Musical Odyssey Europa

We have been asked the questions over the last few years what we are doing in Europe, why we live the way we do, how long we will go on like this, why we can't make this Music in either Australia or the UK (our places of birth), why don't we get proper jobs, when are we going to settle down...  Mostly these questions sound kind of funny and puzzling to us, like implied in the questions we are the strange ones.  If you really look at it, the questions themselves are the strange ones.

I came across something the other day which pointed out that people who pursue their passion or vision are often seen by society as self-indulgent as if the "normal" aspirations of a good education, a successful, lucrative career and marrying, settling down, having children and buying a house are somehow not selfish? 

I've often struggled to find a way to explain our reasons for being in Europe these last few years to anyone who asks.  It is not a struggle to me because I don't need to justify it to myself but it can be difficult to put into words that make sense to others.  Wondering about this reminded me of the quote from Bob Dylan in the intro to the film No Direction Home:

"I had ambitions to set out and find, like an odyssey or going home somewhere... set out to find... this home that I'd left a while back and couldn't remember exactly where it was, but I was on my way there.  And encountering what I encountered on the way was how I envisioned it all. I didn't really have any ambition at all.

I was born very far from where I'm supposed to be, and so, I'm on my way home, you know?"

For us, it's kind of like that.  I don't know exactly what Dylan means by "home" but to me it is heard not as a physical location but the centre of you - the place before your personality, your true home.  Once you identify and sit within that home you no longer need a physical home.  You need shelter, a place to stay maybe, but not a permanent home you can call your own.  When you no longer need a physical home paradoxically physical locations start to 'speak' to you.  You are drawn like a magnet to the right place at any given time.  This is how we have moved over the last 3 years.  Since countries are just illusory man-made borders, we don't travel to visit countries and "look at the bricks", as John Lennon said.  I watched an early Beatles interview recently and the Canadian interviewer had a bee in his bonnet about whether they were getting to see the sights on their travels.  John eventually got irritated by this and replied "we are here to work not to see the bricks".  That is how it is for SoulJahm.  We may not have an entourage and a proper organised tour or recording schedule but it is a kind of work.  The best kind of work.  Our boss is Jah! 

There is something familiar about the land of Europe for us.  It couldn't be anywhere else but Europe.  We are not particularly interested in the history, the sights, museums, nightlife and all that.  The vibrancy that is there NOW in any given place is all that matters.  You don't need to go anywhere or do anything in particular to feel that. 

Entwined and inseparable from this is Music.  For us they are like the land and the ocean, the soil and the seed.  We can make music anywhere but we can only make this Music in Europe and this Music is the only one we are interested in working with.

That is not necessarily an easy thing and complications will always arise and attempt to deny simplicity but they can only ever cover it up.  When your mind is clear and pure, it is very simple.  The hard part is keeping your mind clear and pure because this world is built on complication.  On this type of journey, there is only one outcome possible and so each time we fall all there is to do is get up and continue walking in the only direction we can go in. 

Another thing Bob Dylan said:

“When you feel in your gut what you are and then dynamically pursue it - don't back down and don't give up - then you're going to mystify a lot of folks.”  

And from Bob Marley, he said this:

"Life and Jah are one in the same. Jah is the gift of existence. I am in some way eternal, I will never be duplicated. The singularity of every man and woman is Jah’s gift. What we struggle to make of it is our sole gift to Jah. The process of what that struggle becomes, in time, the Truth"

 

"Trojan Horse" (Analogue 4-Track)

Another of the Edinburgh 4-Track recordings.  This one is called "Trojan Horse" and was written in Barcelona in September 2011 on a piano which was in the apartment we stayed.  We recorded this song while in Europe as part of the 'Sketches of Europa' collection but it remains unfinished.  So for now this is the first public recording, played together as a trio.

Studio Update

We are currently in a period of transition, ready to move on into the next phase of SoulJahm.  For the last 2 - 3 years we have worked to get this Music out, often under adverse conditions in all areas of life.  In May this year we began to feel we'd taken it as far as we could go under those conditions.  Recording with one budget microphone, a laptop that was on it's last legs and few instruments, we managed to put out a collection of songs and videos to introduce SoulJahm.

The studio taking shape in its temporary home...

