pete reading "drumming for dummies"

Even barney knows what a bar is.

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on our way for photo shoot reccy... but petes driving. shiiiiit!

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10:35am off to a flying start

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the beautiful chaos of the studio

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enter joe, our new pro-juicer

"I'm joe."

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FDP

We are entering 'Phase 2' of FDP, the Flags Development Program. Some songs have been written to the point where they are being brought forward to the band for further work, and Joe Reeves has started to join us once a week with the role of the producer, or Pro Juicer as he likes to be referred.

With every week, we are tailoring our work dynamic to get the best out of each other. We are learning new tricks that help ourselves and each other to produce better music and the result is an accelerated output of quality material.

We had been successful in having our track '54' chosen by Sound On Sound magazine to be the subject of Mike Senior's article Mix Rescue, to be published in the March issue next year. Hopefully this will come at the time when we start to promote our live sets.

Our meeting with a producer in London a while ago taught us to start generating a fan-base locally, rather than through music venues miles away. We have experience of playing empty halls as a result of our hastiness to 'get out there', and even though that may still happen in the future, it will be a lot less likely if we play local pubs close to our current fans. 'Phase 3' will be breaking free from the local circuit, once our fan-base starts to grow into London.

These local live shows will no doubt be longer than our half-hour sets we have prepared before, which means we need more material. Ideas for covers have been floating around, although they need to pass a few tests before being chosen. Namely, they need to be recognisable; have a sing-along melody; and for us to be able to play them either differently or better than the original. Obscure covers may be good, but people can get bored listening to an hour-set of unfamiliar material. In pubs, more people like to be able to hear a song they know and to sing along, and perhaps even throw their knickers at us. Shotgun first pair.


A recent trip to Turkey

New Methods, New Music...

For the last couple of months we've turned our attention from gigging to writing. We want to create a new set that's not limited to the conventions of the rock/indie band setup. The main tool in doing this is my new toy from ebay. It's a novation x-station, and is a midi controller, synth, and audio interface in one keyboard. When plugged into a laptop (running ableton live), it's a recording studio in one box. It means that, in the writing stage, I can record loops and have them play back instantly, build up layers, apply effects, and create new sounds using the hardware synth, or with any virtual synths. I'd also be able to use it live. It removes previous boundaries, and opens up a limitless space in which to be creative. This is a great thing, although having no limits does make finding a starting point harder; when you've got the whole world to explore, how do you choose a place to begin. This is a challenge that I enjoy. In fact, writing music is my favourite part of being in a band. It's starting with a seemingly blank canvas, and building something beautiful, exciting, honest, and expressive. It's an incredibly rewarding process.

We've also changed the way we write music as a band. In the past, we had written most of the songs together. This had worked well to a degree, but had also meant that sometimes the ideas and thoughts behind a song would lose their focus, as more people were interpreting one person's ideas and taking them in different directions. Now, we all work on our own, seperate ideas, and occasionally bounce them off each other. This is the stage that all our new songs are at at the moment. The plan is that when one of us completes a song, it will be shown to the rest of the band for tweaking and developing.

We've probably got about 15 seeds of ideas between us, and we're just starting to see some of them grow into the rough, beautiful forms of songs. It's an exciting time, as our sound is changing and leading us along paths we didn't expect. Such is the exploratory nature of songwriting.

The Next Phase

Last weekend saw us perform at the Boileroom, Guildford along with Ozzy band The Hungry Kids of Hungary. We were given free noodles and beer from the venue. Our first rider!!!! Also our first 'decent' green room. It had a sofa and a dodgy 1960s TV. We felt right at home. The Hungry Kids of Hungary were really nice guys. A few days after the gig they were scheduled to play The Great Escape Festival before heading on to play more dates for their tour.

I set up a meeting with a potential manager called Ville Leppanan from a company Tower Bridge based company called The Animal Farm. The meeting went really. From it we have drawn up a six month plan, which begins with us writing 20 brand-spanking, shiny new songs. We will be working with our friend and producer, Joe Reeves, to record the best three songs. Each song will be released at regular intervals during the course of 2011 while we tour around the country.

In the mean time we are still waiting for our album version of 54 to be mixed by Mike Senior. Joe is currently mixing the radio edit and we have locked ourselves away to write. It's been really nice to relax and just focus on being creative. This is what we've been desperate to do this whole time. We will be testing out some of our new material at the beginning of August and then again at the end.

The Circus Has Come To Town

So we have gained two more members. A guitarist called Rich and bassist Alex. Time will tell if they are going to be a permanent fixture in the Flags army... However, it's looking promising as they both seem to be gelling well with the rest of us.

