1) Grace Petrie

A wonderfully inspiring songwriter and performer I met at last weekend’s Midwinter Picnic 4. She makes music that really gets you in the gut, and her rousing lyrics are still echoing around my head a week on. I should have heard of her before, actually, because she’s getting some of the recognition she deserves at the moment, but at least I know of her now! Debut album “Mark My Words” is available on Bandcamp now and “They Shall Not Pass” is one of my favourites so far:

2) Brighton, generally.

It’s long been one of my favourite escapes from London but after two trips down already this year my enthusiasm is all fired up again and I’m thinking of ways to be there more. I love the sea air, the pretty buildings, the vibrant community and fantastically lovely and creative people. Perhaps it’s time to start checking out rent prices…

See more of my Brighton pics here.

3) Hal Higdon’s Half Marathon Training Plan

As I head towards the end of week 3 of my 12 week half marathon training plan I am surprised and pleased to announce it’s all going really really well! I’ve been running for about 5 years on and off, and making the effort to properly stick to this plan has paid dividends. Very quickly I started to feel big improvements in my general mood and ability to cope with things, I’ve surprised myself by enjoying runs in all different kinds of weather (I used to always cry off running if it was frosty or wet out) and my legs are feeling really powerful all of a sudden. Booking my apartment and flights for the Berlin Half Marathon at the start of April definitely helped me to focus on my training, too.

Hal Higdon has a whole range of different training plans available for free on his website, and here’s the Half Marathon Novice 1 Plan. You can do it!

4) Stuart Flynn – “Ears Have Walls” live at Midwinter Picnic 4

Charming, erudite, hilarious and amazingly moving, Stuart’s beautiful set had me alternately in fits of giggles and floods of tears. Here he is on Facebook and here’s a snippet of “Ears Have Walls”:

5) A sweet potato slide whistle and broccoli slide whistle “Musunde hiraite” with Ionica Bizau

Because music really is everywhere.

What did you like this week?

1) Chris T-T – “Binker” – the video!

I don’t know how I missed this on Twitter last week but I only just stumbled across this gorgeous film. Chris’ 2011 Edinburgh Festival show “Disobedience: Chris T-T Sings A.A. Milne” was one of the musical highlights of the year for me, a heartwarming tearjerker delivered with purity and passion, so I was very pleased when he released the songs as an album – listen here, you’ll love it.

The video was directed by John Panton and is a really lovely accompaniment to the music.

2) Maybe She’s Born With It…Nah, It’s Probably Photoshop

This superb spoof ad by Jesse Rosten highlights the unrealistic beauty standards foisted on us by pointless gossip magazines and companies who work hard to make us feel insecure then try to sell us stuff and manages to be geeky, informative and pretty funny to boot. Brilliant work!

Fotoshop by Adobé from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo.

3) Hula hooping in the Arctic Circle – in shiny silver trousers

Matthias Elliott, real life Arctic scientist and hula hoop performer, gives us a tour of his exploration vessel and shows off some very neat moves against some seriously breathtaking scenery. Note the bare arms in the outdoors scenes (it’s nigh on impossible to hoop properly with sleeves on) – major kudos for your dedication, Matthias!

4) “Hello Giggles”

I have a brand new TV series addiction – “New Girl” – and came across “Hello Giggles” because the marvellous Zooey Deschanel is one of the co-founders and bloggers. It’s cute in a non-nauseating way, lighthearted and fun but with some really interesting content, and this post “On Making New Girlfriends” by Danielle Hampton stuck out for me this week because I can very much relate to how hard it can be to make proper new friends of any gender when you’re past your school/college/university days.

Their Illustrated Tweet Of The Day series by Maritza Lugo is also pretty fabulous.

5) Bike Doctor

My first bicycle trip of the year was thoroughly unsuccessful. Skimming through the back streets of Brixton in a sneaky attempt to avoid the crazy traffic my bike and I lost a battle with a pothole and the front tyre was kaput. I had to dash to a meeting so wrapped my beloved silver steed with locks (3, yup) and got the bus. On my way to collect it this afternoon I realised I was pretty rusty in the inner tube replacement department and quickly searched the Android Market for help.

Bike Doctor to the rescue!

The app is available for iPhone and Android and you either select your repair from a list of categories – general / brakes / wheels / crankset etc – or by tapping a location on a drawing of a bicycle, and you get step by step instructions for your chosen repair with really good accompanying photos. I found it immensely helpful – I wasn’t doing anything particularly difficult but Bike Doctor showed me the quickest, safest and easiest way. I even learned how to use a tyre lever properly for the first time! Unfortunately I misread one of the instructions, which was totally my fault and made the whole process take longer, but I’ll definitely be looking through the list of tutorials to see if I can use any more.

OVER TO YOU, DEAR READER – what floated your boat this week?

That was a very fun couple of days.

