Wasp Summer Australian Tour Gallery Part 1

Sam with Sean M. Whelan and The Mime Set in Melbourne

Found in our hotel room in Canberra

Aftermath of the Canberra show

Poster from the Canberra Sean M. Whelan and The Mime Set show at Hotel Hotel

Crowd at the Melbourne Going Down Swinging show at Mission to Seamen

Two of Australia’s most controversial politicians reuniting at our after-show drinks in Canberra

The band (and friend)

The kind of packing that goes into touring a full band in Australia

Sean with Clive Palmer, one of Australia’s most controversial politicans

Megan Spencer’s photo of me playing solo in Castlemaine

Serenity, Bek and I at the Age Victorian Music Awards

Me in Castlemaine by Megan Spencer

Tour packing down to a fine art

First Sean M. Whelan and The Mime Set rehearsal in six years

Tim, Kirrily and me. Old friends in Castlemaine.

Somewhere in Australia

The Bridge, Castlemaine

Me by Megan Spencer

Sean and I at the Mission to Seamen, Melbourne

Me in Castlemaine feeling it

Me at the Yarra Lounge on Day 4 of the tour

Saying something controversial in Castlemaine, by Megan Spencer

March Wasp

With a head full of cottonwool, I send a million emails for myself and others whose music I adore to round up more work/money so we can continue on this picturesque clifftop gravel path of making music.

Since the last email, I have had a good long think about my direction as a a musician who needs to pay the rent. Thus, I am plowing my energy into three areas – rehearsing and writing for Wasp Summer, singing as often as I can in a variety of styles and booking shows in the A Headful of Bees Booking Agency.

As much fun as I’ve had touring since 2011, I really had the urge to stay closer to home this year, develop my ideas and get some sleep. You know, eight hours a night, every night. (It’s not always working. I binge-watched the new US TV series Nashville in five days). I play gigs, have after-singing drinks with my choir, go dancing to noise bands (Oneida! “You’ve got to step into the light light light light light light…”), try to experience the many joys and madnesses of Berlin. I figure if I ever have a baby, I’ll won’t resent the loss of sleep so much if I have some sleep now.

Really, I want to get to the end of 2013 knowing that I am in a kick-arse rock ‘n’ roll band. The guitar-work should sit nicely around the vocals. I’m doing tiny solos, getting lessons and learning how to play slide guitar. I will get a delay pedal. I might get a Big Muff fuzz pedal.

My songs want me to use the lower, sexier, more womanly voice I’m growing into as well as the showier parts of my range. I will eventually be as comfortable behind a guitar as I am with a microphone in my hand. I want people to think PJ Harvey and not Sheryl Crow when they see us play.

In fulfilling my aims, I have some shows coming up. I’m working with a lovely West Berliner called Tom Cunningham, a sweet and very interesting guy who’s been here since the early 70’s producing records and releasing albums. My dearest friend in Berlin, jazz singer Lena Tjäder invited me to work as a backing singer with Tom. We debut this Saturday night at Ufer Cafe (Nordufer 4, Wedding for the Berliners) with a mix of his, my and Lena’s originals and covers accompanied by guitarist Michel. 20:00.

Next month, I am working with Salonband, an amazing group of pro musicians who worked with my compadre Eric Eckhart on his DIT album. Once a month, they invite singers, learn their albums and back them at Kugelbahn, also in Berlin-Wedding. It’s my turn on April 11 and I’ll be doing some stuff off my record plus a couple of songs that influenced how I sing and write – Total Control, One Day I’ll Fly Away and Tobacco Road. This is going to be an amazing night.

Look out for some more Wasp Summer band gigs over the Summer. There’s big shows coming up for 48-Stunden Neukölln, Fete de la Musqiue and Berlin Music Week and smaller ones in great rock ‘n’ roll basements.

If you want to hear my album again, please check it out at
waspsummer.bandcamp.com, but I post new demos up at www.soundcloud.com/waspsummer.

Here’s hoping for the Spring to break. I need some suuuuuuuuuuuun.

February Wasp

Wasp Summer News + Shows
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, plena utilis notitia de musicus ‘, vocatus’ siren aestas.

Greetings, dearhearts. I return from my hibernation with new songs and some very interesting concerts in the city of Berlin. Living, as I do, in one of the singer-songwriter capitals of the world, I’m really fortunate to encounter a wide variety of good work on a monthly, even weekly, basis.

Even as I’ve become more involved in hosting events here with the Sofa Salon house concert series, and the upcoming Showcase! and One on One! events I’m co-producing with Jenn Kelly from anti-folk festival Everyone is from Somewhere, my own writing has been turning away to a harder, darker sound, especially now I’m fronting a three-piece band and leading on guitar.

I hear walls of noise, people. Walls of noise! Which is why the next few shows will be interesting for me as I explore band-specific material in a solo setting. Please come and watch me. I will be working very hard.