Our first festival as the band turned into a comedy of errors but in a Circus tent. Not only was it freezing, raining and miserable but moments before we were meant to go and play Pete locked Dave's keys and all our instruments in the car. Good one mate! It wasn't a total disaster because the AA man saved us and we played a pretty tight set. We also met some really cool guys who did the sound.

A few days later we played at Fighting Cocks in Kingston. Back in the day that was the first venue we had ever played. After the rather relentless sound check we headed to The Bentalls Centre to do a test run of our music video concept. Dave had to play the djembe really loud in the shopping centre until he got escorted off the premises. It was amazing!

GET TOTALLY RIPPED IN JUST 4 WEEKS!

News gash - our gig at the Halfmoon in Putney had been cancelled. A thick hair to be plucked from the Flags scalp. I got a call from the venue manager on the morning of the gig to say the headline had pulled out, and that the second act, Sunbird, wouldn't bring their gear. I phoned Sunbird to try to get the gig back on, and they told me that Halfmoon never actually had a headline act booked. Sunbird were hoping to use the headline's backline, and they couldn't play without one. Sent an e-mail to Halfmoon to ask for a rescheduled gig on a Friday or Saturday, and we are yet to hear from them.

On a brighter note, we have been asked to play at Kent County Fair, or to give it the less dorky name 'Kent Fest 2010'. The only links to post with announcing the gig had pictures of morris dancers on them - not a good impression to give the fans. A month later, on the same field, Bob Dylan, Mumford & Sons, Pete Doherty, etc. are playing Hop Farm Festival. We're hoping to make the smooth transition between fair and festival with our show.

In a couple of weeks we will play a charity gig at Imber Court in Esher. We've got a list of covers to play alongside our own 54 and Gypsy Jack, including 15 Step and Tomorrow Never Knows. It should be an interesting set!

Marching Through March

This month has been a triumphant achievement of intense work. In order to meet our deadline with Mike Senior (who writes Mix Rescue for Sound On Sound magazine), we've been spending a good thirty hours a week mixing 54 and adding extra sounds and layers. Well yesterday, we finally finished it. It feels really weird to say that, and I don't really believe it. We submitted the mp3 to Mike and await his response with much anticipation as he will give his final decision on whether or not he'll remix it.

We think that his decision will be based on what work he could do to improve it, and if it will be enough for him to write his article on. If he says yes, then we'll get an incredibly good mix from him and some great publicity in the magazine. If he says no, then we could become victims of our own success; our fingers remain tightly crossed.

In the mean time, Marc and Pete have been 'bandminning' to their hearts' content: applying for festivals, booking gigs and making some brilliant press packs.

Our focus will now shift back onto the really creative side of our job. We'll be doing a lot more writing, as wells as creating concepts for our first music video and photo shoots. Exciting times!

This Music Is Ours And We Are Proud Of It

Two weeks have passed where we have hardly seen Dave. He has been locked away in the 'cave' adding some electronic and trumpet layers to our song '54'. We are so close to getting it finished and sent off to lovely Mike Senior for our final mix. As soon as we get our mix-down we will then master it ourselves in the 'cave'. And voila! We have our first single from our new CD. Its clear that all of us are really excited about this song. But we have no idea how people are going to react to it. Will they think its rubbish? But for us that's not the worst thing. I think the most feared criticism is when someone thinks that its 'OK'. But, in the words of some rebellious teenager, who gives a shit!? This music is ours and we are proud of it.

Peace.

Phoneyshop

The official photos of our last gig failed their primary objective to show us playing to the crowd, our largest yet. All the pictures perfectly capture the empty region in front of the stage, just omitting the audience. A few hours were spent at the studio filling in the gaps.

The day after the gig, I went to London with Dave to have my eyes zapped with an anti-specs ray gun. My home-made student confirmation letter worked a charm, "CASHBACK!"

Between recording vocals for 54, and finally deciding that the name of 5/4 will be '54', we played around with the repeating sampler. This new toy allows us to record loops, using a foot pedal to start and stop recording, and layer other sounds over the top. With Dave's trumpet, my sax and Marc's nodding head, the loops we produced had mesmerising rhythms with every attempt. There is definitely potential here for a new song. The best part is that we can do this live, but at risk, however, of placing our testicles in the unpredictable vice of electronics.

Dave spent a couple of days getting a rough mix of 54, to be sent with our applications to summer music festivals. The deadlines for band applicants start over the next week, so getting this mix finished was crucial. The next week will involve getting influential contacts who can get our feet firmly in festival doors.

The Academy Factory

After every gig we play, we always produce little gems of wisdom such as: "we won't leave anything until the last minute", "we'll leave early to give ourselves plenty of time to get to the venue", and the classic, "we'll make sure we have plenty of EPs made". Well as well intentioned as we are, it nearly always descends into a bit of a last minute panic.

