Summer Solstice news

Hello,

We thought it'd be nice to give you an update on our new single Summer Solstice. First of all, we'd like to say thank you to everyone who came to our launch party at the Deaf Institute. We had a great night and I hope you did too! We recorded our set so hopefully we'll be able to share it with you soon.

We'd also like to thank those of you who came to our Summer Solstice tour. It was our first time on the road with our new drummer Jamie. We had lots of fun. Proof:





Highlights of the tour included a lovely promoters, friends and endless games of cards. We've still got some more dates to come over July:

3rd - The White Rooms, SUNDERLAND
5th - Head of Steam, NEWCASTLE
11th - Feelgood Festival, ROCHDALE
12th - Puzzle Hall, HALIFAX
14th - Old Queens Head, LONDON
16th - Telford's Warehouse, CHESTER
29th - Harley, SHEFFIELD

We'll have copies of the vinyl with us, as well as the Slippers EPs and t-shirts. Hope to see some of you there!

We also thought you might like to read some lovely reviews we've had of the single. Here are some brief snippets:

BOOMKAT: "Instrumental post-folk loveliness. After the building acoustic pseudo-epic 'Summer Solstice' (replete with banjos and glockenspiels) the B-side opens with a waltzing, breezy affair titled 'Rolling Hills', but the final track on this three-song EP is a lo-fi instrumental cover of Elbow's 'One Day Like This', aptly rounding off an incredibly optimistic, sunshine dappled single."

BEARDED MUSIC: "With the sun finally coming out, this single has arrived at exactly the right time. ‘Summer Solstice’ is a delight: a perfect summer tune for lazing in the sun to."

ADDICT MUSIC: "I’ve set myself up to loathe them absolutely, but then half way through ‘Summer Solstice’ my head is wobbling jauntily and my sceptical streak is wavering uncertainly. There’s a lush clover of strings and the tug of a gentle horn section. It’s all a bit bloody nice. There are delicate string arrangements. The whole thing reeks of village fêtes and cream scones."

FUGITIVE MOTEL: "As a hot summer meanders along, this record will be sure to stay in the stereo. Euphoric and utterly gorgeous."

LOSING TODAY: "A sumptuous tide of good to be alive uplifting optimism. May well have a fair few of you weeping at this joyous spectacle."

NORMAN RECORDS: "'Summer Solstice' is a celebration of the best time of year....you guessed it yo, it's SUMMER!! The A-side is the sound of summer coming towards you, chasing you through the freshly mowed meadows with its lilting string arrangement, urgent drums and pulsing grand piano. It's a big, lush spring time gesture to pre-empt the inevitable excitement of summertime. B-side's 'Rolling Hills' continues the seasonal theme with lightly orchestrated brit-folk of the like you'll be chuffed with if you are a fan of the Static Caravan back catalogue, but the real treat is a cover of 'One day like this' that sees the band mutate Elbow's classic single into a instrumental Celtic-folk jam. Smooth move."

In other news, I did an interview for the Moon and Back Music blog after our gig at Birmingham Academy 3. To read it, go here:

http://moonandbackmusic.com/archives/272/comment-page-1#comment-20

In between our gigs we're busy in the studio readying some new songs. I'm also writing a guest feature for the folks over at This is Fake DIY. I'll keep you posted about when that goes up.

Oh and finally, if you haven't ordered the single yet you can do so here:

www.timdandsam.bigcartel.com

Thanks!

Tim and Sam x

Earlier this week I got on the train to Newport in South Wales to set about hand-making the packaging for our next single, Summer Solstice. To make our task slightly easier, we decided to get the back covers done at the printers. They were finished last week, so I took them with me to finish them off. Here's a little bit more info:

The printing was done in two colours, which meant we had to do two screens. We started off by mixing the colour for the grass:







Then we set about making the screens. First of all we had to clean them:



And then apply some special stuff to stop the paint from going where it shouldn't. Sorry for my lack of technical know-how.



Then we put the canvas on a special UV lighting machine, with the stencil on top. This dries the paint everywhere except where the stencil blocks the UV light.







Then we washed off the paint to reveal the stencil:





Then we put the canvas onto the printing press and applied the paint:





Then we used a special scraper (forgotten their proper name)to pull the paint over the screen. The paint seeps through the gaps.



