After months and months of demo-ing, recording, programming, writing, re-writing, editing, mixing, tweaking, mastering, designing, doodling, researching, saving, spending, saving, drinking all the wine, saving again, printing, replicating and waiting... Butterfly Wishes was FINALLY released on 20th July 2011!!
And played in it's entirety at Colston Hall, Bristol on the release date (during the 'Axe Factor' competition). Which was rather lovely.
MASSIVE thank you's to my lovely Dad for all of the beautiful artwork. And to Sulli for his epic graphic design skills. And Dan Wakefield for his endless cups of tea, patience and techy skills during the mixing and mastering process. And to all the songwriters from the MA (including the Andy Wests, Jezs and Pauls!), who inspired me SO MUCH, and filled me with their wonderful pearls of wisdom. Very clever bunch.
And to all the people who inspired the songs. You know who you are. The friends and family, the people who kept plying me with whiskey and end of the world stories, the homeless man in Bath (who I became increasingly captivated with), the old man I spent a year topping up with Thatchers Gold to fund my writing, the American with ALL the catchy melodies and heartbreaking lyrics, the Irishman undaunted by death, the man who repeatedly didn't love me any more, the man who loved me too much (it's a songwriter's prerogative to be remarkably contrary), the mirror breaker I spent a week being clumsy with, the survivor, the optimist, and the candlestick maker. All epic people. I hope you meet them all one day. They've made me very happy / sad / confused / something. My Mum and my Dad and my Nan (are off to Waterloo, for a vindaloo?) are especially epic. If you get the chance to meet them, you will probably try and steal them for your own.
This has turned into quite a modest advertisement of my friends, family and acquaintances. Sorry.
Listen to my album. That was meant to be the point.
Or buy it. Or download it for free. Or pay a price of your choosing.
I hope all the news turns out like this.
You can buy my CD for five English pounds, or download it for free from Bandcamp. Bandcamp are ace for a plethora of reasons, but mostly because they like to support artists and only take a tiny cut of sales. So I like them the best.
You can also listen to it on Spotify, Grooveshark, Last FM, that sort of thing. Oh, and I hear iTunes have it, or you could buy some sort of Bootleg CD from Amazon for £20.63 too.