Foy Vance: Blog

Blog

1 hour Project

25 Jun 2009. 0 comments

Joanne and I went for a coffee this morning and spoke mainly about being unable to engage in 'NOW'.... strangely enough, just talking about it helped us to appreciate it. We set ourselves a task. Create a piece of work about 'NOW', using any medium you like. The only stipulation is that it has to be finished in one hour.

Here's mine (for what it's worth):

a brief update

22 Jun 2009. 1 comment

A brief look at my few days in New York in pictures... Loads happened, many stories to be told but I'm flat out at the minute writing... will try to update you on all that's been happening later this week. Trust you're all keeping well though and enjoying the sunshine (assuming you've been getting it in your neck of the woods?)...

I should mention a few things quickly though before shooting back into the studio.

The Ltd Edition EPs (the ones I left behind at a gig) will be going on sale from the site next week, just getting them shipped off to the mail order company now... thanks for your patience!

The gig with the Roots in NYC went extremely well (albeit extremely brief) and they've asked me back to do my own set as their main support, so I should be back out in NYC in July...flip me, that's next month! time flies... I'll let you know the second I get a date.

Also I have a few other gigs that will be up on the site by tomorrow all being well. A couple in Edinburgh, one in Switzerland, another in Falmouth and some others that I can't remember right now... hope to see some of you there....

till later on in the week, stop look and listen ;)

Upgrade

My Station

Chips

Don't Walk

Donald Ducked

Goin' Underground

Freeze

Walk

Cross Town Traffic

Goin' Downtown

Hope's a one way Street

That leads to a Ketchup Mickey Mouse (genuinely unintentional!!)

NYC this Tuesday

31 May 2009. 6 comments

To all New York buddies...I'll be in the highline with the Roots this Tuesday night. It's a jam session so heaven knows what'll happen!? I have funny feeling that it's already sold out but thought I'd let you know just in case. Sorry about the late notice but the whole thing has cone about on the back foot for me too...dates kept changing until we settled on this one last minute.... Right, I'm off to enjoy a glass of champagne care of Josh and Anna (aka legends)...toodle pip

Wurdamouth

21 May 2009. 2 comments

Well it's about two week since the last date (at least I think so) and the final specks of dust are just a bout settled. I always forget how long it takes me to get back to normality (whatever that is) after playing every night for a while. I really don't know how the bigger bands do it; going on tour for a year or more at a time? I suppose needs must eh, if you gotta do it you'll find a way. As for me, I go in the road for three weeks and come back utterly disoriented and emotionally spent. However, no better way to spend it. I had a great tour, really enjoyed myself. Not least of all hanging out with Iain Archer for days on end. He couldn't do the Irish dates with me and within one day I started to really miss him!

I wanted to say a huge thanks to everyone for showing up and spreading the word. Being that I've been working under cover for that last while in the studio doing this that and the other, I really didn't expect the gigs to be so well attended, but they were and it's surely thanks to you all doing what I hope you would when I first set about setting up a record label called 'Wurdamouth'... it was precisely word of mouth that made the gigs so special. Every time I looked at all the dates that were sold out I felt very proud to have folks like your good selves out there spreading the gospel according to Foy (disclaimer, there is no gospel according to Foy, and if I ever write one for goodness sake don't read it!). I know your supposed to be cool about sold out shows, ya' know, like not mention it on your website ;)... and nonchalantly pass of anyone's reference to it, but I don't give a shit about that, it made me proud that it happened via wurdamouth, no poster campaigns or slots on TV shows, just you and your enthusiasm. I'm beginning to sound like a gushing Daddy...maybe the dust hasn't quite settled yet...?

Anyway...I have a gig this Saturday in Liverpool (details will be up shortly) and then a gig in NYC on June 2nd (as it stands) which I'll update you on when I know for sure what's happening.

In the meantime, I've got another short film to finish off and a couple of holidays to go on... life's tough eh! Feel like I've been on a bit of a holiday since I got back. Every time the suns out before I know it I'm in the garden with a G&T or Corono or some other summery drink... like CIDER... NYUM!

A friend of mine from Memphis, called Charlie Wood, is in London this week and gigging in Oliver's bar in Greenwich on Friday night. He's sort of a blues/jazz musician... but the key to Charlie in my opinion is his unbelievable voice! I don't even know who to compare it to. When people say 'he's got an unbelievable voice', it makes me wary because you often find that it means they can do lots of things with their voice, like fancy Mariah Carey licks, and I must admit, I sort of find it all very meaningless...BUT, Charlie! He's got all that but doesn't use it until precisely the right moment. He does a cover of American tune by Paul Simon and there's a line he sings in there that every time I hear it I piss myself laughing because I just don't know what else to do with myself?

