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Can’t we move this along?

I am rubbish at updating this site. Sorry. To both of you reading this. I’m truly sorry.

What have I been up to? Recording mainly. The original idea was to record simple demos of the band versions of my songs with the current line-up of Johnny and Naomi. So we’d have something to show people as an example of the songs with the new line-up. As is the way with most things I do, the idea quickly escalated and it now looks to be some kind of DIY home recorded release. Maybe two. It will also involve all members of The Dead Set, past and present as Jon and Steve helped me record a bunch of the songs the new line-up hasn’t yet worked on.

Here’s Johnny ‘in the studio’ working out his parts:

I’ve been dawdling on recording my parts though, so things are progressing slowly. I hate recording vocals and I only marginally less hate recording guitar. Today I managed four vocal takes each for three songs. Hopefully, some of it’s usable. Here’s a photo I took earlier to try and convey the sense of boredom and despair I feel when recording. Instead it sort of looks like some Wall-E-esque home studio character:

In other news, the band played a pretty decent gig in Bournemouth recently. Naomi couldn’t make it, so Jon stepped in on bass. We didn’t have a chance to rehearse so we went straight up on stage and just plowed through a six song set (including two new songs) and winged it. On the night I was satisfied but not over the moon. Watching the video back, we were so much tighter than I thought. Makes me wonder how good we could be if we can nail down a solid lineup and get gigging/rehearsing regularly. Mad props (as the youth would say) to Johnny and Jon for being solid enough musicians that they were able to just jump right in from cold. Also, it was great to see so many friendly faces and we oddly had the biggest audience of the night, despite being the out of town opening act. Huge thanks to Paul, Hannah, Liam, Dean, Georgia and the one and only Poet Hi-Ho for coming out and to any of the other people who saw us and didn’t run off to the beer garden. A few new people signed the mailing list. As usual though, I can’t read their handwriting all that well. D’oh!

Lastly, I’m still looking for a bass player. London based. So if you know anyone, email me – adam-at-adamboucher.com. There must be someone out there? Preferably willing to commit to regular gigs/practice and hopefully recording and ideally someone who already plays bass. But don’t let that put you off getting in touch if you’re willing to give bass a shot.

Who wants to play bass?

So, it’s that time of year again, where I ask if anyone would like to play bass in my band. So, er, who wants to play bass?

Naomi isn’t leaving the band immediately (we have plans to do some recording soon) but I thought I’d get the word out early that I need a replacement. Ideally London based and up for gigging/touring (usually weekend/long weekend trips rather than quit-your-job-and-starve affairs) and recording.

If you’re interested or know anyone who might fit the bill, please get in touch:
adam-at-adamboucher.com.

Youtube is being rubbish with the live video of this song, so I’ve uploaded a version of ‘Exceptions’ from practice to give an idea of what the band sounds like, for anyone who might be interested. Oddly, Naomi is out of shot for most of it, save for a brief glimpse of her headstock…

We am band…

So from something old (see the video below) to something new… At our last band practice we were joined by Johnny’s friend Sophie, who came along to take some promo shots of the new line-up. She did an awesome job and the photo below is one of them. I’ll post the rest when I have more time (or you can head over to my facebook page to see the rest).

Also, be sure to check out Sophie’s website for all your photographic needs:

www.sophiefrancisco.carbonmade.com

I Know What I Did Last Summer…

Forgot to post this the other day. Ben Marwood is a really great songwriter and one of the nicest musicians I’ve had the good fortune to share the stage with. In this interview Ben gives myself and Adam Bennett a brief mention after we played on the same bill together on the first two shows of mine and Adam’s tour back in January/February. Needless to say this caused my head to swell for at least a whole day. Don’t worry, normal service has resumed and I’m now back to hating myself again…

On bass… Derek Smalls. He wrote this…

Greetings Internet. It’s finally time for me to introduce you to the lovely musicians who join me to make up the new version of Adam Boucher & The Dead Set. Yay!

Everyone say a virtual hello to Naomi on bass and Johnny on drums.

Naomi has been a friend for ages and we previously played in a not-very-good-but-fun-for-a-bit garagey rock band together. Her main musical endeavour is the awesome Naomi Hates Humans and she can also be found partaking of lots of side projects like Mothers Opposed To The Occult and Baby Streuth.

I have the lovely Mike Only to thank for putting me in touch with Johnny. As well as now drumming in The Dead Set he plays in the rather excellent Will Tun & The Wasters. Go check them out. He also currently lives in Reading, but has an incredibly sunny disposition despite this.

The band is sounding fucking great so far and we played our first gig together on Thursday and I have to say it went even better than I could have hoped. The previous Dead Set line-up rehearsed for quite a while before gigging. This new line up had just two and a bit practices, but we still managed to pull off a pretty decent set at The Cobblers Thumb in Brighton. Definitely the best we’ve played so far in our short time as a band. Stay tuned for more info and hopefully more gigs. In fact, if you fancy booking us, do get in touch.

Finally, I should say a massive thanks to Jon and Steve for all their efforts in the previous version of the band. Prior to us jamming I was pretty resolutely against having a band for my solo stuff and now I can’t really imagine not having one. You may have noticed that they still appear in the banner at the top of the site. That’s because there aren’t any pictures of the new line up yet. I await one of them bitching about using their likeness without permission or other such tripe! And to that I say, bring it bitches!

Seriously though, there wasn’t a single crap moment playing in a band with them and the highlight had to be our tour with Dave Hughes. We played to practically nobody, made no money and had the best time ever. Keep an eye out for them in the ‘Behind The Music’ episode in years to come!