also, our good friend and supporter, Kevin at mp3hugger.com has blogged about ‘Single Thought’ – the opening track from Balance, declaring it to be ‘big audio dynamite’ – listen in here: http://mp3hugger.com/2010/06/escape-act-single-thought.html

don’t forget – we play Whelan’s in Dublin on July 10th, and on Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th July, we’ll be doing loads of cool stuff in Belfast.

rich

Throughout this period we’ve been capturing video footage from the studio, gigs and other exploits. With a little help from our friend Tim Newell, we’ll be producing a series of video blogs and retrospectives on the recording process. The first one is on our youtube channel: www.youtube.com/escapeact

After the release of ‘Loosely Based On Fiction’ we realised that in order to keep things moving along in between work, life and what have you, we had to go straight back into another recording process. This started with Chris, a hard drive recorder and many late nights towards the end of 2008 – the result being 14 songs demoed. Several of these had been knocked about by the band in the practice room, but many were brand new ideas for what is now an album entitled ‘Balance’.

February 2009 saw a three-day stint at Chem19 in Hamilton with our friend and producer Andy Miller. This session was basically a drumming marathon and saw Alan putting down the foundation that would be built upon over the subsequent 11 months. Between March and July we returned to Chem19 five more times, building up guitars, vocals, bass and many other parts. At the same time Chris was working with musicians in Belfast writing, arranging and recording various parts for strings and brass.

By the end of July, Andy Miller had finished work on his own masterpiece – Gargleblast Studios, not far from Chem19. Gargleblast would be our home from that point forward and five more sessions concluded the recording process and 11 songs, finishing up in December.

2009 also saw some line-ups changes. Firstly we were joined by Ross Neely on guitar, keyboard, vocals and melodica. Ross has been helping us develop our live sound and add a new dimension to that experience. During early summer it became clear that drummer Alan, would have little choice but to follow his career over to a new post in Leicester. This saw the extremely talented Michael Samson join the band in time for a show at Dublin’s HWCH festival. Alan’s role in the band always reached beyond the drum stool however, and he still contributes distinctive artwork to our activities. (look out for new stickers at gigs!)

We’re really proud of what we have achieved with the creation of this new record. It was been a challenge, it has been a lot of hard work, it has tested every bit of musical motivation we have, but it has ultimately left us with a profound sense of gratitude and achievement that we look forward to sharing over the coming months.

Summer 2010 will see the release of ‘Balance’ along with ongoing activities surrounding particular songs. In the spirit of the new, empowered, independent music industry we intend to continue our policy of novel and interesting release and promotional activities. Our regular video blog updates, email newsletter and twitter will keep folks up to date on what we’re doing, but we’re eager to hear from fans who’d like to get involved in helping us release songs, make video, packaging, remixes, hold listening parties or anything else we haven’t thought of.

Rich Dale
- Feb 2010

Links:
New mailing list subscribers can download 3 exclusive live tracks from our Radio1 session.

For video blogs and more visit: www.youtube.com/escapeact
Facebook fans: www.facebook.com/escapeact
Follow us on twitter: www.twitter.com/escapeact

so without further ado…

we’d love to hear your comments, and thoughts on what you’d like to hear about in future vlogs… you can also get in touch with us on our twitter and facebook pages…

I’ve introduced some topics covering ideas about Video, Release Formats, Gigging, Collaborations, and the discussion has wound its way round all of them with some very interesting thoughts on packaging, compositions, iPhone apps and story-telling.

With most of the hard work on album number two coming to an end, we’ve been pondering our approach for next year. First on the list is definitely engagement. As we’ve grown and evolved as a band we’ve realised that we have achieved most when working together, initially just as a band, and latterly with inspiring and creative folks to generate results that are greater than the sum of their parts. Equally, we’re not afraid to test out some new disruptive ideas for delivering our music into the ears of music lovers. The Wave is a good spot for putting those ideas out there and getting perspectives from a range of people.

If you have a Google Wave account and you’d like to join in, just search Wave for ‘with:public escapeact’ – otherwise send me an email with your account name and i’ll add you.

So all sorts of fun has been happening since my last post. You may have caught up with some excerpts via our twitter feed…

We had three excellent inaugural gigs with Michael behind the drum kit. Our HWCH Dublin show had a great atmosphere and a warm, attentive crowd. We had a chance to bump into many good friends in Dublin, and make a few more new acquaintances. All in all it was another cracking festival, kudos to the HWCH/FMC for all their hard work. We also had a chance to chat to the nice ladies of the InkyWrists blog, read all about it here…

That was quickly followed by a Radar show at Queens Belfast. It was another step up performance-wise. Then it was on to the 13th Note in Glasgow for a 17 Seconds label show with Chris Bradley, X-Lion Tamer and The Dirty Cuts. We had a lovely time, particularly since it was my first, and long overdue show in Glasgow. The set got a nice mentioned on the Girls Sold Out blog too.

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So this weekend, we’re back in Scotland, this time for 2 days of recording. We’ve more days booked in later in the month for mixing, and, well, we aim to have album number two in the can by Christmas! Plans are already afoot for next year. In fact, we need your help! If you have a Google Wave account, and are interested in shaping some of our release plans for next year, please get in touch.

Finally, the guys at 17 Seconds are re-releasing Cabin Fever on iTunes etc next week and we’ll have some very limited edition screen-printed artwork to mark the occasion… More news on that shortly!

Time for an update methinks! Sorry for the radio silence, i’ve been off on my honeymoon, but fear not, we have been busy!

