Band Diary

19/04/07 | Partie Deux

Posted by Carl Barat

I've been going about town in my winter jacket, taking in the city and thinking too much. Whiskies in Rosie McGann's and a scribble in the park. Purchasing random trinkets I have nowhere to put as I am currently of no fixed abode. Camping on floors after getting the boot from Albion View. Back in high spirits though and sensing adventure afoot we intrepidly set forth...

I’ve been to Bunhill Fields a few times - right near Anto’s place. It’s old and eerie, it’s where William Blake is buried so it’s got a special
resonance for me, it’s an oasis of Albion in the heart of the City of London, City of Commerce, City of Suits and all that lark.  The last album was written a lot more in a panic and on the run. This time we’ve got the time to walk around the town and eat sandwiches with Blake.  Took the boys on a stroll from Stan’s to the river.

I’ve been away from current music recently. Nothing really takes me in like the old classics. We’ve been listening to a few Carole King songs recently. Songs like ‘One Fine Day’. Its good listening to the tunes of the old school of songwriters. I find them a good place to revert to when our songs spiral out of control and lose their identities.

The hardest thing at the moment is the discipline of writing through when I’ve got self-doubt… I have to remember that the only thing on telly is The Worlds Most Amazing Videos Two and A Room With A View etc. It’s reassuring to write with other people as I have an excruciating penchant for idleing.

We’ve many new titles coming. Anthony’s written one called ‘Buzzards And Crows’ that’s his best yet. There’s ‘Best Face In the Place’ ... that’s a working title.

I’m elated to have come up with the mystery part for ‘How Can They Be Tired of England?’. We debuted it on tour at the end of last year I was ‘free-styling’ the lyrics a bit but I thought it sometimes sounded reined in. I was on the tube when when the epiphany struck and I sang it into Didz’s phone. Who knows what all the tourists thought.  Probably, “there’s two lads sharing an epiphany”.

Other than that we’ve been repairing to the Old Blue Last & Griffin, etc, which without due curfew often leads to a path of woe. We’ve been living the things we want to write about however. And actually getting it done.

Any ways… The sun rose high again today as promised and the songs are rising too, into the fecund form of a fine slice of life, or an album:

Come Closer - A love ballady gypsyish ditty at the moment…

Plastic Hearts - Summery offering from our American cousin currently being moulded into one of my favourite songs to date.

Best Face in the Place, Company Man, ‘Suits, Punk, Military’ and more treats in store…

Toodle pip…

Carl

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