EP9 and beyond

EP9 was released last month and in all the excitement, we forgot to blog about it.

In a break with tradition, this EP contains four instrumentals.

1. Lies
2. The Schemer of Schemes Part 1
3. BHX
4. A Minor Pulse


Available now at all good download sites and streaming services.



We did make a video for the track lies, using the game Kerbal Space Program.

Physical copies can be bought from out bandcamp store.

In other news, we are more than three quarters the way through finishing EP10.   So expect that in the spring of 2018

The Distance (Official Video)

We are pleased to show you all, our new video for "The Distance".

This has been a bit of a labour of love, using Muvizu.  

The big, third party, sets did not play well with the animation software, so it was a case of rendering bits of the video out and hoping they worked, since I was unable to re-open any saved files.

As a first attempt with new animation software, we are pleased with the results.

Expect some more Muvizu videos for other new and possibly older tracks over the coming months.

EP8 is now available on all decent streaming sites, Amazon, iTunes and Bandcamp


Enjoy

EP8

Finally, pleased to announce that EP8 will be released on February 3rd 2017. 

Available on all good streaming sites, Amazon and Bandcamp.

Click below for a sneaky peek!



There are four new songs on the EP.
1) The Distance
2) My Hometown  
3) Hometown Heart
4) Ludworth



There is an unexpected theme running thorugh this EP of Home.  Both of us took part in a songwriting course last year, where we had to write a song about our Hometowns.   So this is our offerings.  

This theme permeated into Ludworth, which though an instrumental, is very close to home in many ways.  

Ludworth is also a bit of a departure, in that there are no real instruments played on it.   Which was an interesting exercise, in the use of studio technology within the software we use.

A very limited physical release is available at our Bandcamp shop.

Check back on release day for the video release of "The Distance".

Summer time

Seems to have been a very long time since we blogged.  Shame on us.

We have been busy.   We have far too many songs on the go for a single EP.  I think it is sixteen songs at the last count.  So as well as EP8, we are working on EP9 also.

The final lyrics were written last week for EP8.   So that song is now in the process of being recorded. 

As can be seen from the above image, we now have a makeshift vocal booth to play with.

The rest of the EP has been recorded and is ready for mixing.

We haven't decided a song order yet.  But titles are probably.

The Distance
Hometown
Hometown Heart
Ludworth

Two songs about hometown's I hear you ask.  Yep.   We both did a songwriting course earlier in the year, the task was to write a song about your hometown.   So we thought we would put both on the EP and see what people think.

So EP8 will be the forst EP, where we haven't re-recorded an old song.

We are thinking of revisiting the way we do CD covers also.  The previous seven EPs all used artists manikins on them.  We are unsure if we are going to continue this or try something different.

E has suggested we could use some of the smoke photography I used to do.

I suggested I do more images, given it has been far too long since I last did them.

We shall decide over the next few weeks, which way we are going.

EP9 is currently being written, whilst we finish up EP8.   So it is all go.

Later

Rollasoc

Love Is Overdrive Video

Well EP7 is almost amongst us.

It will be released on November 20th.

You can preorder it from our Bandcamp site.   It will be on Spotify, Amazon and all other streaming and download sites shortly thereafter.

We have made a video for the lead track.  "Love is Overdrive".  

We had such a laugh shooting the video.  Hopefully, that will come across in the video and everyone takes it in the silly way we intended.  It is made up of lots of the 800+ photos we took on Sunday afternoon.

We are rather pleased with how it turned out.

In other news.   December, I believe, is the official 15th Anniversary of The Hair Thieves.  So Chris might go out and play some very old Hair Thieves songs during the month at open mic nights in and around Shropshire.

We have four of five songs now in various states of finishing for EP8.   More news about that in the coming months, with holidays coming up and Christmas, it will be slow going until the new year.

Love is....

making a music video....

The big house move has occurred and we have reconvened working again on EP7 and beyond.

Last weekend, we shot 800+ still images for a music video for the song "Love is Overdrive".

We had such a laugh shooting the video.  Hopefully, that will come across in the video and everyone takes it in the silly way we intended.

Hopefully, the video will be ready to be shown to the world as soon as the EP has been mastered and approved.

Mastering of EP7 is taking place this week.  Artwork is yet to be decided.  I'd imagine we will release this either late October or early November.

We have started work on EP8.

We still have "The Distance" left over from the writing session in February.  Chris has resurrected a happy tune from 2010, which we have started working on and E has two ideas for new songs that he is toying with.   

