The first solo show!

So we finally got to the show after what seemed like an eternity of waiting, and well, it was worth it because playing the tunes in front of people was satisfying to the max.

I can't speak for the other hardened killers in my band, but I was SHITTING MY PANTS. And I never get nervous before a show. The inside of my mouth felt like the Sahara Desert, and the dodgy Sav Blanc wasn't helping either. I couldn't even look anyone in the eye; it was like 5 years of getting pissed and getting in people's faces at Cops shows had been a walk in the park compared to this. Suddenly I turned around on stage and there was no Beck to make fun of me, smiling as I made a tit of myself. Shit! Naked!

What I did see before me was killers. Stone cold sexy killers who slayed that gig with a machette and a hand grenade. It suddenly dawned on me that a new era of my musical career had begun, and it involved being surrounded by sausage. Grand Sausage. Chorizo-fuckin'-burn-your-ring-off-sausage! My boys mean more to this record than anything. Their heart (and sausage) is well in it, and they came to the party and flogged the shit out of it. I doff my hat and every other part of my body to The Boys.

After that, I turned around and just sang and had a great time. Loved it. Can't believe I just did nearly 2 years of not playing live. Never again. Never.

A heartfelt thankyou must go out to Lucky, Noni, Jeremy and the Rats Nest crew who made us feel like part of the family. Wicked people and wicked venue. Also to the people that showed up. It meant a lot to me that nearly 2 years of hard work was being appreciated, and I was chuffed with the turnout for a non-advertised gig. xoxo

Blah blah i've blagged on too much. Bring on the Oxford Arts Factory residency we just scored in Jan/Feb!!

Hard Rain Video Premiere

and here the sucker is!! hope you enjoy it!

Hard Rain Video Clip

Hola!

Last weekend we shot a video clip at my apartment. Keeping in line with the process of the album, it was done ridiculous-cheap and we were lucky to have help from Tony Prescott, a friend of Pablos (from the band) who was the Director of Photography. I directed the sucker too with some ideas and shots I had brewing for a while. Pablo was also instrumental in setting the whole thing up and giving shot direction, and Rob Saponja lit the thing beautifully.

Thinking of an idea for it was very hard. Anybody can strap some instruments on and attempt to look pretty in front of a camera, but we really thought that was a cop out, especially given the fact that a.) i'm not pretty and b.) when i'm forced to do moves I look like i'm being forced to do some moves. Jump! Pout! Kick a leg! FUCK OFF!

So I thought why not attempt to make an extremely boring video clip that in it's own way was still interesting but also took the piss out of how completely meaningless most clips are these days.

So when it goes to air you can watch me........flicking a light on and off (oh the excitement!), dunking my head into a basin of water (make it stop!) reading a book (will it ever end?). You get the point. We had a mad BBQ and I attempted to get Toddy extremely drunk, as I do most other times I see him. Rory had just flown in from Hawaii and Nick from Ireland so it was good to be all together again and have some family time.

Anyway hope you dig the ultimate boringness that is the Hard Rain video clip when it finally airs!

xo

The Horrors - Sea Within A Sea

I have to say I was never a fan, but when Rob played me 'Sea Within A Sea' from their new album 'Primary Colours' I was left quite speechless. It blossoms into Bowie fucking Gary Numan fucking Ride fucking bloody awesome.

http://thehorrors.co.uk/

there's a link to listen to it on the right hand side.

s.

Searching for gigs

Now that the Hoey is gone everything is fucked!

We had our first show ever booked there and now it's turned into a major shitfight to find a venue around the same size. You don't wanna go in too hard and book a bigger place in case no one but your missus shows up, but you also don't wanna book some shit-cabin that has a resident funk band called Booty Shake either.

Stay tuned for further developments.

xo

Mastering @ King Willy Sound

Hola!

Yesterday Rob and I went to get The Black Book Of The Universe mastered. We decided to use William Bowden a.k.a. King Willy because he's a lovely chap, and he did hotness all over the first Cops album Stomp On Tripwires.

I was a bit nervous as I handed Willy the album because it's the first thing that Rob and I have mixed ourselves, so if it sounded like a pile of shite, then we only had ourselves to blame. Luckily (or maybe luck had nothing to do with it, i dunno) it sounded pretty fucking good, and after many ciggies, (nicorettes for me) and a few ales the whole thing was done and we were absolutely chuffed with the results.

Now for those of you who don't really know what mastering is, rather than explain it myself, i'll just post a link to Wikipedia because i'm a lazy bastard.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastering_engineer

Willy has a beautiful house and an even more beautiful garden complete with a bubbling fountain and a delightful little out-house dunny, although everytime i'm sitting in one of those things I can't help but think about Red- Back Spiders biting me on the arse, although I don't even know if that's happened to anyone before. Actually come to think of it it HAS to have happened.

Anyway after one listen, we've decided that two songs need a slight adjustment and then we are away and into the artwork phase.

We've chosen Hard Rain as the first single, even though its quite different to the rest of the album, I think it's a good summer song, and a nice bridge between Cops stuff and my solo stuff. I think going from Call Me Anytime to Hunter's Moon would be a little jarring. I've just realised that no-one's heard Hunter's Moon yet so what's the point of talking about it? Ahh maybe now you're asking yourself what the fuck does it sound like if it's such a radical departure. Well you'll have to wait. Sorry!

xoxox
Simon

Hola!

Hola!

My name is Simon Carter and I am a solo artist from Sydney, Australia.

Previously I had a band called The Cops (www.myspace.com/copsaustralia), but that has since broken up and i'm off on my own adventures.

Early this year, I ran into the very first drummer for The Cops, a Mr Rory Toomey (also of Meta Bass 'N Breath) at a N.E.R.D. concert and moaned and whinged about how I couldn't find a band. His response was "I've got a whole band for you." Three weeks later I was playing with a shit hot band which included Toddy Smith (from The Cops) on keys, Rory Toomey on drums and percussion, Rob Young on bass, Paul "Pablo" Hurrell on guitar and Nick Beswick on second keys (yes, TWO keyboard players...why not?).

I wanted to do a little experiment. I wanted to see if it was possible for me to record an album for next to no money, and to make it sound good. We made a sound-proof door, got the bar sorted and moved into my little studio in Summer Hill (by little I mean 3m by 3m!). As it turned out, the thing ended up costing $400. We finished recording the album in July 2009 (Beck popped in from time to time and guests on the album, and Jason Walker provided beautiful pedal steel guitar).

"The Black Book Of The Universe" is produced and engineered by me and mixed by Rob and I in my apartment. One of my favourite people on Earth, Russell Hopkinson is putting the record out on his Illustrious Artists imprint, which is quite fitting cos he put the first Cops EP out, and has shown my songwriting a lot of love over the years.

And that's about it for now. I'll be launching the single in late Nov/early Dec around the traps so stay tuned for dates.

xoxo Simon