Photoshoots and radio shows
Posted: July 19th '08Strike a pose, there's nothing to it...
In the temporary lull before the storm of recording fun begins I've been keeping busy putting a few things in place for the release. Not least of these is a photoshoot Mark and I did a week or so ago. I woke up one Sunday morning with an idea in my head for a shot for the EP cover. Giving the impression of the world stopping whilst everyone else seemed to be carrying on as normal. I liked it... The next day I spent a lunch hour reccy'ing a few locations around Leeds trying to find something that suited and when I found it soon put plans in place to get down there with Mark to get the shots.
I should at this point acknowledge Mark's patience and willing as I failed so spectacularly to explain the picture in my head in any legible form. Now the shoot was quite complex. Lots of multi-exposures and post-production required. It was further complicated by the fact that I had to be in them AND behind the camera at the same time. It was even FURTHER complicated by the fact I had to stand in the middle of a very busy three lane carriageway into Leeds city centre....
We arrived one VERY wet Wednesday evening to find that the location was surrounded by workmen and cones... not a good sign. In the end it worked in our favour... they'd kindly closed off the two lanes of traffic that I was required to stand in the middle of, thus preventing an untimely death that would have, quite frankly, put a bit of a dampener on the evening. We managed to find ourselves a spot between cones (thanks in no small part to Mark's patented "casually walk across the road whistling and then kick one of the cones out of the way before making a loop and casually walking back again" technique.
There were two shots I wanted to get, one under the dark arches and one out on the road. Everything went well, once we got over the hilarity of a load of road workers staring at us while Mark did a (really rather fetching) dance with his torch held proudly above his head. I think they thought we had escaped from a nearby institution but they very kindly left us to get on with it rather than kicking us out... maybe the entertainment value we brought to the site cancelled out the fact that we really weren't supposed to be there.
Anyway, post-production is done and I'm really pretty pleased with the photos (click for bigger):
Let me know what you think, drop me a line on simon@simonwiffen.co.uk.
All we hear is radio ga-ga...
Mark and I are going to be appearing on East Leeds Community Radio. We'll be playing three tracks form the forthcoming EP live in the studio and we'll be doing a short interview. We'll also be bringing in a few tracks that have influenced us so it should be a lot of fun. I'm especially grateful to Jas and Ed from Hope&Social who have kindly furnished me with a pre-release version of "Looking For Answers" to take along with me. This is a beautiful song and me and Mark are on it (in our own little way). In fact the band invited about 40 close friends and family along to sing backing for them, it was a wonderful night. There's a really rather lovely video of it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5waYtTe3k4s
You can see neither Mark or I on this video but you get bonus points for spotting my Harry who took great delight in being involved.
The show is on 7pm-8pm on 87.7FM or live online at http://www.elfm.co.uk/. There'll also be a listen again feature if you miss the show.
That's it for now. Hopefully I'll be able to confirm dates and release schedules for the EP soon... watch this space!
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