Live and Local with 4ZzZfm

I'm writing this just after having recorded a live set for 4ZzZfm's Live and Local show. It's airing on Saturday 13 December. Big thanks to Robyn and Joe for having us along. The set was a whole lot of fun. We played a couple of acoustic numbers in there as well to mix things up. So tune in to 102.1fm if you're in Brisbane on Saturday 13 December to hear the set between 6 and 7pm. Turn your radio up loud!!!

This is a video I shot of John soundchecking his drums before I had to lock myself away in the isolation booth of solitude.

Remember, we're launching our live CD/DVD next Saturday 6 December at The Globe. It'll be even more awesome if you make it to the show. Love to see you then.

06.12.08

Sparkadia

Andrew and I went along to see Sparkadia last Friday at The Zoo. These guys would have to be our favourite Australian band right now. They have some wicked songs and their live show was brilliant. It's so cool to see a band you think are awesome start to really pick up the pace in popularity. The show was sold out and the crowd loved it. If you haven't got their debut album 'Postcards' then get it. You'll be suitably impressed I'm sure.

Back Again

Awesome news just in that we're making a return to the Woodford Folk Festival this year and we're playing four shows!! Last year we played some pretty small stages but this year we've been upsized to The Grande. For any of you who have been to Woodford before you'll know how cool that is.

Here are some of the other acts playing at the festival this year:

Augie March
Jackson Jackson
Josh Pyke
Kate Miller-Heidke
Lior
The Herd

And here are a couple you might not have heard of but I'm told are incredibly good:

Frightened Rabbit (from Scotland)
The Kin (from the USA)

For the full list of performers and for the program head to www.woodfordfolkfestival.com.

So grab a ticket and we'll see you there!

A Thought In Your Head Wrap Up

This blog comes about a week late but we had a week off last week so I didn't blog, sorry.

Our south-east Queensland tour wrapped up last Saturday with an all ages show in Brisbane. We just wanted to say a massive thanks to everyone who came to the shows. You made the tour absolutely awesome and more successful than we'd even hoped for. They were some of the best shows we've ever played and we had so much fun playing every one of them. We hope you really enjoyed the shows too.

We filmed the concert at The Zoo in Brisbane and we'll (almost 100% probably) be releasing it as a live CD/DVD sometime soon. So keep an eye out for updates on that.

We really want to be back on the road again and next time we'll be heading down the east coast of Australia stopping in places from Brisbane to Melbourne. The tour will be happening this November/December and it's called "The Paper Trail" Tour. So also keep a look out for an announcement of the dates.

So we'll see you in a couple of months - bring a friend along with you to a show!!

Thank you thank you thank you

Triple J Made Our Day

Yewwww!! We just found out we were played for the first time on Triple J on Monday night on Home and Hosed. We were excited about it to say the least. Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who's requested us. You're awesome and we couldn't have done it without you. One more favour to ask though - keep requesting!!

Zoo Show Preview

The Brisbane show of the "A Thought In Your Head" tour is taking place this Thursday 25 September at The Zoo.

Supporting us on the night are The Figures and Andrew Taylor. Julia from The Figures and Andrew Taylor joined me the other night to sing "In My Veins" as a preview of what to expect at the show.

They hadn't sung it before so it was good fun hearing other people interpret one of our songs for the first time.

Hope you like it.

Can't wait to see everyone at The Zoo this Thursday.

Tour Promo

Announcing the Spring Tour

Behind the Scenes at the August Photoshoot

Yesterday we spent the entire day taking new photos at a whole bunch of different locations across town. It was a whole lot of fun and we got to work with a great photographer, Chris Ahern. We'll definitely be working with him again on more stuff in the future.

We're looking forward to getting the shots back and we'll post them on thequills.com.au as soon as they're ready. So check the website in a few days to see them. Video and behind the scenes shots below.

Andrew and Dave go to Death Cab For Cutie

On Friday night Andrew and I headed along to the Death Cab For Cutie concert at The Tivoli. It was great! Death Cab write some really cool songs and they pull them off live really well. I don't think I have ever seen anyone sweat on stage as much as lead singer Ben Gibbard though. Anyway, here are some photos and a video of our night.