This year I have found reflection to be one of the most vital parts of my life; the space and time to assess, evaluate and plan for the future. Trying to balance a busy freelance career and musical life is a challenge but I have enjoyed spending time this winter coming up with some new approaches that I think will help. I like imagining my most happy and productive day/week/month and figuring out what I can do to make that happen. It will take some time and hard work but it certainly won’t magically fall in to place if I don’t get involved!

So, in 2012 I will mainly be working towards finding a better balance in my life, trying not to be quite such a workaholic and spending more time with the wonderful people I call my friends. However I also have a lot of grand schemes to get off the ground so I’ll be throwing myself in to those alongside integrating good food, more exercise and more fun hobby things like hula hooping and drumming in to my daily life.

This is the first time I’ve actually got round to doing an end of year blog post, though I remember really wanting to find the time last year, so hold on to your hat as brevity has never been my strongest skill. I won’t be at all offended if you just scroll down and look at the pictures!

JANUARY

Kicked off the New Year with a snowy trip to Leeds to start talking about my new album with Rich and Ed from Hope & Social, who were supremely helpful and asked lots of good thought provoking questions. What’s in YOUR musical rucksack?

My first SMW gig of the year was supporting Viv Albertine at The Enterprise and playing in her band alongside the fabulous Milly McGregor, who I later stole to play on “Little Battles”. It was a really memorable night, packed with lots of faces I recognised and lots of new friends too.

Full of renewed enthusiasm for hooping I attended an excellent weekend of workshops in North London run by Emma Kerr from Hooping Mad, and continued my daily hooping practise for quite a while afterwards, and cultural highlights of the month included Kristin Hersh‘s “Paradoxical Undressing” show at Queen Elizabeth Hall and a screening of “Ride, Rise, Roar” at the Ritzy followed by a Q&A with David Byrne. Both madly inspiring pieces of work.

FEBRUARY

Finished vocals on a song called “Piece Of You”, a collaboration with Michael Gray, Luciana Caporaso and Nick Clow. You can get the song here (or on iTunes) and watch the video here. There be robots!

Saw Thumpermonkey, The Andy K Show, Orders Of The British Empire and Djevara at the New Cross Inn and started enjoying gig photography again.

Finished off the month with a spot on Dubber‘s Outside The Box panel for Unconvention at the Roundhouse – alongside Steve Lawson, Tom Robinson, Bobbie Gardner, Mark Williams and Ammo Taylor, then a very late night Megabus to Edinburgh to play a couple of warmup shows before my first support slot for Midge Ure in Dunfermline (via a brief trip to Clutch Daisy‘s house in beautiful Burntisland).

MARCH

Ditched the red hair for my natural blonde after seeing 6 fake redheads in a row in Tooting Common tube station, then spent the weekend at Manchester Hoop Congress learning more snazzy new tricks.

Received the lovely news that “Scared To Capsize” had won the Soundcloud Backstage Pass competition so I played my winning slot at Club Fandango at the Bull & Gate, then nipped up to Glasgow and Leeds for more shows.

While oop North I was privileged to sit in on Hope & Social recording a gorgeous song called “Cotton Wool” for their latest album “Sleep Sound”, a snippet of which appears in this video blog. SO GOOD.

APRIL

Somehow I managed to run 53km this month, the most I have ever managed. I have a very on/off relationship with running but am always trying to keep starting even if I’ve stopped for a while. It makes me feel so much clearer and energetic. Aside from hitting the tarmac I got involved with Dana Jade‘s “Little Sister” video shoot, both as studio manager and set photographer for the day and for one of the cameo appearances.

My Pledge Music campaign launched on the 15th with a view to raising around half the money I would need to pay for recording and mastering the new album. It all went a bit nuts and eventually hit 217% of the target, which means I can now say “Little Battles” was completely fan funded. It was a really wonderful, heartwarming and humbling experience, which I wrote about here, here and here.

At the end of the month I hit the road again to support Midge Ure for three more dates, travelling across the South West of England on trains (regular and steam) and car ferries and enjoying some really beautiful sights along the way. Dartmouth was a particular favourite. Playing with Sick Of Sarah in Bristol was a lot of fun, too.

MAY

I completed my little tour with a show at Port Mahon in Oxford, as part of Little Fish‘s “Shoal Of Talent” night alongside Djevara Redux, Spring Offensive and Adam Barnes, all brilliant and inspiring artists. It was the perfect end to a really fun tour, surrounded by friends in a sweaty room over a pub, then it was straight home to start relearning bass parts for 30 Tricky songs as I’d been called up for a two week tour of South America and Mexico.

It was a wonderful though too-whirlwind trip stopping off in Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela and Mexico – see blog posts here, here and here and check out all my photos here.

Highlights included climbing the pyramids at Teotihuacan outside Mexico City, travelling in a cable car in to the mountains above Caracas and watching a lightning show from very high up later that evening, going on a cycle tour of Lima and playing a SMW house concert at an animation studio in Buenos Aires. The Tricky gigs were really fantastic; as atmospheric and intense as I remember from my four month stint in 2008 but with the added excitement factor of knowing that none of the people in the audience had seen the songs played live before.

