hello,

I'm in LA again, for a couple of weeks.

I've been meeting some producers out here about doing my next record. It's pretty exciting because I haven't really been ready to talk about any of that stuff for ages, i really haven't wanted to. I've wanted to hang out and watch jeremy kyle and see my friends and go to the cinema and clean out my fish tank and pass my driving test. But i finally feel ready to start getting stuck into thinking about how to stick these songs together that I've been working on for the past 8 months. I feel like the songs are stamps and i need to get someone to lick the the back of the stamps and put them in the right place on the envelope.

I'm excited.

Good timing too because the cribs are also in LA and i bet you can't wait to hear their new album, it's going to make you so happy.

I had a meeting with this guy in a crunky mansion on laurel canyon and it was huge and i've never been in a mansion before and i got to sit and drink rose and look at a mansion and it was very exciting for me. 

other typically LA experiences include seeing this woman...

seeing this sunshine!

and sitting on this plane

apart from that I've been loving the yeah yeah yeah's It's Blitz record and enjoyed watching them play live. 

For a good time call these guys...

www.ithinkimheredarling.com

p.s i don't have a twitter account and i don't twatter about philosophy.

the london lite quoted me wrong. i think they actually quoted a cheap takeaway fortune cookie. x

i passed!
I passed my driving test yesterday, the 26th of march.
i'm so happy! i only got one minor and it was a sunny happy day. it feels so good to pass your driving test, i got a real sense of achievement. now all i need is to get a car and then i can drive it.

oh relief. i've can't believe the amazing beautiful spring weather we had last week. i went to the park with my dogs and just hung around in there for about 3 hours every day...while my dogs scavanged around for bits of food, tennis balls and leftover starbucks (i can't say i agree with their politics, but they are labs and to be honest, they'd probably eat your leg if it dropped off) max also found a hardly eaten ribena flavoured calipo lying around and gobbled that down too. all in all a great day. can't really say the same for the weather this week but i've been in my rehearsal room playing with a new 24 track anyway so i don't mind too much.

i've been fairly busy the last couple of months. i went on tour with the cribs for their uk dates
which were fucking great. you should be very excited about their new album. then i went to portland for a wedding. i knew a couple once who got married in space. they took off their space helmets and their heads popped exploding confetti into the universe. that, is how stars were made.

i've also been working very hard as a board member and director of the featured artist coalition. you may or may not have seen a few things in the press about it, we had our launch a couple of weeks ago now. i got involved last september and we're basically a coalition run by artists for artists to protect artists rights and to give them(us) a seat at the table...to have relationships with governments and get a say basically in what should happen to our music and how it's used/exploited etc. and how the industry is run. it's essentially taking responsibility for the work that you do. there's great people involved who i've been lucky enough to work with including billy bragg, dave rowntree and ed o'brien. it's been so educational and i've really got my politics head on, which my mum is pleased about. i even got a chance to have a sit down meeting with paul mccartney. a cup of tea with macca, i felt like lucy in the sky with diamonds i tell you, sitting there and talking about his experiences and listening to stories about him and john signing their deal and making sgt. peppers. wow wow wow. very happy indeed, what a priviledge. Anyway we had a very successful launch, i did a podcast with the minister of culture and we had a meeting a couple of days ago with a bunch of mps and people in the industry. i'm happy to say i think we're really being heard.

apart from that i went to a missoni launch dinner last thursday, which is very unusual for me because to be honest, i don't wear designer stuff. not being a vintage snob or anything, but you know i just can't deny my love for 2nd hand junk. but anyway they sent me this really pretty fine knit dress with these lovely pink and greens and a 60's sort of pattern and asked me to dinner, so i couldn't resist. i met mr. & mrs missoni who seemed lovely and we ate some delicious food. it was lovely.

ermm....anything else...i finished my book and would highy recommend it, billy childish 'my fault' i loved it.

i also went to see the lightning seeds gig at the hospital, 4 tracks from the new album. i'm looking forward to getting it and listening to that, all the sounds were so enriched and my ears wanted to eat them up. they had the most amazing sounding 12 string acoustic guitar, i've never appreciated a 12 string guitar before, i thought they were for wankers, but i was totally naive, it was beautiful. a slide guitar and one of those massive glocks, i forget their names, they had gorgeous organ sounds too and lovely old amps. loved listening to it. yeah, that stuff's highly recommended too. check it out.

