And then it began

Last night was our first gig back for 2009 and the start of our tour.
It is great to be back and to shake out some of the cobwebs.
This has been the first time Blackchords has played as a full band at the retreat hotel and I must say it was a really nice vibe.
Here are a couple of photos from the gig.
Also if you haven’t already checked out the dates that we are playing please do. There are more gigs coming up in Melbourne too and it looks like we’ll be heading down down under to Tassie, which is going to be awesome! Unfortunately tho for the moment we wont be making it to Queensland and WA. Hopefully it will happen later in 2009.
We DO now have a release date for our album and a date for the launch but that will be under raps for a little bit longer.
Will let you know soon.

Take Care

N.
Blackchords

Photography by Sasufi

Return to OZ

I have just touched down in the hot dry land of Australia, its a huge contrast with the sub zero temperatures and dark dark skies of London and Paris. Its been a busy few days, running around getting things organized for the up coming tour and release of the album and also hitting the studio for rehearsal with the band.
Today I've been able to be lazy and just wonder through Melbourne in a fuzzy jet lagged haze. Taking my pasty white sun starved body out into day light was a good feeling. Even if everybody I walked past had to shield their eyes away from my reflecting white skin.
For the next week while I get over my jet lag and get some color back into my skin we will be putting together the final details of our release and launch party. In the mean time I am adding details of our up coming gigs in Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales.
We are very excited to be heading to Sydney, in march to play with a much loved Aussie band “The Church” at The Factory Theatre.
Another very important gig that we will be playing is a benefit show at The Wesley Anne, to raise money for the victims of the Victorian bush fires.
So check out the details in our gig guide and come down to the shows.

In other blackchords news we have also donated a previously unreleased track 'Pretty Little Thing' to Twestival, the global Twitter charity event.
It is a worldwide online music project which aims to raise an additional $20,000 USD for the Twestival Charity Water which aims to provide people around the world with access to clean safe drinking water.
You can also listen and download tracks from over 160 other artists including Bloc Party, Martha Wainwright, Erol Akan, Imogen Heap, Mystery Jets and The Rakes

Visit http://www.twestival.fm to have an exclusive listen and download our track 'Pretty Little Thing' taken from our forthcoming debut album.

Stay in touch cause there is much happening in the next few months.

N.

1000

Dear all,

The Blackchords fanbase is growing fast and we are rapidly approaching 1,000 MySpace friends. To mark this milestone we want to reward you.

If you enjoy our music we need you to invite your friends to become our friends. Then send us a message with your name and the names of the friends you have recruited.

If you recruit our 1,000th friend we will reward both of you with an exclusive, previously unreleased two track Blackchords CD containing 'These Lights' & 'At World's End.' Both tracks are taken from our forthcoming debut album which is released in March.

Good luck and thank you for your continued support

We will announce the winners shortly!

Blackchords xx

A Happy New Years!

2008 eh. It began I remember with Nick and myself both a bit disillusioned with the present. There were three amazing demos that we had done with Nick Batterham and the sound we’d been looking for was starting to come through. I was sick and tired of making coffee, serving bitter people and listening to hank williams every damn hour.

To just quit my job on faith of a better path was the calling.

Soon after saw us in the studio recording the album. with long days and nights between sing sing 2 and Mr Batterhams studio. To say I was naive and raw to the recording process would be an understatement and working with such talented minds as Nick Batterham and Adam Rhodes scared the shit outta me at the time, but what I’ve learnt and witnessed during that process has been truly incredible. July saw Nick disappearing to Paris with the talented Anne-sophie at his side… and I found myself walking the hallway of my house not really knowing what to do with myself. I had to fill my life with some company.. and that came in the form of one of the loves of my life. A new amp! The Vox AC30CC with 4X12 speakers affectionately known as ‘The cardi’. So with the return of Nick M and playing for the first time with the talented Nick C , I found myself amongst some great musical moments. with playing the songs for the first time since recording them, and now with keys in the live set for the first time in four years. It feels right, and I can’t wait to see out other chapter, the live shows unfolding and evolving in 2009.

Thanks to everyone involved in the blackchords trip in 08. especially those that volunteered their hours and time. Trevor, Katie, Anne Sophie, Tov, Caz… and Phoebe and S.J. for helping us haul our machines of music over Melbourne. We can’t thank you enough!

To sit here hungover, smiling, writing this with the knowledge we’re about to release our debut album and knowing I’ll be creating more sound with my best friends is a peace. To be remembering this evolution, with memories of nick coming to me with chords and scribbled lyrics of songs which would later become ‘switch’ and ‘22’. Waking up most days in february to the piano at the other end of the house, then to be around the strings being recorded and driving ‘disappear’ and ‘these lights’. The universe has been good to us..

Happy New Year

See you all soon.



Dim

Almost Almost Almost

Getting Itchy Feet - Blackchords playing a recent gig in Melbourne

I read a nice review of Blackchords by Tim Burke (at The Dwarf.com.au) the other day. tho he did say something about Blackchords taking more time in releasing this album than they’d care to mention…. He was very right in saying this. But I must quote “some” old man who said “good things happen over night but great things take time”! I am clinging to this for dear life cause we HAVE taken time!
And now we have something that I’d like to call great. It comes in the shape of a 12 track Album by Blackchords.
There are still a few more things we need to finish up like track listing and finalizing the album art before we can put more info on the release up on blackchords.com.
That’ll happen at the start of the New Year after our headaches have worn off.
For now we have put up 2 more tracks “22” and “These Lights” on our myspace. So go have a listen if you haven’t already.

We will be n touch soon with new news and photos real soon.
But until then
Have a great xmas and New Years Eve.

XX
N.


Read The Dwarf review of Blackchords’ new track “These Lights” here.

Blackchords Gigs

Just a quick note, to let you know that after a long squished journey I have finally made it back to the land of OZ.
We are getting ready to play some shows in Melbourne. And for the moment I can announce that we have an acoustic set supporting the Jess McAvoy Album Launch on Saturday the 22nd of November and also our own show with special guests The Wishing Well and Tiger and Me on Thursday the 27th of November. Check out the gig guide on the side of the news page for exact details of the shows.
Plus over the next week or 2 we will be letting you know of more dates for December. I hope to see you soon.

N.

blackchords.com

Heya,

Finally our website is up and running.
Sasufi has been locked away working very hard designing the site and we hope you like it! We do.

Also hope that you’ve checked out “At worlds End”, on the sounds page. If you like the track then sign up with our newsletter and we’ll send you a copy of it for free.

We will be updating blackchords.com quite regularly with new photos, videos, songs and of course news and blogs etc. We will do our best to keep you entertained!

And for those of you in Melbourne, Blackchords will be playing some shows during November and December. Will put the dates up in the next 2 weeks.

We hope to see you soon.

Anyways keep in touch.

N.