The sound of cogs and spindles

Blimey. Just got a message on Facebook formally announcing the end of Sequoia. I know Chris had been wondering about quitting for a while - as previous quitter I was well suited to offer advice on the matter - and finally made his decision just before I saw them last but it was still a surprise to hear that they had made the decision to call a halt. I think the others will be working together but as Andy's backing band rather than a band under their own name. That is sort of what we were as Sequoia, but we had some pretty good times and recorded an album that I think stands up very well.


The classic Sequoia lineup, back in 2006

I can totally understand the decision- with so many personnel changes the band they were going to be without Chris would be absolutely different from the one I was part of and the songs always belonged to Andy anyways but I'll be sorry to see them go.

The second Quesada & Molino gig at Summer Breeze went down pretty well- we played a good set and people came along to see us. We had more people in the room when we finished than when we started too, but we were first up so that is to be hoped for I guess.

The rest of the day had the usual mix of oustanding and average stuff- Arthur were clearly good, most of the acts on the main stage seemed a tiny bit lacklustre, I think because of an echoey room and a rubbish sound engineer. This was really disappointing with Big Wednesday who are usually outstanding but just seemed to be turned up so loud that it was physically uncomfortable to be there and it was impossible to make out what was going on in the music. When you are hiring a large PA from a professional company you would expect some degree of competence from the sound engineer. Very disappointing.

The weird bit was watching Sequoia for the first time since I left the band. The sound was still bad but less loud than Big Wednesday, but knowing the songs intimately it wasn't so noticeable for me. Obviously I was listening to the bass lines a lot- Abbe, the new bassist, is an amazing player- she can totally kick my ass when it comes to technical chops or playing fast but it sounded to me like her lines weren't as harmonically interesting as the ones I used to play, tending to stick to the root notes rather than offering counter melodies or driving the songs forward. Also, for whatever limitations I have as a musician (not that I run into them so much these days) I have a pretty good sense of pop dynamic which means that my lines tend to vary quite a lot during the songs and I didn't notice that happening so much now. Like anything, it was a mix, though, there were some songs that were clearly better, a couple that felt to me like they had lost a bit of punch and drive and most of them were fine.

It was interesting to notice that Chris looked much more rock than anyone else - and it was him the girls were all stood in front of - and that Ian is an astoundingly good drummer and the big room made him sound huge. There was nothing wrong with the set at all- Sequoia remain a truly great pop band, probably one of the best there is - but watching from the audience after years of being on the stage felt quite strange. It was funny when I realised that last year's Summer Breeze was the last one that Mic played - in spite of being a six-piece band at the time, there are only two members of the lineup that played on that day who are still in the band.

It was nice to catch up with them as well- apparently playing Guilfest and Italy were both really good fun- I'm really glad they are doing well and I enjoyed hearing them play but I have no regrets about leaving when I did.

Thanks to anyone who rated us on VaioNation - this morning we were top of the list, right now we're well up the front page. All good...

Next show is at Farnham Maltings on Friday 18th...

This has been a very hectic weekend really. Yesterday was spent in the studio recording the first new Sequoia material to get taped in the last couple of years. The songs are sounding good, even un-mixed, and the recording was actually quite fun once we gave up on using a click track. It took most of the day to get drums and bass down, but the performances we ended up with were pretty accurate I think so hopefully the demo we're recording will impress the people it needs to impress.

( Today involved riding )
It's been a hectic weekend but right now I'm pretty happy about things generally.

Right, does anyone know a good drummer who can learn songs and actually turn up to rehearsals from time to time, because we're getting very tired of ones that can't. Is it so hard to find anyone with as much commitment as the rest of the band does?

We've got four weeks until we're playing at this major Canadian industry show in Toronto and we really need someone who can do that. The guy we thought would be able to come in has proven himself unreliable- he didn't turn up to practice yesterday or get in touch at all and we simply can't be doing with that, he's straight out, but it presents a real problem.

While I'm whinging, one who can manage a simple shuffle would be nice as well. I don't see why it must be so amazingly hard to do.

