London, how you can suck them in and spit them out

Some close friends and fellow musicians told me the sad news today that they have decided to pull the plug on London. They have been here for several years, since the turned 20 pretty much, and have been writing/recording and gigging their music ever since. To really have a go, like so many others here, they chose to work low commitment, flexible low-paid jobs. The kind you fucking hate, but that leave you in no doubt as to why you 'chose' them in the first place. A means to an end in the strongest sense of the word.

So what is the end then? To get to be part of London's incredibly vibrant music scene where, despite the staggering number of ground-breaking class acts, everyone gets to play to decent-sized, attentive crowds of die hard music lovers, right?

Deutschland, wir sind auf dem Weg!

We are really excited, Must We Find a Winner is (finally) being released in Germany on the 30th of March!

A few blogs have already posted some bits about us.

Check it out if you speak German or let you yourself be impressed with google translate!

www.ohfancy.de
http://itstoolong.com
http://dasklienicum.blogspot.com

I will post reviews if/when we get some. Also, we will hopefully come and play a few shows in Germany with a few months, so watch this space!
This is what we would like our journey to feel like.

This week we've launch our competition to win one of Soren's guitars (as seen being played in the previous post).



To enter you can do one of two things. Simply Share this photo on Facebook (http://tinyurl.com/87vp7mo), or alternatively for those who love to tweet, retweet this (http://tinyurl.com/89flkro).

The winner will be announced Friday 2nd March, so get sharing and hopefully you could be the new owner of this lovely guitar!

Regards,

John x

P.S. Mixes are coming along wonderfully! Mark had his first big challenge to mix a song with 50+ tracks on it, a long messy battle as you can see, but he won in the end.

Etching

Here is a video of me playing 'Etching'. A song from our new album. The guitar I am playing will be given away in a competition starting this week, so be sure to check out Klak Tik's facebook/twitter pages and this could become yours!

Why oh why am I giving this guitar away, you might ask yourself?
Ask my girlfriend... Apparently 20 is enough. #whatever

Soren x

Feeling fesher than Gandhi after a lie-in

It's always a dream to begin the year feeling fresh and positive, but alas new years brutality has seen my dreams dashed on more occasions than I'd like to admit. However, to my surprise I have attacked 2012 thus far with gusto and 34 days in it does not seem like wavering. It's also apparent that both Soren & Matt are feeling the same and inspired by a late night drunk new years conversation all things Klak Tik are full speed ahead.

The album is coming along wonderfully and we're back focusing on the live set up again. Chris (also fresh, in fact so fresh it's boarding on smug) has been joining us as we work on a stripped down 4 person version of Klak Tik for the next few months (don't you worry the rest will be back soon). At first you can't help but miss the colours and texture added by 8 musicians, however you soon find yourself forced to start looking at the music in a different way which is actually super refreshing.

We've our first show of this year this Sunday (5th Feb) at The Gladstone Arms, Borough. It's a Safety First Records night featuring our good friends (and label mates) the Polly Tones, the first of a monthly residency for the beginning of the year. Pretty sure it's free, so please do pop on down.

Matt has brought to my attention an interesting video of Neil Young, he's talking about his quest for increasing the file sizes for digital music and therefore maintaining the quality lost through a 4/5 mb MP3. If you can get your head around some technically suspicious statements and odd analogies then you'll see some interesting and true points raised.

Till next time,

Stay safe,

John

x

still alive

So, it's nearly the end of the year. Man, that's flown by. Evidence is right here in front of me when I see how long it's been since I wrote here...

This is mostly to assure myself that I still exist.

For nearly a year I have been writing and recording the new album, starting with a month in the chapel in Wales, a time which is described in previous posts.

We are still not quite done recording, but damn my boots it if we won't be very soon. At this point I have written and recorded 25+ songs and it will soon be crunch time in terms of culling the litter. A painful process which I am kind of dreading. Kill your darlings, mr. Bonk. The really are darlings to me, a lot of the time.

Conversely, I honestly don't think I will ever stop writing songs, so fuck it, there's always another batch.

We have an awesome mixer Mark Bishop, who has already mixed a few tracks, and I can honestly say it is going to sound SWEEEEET.

We have played some memorable shows this year, perhaps most of all the Safety First Records launch gig at the Yard a month back.

In the first part of the new year we are playing some concerts at the Glad in Borough (a cosy old pub, utterly charming), so look out for those on Facebook. Seems to be the only place we announce our shows these days. If you don't use Facebook and still want to be kept in the loop let me know, then I shall write a physical letter to you!

I wish you merry end to the year 2011. Next year it's the olympics and I will be thinking of ways to get out of London, unless someone gives me a free ticket to the handball final.

love Soren

ps. We have finished our Safety First Records website, so go and check it out!

Even Stevens

A couple of us went to see Sufjan Stevens here in London last week. We agreed that was one of the best gigs we have ever experienced. Wow man! Sufjan really is one of the most brilliant artists of our time. If you get the chance to see him in your city, don't be cheap, pay what you have to to experience this spectacle!

His latest cryptic album Age of Adz really made so much more sense when seen live. All in all just awe-inspiring for this humble klaktician.

Rigged

We are still playing monthly at London's Book club for the fully unplugged L&U nights. If you get the chance you should really come down and check it out. These are really the best nights of music I have come across in London the last decade (not just because we are playing there...). There's a feeling of community amongst the artists and the crowd seems to really be part of the night. Active listeners, engaged but quiet and respectful. I hope we can continue to do this monthly slot for a while. It seems our band has really found its feet down there. We are playing 'together' more than ever before. I think, as a spectator, you have a better chance of understanding what it is we are trying to do in this set up. And hell, hearing the violins and brass sans amp is pure joy! Biggest challenge is for yours truly to 'project' those songs enough.

Two Brothers' Blood

The album we recorded in Wales is still being tinkered with. In amongst our other worldly duties we have been making lots of additional parts and minor tweaks to the album. Boiling things down. Simmering new ideas. Raising difficult issues. I am guessing we will take another few months to finish up. But, it's going to be fucking amazing, I'm sure of it!

About Safety First

Our own Safety First Records has signed a few more acts now. Our latest addition is Furnace Flowers which moniker of the amazing folk singer Felix Holt. Felix and I are currently recording his first EP in my studio. Click here to listen to one of our first layouts.

Also, soon we will be releasing the new EP for the Polly Tones, which we can't wait to show the world.

But the next big thing that happens is the release of Jack Cheshire's already much acclaimed album 'Copenhagen'! Keep your eyes peeled for that one, it really is a spectacular album.

Klak Tik is a happy band and the summer is looming and there is an infinite amount of music yet to grow in this life. Some will bloom here and bounce around our 5 dimensions before leaping into your universe. Some will spring from you. Everything in between is fireworks.