New Disorder Music Festival

“It might have been the middle of fucking nowhere, but it was a mighty fucking night!” – Whitty, frontman

“I’d bought along an absolutely stupid pair of union jack trousers. Moments before our set, Whitty insisted that if I was going to wear them then it should be without a shirt. I was already kind of nervous at this point since hardly anybody in the crowd knew us. As I stepped out onto the stage, I raised my Guinness to the audience, knowing that if it fell flat, I’d have looked a total nob-end. Luckily, they went mental.” – Alex Thomson, Bass

We were very excited to be on the bill for this, and what a gig it turned out to be! Reasons we were chuffed with how this went included the wonderful luck-of-the-draw time slot we ended up with, the number of metalheads who prised themselves away from the bar to check us out (we weren’t really expecting this at all), the amazing reception we received, and the very kind reviews written after the event for Nottingham Live and Midlands Rocks.

We were very happy with how our set went, Alex’s devastating trousers notwithstanding – often the energy we try to build up gets interrupted by an equipment malfunction or us being crap at changing between songs, but for this gig it all went off without a hitch. Whitty’s zombie facepaint suited him down to the ground.

Funds raised by the day for Rock Against Child Pornography and Abuse amounted to a total of £1500 – a wonderful achievement we were very proud to be a part of.

Whitty, having forgotten about the previous days’ corpse paint, was discovered in the back of a van the following morning staring in horror at his own reflection and whimpering incoherently that he would never drink again.

Kerrang! Vintage Arts Fair

“Dale End was fucking heaving. I’ve never signed so many shoes and bellies in my life” – Whitty, frontman

We were invited by Heretic Promotions to be their representative at the Kerrang! Radio Vintage Arts Fair. At first we were that heady mixture of excited and worried – wow, Kerrang! Radio! Will anyone want to see a gig in the middle of Dale End? Will all our gear get nicked while we play? Will the weather hold out? Will stuff be thrown at us?!

It was with some trepidation, then, that we hauled our gear up the goods lift of The Square Shopping Centre in Dale End, emerged blinking into the bright sunshine, and … bloody hell, the place was rammed. Our first concern, easily dismissed.

The lovely people who’d turned out for the day hung on in their hundreds to see us. Someone had handed Whitty a radio mic, which enabled him to perform much of the set while running around the square and, at one point, while riding an onlooker’s skateboard. After our set, we were proffered with many, many things to sign – somewhat bizarrely, much of the audience seemed to want our scribblings on their shoes. And arms. And skateboard.

We love you, Birmingham!

Playing Live on BBC WM

“I was so nervous, I thought I would be sick right there in the studio before we went on.” – Joshua Watson, Guitar

The day before the release of Radiostasis, we rolled up to BBC WM with our full complement of equipment. We’d been invited to perform the EP in its entirety, live, for the thousands of listeners to BBC WM’s unsigned show. This was quite unlike anything we’d ever done before, and listening back to it, it shows – not necessarily in our playing of the songs, but we suddenly realised none of us really knew how to be interviewed. We’re pretty sure we talked total rubbish. Hopefully it wasn’t enough to put people off the music itself, which we played OK – but what an experience it was!

Kilburn Festival, London

“That drunk woman dancing around in her one-piece swimsuit had me pissing myself.” – Mez, drums

“Downright lovely.” – Whitty, frontman

We stumbled upon a slot at a free open-air festival in the summer in Kilburn Grange Park which turned out to be absolutely amazing. The weather was hot, the drinks delicious and the people many. We climbed PA stacks which were not strapped down and in so doing unwittingly endangered everyone’s lives. We gave away about 30 CDs, causing a stampede towards the stage, and in so doing unwittingly endangered everyone else’s lives.

It’s a miracle any of us made it out alive.