If you’re not on the Sofa Salon or Headful of Bees collective e-mail lists, I’d love you to know about the Showcase! and One on One shows. With Showcase! Jenn and I are simply hosting four of Berlin’s best musicians, Elyas Khan, Phia, Tomi Simatupang and Roland Satterwhite on Thursday 21 February at the English Theatre Berlin. I promise they will blow your mind.

The One on Ones are quite special. Two performers will have the small dressing rooms at the English Theatre Berlin. They will write all their songtitles on playing cards. You pay your 5€, pick a playing card for each performer and they give you an utterly unique One on One performance of that random song. Email me back if you want information on performer dates, times or the concept. It’s on both days of the Expat Expo Markt, Saturday 23 and Sunday 24, 12:00 – 16:00. I’ll be performing for a couple of hours over the weekend alongside Jenn and an amazing bunch of Berlin-based folk.

The shows are listed in this email or you can see them on my website, but here is the Facebook event for the February 12 show at Das Hotel in Kreuzberg where I’ll be rocking Tuesday night with two sets of new material. And here is the Bad Lip Reading version of Beyonce’s Presidential Inauguration national anthem. You’re welcome.

Australian album release – September 3

I’m releasing my album in Australia on September 3, 2012. At the moment my label and I are busy sending out digital and physical copies of the album and chasing up reviews and other coverage on community radio, ABC stations, street press and in the dailies.

Having worked before as a music publicist, this is not my favourite part of the process of putting out a record, but I have some good contacts and good advice and am rebuilding the media list I left back in a different computer on a different continent.

It’s always a fine balance between pestering someone to the point of annoying them and making the album a priority through relentless, polite follow-up, but that’s how more people will come to hear about the record and I’ve just had to steel myself to the work rather than whining in my pyjamas.

Even though making and releasing a record is, like a novel or a film, a huge creative endeavour and achievement, it does sometimes feel like everyone else in the world is also doing it at the same time. I worry that this beautiful album that we worked our guts out for will be lost in the flood of releases.

The work is unforgiving and less fruitful than I’d hope for the number of hours we put into it, and of course takes time away from the instantly rewarding activities like rehearsal and songwriting. And messing around on the internet.

Please feel free to request the album at your local radio station. There are listening and downloads links on the right of this post through Soundcloud and Bandcamp. You can buy the album through iTunes, Amazon, eMusic and a whole host of good digital retailers as well as stream it on Spotify.

Tour updates

Tour update #12: Spent a great Ghent night with new friends – singing in the car with Sam, dinner at Griet’s wonderful corner shop apartment, then a house concert at Dirk’s featuring Rianto Delrue and Bruno Deneckere. Today, sadly, no luck squirrel hunting at the Brussels flea market but I did find some nice scarves for my IndieGoGo CD sponsors. Tonight, my house show in Ixelles. Life is good, na?

Tour update #11: NO SQUIRRELS.

Tour update #10: I have NO luggage space, but apparently the famous flea market here in Brussels is absolutely loaded with taxidermied squirrels. Anyone who knows me knows how dangerous this is.

Tour update #9: *makes a note* Wait at the *front* of the station as the back of the station is the sex worker’s street and carrying a guitar and amp in public is no guarantee you won’t be asked if you’re offering sex.

Close as a Slow Dance Tour Updates

Tour update #4: Great day yesterday. Climbed around in an old blast furnace, sat in a whirling flurry of birch pollen in Köln, caught a great ride into France via Rheinland Pfalz and Luxembourg. Was driven to an old cloister where the Boumchaka crew, awesome promoters for my Thionville show tonight, were running the kitchen for another gig. Saw the running sheet backstage. Headliner: Mudhoney. Moshed around a hyper-vigilant security dude. Got chatting to the band after the show. Australians, go see them in July. They fucking rock and they’re really lovely guys. Viva la France!

Tour update #3: Small but perfect house gig last night. Today is a travelling day. I go to Metz via Köln and Thionville.

Tour update #2: Made it to Duisburg!

Tour update #1: My Mitfahrgelegenheit driver didn’t show up. Waiting at Berlin Zoo for a possible ride at 10am. Concert tonight in Duisburg. Good times!

Don’t blow the Per Diem on French cheese

Rule 1 of touring: Do good. Wherever you go. On this run of shows, I am relying on the kindness of strangers as an independent musician and playing mainly house concerts, car sharing and couchsurfing. Be good conversation, pitch in, cook a few meals, learn a little about the host and their town.

Rule 2 of touring: Play good. Every time. It is what I have to offer. In good faith, someone has taken me up on my pitch and I try to honour that trust with a good and entertaining show.

