We’re working in the garage, our new home for the next month. Great sofa 🙂
pete ross
Just when you thought it was safe …
… to go on a 3 day pizza and red wine binge, the director calls and tells you she needs a little bit more Lara Croft up near Lake Como to finish the video. Spoiler, yes? Well, you’ll see.
So this week will involve a little more filming as well as a morning in the studio for rehearsal. We’re looking forward to playing again after so much time out with recording and mixing and all that jazz. We’re writing again already, and should have some new songs in our live set before you’ve even heard this new album…
A presto
xoxo SS
Shooting the breeze …
We had a very long day of filming yesterday for the new video clip, but what a lot of fun. Â I can’t wait to see the results.
I could get used to this kind of treatment.
The sun held out just enough for us, and the mosquito’s were in full force.
Great job & huge thanks: Viola, Nicolo, Valentina, Martina, Keith, Marco …
It’s all on for tomorrow…
… the make-up artist has arrived from Tuscany, the lights and camera are booked and ready, two 3,000 euro dresses have been borrowed from an unnamed fancy pants fashion house here in Milan…
and tomorrow we are shooting the music video for the new album.
I don’t want to give too much away yet, but we’re in need of some sunshine north of Milan tomorrow!
It’s a rollin…
We finally did it. FINALLY! Put the 10 songs onto a CD, with all the vocals and bits that we wanted, in an order that we liked, and put it in the post. Phew, it sure has been a marathon effort, but a lot of fun and we are super excited and can’t wait to let y’all hear it and tell us what you think.
After a lot of talk and pondering, both the title for the album and the cover photo materialised, seemingly of their own volition. I have a feeling that these things can’t be forced, and that when the time is right they will make themselves known, and so they did. No sneak peeks of either yet, sorry, we still want to reserve the right for tinkering.
We’ve booked a sound engineer for the end of March to start mixing, and mastering is lined up too. Things are all a’rolling!
I went to a great museum in Brescia over the weekend called Santa Giulia. They are having an exhibition of the Italian fashion designer Roberto Capucci which is brilliant, especially when viewed amongst the normal museum display. Wow, what I wouldn’t give for one of his frocks!
oui oui … Paris
This week has become a traditional trip to Paris for me, it’s the third year in a row I’ve spent my birthday there with Dimi & Sof in the kangaroom. Amongst other things it always involves gallons and gallons of vin rouge, Dimi missing days of work, and marathon shopping in smelly vintage shops.
This year it also involved something rather special. Sofy is the incredible lead singer of the Parisian girl band Tulla Larsen (that sounds good, doesn’t it?), and she kindly lent her vocals to a few songs on our new album.
Pete played an in-store at the record shop Gibert Joseph
Pete also played a solo acoustic gig at the infamous La Feline in Menilmontant, which was followed by significant levels of debauchery and drunkeness. Not us of course, we were in the VIP room with an innocent bottle of whisky. Thanks Pat.
Studio Day Two
It took all day yesterday to get the sound right in the studio and get underway. A little bit stressful, but we got there finally. Last night ended with me disturbing a wasp nest in the cottage, and then doing gymnastics trying to kill them all. They were pretty sleepy so luckily no-one got hurt. Apart from the wasps that is.
At 6.30pm on day two we have nailed three songs, which doesn’t sound like much, but they were the most difficult ones on the album. We are heading back in to the studio now to try and get another one or two done before Stefano kicks us out for the night.
This is the studio:
In between takes I have managed to get halfway through a blue and white scarf which is lungissimo. Gianluca thinks I need to see a psychiatrist for my addiction problems.
It probably would be better to rest my hands in between playing for hours, but it keeps me occupied. I am wearing holes in my fingers and feeling a bit like what’s his name, playing til his fingers bled, but this ain’t the summer of 69.
Pete Ross & The Sapphire 