Sonic Rock Solstice

“Sonic Rock was amazing again this year, apart from the fact I got thrown out on the final night for bringing my own drinks in… but then again, if you play with feathers you’re going to get your arse tickled.” – Whitty, frontman

Our favourite ever full festival, we appeared on the Top Rock Radio stage for the second year and once again enjoyed it immensely. Josh and Alex got so drunk after the CH set that they can’t really remember anything. Having reviewed the evidence, we have to conclude that at some point we hung out with our good friends Dakesis…

Radiostasis & El Nibre EPs

“Our recorded output in 2011 makes me weep. It’s around an 80/20 mix of joy and horror.” – Alex Thomson, Bass

Yes, this year we released two EPs. We’re extremely pleased with how they both came out and it’s fair to say that by recording ourselves, in our own time, in our own lockup, using our own equipment, we’ve hit upon a way of working which really produces the goods. Our guitarist-cum-producer, Josh, has been able to shape our sound the old-fashioned way: by spending countless hours mixing and constructing harmonies and guitar layers during the actual recording process. This simply wouldn’t be possible for us working in a big studio, where time is quite literally money, but it’s been crucial in carving out a sound and identity which is unique to us.

This is continuing through into 2012 as we get ready to release our debut album, of which more news very soon…

Captain Horizon would like to thank all of our fans from the bottom of our hearts for an incredible year!

P, L & B

Captain Horizon

Upcoming dates are Thursday 8th December at the Roadhouse Birmingham, supporting our very good friends Dakesis. We’re also making a headline appearence at Woodys Music bar on Saturday 10th December.

Followed by Friday 16th December, supporting Frantic Empire and Signify (the last gig with their current line up) at The End in Birmingham.

Our last gig of 2011 will be at The Railway Hotel in Evesham with support from The Vanguard. We hope to see you there!

The album recording has been progressing very well and we’re currently around 60% of the way through the process. We’re extremely happy with the initial feel and sound that has been captured during the sessions – we can’t wait to share it with you all!

“Ooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaa… Ok, found it… what note is that?”

Silence greets my question. I pull my head out of the bass drum and look at Alex, who meets my gaze with the business end of his camera phone. So you recorded that, ya bastard, I think to myself. I walk over to a guitar and hum the note to myself, looking for its match on the fretboard. E flat. The bass drum resonates in E flat. To get the biggest, most booming sound I can, that’s what the new drum skins arrayed on the floor around Mez will have to be tuned to.

Alex can’t really believe it’s taking so long to tune the drums, but man is it worth it. Eventually even Mez gets bored and goes home early for a “3 course meal”, smug look on his face as he leaves me and a practically weeping Earl to finish fine tuning the drums, ready for the first new album recording session tomorrow morning. Who needs instrument techs? Eventually the drums are tuned and in place. Up go the microphones – I’m trying a new drum miking technique, aply named “the recorderman method”. It’s supposed to get a tight and punchy drumkit sound. Will it survive my idiocy? We’ll see about that. I grapple with a tape measure and enlist spare hands to hold lengths of rope for me while I place the mics. With that sorted, Alex’s bass tone takes all of 5 minutes to set, fine tune and test. We perform a little victory dance, and leave for the night to go and get a Tesco pasta meal. One course, of course. More gruel, sir?

Friday night comes and goes. Saturday morning is cold but fresh.

We’re not your typical rock band, a fact the empty streets around our studio complex probably didn’t appreciate as we pulled up before the doors even opened, early on Saturday morning. The complex owner arrived and let us in. Safely in the warm, Mez and Alex make hot drinks. I opt for a tasty red cylinder of sugar (coke) and a little red square of sugar and wafer. KitKat – Can’t Record Without One (still waiting for my endorsement money Nestle!). It’s cold in our studio, and while the electric radiator does its job Mez warms up with some paradiddles, and Alex uses the time wisely to berate friends and loved ones. Sickened by his cruel duplicity, I call the session to order. Time to do something worth doing.

I pressed record.