The week before the gig was a bit of an odd one, marc was away skiing, I was working full-time, and Pete was busy doing, well, nothing. In the madness, we had all forgotten about making a new batch of EPs for our big gig at the O2 Academy 2, in Islington. Realising this on the Sunday night (the gig being on the Tuesday), and having allocated Monday to practice, we had left ourselves no time to get the EPs made. Luckily Pete managed to pull some strings and get the paper EP cases photocopied at his friend's workplace (our thanks go out to a certain Amy).

We had decided that as our sound check was at 4pm, we would use the free time before the gig to manufacture EPs. This venue was the first one we've ever played where we had our own backstage boudoir/chill out/dressing/green room. It had the standard mirror, desk, and beer fridge. It also had odd looking little black boxes placed seemingly randomly across the floor. On closer inspection, we read the words "Pest Control" printed on the sides. It was at this point that we noticed the cockroaches scuttling around the walls and floor, and venturing into our coats and bags. They made the big London music venue experience feel that much more authentic.

So amidst the wildlife, we set up our EP factory assembly line. It consisted of Pete and I running the CD paper case folding department, Barney took the helm with the laptop burning the discs, and Marc had the all important job of placing them in their cases and sealing them with a sticker and a small drop of blood; we received some odd looks from the other bands playing that night as they walked past our assembly line.

Due to the last minute nature of the batch production, the quality and finish of the EPs was not quite up to scratch. We felt like we were making bootleg Flags EPs to flog on a market stall. Anyway, we managed to make a batch of 50, which we hoped would be enough to cover the growing hoards of screaming fans outside.

The gig itself went brilliantly, we really got into it and we owned the crowd. As we were the last band on, and as all bands always run over, the promoter asked us to cut our set by one song. In the ensuing confusion marc forgot to mention that we had EPs for sale, and we forgot to remind him. We only sold five.

No Business Like Snow Business

Our appearance on stage is possibly even more important to the audience than how our songs sound. From a musician's perspective it is pretty challenging for us to believe that performance could be more important than how well we play. After we admitted this fact to ourselves we then began to figure out what the important elements of a great gig are for any audience member. Once we knew what those key emotions were we could then do everything humanly possible that would increase our chances of influencing the audience to have those experiences. This included facial expressions, speech tone and speed, stance, eye contact et al. Basically we would have to act/perform in the periods between the songs.

One example of the small changes we have made is David's facial expressions at the end of the songs. He used to grin but that made us look a little like a cheesy wedding band. Now he is attempting to look happy by communicating it through his eyes. Not only was Dave criticised for his in-between-song-performances but also his Thunderbird guitar dancing. We spent some time trying to explain to him how he should perform with the guitar, a little bit like a scene from 'School of Rock'.

Along with the physical performance we also needed to come up with a confident way to start the set. The opening of Tracks was given a bit of a make-over with the use of Dave's new delay pedal. He will be opening the gig by performing strange reverse delay piano effects along with some subtle delayed guitar with Jack... If he bothers practising and getting up to scratch by Friday. The sound of reverse piano is unusual and should attract the attention of the audience. Also the epic ending of Tracks should win the audience over.

Other than the shit preamp in my acoustic guitar the only thing that is noticeably letting down our sound is the backing harmonies. At the moment they are still very inconsistent in their pitch and timing. Pete has had trouble giving his vocals enough volume to cut through against the bleed of the drum kit, so we have spent some time working on diaphragm techniques so now they just have to practice that with some pitching exercises. In the mean time we will keep practising with the harmonies and hopefully they will get it spot on in time for the gig.

All week the News has been trying to make fluffy white snow terrifying. Undeterred by the irrational warnings from the weather wizards we ventured outside to pose for a few 'bandverts'.

After we got a couple of shots done we decided enough was enough, "let's just piss about on a sledge". A decision Dave may live to regret if his arm eventually falls off from frost bite.

In the white room, with 80s curtains...

Christmas came early this year for Flags. We acquired £3000 of acoustic treatment ceiling tiles that we have glued to the walls and ceilings of our two rooms, creating a more professional studio to record in. The tiles stop any echo that would leak back into the microphones. The best part is, it cost us just £65 in van rental and congestion charge - thanks BBC!

Treating the studio took a full two days. The transition from bedroom to BBC was stark, although the 80s curtains leave an aroma of shite and may need to be changed. Once all work had been completed, the door fell off its hinges, again.


Since my sister handed one of our CDs to Craig Charles in a pub in London, one that she happened to have on her, we had a huge kick up the arsenal to get the website created. All three of us worked into the night in our different houses using Facebook to communicate, laying the red carpet for Craig Charles' inevitable visit and preparing for his imminent request to use our music on his radio show. Days passed without hearing from him, perhaps due to the mindless exclusion of our contact details anywhere on the site.