but - hopefully by the end of the weekend everything will be in the can as we still like to say (along with "We're rolling" which is a lie because that refers to the tape spools going round and round - and there isn't a tape machine in sight in the studio - it's all on computer - but saying "we're commiting to disk" just doesn't sound as Rock).
And while all this is going on we are fitting in Gigs (Clapham was great - thanks everyone for coming along - Witney on Saturday night if you can make it) - interviews (we did a radio interview last week and Jo couldn't make it - but Rich's better half stood in - which was great since she has a broad American accent and said stuff like "I'm just here to rawk"! which had us all in fits of laughter) - photos - rehearsals.
And then we have to decide what goes on the release for the end of the month ... oh blimey.
But it will all be done by the time we turn up at The Cellar on the 31st. And I'll be the one with the grey hair - because I have to try and co-ordinate all of this - keep everyone happy and produce something which will make us world famous.
That was a long blog wasn't it.
I don't think Dave will be asking me again.
Cheers
Martin
Dave is complaining that he always has to write the blog - so I'm having a go.
Recording an album is a funny old game.
You spend hours in the rehearsal studio writing songs and everyone has their own bit which they've written and you finally go into a recording studio to record it and finally everyone gets to hear what you do properly.
Why now? Well - when you rehearsse you have a drummer in the room with you - so everything is really loud and while you get the overall sound and feel - nothing is really clear.
In a recording studio it's - well - different.
You start by all standing in the room with headphones on - and you play the song - much as you would in rehearsal. Then everyone complains that they can't hear anything properly because you all have headphones on - and everyone wants to hear something different. This is acheived by having a headphone mixer - so each person has their own individual mix of how they want to hear the song - so for example the bass player will want to hear lots of drums and bass and a bit of vocal so they know where the changes come - but the guitarist (me) will want to hear just the drums and guitar and a bit of bass and a bit of vocal and definately the keyboards - so you all have to adjust everything.
And finally you press the record button and you're off.
Then you get this thing called Red Light Fever - which is when people suddenly realise that this is it - and you are putting something down for the whole world to hear (or your mates - depending on how good and popular you are) and panic sets in - and the first few takes of a song are always rubbish - because people need to relax a bit.
But finally you get there.
But actually you're not there at all - because all you really wanted to record was the drums - everyone else is plugged straight in so there are no loud amplifiers in the room to interfere with the drum recordings. Once you get the drums down - you then start recording each instrument individually.
And at this point - you get to hear what everyone else is actually playing - because what the engineer hears is again different from what the band hears - and he has solo'd your part and is listening to it under a microscope so to speak (can you listen under a microsope?) - and so is everyone else who is not playing - and you find out that what is being played on one instrument doesn't neccesarily tie in with what someone else is playing - and you have to change it. Sometimes this can be a bit of a political exercise because people can be a bit presious about stuff - and sometimes it's easy.
It also means you finally get to hear properly what is being sung - which can sometimes cause great hilarity - I remember one occasion back in the days when I used to think I could actually sing and fronted a band when i got to the end of the vocal take and there was a long silence - and then a voice came out in my headphones saying - "er - could we maybe take a look at the lyrics Martin - there seems to be a few concerned faces here".
I always imagine that happening in the studio when "Gay Bar" was recorded ....
So there is potentially a lot of compromising - although I reckon that the less you have to compromise because you're all reading from the same hymn sheet - the better the song is - and the better the band is.
Finally - after all that - everyone has played - and everyone has sung - and you have brought in additional people to play stuff to make it sound even better (or worse) by adding flutes and cellos and saws and bagpipes and stuff - and you end up with loads and loads of music - and you then have to mix it - to get all the levels right - and make sure everyone is happy.
In the old days of tape - you had maybe 24 channels to play with - which meant that you played your instrument once because you couldn't do 16 guitar takes - there just wasn't the room - but now in the digital age you can do 16 guitar takes and keep them all and then pick the best bits - which is great unless you're the one who is deciding what the best bit is.
And finally when that is decided - and everyone is happy - well - you're done.
But it takes forever to get it just right. Back in the days when we'd load all the gear in the van and head out to the middle of nowhere to a studio and record everything live in a day and come away with a finished mix having handed over our bouncy cheque it was all so much easier - but it was also so much worse - I have real problems listening to some of that stuff now.
So anyway - at the moment - we are in the middle of deciding what stays and what goes and whether we really wanted to put that bagpipe on the song anyway (I can say this safely because there is no bagpipe on anything - more by luck than judgement though - the bagpipe player had a blowout in his bag and couldn't play).
But on the bright side - 3 of the songs are pretty close to being finished - and the other two have some minor decisions to be made - but - hopefully by the end of the weekend everything will be in the can as we still like to say (along with "We're rolling" which is a lie because that refers to the tape spools going round and round - and there isn't a tape machine in sight in the studio - it's all on computer - but saying "we're commiting to disk" just doesn't sound as Rock).
And while all this is going on we are fitting in Gigs (Clapham was great - thanks everyone for coming along - Witney on Saturday night if you can make it) - interviews (we did a radio interview last week and Jo couldn't make it - but Rich's better half stood in - which was great since she has a broad American accent and said stuff like "I'm just here to rawk"! which had us all in fits of laughter) - photos - rehearsals.
And then we have to decide what goes on the release for the end of the month ... oh blimey.
But it will all be done by the time we turn up at The Cellar on the 31st. And I'll be the one with the grey hair - because I have to try and co-ordinate all of this - keep everyone happy and produce something which will make us world famous.
That was a long blog wasn't it.
I don't think Dave will be asking me again.
Cheers
Martin
Friday, 25 July 2008
More Club Fandango confirmed!
Thanks to everyone who came to our debut Club Fandango gig on 13th August. We'll be playing again on Fri 26th September, this time at The Wilmington Arms alongside Stornoway, Alto Alite and The Cavaliers. If you're coming along don't forget to print off fliers and save yourself a quid on the door. We'll be playing a healthy mix of old and new, with much of the new stuff soon to be released on our forthcoming EP (more on that later). See you there!
Monday, 18 February 2008
Good game, good game
Thanks to all who came to our gigs in Brixton and Oxford last weekend, which I think were our best so far - in no small part thanks to having a people interested and creating a good vibe. Lots of fun all over :-)
Special thanks to Joe who did all the driving on Friday, only to be rewarded with a puncture when we got to Oxford :-(
Special thanks to Joe who did all the driving on Friday, only to be rewarded with a puncture when we got to Oxford :-(
Monday, 28 January 2008
Witches in London and Oxford
We'll be returning to the wonderful Windmill in Brixton on Friday 15th February playing alongside Danny and the Champions of the World and many others. There's a cheese auction too. It's Valentine's weekend so we're going to be extra romantic :)
We'll be back on home turf the day after, headlining Big Hair @ The Cellar on Saturday 16th February, with excellent support from Brother Francisco, All Our Good Friends and Cat Matador. This will be our biggest headline to date, so keep some space in your diaries!
We'll be back on home turf the day after, headlining Big Hair @ The Cellar on Saturday 16th February, with excellent support from Brother Francisco, All Our Good Friends and Cat Matador. This will be our biggest headline to date, so keep some space in your diaries!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)