May
17th, 2010
A new blog and a new determination to write
more often!
Hope
you like the new site. It’s based on the
album cover art by John Gosler. Nick Coquet,
Dramatico’s web designer has done a nice
job. Things will gradually change but we wanted
to get it posted before the album comes out!
It’s
been an exciting time lately. Doesn’t
seem like only three months since we finished
the album and only six months since we started
it! Obviously that was preceded by a long writing
period of about a year, but even so,it does
seem as if the last stages of the process have
shot past. At the time of writing “The
Flood” single is out next week, 17th May,
and the album the following week. I had fun
performing “The Flood” on the Graham
Norton show a few days ago. It goes out next
Monday, May 17th. He’s such a laugh. Trust
him to pick up on my description of recording
as “orgasmic”! Maybe that’s
a bit of a exaggeration but I’m sure many
people will know what I mean by it. Performing
can sort of consume you, in bad and good ways,
- but this album has been such a pleasure to
make. William Orbit is a great person to work
with, and both Mike and I got on with him brilliantly.
I’m
writing this from the airport, just about to
return from promotion work in Denmark; lots
of press interviews! I woke up in the hotel
this morning and went for my usual morning swim,
but t was freezing cold and I didn’t stay
in the water for long today!
We’ve
been around Europe, including Poland and Switzerland,
doing TV shows and promo recently. Norway was
our first TV on “The Flood”. I think
it’s already on YouTube actually. Great
director and lovely people there. I also got
to see another “Norwegian Sunset”
The
volcanic ash cloud has given us a bit of trouble
on this little promo tour. Last week we drove
from Geneva to Milan. I’d recorded a performance
on “Mr Switzerland”, - really fun,
because it’s a beauty parade of guys!
But we weren’t able to fly, so we drove
to Milan by night. It was interesting to see
that things in Europe are all so relatively
close together, by driving. We had a close call
when we got to Italy because the airport was
closed (ash cloud again), but they opened it
just at the last minute and we managed to get
our flight to the UK.
Looking
back over past few months, I have fond memories
of the daily routine, turning up at Air Studios
in Hampstead, where we had a three month period
blocked out from November through February.
It was fun because we were in Studio One but
they have a bigger studio “The Hall”
next door, and all the big movie soundtracks
are recorded there, so we would see big orchestras
arriving and leaving for a different movie every
day. We had one day in that room ourselves,
when Mike Batt came in (the only day he did
come into the studio, by his own choice) to
conduct his orchestral arrangements for the
album, using the Royal Philharmonic.
One
day William took me to visit the Harry Potter
set on a day off. It was incredible to walk
through all those locations you’ve seen
in all the films.
Michael,
Dramatico’s video editor, is cutting a
longer piece like the “Preview”
that is up on Youtube, but about 28 minutes
long, with interviews with William and me, all
about the making of the album and the video,
with Kevin Godley, who directed it, plus some
performance footage from the album launch party.
That will probably make it onto TV or YouTube
or something, fairly soon.
The
video is really clever, - it’s all based
on an idea Kevin had, of shooting the action
with two cameras, one at the front and one at
the back, then splitting the screen so that
when I and the dancers move across the split,
you see the front or back of us, - or a bit
of both - filmed simultaneously. I had a lot
of fun making that video, but the weirdest part
was trying to stay on that piano stool as the
guys spun me round. I had a bit of a “discussion”
with the production guys who thought a flimsy
dressing gown sort of chord would do as a safety
harness! They didn’t even do a proper
sailor’s knot! But we went ahead with
it, and I just willed myself to stay on. I’m
really pleased with the video. I hope you are
liking it. Now we are thinking up ideas for
the next one.
So
that’s a little round-up of what’s
been going on. Now it’s fingers crossed
for the record release dates. Thanks to you
all for your patience, and I hope you enjoy
the album when it’s out. Only a week to
go now!
Lots
of love,
Katie
