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The End of the Beginning

So it's finally finished, duplicated (well, partially - 65 of the initial pressing had an error, but more on that later) and the album sleeves are being printed as we speak. I never thought I'd see myself type this, but it's finished.

To be honest, it would have been a lot easier if I'd;

* Worked faster/harder
* Learned quicker
* Accepted more help
* Compromised more
* Taken less risks

But, there you go. The sleeve's been designed by my best mate Steve from Properganda, and it's fantastic. The front cover bears the equation for a blast wave, and the inner sleeve is laid out like a physics text book complete with a graph and whatnot. It's ace.

The final tracklisting is (from memory):

1. Jacknife Heart
2. Poison Over Gold
3. Coming Up
4. Diagonal Man
5. The Chair That Wasn't There
6. Serious Suburbia
7. Something Beautiful
8. Walking on the Sun
9. Bulletpoints
10. Goodbye

If you want a copy, your best bet is to come down to the album launch show this saturday (2nd July) at Fibbers, York. We've somehow managed to convince The Hair and Idle Jack & The Big Sleep to play with us (I hate to say "support", they're special guests really) and entry to the gig includes Blackout rock club night until 2am, with drinks promos and all sorts.

If you go to the AKP site (http://www.akp.org.uk) you'll find a flyer you can print out and get in for a measly £3!!

If you can't make it down to the gig, you'll soon be able to buy the album from the official site, and also Napster, iTunes, and all the other major legit music download sites, who will no doubt rape me financially because you know, they care about the artist.

Thanks for joining me on this magical journey through the creation of the album - I hope it's been more interesting for you than it has for me. Seriously though, keep an eye out for our next release, which will be a two or three track EP. Output is going to go through the roof from now on - I'm not spending 2 years making another record.

Believe dat!

Peace

A

The end is in sight

So, while we wait for Leo's broken finger/hand to heal (long story) I've been hard at work in the studio. A week or so back Dan came round and re-recorded a lot of drum parts using my TD3K, which sounded a lot better than the old SPD20 and Alesis D4 patches. Unfortunately I couldn't use some of them due to timing issues (not Dan's fault), without rerecording all the other instrumentation at the same time! Which I couldn't be arsed to do. I *did* rerecord Serious Suburia and Jacknife Heart from scratch, because they both sorely needed it and they're much better now.

Good old Line6. I recently learned that my Pod Pro is firmware version 1.2 - the last version they produced was 1.3 so I emailed their support asking about a firmware upgrade. A very nice lady took my serial number and emailed me a replacement EPROM the same day! So I whacked that in and amongst other upgrades and bugfixes, the unit now actually tunes to 440hz, which for some reason it never did. Line6 are a very impressive company. I probably don't need to tell you how invaluable a Pod is in any studio, but I also use their Delay Modeler and Modulation Modeler in my live rig and they're built like tanks.

Talking of my live rig, with the addition of synths and whatnot, I've found it necessary to get a volume boost for solos - so I'm currently trying out the Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster. Not as an actual Pickup Booster, as I don't really buy that line of marketing spiel, but at the end of the chain to boost the entire signal by about 10db. Seems pretty transparent, but a live situation will be the real test.

The album will be finished in the next couple of weeks. My good friend Steve (Typografetish) is going to be designing the sleeve, and Cadman Lane Studios will be taking care of the duplication and publishing as soon as I can raise the money to afford it. It will be made available as an internet download in the first instance, but I'm loathe to release it in any capacity until the publishing administration is sorted, so it may have to wait until I can get the physical CDs duplicated.

I want to get it out as soon as possible, but I'm not stupid enough to do so without my stuff being protected.

It's sounding massive.... it will be interesting to see what kind of doors it will open for the band.

Reborn and sore

Well, the big comeback show was a great success - we played extremely well, had a barrel of laughs and the place was rammed. Highlights include me lacerating my right hand on the bridge of the 02 and covering both that guitar and the Wolfgang with blood, Andy being a crazy ginger bastard, Leo keeping his shades on the entire gig and looking like a cooler Roy Orbison, and Craig having seemingly his entire family down, who proceeded to yell at him continually. All good fun!

It really was a statement of intent, from our "gangster chic" outfits to the unremitting energy we put out there. I'm still sore now, two days later, which might mean I rocked harder than usual, or that I'm getting old. Either way, it's all good. I can't say I played the best guitar of my life, but as I always say, when you're playing a show, the show comes first - you can get it note perfect on the record (with luck).

