June Newsletter
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| How's my tan? |
Hey freaks 😛😜😛😜 and welcome to the June edition of Four Blokes' monthly newsletter - new journalistic peaks every time! What is there to discuss this time round? Trips both literal and metaphorical, rerecording of fabled loss tapes, a little bit of jazz transcribing and, most excitingly, MASSIVE progress towards the debut album's release. There's a lot to get through this month so let's get cracking.
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| We scrub up alreet |
After necking some putrid rosé in the roman ruins, me and the mrs got onto a small commercial vessel for the "end of year Geography boat ball" ; despite security's threat to "turn the boat around" because we had "ruined it for everyone" by smuggling on a 300ml can of Kopperberg cider (they were selling the same thing in bottles at the boat's bar - this was all in the interest of venue protection comrades!) we managed the whole journey without being cast into the deep blue below. One final quote from our security adversaries - "if I had it my way I'd throw him off the boat".
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| And look what became of us |
We returned to shore and after waiting unbelievable amounts of time for chips kebabs and wraps we stumbled into the back of a stranger's car and purchased 4 little squares of acidic paper. In a baffling drunken decision we decided to take the first 2, which led to a variety of hallucinations - amongst them depictions of Satyrs 15th century Belgian art (as a reflection of the self) - before we journeyed barefoot into the adjacent woods and ran around in a barren cropfield doing Gene Kelly pinwheels. The trip culminated with the building of a nest, squawking, and pecking - a radical act of true love. No more than 6 days later the remaining half of the quadrant would dissolve leading to bizzare clown-themed events soundtracked by Pink Floyd's "Animals".
Anyways! You can't spend all your time taking drugs - at some point you've got to crack on. If you cast your mind back to May, you may remember a trip to Solent Univeristy studio 9 to tape some more tracks for the Four Blokes second LP. Despite the success of the sessions, the master tape of our efforts was lost to the great digital nothingness. After me and Tiago's sleepover (during which I developed acute spinal damage due to the hardness of his floor) and morning French Vanilla Lattes, Four Blokes reconvened at neighbouring studio 9 to re-record the 2 lost tracks.
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| Two sides of a story... |
Fueled by treats from the tuck shop, an instrumental track was laid down for both songs before a couple vocal takes were laid down. Although I cannot hear the versions from May and June side by side I am absolutely adamant the re-recordings are far better - I just know it in my heart of hearts. I can confirm that this time it is IMPOSSIBLE that we will lose the tapes - Murder of Crows and Heaven's Co-Ordinates are safe and sound on a macbook, ready for overdubs.
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| Exclusive look at the back cover |
In his little meaty smelling boyroom, former bassist/current drummer and producer Tiago Martins has been hard at work mixing and mastering Four Blokes tracks. I'll briefly get you up to date on the situation - "My Great Big Feckin' Farm" had its tracklist finalised in 2022. The original planned release date was autumn 2023. Recording didn't finish until July 2024. And, in the middle of 2025, progress was looking extremely slow. Producer Finn had not delivered a new master for 5 months - a full time job and trips around the world had gotten in the way of that. Tiago had a few goes at producing Party Drug that just weren't quite right, until suddenly late last month he cracked it. 7/14. For about a week the masters came fast and furious - I Can't Help Being A Lover, The Desert Song, Garden of Eden, Everybody Is In Love With You, Light of The Lord... 12/14! The album that has experienced literal YEARS of delays is all of sudden on the cusp of coming out. Now, what I'm about to tell you is the biggest exclusive you've ever got in the Four Blokes Newsletter, so brace yourself - we are releasing the album in July. The date I've tentatively pencilled in is the 15th, that's subject to change, but I see absolutely nothing stopping it from coming out at some point next month. I've been in contact with a couple independent publications and there will hopefully be a nice little bit of media surrounding the albums release, some interviews and reviews here and there. There's also my own MASSIVE blogger post with lyrics, recording notes, past gig reviews and of course loads of full colour photos. Let's not get too ahead of ourselves though - more events to cover from this month yet.
The dynamic duo of long-term Four Blokes members both jetted off in June, starting with my little trip to Lithuania. Highlights included visiting the TV tower where 14 unarmed protestors were killed by Soviet troops on 13th January 1991 during Lithuania's struggle for indepedence, going down a big slide and operating various pieces of demonstrational machinery, going into a basement where the KGB tortured political prisoners, and also my various binge drinking escapades. I'd go out for a quiet one and find myself 6 pints deep playing darts with a married couple, being told secret battle plans by a member of the Lithuanian Governement (sending young men to die in trenches is so last century), being given a key of finest eastern european cocaine by a stranger, or doing shots with a Ukrainian guy who became instantly overjoyed every time I fell into his line of sight because I was "a rocker". Funnily enough that bizzare string of events began because I played a few Four Blokes songs on the pub piano, which led to a domino effect of one bizzare character conversing with my after another. I appreciate this isn't strictly Four Blokes news so I'll simply pop a few photos of Lithuania + our road trip to neighbouring Latvia (during which we became hopelessly lost in a truck driver's yard, going round and round, getting cut up by a forklift) below and move on with it -
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| Photo courtesy of La Liga (genuinely) |
Anyways! Upon my return from the east I headed up to London for my university audition, to study songwriting at BIMM. And I got in! How wonderful. This does mean Four Blokes operations will be moving to London come September, but we'll be sure to pop down and sing to you lot in Southampton every so often. About an hour after getting accepted into uni, I was on the pitch for Real Betis grabbing an assist against Real Sociedad. No, really. La Liga put on a little 5-a-side tournament of fan clubs in London. I had to settle for a silver medal as we lost out to Deportivo La Coruna on penalties in the final, but we all went on the lash regardless.
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| In the "Jazz Zone" |
So much bloody waffling this month! Another Four Blokes related item now - just a brief one. I've had it in my head for a good for months now that the last track on the second album will be called "Back on The Drink" and that it will be an instrumental jazz piece. Within me also has been held the melody for a fair while - du du du du du... and then Reagon suggested that jazz songs usually have a B section they go to as well, upon which a second melody came to me. Having had the song solely exist within the confines of my mind for so long I decided it was time to make it tangible, and thus I created the jazz zone... a blanket with a keyboard and amp on it. The melody I heard in my head was easy to figure out, and I whacked that on bass. Next came the chords - major 7s are jazzy right? Just didn't sound good - didn't sound good at all. Tried the minor 7s - no... majors, minors, diminished.. soon fatigue overtook me and I rolled over into an uneasy sleep. The next day I had too many coffees and I was ready to find the chords. Somewhere in the combination of majors and minors I manufactured something satisfactory, after which I put some trombone counterpoint on it. The score I've written is only for 30 seconds of the song, the rest is going to happen magically.
The month ended with a long weekend camping in Swanage; I had a bloody fun time but there was a demon I was only just keeping at bay... the highlight was winning Ava a teddy on the claw machine on the first go; the purest act of love. A few photos of that will conclude the newsletter but before that I'd like to say thank you all for sticking with us and things are about to get very exciting!
All my love, honestly
Harry
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