Things to come

I’ve had a worm-tweakingly lovely response to my new Sieben Lietuva EP, and the new Sieben sound – thank you, to those who’ve given it so, played it, bought it, shared it, eaten it in the pale moonlight. The digital-only release is a reflection on the modern world, that I’m just about coming to terms with. It certainly makes sense for the artist; Each Divine Spark took £4,800 and a year of my life working hard, to release as a ‘thing’; it broke even after eighteen months of further work and gigging. (If you don’t count my time developing, writing, researching, recording, and the studio equipment I bought to facilitate its release. And let’s face it, artists never do count any of that time). Leituva EP, my latest work, broke even within six days of release – even with a hell of a lot less people actually buying it than Each Divine Spark. (If you don’t count my time, or the six months I spent recording, re-recording, and re-re-recording them to develop a new Sieben sound. Include some crying, maniacal laughing, dancing, moshing, despairing, munching and wiggling in there too).

I’ve been working on getting all my live set playable with new looper and all-new technological effects pedals: I’ve eventually amassed up to around thrity five Sieben songs I can now do live. (That’s three hours plus on my Logic file, even playing each of them as short as possible -prepare for Grateful Dead-type concert, then! These songs span across the Sieben albums since the early Stone Age, when I was first discovered as a charcoal cave painting in Southern France 😉 Loki is one that people have often asked for, that I can now do as a loop. (It was originally written on guitar). Similarly, Anubis, from Hellfires (2000) and Ogham Inside The Night, as well as one from newer albums such as Minack, Donald, Floating, and I Saw A Face.

Got a really fun, typically odd, concoction of gigs coming up (see my Tour Dates section for details) in the UK and Europe in the next couple of months. Germany, Furth and Berlin this weekend; Henley Festival will be wondrous, in a couple of weeks, beside The Thames, bring your own boat; in Northern France with lovely art mavericks and secret by-night plaster-casters Rosa Crux, as August begins; then off to Blackpool for the Rebellion Punk festival in the Winter Gardens, where the pies are golden. After that I’m hoping to play in a tudor house in a park, and up a twenty metre firetruck, and a minor Tramlines appearance in the back room of a pub. All good, then 😉

I’ve just re-released Intimate & Obstinate (1999, that’s a previous Century, folks!), my first ever solo and CD release, on my Bandcamp. You can listen or buy, here. Same, with Lietuva EP, here.

Next up for me is finally getting round to some Rasp concerts, I reckon, along with all the Sieben ones. And working on a new EP, possibly a ‘Norse’ one. And working out what all the flashing lights and buttons on my new pedals do 😉
 
Matt Howden – June 2015