Helen Lawson: Blog

Hi everyone

Thanks to everyone who came down to the Old Queen's Head last night and helped make it such a lovely gig. It's really such a beautiful venue and it was brilliant to have so many of you there to share the night.

There'll be another gig there on the 16th August for anyone who missed out this time.

Don't forget, if you'd like to sign up to the mailing list, you can get a free download of 'This Town' - visit music.helenlawson.co.uk, click to download the track and enter your address.

Of course, you can also always buy the entire single or EP, to help fund future recordings!

Now, if you're interested to hear what else I've been up to lately, have a look at this trailer my film-making buddies Dusthouse have just made for the One on One festival at Battersea Arts Centre. Recognise the warbling? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyXYPPIVFg0

Hope you enjoy!

Cheers for now

Hxx

Hi everyone

It's almost time for another gig!

I'll be playing next Wednesday at the Cobden Club, it should be a good one.
Please email me back if you'd like to come along and I'll stick you on the guestlist - I don't think it's a deal-breaker but it makes life easier at the venue for some reason.

There's a couple of other dates on the gigs page - pop them in the diaries now, it'd be marvellous to see you at one or all.

Look out for news of new musical exploits soon, and in the meantime, for anyone who's not yet got the EP and the single, I have a spiffy new store - music.helenlawson.co.uk But it's all still available at iTunes too if you secretly really quite like The Man.

What else. Oh I know.
This is how I put extra cake on the table - by making videos for other musicians / theatre companies / other people who need videos.
Have a look at this latest one I edited for Yoav from the footage from his Danish trip. It's a good'un.

Cheerio for now, see you next Wednesday at the Cobden!

Hxx


Wednesday, April 14th, 8.30pm
The Cobden Club
170-172 Kensal Road, London W10
Price: £5 - Email me to be added to guestlist.

Friday, April 23rd, 8.15pm
Bedsprings Acoustic at Zenith Bar
125 Packington St, London N1
Price: Free

Tuesday, May 18th, 8.15pm
Bedsprings Acoustic at Elixir Bar
162 Eversholt Street, London NW1 1BL
Price: £4 (£3 NUS)

I'm back in London again. Hurrah, I hear you chorus.
Unless that was just the distant hoot of the overground.

Here are a couple of gigs - get one in the diary...
One is next week, the first time I've gigged in donkeys, as I didn't do much of that while in LA.

Weds 10th Feb, 8pm
Elixir
162 Eversholt Street, London NW1 1BL

Weds 14th April, 8.30pm
Cobden Club
170 Kensal Road, London, W10 5BN

It would be brilliant to see you at one or both of them - there's a few new songs that have never been heard live in the UK before. Treats.

LA was wonderful in myriad ways, but all good things come to an end and home again I came.
And now there are bass, cello and clarinet sessions for the album all coming up in the next few weeks, which will be ace.

In other news - to make the wait for the album all the sweeter, the two songs from the Sunny Levine session are now available as a single on iTunes - so get thee to www.itunes.com/helenlawson and feast yourselves on those.
At the moment, also, $1 from every copy of the EP sold at CDbaby will be going to Haiti.

Cheerio for now, hope to see you at a gig soon.

Hxx

Currently $1 from every CD sold at www.CDbaby.com is going to help Haiti.
There's some great music there, including Crossing the Bridge, and if you want to make an extra donation at the same time as buying some music, this is a way.
Alternatively, maybe you're not after any new music at the moment, in which case you can send even more cash directly to Haiti.

Ta
Hxx

This is what happens when you spin on a chair when your photographer friend is in the room.

He makes you spin again.

And again.

And then you fall on the floor.


Patrick Fraser Photography

Congratulations to Liran Donin, who played double bass on the Crossing The Bridge EP - his band Led Bib have just been nominated for the Mercury Prize! Brilliant stuff.

Hxx

See their nomination interview here!

Hey everyone

Here's the footage from the studio session the other week, have a look - I'm playing, singing, and demonstrating essential snacks.

In other news, it was my birthday this week and as a special treat my bike got stolen. To whoever did it, with their big nasty lock cutters, I hope you enjoy it, you git. Bring back my basket bracket if you have a heart.

On a brighter note, I got balloons, badges and beverages, so quite frankly who needs a bike.

