well, for someone who considers himself to be lacking in ambition, 2011 was rather a productive year for me! one album, two singles, soundtrack on a dvd and a retrospective, plus other releases. live,as well as the usual pubs and clubs, i played gigs in a treehouse, a major art gallery, an iron church at a railway museum and birmingham's symphony hall and took part in a 24hr performance at supersonic festival.
the whole thing kicked off at the stroke of midnight on 1st jan with the release of the covers album, respect, by the ever wonderful where it's at is where you are record label. this was accompanied by a download single of two morrissey songs from the collection, jeane/i know very well how i got my name.
february saw the release on video of three live sessions for this 2011's no.1 shed-related viral internet hit, songs from the shed.
season 7 of the american tv series, road trip nation, was released on dvd worldwide, which featured several of my songs on the soundtrack.
gigs followed through spring and summer, including my debut performance at the hyper-fun indietracks festival in derbyshire, playing alongside luminaries as edwyn collins, jeffrey lewis, jonny and herman dune.
the competition for punters who bought the limited edition hand printed deluxe version of respect was drawn in june, with the lucky winners getting to choose a song from the 1980s for me to cover and release as a single. lucky for me too, that my punters have such good taste, as it resulted in the release of galaxie 500's flowers (chosen by tim chamberlain) and the sea urchins' pristine christine (chosen by dunc vernon). to say i was impressed (and relieved!) by their choices would be something of an understatement!
in july, we decided it was finally time to unearth the complete works of experimental electronica project, krafla and make them available to the public. the two singles, plus other released and unreleased tracks were all bundled up on soundcloud for you to enjoy.
another cover song came out in july for the pop! for kids project. this time i delved deep into my childhood memories to record a pure imagination from my all-time favourite film of all time, willy wonka's chocolate factory.
back in the shed for september and i contributed a previously unreleased track, my waking life, to songs from the shed's woodworm project cd.
september and october saw me involved with two performances by lash frenzy, andrew moscardo-parker's sound art collective. i played double bass in a string octet in birmingham's museum and art gallery, then took part in lash frenzy and christian jendreiko's 24 hour performance as part of the groundbreaking supersonic festival.
the run up to xmas and the inevitable festive single release. where it's at is where you are, in collaboration with darren hayman and fika recordings had me digging around in the stocking of xmas past for clair horton and my version of xmas wrappin' by the waitresses.
to round off a busy year, the hangover lounge confirmed they'd include flowers on their upcoming 10" vinyl ep. it'll be released this month, so look out for it.
phew!