Now we must take it further and we are in the process of putting together a small home studio where we can work and create in a more favourable environment for the foreseeable future.  Thanks to some good people around us, we have spent the last month or so acquiring equipment and have the studio itself ready and waiting to go.  It is now only a matter of finding the right space to set-up in and begin.  Berlin or Budapest look to be the main contenders but we will go anywhere we're moved so long as it is for the benefit of this Music.

Testing...

Analogue 4-Track Version of "Mysterious"

While having a bit of a jam a few weeks ago, we experimented with recording this song on an old 4-track tape machine. We played acoustic guitar, bass and percussion live together in the room and then overdubbed electric guitar, some more percussion and finally vocals. All of this was recorded to tape - no editing - and then we stuck it all on the computer. It is pretty much the sound we make in a room at the moment. We recorded two more songs this way from the same session which might go up here in the coming weeks.

Molenpad Piano Sessions

We have been in Nieuwendammer Molenpad, Amsterdam for a couple of weeks now.  The apartment we are staying in happens to have a piano in the living room and upstairs there is a bass guitar and some mixing equipment.  We never knew this when the apartment was booked.

So we've been trying out some of our songs on piano and today recorded a few.  I finally got a chance to work out a way to play "That's How It Goes" on piano after writing the song years ago on guitar.  We also recorded a version of "Karl-Marx-Allee".

If we get a chance we might record some video while we're here and put them up on youtube but for now here are audio-only live versions of "That's How It Goes" and "Karl-Marx-Allee".

Karl-Marx-Allee

Karl-Marx-Allee is a huge boulevard built on the eastern side of Berlin.  We walked along it many times throughout the winter of 2010 - 2011 when we stayed in the Friedrichshain area of Berlin.  We passed by a musical instrument shop which had ukuleles displayed in the window and this planted a seed.  For a time we weren't certain of securing an apartment over the winter as Christmas was approaching and apartments were scarce.  The owner of the apartment we eventually stayed in wrote in her email that we could be "shure" the apartment was ours.  Shortly after this we walked by the music store with the "Shure" banner up on display (see video).

By the time we reached Budapest in March, 2011 we now had a ukulele and this song came to life about our experiences in Berlin that winter.  It was written on ukulele with melodica part originally before we created the piano-based version later that year in Milan.  Shaker and handclaps were added in Nice in a tiny little sweatbox attic apartment (probably the most humid apartment we've ever stayed in!).  We continued to work on the song whenever we were able to - programming the drum track in cheap hotel rooms in Paris while we looked for somewhere more permanent to stay - and recording the vocals in Bologna (see video) just after Christmas 2012.  Eventually we were able to mix the song in Ventimiglia in February 2013.  We hope to put some sort of brass on the next version but that's for another time... Enjoy!

Magica Fountain

The early SoulJahm songs include "Karl-Marx-Allee", "Suzanne" and this song, "Magica Fountain".  They were all written around March/April 2011 in Budapest on ukulele and melodica.  These songs eventually became the basis of the 'Sketches of Europa' recordings we have been working on over the last couple of years.

We recorded a piano track and drums for "Magica Fountain" when we reached Milan in summer 2011 but have yet to finish that version so here is a preview of an early version, shortly after the song was written.  We recorded this in the same apartment we shot the "Suzanne" video.

Bologna to Amsterdam

So we leave Italy today after spending almost exactly a year here.  Its a place which has always held some sort of familiarity and where we feel comfortable.  I don't know what it is.  I first visited from Scotland when I was 13 years old on a school trip to Sorrento, near Naples.  Now we've covered more of this land I think than any other country.  It feels like we'll stay here for a while again somewhere down the road.

After a short stop in Bologna to meet up with Will & Georgie, the four of us now move onwards to Amsterdam, which will be home for the next month.  By the end of our stay there we should have a clearer picture of where the right place is at this time to set up a small studio and begin work on the next stage of this Music.  For so long we felt Berlin would be that place but to our surprise everything seems to be pointing towards Budapest now.

Preparing The Soil (Phases 1 & 2)

We are approaching what definitely feels like the wrapping up of one period and the beginning of a new phase.  For nearly the last 3 years we have been moving around Europe "preparing the soil" (getting our hands dirty would be another way of putting it!).  When this Europe Music vision began to move into action, around about the summer of 2010 in Edinburgh, it was seen that we would spend several years moving around gradually slowing down until we come to rest somewhere and make more of a permanent base.  At that time we would have said this period would be about 2 years.  Instead it has turned out to be 3 years.

