First of all, we’d like to apologise for our recent ‘radio silence’. We’ve had a somewhat traumatic summer culminating in us moving from where we had been living for ten years and setting up shop elsewhere. It has, in the end (and thankfully), all worked out for the better, and will probably provide us with plenty of material to write about, but it has been a very frustrating and unsettling period since the last lockdown. Consequently, not a hell of a lot has happened musically.
Now all that is done we’re confronted with the issue we knew was coming anyway;
How do you transform a lockdown labour of love into a live act?
Post hibernation languor
As many of you already know our album ‘Painting with an open heart’ was written and produced in the unnerving cocoon of lockdown. We went to town with the instrumentation; string sections, backing vocals galore, overdubbed this, and overdubbed that. We had no consideration of how to perform it because everything was closed anyway. Now we want to take it on the road and share the love of what we created with others. The question is…how?
The answer of course is alchemy. A chemistry of like-minded individuals pulling in the same direction, reaching towards the very same light. That’s right, we’re putting a band together!
Transmission fever
It’s an interesting problem too…interesting for us to open these songs up to others, songs so precious to us, they comforted us during the lockdowns, told us everything was alright, even though they knew better. So along with the practical and musical concerns also comes the trepidation of things getting away from us, getting away from the original idea. Adapting these songs to a specific lineup is going to take some special musicians, a lot of thinking, and a lot of trial and error.
And it’s happening, we’re trying, we’re meeting new people, musicians, very good musicians, all battered and weather-beaten from 18 months of interruptions and (like us) trying to be the flowers that are still standing after having had the table cloth viciously torn out from beneath them.
Change as evidence of life
We know the songs won’t sound like they did on the record, they will however have fresh life breathed into them by new musical collaborators and they’ll be experienced by fresh ears and open souls craving the to-and-fro of a live music experience. That’s worth fighting for.
You know how sometimes you look in the mirror and think ‘…is that version of me living a slightly different life?’ ‘…are they managing better?’ ‘…is there something I could learn from them?’. A few paths are opening up to us and we desperately want to choose the right ones. As a project we feel Hangover Square has a longevity to it. We could do so, so much with it in the coming years. We’re entering into a blizzard of decision making. We just hope we get a few more of them right than wrong.
Unnatural birth
Hangover Square’s parents were Isolation and Hope, the aforementioned unnerving cocoon has cracked and something beautiful is emerging from the dark. And here we are, taking the first tentative steps into a new and uncertain world with plenty of strength left.
It’s that phoenix again…
Hopefully, we’re soon to be riding on an elegant wave of sonic beauty emerging from the dark times. And you’re invited to join us…watch this space, 2022 could have a lovely soundtrack.
Victoria & Chris xxx