And creates this:



Then we set about repeating this process. We had to do it 520 times, just in case we messed up a few by pressing too hard and smudging the paint or something. Good job, because it took us a while to get into the swing of things.



Some time later:



We averaged about 100 sheets an hour, so as you can imagine it was a pretty
long process. Once we'd got all of it done we set about adding the second colour to complete the image:



We made the screen again and spent a long time lining up the print to make sure it lined up correctly. Then it was back to the printing:







Two days and 1040 prints later...







Woo! After we all packed up I got back on the train and went home to North Wales. The following day I set about numbering and signing all of the copies:



They're all done now, and have been sent back to the label to be packaged up with the vinyl in a plastic sleeve. We're really pleased with how they've turned out, so I hope you like it when it's all done!

Thank you to Pete for all of his help, we couldn't have done it without him and his contacts to help us to get access to the equipment.

Tim and Sam x

Put Your Slippers On Tour Blog

Hello,

We're back from our first ever headline tour!

Our 2000 mile journey started with a trip to Bush Hall in London. The venue was amazing:



They also had the biggest kettle in the world:



We then drove to Luton to stay at a friend's house for the night. The next day we went to Leeds to play at Royal Park Cellars.



After the show we went to stay at the Rosie Taylor Project's house. The following morning I went to a park for a walk and met a guy called G-Dawg with a gold tooth. I was a bit scared. Once I got back from my walk we got back on the M1 and drove up to Edinburgh to play at Cabaret Voltaire.

We ended up playing at one of their club nights, going on stage at 12. We were rather apprehensive about it, but it turned out to be really great. People were dancing to our music! Not something we thought we'd ever see...



Long story, but we ended up having to drive back to North Wales after we played. I drove through the night, and we got back at 6.30 in the morning. Hardcore! We then had a couple of days in the studio before heading down to Bristol to play at Start the Bus.



Two people were dancing at the front again! Maybe we've gone dancier since our last tour...

The following day we drove back to London to record an XFM session for John Kennedy. We were wrongly directed down to the basement to park and ended up getting stuck!



We were locked in, but thankfully I had the number for XFM in my phone so I could get someone to move the car that was blocking the exit. After the kerfuffle we got to work:





Tea!



We were done by around 5, so we had the rest of the evening to have fun in Luton at our friend's house. We played Frustration, Top Trumps and cards.





The next day we went to another park in Luton. It was fun.







Then we decided to have a business meeting:



After the fun we headed back down to London to play at a small intimate venue called Monkey Chews.



We then went to stay with Inigo, who is the drummer in Klaus Says Buy the Record. He has a lovely house and studio near Tunbridge Wells. He has sheep!



And a parrot! He told me he loved me. Aww.



Next up was a show in Brighton at Talking Heads. A definite highlight of the the tour.



We spent another night in Tunbridge before going to Southampton to play at Talking Heads.



After soundcheck we met up with our good friend Luke Leighfield to go for dinner. It was Ad's birthday so we decided to go for a proper meal. By complete chance we ended up going to place where you could eat for free if it was your birthday! A full three courses, too.



We stayed over at Luke's, and then made our way home for a couple of days. Becca and I went over to Spain to visit my brother during our time off. It was amazing I did my best to promote T&S while I was there...



When I got back we had our last two gigs of the tour. The first one was back down in London to play a Local night at The King's Head in Crouch End. We played with Dan Michaelson and the Coastguards, who are a super group made up of members of Absentee, Ed Harcourt, Magic Numbers, Rumblestrips and Fields. It was ace. Really busy, too.



After yet another night sleeping in Luton we made our way up to Birmigham to play at St Paul's. It was the launch night for the new EP by Mr Bones and the Dreamers, and we played at this lovely venue:



We like churches. It was another busy one, and proved to be a nice ending to our tour.

Thank you to everyone who came to see us, we had a great time. Hopefully we'll be out on tour again at the end of June, so hopefully we'll see you again then!

In other news, yesterday I finished off a remix for The Answering Machine's next single Obviously Cold. Hopefully I'll be able to show it to you soon.

Tim and Sam x