The Blade Winner is one of my current favourite acts. His songs are insta-classics, and his performances are mesmerising.

Faux Faux Amis have been covering his song – Don’t Go Saying “It’s A Hard Life” (When I’m Around) – in our recent sets. The other day, The Blade Winner returned the favour and performed Holiday Inn live on 2XX radio. I remain massively chuffed.

Faux Faux Amis played at You Are Here on Friday.  It was the perfect forum to launch Faux Faux Amis 2.0 – now with singers Melanie Twidale and Catherine James.  

With Naomi Milthorpe, Mel and I founded The Bluffhearts.  We’ve been wanting to play together again ever since (side note: my one time playing bass was as fill-in for Mel’s punk group The Cannibal Tads – the Tads said I sucked at bass, but looked good doing so ).  Mel also drums for PROM.  In contrast, this was Catherine’s first time on stage – I’ve been encouraging/hassling Catherine to do more music for years (she owns the same drum machine I use in Babyfreeze, and the first video I ever made was for one of her songs. We nearly started a dancehall project together in 2012 before she confessed she doesn’t actually like dancehall music).  It’s a joy to have them in the band and to be playing alongside two of my favourite people. 

It’s unclear who’s idea it actually was to have Mel and Catherine join – I think it was their idea, but they’re convinced it was mine (alcohol was involved).  Either way, it’s brilliant, so I’m happy to take credit for it.  We are working towards something unique in the pop landscape – I can’t recount another garage-punk band with “shoop shoop” singers (Mel’s term) – maybe as a studio afterthought, but not as full and integral members. 

Mel and Catherine are writing their own vocal arrangements, which is really the only way it could work.  Still, like Nick’s experience with Nickamc, it’s scary to relinquish control.  And again like Nick’s experience, I was nervous before hearing what they would come up with… but elated afterwards.  All their ideas were like better versions of my own – I can’t wait to write some songs that capitalize on our new sound.

I also pushed to get them integrated into our current projection.   

The sound mix was the best we’d had, rendering us so slick, no less an authority than Dave Finnigan described us as ‘party rock’.  My work colleague Steve Boardman was also moved enough to write his first rock review.

For Projet de Producteur, we’ve got a couple of things brewing over the next three months. 

·         Back in January, we recorded a version of Holiday Inn at Nick McCorriston’s studio.  Paul Heslin and I (under our ‘schizophilliac’ moniker) will now be remixing it.  In May, Lou and I will shoot a video for the remix on location in New York.  We were also delighted to have The Blade Winner cover Holiday Inn on LocalNLive the other week – I’ll share some audio of it shortly.

·         Our next show will likely be our cassingle launch of 50/50.  The cassettes have been stamped and will be dubbed in the next fortnight (I got the master dubbed by tape king Coolio Desgracias).  Fittingly, we’ve made fifty.  Also on-theme, we’ve placed the same song on both sides of a dual coloured cassette.  

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Today is the first day of You Are Here 2014! 11 days of Free Music, Artist Olympics, Giant Blanket Forts, Neon Night Rides, Grages, BadSlams and more New Weird Art than I can even hold in my head (which is actually my job)!

You can check out the whole program at the link above, and follow the photos and videos on the You Are Here Facebook to watch my slow physical deterioration over the eleven days!

Faux Faux Amis tripped to Melbourne last week to begin Projet de Producteur (aka the Producer Project).  Over the course of 2014, we are recording one or two songs a piece with different producers, and then releasing them in various ways (options include vinyl, cassette, music videos, remixes, etc.).  The producers choose what song of ours they want to record, and then we invite them to weigh in with arrangement, style, and aesthetic considerations.  It’s always intrigued me how much influence producers have over a band’s sound, and I want to explore how different studios, styles and personalities can affect that.

The first recordings took place at Elephant’s Foot Studios with our good friend (and sonic whiz-kid) Nick McCorriston.  Nick’s tastes vary wildly, but he has a soft spot for punky stuff, so it felt like a good match for our initial foray.  We spent eleven hours getting down two songs.  Nick had loads of cool ideas, and I’m really pleased with the results.

Faux Faux Amis has been able to move quickly – only three gigs under our belt and we have a zine, a live video rig, recordings, and ummm, hats.  I love the pace (and am driving it), but more than that, it’s testament to both Kev and Chris’s skill as musicians, and how completely game they are for any whimsical scheme I suggest.