Guess Who? You got it, I’m back for round 2 of the Blogging world of bloggages and the same rules apply as the last one: I WILL go off on a tangent; it’s just the way I work so you might need to read back at times. It’s the Quentin Tarantino effect lol.

I’ve been listening to a lot of music recently, well I say a lot but what I really mean is about 15 songs over and over and just when you think you couldn’t possibly listen to them over again…………………………….BAM!!!…………YOU WRONG FOOL!!! You slap them on again cuz you need to learn them but it’s no bad thing cuz they are really cool, they are the demos for the album we are currently working on. All of the songs appeared in the form of acoustic guitars, dotted in drum beats and bass notes and of course the rare pleasure of hearing Josh’s voice fronting all of them, quite lovely!

My initial thought when I heard them was, “SHIT! I’ve got lots to learn” and really, I still do. But in all honesty I thought, “my god this guy is a fucking genius” they sounded beautiful, the blend of acoustic and Josh’s vocal is really nice but the songs had words with so much meaningless meaning* (Josh will understand what I mean) to them that I didn’t think anything we do could make these songs better than they already are. *meaningless meaning = means more to the listener than the artist. I’d love to say I mean every word but a lot of the time its just a fictional encounter, I’d have nothing otherwise lol.

I’d been having a shitty day at work and we had practice on that evening which I was looking forward to but I’d been listening to these fucking songs for ages, I was anxious, I mean we’d had a go at the odd one or two to see how they sounded, but on this day I was infuriated to the core for why I cant remember (most likely them fucking retards up and down the country thinking it’s a good excuse to steal and terrorize people “cuz we don’t get no respect from dem” dick heads!) but I wanted to get it all out in the studio. Email: Really wanna play the whole album!!! Sent! Lads reply: “why the hell not?” Fucking brilliant I couldn’t wait, I was clock watching.

I got there, late as per usual but I believe so was Earl Grey (Alex) if I remember right, might’ve been Mez, anyway, we kicked off with track 2 as track 1 was one of the aforementioned and BOOOOOM!!! I felt all that fury starting to lift off my shoulders and by the time we were on about track 5 it was almost disbelief that we were doing really well for a first time attempt. The work started to become more intense, yet the ideas seemed to be flying out of every hole, ok not all of them were good but we were making good progress every time we played them. Although there were also them songs that are, what we say in the trade “bastards” only because I was/am struggling with them but rest assured little progress is still progress.

We’d been rehearsing for a while with few gigs, so we could now concentrate more on the new songs and record a rough version for referencing and where to improve blahblahblah. So back to listening to the songs but instead of JW and a computer it was Captain Horizon now, and proved very informative too. We had a little over a week before we held a “secret airing” to a few people to gain their opinions and critique so this must mean, you got it, NEW DISORDER FEST was the coming weekend.

I must say for such a small festival it was bigger than Woodstock in heart, there wasn’t an ego in sight or at least nobody was flaunting it anyway, you know what I’m like, I’m a pain in the arse but never usually an arsehole so what I mean is there was everyone pulling in to make things work for a great cause ‘Rock Against Child Pornography’ who have been doing such a tremendous job and this festival has helped project it further. I arrived to the raucous sound of me good mates Signify, which I was chuffed about cuz I thought we’d end up missing them, as it was they’d just started and they were kickin’ ass and taking names, but just seconds earlier I was greeted by a pink & purple putty tat with the same coloured hair by way of Cathy G which is always nice to see Cath but you’re missing the point she had her face painted!!! Haha, I joke but it was my calling and I had all day to ponder what I was having so after a few beers and chats with friends old and new it was approaching set time, composure is key really, but I’m a last minute kind of guy so while everyone else was setting up and his Earlship most probably ironing those hideous trousers I decided to go get me face painted. I had a lazy idea of evilness on my face and decided on a zombie to which Red Imp created in 5mins as she assured me, well it was more like 4mins 15secs so I had time to spare lol. I wont give you a rundown of the gig cuz I cant remember it all I know is it was awesome! What I will say though is when I saw Alex in them fucking trousers I didn’t think my evil face would look very evil pissing itself laughing at him all set but, composure is key you see! Pretty much everything after that set became a blur until I woke up in Signify’s van freezing cold, bad time’s man, hungover in the cold, bbbbrrrrrrr thanks a lot for the lift home Kendo appreciate it man.

