Alphabet Backwards

Just a very quick one to say that we’re going into the studio on Thursday with a man called Brian. We’ll go, record 10 songs, eat lots of beans on toast, catch up with some gigs and friends in London, then come home. Then we go to Barcelona to play here: http://www.minifestival.net/

Well, not stars, but it’s a beginning…

Today we went down to our local record store, where Gary, the owner (and generally top bloke) was being interviewed for a documentary called Last Store Standing. We were invited along to talk about the band and how it’s been helped along by the store. Because it has over the last year, very much. The cameras rolled, and we had a good old natter. I hope we’ll be featured; if we do, we’ll be in the company of Norman Cook, Billy Bragg, and Richard Hawley.

It did get us thinking about Truck Store though, and how it’s quickly turned into a hub for local bands. Not only are they the most comprehensive stockist of Oxford music and print, but they regularly host bands in-store. We’ve played there, and have got a  genuinely touching response. We had a few people just walk in from the street to say hello, and managed to sell a few records (of course this benefits the shop as much as it does us). The staff there are able to speak intelligently about music, from local to international releases, and I’ve never been recommended a bad album. The other day I sent them a tweet to check if the new Islet album was in, and got a swift response that it was. But the time I made it to the counter, Carl was there ready to scan it in for me. It’s customer service that comes from genuinely caring, not just because a business degree tells them what to do. 

I urge you to check the shop out, or if you’re out Witney way, have a look at their sister-store, Rapture Records. 

Here are some links about the documentary:

http://www.indiegogo.com/Last-Shop-Standing-Documentary-phase-2

http://www.lastshopstanding.co.uk/

And Truck / Rapture:

https://twitter.com/truck_store

https://twitter.com/#!/rapturewitney

http://www.rapture-online.co.uk/

http://www.facebook.com/truckstoreoxford

JW. x

Tomorrow it will be 4 weeks until we converge on London once again, this time for recording our debut album. This is just a very quick note to tell you that writing is going well, but we can’t think of an appropriate name for it… Still, onwards and upwards.

We were hanging out at Little Paul’s house yesterday, trying to get his new interface thingy working (we couldn’t), and writing some new songs. 

We got thinking about the track listing for the album that we’re going to record in early March. This was always going to be about getting the sharpie out and writing a list. For a 10 track album, things are looking pretty positive! We’ve decided that it’ll be a mix of old and new; some of the old material will be re-mastered, some re-worked, and some actually re-recorded to make the album flow. 

Before yesterday we had been resting (eating) over Christmas and New Year. Now we’re all on a complete mission to make 2012 amazing, and we started by writing a song that is already sounding great. As in, it’s probably only 2 or 3 hooks away from making the album. 

I’ll keep you posted. x

7 things that you can expect from Alphabet Backwards in 2012…

1. A music video release later on this week!

2. The British Explorer EP… remixed! (Get in touch if you’d like to contribute)

3. The small matter of our debut album…

4. A little tour in Spain and hopefully France and Italy

5. Festival season! Can we beat our 11 festivals of yester-year?

6. An American tour in October

7. A British tour. We don’t know when this will be, but hopefully we’ll squeeze it in between all those festivals, and live in a van for a bit. 

Any other ideas are welcome, but to be honest, I think we’ve got 2012 planned. There’s hardly any need for my new limited addition pac man 2012 diary. See you somewhere in the UK, Europe, or USA!