MT.DESOLATION

From Alex Lake's blog (click here if you want to check it out),

29.01.10

On Wednesday I hooked up once more with the guys from Mt. Desolation. We wandered about in the icy cold doing some portraits. It was baltic and I was cruel enough to get Tim to walk around in a shirt and I stole Jesse’s coat on the pretext that he looked better without it but the truth is I was bloody freezing.

Got some nice shots. Here’s one.

MT.DESOLATION

From Mt. Desolation's website,

♥♥Lovely!♥♥ (I mean Tim is lovely cos the sound is creepy LOL)

(check out more here)

MT. DESOLATION

From Mt.Desolation's website,

Mr. Francois Deville, pedal steel hero. (Spot Tim!!)

(Check out more here)

MT. DESOLATION

From Mt.Desolation's website,

Mr. Francois Deville, pedal steel hero. (Spot Tim!!)

(Check out more here)

MT.DESOLATION

From Alex Lake's blog (click here if you want to check it out),

Here are a couple of photo’s from yesterday with Mt. Desolation. Song’s are shaping up nicely. Tom Hobden was in laying down some more fiddle tracks in the morning though most of the day was concerned with Jesse recording various vocal, bass and banjo parts. What next I thought? Is he gonna play the kitchen sink too? The nose flute?? Tim was often to be found in another room composing harmonies. The day and night ended with a meal in a nearby pub. Last I saw of Jesse he was tinkering away with a mandolin…

26.01.10

Spent another day in the studio yesterday with the guy’s from Mt. Desolation. Got some good pic’s - a couple of which I’ll upload later.

MT.DESOLATION

From Mt.Desolation's website,

Tim & Jesse and a lot of keyboard instruments.

Tim & Tim.

(Check out more here)

MT. DESOLATION

From Mt. Desolation's website,

John's friend Ryann flew into London but her brother forgot to pick her up so she kindly came and sang some backing vocals for us. She normally sings with Blood Cells and Schoolyard Heroes back in Seattle.

Harpsichord.

(visit Mt. Desolation here)

MT. DESOLATION

From Alex Lake's blog (click here if you want to check it out),

22.01.10

Today was spent in deepest darkest Sussex with the band British Sea Power. The band are finishing up their latest record so I went down to document them in the studio. Lovely bunch of guys and the afternoon finished up with scampi and chips down the local boozer. Nice.

Pic’s to follow…

22.01.10

Approaching the end of a hectic week but still two shoots to do by Sunday.

Monday was spent in the studio with Mt. Desolation. Very many fine musicians appear on this record with the core of the band being Tim and Jesse. I won’t say any more about it than that at this stage as I’m sure the band themselves should be the first to give you the inside story of what’s been going down in the studio. The songs I’ve heard thus far are fantastic though, choruses still lodged in my brain. It was great to see Tim rocking out in the vocal booth - Jesse’s turn next week I believe.

Watch this space for new Mt. Desolation photos and written tidbits as I’ll be back down in the studio in the coming days…

17.01.10

Tomorrow I’ll be hanging in the studio with good friends Tim Rice-Oxley and Jesse Quin who are working on a new music collaboration/album together - Mt. Desolation. All sorts of other contributors to the record including John Roderick of the Long Winters who I love so I’m pretty excited to hear what they’ve come up with. I’ll be taking my camera so stay tuned for photos from the day.

Tonight shall be mostly spent in the cinema eating popcorn and watching ‘The Road’…

TIM'S BOOK CLUB

From KM.com,

Bit Of A Blur by Alex James

I read this book when we were recording Perfect Symmetry in Berlin and I found it to be very, very funny and inspiring. Alex James is the bass player from Blur and I really liked the juxtaposition of his very throwaway gung-ho approach to being in Blur and living it up, against his more serious insight into the working process of a band. I actually found it very inspiring. He has some quite interesting ideas - one philosophy that he keeps mentioning is that being creative is so much about confidence and that the things you do quickly without really thinking about them are normally the best things. That was a really interesting creative inspiration for me.

Reading the book made me go back to Blur. I've always been a huge fan of theirs, but I guess I hadn't actually listened to them that much recently. It was really nice to hear the albums again in the context of being reminded about all the excitement around that time, be it related to Blur themselves, or the wider context of politics and art and everything. And they really have made some brilliant records.

It's great being able to get inside a musician's head in the way that a book like this lets you. Getting people to open up like that and talk seriously about their life and their music can be almost impossible, unless you get to know them really, really well. But that seems to change when someone writes a book. I wouldn't be surprised if Alex James has gone through his whole life without ever expressing half of the stuff that he wrote in that book. There seems to be something about writing a book that makes you write as if nobody's ever going to read it. I guess that's why confessional things often come out in books, rather than in interviews or any form.

I'm not sure whether I'd like to write a book myself. I don't feel like I've got quite enough wisdom to share just yet. But I'll keep hoping...

Tim

Buy Bit Of A Blur from Amazon UK / USA / Canada / Germany / France / Japan

Tim's Book Club #1

Tim's Book Club #2
Tim's Book Club #3

KEANE IN THE BRITS 2010!! HELP THEM TO WIN!!

From KM.com,

It's just been announced that Hopes And Fears is one of 10 albums nominated for the Best British Album of 30 Years at this year's Brit Awards. The 10 albums were decided by sales figures over the last 29 years, and they also must be a past Brit Award winner, in the Album category. They will now be put to a public, online vote - which we'll obviously let you know about as soon as it goes live.

For more info, head over to http://www.brits.co.uk/brits-2010. You can, of course, buy the Deluxe 2CD version of Hopes And Fears from the Keane Shop by clicking here.

What a nice way to start the week...

PLEASE GUYS!! REGISTER AND VOTE!! YOU CAN VOTE ONCE SO VOTING IS IMPORTANT FOR KEANE TO WIN!!

You want them to be happy like in the Brits 2005?? so this is your chance to show your support! :)

Click here to watch Keane winning Best British Breakthrough 2005

Click here to watch Keane winning Best British Album 2005