Diary

15/2/12 : Africa

We took a bit of time out in January as I was off to Africa for a month with some of the Wonderland Crew (we run a club night in London Bridge together). Nine of us took a trip to the little village of Madina Salaam in The Gambia, down in the south-west corner of the country. This is where Wonder Years is based - the charity that the Wonderland club night has been raising money for over the last few years, and the charity to which all our profit goes directly. We paid for our own flights and spending money but took with us the thousands of pounds that has been raised thanks to people buying tickets to our events. We then spent this money via the charity on a number of important projects including paying entirely for the foundations and lower walls of a new school building and the completion of building of staff houses for the teachers to live in. We also bought materials for us to repaint the existing school buildings, build paths, run jewelry making workshops and other craft workshops and set up and start a self-sustaining necklace making business.

We also of course got to help out with other things (we made some teaching aids for the school, fixed some old laptops for their office, took new photos of the teachers, and my friend Ian even gave a few English lessons!) and meet the villagers and staff - we met so many great people and made loads of new friends. Oh, and we found time to go to the beach and swim in the ocean of course too ;-)

It was an amazing trip, and it really made me realise how the money raised by the club night does make a big difference. And of course, if anyone else wants to take a trip to the village, we highly recommend it! Email me if you are interested and I'll try to persuade you to go!

You may also be please to know that while I was there I avoided re-writing all the band's songs to include bongos, though I did write a new song with lyrics based around campfires - I recorded a demo of it last week but we've not worked on it as a band yet. I think it might be a good one though!

So now it's 2012 and we're all back to rehearsals - we're going to concentrate on writing and recording this year and aim to get an album written. We have four new songs we've started recording and six or so new songs we're in the process of writing. We're excited about them - can't wait to get them recorded and ready to play to people. Mark.x


29/11/11 : Keston Cobblers' Club Orchestra Part 2

Here's the second song by Keston Cobblers' Club which Nick, Derek and I joined in with when they did their Club Orchestra earlier in the month... this tune is called 'Parade'.


24/11/11 : Keston Cobblers' Club Orchestra

A couple of weeks ago some of The Lost Cavalry took part in the Keston Cobblers' Club Orchestra - where 55 friends and fans got together and performed a couple of their songs. It was a great day and a really inspiring idea! Here's the video of the first song...

And a week before that, we headed down to their house and played one of our songs with them in their half-finished conservatory! And here it is...


20/11/11 : Wirefresh Interview - Snow City Radio

I was asked by tech blog Wirefresh to write some words about how I went about making the video for Snow City Radio - you can read it here: www.wirefresh.com/heres-how-to-make-a-fantastic-professional-music-video-for-under-50-80.


6/11/11 : Autumn 2001 stuff

It's been a busy summer for The Lost Cavalry - we've been writing and recording and our new EP is the result - well, half of the result - four songs are on the EP and four more that we've been working on aren't finished yet but we're working on it! Whenever I write things with any expected dates they always turn out to be vastly wrong but our plan is to release our first album next year, hopefully that will happen.

Our first EP was quite folky and pleasantly wandering, but our new EP is more direct and hopefully a bit braver - and the four new songs we're working on recording now are currently sounding different again. We're going to work on them over Christmas and see where they go...

But, before all that it's the release of Snow City Radio! The EP launch gig is going to be pretty special - we have our old friends We Walk On Ice joining us (the band we recorded the song 'Disappear' with, for the Eardrums Pop label) and our new friends Keston Cobblers' Club, who we recently recorded a couple of live acoustic videos with - we travelled down to Keston one night last month and all played together performing one of their songs and one of ours: 'The Flood'. Hearing our song played with the Keston guys playing trumpets and tuba was pretty emotional to be honest - the first time we played it through and the brass joined in was a pretty special moment. We're also going to be joined at the EP launch gig by Derek Yau playing cello - Derek played on the EP and will be a welcome addition to the night.

So yeah - the new EP has been a lot of work, especially the mixing process, but we're happy with the results and in particular I think 'The Flood' is one of the best things I've ever mixed, from a producing point of view. Take a listen yourself and see what you think! It's out in two weeks time, so hopefully we'll get some good reviews and maybe some radio play... fingers crossed! Mark.x


23/8/11 : LeeFest 2011 Video Diary

A little video diary from last weekend - at LeeFest 2011 with our Mobile Cavalry Contraption - and a chicken.


19/8/11 : Harmonium

Harmonium

The most recent addition to The Lost Cavalry's family!