JUNE

One night at home after the tour then straight out again for a brief but lovely birthday trip to Weymouth, to enjoy the summer sunshine and visit Portland Bill to take photos for my album artwork. Recording commenced at Myles Clarke‘s studio in London Fields on the 6th, then on the 7th and 8th I skived off to go and sing backing vocals for Carina Round‘s shows at Dingwalls in London and Hare & Hounds in Birmingham. A truly magical experience, getting to sing on some of my favourite songs ever and sing cool parts on magical new tracks from her new album out in 2012. Thanks so much for the invite, Carina!

Photo by Mister J Photography

Note the new tattoo there, drawn and inked by Kanae, who also did my art nouveau butterfly a few years ago. It was finished later in the month and I’m very happy with it – it’s a depiction of Daphne turned in to a tree at the end of the Apollo/Cupid story that I wrote about in my song “Olympian”.

June finished with three video events – the AmpNMS webcast streamed live from Leeds with Rich Huxley and Andrew Dubber, then promo shoots for “Piece Of You” and “Slow Puncture”, the latter my final (for now) video to accompany debut album “Disarm”. Read the blog post here, visit the microsite, watch the video here and watch the making of here. Stormtrooper alert!

JULY

Around really getting my head down in the studio recording with all sorts of weird and wonderful instruments I played gigs in London, Manchester and Leeds for Organ Zine, Ben & Jerry’s and Hope & Social respectively. It was a hectic but satisfying month, and running a hula hoop workshop with my sister at the Sleep Sound Garden Party was a real highlight of my year, as was performing on the Hammock stage on top of a pile of earth and planks under a tree! My looper got some mud on it…

AUGUST

Started off with a weekend driving trip all the way to St Emilion in Bordeaux for a wedding gig, reading Ted Hughes and Plato in the van and finishing off lyrics to the last few album tracks ready to complete vocals the following week. We spent an entire day at a working chateau and didn’t get to drink any wine!

Back in London I met a couple of nice French boys and had a chat about doing some singing on their album, then hit the studio with them for three days at the end of the month to get started. They’re called The Penelopes and they’re ace.

My next trip was to Edinburgh Festival to do some work with Amplified and I got to see some great shows too – Chris TT had me in tears, Kristin Hersh had me in stitches and Evelyn Evelyn were much funnier and more affecting than I’d anticipated PLUS I finally got to shake hands with Amanda Palmer, who is my sort-of bandmate after she collaborated with The Young Punx on “Map Of Tasmania” last year. She seemed very nice.

Album recording continued apace and August ended with a listening party at the studio for a select group of fans who had kindly pledged for tickets to be the first to listen to the new album all the way through. I played a couple of songs acoustically in the kitchen then sat in the corridor with my dog, Anna Madeleine and Dina Karklina while the album blasted out from Myles’ marvellous speakers.

SEPTEMBER

Around the final few days of mixing the album I gigged the new songs at the Hospital Club, Malcfest and Strongroom Bar, Hertford Corn Exchange (raising money for Teenage Cancer Trust for Katie Huttlestone) and St Gregory’s Church in Norwich as part of the Sound & Vision Festival. I also talked on a panel about artist development there with Chris T-T and Dave Rowntree and found the whole event really interesting. Watch the roundup video here featuring yours truly.

In between all the shows I made a “Little Battles” teaser video using Lomography’s brand new LomoKino 35mm film camera, with help from Dina Karklina and Laura Ward.

OCTOBER

This month saw my first trip to the Isle of Wight since I was a teenager, not for a holiday but to talk to students at Platform One music college about using social media tools for a DIY music career. There were some wolves on the ferry on the way back to the mainland…

Seeing Feist perform at the London Palladium was one of my musical highlights of the last few years, she was in fine voice performing songs off new album “Metals” as well as some interesting rearrangements of older tracks and I was especially gripped by the inclusion of Mountain Man, a three piece a capella group who added a lot to the general atmosphere as well as contributing gorgeous vocals.

Towards the end of the month I was invited to appear in the video for “Now Now Now” by The Penelopes – we had a really fun day and there was a really cool behind the scenes video made alongside the promo itself. After that I took a little break in the countryside visiting friends and abstaining from the internet for as long as possible, learning to love writing in notebooks again.

Oh, and the album returned from being beautifully mastered by Dick Beetham!

NOVEMBER

#vlomo11 (video blogging month) went well – I managed 20 out of 30 entries but was really busy with client video work and wanted to give myself a bit of a rest towards the end of the month! Gigwise, Bonfire Night at The Half Moon in Herne Hill supporting Birdeatsbaby was brilliant – the venue was jam packed with firework-singed revellers and it was wonderful to finally see the Brighton punk cabaret outfit live. They were really great.