This phase was absolutely necessary although to many onlookers it often appeared chaotic and random and with no logic behind it.  Some even believed we were up to something other than what we said.  Because living reality is simple.  It is so simple that it gets overlooked and even when it is staring people in the face, it will be turned into something else for their own ends.

To us the basic thing inside has never changed during these years.  First go to Europe.  Then at some point Music will come into the picture.  How?  We didn't know and still don't.  We just went wherever we were led to go at any given moment and let life take care of the details which still happens to this day.  It can be a bumpy ride and we have had to adapt along the way, swerve and navigate certain obstacles, but essentially the thing inside has remained unshakeable. 

The difficulty in communicating this to others is that everyone in this world is trained to do things in terms of linear time as if life or reality is a straight line.  When this thing hits you, you begin to understand life is not moving in a straight line and the idea of time in terms of a sequence of events one after another is a strange sort of illusion.  You begin listening and being guided by your own self for the first time and you trust that wherever it sends you.  Quite often it will not make any sense to onlookers.

The biggest challenge in these 3 years has been to stop the doubts of others invading the space here because the whole world is ready to tell you you're going wrong if you let those voices in.  At times we have fallen and entered states of confusion, wondering if we'd went wrong somewhere along the way.  Still this thing is undeniable.  Its like its so powerful in its own way that it even allows you the full capacity to doubt it.  Because only something that is an illusion has to fight to convince you it's real.

So our journey in this phase can be seen on the map above and roughly went as follows:

Oct 2010 - Leave Edinburgh for Barcelona and spend several months basically doing little other than trying to survive.  We hardly speak about Music during this period.

Dec 2010 - We reach Berlin which feels significant and enthusiastic conversations about Music begin.

Feb 2011 - We know we have to get to Vienna and its something to do with Music.  Once we arrive in Vienna some money comes our way and we are able to get a laptop and a ukulele and melodica.

Mar 2011 - Go now to Budapest with a feeling its something to do with Creativity.  Shortly after arriving there, though we intended to practice, a few songs start to come.

Apr 2011 - The possibility of recording these songs on the move starts to come up and is discussed.

Jul 2011 - We meet with Mark in Bologna who brings a few things we need to start recording.  Our idea was just to record ourselves on the ukulele and melodica with vocals but by the end of the month we are in an apartment in Milano with a piano in it and the piano becomes the backbone of these recordings.

Aug 2011 - We go through a rough period for a few weeks just as we're about to roll and arrive in Barcelona for the second time (having now done a full circle) to meet Will & Georgie who are on holiday.  This seems to mark the beginning of a new phase of practice we prepare to go into.  We intended to record the songs quickly over a few months and then go into practice mode by the beginning of 2012.

Dec 2011 - We arrive in Berlin for the second time, now with guitar which was shipped over a month earlier in Paris.  But each time we attempt to move forward it seems we are continually denied one way or another, sometimes in very bizarre ways.

Mar 2012 - We reach Budapest and attempt again to get to work and again we are denied.  The songs are still not finished and we are caught between finishing them and focussing on practice.  Hit by various physical challenges we can't seem to get out of Budapest and end up staying there for 5 months.  There is a growing feeling we have to get to Italy next.  Brian and Mark come over to Budapest for a short holiday and this seems to spark off the live acoustic performances that ended up on Youtube, beginning with the spontaneous Budapest Terrace Sessions.

Jul 2012 - Another moment where it could all have come crashing down but we somehow get to Rome, Italy at the very end of the month.  It feels significant and we know we will remain in Italy for a long time.

Nov 2012 - We reach Bologna again and it seems to be the first time we have enough stability to settle into practising our instruments consistently.  A piano enters the picture; we've now upgraded from ukulele and melodica to piano and guitar.

Jan 2013 - We end up in Ventimiglia more than a year after passing through on the train to Nice in the summer of 2011.  It was seen then we'd stay here sometime but didn't know when.  Most of the time has been spent continuing to practice and develop this Music.

From here we are about to get things together and prepare to settle in Europe for some time.  This will allow us to develop the Music at a more focussed but relaxed pace.  We feel we have put a bunch of songs out there which give a sense of what we're about and so now its time to go away and retreat into our own space where we hope to take this Music to the next level and eventually re-emerge into a new phase. 

