Back in Australia, And Back from Europe!!

Well folks, here I am, back in Australia, returned from Europe summer tour no.5.  With shows through Holland, Italy, and Ireland, with a few spots in Switzerland, France and the UK, we played 50 or so shows in just over 3 months, I can’t believe we got through it all, and made it back!!  It’s quite unbelievable if I think about.  Though sorry for such a delay in this new post…..time goes by so fast, you don’t even realise it.

What a year its’ been though……after starting the year, moving out of my house to go on the road full time, via my converted Toyota Hiace Commuter, something that took 6 weeks or so to convert, and then breaking my ankle, and having to completely stop for 6 weeks…..then trying to deal with all that, walking again, a change of perspective I guess, the first half of the year definitely has had its’ challenges.  I guess that when you sign upto life, moving with momentum, life comes at you with full force, and you have to deal with it.  One month before Europe, starting back up shows since the accident and then the recovery, with the help of a friend to drive me round, I was just fit enough, willing myself back into playing.

And so I headed to Europe.  Bringing along a second musician for a lot of the shows, there were some clear standout moments, and I just want to thank everyone who was a part of the tour.  We were able to bring a bigger show to our audiences this year with new songs, new energy, and considering the chain of events over the years, specifically this year…….there was perhaps a new purpose.  With mostly duo shows, we had either piano, guitar, bass, or drums join the violin, and the shows had a real sense of building energy.  This being our 5th Tailor Birds Europe tour, we’ve started to get to know some really cool areas, finding our feet.  From the forests of northern Holland, the streets of Ireland, the heat of Italy, the lakeside of Geneva, local little bars and streets throughout Europe, it was a great tour.

This year we played our first ever Irish festival, the Boyle Arts Fest, and ADM’s 20th Birthday festival in Amsterdam.  Alongside new spaces, we spent more time in the places we were.  Though one of the best periods was in August, when we drove to play the Ferrara Buskers festival.  Driving through Holland, all the way to Italy, what a place…..in comparison to the massive drives through Australia, it took us about 14 hours to get to Italy, it’s amazing to see this difference.  But we made it to Ferrara……a huge 10-day street festival, we did 5 days out of the 10, for 4 hours each night, alongside 20 invited acts, and 300 artists.  It was a pretty immense festival……a beautiful Unesco Heritage city, it was 30 plus degrees every day, it was so hot!!  Each night our crowds built, and people would return to hear us each day, there was a great following that we were able to build…..so…….I reckon we’ll be back next year.

And so….after arriving in July, myself and the ankle was getting better, with less pain each day, we were building our fans each show, the vibe was great, we were selling records, and then September hit……and we had to make a decision.  At the festival, Taribush Kuna, we met a sound guy there, where we were offered a space to record some new music.  I was keen to do this, and so we extended our trip to record some more music.  So towards the end of the tour, out in the northern part of Holland, we spent 8 days in the studio, recording both our half hour lullaby, likely to be called ‘White Feather’, and the ‘Best of Series’.  Both records need just the final vocals to be put on, some final string parts, a bit of percussion, and I think that’s it.  Then there’s mixing and final mastering, and there we have it…..2 new records, ‘White Feather’ hopefully released at the start of January, and the ‘Best of Series’ in March.

And so with all that complete, we jumped on a jet-plane and headed back to Oz.  All is well, our line up of musos in Europe is building nicely, and we’re looking at the rest of 2017 and prepping for 2018 with good things planned.  So what the heck am I doing now??  Well we’ve a few challenges to face…..recording completion, work on some new visuals, album artwork, writing some new material, touring through Oz, plus planning Europe 2018 tour again…..and who knows what else.

And so, the end of 2017 is looking pretty good, and here we go….2018, lets get ready.