Cheerio for now

Hxx

Hey everyone

Just a quickie to say the mixes from my session with Sunny Levine the other week are now on the music player - have a listen! The first is a new recording of 'This Town' which some of you will know from gigs and the old demo.
The other song is 'Coins Hit The Water' - fresh out of the box.

I'll be posting video footage from the session as soon as I've finished editing it!

Manic week in Venice CA this week - Band of Skulls played the Hammer on Thursday, plus the Duke Spirit were in town so late nights all round. Am also getting into the Cali spirit of things and going to a yoga class. It seems I have curiously unbendy calf muscles.

4th July fireworks over the marina were pretty special last night.

I'd write more about it, but I am recovering from yet another kitchen-related accident. It takes a special kind of skill to drop a large soup pan on one's head, I assure you.

Cheers for now, enjoy the new songs.

Hxx

Just called it a night for tonight. It's a misty old night in Venice CA.

Seemed to really come together today - Amya came back and did some more great violin, we spent the afternoon doing a little mixing and then Stuart Levine came by tonight and recorded clarinet parts. All sounding beautiful.

I'd only heard the parts in midi as I'd written them, so it's very exciting when they come alive on proper real life instruments! I particularly enjoy waving my arms and eyebrows about to communicate parts to the players. I should have been an air traffic controller.

Stuart said the clarinet part was quite Debussy, which was intriguing...
One more day to go on this session. Mainly tweaks tomorrow.

Tired now. This week I have mostly been eating soup.

Hxx

ps This is the possum that got made his home at the studio - he had to go, so we've sent him to a nice new life in the woods. Cheerio possum.

Just back from the first day in the studio with Sunny.

Great fun so far - have recorded all the guitars for both the tracks we're going to do this week. Plus a bit of piano and wotnot. We're doing a new version of 'This Town' and a new song, 'Coins Hit The Water'.

Sore fingers now.
Doing vocals tomorrow, so will no doubt get through absurd amounts of ginger. I like ginger when singing.
Ah, sweet ginger.

I'll try to record a little bit of video while I'm in the studio - I'll keep you posted!

Hxx

Hey everyone

Long time no blog. Have been getting on with recording and writing new stuff. I wrote a new song last week called The Family Jewels, which is a stomper featuring a wayward farmer's boy, a dancer, a sickly mother, a stolen guitar, a necromancer and a ghastly accident with a pair of shears. It's a bit of a departure. In a good way, one hopes...

Anyway, this week's been a busy one as I'm going into the studio with producer Sunny Levine next week to work on a few songs. I can't wait for that, hopefully we'll get some good stuff happening in there.

Anyway, some news on an old favourite - this made my day a few days ago. Jolyon Gray, an old chum from the acoustic circuit in London, who has long since moved back to Oz, sent it to me. It's a painting he did named 'Silver Purse', inspired by my song of the same name. It's been making me smile daily ever since.

I'll let you know how things go in the studio.

Hx

I am flying again soon.

Been in the UK for a few weeks, went to the studio straight from the airport, where Band Of Skulls were finishing off mixes for their album which comes out in a mere week or so. A tremendous album it is too, go and have a good listen to them when you get the chance...

I was making a film for them, so had to go and be the annoying person with a video camera for a little while. Turned out nice though, and it will probably be up on a website somewhere before long.

Since then I have managed to lock myself in a room for the second time this year (broken doorhandle), but escaped being in there for 12 hours by using a cunningly bent coathanger. Thank heavens for opposable thumbs.

Back in LA next week and I'll be doing lots of work for Yoav, plus getting a few new songs together and gradually inching towards the album...

Ta very much to everyone who's bought the EP so far - it's much appreciated, and to those who haven't, get yerselves a copy on the store page, or go straight to CDbaby or iTunes. Just a small plug...

Anyway, can't wait to get back into my little LA studio complete with inflatable mattress soundproofing - I'll keep you posted as to what I come up with!

Before then I have to get back on a plane. I'm not so keen on planes. Last time I flew out there was an emergency announcement and half the oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling. It was just a system error, but it was a wee bit alarming. My head nearly exploded with the adrenalin. Which was relaxing.

Fingers crossed it's a bit more chilled this time around...

Cheerio for now
Hxx

'This Town' is currently available for download at Twestival.com
Twestival is an event organised by users of networking site Twitter, to raise money for Charity: Water, an organisation which helps the 1 in 6 people on the planet without access to safe, clean drinking water.