Anticipating Being Shot

Okay, so the title is a little dramatic. We're prepping for a brand new photoshoot this Sunday. It's going to be on location and we've been scoping a whole bunch of different places from rooftops to secluded hallways to carparks and many in between. Let us know if you've come across any awesome locations that would be really good for the shoot. We love new ideas.

A couple of months ago we met a fantastic photographer, Chris Ahern (this is his website, check it out - www.kickthecowphotography.com), who'll be behind the lens on Sunday and probably a lot more in the future as well. He can turn something ordinary looking into something that looks incredible.

So expect some cool photos very soon. We'll post some pics and clips from the shoot as well so check back here next week.

Death Cab Yeah!!

Going to the Death Cab concert this Friday was almost a tragic story for me. Having hyped a whole bunch of people up to come with me the concert sold out in a few hours leaving me as the only one who got a ticket. Tickets were selling on ebay for over $150 each so it was looking like I was destined to go this one alone when, low and behold, Andrew managed to talk his way into free tickets. I'm sort of jealous that he didn't have to pay but hey it's better than going solo.

The show's this Friday at the Tivoli. Should be awesome. I've seen them once at Splendour in the Grass a couple of years back and their new album is very very good so I'm counting down until Friday night.

Is anyone else lucky enough to be going?

These Girls Are Great

Avaberee are a band of three girls and sing some of the coolest harmonies we've heard in a while, particularly since they're so young. Their voices are so amazing that we've had them up on stage to sing with us. They just won Nova 106.9's Rock School Comp at the Ekka. If you're heading into the RNA this Saturday they're playing there again opening for Faker. Well worth a watch.

Congrats girls!!!!

The Drawing Board

We've been gigging a fair bit recently and it's been great.  We've been trying to get our stage show as tight as possible.  And we think we're getting there so we're taking ourselves off stage for a little bit and going back to the drawing board to write a lot of new material.  We'll be back in the recording studio before the end of the year and so we want to have as many songs to choose from as we possibly can.  So we're going into a bit of a lockdown.

Don't worry though, we'll be playing some shows between now and then but only a few and they'll be big.  So keep your eyes open for announcements over the coming weeks.  

A New Song

If you remember a previous blog I wrote a little while ago I was struggling with writing a second verse for a new song. Well I finished it and we're finally adding the song to our live set this week. Playing a new song live for the first time is one of the coolest and most awesome parts of playing in a band. It doesn't happen all that often so I try to relish the moment as much as possible. The song's called 'Remember' and it might just be a new favourite of mine. To all the Stuartholme girls, you will be the first people outside of our band to ever hear the song so make sure you're there on Thursday. For everyone else it'll definitely be in the set at our show at Bar 388 on Friday night so make sure you're all there as well. It should be a ripper. I'm definitely psyched. I hope you are too.

Stuartholme Spectacular!!

On June 19th 2008 we are scheduled to play a show at Stuartholme private girls School in Brisbane's west. I must say one of the strangest experiences I've had so far was appearing on the full school assembly with fellow band member, Andrew Stone. The idea was that Andrew and I would come along to assembly, show our faces and help promote the charity concert. Sounds like a good idea yeah?

Anyway, Andrew and I arrived at the school at about 12pm - which for all of you who haven't been to Stuartholme it's like something out of Harry Potter, a series of old and dark buildings buried in the misty mountains of Mt Cootha - and we were promptly ushered into the great auditorium by Madeline Gough and other members of the Interact club (a v cool club by the way!!). Andrew and I took our seats in the front row and bit-by-bit the great hall filled with 100s of girls.

Coming from an all boys school myself (can you guess which one??) I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but it ended up being a really cool event. The girls from the Interact club did a really good job of introducing Andrew and I and we were interviewed briefly on stage which went quite well (except for me mis-hearing a question!).

I think the Stuartholme gig will go really well. It is a very nice school with lots of cool people who go there. School shows can be difficult for a number of reasons but I think this one might be the best yet..

Let's hope so...

John.

I am one neglectful blogger

Hey everyone

I must apologise for the serious lack of blogging lately.  I don't have much of an excuse so I won't try to make one up.  

Anyway, we've been very busy as of late.  First off, I want to make official mention of Fergus joining the band.  He's been with us for almost two months now and we're really happy to have him on board.  

