Tenonsaw

Today has been an exciting day for us!

Back in February (shortly before Salt’s operation) we were asked to record a live session for Dan Hegarty‘s show on RTE 2FM, and now the results are being aired!!

When we were asked to do the 2FM session, we were of course very excited, and it could not have happened at a better time. We knew we would be unable to do something like this for a long time after Salt’s operation, so the fact that we were able to squeeze it in just before the big day was a great relief!

The day of recording started in the early morning, when we gathered our gear to go down to Cork to the 2FM studio. We had had our single launch for “ASKOF / Sweet Little Mystery” the day before, and were still in that excited mindframe that you get into when performing your songs to an audience. We were really looking forward to a full day of working on music!

We ended up recording four songs, live in the studio, which was a new experience for us as we had not recorded live in a proper recording studio before.

The songs we recorded were:
* Waves
* Saviour
* ASKOF
* Pact

“Waves” is a new song that has been changing for a little while. The version we are playing now features Tom on keyboards and guitar, and Salt on electric guitar and vocals, with a programmed drumbeat. We’re looking forward to recording this song again in some shape or form in the future, possibly for an album.

“Saviour” is a song that we’ve been playing for a long time, and we usually play this song to open our gigs. In Dan Hegarty’s set list for today, he followed “Saviour” with a Bob Marley song, which we though was interesting, as “Saviour” is kind of an attempt by us to do a Dub song, or a slow Reggae song.

“ASKOF” is our most recent single, taken from “Beginnings“. It is a song that tends to stand out, as it is more upbeat than most of our songs. You can view the video along with the original recorded version here.

Pact was our first single, also taken from “Beginnings“. It was also the first music video we made, which you can view here.

You can listen to the whole programme here, our songs are played at the following times:  “Waves” at 32 minutes, “Saviour” at 49, “ASKOF” at 1 hour 14 minutes and “Pact” at 1 hour 48 minutes.  The full playlist for Dan’s show is here, and the show will be broadcast tonight on RTE 2FM National Radio, from 11pm Irish time.

We would like to thank Dan for having us on the show, and of course the wonderful Niall O’Sullivan, who was our producer and engineer on the day (and who gave us great support and advice). Lets not forget our manager Alex Millar, who was in charge of moral support, teas and coffees, and furniture repair!

Tom and Salt

So, for the last couple of weeks, whilst beeing cooped up at home after my operation for Chiari Malformation, I have been working on drawings for our new album. It has been an exciting process, that has taught me a lot about myself as an artist.

All the songs in this album are part of the one story, a story about hurt, powerlessness, and newly found strength. The story encapsulates how you can find power deep within yourself, at a point when you think you are on the brink of crumbling under the weight of the world.

So from the start I have had a very clear idea of what I’ve wanted to do when it comes to artwork for this album, which has turned out to be a bit of an obsticle, due to the way I usually approach drawing.

I have been drawing my whole life.
When I was younger, it was on the bus, in my bedroom at night when I couldn’t sleep, or during a “not so interesting” lecture in school. It was something that I did to occupy my mind, to bring me in to this imaginary world that was my own, where no-one else was welcome.

The last few years however, it has become something different, something that is still very much tied in to emotion, but emotions that I feel no need in hiding, as I did when I was younger. I usually find myself drawing when I am upset, angry, confused, or stressed out.

Drawing has become like therapy, something that always encapsulates a true emotion at a moment in time. I often don’t know what I am drawing until it’s there on the paper, and even then, I often end up turning the page upside down before I find out what it is I’ve actually drawn.

Because of this, it has been challenging to create this artwork. I have known what I have wanted to draw before starting, which has lead to me having no clue how to actually begin drawing!

As it turns out, this has been a great way for me to challenge myself, and to create something that is different, and I really look forward to putting it out there, to see what you all think!

We’re still recording the songs, and hope the album itself will be out in the summer!

In the meantime, we are planning to release one more single from “Beginnings” soon. The single is called “Disappear”, and we’ll be doing a video for it in the next few weeks, which will be exciting!

/Salt

So, we finally got our new keyboard delivered! It’s an M-Audio Prokeys 88, and it is now my new favourite toy!

We are using keyboards on many of the songs for our new album, and it is wonderful to finally have a full length piano with weighted keys to give the songs the credit they deserve!

We’ve been really busy recording new songs the last couple of days.

Feel completely wrecked, but really happy about the results. It’s been nice to sit in front of the computer with a warm cup of coffee whilst hearing the heavy rain outside!

Today, we’ve recorded vocals on a new song called “Conversation With A Ghost”, which has been interesting, as this is the first song we’ve recorded where we both sing lead. It’s a kind of duet, but not a romantic one, so don’t worry!

We also got down a couple of guitar tracks for “Promises”, a song which has gone down very well live when we’ve played it at gigs.

We look forward to letting you hear them (and the rest of the Record we’re recording) soon!

Tom and Salt