Twestival.com is an online jukebox filled with tracks donated by artists to help raise a target of $20,000 by the 19th February.

All the tracks there are available for download until the 19th, in return for a donation.

It would be wonderful if you would download 'This Town' and donate (see the 'make a donation here' link above the jukebox for those not using Twitter).
'This Town' is number 234 on the list of donated tracks - though it may shift slightly as I believe they're adding song in vaguely alphabetical order!

I hope you find lots of other brilliant songs there to download too!

Twestival.com
Thanks very much in advance.

Hxx

Ok so it wasn't a monsoon so much as a deluge. But it was very wet.
More of that later...

It's been ages! Happy new year. Hope it is treating you splendidly so far.

Thanks to everyone who voted for me in the Stern.de end of year competition! I was coming second until the final hour, when I suddenly plummeted to 6th place! I think maybe I came under assault from the fans of another contender. It's a cruel world! I didn't mind too much, 6th is quite respectable. Thanks for all the voting, it was much appreciated.

So I landed in LA on the 7th January and have been gradually getting used to it. It took me a week to stop falling asleep in my dinner at 8.30pm, and a month to get used to the heat. We're having a rainy few days right now so I feel quite at home, but I believe that when the heat starts up again and we head towards summer, there will be a very real and present danger of spontaneous combustion.

I am not known for my tolerance of temperature extremes.

I'm here working on video projects for Yoav, but I am cunningly taking advantage of being here to start recording the album. I feel a little at sea because I'm no longer recording in my London kitchen, but it is a very real joy not to have to pack everything away before making a sandwich.

Wildlife count so far: many many pelicans and dolphins, the odd seal, a hummingbird, a raccoon, and a possum. A POSSUM! I miss London's foxes and robins, but come on, a possum?!

The other day I shrewdly chose to cycle up to Santa Monica promenade just as the skies were darkening and getting ready for a storm. I think I knew I was going to get rained on, but I was really desperate to pick up my new speakers to monitor my recording on, so I told myself the clouds were heading the other way.

The speakers are only little, but I still had to take them out of the box to fit them in my rucksack. I'd just done that and was 40 minutes from home by bike when the skies opened.

There was more water than air.

I don't mind getting wet, but I was a bit worried about the speakers. The last mile before home was an actual lake. They don't build roads to deal with rain here. They have to send out a lorry with a huge tank and snorkel to suck up the lakes like a thirsty motorised Aloysius Snuffleupagus from Sesame Street.

Anyway, I cycled as fast as the currents would allow, didn't drown and neither did the speakers. Hurrah! Everyone loves a happy ending.

Hokey-dokey, I'm off to work on a new song. My computer's been away being fixed. I had separation anxiety. But now it's back, mended, and there should be a new song up to hear soon!

Will keep you posted.

Have fun Februaries.

love
Hxx

ps I just got on Twitter
It's good.

Hey everyone

I know I already sent my 'merry christmas' email, but here's another one...

I just found out that the Stern competition I was in earlier in the year has entered its final round of voting.
Anyone who has been a 'winner of the week' can win...

So, if you need a break from the turkey at any point over Christmas, please go to this link: http://www.stern.de/unterhaltung/musik/:Voting-Die-Stars/622482.html?sicht=jv&vid=181
and give me 6 red dots all over again! They're over on the right and they turn red as you float your mouse over them.

It was brilliant to get so much support in the first round! I'd be massively grateful for any votes this time round, as it would be lovely to be in the top 3!

Voting carries on until the 8th January.

Anyway, once again, enjoy the festivities and have a nice eggnog on me!

love
Hxx

I hope all's well and that December is turning out merry.

Today I found out that 'This Town' (the same kitchen demo that ended up on KCRW about 5 minutes after I recorded it) was played by Tom Robinson on BBC 6 Music at the weekend!
Sorry to not have warned anyone in advance so that you could huddle around your radios for it...

The 'Listen Again' feature appears not to work this week, but gladly the song also made it onto the weekly 6 Music Introducing podcast, so if you'd like to hear me introduced, you can find it at the iTunes store (free download) or go here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/podcasts/trintro/ and follow 'How to Download' on the righthand side. It'll only be there this week I think, until the next podcast...

He plays 'This Town' 36 minutes in, and then says that a man called Dave Allen recommended it after seeing one of my gigs.
Mr Allen, if you are out there, thankyou very much indeed.

