Gentle

One more song from album ‘Below a Massive Dark Land’ is out today, it’s called Gentle along with a beautiful video by Ellie Wintour and Sophie Lincoln.

More merch stuff here (whats left)

I’m always asked to give a quote about a song, my head goes blank, obviously, and I’m filled with a mysterious nausea (and rage) when I find myself incapable of completing the task. Someone asked me once how I felt when releasing a song or if I was proud, I could never say I felt pride, and I could never pretend to be overjoyed by it. Although I’m very aware it’s a privilege to do something as silly as ‘releasing a song’, (songs out! bla) my actual real emotions around it are difficult and probably pointless to describe. With this one, there is something slightly novel though, I do still like this song. Which is strange because that same raging nausea usually comes back when I have to listen or interact with old songs but not this one… I still like it. This isn’t to say that I become repulsed by playing old songs, on the contrary, they normally grow into something more enjoyable, transferred from one cry-into-void into the same thing but a few years later. Anyway, I did write a quote but here I’m going to give an unofficial and nonsensical quote that doesn’t have anything to do with the song but has more to do with Monday the 22nd of July 2024, because writing is fun and writing carelessly is even better.

‘I wash my plates and cutlery in the shower with me and my body, I’ll wash my laundry in the shower too, I wash my soap dishes in the shower with me, I bring them in. If I had a permanent cat I would also wash it in the shower with me, I wash my diary, page after page after page. Gentle, gently goes through life. I have glided through this life with such unmistakable grace, you wouldn’t believe it. I don’t understand at all when people talk of misery or of bitter regret, of losing to your own horrifying inadequacy, and how there is no learning to be had from this. This I have not understood or seen. I write 10,000 words to find myself and I find nothing, the same endless space, always littered with some star or another with some man or woman or animal or plant. Always scattered and slowly dissipating, a tiny pool next to it but the day rolls on, relentless, and I must wash my dishes with me in the shower.’

Heres the shows for this year, with some new US dates plus supports announced!

I’m particularly excited that Mildred can play with us, Will Fortna (one of the members) was the person who encouraged me to play my first solo show in 2018. I didn’t want to do anything with my songs but he insisted I played a show he was putting on and said he would play with me if I did it. Then we started making music together and expanding my first songs so all this stuff that’s followed is partially thanks to him for giving me the first push! Thanks Will, plus, his new band is amazing.

USA Tour dates (solo)

22/08- Los Angeles, CA- Barnsdall Gallery Theatre (supporting Angelo De Augustine)

24/08- Ojai, CA- Greater Goods

05/09- Arcata, CA- The Miniplex (support from Blub)

08/09- Portland, OR- Millennium Music (instore)

13/09- Walla Walla, WA- Billsville West (support from Mildred)

15/09- Seattle, WA- The Rabbit Box (support from Mildred)

21/10- Boston, MA- Warehouse XI (support from Adeline Hotel)

23/10- Philadelphia, PA- First Unitarian Church (Side Chapel) (support from Adeline Hotel)

25/10- Brooklyn, NY- Union Pool (Support from Frances Chang)

26/10- Washington, DC- Rhizome (Support from Adeline Hotel)

UK Tour dates (mainly full band)

26/09- Portsmouth- Pie & Vinyl (instore)

30/09- London- Rough Trade West (instore)

06/11-London- St Pancras Old Church (duo)

07/11- Bristol- Jam Jar

08/11- Liverpool- Leaf

09/11- Newcastle- Cumberland Arms

10/11- Glasgow- McChuills

12/11- Leeds- Hyde Park Book Club

13/11- Manchester- Deaf Institute

14/11- Cambridge- Storey's Field Centre

16/11- Falmouth- The Cornish Bank

17/11- Frome- The Tree House

18/11- Exeter- Cavern Club

20/11- Ipswich- St Stephens Church

21/11- London- The Ivy House

EU Tour dates (mainly full band)

14/08- St Malo, France- La Route de Rock Festival, La Plage (duo)

03/12- Lille, France- L'Aéronef

04/12- Brugge, Belgium- Cactus Café

06/12- Haldern, Germany- Pop Bar

07/12- Hamburg, Germany- Nachtasyl

08/12- Berlin, Germany- Neue Zukunft

10/12- Cologne, Germany- Subway

11/12- Amsterdam, Germany- Paradiso

12/12- Brussels, Belgium- Botanique

13/12- Paris, France- La Boule Noire

Credits for the song and video are as follows

Arranged by Naima Bock, Jack Ogborne, Cassidy Hansen, Oscar Guardans, Meitar Wegman and Clem Appleby

Produced by Jack Ogborne and Joe Jones at The Crypt Studios

Mixed by Jason Agel at Seed + Sky Studios

Engineered by Joe Jones

Mastered by Kevin Tuffy at Manmade Mastering

Clem Appleby- Bass, Backing vocals

Meitar Wegman- Saxophone

Oscar De Guardans- Backing vocals, Electric Guitar, Harmonium

Cassidy Hansen- Drums, Backing vocals

Jack Ogborne- Piano, Prepared Piano

Fidelma Hanrahan- Harp

Horn Section

Alex Mckenzie- Flute

Tom Hardwick-Allen- Trombone

Nathan Pigott- Saxophone

Hannah Hever- Bass Clarinet

Choir- Francesca Brierley, Aga Ujma, Dana Gavanski, Dimitri Dnontis, Holly Whitaker,

James Howard, Liam Ramsden, Samuel Fryer

Video credits

Set Design / Director- Ellie Wintour

Costume Design / Director- Sophie Lincoln

Editor- Ellie Wintour / Kit Hardwood

Colourist- Kit Hardwood

Director of Photography- Sam Donvito

Production- Studio84

Set Painters- Robert Carter, Dana Margolin, Flo White, Ella Margolin

Set Builders- Matt Robey, Lucas James

Special thanks to- Simon Robey & Madeleine Bunting, Edward & Sandie Elgar.

If you’ve made it this far then here’s a Sparklehorse cover of ‘Getting it Wrong’ I did last week, the tape on the other side reversed but it was in key so worked out well.

Lastly:

Listening- pretty much just Radio 4, Lomelda, The Breeders, Duncan Trussels Family Hour podcast, a lot of Ram Dass and Jack Kornfield.

Reading- Just finished ‘Drive your plow over the bones of the dead’ by Olga Tokarczuk (I wouldn’t recommend), I read Mount Eerie / Phil Elverums ‘diary’ book ‘Dawn’ about his time in Norway, I read that in two days (would highly recommend), currently reading the Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing and looking forward to reading a bunch of books I bought the other day especially Clarise Lispector (Brazilian writer).

Watching- Re-watching ‘Cunk on Britain’, still hits.

From Naima x