Pale White Dot...?

I can see light at the end of the tunnel, the end is near approaching... yep, that's right we've nearly finished the Blind Voyeurs' debut album. We've got a small list of a few bits here and there on each track that need tidying up. We've been clipping our lovies and sweeping the dust under the carpet for so long now that the album has completely changed direction from original vision. But all for the better me thinks - it actually 'feels' like a complete body of work.

In the last 14 or so months some of our favourite songs/tunes have been removed and new ones have surfaced that have raised the bar. We've made some controversial decisions and will be making MORE controversial decisions in the next couple of months. We've had band members come and go and then come back again (and then go...) We've also got a new top secret weapon that can only be unveiled in 2009.

In the next 2 to 3 weeks things should all be being finalised (I'm not saying too much yet cos you never know what might happen) then it's time to look at artwork and inlay cards etc.

People keep asking us 'how long does it take to make an album???' Well, the answer to that is - as long as it has to!

Y'see the thing is, we all have full-time jobs and we have social and family lives to lead. And then there's holidays and sicknesses etc. If we were a fulltime band working 9 to 5 on nothing but music, you could compress all the time we've spent on this album quite easily into less than 6 weeks. Don't forget that we're doing everything ourselves AND learning everything from scratch.

We've also switched our recording software platform 3 times since we started and new hardware equipment has been purchased halfway through from mixing desks to bass amps to microphones! Add to that the fact that we all really care about this project - it's a complete labour of love - so we're never using the "That'll do" mindset.

And then there are the gigs. We found out at the end of last year that with a project this big we can't concentrate on recording and rehearse for 2 or 3 gigs a month at the same time. So in 2008 we decided to tone it down a bit... until eventually not gigging at all!! It was tough turning down gig offers - and I still hate doing it - but we had to try and prioritise. Gig or record. One or the other. If we attempted to do both, each would suffer. We would have ended up with a string of shit gigs followed with a dessert of a half-arsed album. That would've pissed everyone off!

Anyway, I don't want to build it up - in fact I dunno why I rambled as much as I did. It all just came blurbing out! I do that sometimes. Anyway... enough for now.

The Archive

Woo! Double post today!! I've just seen this video and I have to share it with whoever occasionally glances at this corner of the internets.


The Archive from Sean Dunne on Vimeo.

Paul Mawhinney was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA. Over the years he has amassed what has become the world's largest record collection. Due to health issues and a struggling record industry Paul is being forced to sell his collection.

This is the story of a man and his records. I hope you enjoy it.

Home Alone

So Lisa's buggered off to Wales for 4 nights. Which leaves just me and the cat left to fend for ourselves!! She went yesterday and I already miss Lisa loads - just don't know what to do with myself. But that being said I can always find things to distract myself - I've got loads of little tweaks to do with the BV album mixing, I'm learning how to use Final Cut properly (God it's sooo fuckin in-depth and professional! FACTOID: The Coen Brothers used Final Cut to edit and colourize one of my favourite films - No Country For Old Men)



I've also got The Force Unleashed to play - which is totally frickin awesome! Absolutely love the storyline in this. If you're a Star Wars fan (which I clearly am) then you have to check this out because the story is mindblowing!



Last night I finished off watching series 3 of Battlestar Galactica. Woah, what a finale?!?!?! Battlestar is, IMHO, probably one of the the best sci-fi shows in the history of all TV ever - it's sooooo realistic and dark and the characters are deep and ... and... I could go on but I won't!

Before Lisa left we popped into ASDA to grab a few things and just as you walk in they had boxes and boxes of Carlsberg and Kronenberg (18 bottles) for a fiver each!! So we grabbed a box of each - there were loads of freshers there buying them by the trolley load! So, all in all, I've got loads to keep me occupied, 36 bottles of beer in the fridge and a chippy/chinese/indian take-aways just round the corner .... I think I'll survive!! :)

Why Should Rock Stars Expect To Be Rich?

The future record industry simply won't be able to maintain the kind of salaries that pop stars of the last century were used to.

read more | digg story

stevebeck.co.uk

Yep, that's right. I've registered my own domain. It's www.stevebeck.co.uk. It only redirects to this blog at the moment but that's basically what I wanted it for. It was only 99p for the first year and then £2.99 for every year after that. I've no need to pay for hosting because my blog is already hosted by Blogger. So update your bookmarks if you have em cos stevebeck.co.uk is my new front door. Yay!

Dead Set on E4

Just head about this new show called Dead Set coming to E4. It's a horror spin-off version of Big Brother Unlike the parent show, this will be a straight dramatic horror featuring the shows presenters, but with actors playing the house mates. The plot involves a zombie outbreak which strands the housemates inside the Big Brother house. Although the house is one of the only places left were people can shelter from the zombie attack, the infection soon seeps in and what follows is an unimaginable terror.

Blind Voyeurs: In The Studio - Episode 1

Jamming in the studio Saturday 13th Sept 08



The BV boys have a new studio to play in. Interestingly it's situated underneath a pole dancing studio in Southbourne! This is the first in hopefully many insights into what actually goes on in there. This week we decided to take a break from recording and decided to have a jam - to see if we come up with anything interesting.




Blind Voyeurs: In The Studio - episode 1 from Steve Beck on Vimeo.



Blind Voyeurs on Myspace

Polish Film Posters

I've just stumbled upon this incredible collection of Polish Film Posters. They are so different from the American/English/Rest-of-the-world's posters it's unbeleivable. I don't know much about why they're like this. I can only assume that there was some weird copyright laws involved and so they had to draft in artists to create new designs. Some of them are so far removed from the actual film content. It's completely blown my mind. I will say that some of them are shit by todays professionally photoshopped examples but you have to understand that these were probably made on a zero budget, most in the 70's or 80's, they had to completely design their own font (not download from the internet it like you would today) and work with awkward and messy screen printing processes.




Apocolypse Now



STAR WARS - The Empire Strikes Back



Alien

Click me to see the rest...

JB records guitar

JB records guitar, originally uploaded by SteveBeck.

We had our first band practice at the new rehearsal studios on Sunday. Sound was good - nice and punchy. We re-recorded the guitars for The Christening because it was too muddy. We decided to record them totally clean. Also added a few incidental drum and percussion sounds here and there in the parts that will adjoin Chistening with Pale Blue Dot. Other recorded parts were lo-fi drums for Keep It On The Road.

The practice room is situated in the basement of a Pole-Dancing dance studio. It was empty - they have classes on Thursday. There was an old tuneless upright piano in there which was a bit of fun to tinker on. Thinking about using it for something in the album. Could be pretty haunting

Psycho Cat in a box!

Psycho Cat in a box!, originally uploaded by SteveBeck.

Tilly loved this shoe-box! She still thinks she a kitten and tries to sleep in it.

The Watchmen

I've just started reading this last night....



I'm only about 30 pages in but already I'm hooked. I'm reading it in preparation for the movie. Here's the trailer...



Boner!

Zizzi in Bournemouth

Just a quick post to say that I thoroughly recommend Zizzi restaurant in Bournemouth. It's a pizza/pasta type restauant and it where Yellow River used to be on Richmond Hill. Great decor, amazing food, really nice staff and an open kitchen creates a really friendly atmosphere. Check it