Spending a day recording and filming a live EP with my shadowy supergroup The Olympians on boat/recording studio Lightship95 in East India Docks was pretty special, followed by a few days in Reignier near Geneva eating fondue, drinking wine and playing a show at Perce Oreille. I arrived back in London just in time to play at the inaugural Clit Rock night at The Lexington alongside Dana Jade, We Rock Like Girls Don’t and Thrush Metal, raising awareness and funds for Daughters Of Eve, an organisition concerned with preventing, fighting and ultimately ending Female Genital Mutilation. Amazing atmosphere, brilliant bands, wonderful cause.

Another contender for gig of the year came in the form of a house concert in Leeds, where I played alongside the brilliant Middleman and Soulmates Never Die in a front room filled with fairy lights and warm hearts. Ed Waring shot a really lovely video and took some wicked photos with his CCTV lens. And then performing at Strummerville‘s Winter Sessions alongside Hysterical Injury and Kai Fish from Mystery Jets was a real honour.

DECEMBER

I’d planned a month off work so I could catch up with personal projects but that didn’t happen because there were some really interesting jobs to get involved in, alongside which I was lucky enough to interview Janet Weiss of US band Wild Flag (and ex-of Sleater-Kinney) for the Wears The Trousers Yearbook (on sale now) AND see them perform at The Lexington (gig of the year, hands down!), rehearse with The Penelopes for live shows in early 2012 and do video interviews / gear demonstrations for Roland UK and soon-to-be-launched website Kitmonsters.

My last two gigs of the year were a relaxed house concert at my place for close friends and an acoustic set at one of the Crisis Christmas centres, during which a lovely man called Gus danced around gleefully to “In This Boat”.

Arty highlights included meeting and interviewing members of The Invisible Circus at The Brick Box in Tooting Market, going to see Howl’s Moving Castle at Southwark Playhouse and watching Stewart Lee being hilarious at Leicester Square Theatre.

And finally, my “Disarm: Remixed” album went online just before Christmas and has already been downloaded more than 100 times, with nearly £400 raised for Crisis UK. Thank you!

If you’re still with me – thanks for reading! Having finally finished writing this behemoth I am pretty certain end of year posts are an exercise for the benefit of the writer, not the reader, and I’m sure I’ll look back on this in a year’s time and find it useful. I wonder what adventures will have happened by then! All the best bits of this year took me completely by surprise, so I’m excited to see what 2012 will bring.

And finally, people who contributed to my excellent adventures in 2011 – thank you so much!

Everyone who pledged on “Little Battles” – thank you again!, Bass, Julia Kidd, Laura Ward, Dina Karklina, Dana Jade, Myles & Becks Clarke, Milly McGregor, Viv Albertine, Carina Round, Midge Ure, Annie Gardiner, Tom Gardiner, Kat Arney, Anna Madeleine, Chris T-T, Tasmin Archer, Rich & Hannah Huxley, Ed Waring, Gary Stewart, Simon Goff, Clutch Daisy, Emma Kerr, Nick Broyd, Gail O’Brien, Mark & Susie Bowers, Cat Munro, Sue & Nigel, Steve and Lobelia Lawson, Ben Read, Mishkin Fitzgerald, Kim Boekbinder, Dan Thompson, Khalid Amin, Richard Kirstein and YOU. Happy New Year! xxx

Yesterday I announced that my album launch gig next month was postponed until spring, along with the art show that was to accompany it. Despite my breezy updates on Twitter and Facebook I’ve had a few people get in touch to ask if I’m okay, and after a very interesting discussion with Steve Lawson and Nick Moreton this afternoon which touched on about a thousand interesting aspects of what we’re all doing I decided there’s no use glossing over the fact that right now I’m just really tired, and I need a rest so that I can commit to sending my new album out in to the world with all the vigour and enthusiasm I feel it deserves.

First of all, mega thanks to everyone concerned with the launch and art show for being so kind and understanding about the whole thing – you’re lovely.

After a summer of intense recording and mixing (and gigging and working) and then a frantic rush to get the album artwork done and to the printer in time to take advantage of my Soundcloud competition prize (£530 off the CD production costs – thank you guys!) I am burned out. It took talking to some very lovely calm friends this week to really suss out that this is not how it should be, and that no-one else would be expecting me to put myself under this much pressure.

I’m the sort of person who finds it very hard to say no to taking on interesting projects and getting really stuck in to making my contributions high enough quality to satisfy myself. And of course when it’s my own musical project I’m doubly, triply, quadruply invested. I have lots of ambitious plans for this new album in terms of different ways of presenting the songs visually, making the solo show more elaborate, setting up longer tours and taking the tunes abroad, and all that needs time to plan. I want to feel excited and happy when I’m doing all of that, and the past few weeks have felt like a slog because I just couldn’t see a realistic end point in sight.

