This blog has been such a long time coming... What a crazy few months it's been! We are still getting the occasional aftershock but things feel like they're finally settling down a bit (fingers crossed) If you missed it, we had another pretty scary earthquake on Feb 22nd and that changed a lot of things in Christchurch. Town is still cordoned off and there is rubble absolutely everywhere in the city centre... But it finally feels like things are opening up again - and we're rediscovering some of our favorite places opening in new locations and there are some lovely new places opening too, though it still feels a bit barren here and there are so many places that were the heart of this city, that we won't see again for a long long time.
A few things I've recently discovered that make me happy; Piko wholefoods is now on Stanmore road, Scorpio books is open again in Riccarton, the arts centre bead shop has a little shop on the corner of cranford st and innes road, and the cheesemongers are open in the arts centre :)
This whole thing also delayed the album... we started recording before the first earthquake... It has been such an adventure. I recorded 3 songs when I was in Iceland last summer, and the first song we did was 'Rattle my bones' With a string quartet recorded here in Christchurch. Rattle my bones was also the first song released (it's here on bandcamp.com) and it felt so right to let it go... after the first quake and Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupting in Iceland, that just felt like my life. - 10 minutes after I sent out an email that 'Rattle my bones' the first single from the album was out - we had the second, BIG earthquake... And now... we have another volcano erupting in Iceland! Madness...
I'm so happy to finally say the album is finished :) and after everything that has happened, We decided it needs to be the name of the album; Rattle my bones. I'm so excited to hear what you all think.. it will be released very very soon - and.. since there are so few places open here in Christchurch and we have lost so many music venues - I will be doing a very special album release concert with the band in a very special place *join the mailing list for the where and when
Here is a new song, my very first ukulele song. I wrote it a couple of days before we finished recording, and it will be the final song on the album. The inspiration came from a saying we have in Iceland, if you're bored 'að drepast úr leiðindum' or dying of boredom... - we also have the sayings dying of cold, dying of thirst, dying of this and that as a measure of how awful something is - but, there is no saying for 'dying of happiness' and I thought, that would be a pretty nice way to go.
And I am very happy :)
[youtube]http://youtu.be/ngPLAl33low[/youtube]
I'm going to end this blog with a promise to blog a bit more ;) and here are some photos from the quake and another live song...
Jason Webley was here in Christchurch and was meant to be playing with Amanda Palmer at AL's bar that night...
And I know it's a strange and selfish thing to say but it was so wonderful to have Jason here, the two of us were at home when the quake hit, we were about to head into town for a coffee and lunch.. We had dinner (cooked outside on the bbq) with neighbours that night, by candle light while the chaos and the sirens continued outside.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/7quwQuMfWpo[/youtube]