Balcarres Street

Balcarres Street is in the Morningside area of Edinburgh.  We rented our first apartment there back in 2004.  We spoke at the time about needing to find "a space" with the right vibe although it was only years later before we fully understood what we meant by that.  That's why we chose Morningside.  It was the only part of Edinburgh we felt had the right energy for us.  We stayed in two further flats there and by the third one we had a sense there was nowhere left to go in Edinburgh but move somewhere else.  So we chose Barcelona or it chose us.

From 2004 to 2007 we went through a lot of stuff in that Balcarres Street apartment.  Looking back at it now, it was kind of the making of us, setting us up for what is to come.  So the song "Balcarres Street" is really symbolic of any situation of feeling hemmed in or not belonging and needing to find "a space", whether that is inside yourself or a physical location or maybe even both.

The Professionals

We have been keeping a low profile over the last few months - not deliberately, just the way things have went - but things are still moving under the radar.

Here is a new song we've just finished mixing with a new video.  It's called "The Professionals" and was written and recorded a few months ago, developing into a full song from an original idea recorded over a year ago in Budapest - a melody and some chords which formed what are now the verses.  We have loads of these little parts of songs scattered around waiting to be developed into full songs.  Some make it and some never see the light of day.  It never feels like it's up to 'us' which songs make it, when songs are recorded, mixed, released... it all seems to happen in its own time and the process is always a discovery for us everytime we go through it.

Anyway, here is the video and below that audio from Soundcloud.

 

Voice

In the last few weeks some new songs have come, one called "The Professionals" which should be up as a demo soon.  Along with practice and some intense energy shifts we have managed to finish and mix another 'Sketches of Europa' track.  The song "Voice" was written towards the end of 2007 and then put aside for several years.  We put down a piano track in September 2011 in Barcelona and have added stuff along the way whenever we've been able to - singing the vocals in the summer of Budapest 2012 at a point where it looked like everything was about to fall apart.  Here in Ventimiglia we finally got round to the finishing touches before mixing the song.

Work In Progress: "Purple Paris"

 By the time we got to Paris in late September 2011, we were pretty worn down with too much luggage and the wheels of our cases beginning to fall off.  After a period in cheap hotels we finally secured an apartment for one month and arrived to meet the chic Parisian owners feeling really rough, grubby and scraping our cases along the pavement as the wheels had now given out.

The song "Purple Paris" didn't come until we left Paris and arrived in Berlin a few months later where our apartment there had a big picture of Paris on the wall.  The lyrics (so far) for the song came from our experiences in Paris and how Paris has always energetically affected both of us in the brow (third eye/purple) chakra area.  Musically we would like to really bring out the groove of this song.

Mixing Karl-Marx-Allee

Just finished mixing "Karl-Marx-Allee" today, the 17th of February. So many times we do a mix and then realise it's on a date with the number seven in it. It was another all-nighter. Mixing seems to mean staying up all night for us. We had been putting this one off for a while and then last night got the feeling to start. Once you're in it tends to be a case of seeing it through all the way or possibly not getting back to finishing it for months.

Karl-Marx-Allee, Berlin

Mixing is the hardest part of what we do because of a few things. It means staring at a computer screen for hours, usually sitting in a hunched up uncomfortable way in whatever makeshift 'studio environment' we find ourselves. This doesn't allow the energy to flow freely around the body and begins to irritate both physically and mentally. Our equipment is super lo-fi. We use €15 computer speakers to mix (difficult to judge the bass frequencies when you can hardly hear them!) along with better quality headphones, which you can at least hear the detail of the mix on, but are tiring to wear constantly.

Once you've gone through this process with a few songs it gets harder to motivate yourself each time. We love working on these songs and we love to see them past the finish line, and usually there is a point somewhere in the mixing process where it can become enjoyable and things start flowing. It's something we haven't quite mastered the balance of yet. There is nobody else to do the task and I feel somewhere along the line someone else who enjoys it far more than we do could take over but for now we are still trying to do it without losing our balance.

We are pleased with how this one turned out. It feels like this song has been through a long journey. It was the first brand new SoulJahm song when it came into being back in Budapest, March 2011. Now it's out there and ready to do it's work and we can keep moving on.

Why Do You Run Video

We have just finished and released the video for "Why Do You Run".  Kate has spent the last few days creating the video from various footage taken during our travels.