So that was the Clothes Show Live - walking on stage (looking pretty cool in clothes from our sponsor) to an audience of screaming girls, many of whom didn't leave while we played. The aisles beyond them were packed with cheery showgoers who will at least have heard us and may remember the name, if not how to spell it. We even had a catwalk in front of the stage although in all honesty we didn't make a lot of use of it.

The show itself was like a big hall full of clothes stalls. There were so many I began to suffer from clothes blindness fairly quickly and the one stall I did want to look at a second time appeared to have vanished completely after I left it the first time.

Birmingham city centre is horribly confusing to drive around and although the people running the stage did everything they could to keep things running smoothly the NEC parking and traffic management people are a bunch of incompetent jobsworth car park fascists and added a lot of pointless driving between car parks we weren't allowed to park in to the day. Very irritating.

In spite of the irritation of driving round the site and driving round the city (I was having to follow Chris, who had a Tomtom navigation thingummibob that appeared to want us to go round and round in convoluted circles and kept turning away from where we needed to go) it was a very memorable day and certainly something unique and interesting to have done.

We are as yet neither rich nor famous as a consequence of Monday's show, but it sounds like there is a hint of an implication that we may be going to Canada next March for some showcases at Canadian Music Week in Toronto. With a following wind the journey home might even manage to take in Austin for SxSW as well, but that one is very heavily subscribed so it's more an idea than a likelyhood whereas Canada is pretty much on the table.

It's amazing what a difference proper management makes.

Today we played at the West End Centre in Aldershot, supporting The Storys and it was really good fun. The Storys are fresh from their own support slot with Elton John and they are six blokes from Swansea who play tuneful and harmony-laden country pop. We got on great with them, their set was really good and the whole night went off really well. We had Mic back for one last show and after having auditioned a fair few people over the last few weeks it was really nice to play with the absolute lock between bass and drums that we have worked up over the years since I joined the band.

One of the perks of playing in a band on the bottom rung of the music world is that sometimes you support someone really good and today was one of those days. Other times at the West End Centre we have supported Ian Wills and The Willing, who were alright in an Ian Dury wannabe kind of way and Brendan Benson (currently playing with Jack White as The Raconteurs) who was pretty much rubbish, so this is the first time I've actually stayed for the whole set by a band we've supported there. A very good set it was too- I can heartily recommend them. We were so impressed we bought their album.

Its also always good to hear Swansea accents- it has a lot of novelty round here - and to chat with their bassist, who used to work in Revenge Records on St Helens road so I probably bought some obscure albums off him at some point in the past...

The only downside was that time pressed somewhat after soundchecks and squeezed a couple of songs out of our set, leaving it very brief. I think we got the message across, though.

The single is out today!

If you have ITunes and you have 79p that you can't think of a good use for, I recommend you buy Close To The Sun the new, download only, single from Sequoia. For less than £2.50 you could get the single and both B-sides, new track "What Would Our Mothers Say" and a DLT session version of "Ebb & Flow" introduced by the Cornflake himself.

If you don't have ITunes you could download it and then buy the single. As Arrested Development almost said: "79p means a snack for me, but it means a big deal to you." If you imagine you are saying that to me, and I am the wise old hobo of that song, then I'm not entirely sure where I was going with that. Not sure at all.

So anyway, as we might say from a stage: "We have a single out, please buy it and tell everyone you know how great it is so they buy it too..."

It should arrive on Napster and Yahoo music shortly too, but I don't have direct links yet as it doesn't seem to have made it's way out of them yet.

The festival went really well- it was a big day out for everyone involved and we got to play on a big stage to a very large room with lots of people on it. This was to the good. Big Wednesday were astounding, Nizlopi were bless and Smudged deserved a bigger audience. The whole thing seemed to go pretty well and I'm definitely happy about it.

At the end of July, when we release our first single ( online only, details to follow ) we're also playing at an all dayer kind of a festival thing here in Farnham. We've got Nizlopi headlining and many outstanding acts over several stages throughout the afternoon. If anyone wants to come I can sort you out with a ticket or you can find them through the usual places. Knowing most of the acts on the bill to some degree I can pretty much guarantee that it will be the best day out it's possible to have in Farnham.

I don't know if I mentioned this previously, but we also have T-shirts suitable for anyone who falls into the "skinny-fit girl" demographic.