Rule 3 of touring: Do not blow the Per Diem on cheese. My Per Diem is 10€/day. Thank god I’m not a smoker. This miniscule amount pretty much precludes museums, second hand clothes shopping, definitely record stores. Everything except morning coffee and lunch. However, I’m going to France and it’s going to be REALLY HARD not to blow the lot on good cheese and wine every day. REALLY HARD.

I’m also going to Belgium for the first time, which I’m excited about. Any country which functions for nearly two years without a government is OK by me. Here is an excellent blog post using vegetables to explain Belgium’s recent Constitutional Crisis. If I’m lucky, I’ll get to pass through both Bielefeld in Germany and the mysterious land of Luxembourg and see if they really exist. 

I’m Australian so it is really so novel to travel for 10 hours and end up in A DIFFERENT COUNTRY. Amazing that simply moving over land can actually take you to places with entirely different languages and varying standards of beer making. I’m looking at you, France.

Check out my tourdates below. I’m going to be in Strasbourg for a week on writing sabbatical in between shows and I will try and stage a last-minute gig or house concert there as well. If you know anyone in the towns I’m in, please invite them to the show or ask if they also want a house concert. Email me on waspsummer [aet] gmail.com for information.

WASP SUMMER – CLOSE AS A SLOW DANCE tour May/June 2012

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24.05.2012 Duisburg (DE), House Concert

26.05.2012 Thionville (FR), Le NIMBY

27.05-01.06 Strasbourg, House Concert?
02.06.2012 Brussels (BE), House Concert
06.06.2012 Paris (FR), Pop In w/ This is Avalanche (Fr)
09.06.2012 Blaison-Gohier (FR), House Concert

 

Wish me luck!

 

Sam

You and I, we’re as close as a slow dance

Dearhearts,

I am finally here. At this moment. It feels a little like taking acid because I’ve wanted it so long that it’s become quietly surreal. It’s unimportant why it took so long, just that it’s done. I’m really happy about it.

After a year of dreaming about sounds and visual inspiration, mixing, discussing the artwork on Skype, researching online sales options and various phonecalls to the pressing plant; after failing to find out why GEMA (Germany’s APRA) wants to charge me to make my own record; after all the fun bits – recording in Italy, the photoshoot, the production notes and songwriting, my lovely rootsy songs, products of my work since 2002, are finally in shareable form. I would describe it as Alt.Country Folk and will say that it was inspired by Martha Wainwright, Neko Case, Patsy Cline and Wanda Jackson amongst others.

Tomorrow, my first solo album ‘Close as a Slow Dance’ (through A Headful of Bees) goes live into the world on CD Baby and Bandcamp with pretty digipack CDs to follow next week.

 

Please, have a listen to the album on Soundcloud, share with friends, buy it if you haven’t already pre-ordered (IndieGoGo funders, rejoice – they come, and with it, further gifts!). Curiously, ‘gift’ auf Deutsch means ‘poison’, but no poison here.

THANK YOUS
There are many, many people to thank for inspiring, working on or funding ‘Close as a Slow Dance’. Some to start, Mark Steiner for the connections and confidence, Henry Hugo for his production, thoughtful arrangements, contacts and generosity, Marcelo and Toto in Buenos Aires for the final sound, Mum for her good wishes, support and rent assistance, Damian Stephens (design), Jan Bechberger (photos) and Elizabeth Delfs (styling) for the lovely artwork you’re seeing, Susanne at Interdisc who shows such care for her clients’ CDs, Sascha, Dam, Justin and Darren for inspiring the songs, Michelle, Nicho, Chez, Naz and Lena – my Council of Ladies who always counsel courage, and those who, knowingly or not, gave a well-timed wise word to inspire this album – David Creese, Julitha Ryan, Sean Simmons and Bron Henderson, Andreas Lautwein, Cameron Wilson, Eric Eckhart, Matthew Barker, Ola Karlsson, Ben Revi, Jen Hval, Sean M. Whelan, Emilie Zoey Baker and Guy Dale. And the musicians who were so kind and surprised me with what the songs could be: Fabio Gallarati, Stefano Caldonazzo, Paolo Zangara, Vicki Brown, Henry Hugo, Leigh Ivin and Julitha Ryan.

SHOWS
I’m doing two album launches, a club show at Heroes in Neukölln on International Star Wars Day – Friday May the Fourth – and a special Sofa Salon house concert/birthday fest at my place on Friday 11 May. Email berlinsofasalon [aet] gmail.com for reservations.

Plus I’m doing house concerts and club gigs across Germany and France through late May and June and a whole heap of Summer gigs. If you would like to host me for a house concert, email waspsummer [aet] gmail.com. Those folk who bought Skype or House Concerts, I will be in touch in the next week or so.

Links:
Soundcloud (listen)
Bandcamp (buy)
waspsummer.com (info)

Music that moved me in 2011- Part Two

Part 2 of my music of 2011.

