Touring by numbers.

Written by neil on 16 April, 2008 in Touring with no comments.

On tour III – Pardubice, we love you…

Written by neil on 9 April, 2008 in Touring with no comments.

On tour II – Bratislava, backache and bastards.

Written by neil on 8 April, 2008 in Touring with no comments.

Bratislava, backache and bastards. No drummer, no drama, that’s our motto in The Layers. Today has been dominated by Roo’s herniated disc. After a consultation with Vienna’s foremost spinal specialist, we decided that drumming would be unwise for him and faced with the prospect of Rupert being unable to vent his energies on the bus, were […]

On tour pt I – Utrecht and Vienna

Written by neil on 5 April, 2008 in Touring with no comments.

Late afternoon sunshine on a campsite in Vienna, day two of the two-night music party in Club Bach and a long-awaited pause for breath: the first day without any driving… bliss. For a while it felt as if our whole world had narrowed to a series of two, three, four lane roads snaking across France, […]

Hartelijk dank!

Written by neil on 21 February, 2008 in Touring with no comments.

I’m a little weary this morning – I should have had an early night last night but couldn’t resist the urge to play at open mics on consecutive evenings in two different countries. Yes, I visited Utrecht to meet Henk and all the other guys that he’s recruited over there to publicise the CouchSurfing Musicians […]

We’ve got this rash…

Written by neil on 15 February, 2008 in Touring with no comments.

…fear not, though, dauntless Layers fans, it’s not a dermatological crisis. Indeed, it’s not really a crisis at all; the rash of which I speak is merely a rash of gigs. We appear this evening at the Vaults in Cirencester to support JTAR in a sensitive, laid-back, unplugged way, then in a few weeks we’re […]

My baby, she’s a neonate…

Written by neil on 27 August, 2007 in Lyrics with no comments.

In a quest for inspitation, I’ve been having a quick read through some of my old sets of lyrics. It’s kind of like picking over the carcass of a long-finished Christmas turkey looking for enough tasty bits to complete a soup. Anyhow, as I was singing along to something or other on the DVD player (I’m […]

The myriad joys of recording (pt I)

Written by neil on 30 July, 2007 in Recording with no comments.

Those of you not currently experiencing the aftermath of a prefrontal lobotomy will have been eagerly looking forward to hearing our demos on the site. If you are post-prefrontal, you can’t look forward to anything, it must be weird. Our hearts go out to you. Anyway, here are some preliminary mixdowns to start with and […]

Hey-na, hey-na… the lyrics matter.

Written by neil on 6 June, 2007 in Lyrics with no comments.

I think that the words are as important as the tune. Of course, I would say that, as I’m a lyricist.Lyrics, like music and, for that matter, art in any form, are a matter of taste, so we find ourselves navigating tricky waters here. I’m sure that I can find a www full of fans […]