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I tried Harp. I tried spoken word. I tried more samples. Tried herding cats.

AJ has tried something, if it works, I'm all good.

I'm not bummed about trying things and saying nope. Knowing what doesn't work is as important as knowing what does work.

Of course, this is all unbelievably subjective and we've delayed the released of the album for 1 month whilst we work on 6 bars, or approximately 30 seconds, or 0.00833 of the approximate album running time.

Oh dear.

I could have jammed anything in there. Heavens knows I tried. But it didn't feel right.

I am not sure whether it's entirely possible to have a clear opinion on this. I did a diagram to helpfully explain.

There comes a point of diminishing returns, where the nudge-to-the-left-no-to-the-right-back-again becomes just plain silly. And that comes from a band that greatly prizes silliness as the highest form of human endeavour.

Heh.

Oh lord, please, please let us be done with this album. I sure am grateful for getting to do it and it's been fun and all but YAAAAAAAAAAAA!

So close.

I found this picture via Reddit, and it seemed to sum up the idea of Keep Calm & Carry On, that most English of Memes.

We're bummed about events in London.

Once again our attention turns to the perpetual state of war we seem to have found ourselves in.

There can be no doubt that we live within it. From the Lindt siege here in Sydney, to the recent events in Manchester and now London, we surely must grasp that we are all part of this.

Over the years we have actively supported the folks who have sworn to keep us safe and to fight our battles.

Today, we recognise that means everyone. There are no non combatants. 

I'm a problem solving Primate by nature, and I am glad to read a few introspective comments and insights in the news. 

It's too early to look at what role our own societies play in shaping it, to raise the subject is to sidestep the immediate hurt and anger of everyone affected by it.

So we condemn the latest attack, and rightly so. 

But as we do so, we see that with each repeat of the problem, whatever we are doing is not working.

9/11 was 16 years ago. We are heading for 2 decades of worldwide warfare, history will record it as such, and we live within it.

So I walk a fine internal line, to not send a signal that this is acceptable, yet to try and work out why they heck someone does this? What motivates them? How can we remove the motivation, not the human?

Is it even possible? Are we, as a species, just so set on this kind of behaviour that we accept it as Human and endure it? Oh dear.

I have to hope that this violence is not an inevitable part of being human.

I have to hope that we can abhor the actions, yet try and find a solution without revenge and hate breeding more revenge and hate. 

Our thoughts are with the people of London and our hopes are with all of us, to find a new way, a different way than this.

I didn't check the web outside our bubble until later on, so I don't know the exact timelines, but it merited an edit to ensure clarity, in light of current cirumstances

I thought that went well last night.    We were blessed with a really good night when most of what we tried worked, at our last show. I felt happy about it.

Rosie took some great shots of Rut, Jesus and Marina.

Lola Sola opened the night, she's got a great voice, then Rut, Jesus and Marina did a set, then we did our thing.

It was quite the night.

I streamed a bit of it on facebook it's there if you're keen.

We were trying a new set list construction method last night, one proposed by Mr Wizard.

I admire the complexity. Worked for me. But dividing all the songs into blocks and then shifting blocks to suit the  vibe provided a wild ride for the rest of the lads, who may prefer a more formal structure.

Gotta say, that was a particularly good night show. 

Cheers to Sue, Julie, Caroline, Sandra, Sage and all the folks who came out or watched from home.

EDIT: Thanks to everyone who came out and was part of the community. All the crazy crap that is going on makes us all the more grateful for the times we get, in peace and good company, doing something we love. MJEB

Far Out. Marina is coming down with Jesus and Rut to do a short set after Lola Sola.

What a night. From 10-late. Free. What on earth are you waiting for? Join us!

Defiance is waiting for 1 last acceptable idea to finish the album.

It is very tempting to do 'anything' and say 'woops, there it is'.

I tried a few more things this last weekend but nope.

AJ tried an edit, to reduce the gap. Nope. 

There is no escaping the responsibility for doing something right.

Just wtf 'right' is, has been an ongoing discussion.

It is obvious, on reflection, that this is a moment borrowed straight from Pink Floyd. Yep that's right, it's derivative as hell. oops. Fortunately, if you're going to borrow an idea, it's a great place to steal from. Err...I mean...be inspired by.

A bit of Dark Side Of The Moon weird dialogue appeals. I did a bit of research into the audio files for Dark Side and found that the spoken phrases were as a result of asking people about their last experience with violence, were they in the right (I certainly was in the right!).

Repeating their idea is not so great, but trying the same process appeals, so I am trying that. If it works, yay we finish.

If not? Back to the drawing board.

Meanwhile, I have now got 7 tracks recorded for the 5D project. I have to synchronise sound and vision, pick the takes, edit, mix, etc. This is gonna take a while. Or it might not.

But I think we're probably going to add some more stuff. With any luck these new songs will start to come into the set, as we return to recording new songs before we've played them publicly - heh :-) Just like the old days. OMG I can say that now.

I am really digging the stuff we've been working on, the sound Lynchy pulled from his fancy shmancy latvian mic's is outrageous. My video stuff turned out well, but I am way critical of it all so imma defer judgment for a while.

But the nut was, we had an amazing experience, and for me, potentially transformative :-) Getting a chance to put things in perspective helps. It's a big universe out there.

I hope to share as much of this as I can, as soon as I can, which requires work in order to finish it. Hmm.

More work now, more blog soon.