Over the last couple of weeks Jess and I have been putting the finishing touches to some new songs for a rather curious side project covering the poems of William Blake. Tonight we are going home to sit in our front room and practise with our cat for an audience...
A few years ago, a friend of ours A J Dehany, while on a hiatus from writing garage-punk inside-out speed-anthems, started setting the missing songs from Shakespeare plays to music. He discovered some of his contemporaries had done the same with William Blake and from this the seed for Blakespeare was planted, a special night based on modern interpretations of the two Williams, Blake and Shakespeare. Jess and I thought we'd have a go at Blake and we got sucked in- when you start trying to cover something you read around it, in Blake's case you look at the astounding artwork, you listen to other people's accounts of this fascinating man- it's very interesting. We're playing under the provisional name of Blakespeare's Sister, which at the time of its inception, we thought was amusing…
We have on occasion been asked if the band could do an acoustic set- I pretty much think the answer would almost unequivocally be no (we keep getting told our band is LOUD)…until now. What we have come with are not quite Rayographs songs, they are William Blake, but there is an essence of depth, simplicity and mystery that sits well amongst our musical inspirations, artists, writers and lyricists. The songs are psychedelic folk inflected with a bit of blues in places- we use glockenspiels, acoustic guitars, maracas, and rainbow-coloured melodicas. We are thinking of recording them over Christmas and illustrating some cd artwork, for ourselves more than anything- we like to keep busy!
For now, we are performing tomorrow at Blakespeare amongst an array of talented luminaries- the venue has a stage with red velvet curtains and a miniature ballroom floor- very David Lynch. It will be a great night- it costs £5 and it will actually be William Blake's 251st birthday. Get there early as the venue is very intimate and will fill quick! It will just be Jess and I performing tomorrow, but we are all playing as The Rayographs this Saturday at Catch. Details of both gigs are on flyers on main page.
Anon
Astrud
xxx