Which just leaves the instrumental to write.  Which may or may not be Reverie Part 1 (given we have already released part 2).

Due to work commitements, E was unable to join Chris when he played a thirty minute set at Bridgnorth Music Festival last week (photo courtesy of Ashley John Roberts).  So yes last week was busy!

So now we both live in the same town, hopefully, we will get out an play a bit more often live.

Things are currently good in The Hair Thieves world. 

Downing Tools

We are getting close to shutting down the recording progress for the summer, due to house moves.  Finally after almost ten years together, we will be living in the same town.

Hopefully, this might mean the return of us playing live, even if only at a few local open mics.  What this will mean is no more 36 mile round trips to recording sessions.  So less time driving, more time writing and recording.

EP7 is almost three quarters there.   Two songs ("Love is Overdrive" & "Epic Song") are ready for mixing, (other than possibility of adding additional backing vocals to one if we need it).

The third tune (as seen in the images) is making good progress and in a first for us, uses some royalty free samples. In addition, there isn't a guitar in sight either.

Hopefully this will be ready for mixing in the week. 

On every EP there is a difficult track.  This appears to be track 2.  This is currently called "Drowning in Air". 

It started as an electronic track.  Which wasn't working, it is currently turning more orchestral, which in turn doesn't work at the tempo of the electronic track, (at which the vocals were recorded).

So a complete re-recording will be in order during the band downtime by me(given he has to sing it).

So there we have it.  Close but no cigar.  We have possibly one more recording session, before we take a break.   Hopefully, we will reconvene in the Autumn and get EP7 out of the door, shortly there after or at least before the end of the year.

I'm off to start re-recording "Drowning in Air".



Later


Rollasoc

The Distance (Demo)

Demo of a tune written for Fawm 2015. Basically we set ourselves a very short period of time to write and demo (as simply as possible) a song. So this was written in about 3 hours on a Sunday afternoon and then played with for a couple of hours two days later. Vocals are a composite of some vocals recorded on one day and others on another day. It is demo.... It was written using EZKeys as a tool to come up with the chord sequence. We aim to re-record this from scratch / replace / amend / change the r&b piano ballad. So it might end up similar or totally different. We shall see over time.

Deep Down You Know That I'm Right

Written as part of Fawm 2014

Released into the wild.

We are proud to announce that EP6 has finally been released into the wild.

It will be available from the usual outlets (iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, Napster etc) as soon as possible.

It is currently available for the pay what you like price at our Bandcamp store or for $2.49 from CDBaby.

There is a very limited amount of physical CDs for sale from the Bandcamp store.  When they are gone, they are gone.

In a first for us, we have also released it as a Bittorrent Bundle.   This is a legal way to download products via the bittorent network, currently being pioneered by the likes of the new Thom Yorke album.

You can download two songs, off the EP, immediately, or for the price of your email address, you can download all five tracks, a book of lyrics and the video for "Deep Down You Know That I'm Wrong".

We promise to not sell your email address to anyone.  You will get an occasional email from us (normally less than one a month) about what we are up to.  You can unsubscribe from the list at any time.

This is an experiment for us, since it is a fairly new distribution method.

We have additionally, set up our own dedicated You Tube channel, to bring together all the Hair Thieves videos in one place, instead of being on our personal channels.

So we hope you will at least have a listen to the new tunes, even if you don't down load them.  We are proud of these songs so would like people to listen to them regardless of whether they purchase them for cash, or download them for free or for the price of an email address.

We appreciate any feedback.

Work has started on EP7, as well as videos for a couple more tunes off the EP.

More on that as work progresses.

 

Deep Down You Know that I'm Wrong

Lead track off EP6. You can order the new EP from http://ift.tt/Z5d4Yc for a nominal fee

Drastic Sturgeon (Mansun Cover)

Cover version of the Mansun EP2 track Drastic Sturgeon. A rare outing for the Mandolin at least....

Drastic turn of events

Summer is upon us and we were initially getting close to finishing Ep6, when I had a moment of clarity.

Back in February, I wrote a song as part of the Fawm write an album in a month.  (I managed six songs in the four weeks).   As a consequence of one of the songs, E wrote a counter song. 

So, my grand plan was given, we have mostly mixed the other three songs for the EP (in record time), was to add the song from the Fawm session, since it obviously should go with the counter song.

So that will put us back a month or so.  So EP6 will now have 5 tracks upon it.