11/7/11 : Penguin Cafe

At the weekend I went to see Penguin Cafe play at the Hackney Empire, playing music by Simon Jeffes, who was quite simply a genius. I love the choices of instruments and the way the loops build up and interact. Mark.x


5/7/11 : Why Spring 2011 has been so busy

One of the annoying things about diary entries is that you only have time to write them when you're not really busy, but it's the busy times when you have the most interesting stuff to write about. Spring has been really busy, but I think we've got a lot done and things are really moving along well now.

The main thing we had been working on of course was finishing off Desert Tracks, which is out on 1st Aug of course - which is roughly when we originally planned it I think. It was a struggle to stick to that deadline though, mainly due to the time it takes to do the final alterations to the mix of the song itself. We had the body of it recorded for some time, recorded at Soup Studios near Brick Lane, and most of the additional instruments (basically the organ and cello) were recorded in my little home studio. Derek (my co-composer on the Booked Out soundtrack!) was the guest cello player, thanks again Derek! The mix was really tough though, and right up until the last minute it was still being altered, with much help and feedback from Alex the mastering engineer. I think we got it sounding good in the end, but it wasn't easy!

We also have another track completed at the same time - The Tower, which is sounding great and you'll be able to hear it soon. Conversely, mixing of that track all just fell into place easily - which is odd as it is far more intricate, with plenty of swirly sounds and orchestral touches. Plus what can only be described as a stunning bass solo from Oliver - though not a bass solo in the way you would usually expect it, don't worry...

The recording had to be completed and the tracks mastered at the same time as Toby completed the artwork (stunning yet again), after which the track needed to be sent off for distribution to iTunes, Spotify, Amazon and so on, and also at the same time we needed to get promos duplicated onto CDs for sending to radio and reviewers. That all had to be done two months before the release date in order to allow enough time for reviews and so on - we made it though, just about on time.

As well as all this I've been organising gigs, which takes up quite a bit of time in total. We've had some good ones over the last month (Oh! Inverted World at The Old Queens Head, Offline in Brixton and another gig on the Tamesis Dock, this time with Kurran And The Wolfnotes, who were amazing - that was a top night) and have some good ones to come, including The Windmill, Plan B and White Heat. It could possibly be time for us to get a manager, who would then do all this stuff for us, but if we did that we would need to be careful to get the right manager as I have heard some stories... a great manager however (like we had in Fanfarlo with Big Dipper for example) can make all the difference.

Since sending the single off there's then been the video to sort out - which has just been finished. My friends and I run a club night called Wonderland (www.wonderlandfestival.co.uk) so I thought I'd take advantage of an idea I'd had for an art installation there and use it for a video too. I created a box with a camera inside it and a large wire and plastic head to project the video onto. I set it up at our last Wonderland club night and recorded people as they put their faces into the box - and at the same time their face would be projected onto the plastic face at the side of the stage. Then stage two was to merge this with video of the band and then project this again onto the face while recording the results. You can take a look at the video on our youtube page.

Then there was the final work on the Booked Out soundtrack - recorded by Derek and I at the end of 2010 and the start of this year. The film versions were all complete, but I re-edited the songs into a full soundtrack album which is now available from our band shop. After working on the music for so long in conjunction with the film it was liberating to be able to rework them as songs, and really pleasing to listen to them all running together as an album. Take a listen now - and of course watch the new trailer for the film at www.bookedoutfilm.com.

There's a few more things on the horizon - including a remix of Desert Tracks by our friend Flow Machines, and then the release itself. Then it's time to get back to our next EP, which was due for release in October, but which is unfortunately slipping already - as that date means that the final mixes of the remaining two tracks need to be done around now. They are both sounding healthy but definitely not finished yet... but they will be good when they are I think, especially our new track 'Snow City Radio'. I just need to find a bit more time in the day to get the mix right and nail that perfect vocal take...

Mark.x


17/3/11 : The Cabalgata Carnival in La Linea de la Concepcion

We in The Lost Cavalry are not at all averse to a good old sing and music on the move - and (as anyone who saw us play our cover of 'Stop The Cavalry' at Christmas will know) we are also not averse to a bit of kazoo action. Last weekend during a trip to Spain we randomly discovered the Cabalgata Carnival in the town of La Linea de la Concepcion in southern Spain (right on the border of Gibraltar) - Obviously, it was all in Spanish, but I think we worked out that it was the yearly 'Sunday Festival' where anyone can group together and write a song protesting about anything they wish, generally something funny.

These guys were amazing - the home made fake brass instruments actually have kazoos attached to them... Genius! I have absolutely no idea what they are singing about, but it looks fun. I was especially impressed by the tuba made from plastic pipes and a dustbin lid, I think I need to get Oliver to make one for LeeFest this summer...



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Contact:

For any project, big or small - or to ask any questions at all, please contact me:

  mark@mixedcasesspaces.co.uk