i'm gonna post a few pictures cause i haven't in a while and then i'm going to bed. i had a friday night in front of the telly which was nice and i'm going to a walk from temple to trafalgar sq. tomorrow from 2, it's to raise awareness about autism. my cousin is autistic so my aunty is heavily involved and it's pretty close to home. anyone who is around, the support is very welcomed.

bye.x

tour














the thermals who are so good



yum!




ha! my friend gemma cairney on her very own tour bus her face on it! amazing! the only other bus i've seen with the passengers face on the side was boss hoss.
well done gem. listen to her on 1extra with trevor nelson.





in my missoni dress with my friend seb the mole.we got our pictures taken in the living room like it was prom





in america being a tourist




the jurassic park ride...i've actually dreamed of doing this since i saw it on newsround when i was like 12





america knows how to do peanut butter. i long for england to catch on





so cute!





and finally i found this picture of this lama and i want it so badly because then i can spin my own wool from my own lama and live the knitters dream.





night!

i failed my driving test. rubbish. reverse around a corner. how crap. anyway i've rebooked it and i'm not disheartened as my driving isn't actually very bad, some say infact that it's rather marvelous but i can't reverse around a corner, it's just very difficult. more practice needed!

so it's cold and it's nearly not january anymore (hooray!) i forgot how depressing it can actually be in january. the grey days and fears and insecurities and the effort needed to get out of bed in the morning. last year i was all flying around australia on the big day out thinking january was the probably the best month in the year but being in london and trying to figure out what to do is...less inspiring...anyway, it hasn't been all that bad, i've been getting involved with lots of things to keep my mind off feeling weird in january. i've been writing new songs and demoing them and reading venus zine. which is the only magazine i like at the moment. it supports a lot of female artists and independent artists/shops/designers/photographers etc. it always has a great list of little online shops that sell nice things. i''ve also become heavily involved with setting up the Featured Artists Coalition, we have the launch meeting next week. it's going to be run by artists for artists, to look after artists rights in this strange old industry. i find it so surprising that this hasn't already been set up seeing as you have so many other organisations looking out for a lot of people in a lot of industries. but it hasn't, and we are, and that's exciting.

i've been youtubing quite a lot. watching interviews with beyonce or christina ricci, watching me you and the beast and the snoring duck. very cute. i've been reading billy childish my fault and also the consolations of philosophy, and by the way scolates tends to be extremely relevant in day to day life. i've been visiting friends and thinking about travelling. i want to go to brazil. seeing as it's oscar season i've been desperate to see a bunch of films and if you haven't seen the reader go and see it because it's just so brilliant. i love kate winslet and this film is just so good. i went to a burns night, never done that before but i will again. the scots know how to party, there was haggis being stabbed, bagpipes being played, champagne and brandy cocktails, horses, flower arrangements, poetry, family bands. (i saw the northern version of the trachtenburgh family slideshow players, the young family, trying to get them to come on tour with me) and from the photos everybody looks like they just walked out of the loony bin. i also met a clever,pretty horse called 'made of bricks'. how cool is that? i get a horse tribute.

i can't upload any pictures at the moment but once i've found the right lead i'll do it.

2 websites that you should check out are these
one is for v day, it's a really inspiring global movement to end violence against women and raise awareness and funds through eve ensler's 'the vagina monologues'.

<"http://newsite.vday.org/about">


and also this one


<"http://www.tillylockey.co.uk/">

this little girl tilly lockley has lost both of her hands because she got meningitus and then septicemia. she's the sweetest thing, really so so cute, and they've made her a pair of hands, but because she's so young they have to be replaced ever year because of her size, and the hands are costing around £200,000. the family are trying to raise money so that they can give their little girl hands. you can read her full story and make donations through the website.

i'm going to go and try and find that lead for my camera and then have some dinner. happy new year, it might be cold and rainy and difficult to get up in the morning but it is a new year and psychologically that feels good. you can forget about old grudges and look for new ones. and it's a time of exciting and incredible change historically - barack obama. it really is inspiring, in a time when technology goes so far forward that it makes us go backwards, and tv is rubbish and everything seems so superficial and cheap and fast and easy, it's so nice that something really important can happen and it's all just very human and natural.

anyway, anyone who's really been suffering the january blues, don't worry it's almost over.x