230503, whilst obviously not a 'Dark Side Of The Moon', has done way more than a totally unknown prog band from Western Sydney should have done and gone on to sell in Europe, America, Australia (of course) and Japan. That's just the physical CD. It's stocked by German stores, Japanese stores, CDbaby in the US, another online store in the US, can be ordered into US stores if requested (although who would??) and has been reviewed in French, Italian, and in English on ProgArchives (where as we speak, it's sitting on a 4 star rating and is called 'an excellent addition to any prog-rock collection'. What more can I ask?
Downloads have been gratifying with iTunes having
at least 7 five-star reviews. And with only 6 band members, thats... (just kidding). Torrent downloads, whilst we have absolutely no finite way to determine the actual number is looking extremely high - our strange business model of asking nothing for it in order to get it out there has still paid for our next album, in full, before we even begin making it.
The Annandale show was our best ever live performance and the version of 230503 we played that night is probably as close to the definitive version one is ever likely to hear. I get more pleasure from putting on my dodgy bootleg of it and listening to the sheer energy and wall of noise than I do (at the moment) from the subtleties and delicacies of the studio album. The good thing is that like the Wall show, we recorded the Annandale show to multitrack as well and will hopefully be putting it up for download toward the end of the year when Dean has mixed it. The plan being that that will help keep up some momentum and will see us remain visible as the next album is coming up for release.
Which brings me neatly to the next album.
What has happened is that the six of us had a meeting around the time of the Annandale show to discuss the concept and potential storyline for the second album. As usual Rob and I had a number of grand ideas which were largely embraced by the group, and Dean in particular weighed in with a number of alternative ideas which took what we had already gotten into some very exciting areas. Since then, a whole album took shape out of the early demos and now the group is in rehearsal scraping away at the foundations of the next record.
The difference could not be starker. When we made 230503, Rob and I had barely written a note together, and so the concept came first, and the music was slipped around the guidelines as much as possible. This time, we had a basic idea of what we wanted to submit to the band and a wealth of material that really needed arranging and sewing together. As the concept and mood became clearer, at least two fully formed songs that didn't fit the cut were put on the sideline, as well as about 35 bits that we didn't need or couldn't find a decent home for.
Dougie has also contributed much more in a compositional sense than last time too, which adds some different chord progressions to the mix. He had written pretty much all of one song, (with the middle bit generating from Nick and Steve) and also brought in key parts of another two tracks, several chord progressions and ostinatos that made their way into the pieces becoming verses or choruses or sections in their own right.
The next bit is the development of the existing tracks and recording first band demos... we have three tracks that we will do before moving to the next stage, and learning three more.
Assuming we can all agree on what goes where, what sounds good and what fits, we could be back in the studio proper by November, which would be ideal as Nick will be off learning to be a Dad by that point, and will be able to come as and when he can.
I'm hopping onto eBay to buy some gear. I have my eye on some bass pedals :-)))
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