Six Months and We Take Stock

So much has happened in the last few months regarding the band it's hard to know where to start.

Wynd is set to perform in full for the first time in a very public venue right at the centre of Brighton at the end of August, we are very excited about this opportunity to launch so publicly!

But just descending from that cloud for a moment, in reality I'm amazed we're still going because the survival rate for original bands is very low. I am still teetering, personally, on that excruciating edge of, am I too old, is this ridiculous, is the material rubbish, do the others in the band really want to do it, a negative world I used to live in sometimes pops up and seduces me for a few minutes.

The most important event in the last couple of months is the arrival of Katie Miller - K-rrrang! Katie, who also plays with the metal 3 piece Pyro, is a real asset to the band, being young and gorgeous, and can play great lead so it's really enhanced the sound.

We have now probably managed to arrange and rehearse most of the original songs I came up with, plus one or two new ones.

We've been through several curves. Two people had to leave, we're still looking for a rhythm section, but our friend Aldo is helping me make backing tracks.

Backing tracks! Surely that's against the rules in rrrock? Well, most of the big bands use some kind of digitally generated or looped backing now. Check out some of the current videos on the TV music channels or live performances, look at the TingTings and the White Stripes. Nuff said!

Backing tracks, for muso readers, have other spinoffs. For one thing, although obviously you lose spontaneity, it tightens the band arrangement-wise, and it's very good disclipine. For another, the rhythm tracks form the basis for eventual recording, which is the next phase.

We have two possible gigs and even a mini tour of Holland in the offing but we still need to get out there and test ourselves and the material.

I've now played some of the material a few times at the Portland Pub jam in Hove, with various combinations of band members, just off the cuff, and it's gone really well.

A lot of feedback has been sought just playing people the tracks and unless they are being incredibly polite, so far so good.

Plans are afoot to start 'staging' the band.

We'll have to play where we can to start with of course, but once we start performing in some bigger venues, we have very big plans for performance oriented presentation, right from stage clothing, props and a few other nice touches up our sleeves.

I feel really excited about the project. We all get on, rehearsals are taken seriously but we have a laugh and we've started to socialise together.

My guess will be that we should soon have something recorded which sounds good enough to post here.

WyndMusic, my record and publishing company has also recieved permission to put material on to ITunes that's probably going to happen in the Autumn.

We do have a bit of a band 'sound' going on now, K-rrang has a very distinctive lead guitar sound, Fiddleycat's violin, mandolin and cello accompaniments are adding a huge amount of class to the overall mix, and now that we have another guitar player there will be some duelling fiddles on one or two tracks. Lurex's high soprano ghosting or harmony vocals are unique to us and Karma Mama's haunting Native American Flutes add real ambience and heart stopping, uplifting solos.

Over the next couple of weeks we are going to check out a woman accordionist who has approached us, and we're still open to a real rhythm section and maybe a didge player.

We'll also be approaching radio and TV shows who play 'unsigned' bands so at the moment, lots of plans.

Listen to this space.