I’m not afraid to admit that I am finding it very tough at the moment to see how I can continue with the She Makes War project doing everything on my own as I do now. I always say to fellow freelancers that we need to think of ourselves as our own bosses, and ask whether if our boss was a separate entity to us whether we would hate them for making us work long hours, not feeding us properly, not letting us have a holiday…. It’s all relative, of course, and I am in the privileged (though hard earned) position of being approached regularly by people to do great work projects, thus being able to pretty much set my own hours and attempt to juggle that side of what I do with my musical art project. That’s not to say it isn’t really hard, though, and frequent late night work tweets attest to that, alongside my personal diary entries, most of which start “utterly exhausted today…”. Mmm, that’s going to be scintillating reading in my old age!

I have this dream of marrying all the wonderful DIY elements of what I do with a modest but moderately less hard fought-for budget to create all the stuff I want to, and having other people helping with some of the more arduous admin. Sadly that’s not yet my reality, and perhaps it won’t ever be, but I do know I need to take it easy for a bit.

And so I made the decision to postpone the album launch gig (and yeah, writing that post on how much DIY music costs the other day was eye opening to me, too, as I tend not to do proper budgets for things I just really like doing!). I want to spend some time making a proper release plan, based not on what other people might do at all but based on the list of things – videos, artefacts, experiences and the like – I’d like to make to support the music going out to you guys. At this point I’m not completely satisfied just expressing myself through music, because the visual world and the handmade artefacts are really key to the atmosphere I’m trying to communicate. And as I have yet to find anyone else to help me with any aspect of the project this all has to be manageable, leaving time for proper food, exercise and real life time spent with my amazingly supportive boyfriend (who I feel I have barely seen this year), family and friends.

The information I can give you right now is as follows:

- the Pledge Music campaign ends on October 31st, and pledging is the only way to get “Little Battles” as a download on November 1st, along with rarities and B-sides that will only appear in this format direct from the Pledge campaign. You will also get your name in the digital artwork.
NOTE: my Pledgers have been amazingly generous and I don’t *need* any more donations as they have kindly paid for pretty much all the recording costs, but if you’re interested in hearing the new stuff first this is the way to make it happen and any extra funds raised go towards videos and suchlike.
- Pledgers will start receiving their CDs and other assorted 3D presents in December and I hope to have everything delivered by Christmas, like the good little elf I am.
- There will be a strictly limited run of “Little Battles” CDs made available for a minimum donation on 1st December for non-Pledgers, after which none will be available until the release date, which I don’t know yet but will be some time in early 2012. Sign up to the mailing list via the “Little Battles” microsite to hear about this when it happens.

I had the sorry realisation the other day that I probably haven’t taken a day off using a computer (laptop or phone) for more than a year, and if I’m really honest it could be much longer than that. That’s a pretty sad fact of our digital age, isn’t it? I have an unabashed love for the wonderful benefits of the internet in general and Twitter in particular, but my poor peepers are crying out for paper, pens and fresh air. I might not be gone for very long, but even a few days away from spreadsheets, sickmaking To Do lists, software and social media is long overdue.

And so I bid you a cheery farewell, take care of yourselves and see you soon!

Lau xx

My Brightest Diamond – ALL THINGS WILL UNWIND: Stories and Sounds from Asthmatic Kitty on Vimeo.

There’s just so much incredible new music around at the moment. In the last few weeks all I’ve been listening to are the new albums from St Vincent ["Strange Mercy"], Feist ["Metals"] and Marissa Nadler ["Marissa Nadler"]. Maybe it’s just because I was holed up in the studio all summer but all I want to do is skip around the place singing my head off.

Glorious, glorious music. And I haven’t even embarked upon the awesome adventure that Bjork‘s “Biophilia” is sure to be. Amazing work, ladies, thank you.

BONUS EXTRA AWESOME: Check out this interview with Marissa Nadler from the ever-excellent Ruth Barnes…really really really good stuff.

photo by Katja Ogrin

If you’ve already pledged please keep an eye out for exclusive audio/video/photo updates coming your way over the next few weeks, and if you haven’t got involved yet there is still time – now the target’s been reached you can pledge right up until the release date. There are lots of weird and wonderful things for you to order from video props to photo books to a limited edition, hand numbered and signed printed paper She Makes Wardoll designed by Morgan Gleave.

I wrote a blog post last week explaining the whys and wherefores of my decision to use Pledge Music, which also contains some testimonials from people who pledged early on. There are lots of new models around for funding and releasing music independently so this certainly isn’t the only way to do things, but I’m very happy with my Pledge Music experience both as an artist and as a fan.

Inconveniently, time ticks on regardless of how much I try to achieve and that’s probably how my Pledge Music project deadline is suddenly just 11 days away. Bugger!