This song was the first song we played and recorded as SoulJahm, back in Budapest, March 2011.  The melodica part came there with only ukulele to back it up.  In Milan later in the year we were able to record a piano part which became the foundation for the rest of the song.  Various other tracks were recorded as we moved on and when we were able to... in Nice, Paris, Berlin and finally Budapest in 2012 where vocals, guitar and melodica were added and the song was mixed.

We released the song in July 2012 as the first SoulJahm single from the our forthcoming 'Sketches of Europa' collection.

Work In Progress: "Borders"

This is a song about how it is the human mind itself which is responsible for the creation of countries and all the conflict and separation that comes with them.  In seeing that clearly, it is then pretty stupid to try and solve those conflicts and bring peace with that same human mind.

The song was written back in Edinburgh in 2008 around the same time as "Spitting Out The Shit", "Nobody Wants You To Be Free" and a few others we have still to release.  This version is part of a live recording we made in Bologna in January this year.  We'll try for a proper recording one day.

A Song Is Born

Our most continual frustration over the last year as we push on with this Music is that we have this build up of songs which we can't get out quick enough.  It feels like they are pushing to come out but with only two of us to do everything - play all instruments, sing, record, mix, create videos, look after the website - we feel a bit jammed up.

We have only managed to release about half of the 'Sketches of Europa' tracks, which were mostly written in 2011, there are some demos I made in 2007 intended for a follow-up album to 'One Way Ticket' which were put aside and they have started pushing to be worked on, as well as some songs from 2008 and just recently even older songs from more than 10 years ago which were never released have started to surface.  Not to mention new songs which are still coming.  We really feel we must get all these songs out sooner or later.  You can't control the order in which they demand to be worked on either.

We are not highly skilled musicians and although we can get these songs across with what skills we have, for a long time now we have known that we must bring the technical aspects of playing up to the required standard to match that intensity of feeling we have for them and help realise the full potential of these songs.  So we've had to purposely focus on practice and put all ideas of recording aside for now.  Eventually we should be skilled enough to record the songs at a quicker pace and a higher standard but that will take time.

For now, that is our sole aim, to bring ourselves up to a higher level of playing, from which everything else we do afterwards will be built on.  We might still put out a few songs and would like to keep the 'Sketches of Europa' songs coming but the priority must be to practice regularly.  What we have decided to do while this is going on is to occasionally release some of our unfinished works as sort of 'teasers' of what's to come.  That is a lot less work for us than having to record, mix and master finished songs.  So over the coming weeks/months look out for these tracks which we'll post up on the blog, Facebook, Youtube, etc...

These unfinished works are in various forms from the initial rough acoustic recordings as the song or idea was actually coming through to little basic demo recordings we have started work on.  The first one below is a song with working title "Patterns" and which came to our attention again in January 2013 while we were in Bologna.  It's actually a full song originally written in 2002 and it was called "Chasing Gold" back then.  When we heard it again we immediately saw potential in it and how it could be re-worked with new lyrics and a different feel.  One night in Bologna I ended up staying up all night putting together a rough demo and then singing the vocal at 10am in the morning.  This one still has to be worked on but we are pleased with the atmosphere it has so far.

Ventimiglia Begins...

We've been in Ventimiglia now for over a week and so far it seems the right place at this time.  We first came across Ventimiglia on a train journey from Torino to Nice in August 2011.  The train stopped at Ventimiglia and as I looked around I was sure we would stay here some day and said so to Kate.  During our time in Spello through August last year we began to look into how we might move through Italy over the coming months.  One thing we were certain about was that we'd end up somewhere along the north west coast during the winter months.  We'd spent the last two winters in dark, cold, grey environments like Berlin and although that felt right for that time, for some reason this year we strongly felt to spend the winter months somewhere with a lot of light. 

The Riviera ligure seemed the perfect environment.  When we reached Bologna in October 2012 we were eventually left with a choice of two apartments we could spend a few months in.  One was this very apartment we are in now in Ventimiglia and the other, which took us by surprise, was an apartment in Bologna.  We decided to stay in Bologna for 3 months, which wasn't what either of us had anticipated.  Towards the end of our time there we knew again we had to move on but felt it was most likely to be Milano next, although we didn't particularly want to stay there long.  It just felt the easiest and most practical place with all our luggage.  At one point it looked like Milano or San Remo and then we just didn't have a clue at all where to go or what to do.  With a week to go this Ventimiglia apartment came to our attention again and when we enquired were surprised to find it was available for 3 months.  With days to go in Bologna it was arranged and booked up and the piano couriered off on a round trip from Bologna to the UK and back to Ventimiglia.

