Hit The Road, Wasp!

To quote great Australian songwriter Don Walker, “I measure my position to the obstacles we crossed, the territory covered and the parties that we lost. Those were the days.”

Here is a small selection of photos from 10 different countries and 5 different tours, both solo and with Sean M. Whelan & The Mime Set, Water Music, Remarkable Shipwrecks and Lady Danger.

I think the photos show that, more than the shows themselves, touring is about the people you’re with, the fun you make and the amount of crap you have to carry.

Tour packing down to a fine art

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

Found in our hotel room in Canberra

House Concerts are mainly about the lovely people

Firenze House Concert photo by Frederico Porceddu

Live at Frau Frisor FOSCA by Kate Seabrook

Frau Frisor FOSCA, Firenze photo by Kate Seabrook

Blaison House Concert photo by Jordane Chaillou

Sam and Olga by Jordane Chaillou

Lady Danger and Wasp Summer at Prinz Willy, Kiel by Gabi.

Brussels House Concert. Photo by Sam Rasschaert.

Water Music and Wasp Summer at Cafe Retro, Copenhagen

Our stage under a Stockholm railway station by Eric Lindstrom

Oslo Tour Elk photo by Matty Barker

Every merchandise table needs a protective dinosaur

Juniper style! Bratislava band photo by Kate Seabrook

On a cold December day in Dresden

This lady, on her hen’s night, correctly deduced that we were touring rockstars

New Song: Burning

I think this is probably the best demo I’ve ever made. I am really digging the harmonies – they’re so tense, tight and quietly dramatic. This song points to the new direction I’m taking Wasp Summer in, especially now I have the three-piece band with bassplayer Simon Morrison (Remarkable Shipwrecks, Dead Sentries, ex-Assassination Collective) and journalist/drummer Stuart Braun (ex-Dust) – sexier, looser, less folk and more rock, noisier. I’m fronting a band on guitar for the first time. It’s exhilarating.

Here’s Burning:

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.