10.08.12

So we just returned from the second recording session in Paris. All the music is j’ai fini, all the recorders, spades, heavy breathing, most of the words - all except some last ones on the last song that we just had a massive row about. We’re coming back to Paris next month to add all the finishing touches, talk about mixes, add more spades, slam more doors, do more shaky egg overdubs. It’s as filthy as a Parisian tramp sleeping in a child’s play area at 1pm. Adam gets things right in the first take, James gets things right in the first take, Louise gets things right in 16 minutes and Hedd takes roughly 43 hours. We broke a guitar. We just played our French sound engineer, Anne-Sophie, the French language song we did ages ago. She only recognised 4 words - mer, plague, neuf and avion and she initially thought it was in Welsh. We’ve seen televised rape, murder and heard decapitation noises under the parental guidance of 12+ on early morning French TV. Everyday day we bike to the studio on la Velo de Boris. The flat we sleep in lights up once every three minutes with Eiffel Tower lights. We met J&Y - loud Parisian noise band, and drank stout on the Paris Plagues. We swim, I win. Noises-wise we’ve been stealing/referencing Sleigh bells, Wire, Beach Boys (Heroes and Villains) Ziggy Stardust (Spiders from Mars), The Good the Bad and Ugly Soundtrack & Jack White (Blunderbuss). Together we’re reading Lonesome Dove, Little Birds, My Booky Wook, Calvin & Hobbes and the Hunger Games 1, 2 & 3. Slovakia was the best weekend ever. Eight elevenths of the way through the set we got stopped and evacuated - there were huge lightning storms and all play stopped. They locked us in a small cabin with Slovakian beer on tap, which was a plus but it was rubbish not to finish the best gig we’ve ever done. Next weekend we’re playing Greenman festival - we on play Saturday - sorry for the short notice, I got confused about which month we were in.

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