We now have the piano back with us and are in pretty much the same mode or routine as we left off in Bologna, pushing on with the development of this Music.  It definitely feels good to be in the light and near the sea so hopefully some of that will rub off over the next 3 months.  Animals are all around us.  We have a black and white cat from the ground floor apartment who comes up the stairs to visit us (they also have a pet duck but it hasn't managed to get up the stairs yet), there are pictures of a giraffe, an antelope, and a dead pheasant in this apartment.  What does it all mean?

Songwriting - "Giudecca" (Sketches of Europa)

Throughout June 2011 we spent a couple of weeks on the island of Giudecca where a few songs were born - "Italian Saturday" and "Giudecca" being two we have so far managed to see on their way out into the world.  We recently found this video filmed from our apartment which happens to capture the very early stages of the song "Giudecca" being developed.

Once we got to Milan a month later, the song moved to piano and eventually turned into this...

Registrazione Pianoforte a Milano

The beginning of recording 'Sketches of Europa'...

After a hectic journey from Bologna to Milan in July 2011, we arrived at our apartment on a Saturday evening.  There was a misunderstanding about where exactly we were to meet the owner and as we had no mobile phone we had to go looking for a public phone in the area.  We ended up in a nearby supermarket where they had a payphone.  It turned out we were waiting round one side of the building and had no way of getting round the back while the owner was on the other side waiting for us.  After check-in we just made it in time to the supermarket to get some food before it closed.

That night there was a big thunderstorm in Milan to welcome us.  After something to eat, we looked at the situation, which was 5 days in this apartment with a piano, and no security after that.  We didn't know what would happen after those 5 days and we didn't know what else we could do other than carry on with this Music.  We had something like 15 - 20 songs so that first night we went through them and started creating basic drum tracks (so we had something to keep us in time when recording the piano and make it easier to overdub other instruments later).  We went to bed around 3 or 4am and got up 4 or 5 hours later and began working out piano parts for the first couple of songs and then recording them.

This set the pattern for those 5 days.  We'd use the daytime hours to work out and record the piano tracks and then at night when it was too late to play we'd prepare the drum/guide tracks on the laptop for whatever song(s) we'd record piano for the following day.  Neither of us are accomplished piano players and we'd only just started learning to play back in Edinburgh before leaving for Europe.  We had to work out parts and record them on the fly - no time to rehearse or spend too long on anything.

Over those 5 days we got about 4 - 5 hours sleep a night and would work right through the day into the night, only stopping for brief food breaks.  We were determined to get these songs recorded and push on with this Music and we didn't know when we might next have access to a piano.  By the end of those 5 days we were exhausted but amazed with what was achieved.

Musica Viaggio

Yesterday we packed off the Yamaha Digital Piano to be forwarded onto our next location.  It looked for a while there like we might have to send it back to Edinburgh and do without for a few months.  In fact, up until about 5 days ago we didn't have a clue what to do.  Gradually this week the pieces of the puzzle came together and it was a bit hairy for a while wondering whether the courier would show up to take the piano away before we left this place but it is off now on its journey to meet us shortly at our next destination.  We also had a surprise visit from a Catholic priest but that's another story...

Where are the roadies?

Just over a year ago now we never believed we could travel with the guitar with only the two of us to carry everything.  Since November 2012 we now have a new friend to somehow move around Europe with and help bring through this Music.  Slowly we have graduated from ukulele and melodica to guitar and piano as this Music grows.

A typical SoulJahm day over these last few months has looked like this...

We wake some time in the morning - can range from 8am to 11am - depending on how our sleep patterns are.  (We've been known to stay up all night working on a video or mixing a song if we're on a roll and often we don't get to bed until 3am or so anyway).  After breakfast, we usually do a little bit of singing to loosen us up a bit as our bodies are often 'riddled' with all kinds of energy blockages after being asleep.  Then we each retreat to our own spaces to practice individually on our instruments.  This practice can go on for anything between a couple of hours to 4 or 5 hours.  We usually work in 25 minute chunks, taking a 5-10 min break for the duration of these hours.

