New Year’s Eve
So we draw a veil over 2012.
It’s hard to look back, though – there is just so much ahead to be thinking about right now. We have good drum takes of all but three songs and pretty much all the rhythm parts done for half a dozen of them. And we’ve only nearly resorted to fisticuffs once.
I suspect I’m not going to write a retrospective for the last year. There have been good times and bad; people will remember what they want to remember. Right now everyone in the band just wants to think about what lies ahead. We are really enjoying this recording period and a lot of great stuff is happening. It’s so good to be working free from distraction. The occasional bout of cabin fever is worth the opportunity to make something we’re all ultimately really happy with.
In the past I’ve shown symptoms of that common illness among singer-songwriters and heaped unreasonable expectations upon each new year. “This/next year is going to be THE BIG ONE!” is a phrase one hears from so many bands. But we’ve been doing this for a while now and have discovered that success never appears in the shape one originally predicts. Sometimes it even looks suspiciously like failure. Years ago, we had the expectation of signing to a big label and doing it all the old-fashioned way, applying our own stamp to the tried and tested clichés; the complete lack of interest from “the industry” seemed rather damning at the time. But we know better now. Taking things into our own hands was the best thing we ever did; indeed, it’s the reason we’re in this house now, making the album the way we want to, in our own time, in our own way. Personally, I can’t imagine being in better spirits or better company.
Happy New Year.
