This is what I’m expecting…. I hear it is -15C at the moment…

It’s very easy to forever be looking into the future and thinking “I’ll be happy if…” while all the cool stuff is happening RIGHT NOW. Look! A monkey went by on a jetski and you missed it.

I may be deep in plans for the rest of the year, but in just a couple of weeks I’ll play my first tour of Canada. This is just what I always dreamed of – making music, seeing the world, meeting people…. all a real privilege to soak up and wash down with maple syrup.

If you know anything or anyone in Vancouver, Victoria, Prince George or British Columbia more generally, I’d love to hear from you. A friendly face to meet, a musician to listen to, a place to eat, an indispensable factoid, a handy way to avoid mortal … Read the rest

Happy New Year! I’ve just spent a few quiet months songwriting, it’s been wonderful, and also quite difficult. I hadn’t sat still for 3 years and there were so many new things to uncover. What to do and say next?

I found myself spending at least as much time just thinking. Thinking about…. stuff… how can I be more happy? Will they still teach kids how to write with a pen in the future? Is it ok to eat meat?…..

If I had to point to a subject I’ve written about most it is mental health and my relationship with thinking, the treasures and traps to be discovered from being more aware of my own thought processes, and the moments of joy from switching it all off sometimes. Over the next few months I’ll be writing more songs, working out how best to record them and doing small solo gigs … Read the rest

… Read the rest

Something about the school system has forged a link in me between Autumn and starting again. September has a strange sort of Sunday afternoon into Monday morning quality about it after the Saturday night party of summer, like a limbo space not belonging to one week or the next.

Everyone around seems to be hitting the reset button at the moment. Me I’m definitely drinking my pint of hangover water. It’s been an epic party, two and half years long and spanning more towns and cities than I expected to visit in a lifetime. I’ve met an outrageous number of excellent people, many of whom I’d love to still be friends with in the morning. Others will be remembered only as temporary legends blowing my mind with their awesomeness then disappearing into the night, but that’s cool too.

Since our last gig I’ve spent two weeks cleaning up, which is … Read the rest

Who fancies a bit of a social? I’d love to show you what music we make now, plus there are loads of ingenious ways I want to thank you for supporting Many Fish To Fry before I hang it up and start work on a follow up.

Where: The Social, Little Portland Street, London.
When: 18th September 2012. Doors 7:30pm.
Tickets: £7, or £15 with a t-shirt

When buying your ticket you’ll also be asked to submit a photo of yourself (or something to represent you) so we can add it to our poster. As each ticket is sold, each spot will get filled with an image. Look out for yours at the gig too – we’ll have personalised presents waiting for you.

Everything is ready, all we’re missing is you. 100 tickets, 100 people getting together. Are you free?

Hope you can make it
Jake

**UPDATE** All tickets … Read the rest

This year I released 250 signed, numbered copies of a new live studio EP called ‘Ghostess Live Studio Sessions’.

They all sold out in May – I don’t even have one! They’re all gone. All except one, copy #1 / 250, and an auction has now been started to buy it, with all profits going to Nordoff Robbins – a fantastic music charity http://www.nordoff-robbins.org.uk

Their work involves using music therapy and music services to help a range of people with a range of challenges such as autism, dementia, mental health problems, stroke, brain injury, depression or life-threatening or terminal illnesses, such as cancer. They use your money to dramatically improve their quality of life. Shall we raise them a few quid to help?

The auction can be found here – http://r.ebay.com/IDwuFM and will end on Wednesday 18th July.

The winner will receive the last Limited Edition copy of the Ghostess … Read the rest

After The Social I’ll stop playing gigs and start working on another album.

But before then, I’ve got a busy summer with trips to Ireland and France, more UK dates (Norwich, Devon…), some great festivals and the house concerts won by the ‘At Your Place’competition. Take a look at the full list on my gigs page

The Ireland trip is long overdue. I’ve done support tours there before, and not to get all Irish Tourist Board on you but I’m proper excited about going back. If I meet friends, drinkers, crackpots and geniuses anything like the ones I met last time, it’ll be a blast. I’ll be touring with Liz Lawrence a very talented artist well worth listening to.

It’s been a great year for festivals too – Isle of Wight, Hop Farm and Big Session Festivals went really well. Still to come – Latitude, Summer Breeze, Tonefest, Secret … Read the rest