Point is, he's great, it's a fiver in, it starts around 8ish...I highly recommend you head down, I know I will. Aside from that, Oliver's bar is run by Olivier the mad French man who alone, is worth the journey to Greenwich! In winter, you'll be walking down the stairs to the venue and be overcome with a wondrous smell, only to find he's cooking pheasant over the log fire and giving it out to the customers... "no reeely, you zimply mus try ziss, c'est tres bon"

Here's the on thing I need to tell you... I'm really sorry to those of you in Belfast that didn't get a copy of the new EPS when they ran out on the second night, and also for those of you elsewhere in the world that weren't able to get along to any of the gigs (understandably so). I, in my siv headedness, left a box of the CDs at my Brighton gig, so there are some left... not many but some, around a couple of hundred of each or something. So I'll be putting them up on the shop over the next week or so. I first need to check the amounts and make sure we don't sell what we haven't got, if you know what I mean...

So, enough rambling for now...speak more later...f

Mike McShane and the tour

25 Apr 2009. 8 comments

Been really enjoying the tour! But feel I should say a quick thanks and sorry to those in Cardiff, for being kicked out so quickly after the show. The whole idea of created 2 limited edition EPs (1000 of each) and not putting them in shops, only releasing them via gigs is a way of giving you some music (that I'd usually keep to myself) by way of saying thanks for the support. So I was a bit pissed that you got kicked out quick and we didn't really get to hang out for long...next time....

Went out for dinner last night with Joanne after the show at the Camden Crawl, to a place called the Chocolate Factory. It's a really great place near London Bridge, good food, good beer and a good vibe. on top of the, as we were about to leave, in walked Mike McShane (most notable for Whose Line Is It Anyway)... through a very bizzare turn of events, Joanne got introduced to him, so we ended up talking for a while. Really interesting and funny guy. He knew a lot more about Irish writters than I did which was a tad embarassing, being that he's from San Fransisco and I'm from Ireland, but there you go.

Up in Oxford tonight (in fact between the last sentence and this one I've just done a phone interview with BBC Oxford...livin' the dream :/ ). It would seem there are only about 10 tickets left so if you're planning on going you should book now. In fact the same goes for the second night in Belfast, just a few left... keeping you in the loop.

Right, I'm off to have a shave and a shower (the latter is much needed)... see you soon.

3 down

19 Apr 2009. 4 comments

well the first three dates were great from my point of view!! Had an absolute blast. Not least of all in Glasgow, I'd been looking forward to that one since the tour was booked and now having played there again I remember why I like it so much.

Off to York tomorrow night, playing in a new venue called the Duchess. I'm told it's a wonderful place... I'll keep you posted.

Really been enjoying my time with Iain Archer, not to mention listening to him play. We've spent so many hours in the van up and down the motorways and haven't stopped ganshing yet (Irish terminology for chatting)... turns our we used to live around the corner from one another. On top of that, our Dads went to school together. I met Iain's Father last year and he had some great stories about my own Dad...

Anyway, just wanted to let you know I'm alive (just about) as I haven't posted so much of late. I've been spending time hanging out with my family. Sitting in the sun eating Summer food and drinking wine... the best reason for lack of posts I reckon.

I hope to see some of you at the shows (which are doing really well, four of them sold out a week ago, so thanks for that;)...

Till then...f

p.s. I highly reccomend you buy this and get it into your soul!!

ahh, my mighty underwater cub!

24 Mar 2009. 5 comments

It's nearly 3am. There's a cargo train rumbling past the end of my garden. The studio is warm and smokey. I'm drinking red wine from a tumbler and I've just written a new track for, what is now being referred to as, EP1. EP2 is under way also. Leo Abrahams was by here just over a week ago and left me with some beautiful and interesting sounds to play with. I'm a wild man for taking on too much but I have to say that I'm thoroughly enjoying floating from one EP to another. I was feeling the pressure of it earlier today so I did what is always best for me to do in such situations, which is to throw a stick in my spokes; hence writing a new song. The only way I can feel less cluttered is to give myself more to do then what I had originally seems less...does that make sense?

EP1 is now not going to be songs about my daughter, but songs about Joanne. Some songs that I've collected over the years and kept to ourselves and now this new one called 'Time Lays Low'...called so because it does. Time just quietly passes, minding it's own business but altering everything. Everything!

I have a meeting tomorrow with a theatre company about a project that integrates regular civilians with inmates. A very exciting prospect that will result in a live performance (on the outside...so to speak).

