09/05/13 The Angel, Woodbridge, Suffolk

Jake MorleyTour Blog1 Comment

I ain’t gonna lie, there have been times over the winter where I’ve thought “Is this really worth it? These new songs are rubbish.” Ah hello self-doubt! It’s like the friend who just puts you down and you wonder why you’re still friends with, but sometimes pushes you on to work harder and be better.

This past winter, when wrestling with a particularly difficult song, I would sometimes imagine packed-out, storming, successful nights like this one in Woodbridge just to taunt myself about how far away from all that I was. “Ooh these new songs are your best” people would be saying at my imagination gig while I looked down at yet another page of rejected lyrics.

Oh, if only old me could have seen new me at this gig! It was such a banger! And the new songs were at the heart of it. What a relief.

Looking back, … Read the rest

Back Together At Last

Jake MorleyNewsLeave a Comment

Although I didn’t know it at the time, the night I first met John Parker and Luke Concannon from Nizlopi in 2010 became quite a significant one where every act on the bill split up and started playing music with each other.

Since then I’ve been lucky enough to share a stage with John regularly as he brought his double bass to life on my songs. The end of Nizlopi was very hard for him, but over time he’s developed into an irreplaceable session musician for lots of great artists.

Moving on was hard for Luke too, but he’s managed to record an exceptional solo album, and now they’ve agreed to their first set of dates back together since the split:

Sunday 16th June – support from Paper Aeroplanes and Rob Bearsby
Monday 17th June – support from me and Antonio Lulic

Both nights will be at The Borderline, … Read the rest

Progress

Jake MorleyNews1 Comment

Things seem to have moved forward quite a bit recently. In the space of a week I met some engineers and producers and spent two days rehearsing new songs with the band. I’m starting to get a crazy feeling in my belly… maybe it’s time to get into the studio again??

There are 16 songs on my current list. Some feel like the best I’ve ever written, others less so. The current plan is to record the first batch soon, release some, then just keep going.

In the meantime I have a stack of gigs this month:

4th May 2013 Miss Peapods Cornwall TIX
9th May 2013 The Angel Suffolk FREE
11th May 2013 Bucks Student Union, supporting Everything Everything High Wycombe INFO
13th May 2013 Gaslight Club, Oporto Leeds FREE
16th May 2013 Guitar Bar Nottingham £5/£3
20th May 2013 Moles Bath £3
23rd May 2013 Full Moon Cardiff
… Read the rest

04/05/13 Miss Peapods, Penryn, Cornwall

Jake MorleyTour Blog1 Comment

I’ve just finished one of those amazing books that breaks into your mind, jumbles all the furniture around, leaves a diamond and a turd on the kitchen counter and then laughs merrily off into the night. That’s right I am elated, confused and reaching for the Domestos. It’s called A Fraction Of The Whole and it reminded me a lot of another book I loved – Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintence. They’re both father/son relationship stories told through a haze of infuriating and brilliant amateur philosophy and they both suggest that intelligence doesn’t make you happy.

I’ve definitely been trying to be intelligent in my songwriting recently, and lo and behold, the same bloody thing has happened to me. Sitting around trying to be intelligent made me isolated and self-indulgent. The more I think, the more I think thinking is my most unattractive attribute. It is doing … Read the rest

Work In Progress Gigs

Jake MorleyNews2 Comments

“Yarrrgggh” the grizzly bear roared.

“Yargh yourself” I replied, darting behind him in one smooth motion and leaping high on his back, pointing towards the sunrise. “Let’s explore the wilderness”.

Well anyway I think I’m coming to the end of all that nonsense now, so here’s an idea.

How about we go to a really small venue, maybe 30 of us or something. I’ll play mainly new songs and together we’ll get a feel for which ones are good, and which ones are, quite frankly, amazing.

What I’ve got in mind is a ‘Work In Progress’ theme. Be prepared for me to stop a song half way through because I’ve been hit by the crushing realisation that it’s rubbish. I’ll talk a bit about the songs, and you should feel free to voice your opinions if you want to.

We could do it sort-of-regularly as the songs develop into an … Read the rest

Canada Tour Blog Part 2

Jake MorleyTour Blog2 Comments

Sometimes after a run of great gigs I find myself about to start the next one thinking “surely this one will screw up”. Maybe I do a rushed sound check and the panic and self-consciousness sets in, which feeds itself until it’s some sort of Jaba the Hut / Henry VIII fat king, laughing at me from behind its ugly dribbling face. The more self-conscious I feel, the less natural I act, and the less natural I act, the less natural everyone else acts too. “ooh I’m not sure about this guy… maybe he’s no good…” chatter chatter chatter… it spreads and suddenly everyone closes up like traders on the stock market. Or meercats or something.

The reverse is also true though, sometimes it doesn’t take much to make me feel confident and comfortable, a comment or tactful bit of space from someone, a last minute change to a setlist … Read the rest

I Woz Hacked

Jake MorleyNewsLeave a Comment

Some spambot or international hacking movement deemed it necessary to hack my site. No demands were made, so I presume I just have to write better songs.

Sorry to anyone who wasn’t interested in The Darwin Awards or rare Christian books, it’s all fixed now. Who does this and why?… Read the rest

Canada #1 – Fancy a room like this?

Jake MorleyNews, Tour Blog1 Comment

It’s permanently set up for live music, with drums, piano, guitars, amps, a double bass (yes John Parker) and a pool table. Speaking of pools, there’s actually a swimming pool under the stage which they don’t really use. The trapdoor is under the drum stool…

If there’s one thing they have here in Canada it is space. It’s not much more expensive to build a big house than a small house, so they figure why not make a room like this? After 20 hours of travelling to a foreign country, this is what you want to see when you arrive.

I’ve been working on a song forever now called Watch Yourself, it’s been the source of a lot of love and stress for me, perhaps too much. I even broke down into a sobbing mess about it last week, not much of a cryer so that came as a … Read the rest