Moving back to the album we had two rehearsals to practice before performing them in front of people for feedback. Mez was cacking his pants and Earl was nervous too, me and Josh however seemed to be pretty cool about it well I felt good cuz even if we did fuck up that’s the time to do it, while it’s being shot down lol. But as Sunday loomed and I’m talking like Saturday night into Sunday morning when I started to show signs of concern, but château nuef du pap!!! this wasn’t a gig, it was a critique and it was just like recording when its just me alone, but this time I wasn’t, there was people there but it was like a reverse of the recording because of the nudeness that surrounds me, I felt sick and just wanted to get it done but once I turned up I felt ok, more tired than anything, perhaps I had trouble sleeping? It started out quite badly as the 1st track came under scrutiny before we played a note but that was fine until we played a note and I came in wrong and had to start again but I laughed it off and away we go lol. It was a really good exercise as it opened our eyes to what needed doing and what was actually not as bad as we made out and ended up being fan favourite’s, so food for thought and time to get a move on cuz we’re nearing the recording dates now.

My ramble is now over for another crazy chapter, so until next time………
Its not goodbye…..
just………………….Bonjour!

We’re headlining tonights gig, with support from Half Shot and One Notch Up. Doors are open from 8pm with an admission charge of £2.

Saturday sees Captain Horizon heading over to Selly Oak to perform at the Bristol Pear. We will be playing alongside bands Panacea Dream, Zero Amigo and guests The 7% Solution. The gig is free entry! Doors open at 8pm.

Sunday night we’re heading over to Dudley to play at Ye Old Foundry as part of a John Peel memorial gig. Other bands that are featured include our good friends Martyr De Mona and Synopsis. The first band takes to the stage at 3pm.

The song, not the fish. They had their chance.

Good is the biggest stumbling block there is on the way to great. Sometimes it’s easier to go around good and strike out towards great from the safe and familiar ground of being totally shit. You might be wondering what I’m talking about. And yes, I am drinking whisky.

What I’m trying to say is, you can work on a song and make it good. You can endlessly write a more appropriate chorus, work on the perfect drum fill, put in your favourite chord shapes. And you’ll end up with a good song, pat yourself on the back, and feel like a right little songsmith.

Doesn’t mean the song’s great though. It might be insipid. It might not move a mollusc, let alone a discerning music lover. But because you can point to all the good things in it, you’re blinded to the fact it just isn’t inspiring or inspired. And conversely, a song can be shit and then suddenly make the leap to brilliant. You can point at all the ways it doesn’t work, is boring, or fails in its intent, yet for some reason it all suddenly clicks together. We’re lucky – it sometimes happens to us. I’ll let you in on a secret: I didn’t think Poker was a very good song. It was terrible for the longest time, only when Mez and Whitty performed it with such wide eyed conviction did we see that there was more to it that a workout on the bass guitar.

We’re working on songs now. Songs that started life as acoustic demos I recorded during my sojourn from work in May, while the leaves grew on the trees and the sun shone down unnoticed by me. I was in a little bedroom with recording gear and an acoustic guitar. The curtains were shut, and I was on my own. Now we’re hammering them out in the practice room, sometimes reeling off new ideas with ease, sometimes bouncing off the walls in anger and pent up frustration at the songs, each other, our own fingers…

The things I’m noticing are interesting. As we make these songs our own, they change. They become leaner, we distil them down. Songs that I thought were ok when it was me and an acoustic become forces of nature with the band pounding them out. Songs I arrogantly thought would be immense and emotional might not work at all, or prove to be flat and samey. Then one of the guys will take the song and fix it with an idea so simple or so obvious that I’d never have thought of it in a million years. More than at any point in the last few years I’m feeling a connection with my three brothers. I can’t describe how it feels to watch these guys take my ideas in their hands and actually treat them with respect, with passion, and with belief.

