Carried Away

It would seem we have some explaining to do.

It’s been almost exactly a whole year since we posted last on WordPress and truth be told little of much note has happened in that time, in fact it feels as though everything I could write about here has fallen within the past month prior to this entries writing. I’ll follow this up later in the month with a catch up entry talking about everything that has actually happened in the past few weeks, however that can wait for now.

After beginning work with producer Richard Trubridge in late March we have found ourselves to be in a position we felt wouldn’t come nearly as soon as it has. We have watched the EP that we have pushed towards (it genuinely has nearly killed us) for almost two years become almost complete, save for mixing on two tracks. These songs are moments, stories and troubles we have shared together over the past two years, some have transformed in meaning over the time we have lived along side them without the resolution of release to set the lyrics in stone and some, like Carried Away itself, are far more current.

At the beginning of May we will release our first single, in fact first song, in over two years and with it comes a significant turning point for Kerosene; gone is the lack of self confidence in our recordings, gone is the lack of production and gone is our passive approach to live performance. Instead here is a song which embodies the progress we’ve made together as a group of friends since becoming a 6 piece over a year ago. The progress which seems to have concentrated itself into one month.  We have rebuilt ourselves, re-learnt our trade and, although far from perfect, we are now ready to be the band we always wished we could be.

“Oh I’m so out of place, Oh I’m so sick of getting carried away”

Carried Away will be released on the 1st of May.

– Tom

Talking with Generator

Well it’s been a busy week for Kerosene, but two high points have been the Music Industry Talk from Generator (check them out, a brilliant outlet for budding musicians) and also the gig last night at Dalton, supporting Exploding Buddhas. The talk was a detailed overview of the modern music industry, looking at various roles within record companies, promoting, gigging, and releasing music. Tom, Lizzie and I attended the talk, and we have to say it was an enlightening experience into the complexities of getting from writing a song to releasing an album; and making that album viable. This was a slightly daunting thought, but I took pages of extremely neat and organised notes so we should take the music industry by storm.
Another worry that was laid to rest was the fact that the majority of band will be off to university in a year, and how this would affect being able to write and play gigs. However, after talking about other bands who have done this, it seems that there are multiple ways that this benefits a band, in gaining a bit of life experience to write better songs and have a wider range of places to gig at. We left the talk feeling more motivated than ever.
You can find Generator here

– Ella

A Prehistoric Practice

After a very productive band practice yesterday, we have quite a list of upcoming gigs over the summer, including Darlington Music Festival and Richmond Battle of the Bands. So, a shiny new set list is in order with plenty of shiny new songs, which should keep us busy for a couple of months.
In other news, Lizzie, Tom and I ventured down to Manchester on Monday for a day of workshops with The Big Music Project. Although the workshops were beneficial, our ulterior motive was to collect as many contacts as possible, and of course make good use of the McDonalds across the road. All in all it was a lovely day, and our drive on the way back was spent listening to a number of albums that Andy (the music guy from where we practice) deemed essential to our musical education and after a slight detour, stopping off at various prehistoric monument sites which Andy talked us through with enthusiasm that rivalled anything I think I have ever experienced.

-Ella B

New material and the coming future

Since the release of our Wanderlust EP we have been spending our time writing solidly. Initially we had planned to release an album straight off during this past school year (September 2013 to September 2014) however in this last year we’ve built up around 10 or so songs that need recording and unfortunately at this point in time with A levels fast approaching things will progressively slow down until they come to a halt over the exam period. We will not be writing or recording during this time.

However despite this we will be playing a charity gig in Dalton during April, the Barnard Castle ‘Sounds In The Grounds’ Festival toward the end of May as well as fighting for a place to play at this years Richmond Live Festival via a battle of the bands competition (Date to be confirmed).  

Once exams are out of the way we will be kicking off the Summer in true Kerosene style at the Darlington Festival on July 19th and, of course, following this we will be back in the studio writing and recording as much as physically possible. During this coming summer we hope to be in the position to release a follow up EP plus have an album already written and recorded to release over the coming year. 

– Tom

Sheffield Graffiti

While spending the day in Sheffield I found myself walking down streets far from the beckon call of the city centre (Sounds posh, really I was on my way to the football). Here is an area run down, unused and fully open to graffiti artists, as a result it’s a place which lends itself favourably toward a good picture or two. What has this got to do with Kerosene? Not much at the moment admittedly however the area in general made me think of the artwork used predominantly by bands such as Joy Division (See: Joy Division by Peter Hook book cover) who used the simplicity of Manchester’s industrial city landscape to portray a concept. Today what struck me was the stark contrast between the vibrant colour of the graffiti artwork and the mundaneness of the industrial buildings, that alone would be striking enough but couple that with the almost blinding sunlight of today then you have a rather bloody cool photograph if you ask me. An image which I think fits the band down to the ground and something which I think we should look to use if ever we get the chance.

– Tom

Welcome!

Welcome to our blog! Over here we’ll be posting regular updates on exactly what we get up to every week plus any extra stuff that might interest you in any way. This is, for want of a better phrase, our home. To which you are all welcome.

– Kerosene.