Oh hi there,

Thought I'd drop a few lines [ha!-ed] to bring interested parties up to speed with what we've been doing the last couple of months, and what's happening in the next few. For the sake of clarity. Everybody loves clarity.

The new album is recorded. This has been quite a long process in a way, but also in reality quite a quick one. When you add it all up. Some of you may remember that about a year ago we went in to Headgap studios here in Melbourne to record my third album, but our first together as a band - what was to become Wirewalker. We did that with the esteemed Neil Thomason - recorded and mixed in about ten days all up - and thought it was all hunky dory and finished. We even mastered it with Byron J Scullin, mentor and friend, but disappointingly no relation to James Scullin former PM of Australia.

Then we went on tour in Europe, I lived in Glasgow, more touring, New Zealand, home etc... and we all realised that we didn't like the album all that much after all. Luckily we hadn't rushed it out before we went, so no one was privvy to a series of what I think were fairly pedestrian renditions. Bit rock, but not rockin. Close, but no cigar. We got better in Europe.

So we headed up to Joe's folks' farm in Taggerty in April. This is just north east of Melbourne - bush fire territory in fact. The fire went straight through there but fortunately they stayed and defended and survived, and the house and studio are all perfectly in tact, but the tractor melted.

Anyway, two lovely weeks there saw us laying down a bunch of new songs, reworking some of the tracks from last year, and generally just being a lot more relaxed about the whole thing. A bit of work at Chinatown back in Melbourne last week sees this album recorded and ready to mix - and already we're a lot more confident about and pleased with the result. It's very quiet in sections, and some of it promises to be a lot more folky than we thought. There's no extended orchestration this time - just basic arrangements played by the three of us, and a lot of the time the whole track is recorded live, vocals included. It seems dynamic to me, and honest. We now have fifteen songs - four from last year, and eleven new ones, which we are currently whittling down intosomething of album length proportions.

And that means that in just over two weeks Joe and I are bound for New York City - Brooklyn in fact - to spend a week mixing with Joel Hamilton. Joel has worked on a fairly dizzying array of records over the years, and it was the variety of his work which sold me on the idea. He's worked with Tom Waits, Nina Simone, Sparklehorse, Lou Reed, Elvis Costello - really, a shitload of diverse and impressive stuff - but it's not that important because we're us and not Lou Reed - it's his whole philosophy that seems pretty sturdy. I'll let you know more when I work it all out. I will have answers. Joe knows more about it than me - he was already a fan - I think they both hang out on forums devoted to things I don't understand. They know what an OHM is. Anyway, for those of you who think it's quite extravagant of us to be flying to NYC to mix our album, you are absolutely correct.... aren't we just a couple of cards?

So we land in hipster ground zero on June 5th - right in Williamsburg. I'm happy to note there have been a few stabbings round there in the last year, so unless violent is the new fluoro I suppose there's something left of old New York in the area. I'll pack my flame thrower just in case. For the hipsters not the stabbers.

And that's that - we mix the album, it sounds good, we put it out..... somewhere, sometime. More news on that as it comes to hand.

When we get back at the end of June we're straight into some shows, which will be great, because microphones don't give you love and applause. They just listen like robots. Horrible, brutally honest robots.

JUNE 27th is CASTLE TONES - the latest in Mistletone's continuing mission to make MELBOURNE life one continuous music festival, and a damn fine thing it is too.... this one is at our old haunt - our "home ground" if you will - the Edinburgh Castle in Brunswick. Starts early - 3pm, and as well as us, there's a truckload of local produce on offer - Kes trio, Laura Jean Trio, The Twerps, Dick Diver and others, plus Norway's Je Suis Animal. They are animal, in French. But they're from Norway. Radical.

JULY 2nd is JOE'S BIRTHDAY, and to celebrate I'm making him play in GEELONG. He'll love that. It won’t be so bad though, because this time it's with Augie March - supporting them - and hopefully some people will come. Not like last time we played Geelong when all we had to entice punters inside was Henry Wagons - hopeless really, though as usual I was astounded at Henry's ability to ridicule and abuse the audience while somehow turning it to his advantage. If I tried that I would no doubt be beaten up and mugged, then beaten up some more. Anyway the show with Augie March is at the Nash, and no doubt no one will know who we are, but that's ok. At least they won’t be yelling "bring back Wagons". Then again, it's Geelong, so maybe they will.

JULY 9th I'll be playing a solo set - and of late when I do that I've chosen to abandon the loops and layers in favour of an acoustic guitar. I have become everything I set out to destroy, except that I don't seem to be rolling in dough, which seems to be the usual point of betraying one's dreams. Anyway, it's good. It's exciting to me. I pretend that with my humble guitar and voice I can make old black men in trailers cry - just like Townes Van Zandt in that documentary about Townes Van Zandt. Anyway, that gig is in support of Andrew McCubbin & The Hope Addicts and it's at the NORTHCOTE SOCIAL CLUB. Come along.

And JULY 17th will be our first show in SYDNEY since last September, so we're making it a big one. Much like our Thornbury Theatre show in Melbourne back in March, we're aiming to get you sitting down. It's at the FACTORY THEATRE in Enmore. Very respectable. Tickets will be on sale soon. You can still drink - in fact you must. But you will be recumbent in your sozzled state, while we gently lap at you like a Melbournian sonic ocean. Or bay. Other people will lap at you too, like puppies or young polar bears. We're not sure who yet - supports are TBA. Or TBC. TBC then TBA.

Anyway, hopefully this has all been interesting to you – sorry it’s so vast – if nothing else it has at least helped me pass some time on a very slow Sunday. I'm off to see Matt Bailey play at the Old Bar now.

You’ve been great,
NC.