Wednesday, 24 December 2008

...although I'm not in the drunk tank....not tonight anyway.

What a month it's been, let alone year.

I'm loving my time in the studio. Really pushing my sound around to see what it stands up to and what it crumbles underneath. 

The interesting thing about songs is that they resemble people in many ways. Constantly changing. They mature, but don't always grow old. The sound you clothe them in can often make them sound dated, sure, but the songs themselves are above and beyond that. Growing old is not their inherent trait.  Needless to say they can, but they can also stand still or even grow young... how many folk in Holywood would kill to do that!?

I'm working on an album with David Holmes, which will most likely be the third album as we're taking our time about it, making sure the process is always enjoyable, letting the journey be more than the destination.  I brought a song to him that I'd been doing live, a song called Burning Coals.  Within 24 hours we had replanted it into a very different sonic soundscape than it was used to. It stripped away all the signs of age and left this open wound of a song that was all but hidden before.  It really inspired me, so I've been locked away in my own studio ever since.

At the minute I'm planning to tour in April, by which time I should have recorded the next album. But I'll also have recorded two EPs to release during the tour... maybe you'll get to hear the results of my labour this month...

Right, enough babel... it Christmas time!!!

I've been very glad to have you on board this year...here's to the next one!!

I may speak to you before NYE, but if I don't, have a great one and I hope to see you in the new year...

But before I go I must share something with you quickly.

Today Ella (my daughter) came out with the best line for a song I've heard in a long time! She was singing in the back of the car and the definitive lyric was this:

"I travelled thirty miles in a bag with a farting dog!!"

Genius!

Merry Christmas
foy x

p.s.  I did something called Urban Hymns in Belfast this year with other artists like Duke Special, Bronagh Gallegher etc... and it'll be aired on Radio Ulster on Boxing Day night, with Stuart Bailie...  I did a version of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah with the Inishowen Gospel Choir (this was before I knew X Factor would be doing the same thing I might add...). enjoy...