So anyway, that was nice. I also found out that he was playing 'Slipping' back in August, and I never knew, which was both mysterious and pleasing.

In Other News, I'm back in the UK doing various bits of recording until January, when my edit moonlighting (moonlit editing?) takes me back off to LA.
I'll be staying in a flat with a bigger kitchen than my old one, so more recording will get done and with any luck the album will be done before too long.


In the meantime, it's nearly Christmas and I'm feeling festive, so I offer you this top tip - a perfect stocking filler for your loved ones:

Helen Lawson - Crossing the Bridge EP is available on CD, iTunes download and the like, from the products page.

These people say it's quite good: http://helenlawson.co.uk/press.html

The other day I took a train to a studio in the countryside, and had been told I'd be picked up 'at the back end of the station'.
I got to the station and couldn't work out which end was which.
So I made my way to one end and said to the man on the turnstiles 'Excuse me, is this what you'd describe as the back end?'
To which he replied, 'Of the universe, yes.'

Made me laugh.

Anyway, if I don't see you between now and then, have a lovely time over the holidays and a figgy pudding on me.

love
Hxxx

Hope all's well your end.

So it looks like I'm off to the States for a bit.

I'm going to be in LA for video editing work for a while, and will get cracking on recording the album while I'm out there.
I'm out there for November, back for most of December for festivities, and then out again next year, for an as yet undecided number of moons.

I've got one last* gig booked before I go - tomorrow night, Wednesday, at the Cobden Club near Ladbroke Grove (address below), at 8.30pm.

Come along to see me off! It will be splendid.

And don't forget if you've yet to get your mitts on the EP, it's available on iTunes or on CD from the 'Store' page to your left!

lots of love
Hxx

* that is, unless I book one in December.


Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008
The Cobden Club
8.30pm
170 Kensal Rd
London W10
Price: £5

It's been a rather exciting week all told.

After the gig at the 12 Bar Club I decided to finish the kitchen demo of 'This Town'.
I wasn't entirely sure I'd got it finished, but emailed it to Nic Harcourt at KCRW (massive radio station in California), on the offchance he'd like it, as I'm going out to LA later this year for some video editing work. He happened to be looking at his email, and eight minutes later, he was playing 'This Town' on air on the Morning Becomes Eclectic show!

I nearly fell out of my chair.

A few people have asked me whether it might have set a new speed record from studio to air...
Anyway, he's since played it a couple of times which is ace. If you'd like to hear the track it's on the player at www.myspace.com/hclmusic
In gig-related news, I'm playing this Sunday afternoon at the Blackboys Inn in Sussex, so come along if you're in the area - the address is on the 'Gigs' page.
It's part of the Second Sunday series of live music sessions, which are always splendid afternoons of excellent music, drinks, and eating.
Feed your face and your ears for a fiver. That's quite snappy - maybe I'll let them use it in their adverts...

This week I will mostly be playing my new guitar.
I got it on Saturday, and it is a beauty.
Sadly it is not red like my other one, but it sounds about a billion times better, and after all, looks are not quite everything.
It's a beauty anyway. I am dead pleased.

Special thanks to Tim Eveleigh for giving me the push I needed to finally take the plunge (ie, the words "Your red guitar sounds really horrible")

Come and see the new guitar in action tomorrow night at the 12 Bar Club - it's nice and central (on Denmark Street, off Charing Cross Road) and I'll be on at 8.20 which is quite civilised.
If you can't make it, there's another couple of dates in the gigs section of this site, both of which will be splendid, and will feature the new guitar, which I may have mentioned.

In the meantime, here's my 'live montage' of the song This Town, which must now serve as a eulogy to the red guitar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ydQka-J0pM
Or you can watch it in the video section on this site...

I've been told I do a face like a hungry rabbit when I play the guitar. See if you can spot it.

Hi everyone

Just to let you know that Tom Robinson played 'Something in the Wine' on his BBC 6music show 'Introducing' on Sunday night (early Monday morning)...

Like a divvie, I didn't post about it in time for you to listen live, but the show can be heard for the rest of this week at this link - http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/tom_robinsons_introducing/ - go to the 'Listen Again' panel and click on Monday - it was about the 3rd song in, but listen to the whole show as it's ace!

Right, I've got a photo session tomorrow morning so I'm going to get some food and an early night! Rock.

