titting around

Very excited to finally announce this VERY SPECIAL EVENT on 17th October 2013.

Fresh from the summer’s festival circuit, we will be bringing songs from the Bird School and previewing new material in a rare London show, curating a magical night of art and music under the ‘hive light’ and into the twilight…

Tickets available now for this one-off, boutique event. Can’t wait to share it with you (and the birds…and the bees…) XXX

 POSTER ARTWORK by HOLLY HOOPER

We got some really exciting news whilst away this weekend: We’ve been asked to play at Yoko Ono’s Meltdown Festival in London, next Saturday, opening for Cibo Matto. Tickets & event info here. Super excited. xxx

Well we had a LOT of fun in Portugal. Beautiful people, beautiful shows, beautiful custard tarts.  Awesome times. Several videos from our Serralves Festival show have cropped up. Here’s ‘Sparrow’ (thanks to Miguel Neves).

There’s also footage from ‘Crow’ (here) where I basically channel a gurning, head-banging clown by the end (Slipknot watch your backs, yo) and Dove with a pan-out at the end showing the massive and sexy Portuguese crowd, braving the rain and being very lovely indeed. 

MASSIVE THANKS to all involved in getting and having us out there- STARS! xxx

So this morning, having a sneaky doze before I left to go and meet Ben in the tour wagon, I dreamt I was already at Hay on Wye. For the performance I had to read aloud three of my favourite poems to a half-moon panel. I hadn’t been prepped- all I had on me was a roughly fingered paperback edition of Theroux’s ‘Walden’. I rootled around looking for excerpts to read, eyes all on me.

“Actually, I’m not going to read any poetry to you-“, I heard myself say, “it’s in these silences where I find real poetry”.

And we sat in silence, taking one another in.

I’m not sure Ben will let me get away with that tonight though so if you’re coming to the show, you’ll hopefully still hear some ‘music’. See you there xx

Ghostpoet and his band were on fire last night. Cracking show, great crowd. If you can catch them on the last few dates of their ‘More Light’ tour; do. 

I met up with a lovely chap, Mat from Vet Sounds, before the show, and his review of the night as well as part of our interview, is over here:

Looks like we’ll be partying hard next weekend at the Serralves em Festa, Porto. Sweet. We have a show in Aveiro the night before too, (7th) with Mute Swimmer with whom we go way back. 

More info on our show, here. x

Three days, three shows- each couldn’t have been more different from the others. 

It’s always good to get back to Germany and play- it was the home of the first European Woodpecker tour (back in 2010 with The Great Park).

For such a short spell, I’ve come away with a lot to mull over. It’s amazing how much you can learn on even the shortest of tours. Maybe it’s a question of the change of perspective. 

I had the pleasure of playing at the marvelous Gut Stube  in Darmstadt for the last show. It’s in an old theatre, and the stage is dressed as a 1970s living room. Whilst I had a whale of time, losing myself in the claustrophobia and theatrics of a small room furnished with walls made of faces, and some folks clearly had a nice time of it, I think I might have upset a few folks too…  

Godrun Thaeter (photographer of the above) has written an in depth  review of the show and conveys the mixed feelings well. I guess it’s not always easy music coming from me… I mean, of all the birds a woodpecker isn’t the most melodious, right? Gotta work with what you got… 

I think there may be some recordings /  film of the night so you may get to judge for yourselves…

Esben And The Witch asked WW to remix their charming ‘When That Head Splits’ single. I’ve basically disemboweled it and roasted it upon a spit of my home-made Bleep Labs nebulophone synth . Not sure that’s quite what they wanted, but here it is my croaky half-child, along with some other cool remixes. ENJOY! x

I first heard the half-recorded ‘Meltdown’ a few biscuits and minutes before ‘giving it a shot’ at recording a part… I’d just met Obaro (Ghostpoet) and recording team a few minutes before that, and not long before that I’d been hurtling along on a train, bespectacled and flustered, en route to a London gig of my own, no idea of the imminent and surprise change in plans…

To say, then, that on hearing the music and Obar’s mumbled guide vocals, my throat prickled instantly and my eyes filled up with tears, I hope that can give some impression of how profoundly it hit me. That is quite a feat, in my mind. Thump. Cut through everything- here is something raw and painful and beautiful. I wanted to try and convey that feeling that had been transmitted to me; to do it justice… 

The snippets of other tracks I got to hear before rushing off again, were equally potent. They’ve left a lingering mark. 

The Quietus reviewed the album today, and it’s an incredible and astute appraisal. I had a little cry again reading this. It’s a album for supping deeply from. Go and do it. It’s a murky beauty. xx

Two things for you today:

Yesterday, ‘Some Say I So I Say Light’, the new album from Ghostpoet that includes the ‘Meltdown’ single, was officially released. You can find it in all the usual places, and have a little preview, here:   

Second thing; Alessi’s Ark has also recently released a new album through Bella Union. A dear buddy of mine, Chris Lucraft, has made her a splendid stop-motion music video, which was revealed yesterday, and you can enjoy, here: 

Don’t say I don’t treat ya. xx