When I first played the other guys what I’d been working on, they were my songs. Now I listen to that CD and it sounds so boring and flat. Those songs have changed, grown up, and they’re not mine any more. They belong to the band. I absolutely cannot wait to start recording them, because thanks to Alex, Mez and Whitty I think we’ve got something special on our hands.

Welcome to 2011: they come from my mobile phone. At least, that’s where the songs we’ll be talking about in this blogfermented. Some became stronger, more purified and lean. Others turned to mushy mulch, wet and stinking, straight from the bottom of a compost heap.

I play the guitar at home quite a lot. Sometimes I’ll be noodling away and an idea will just fall into my head all by itself – a guitar riff, a lyric idea, a special effect that I think would be cool in a song, even just a feeling that I want to try to capture in music. And when that happens, I know I’ll forget it totally within minutes. It’s a race against time to catch it before it vanishes forever. So out comes my mobile, with its handy voice record function. I bet your phone has one too, have you ever used it? I use mine almost every day. If it weren’t for mobiles, I’d have to carry a Dictaphone round like a rogue reporter who’s never had a scoop in his whole career. I record the idea, be it 10 seconds or two minutes. Then, safe in the knowledge that the idea is safe in my phone, I forget about it. Having an idea is much easier than finishing a song – ideas are always great because of their potential. Songs are crap because you haven’t lived up to that potential.

I’ve been working like that for about 5 years. A few months ago I decided to sort through the recordings I had and try to turn the best ones into songs. Only one snag: there were 1,500 of these buggers: little snippets of the embryos that would one day grow up to be music. Oh, crap, ah’m gonna be a daddy!

But I’m nothing if not industrious (read: stupidly obsessed) so I listened to them all. I was really harsh – if I didn’t think what I was hearing was special in some way, and had potential to be a song, I’d delete it. Sometimes I’d hear an idea recorded years ago, then recorded again much more recently, with different words or a slightly different hook. Sometimes the same idea would be a recurring theme in loads of different recordings. Often I’d hear an idea that had since become part of another finished song. It took about 5 days, but eventually I had 300 ideas that I felt might, with a bit of hard work, inspiration and luck, become finished songs that didn’t totally suck.

How do 300 sound clips, probably averaging 20 seconds long, turn into the basis for a Captain Horizon album? Ideas are only one ingredient, and they’re easy – anyone can have an idea. Turning it into something good is the hard bit.

For me, the second ingredient was something very bitter indeed. The week I finished sorting through the clips, me and my workmates were called into the Bosses office at my job and told there was no work for us that month: We’d either need to take unpaid leave, or face redundancies. I left work that day facing three weeks of unpaid nothing. Some people would have looked for another job, or at least temp work to fill the time. Maybe some would have gone travelling or visited friends or at least tried to get some sunshine.

I set up a studio in the spare bedroom, and closed the door on the world.

As the second part of the day kicked off, the room was full of anticipation. I’d say it was a 50/50 split in the room of people who have previously seen Captain Horizon and those that had heard all about them (see MR’s review of their album, Radiostasis here). They didn’t disappoint. Whitty is probably the best front man on the scene at the moment and his on stage (and off a lot of the time!) antics and banter are as much a part of this band as the music is. What about the music? A blend of alt rock, with some proggy influences but all wrapped up in a pop style sums up Captain Horizon nicely. Bouncy infectious tunes have a joyful factor to them, but throw in the occasional moodier song and you grasp the technical brilliance of this band. For me, by far the performance of the day. When is this band going to be signed? Who knows in this day and age, but with a little luck this band could be huge.

You can read the full review by Tony Gaskin and Cath Holland of the day on the Midlands Rocks website.