going on tour next week!

no time to think about anything else

Since I last posted here, we’ve played shows in France - Vendome, Tourcoing and Lorient, then Dublin, Ireland. I’ve also played three solo shows in record stores in Liverpool, Oxford and Portsmouth. On Monday we head out across the UK for more shows as a band and then to Europe for even more right up to December 19th. Dates below, hopefully see you at some of these shows - tickets here!

Being on the road again has been fun. I didn’t know if it would be and of course every day is different so don’t hold me to anything. I’ve spoken about it a lot in various interviews and probably on this blog too, but the last time we were properly on tour in 2022 really burned me out. I eventually came to the realisation that I didn’t have to quit, but I could radically change the way that I think about and approach making and playing music. I realised that there are ways to do this that could allow me to not put too much pressure on myself, to actually sleep enough, to say no to things that would push me over the edge and to have a good time. It was a beautiful realisation that it doesn’t matter, that life is for living and enjoying when you can, and remembering how lucky we are to get to do this at all.

And then we went to France and played 3 shows in 5 days, spent about 35 hours driving and around 5 hours sleeping every night. I came home and slept for 3 days. But the shows were incredible. It was so satisfying to be back out on the road playing the new album, enjoying it, seeing people sing along to all our new songs and find us and talk to us in the venues, tell us how much our music means to them.

I discovered after ten years that my favourite drink on stage is actually just a black coffee. We were really well fed at those shows. Meals were well planned. We walked about, I looked out of windows, read my book (Clarice Lispector’s Near To The Wild Heart). We went back to places we hadn’t been in a few years, went to new places. Tried out various setlists, stumbled on new ones.

It was also my birthday last weekend and I think the best gift I received was actually just an idea from a friend who splits the day into 4 phases, and since learning about it I’ve found some peace with my routine. The day is split into the morning (until 2pm), the beginning of the day (2pm-6pm), work begins (6pm-10pm) and then hyper focus (10pm-2am). It was an extremely accurate portrayal of my life and I’ve come to accept it wholly and with love in my heart. It’s 1am as I type this and so I guess soon the day is over. Schedule send of course for the morning.

I’m well slept today and I am looking forward to this run of shows.

see you soon x x