Cheerio for now
Hxx

The EP has launched! The gig at the 12 Bar Club was excellent fun.
The very talented Maddalena Branduardi accompanied me on cello on 3 songs - 'Something in the Wine', 'Crossing The Bridge' and 'The Future Is Coming'. And since we were filming the whole night, I was planning to put The Future Is Coming up here for its internet debut. Sadly, though, half of the time the camera-sound had cut out. Next time, Gadget, next time...

There's a clip below, from the time when the camera mic was behaving itself - the end of 'Slipping'. The rest of the footage unfortunately sounds like it was filmed atop a wind-ravaged mountain.

Christian of UK States did a splendid job of putting the night together - thankyou again Christian!
And ta to everyone who came - hope to see you again next time.

Thankyou very much also to Wears the Trousers Magazine for this lovely review.

Cheerio for now
Hxx

Crikey, it's been a bonkers one today!

First off, my EPs arrived from the manufacturer! Hurray, ace and phew.
They sound lovely, look lovely, and I am dead chuffed, as evidenced in the below picture. Thankyou so much to everyone who's been involved and to everyone who's encouraged me to take the bull by the horns and finish it off (the CD, not the bull - I am not a matador.)

I am looking forward to being able to say 'yes', when people at gigs ask me if there's a CD to buy.

In other news this week, I am the Gewinner! Yes, all your votes counted and helped me to become Gewinner of the Week in the german website vote. And if my score remains the highest by the end of the year I'll get that feature in the magazine, so fingers crossed. Thankyou to everyone who gave me 6 red dots!

And finally, I am the Plumber!
Yes, it's not all glamour you know. As though deliberately timed to burst my EP / Gewinner-related bubble, the loo decided to break today, 5 minutes after the 'DIY-oriented person' of the household left on a plane for Canada. Seeing nothing else for it, I rolled up my sleeves and plunged in, and 20 minutes later the deluge was halted.

I am a bit soggy, and I'm not sure that the screwdriver can really stay wedged in there forever, but I still feel quite accomplished.

Which surely warrants a reprise of Helen's Handy Hints:
Never get stuck in with the screwdriver before you have stemmed the waterflow and can see what you're doing. You might stab yourself in the hand...

Cheerio for now
Hxx

Thanks to the strange and wonderful workings of the world wide web, I have found my way into a feature on independent musicians on the website for the German magazine 'Stern'.

There are three featured artists weekly for the rest of this year, and at the end the musician who receives most votes in their featured week will get a big spread in the magazine. Which would obviously be ace.

If anyone fancies voting for me I'd be dead pleased. We've got until the 16th June!

Follow the below link, then click on 'Anhoren und Abstimmen' underneath my little profile, then you click on the right-most of the grey dots to the right of the video!

Then if you press the back button, you can do it all again!

http://www.stern.de/diestarsvonmorgen
Thanks very much in advance for your clicks!

Last week the film maker Giada D asked me to be in her video for 'Spirit of Tolerance', a documentary about her performances at the Venice Biennale last year.

As I had contributed vocals to the film's soundtrack, 'Underwater Stars', she wanted me in the video...

'No problem', said I, and shortly found myself lying on a blue spangled cloth wearing a silver wig and pretending to be a mermaid...

Which, whilst unexpected, was no problem for someone with a well documented fondness for wigs.

A few days later there I was at the launch, and after the film was shown I performed in front of projections from the film...

I can attest it is hard to concentrate on singing with large yellow dinosaurs looming behind you:

The last few weeks have seen me mixing my EP with Eldad Guetta - it's really really nearly there, which is rather exciting. Soon it will be available for actual hearing. Crikey.

In the meantime, having been asked to take part in a feature on independent musicians for German magazine Stern, I've been busily trying to finish a video for Something in the Wine...

Today this has involved heaving around lots of large heavy boxes and suitcases in order to build my set. My back hurts.

My next video will be themed around feathers, ping pong balls, and newborn hamsters. Anything else weighing less than a few pounds will also be considered for inclusion.

Alternatively I might in future enlist the help of a few burly strong people.
But this time, it was heavy things, and just the one pair of weedy arms...

Of course, once I'd put it all together, I got to sit on the boxes and sing my song for About Eight Hours. From About 40 Different Angles.
And then I realised the light had changed while I'd been at it, so I did all the early stuff again...

But now tis done, and I will be editing it this week... Stay posted!

Signing off before I drop off...

Hxx