We are getting very close to completing our album now and we have started to talk with PR people about the promotion of it. Having had complete control over the creative process and direction of the album for me it's always a tense time when letting people hear our work for the first time. I'm very precious about what we have created and this week we have started to get feedback from the people that will be doing our press. One of their comments was that we needed a harder mix of the track we will be releasing as our first single "On and On" - Anyway to cut a long story short I got up pretty early today and worked on this mix, have a listen here.
http://www.northernkind.co.uk/10x/On_and_On_(STRUKCHA_MIX).mp3
Hope you like it.
Saturday 17 March 2007
Wednesday 14 March 2007
Parallel lines (Sarah)
I too have a Townsend story!
In my first 7 years of life, I lived on the Eyres Monsell estate in Leicester - next to Sue Townsend! Not only that, but my mum & dad donated her a pair of curtains when she first moved to the estate. I'm sure her daughter was called Vicky and we used to hang around together, with my big sis' Gina.
Gosh Leicester is such a hot-bed of phenomonal talent; Sue Townsend, Mark Morrisson, ShowaddyWaddy....
My dad worked on 'Linekers' fruit and veg stall too. Apparently he got the hump, because Gary was better at calling out 'Come and get your bananas'.
Of course, Sheffield is my adopted home town now - but I'd like to think Matt and I will join the Leicester alumni eventually. Then life will be complete.
Ttfn x
In my first 7 years of life, I lived on the Eyres Monsell estate in Leicester - next to Sue Townsend! Not only that, but my mum & dad donated her a pair of curtains when she first moved to the estate. I'm sure her daughter was called Vicky and we used to hang around together, with my big sis' Gina.
Gosh Leicester is such a hot-bed of phenomonal talent; Sue Townsend, Mark Morrisson, ShowaddyWaddy....
My dad worked on 'Linekers' fruit and veg stall too. Apparently he got the hump, because Gary was better at calling out 'Come and get your bananas'.
Of course, Sheffield is my adopted home town now - but I'd like to think Matt and I will join the Leicester alumni eventually. Then life will be complete.
Ttfn x
Friday 2 March 2007
Funny night (Matt)
Well I guess this is what having a blog is all about. It will probably become the "not so sectret diary of Matt Culpin aged 30 something..." Funny as this sounds, I actually grew up with Danny Townsend who's mum is Sue Townsend the author of the Adrian Mole books. I don't remember a girl called Pandora but we were both 13 and 3/4 around the time of the TV programme. I only ever see Danny walking around Sainsburys nowadays so I expect his mum to write a book fairly soon called "Adrian Mole the Sainsbury's years" Like me Danny was into music and technology and had some very cool gear. He set-up a recording studio in Leicester about 15 years ago and also owned the White Room night club for a while.
Yesterday I was at the Emirates stadium attending a conference and happened to sit next to a very cool Italian guy who worked for AC Milan. During our conversation I learnt that his cousin filmed a series for the BBC called Francescos Italy, I remember watching this and felt that it did a great job at selling Italy to the British public. For me it's interesting that a table of 8 people from very different backgrounds find common groung in talking about food, travel and music.
It's late now and I need to sleep. Night! x
Yesterday I was at the Emirates stadium attending a conference and happened to sit next to a very cool Italian guy who worked for AC Milan. During our conversation I learnt that his cousin filmed a series for the BBC called Francescos Italy, I remember watching this and felt that it did a great job at selling Italy to the British public. For me it's interesting that a table of 8 people from very different backgrounds find common groung in talking about food, travel and music.
It's late now and I need to sleep. Night! x
I also have a confession... (Matt)
My own Influences to some maybe be very obvious, however there are very specific songs that kick me off in a particular direction with most of our tracks.
Loser - This was spawned from re-discovering an old Gary Numan song called "We Take Mystery (To Bed)" I guess the main synth line is pretty similar but the rest of the song is very different. The original Gary Numan version I think is a blatant rip off of Japan, the bass, synths and even the singing style is a pretty obvious rip.