Had dinner at some friend's house today, Derek and Mary. Had the most amazing Thai Curry. Derek has a business that's about to lift off and go stratospheric. Sauce. He (and his brother) make sauce, but it's not just any old sauce, it's sensational sauce. I had a taste of the hottest one that they're working on...boy was it hot! It's referred to as the ring stinger...I'll keep you posted...or maybe not...

All this aside, by far the best thing to have happened today was my daughter learning to swim! This may not seem like much to you but being that I nearly drowned her in Egypt a couple of years back (by accident of course) this is a very big deal in our wee existence!

What now?

25 Feb 2009. 12 comments

Nothing nothing... just saying hello, that's all!

Got a last minute gig with Chris Cornell the other night in The Scala. What a great crowd, half of me expected to get boo'd off stage for not using a death metal fuzz pedal but they were among the best crowds I've played you (that's you, for those of you who have now joined the mailing list)... made some new friends, all whom promise to be at the Dingwalls gig on 27th April, in which case it should be a great night! On top of that Iain Archer (great artist and co-writer of Run by Snow Patrol...apparently some other girl recorded it lately but I haven't heard much about that... aye right! it's everywhere!!) I don't know if he'll be doing the London date or not yet as he has his own gig in London on 1st April (I highly recommend you go), but he'll be with me on all the other dates, and we'll be doing some playing together to boot....

Also working on another few surprises along the way, so be there or be...I don't know...somewhere else I guess...

Just about to pop back into the studio to work on one of the EPs that I'll be releasing on the tour. I had a great idea for it, namely to record songs about Ella (my daughter), and I recorded one, then let David Holmes hear it when I was over working with him and he insisted it went on our record... I thought about saying no, but he's bigger than me and from the Ormeau Road so I didn't want to risk getting shoe-d! I caved, and I'm glad I did; it sounds better the we've done it together.

Anyway, I'd best get on with gettin' on x

UK TOUR DATES

04 Feb 2009. 20 comments

Well I'm finally getting around to leaving my studio for a couple of weeks in order to come out and say hello. I suppose I'm a bit like a sea urchin, shedding my skeletons at an evolutionary pace. Or perhaps a snail in a playground, where you've got to be extra still for a long time before it shows it's head... at which point you poke it in the eye.. yeah not sure I like the latter analogy actually, let's stick with the skeleton shedd-er.

Well I hope to have shed a few skeletons by then, in the shape of a few EPs, that I plan to share with you... I figured that writing for the two short films, one feature, working on album two in my studio and working on album three with David Holmes, being a husband and a Daddy on school runs, swimming and ballet lessons etc simply wasn't enough to keep me busy...phew...beginning to wonder about my sanity... maybe it's just an inability to turn down something that entices me. Insane - incapable, what of it? Either way I've committed to making at least two EPs for the next tour and I plan to make it happen. I really want to get some of these songs out of my system. The don't quite fit into my album designs but they're still very relevant, to me at least, so I feel like I need to just get them out there. Off my chest and onto yours, ooh er...

Here's an idea of where I'm headed:
Guildford
Birmingham
Glasgow
York
Leeds
Cardiff
Portsmouth
Oxford
London

Dates to be added later today or tomorrow are Belfast and Dublin... and maybe a couple of others, you'd never know...

I'm actually doing a couple of other things in Belfast in February and March. In Feb there's a Songwriter festival in Belfast that also celebrates our sister city status with Nashville, so they have some Nashville writers and some Belfast (or thereabouts) writers coming together for a songs in the round sort of thing. And there'll be an intimate gig too (19th Feb Black Box)... then in March I'll be at the Ulster Hall with a ration of other artists to celebrate the reopening and singing songs of the bands we've heard there. It's the 9th March but I'm afraid it's Sold Out.. from what I can tell it sold out before anyone had really said anything about it on there website (I think word got out just who the special guests might be....ooh)...

Anyway, not to fear, my own Belfast date will be in the Ulster hall in early May, finishing of the tour in style... I'll confirm the date later today!!

Till we speak again, keep your chin up and don't eat the yellow snow...f

Sunny Obama icon

02 Feb 2009. 5 comments

A guy in Nashville read the last few posts on my 'Camper Caper' and created an Obama Icon in support...

Unfortunately I couldn't go and get the VW today as there's about 6inches of snow outside... in the words of Tom Waits "it's colder than a well diggers ass"...

Here's the first Q&A that I recorded a while ago but it was only put up on youtube the other week... Also got told about this the other week... think she's got a beautiful voice! Very flattering... I also saw a great video someone made for Homebird last year... I'll stick it up at a later date (or just go to youtube and search 'Homebird').... I'll be announcing some tour dates in April and a couple in May, probably later today. Looking forward to getting back out on tour!!