Firstly the bad, and good news – Alan has had to move on from the drum stool to pastures new, accepting a shiny new job in Leicester. Needless to say, we’re sad to see a founding member of the band leave, but thankfully he won’t be forgotten, as I still owe him a tenner….. No seriously, Alan will still be playing an important part in our group by continuing to work on the many interesting visual aspects of the band, so expect more of his work to feature in upcoming releases, stickers, teapots etc.

Since Alan broke the news of his departure our network of spies has been scouring the countryside, and the, erm, cities for a suitable replacement and that man is Michael Sampson. We’re excited to have Michael on board, and in true Escape Act style, there’s little time for sitting around, and Michael’s first show will be in Mid October at HWCH in Dublin. (more on that in a near-future post).

Recording sessions have been going on throughout the summer, and its fair to say that we can see the end of the tunnel. We’ll have a full report and pictures to bring you up-to-date shortly.

So, the summer is over, autumn is just round the corner. In just another couple of months we’ll have completed the recording of album number two. We’ve got so much exciting music for you to hear, and many plans in the offing for bringing Escape Act to a living room near you, so please stay tuned!

Rich

Things have been pretty hectic for me recently. I haven’t had the time i would have liked to be spending on band matters, plus we’re generally in an altered state of activity at the moment, with the monthly recording sessions ongoing over in Scotland. These factors left me wanting for an actual objective to be in Salford, but that problem was soon dispelled by the ‘Outside the Box’ panel moderated by Andrew Dubber on Friday morning. This saw several artists (including the insightful and very funny Steve Lawson) from outside the ‘mainstream/indie’ sectors describe how they make a living from their love of music and associated talents.

I’m not sure if it was actually important that these people were musically ‘different’, but moreso that the individuals themselves just relished finding fresh, interesting and different ways of developing their careers. As a band, this attitude is something that we’ve shared from day one. We may be a band, and we’ll try to make the best music we can, but we won’t let that stop us being creative and having fun in everything we do. We’ve also been pretty realistic of our definition of success, reviewing and updating our plans and goals every few months, always taking a few upwards steps, and always doing what we feel is best, not too worried about what anyone else is doing or thinking.

So the main panel ‘take-aways’ about taking risks, but being realistic, having an identity, but knowing how to find your place in the big picture, having fun, and not delusions of grandeur, generally chimed with me and the band, and left me ready to get stuck in again. We’ve been working hard on the new recordings for the last six months, Chris in particular, and there is still a good way to go, but we’re enjoying every minute and are getting excited thinking about how we’ll get it all our there!

We realise that we want to connect more with the people that like our music. So far we’ve made many new friends, and they’ve helped us reach further than we could have imagined. We’re always looking for help, and interesting ideas, so please get in touch, and don’t forget the twitter feed: @escapeact.

Rich

PS. I also took part in a panel called ‘Artist as Enterprise’ – we didn’t really talk about that to be honest, but i sat next to Martin Atkins, (former drummer of Killing Joke, and much more) – a very wise man, believer of the ‘one fan at a time’ philosophy and author of Tour:Smart – a book i shall be absorbing over the coming weeks. You can grab an ebook copy from his site: http://tstouring.com/.

PPS. Although it’ll be a while before we’re ready to release new material, we did a session for bandwidthfilms.com yesterday. We performed new song ‘Salt In Your Eye’ and it’ll be online in a few days, but in the meantime, here are some shaky phone pics…

We took this picture to make it official…

After an extremely relaxing Christmas holiday, followed by various colds, flus and back to work blues…. things are getting back to normal for us. We’ve been busy in the rehearsal room, readying songs for new recording sessions starting in February, so it’s back to Chem19 for some more good times. We’ve also be honing three tracks for a live session for Rory McConnell’s Radio 1 show, taking place next week… stay tuned for details of broadcast dates!

We’re also fitting some gigs in around this, so look out for shows in Dundalk (Jan 31st), Belfast (6th & 18th Feb) and a Whelan’s show Dublin on 28th Feb, supporting the excellent Cashier No.9.

The first Belfast show mentioned above, on Friday 6th February, is actually an acoustic set at UnConvention Belfast. This is an ‘unconference’ that i’m helping to organise. For anyone interested in the development of the music industry, or making new contacts or seeking inspiration for their own music career development, UnConvention is the place to be. Check out the website at unconventionbelfast.com for details and registration! Thanks to the generosity and vision of our key sponsors at Belfast City Council Creative Industry unit, and NIMIC its free to attend too, tho places are quickly running out.

Finally, check out this video, shot by Barry Cullen of us performing ‘Burning Sand’ at our recent show at the Menagerie. cheers to Barry for putting it up there

All in all, we’re looking forward to a fun, productive and creative 2009. Thanks for listening so far!

Rich

This scrawl is my initial ‘mind map’ designed to capture the essence of all our discussions, establishing all the bases we need to cover, decisions yet to be made, and the tasks to be delegated.

One of the first things to get moving is the cdbaby.com album registration. These guys very kindly handle the distribution of the album on the established digital channels, provide the barcode for the physical album, and retail it through their own site and other physical outlets. For a band in our position, they provide a great service and take care of the various practical but intractable tasks that could otherwise take the fun out of the project. They’ll also be a great shop window for us promoting the music in all manner of ways!

Other things that are on the list include:
- deciding on a target list for media, we can’t cover everyone
- deciding on a strategy for downloads and sales from our own sites
- making some more videos to complement the tunes
- asking our fans and friends to spread the word
- and many more!!

stay tuned for more developments!!

Rich