I want to outline what Pledge Music is and why I decided to use it to raise some of the money to pay for the recording of my second album, alongside quoting some of the people who have contributed to the project so far. One of the most wonderful things I’ve found about being a DIY artist and using social media tools to communicate with my friends/followers/fans is the number of supportive emails I receive from people, and the way we can build proper relationships through Facebook comments, emails, tweets and so on. Of course it’s always lovely to see a new name pop up online but it’s even nicer when I see the same people supporting me across the various sites I use.

Before this incredibly long blog post continues, CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE PLEDGE MUSIC PROJECT PAGE to see what on earth I’m going on about!

Briefly, Pledge Music is a service set up to help artists raise money for specific projects, large or small. From recording – albums, EPs, singles – to music videos and tours, you specify how much money you’d like to raise and a time period to raise it in (30 or 60 days), do a writeup and make a list of items people can buy, post regular updates that can be public or exclusive for Pledgers and fulfill your end of the bargain once the money has been raised. If you don’t achieve your target the Pledgers get their money back and you don’t have to deliver.

I came across Pledge when I was working with Viv Albertine of The Slits earlier this year. She needed to raise money to get her debut album mixed and as Kickstarter is only available for people with US bank accounts we settled on Pledge and were very happy with the ease of setup and the mechanics in place to stay in touch with Pledgers. I was very happy to see Viv reach her Pledge target quickly, and it was interesting to see that good, regular updates definitely made a difference and bumped up the total each time we posted them. I contributed backing vocals, ukulele and percussion to the album as well so I definitely want to hear the finished product!

Shortly after this I experienced the fan side of Pledge Music when I saw Juliana Hatfield and Carina Round use the service to raise money for album recording and a 10th anniversary re-release respectively, and found myself avidly watching their targets eclipsed by enthusiastic fans who must surely have loved the updates of videos, demos and photographs as much as I have. It really did give me a warm fuzzy feeling when I saw video clips of Juliana in the studio and just a few days ago got to download the new release of Carina’s debut album “First Blood Mystery” complete with gorgeous reworkings of two of the songs.

So, I took the plunge. I wanted to up the budget for my second record to enable me and co-producer Myles Clarke to spend more time on the songs, a luxury that is very appealing to both of us as it gives us the opportunity to be more experimental with production, to invite special guests along to contribute to the recordings and hopefully even to record some extra songs for the B-sides, Demos and Rarities download I’ve included in the basic Pledge price. I didn’t feel it was right or feasible for me to ask my supporters to pay for the entire recording, so am aiming for about half the cost. On top of my half I will pay for mixing, mastering, artwork printing, duplication, video production etc etc so you can see how helpful any amount of money is up front when there is no label / manager / sugar daddy involved to pick up the bill!

The day I launched my Pledge project and raised 65% of the target in just over 24 hours – thank you all! – I happened across a link on Twitter which led to this article on “fan funding”. I found it interesting but was very surprised to discover the article had been written by a musician – I assumed it was by someone who had no experience of being a fan or having a fan, and still find it mystifying that someone who appears to have a decent grasp of the point of social media and says they sell a large amount of records has so little time for this new model.

There’s no point me ripping through the article and refuting the writer’s opinions – these are just MY opinions, after all – but it did inspire me to want to explain my decision to use a service like Pledge Music rather than set up more straightforward pre-orders. As a Pledger on the Juliana / Carina projects I genuinely found it exciting to see their targets get closer, I enjoyed and appreciated the updates and it was really cool to get to choose from unusual extras alongside the downloadable music.

I chose to use Pledge rather than set up a pre-order because I wanted to bring people along on the journey with me and I knew some people would appreciate the invite and get a lot out of it. It’s not that I won’t record the album if I don’t reach my target, but having that chunk of money up front will take the pressure off and let me focus on getting the songs happening in the way I want them to and afford me the luxury of a bit of extra time to do so.

In addition – and a big reason for using Pledge – I get to use a ready made private area to update fans, showing my appreciation for their support with regular updates that can’t be viewed by everyone. Yes I could have paid a programmer to create one for me but the idea is to raise money, not spend it!

One thing I wasn’t so keen on was the minimum Pledge price of £8. As you may know, my debut album ”Disarm” has been available since its release on a pay-what-you-think-it’s-worth basis via Bandcamp, complete with extra secret tracks and special downloadable artwork, and I still believe that music and art should be available to everybody regardless of how much money they have to spend on it. And so to make the £8 Pledge have real value for money for my supporters I added in enough extras to make the album itself free. The basic £8 Pledge gives you:

- a download of the new album incl a PDF of artwork, photos etc
- YOUR NAME in the artwork as a massive thank you
- a download of B-sides, demos and live tracks not available anywhere else
- special Pledger only video, audio, photo and blog updates from now til the album comes out to keep you totally in the loop
- that fuzzy warm feeling you get when you help make something happen
- any other cool digital bits and bobs I can think of to add in to the zip file

At the moment I’m working on gathering together some really brilliant digital extras for all the basic packages because I’m so determined to make it truly worth the money to show my appreciation for peoples’ continuing support, and of course there are a whole host of other exclusive items to buy alongside, including album listening parties, video props, acoustic picnics, house concerts and handmade books. It was really fun coming up with personalised or handmade things for people to buy and experiences for us to share, and I like that I can easily add things – for instance, I’m hoping to be able to unveil a really fantastic new item on Monday which existing Pledgers might be interested in alongside whatever they’ve pledged on already….more soon…

PLEDGE ON SMW’S SECOND ALBUM RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW!