Some time around 4.30 - 5.30pm we sing songs together for an hour or two before it gets too late.  If we could we'd sing and play all hours of the day and night.  After this we'll sometimes practice a little more on our instruments and then have tea (dinner).

I split my time between guitar, voice and piano - guitar work throughout the day while Kate is on the piano and then either after we've eaten in the evening (8-9pm) or later at night (1am or so) I will get an hour or so on the piano.  Kate will work on web stuff during this.  If we are working on a song or video we will spend the hours between 9pm until we go to bed working on these things.

Every few days we make a trip to the shops to pick up some food, but essentially this is how we live each day, although it can change depending on what is going on and how the energy is affecting us on any particular moment throughout the day.  On certain days, the energy can be so strong that we have to spend most of the day napping or are compelled to sit 'meditatively' and do little else.

When we came into this apartment we intended to learn Italian and for the first few weeks were quite serious about it.  Soon we realised we were over-ambitious and could only focus on one language at a time and that language is Music.  We'd still like to learn Italian one day and feel it will be necessary for the development of this Music but it seems that time is not now.

Original Song Lyrics - "Karl-Marx-Allee"

Organising stuff today for our move from Bologna to the next destination, which we now know!  It's all somehow come together in the last couple of days.  It's an early 4.30am start on Friday.  Everytime we have a significant move to a new destination in Italy the Trenitalia website goes strange with problems booking tickets.

I was sorting my case out a bit and came across the notebook I first came over to Europe with and in it were the original lyrics for "Karl-Marx-Allee" scribbled down as the song was written back in Budapest, March 2011...

Recording Rhythm In The Right Place

Recording the sounds together

Our hi-tech professional mic/recording set-up

Spent today trying to get a rhythm track of guitar and piano recorded simultaneously into one mic for a new recording of the song "In The Wrong Places".  We've had the idea for a few weeks now as the living room of this apartment has a nice reverb and we wanted to record something here before we left.  For ages now we've spoken of how to keep a live feel on our next batch of songs - hence why we played together and didn't record piano and guitar separately.  We'll then overdub some extra guitar, percussion and vocals another time.

It's the first time we've played together this way and without a click track or anything to keep time so the challenge was mainly locking into the same rhythm.  Not easy without a drummer and no vocals to guide you.  It was fun and something we want to do more of.

The Funky Mute

So our time in Bologna is coming to a close... who knows where next.  Woke up at 5am yesterday morning, Thursday 17th, and so spent the first few hours of the morning doing some web stuff, sorting out things on our youtube videos and the website.

The afternoon was spent practising and singing.  Sleep is all over the place at the moment.  The reason I woke at 5am was because I'd fell into a "gone" state around about tea-time and was zonked out on the couch before managing to get to bed at 10.30pm - early for me.  Kate had been "gone" just before it hit me.  Its like you come over all sleepy and have to stop what you're doing and its kind of like a nap but you don't fall asleep, you are almost comatose but somehow still aware of what is happening around you.  Its like the energy demands that the body shut down for a period... I don't know what happens... it can last from a few mins to several hours.

We spent the night doing more work on youtube, soundcloud and the website.  We have hardly recorded a thing during our time in this apartment but that was what we intended so it is all good in that sense.  We did manage to record vocals for "Karl-Marx-Allee" during the week between Christmas and New Year, and also a new version of "Balcarres Street".  "Karl-Marx" now just needs to be mixed while "Balcarres Street" needs some percussion before it can be mixed.

David

Bologna 2013

After a long hiatus, blogging this journey feels back on again.  We'll now use this 'Sketches of Europa' blog to document our everyday living and work on the Music.  For an idea of how we arrived at this point check out the 'Spitting Out The Shit' blog which covers the first chapter of the journey - from October 2010 until March 2011.

2012 was a year full of struggle and intense challenges but we made it through somehow.  Our movement throughout Europe slowed down a lot as we always felt it would but not in the way we expected!  We spent the first couple of months of the year in Berlin, then onto Budapest, which became the place we could never get out of, intending only to stay for a couple of months or so but remaining there for 5 months.  In the middle of summer we finally made it to Rome and moved north through Italy for the remainder of the year - Spello, Perugia and then arriving in Bologna in October 2012.  Italy has been good to us.

We have spent the last 3-4 months in Bologna practising and developing the Music and doing little else.  Its soon coming time to leave yet no next destination has revealed itself so far so who knows where we will end up after this!