Brian Campeau – Reinventing Myself from Mostly Winter Sometimes Spring
I heard Brian’s music for the first time this year. And fell hard for this track in particular. The Sydney-based Canadian is in possession of the most heavenly male voice since Jeff Buckley and the music on this track is somewhat akin to the pastoral folk of Fleet Foxes but with more emotionally pointed lyrical content. He plays with Elana Stone in The Rescue Ships – a fantastic pairing.

David Creese – When You Were A Man from When You Were A Man
David is, in my opinion, one of the finest lyricists in Australia, making delicate, minutely observed, dark and often darkly witty vignettes. From behind the drums, David fronted one of my all-time favourite Australian bands, The Dumb Earth. Late in 2010, he released a solo album under his own name and on it, David’s warm, vernacular voice and the exquisite musicians with whom he shares his songs created beautiful and, in places, devastating music.

 

Mute Swimmer – Song Against Itself from Mute Swimmer album
Guy’s my favourite songwriter in Berlin at the moment, and he’s got hard competition. During the year, I saw his live performances get more compelling and heard his minimalist folk become a revealing exploration/satire of the process of making music and performing. The songs are intelligent earworms, and he’s a lovely man.

Big Strong Brute – You Were Always Right from We Can Sleep Under Trees in the Morning
Paul played a Sofa Salon club show for me in Berlin and I played an awesome backyard show with him in Brisbane. Both times, I was absolutely taken at how, while you’re lulled by his conversational tone and the songs’ sparse melodic structures, his clever, yearning lyrics sneak up and belt you over the back of the head. This song, from BSB’s 2010 EP reminds me of 90’s RooART compilations. In a good way.

Hans Unstern – Tief Unter Der Elbe from Kratz Dich Raus
I don’t know much about Hans Unstern. I haven’t seen him live yet, but this song was one of the great Ohrwürmer of my 2011. I’ve been in the Hamburg river tunnel that goes deep under the Elbe and, while it was interesting in the same geeky way as the Rathaus Schöneberg Paternoster (see video below), it wasn’t quite as moving an experience as this lovely song always is.

Music that moved me in 2011, Part One

2011 has been an intense and revealing year personally and politically. Fulfilling my promise to myself, I finally made a solo record and toured Europe this year. Companions on my journey were the intense and revealing visions of women like PJ Harvey (on Let England Shake), Kate Bush’s many voices (on 50 Words for Snow) and Kimbra (Gold Ring from Vows).

But I’ll highlight some of the underground music I’ve been exposed to for the first time in 2011. All of it has given me grist and inspiration. Click on the artist name for their website and the song name for a place you can listen, download and/or buy.

Sailor Days – Species Counterpoint from Sailor Days
Biddy came and played a Sofa Salon in Berlin for me this year, performing with Ned Collette. I had the pleasure of singing Laura Jean‘s vocal parts on three songs. This record is meditative, creatively textured and absolutely beautiful to hear. Probably the underrated album of 2011 for my money and something I hear often on my mental radio.

Jenny Hval – blood fight from Viscera
Jenny, from Oslo, is one of the genuine live-and-breathe explorational musicians, whom I met in Melbourne when she was with Folding For Air/ipanic. On tour, Matty B and I saw her at the Operahuset playing an hypnotic piece she’d composed for a dance performance. She’s moved way beyond sensual experiments in pop to blisteringly original heartsong driven by her inventive guitar and keening voice.

El Madrigal – How Can I Miss You from Statistics
So many songs to choose from on this bitey roots rock record. This year, I had the great pleasure of sharing a stage with El Madrigal twice in Stockholm and seeing them again in Berlin. Ola Karlsson played and wrote with Brisbane’s country rock stalwarts The Gin Club and retains his musical soul, intellect and authenticity here. He’s got an incredible ear as a lyricist, musician and singer and has added two great, empathetic co-writers and musicians in  Eric Lindstrom & Tomas Sundin.

The Unthanks – the Testimony of Patience (from 2009)
This Northumberland folk group inhabit an out-of-time musical space, mining bedrock sounds and stories and bringing them up to us without a hint of dust, fust or the creak of age. The song link is a Guardian video. Their new album celebrates Robert Wyatt and Antony & The Johnsons.

The Gypsy Curse – Maydelle from Ten Years North
I spent a weirdly synchronous six weeks over Summer touring Northern Europe with Matty Barker from The Gypsy Curse in his solo guise as Water Music. Introduced online by Mark Steiner, we had both come a long way to be ready to play our music and were rewarded with kindness, time in twenty-two cities, incredible people, astonishing evenings and enough food for our souls to make what followed possible. What followed for him was getting married to the lovely Beth in New York, recording The Gyspy Curse album in a cabin in Sweden and a sabbatical in Texas. They’re playing in Australia now and Europe in 2012. You should really see them.