Monday, May 27, 2013

Squids Travels (back in time)

As you might have guessed I have been so busy with this past tour that my blogging has had to take a back seat! Ironic that it is called Squids Travels and yet there's nothing while I am actually traveling... at least not on this past tour of Europe with Sound of Contact! Although I did journal most of the experience so I am going through pictures and words now to share some of these adventures with you after the fact.


We'll start with the CD/tour launch party in London. 


First we did some interviews (including one with Rolling Stone Germany) and a photoshoot at Classic Rock Presents Prog. 



Then we made our way over to the Gibson Room where we performed an acoustic trio SOC set for our launch party with Inside Out Music, the record label we're on. Lots of press there, family and friends including some great musicians like Steve Rothery (Marillion), Elliot Randall (Steely Dan) and more. It was a lot of fun! We played our new video "Not Coming Down". Here's the video:




At the launch party we had an SOC crop circle cake! (something you don't see everyday)



It was nice catching up with Nick Davis who mixed "Dimemensionaut". Nick has produced and/or engineered Genesis, XTC, Marillion, It Bites and many other artists. I've known him for quite awhile now and he's always been really helpful and cool. With Simon and I producing the album and having a seasoned producer/engineer mix it we really had a nice "safety net" in case we went off the deep end. Haha. It was an honor working with Nick and it was great to see him at the launch party. He loved the music video and the live performance. 


Rothers. Not only is he a great guitarist and songwriter but he's someone who really loves music and cares about musicians and bands. Can't say enough good things about Steve Rothery from Marillion. 


Speaking of awesome people from Marillion, Lucy Jordache (Marillion's manager) is one of the coolest people ever. We met her for dinner in London to talk about some interesting topics let's just say. She loves Sound of Contact and our album "Dimensionaut". Both Lucy and her assistant Stephanie Bradley have been so kind and helpful. 


Here's Graham "No Problem" Collins (our tour manager/production coordinator) talking with Matt Dorsey of SOC. Below are some more pics from the launch party. 











Next...


So, after a bit of London fun we went back to the barn to head out on our first European tour as Sound of Contact. Since we're going back in time I can tell you that it was fantastic, awesome, educational, wild, crazy, musically inspiring and full of variety... but I can offer more details than that and will in upcoming "retrospective" blog posts... Squids Travels back in time!





All photos by Andy Wright (except the crappy iPhone ones... those are by me)