Monday 24th August 2009
Signs
We’ve spent the last six weeks approximately on one song. We’ve been trying to capture a mid tempo radio friendly track to balance the up tempo guitar driven numbers we already have lined up for album two. To be honest, we were naïve in our approach to this task. Such songs, whilst often generic in formula, need to come from a unique place, with a very original message or lyrical hook. There’s really no point in going to the studio and saying “ok let’s write another ‘Yellow” because it won’t happen like that. More so than pop edged songs, the epic numbers, dare I say it, like “Aberdeen” from album one, come from a special place in your head not from your commercial sensibilities.
So, we finished the song, and sent it off to Germany. Our management liked it and our label liked it, but they were quick to say it’s not the one we need to put the icing on the proverbial album cake. That’s okay, we knew that, they didn’t need to confirm that fact, and to be honest, even if they’d loved it, I still wouldn’t want it on the record. We’ve ditched that writing style anyway, we’re going to let that song happen naturally, and hope to God that it surfaces before we go to record the album. We’re back to general ideas and Eamonn has written three or four basic ideas songs that we’ve started to work on.
This year is the first that another band member has come into the studio with a song idea that includes lyrics/melody and it’s been an eye opening experience. Eamonn has a much more effortless style to his lyric writing; it’s quirky and amusing, just like him and a million miles from my introspective approach. It’s so simple -it’s brilliant and I’ve been trying to relax with my own efforts, letting them flow rather than continually putting every word through the creative grinder.
I have one other up tempo idea and an acoustic track that I played for Lego and Sam, they both like it but I’m reluctant to start working on it. There’s a fine line that has to be towed when you’re upgrading a decent acoustic song to the full band arrangement. We’ve always pushed it a bit too far and lost the intimacy an acoustic arrangement brings. It’s weird, it’s like we’re at the opposite end of the spectrum we were at with album one, where mid-tempo/epic emotive songs were a dime a dozen. Right now, we just need one. My friend Karl who manages CODES suggested I revisit the misery that inspired album one to help me squeeze out an appropriate track. Thanks Karl- good friend. Ha ha. Never go back they say- and I never will.
Wednesday 26th August 2009
Online/offline
A sure sign that things are indeed moving along though is that our manager has started asking about royseven.com. She wants us to get it back online and start promoting the new record and the band once again. That’s great news, it’s such a relief to be talking about something else band related. It’s been a dark time for all of us waiting for this project to start moving again and I’m pretty sure that we are all still less than convinced it will actually happen. Even though there’s no reason to suspect it won’t, we’ve been in limbo so long, we really don’t know what’s going to happen next, except to say that there’ll be a few more twists and turns before the album hits the shelves. Anyway, we took down the royseven.com site as it wasn’t being updated enough and we decided ages ago that it would be much less stressful for us if the record label looked after our website instead. I’m waiting to find out if they’re happy to do that. I’m not really sure if that’s such a great idea but surely preferable to the pain of being the “go-to” person for our last website as it was never updated quickly enough by the designer which pissed everyone off. So, let’s see if Roadrunner wants to look after it. In the meantime, we’ll keep going with the MySpace which has been working fine, although we’re crap at keeping the design of it interesting-does anyone out there want to do it for us??? I do respond to comments and mails though, usually within 24 hours, and it’s the only real contact I have with the interested public at this time.
Friday 28th August 2009
The sausage factory revisited…
I met with Brother Joseph from Glenstal Abbey today. He called me after our “Other Voices” appearance two years ago and invited Royseven to play for him and the boys in the Abbey. It still remains one of our favourite gigs from the album tour and I’m delighted we’ve stayed in touch. I feel like the great pretender talking about the album when we’ve no concrete dates but he’s a forgiving fella as you might expect. He’s off to Alaska for a total of six months to look after a church in a village community and co-present on the local radio station. In a time when the Catholic Church is, justifiably, experiencing it’s darkest era, it’s a shame that individuals like Joseph who are shining examples and ambassadors of what God’s true message must surely be, remain anonymous to the general public. There’s no stuffy right wing agenda in his words, no literal interpretation of the bible in his ethics, he’s just a person who likes other people and does his best to contribute to society and help others. That’s what a messenger of God should be right? Not some who scaremongers with talk of good and evil, heaven and hell or uses his career as a power platform to influence or dictate to others. The world would be a much more pleasant place if there were more men like him in the Vatican City.
News in my briefs:
My new flatmate arrives on Wednesday, I’ve been cleaning the apartment like a madman.
I’m going to look at a car tomorrow with a view to purchasing it! God I would love a car, freedom.
I saw Mesrine- Public Enemy No.1 which is part two of the Mesrine biopic. Brilliant, just flippin brilliant. That crook had balls of steel. Go and see it!
- PAUL WALSH - ROYSEVEN