Speaking of which, I've just got a little bit of tracking left to do then it's the final mixdown and mastering. Shortly after that, you'll all buy 10 copies each, and I can retire on my private yacht.

I imagine.

Work continues apace

Hi all,

I know it's been a little quiet around here, but rest assured I'm still beavering away behind the scenes. I actually sat down last night and reviewed progress so far and I'm a lot closer to the end than I thought, with about 7 tracks finished out of the mooted 10 or 11. There may also be a secret bonus track which obviously I can't tell you about because it's secret.

I've also been considering taking steps towards one of my main musical dreams since I started playing an instrument - writing music for films. I've always wanted to create film soundtracks, and my intention is at some point to start whoring out my time and skills for free to film students etc. just to get some experience under my belt. I can't tell you exactly why I've always wanted to score films, but suffice to say Blade Runner was a big influence on the formative King, and the first time I realised how important music is to a film's atmosphere and dynamics.

The album will be released before the middle of May, because apart from anything else I promised Marbled a copy of it for then, and it's wrong to break a promise to a teetotaller.

"Damn my stupid brain"

The live comeback at MINE (Leeds Uni Union bar, or one of them) was magnificent. I think we all fucked something up during the 25min set, but it really didn't matter because the rock was in full effect. Feedback after coming off stage was unanimously very very good, from girlfriends to promoters to DJs to random bystanders. It all bodes very well.

I'm currently in the process of filling up the gig diary. As it stands I've got an acoustic date on April 22nd at City Screen, York supporting Falling Spikes, and we've got a full band gig on May 20th at Carpe Diem in Leeds for The Grain Division which should be excellent.

The theme for the new incarnation of my band is thus: No half measures, no cheap-ass gigs, no "good enough is good enough". We play 110% or we just don't play. There are too many shite bands out there doing the rounds, living off their perceived reputation or social cache, and not enough actually delivering a quality product. Every AKP gig from now on, as far as I can reasonably guarantee, will be an explosion of sound and movement - an experience no less.

Horrendous toss like Arctic Monkeys has provided gig-going with a welcome boost in image, so this year might be a good time to capitalise by actually giving people value for money. Then again, there's always reality television.

INCREDIBLE NEWS: I actually wrote a new song last weekend, the first new song of any solidity that I've written in about a year. It's quite good and it's called "Something Beautiful". What's interesting to note is that I don't write more because I have some kind of writer's block, or I can't write anymore because I have nothing else to say (which is what I feared), it's simply that I don't have enough time. When I first started the band I was quite prolific, but that's because I was living in a house where everyone else inexplicably hated me, so I spent every night squirrelled away in my bedroom with my 12 string, emerging only for the occasional cup of tea when the coast was clear. Nowadays, I'm busy every night rehearsing, compereing, gigging, kung-fuing, web designing or on rare occasions spending quality time with my girlfriend. Doesn't leave a lot of time for wistful strumming.

So I must rectify that.

It will be easier when all the compereing dies down during the summer, I think. In other news, if anyone reading this wants to give me a late-night talk radio DJ job, in which I could help callers with their problems and occasionally get involved, leading to about an hour of chases through dark warehouses, getting involved with femme fatales and then wrapping it up with a heartfelt and soulful on-air epiphany about life, accompanied by wailing saxophone, that would be great.

Nobody said it was easy

Quick update for you all, just to let you know I'm not dead because I know how you worry.

Most of my spare time (not that I have much of it) has been taken up rehearsing with the guys for our comeback gig on the 4th March (MINE @ Leeds Uni, on about 9pm). The band really is sounding bloody good. Still got some of the old promo CDs from last year to give out at gigs and what have you but when they're gone, I'll most likely get some more done (at Cadman Lane, because Nev is a dude).

Recording wise, I'm at the stage where there's actually not much tracking to be done. I'm going to completely rerecord Serious Suburbia because I think I can play a better version of it to be honest, and I'm going to keep it a really simple straight-ahead rock track without too many bells and whistles. The other night I started the process of trying to get 16 months worth of recording to sound like it's all done at the same time. Getting some kind of cohesiveness into the album will be a real trick.

If anyone can recommend a mastering house, that would be good. I'll most likely splash out and get the finished product properly mastered and finished before getting a few hundred promo CDs duped and releasing it as an internet-only product. Tis the way forward, it worked for Arctic Monkeys and let's face it, they're fucking shit.

Adios!