We've had a lot of fun playing some really different shows.  We played a really cool gig at QPAC the other week.  It was outside and all ages and was a really good night.  Thanks to everyone who came along.  Just last night we played an acoustic show - the second one we've ever played.  It's really cool to strip everything back and rely completely on the songs to entertain.  For those who were there we hope you enjoyed the set.

Our rehearsal schedule has been working overtime recently.  We've got new arrangements for our existing songs and some new songs are on the way.  We'll announce on thequills.com.au when they'll be played for the first time so keep an eye out.  

That's all the news for now.  Hope you've all had a good week and I hope you have an awesome weekend.  Until next time, enjoy yourselves.

Dave

My pants are blue!

Just so we're clear on this... my pants (the ones i wore at the band comp and the red room shows) are definitely blue! It must be the stage lights that does something to them that turns them whatever mauve, purple, lavender or other colour people say they are.  Blue is blue that's blue when blue....

Blogging is great!

I'm so glad I've finally figured out how to get onto this blog.  Dave's been pestering us for a while to contribute - so i'm going to make a real effort.  We've such a busy month coming up... Such a busy year for that matter!  

Anyway, i'm trying to decide what to load my ipod with - i had to format it because it isn't compatible with my new macbook (yay).  So far i've got Ben Lee - Ripe, and The Police - Best Of. 

Can't wait to hear from you!

Judging is Hard

We had a really strange but cool experience recently.  We were asked to judge a band competition.  The final was last night and it was really tough coming to a decision about the winner.  I think judging anything at all is a big task but when there's a really diverse lineup of bands of all ages playing all sorts of music... well yeah it was tough.  There were some cool bands in the comp though and I hope they'll go really far with their music.       

Second Verse Blues

As much as I love  writing songs, I hate writing second verses.  And I hope this confession doesn't make me a bad songwriter.  Actually I think every songwriter has this problem so I'm alright confessing.  Currently I am writing a brand new song.  I have written the entire song except for the second verse.  So in lyrical terms I have written the first verse, first pre-chorus, chorus, second pre-chorus and the bridge.  I am so close.  I even know what the verse is going to be about but I just can't find the words.  

Anyway I needed to vent.  The good news is that a new song is (being) written and will hopefully debut at a show very soon.  So hopefully I will see you at the grand unveiling.  

O Week Yeah!!

Sometimes you get to play to a crowd that makes a show so much fun you can't help but smile the entire set.  We had one of those ones tonight playing for some new college kids during orientation week at the Uni of Queensland.  It was a pool party and it was raining but that didn't stop the dancing and singing along.  We had a blast.

So thanks to the new college goers for making our night a whole lot of fun.  We hope you had a great intro to college and we want to wish you all the very best for the year.  Hopefully we'll see you all again sometime soon.

And One For The Kids

And by kids I mean our under-18 friends.  

We played our first headline all-ages show on Saturday and so finally you didn't need an ID card to get in.  It was a great afternoon and it was really cool to meet and play for everyone who can't make it to the clubs we're always playing at.  Thank you so much to those cool cool people who came to the show.  We'll hopefully be playing a whole lot more all-ages gigs this year.  

Back into it on Oz Day

After taking it easy for a few weeks to see in the New Year we finally got back into the swing of things last night when we played our first show for the year on Australia day.  It was a whole lot of fun and the crowd was certainly celebrating being Australian.  

For whatever reason playing a show on a special occasion has a really different feel to it.  I'm not sure how to describe it but the show last night had such a great atmosphere that it was a massive shame to have to walk off stage.  We felt like we could have played another whole set!!

A massive thanks to everyone who came out to the show for making Australia Day 2008 one to remember.  It certainly is great to live in Oz.

WFF0708

After spending 7 days camping in the mud at the 2007/08 Woodford Folk Festival we returned home today. And while we don't miss having to wade through mud to get to the showers it was sad to leave because we had an absolute blast. A massive thanks to everyone who braved the rain and came to our shows at the festival. We hope you all had a fantastic time.

And our most sincere thanks ever go to Bill Hauritz and Katie James for putting an unknown band like us on the bill of one of the greatest festivals in the country and giving us a fantastic opportunity. You're our heroes!!

We can't wait to go back next year!