When I wrote to my Pledgers asking for their comments on why they wanted to support the new album in this way I was overwhelmed with loads of great responses – massive thanks again to everyone who wrote back to me, I found it really interesting to hear your opinions:

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“I support microfinancing – in all its forms, from Kiva to Pledgemusic – because i can & because i want to. It’s my choice & my responsibility. I like the engagement it allows me; & the chain of expertimentation it makes possible. As i think i’ve mentioned previously, i supported SMW because PM forwarded your tweet; & discovered your link to Viv Albertine. Seemed a good enough excuse at the time & still does.

Unlike preselling, this isn’t about buying what you know (if i wanted to do that, i’d go on itunes & buy the latest top 40 repercharge). It’s more like going to a pub & seeing if the band i’ve never heard of is any good (& if it is, buying the CD to give ‘em some extra cash). Its a way of saying thanks (did i really need to buy the John Oates project?; & did he really need PM support? – probably no in both cases) & also about encouraging the process of music-making.”

Robert Clements

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“I pledged as it’s probably the only time I’ll ever see my name on an album! I also love getting the behind the scenes snippets and feeling that I’m part of making music & an album coming to fruition. Plus the money you were asking wasn’t a lot and I could come in at whatever level I want. I’m actually suprised more people don’t do it. In a way it’s no different to being a “friend” at a museum or an “angel” at an arts group or theatre.”

Annie Mole

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“To me, pledging money to a project, be it music or some other creative endeavour, means that you get to ensure that the things you like and the things you care about are able to be made. And whilst yes, there is that feeling of altruism you get from helping someone achieve their goals, there is also the more selfish reason of knowing you will get more of the stuff you enjoy listening too. In many ways, pledging to a project is simply an investment.”

Dave Callier

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“With fan-funding sites, not only is the framework already there in order to set up the system, but it takes cue’s from the idea of “pay what you think it’s worth”. There is less initial expense for the artist, so i know I’m directly helping to get the album made, and if the goal is not reached then no one is out of pocket, which is not the case with taking pre-orders, especially ones to an artists personal site.

Andrew Begg

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“Reasons I pledged: 

- It’s great to be part of making the next She Makes War album happen.
- It means you can still do your thing without the need for unscrupulous gatekeeping organisations that are record labels.”

Ash Matadeen

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“It’s my disposable income, and I made an informed decision about how to use it. If it doesn’t work out, so be it.
 
As to why I chose to donate to the next SMW album, the reasoning is simple: I loved the first one, and am happy to contribute to the creation of the next; I’d do so even without any of the goodies that come with the donation packages. I think your hands-on approach to using crowdfunding is far more engaging than the catalog manner of taking CD pre-orders, and I can’t wait to hear the final product.”

Matt Baldwin

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“I pledged because I really liked your first album and would like to hear another: to be honest, I feel like I can support the artists I like by giving positive reviews on my blog though, and a big reason for my pledge is because I want to support DIY and independent models, and I have huge admiration for your approach, with all your special editions etc. As far as the article that got you riled, I can see the bloke’s point but he hasn’t thought it through: his idea that there shouldn’t be any up front production costs is daft, especially if you’re planning some nice bespoke physical packaging, and accepting pre-orders on CDs is identical, except you can’t use an established infrastructure to handle the process for you.”

Oliver Arditi

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“I’d like to say this on the subject.

I’m getting interesting music from an artist that may not be able to make her music available unless it is given away.

Unsigned bands have even more difficulty getting their music heard. ”

Michael Butterworth

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“Pledging makes perfect sense if you like an artist, are willing to preorder their music, and have an idea when said music is coming out.  For me, an album preorder as a pledge is a fair business transaction.  Instead of waiting for said artist to gather the resources and opportunity to produce an album, you can help ensure that process is bankrolled ahead of time.  It’s like work for commission.  It makes sense for small artists to prevent themselves from incurring undue debt just to get into the market place and make their work available for their fans.  It’s just good sense.  So as a fan of She Makes War, who’s happy to know there’s music ready to be recorded, I am eager to hear it, and would buy it if it was available, so why not buy it to ensure that it’s available???”

Wil. E. Smith

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“I loved Disarm; I thought it was really cool that you made it downloadable from Bandcamp; I wanted to show my appreciation by contributing in some small way to your new album (to which I’m really looking forward); and as I live a somewhat isolated life in South Africa, I wanted to feel like a “citizen of the world” for once.”