Millionaire - This started life after hearing a track by Matinee Club (fka - The Modern) called "Sometimes". It was the driving bass-line that I liked in particular and this became the main component when writing Millionaire. There isn't anything similar about these tracks anymore other than you could probably sing the chorus to "Sometimes" over Millionaire. Many people have said that Millionaire reminds them of Yazoo, they are a big influence but I don't hear anything in this track to suggest that.
Seen the light - Depeche Mode "Just Can't Get Enough" for the main synth sound.
Sometimes - I think the bass-line reminds me of a Pet Shop Boys song, probably the one they did for the theme tune to the 80's Clothes Show programme. Although I like the PSBs I have never really thought of them as an influence.
Step Back - There is nothing that really influenced this when I first put the track together. After recording the vocals I changed some of the sounds as I wanted to create a very electronic feel. I really liked the sound of The Human Leagues last album "Secrets" so sonically I used this as a reference point.
Home - This started out with a completely different backing track which in part was influenced by a song by a band called Hard Corps, they were around in the late 80's and supported Depeche Mode but didn't really have that much commercial success. After recording the vocals I felt it didn't really work yet I really liked the vocals. I then worked on another three other versions of the track and finally came up with one that we liked. Listening to it now it reminds me loosely of an early track by Depeche Mode called "The Sun and the Rainfall" , in my opinion a very underrated track.
Please - We are going to drop this from the album and probably the live set. This started out as an old Minithin song called Keith, there are some obvious Yazoo references in this. I really like the song but we feel it's not really ours as the lyrics and original vocal melody where written by Stuart Simpson.
Loser - This was spawned from re-discovering an old Gary Numan song called "We Take Mystery (To Bed)" I guess the main synth line is pretty similar but the rest of the song is very different. The original Gary Numan version I think is a blatant rip off of Japan, the bass, synths and even the singing style is a pretty obvious rip.
Millionaire - This started life after hearing a track by Matinee Club (fka - The Modern) called "Sometimes". It was the driving bass-line that I liked in particular and this became the main component when writing Millionaire. There isn't anything similar about these tracks anymore other than you could probably sing the chorus to "Sometimes" over Millionaire. Many people have said that Millionaire reminds them of Yazoo, they are a big influence but I don't hear anything in this track to suggest that.
Seen the light - Depeche Mode "Just Can't Get Enough" for the main synth sound.
Sometimes - I think the bass-line reminds me of a Pet Shop Boys song, probably the one they did for the theme tune to the 80's Clothes Show programme. Although I like the PSBs I have never really thought of them as an influence.
Step Back - There is nothing that really influenced this when I first put the track together. After recording the vocals I changed some of the sounds as I wanted to create a very electronic feel. I really liked the sound of The Human Leagues last album "Secrets" so sonically I used this as a reference point.
Home - This started out with a completely different backing track which in part was influenced by a song by a band called Hard Corps, they were around in the late 80's and supported Depeche Mode but didn't really have that much commercial success. After recording the vocals I felt it didn't really work yet I really liked the vocals. I then worked on another three other versions of the track and finally came up with one that we liked. Listening to it now it reminds me loosely of an early track by Depeche Mode called "The Sun and the Rainfall" , in my opinion a very underrated track.
Please - We are going to drop this from the album and probably the live set. This started out as an old Minithin song called Keith, there are some obvious Yazoo references in this. I really like the song but we feel it's not really ours as the lyrics and original vocal melody where written by Stuart Simpson.
Thursday 1 March 2007
I have a confession to make (Sarah)
I was never that in to synth music. For one, I'm far too young to remember Matt's favourite bands (LOL) and two, I'm actually an indie-kid / raver at heart! HOWEVER, I'm pleased to say that during the process of NK's manifestation, all that old codswallop is changing. Writing the tracks for our debut album has been a journey of discovery - and I am succumbing to the dirty funky world of electro-pop. Besides, I live in Sheffield so it would be rude not to.
More soon....... x
More soon....... x
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