It's been a long, long time.
So, how long has it been? A year and a half? More? Dear oh dear.
What have we been up to?
Well, it would be fair to say that things have perhaps slown down since 2017 - at least on a micro level. On a macro sort of scale there is still sh*tloads going on.
Let's pick up where we left off...
I did end up listening to the 2nd album again. It is rather good, I must say, though still definitely in need of a remix. However, I've been unable to devote my full attention to doing that for a while, because in September 2017 I enrolled on a Masters course at Bangor University. At a meeting I asked if I could present them with a Colonel Dax album as my coursework if I recorded it bit by bit to fit in line with various set tasks. I told them of the concept - an idea that I've been developing since early 2012. The album would be called Waiting Room, and it would place the listener inside the room to confront various characters whose lives have been blighted by their own bad habits, their tendencies to shirk and procrastinate life, and their mental health issues. At the end the listener is given the opportunity to reflect on their own life and the steps they might take to leave the room.
It's a huge, fat concept piece that I initially wanted to release as Colonel Dax's debut album - but it's just taken so long to develop that I pushed it back to 3rd. Mainly to release simpler material first, and hone my production skills (which admittedly need a hell of a lot of honin') in the run-up to the creation of this album.
The people at Bangor did me one better. Because of their hugely positive reaction to "the big track" from the 2nd album, thisisnotadream (which I had submitted as my 3rd year undergrad composition coursework), they incredibly generously said that they could trust me to produce something good, and that they were willing to create a new kind of Research Masters degree - of which I would be the Guinea pig - where my final project would be an album, rather than a dissertation. "Basically", they said, "you go away and record the album, come in every few weeks for a meeting to discuss ideas, and in a years time, give us the album with a score and 15,000 words explaining it."
I thought this was too good to be true. I hastily accepted and got to work. After about 6 months I began to realise quite how much of a mammoth task I'd created for myself, and that was when I found out I actually had 2 years to complete it! This enabled me to broaden the scope of the whole project, and at the time of writing it definitely seems that we're dealing with a rather monstrous beast. I'll stop talking about it there, at the risk of jinxing anything.
So, long story I know, but that is the main thing I've been chipping away at - with some cracking instrumental performances from Bill, Al and Anna, and others, as well as some fascinating interviews with various people about mental health and world views.
I've done some work on remixing the 2nd album. Once my Masters is finished at the end of September I'll get stuck in with it properly, and hopefully have the new and improved version ready to release on December 27th 2019 - the 2 year anniversary of the initial disastrous album launch, and the 10 year anniversary of the event that triggered all of Dax.
In the meantime, here's the final part of the big track.
And another track from the 2nd album: Molly - still unfinished, but nearly there.
And here's a video explaining, rather inarticulately, some of the above...
That's the macro stuff, now how about the micro?
As a live band, we've not been quite as active as we were, what with Billy, Alex and Anna being actual grown-ups with actual full time jobs now. We've still been playing pub gigs every few weeks (with Dax and also with the cover bands Droogs, New Foos and Fractions). In May 2018 we played an acoustic set at FOCUSWales in the Royal Oak, Wrexham. Playing acoustic was a bizarre but very fun experience - here's a video of the performance. Look at me pretending to be a frontman lmao. We had hoped to play at this year's festival but were late applying! Fingers crossed for 2020.
In July we played at the excellent Gigfest in Oswestry to a warm reception. Later that month I created this video to explain my absence - which began as a simple vlog but spiralled out of control and ended up being something I'm actually pretty proud of xD
~Photo: Kev Infocus
More pub gigs followed, and not much else really, until October - when I grew a hefty moustache for Movember, and was inspired to create an anthem for the occasion. I developed the music from something I'd been working on as a synthy solo side-project from Dax, after realising that anything I end up making is pretty much just going to be Dax xD
The song is a tongue-in-cheek comment on the fragility of masculinity, and promotes the idea of men speaking out about their feelings and problems. All proceeds from the BandCamp single have been and will be donated to the Movember Foundation and the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM). The song also received radio airplay on Adam Walton's show.
The video was filmed in Flexsys - our practice space and a venue very close to the band's heart - very shortly before it was closed and demolished. We had an absolute blast dressing up in hilarious garb and choreographing a dance routine - yes, a DANCE routine - to go with the song. It also features great dancing from David Bailiff and my stepdad Dave Wood. I'm extremely proud of the result.
During the making of the video we received the tragic news of the death of a dear friend, Liam. The video and the song are humbly dedicated to his memory, and in my lack of sleep during that sad time I wrote a song for him which was included as the B-side to the Moustache single, and was played at his funeral.
In April 2019 we played at Bangor's Spring Festival alongside a wonderful band called Oxime, and the week after we played at the 4th Mark Sheldon memorial event. Both lovely gigs.
~Photo: Howard Pimborough
At the risk of repeating myself almost verbatim from the previous blog entry, we shall hopefully be spreading our gig wings wider in the near future. 2 of us can drive at the moment, but our gig gear takes up the space of 3 cars. One of us has a driving test coming up very soon. I won't say who.
...her name starts with A.
Oops. Well, anyway, good luck and fingers crossed!
Also, there is a Dax baby on the way!! I won't say whose.
...his name starts with B.
We're all bloody delighted.
Also, news almost as big (lol): last month I was commissioned to write the theme tune and various jingles for a television pilot, and off the back of that I was commissioned to write some music for an animal installation in Butlins. Exciting and fun stuff! But for the moment I'm back to ripping my hair out trying to complete this seemingly impossible 3rd album, whilst also writing the 4th. This blog is me procrastinating, I guess. I'd better get back to it.
Nice talking to you xxxx