Tuesday 26 October 2010

birthday vizitz

Last week was my birthday and I had some visitors in the form of my family. My mum, Mike and my brother and sister Josh and Chandre came over to Berlin to visit little old me on my birthday. It was dead nice too! I haven't really seen them properly since I came here - when I went home in the summer I mostly spent the time staying at friends' houses and it was especially nice because my mum and Chandre and Josh had never been to Berlin before. We had a super-cool time and did all the usual sightseeing and what have you and then on the evening of my birthday we met up with Rolf, Edda's dad, who came all the way from sleepy Saerbeck to big, crazy Berlin. We had an absolutely delicious meal at a restaurant called Kirk Royal which is just on the bridge over the canal that links Kreuzberg to Neukolln. It's freakin' incredible. You should go. Twice. One of the things I loved most about it was the fact that they didn't force smokers outside to smoke in the freezing cold, au contraire!! You got to go in a dead amazing room downstairs under the restaurant with log fires and leather couches!! It was incredible! I well should have ordered myself a brandy and had a cigar.

It was dead sad when they left and my mum started crying, which is horrible to see. You don't wanna see your mum crying! It's too upsetting. Anyway, I felt really homesick over the next few days and it kind of sent me into a hole al through last week that I just couldn't get out of. At one point I think I lost the ability to speak at all - I just could not think of anything to say whatsoever...I don't know how Edda put up with it sometimes.

We're totally moved into the new flat now, too. It's boss, it really is nice. It's definitely the nicest flat I've ever lived in. Plus, I'm quietly proud of all my DIY achievements and whenever I go past the sink, I actually give it a little shuffle of acknowledgment and sometimes, when I just turn on the light switch, I have a little smug chuckle. That really happpens.

I'm getting into this playing alone lark too. I played at a place in Neukolln the other night and it was maybe the busiest gig I've played so far. I mean, it was still only about 30 people or so in a tiny little cafe (which, I think, used to be a butchers??) in Neukolln. Next week I'm going to fly to Trier to play with Geoff farina in the ex-haus. Feels dead extravagant.

I'm also going to start to record the Silent Sleep album next week. I don't know what it will turn out like, but I just want to get the songs down and out there and move on to either doing this 28 Costumes EP or the Hallo...I Love You! EP/Album. I have 10 Silent Sleep songs that I'm pretty pleased with, so for now I'll crack on with that and hopefully have it out by Jan/Feb.

Monday 11 October 2010

Things I've been thinking about today.

1. This



2. This, which was my first ever Bicycle. It made mad space noises through a dead hi-tech computer and looked well MEAN.




3. This...if you move the video curser along to 7.33 and press play you'll be able to hear ol' macca making a right bonkers noise not too dissimilar to the noise a horse makes whilst grazing in a pleasant field on a balmy summer evening. With an Owl.



4. And finally this which is what I intend to end all the Liquidation Berlin nights on...

Friday 8 October 2010

I thought I might D.I.e?

I played another gig seperate to the other one I did here in Berlin! That's 2 whole gigs now in nearly six months! I'm exhausted! I've got some more booked though so I'm really looking forward to them, especially as this last one was mega amounts of fun. I love playing really small places. I always did with 28 Costumes too...I love being able to talk with individual members of the audience and although it's a lot of fun playing in front of loads of people and obviously as a band you want to be playing to more people as opposed to less people, I still love those gigs. I filmed this particular gig just on my macbook and the quality of the footage and the sound is surprisingly swell so have a look below...I cut out the jibber-jabber between the songs as I think I spent more time telling rubbish stories and having banter than I did playing music. There was one song, a 28 Costumes song, that was interrupted by a fire alarm (I think?)...it's called Fraudulent. I'm going to try and get a residency here at this place 'cos it's so freaking ace. I've got another one here on Nov 16th but before that I'm off to Trier (flying, don't you know) to play with Geoff Farina who used to be in Karate. I had the chance to play with him before in Liverpool but I missed it and Graham did it on his own and Paul had to give him a lift to Liverpool airport after the show so it's mad that I'm doing it now.



Edda and I finally found a flat too last week! We're chuffed to bits like, it's really nice too, the communal hallways make it feel like a proper fancy hotel and the flat itself has such a long hallway. Seriously, it's about 9 metres long! It's got its own weather system. I've been doing some 'PROPER MAN D.I.Y.' there too, wiring in light fittings and what have you. I was genuinely scared that I was going to get really badly electrocuted all over the place. I have no experience of electrics (I got a G in my CDT GCSE - wow, that could be a lyric if I was a rapper) so I researched by scouring youtube for clips of people showing you how to do it. The best I could find was this so you might understand why I didn't feel that confident.



I'm full of cold and I feel crap. What did I do to deserve to be sick twice in the space of two weeks.

My mum and Mike and my brother and sister are coming to Berlin next week for my birthday! Hooray!