i’m sat listening to the latest band praccy recording. over the years threequartersmile has been many things, it’s been fun, it’s been hell, it’s been listened to in other countries, and at the same time, been nowhere at all… and it’s been everything to me.

not once has it ever been this epic.

on wednesday we were having a slightly different praccy – i didn’t touch a guitar all night, and wanted to focus on the vocals, and for once, we worked at one song the whole session – ‘day one’.

I reckon that not having my guitar was a fantastic thing – instead of dedicating half my concentration to making the right chord shapes, for once i could dip my toes into the same water that a lot of singers in bands do… it was weird, but extremely enjoyable. With me not playing guitar for the night, the overall sound was way less cluttered too – two heavy duelling guitars is fantasic for impact, but the impact goes after a few minutes. Lukey and Ash were fending for themselves, JJ too, working hard to fill the spaces they’d usually leave for another instrument… and you know what…?

they fucking ruled! not that i’d have had any doubts that they would – but it’s like, these guys are amazing musicians, and very closely matched in ideas… i wanted to know what would happen to the song if i gave it to them to play around with. up until now it’s by and large been the case that i’ll write a song and we’ll only change it a little, but with this tune, the guys all took it and changed it into a grinding, epic tune, if you’ve heard the acoustic version, just wait till you hear the full band one.

i’m really glad that the ball is rolling again, to have back something that you can only get from collaboration with bandmates – a real group creative effort… one that sounds awesome to boot. i’ve been a singer/songwriter for years now, and have always been in a band.

…it’s only now, this far in, that i feel more like a singer/songwriter who’s *part* of a band. muchos respect for lukey ash and JJ, who totally blew me away at band praccy

I hope to do the exact same next week, they seemed a bit apprehensive about me not playing the guitar but i hope they warm to it… besides it’s having a positive effect on the songs and my singing too lol.

hope you’re all well peeps