Brent Davis

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“I pledged because I love your music and want more people to hear it.
I pledged because you truly appreciate your fans and have shown it by responding in some way to every single comment I’ve made on your Facebook page.
I pledged because I know what a boost to an artist’s confidence it can be to have even the smallest support shown for their art.
I pledged so I could see the smile on my fiancée’s face when I told her she was getting the heart from the Olympian video.”

Derek Kinney

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Wow – reading through these comments again has made me want to wrap my arms around the lot of you. I cannot wait to get in that studio on Monday and set to work making something I’ll be proud enough to send to you when it’s done.

See more photos from this week’s trip to Weymouth & Portland here

On a hectic tour like this it’s a real treat to wake up in the city you’re playing in that evening, with a lovely late afternoon lobby call of 4.30 and the possibility of adventure lying ahead. Of course, having rolled in at 3am after my She Makes War show the night before (separate blog post to follow) I wasn’t quite up to my usual crack-of-dawn sightseeing start point, but after a hearty hotel breakfast I set off at around 11.30 to San Telmo, a lovely neighbourhood full of vibrant street art, quirky antiques shops and a mercado packed with weird and wonderful objects (more here).

Having been regaled with more ever-so-slightly-hysterical scare stories about 12 year old crack addicts knifing people to steal their bags I did my usual thing of keeping my wits about me, holding on to my bag and trying not to flash my camera too much but once again I didn’t have any negative reactions from local people, and became far more concerned about dying in a road traffic accident. I eventually got the hang of how best to cross the massive, busy roads without a green man for assistance and made my way from the quiet, colourful streets of San Telmo to Plaza de Mayo to see the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo movement‘s banners and paintings of white shawls on the pavement, a protest to raise awareness of their fight to be reunited with children kidnapped (or “disappeared”) by government agents during the “Dirty War” between 1976 and 1983. It was a sombre experience.

Just before that I recorded a short Audioboo to capture a bit of the bustling atmosphere at the top of Bolivar and to collect sounds for the new album:

From Plaza de Mayo to Plaza de la República to see the obelisk, spied from Avenue Corrientes and not that interesting up close. I regretted the walk as soon as I got there because it just reminded me of Piccadilly Circus, which I loathe, but I hear in 2005 it was dressed up in a giant pink condom for World Aids day, which is pretty cool.

In Plaza San Martin I saw La Torre de Babel, a sculpture by Marta Minujin, and recorded my impressions in another Audioboo:

I finished my loop of San Nicolas and Monserrat with a sunny wander along the Puerto Madero back to the hotel past lots of shiny restaurants and the odd massive battleship:

I’ve been missing my dog a lot this past few days so got my animal fix via these guys, though it would have been foolish to try to cuddle any of them:

So, a really interesting day of adventures topped off with a show at Groove in Palermo, featuring perhaps the most lively crowd yet – I spotted a good amount of pogo-ing out in the room – and the coolest rock ‘n’ roll moment of the tour so far: Tricky crowd surfing all the way to the back of the venue while we played “Ghetto Stars” to finish the set.

And I ended my day like this:

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Greetings from my hotel room in Montevideo, Uruguay, where I’m having a last listen through 30-odd Tricky songs I’ve been rehearsing for the last couple of weeks in preparation for a two week tour of South America! Having last played with him in summer 2008, there was quite a bit to brush up on so I could grab the bass baton from the marvellous Kat Bax who just did a two week European tour with the band. The eagle eyed among you will recognise Kat from the videos for Let This Be and Scared To Capsize, where she plays a zombie clown lady and a Shoreditch badger respectively.

After a day of packing and chatting with Myles about our imminent recording sessions for my second She Makes War album, our merry crew set off from Heathrow on Monday evening, arriving at the hotel in Montevideo around 24 hours later via a short stopover in Buenos Aires (where we will return on Friday). I slept very very well.

Today I had a lovely wander around the local area, along the Rambla Gran Bretagna, Ramba Sur and Rambla Francia and returning via Sarandi, stopping off in Plaza Zabala and Plaza Fuerte on the way back to enjoy the quiet bustle of weekday life and put my feet up in the sun. After snapping away merrily with my beloved Lomo LCA+ for the whole trip I eventually realised the film was stuck and had to gingerly pull it out of the camera using my shoulder bag as a makeshift dark room. I’ll just have to wait and see how ruined that film is

Despite warnings not to flaunt expensive bits and bobs in public for fear of violent mugging I felt pretty comfortable walking around alone. As a Londoner I’m pretty careful generally anyway, and try not to assume anywhere “foreign” is going to be scary alongside taking heed of sensible advice. Though it was hard to miss the gaping open mouths and rubbernecking happening from almost every man I passed and many of the women too (what, you saying this British girl is pasty or summink?) the worst that happened was some fella trying very hard to sell me a necklace.

“Yo no entiende”, was my smiling response.