We’ve had word that one of our songs will be played tomorrow (Wednesday 12th) on Recharged Radio. Dead on My Feet (Again) will go out on the 10pm show, which is hosted by our good friend Rodrigo De Sá. You can listen in online here:
More details to follow.
The same thing but different:
http://www.last.fm/group/The+Home+Guard/forum/126723/_/621951
Cast your vote now for your favourite song from Forlorn Hope and Glory! Once again, you don’t have to be a member of Last.fm (or anything else), and the polls are open until the end of the month.
Oh, and thanks again, Susanne!
To coincide with the day of the UK General Election, our good friend Susanne has set up a rather more fun vote. Simply go here:
http://www.last.fm/group/The+Home+Guard/forum/126723/_/621692
and select your favourite song from our debut album, A Head of Steam. The polls close at the end of the month, and you don’t have to register or be a member of anything. We’ll be fascinated to see what comes out on top.
In the last few months, MOG has gone from being a network of music blogs to being what basically amounts to an online radio station. We’re not members, but if you are, you may be interested to know that our music has made it onto their service:
http://mog.com/music/The_Home_Guard/A_Head_of_Steam
http://mog.com/albums/mn35702599
Given the recent upheaval over at Last.fm, this may not be a bad thing at all.
A few weeks back we posted about our new way of working for this album – basically, instead of starting with an idea for a full song, Dan’s come up with a bunch of riffs, and we’re mixing and matching them to beats we’ve laid down and seeing where that takes us. It’s sort of like the Ableton Live workflow, but without actually using Ableton Live.
Anyway, here is one such riff (recorded on Music 2000 for the PlayStation):
(Try here if you can’t get it to play.) It’s a bit like something Jethro Tull might have come up with, and for that reason we think it may be a decent album opener. What we envisage is a slow, progressive, atmospheric, almost orchestral introduction that’s more of a soundscape than musical; then, we come crashing in with something like this:
This is just a work-in-progress clip (obviously), and the riff will probably end up on guitar rather than synth. What happens after the abrupt finish is anyone’s guess at this point, but we hope the feeling of a song boldly announcing itself comes through and that this is a fitting way to start an album.
Our music continues to trickle onto the various download services, and the latest to carry our back catalogue is – to our considerable surprise and amusement – well-known supermarket chain Tesco. Here’s the link:
http://www.tescoentertainment.com/store/artist/the-home-guard/p%3a993652/
Each album is £6.97, so ClubCards at the ready…
Just read this in Computer Music magazine:
“While Bandcamp doesn’t currently take a cut for itself, a revenue share scheme is to be rolled out in the coming months.”
As it stands, we currently offer our music for download from Bandcamp, and allow our fans to pay however much they choose. Of course, if Bandcamp are going to start charging for their services (which isn’t unreasonable), we’re going to have to set a minimum price that covers our costs (also not unreasonable, I hope you’ll agree).
In a roundabout rambling way, what I’m saying is that if you want our albums for free – and we’d much rather that instead of not downloading them at all – now’s the time to head over to http://thehomeguard.bandcamp.com and snag the mp3s while you can. The only thing we beg in return is that you also hit the “Share” button – particularly if you use Facebook and/or Twitter.
Can’t say fairer than that, can you?
Forlorn Hope and Glory – our second album – has recently been added to Amazon’s download catalogue. It’s priced at £6.99, and can be downloaded here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Forlorn-Hope-And-Glory/dp/B003APQKQ0/
Customers in the US can go here:
http://www.amazon.com/Forlorn-Hope-And-Glory/dp/B003ANFE4Q/
While our German:
http://www.amazon.de/Forlorn-Hope-And-Glory/dp/B003AN471M/
and French fans:
http://www.amazon.fr/Forlorn-Hope-And-Glory/dp/B003AN8JDE/
are also catered for. So download away! Amazon Canada and Amazon Japan appear to be late to the party, though.
As a side note, if you have an Amazon account (and who doesn’t these days?), your 5-star ratings and/or reviews (no matter how brief) will be greatly appreciated and go a very long way indeed. Many thanks in advance!
I said on here recently that we’ve been getting down some ideas for new material, and perhaps this is a good opportunity to explain how we work.
The writing process for our next album is already differing hugely from everything we’ve done before. Our first two were composed on guitar, and by the time Dan got round to demoing the songs, he already had a pretty good idea of how the final piece would sound. This time, though, we’re aiming for an all-round more collaborative effort, and all we started with was a small collection of riffs. Here’s three of them from an as-yet untitled song:
(If there’s a big gap or unintelligible code above, try here instead.) So, what hi-tech piece of equipment were these fragments recorded on? I’m almost embarrassed to say, but… Music 2000 on the PlayStation.
One.
The PSX.
Yes, with all the powers of modern laptops being able to run a full studio, Dan’s preferred method of making sure he doesn’t forget riffs he comes up with is Music 2000 on the original Sony PlayStation. Still, whatever works for him. (It’s a pity he didn’t use a Sega Mega Drive, because then the headline of this article would have been a lot cleverer.)
Anyway, once I heard the riffs, I figured out the notes on a keyboard and played them onto a MIDI track in Cubase:
From here it’s easy to copy, paste and otherwise alter the individual bits, fiddling around until we’ve strung them together to form some sort of structure. To help, we programmed in a simple repeating drumbeat:
At this stage, verses and choruses are beginning to take shape. There’s a vaguely Eastern flavour to the sound, so we decided to play on this a bit when figuring out the best chords to suit what we have. We also gave the tempo and key careful consideration.
Here’s a full mix of the song as it stands – although when we say “full”, we accept that there’s currently no guitars, bass, vocals or percussion, and it’s only a minute long… This is just us sorting out the basics using only MIDI instruments:
And that’s a very early snapshot of a Home Guard song in the making. As you can hear, the main riffs are now on piano; ultimately, they may be the vocal melody, or return to synths, or become guitar or bass lines… Who knows? In fact, nothing at this point is considered “final”, but hopefully this post has been an interesting insight into how we work.
Theoretically it shouldn’t have worked, but it did: we’ve managed to snag one of those new-fangled usernames for our Facebook page. So from now on, you only need to remember www.facebook.com/thehomeguard, rather than the horrific old http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Home-Guard/33098994258 (which still works, incidentally). I’m sure you’ll agree that this is rather more convenient!
In truth, we’ve never really exploited Facebook to it’s full potential, partly because it’s not really aimed at musicians. But if you head to the above link, you can:
1) Click on “Become a fan” at the top to register your support for us,
2) Listen to our music and/or sign up to our mailing list under the “My Band” tab (this is a ReverbNation thing),
3) Listen to our music, dedicate tracks and “Click to iLike” us (if you use that app) under the Music tab, and
4) Click on “Suggest to friends” (just to the left of our Wall) to help us find new fans.
The theory is that if you recommend our music to your friends, they’ll recommend it to their friends, who will recommend it to their friends… and the cycle self-perpetuates until world domination is within our sights! (Or we sell a few CDs. Either suits us.) Many thanks to all who help to spread our music far and wide!
Incidentally, I have a “personal” Facebook profile which I use for band-related stuff under the name of Homeguard Chris. If you really want to stay up-to-date with news of The Home Guard and/or contact the band directly, feel free to add me. I don’t use it extensively, but that’s what it’s there for – don’t be shy!