In other news, we are recording our first cover version, which will be released next month in Chester, at the convention for the 90's Britpop band Mansun.   We are in the process of recording one of their early B-sides.


At least it has allowed me to get out my old acoustic for the first time in two years.

More details, once we have finished recording it!



Later


Rollasoc

Epic Fail

 Greetings from the land of the Hair Thieves.

Due to holidays and more holidays, things have been a bit slow of late.

But progress is actually being made on EP6.

We have one tune ready for mixing.

The instrumental is taking shape and near completion.  It is currently called The fail song (hence this blogs title), due to us failing to write lyrics for it, so after a couple attempts it has been morphed into an instrumental, keeping the bare minimum of the original song.

I've taken a couple days off to work on one of the other tunes.  The aim is to get that ready for mixing, before I go off on holiday later in the week.

We have music for the final song, though no lyrics as yet.  So that will be our focus for the coming weeks.

E has even built himself a new music PC.  I'm awaiting new drum software to make my life a lot easier!

So all in all, not doing too badly and there is a good chance, this EP will see the light of day this year.

later,

Rollasoc

21st CSM

21st CSM Music and Lyrics C Rollason. Always Argued my limitations Never argued against my fears Always questioned my way of thinking Never looked ahead, ahead with hope Always restless and impatient Never rode the waves of delight Always worry too much about nothing Never relaxed, nor had some fun And I'm turning into the thing I hate the most High ideals, but I'm not even close I seem complete, but I'm thinking that I'm broken Turning into the 21st Century Schizoid man Always bottled up my emotions Never held back all the rage Always leaving too much unspoken Never edgy, too highly strung And I never had fun as a child Nervous wreck, behind my smile Happy go lucky or so they say Feel inside like I'm the living dead Hiding secrets, hiding lies Tortured soul, crimson disguise Torn between my wants and needs I bare this soul for you to need

Chemistry

The Chemistry Music I Packman, Lyrics Chris Rollason, I Packman Waiting for a queue that never comes (Standing) in the line of least resistance Hard counter to the window on my soul, it says position closed it marks the pass of every moment The Chemistry of dying Colours Changing over time My future shrinks, my past is growing it's leaving me behind The fabric fades, old colours melt away Captures all our days, escape forgotton The world is rushing at you, faster than the naked eye can see We close our eyes or look away The Chemistry of dying Colours Changing over time My future shrinks, my past is growing it's leaving me behind If nothing last forever what's the point in going on at least I have found the wisdom of where I was wrong Aching void, ommisions from my soul watching people make the same mistakes So I write a list of all the things the things I should have done I wasted time on being young

Bad Consumer

Bad Consumer Music I Packman. Lyrics G Lawton. Additonal Lyrics I Packman, C Rollason Keep your head up When you're hard up I'll come to your defence Financial gain ain't worth the pain Can you lend me 50 pence You heard a rumour I'm a bad consumer I'm a bad Consumer We point and click At too much shit That fading popstars try to sell Designer Boom from changing rooms It's a massive discount sale I hit the stores But soon got bored Of all the junk they try to sell Beacon, Heart, Exchange and mart If there's a difference I can't tell

The Beguiled

The Beguiled Music Chris Rollason, I Packman. Lyrics C Rollason Rising from the depths With brilliance / passion A fall from grace On gossamer wings The doubts so deep Words ache reviled The fool for a foolish dream I am Beguiled I Never thought I'd fall so deep so fast Captivated by your passive eerie glance Your charm offense lies unrestrained Never thought that modern love would be estranged I really though you'd change your ways this time Disappointment hides the fear of hopes declined Tragedy begat from a stolen kiss Tall Tales and randon acts of senselessness

The Mighty Fall

The Mighty Fall Music C Rollason T Evans, words T Evans Spread the trails of fortune We each can find the road To build a new horizon Find our place and ride the code There's life within our dreams We each can voice our views Set them up to teach the weary Change the spoils and write the truth Oh how The Mighty Fall The Mighty Fall The Mighty Fall The Mighty Fall Bit by bit the way we change Spread the truth and break our fall We've all grown up, with how things are But how things are just kills us all Why are we fighting? Why do we hate? If we change opinions It is never too late Oh The Mighty Fall How The Mighty Fall The Mighty Fall The Mighty Fall

Shorewards

Shorewards Music / Lyrics Chris Rollason, I Packman Running down Memory Lane Feels like I've been here before Undaunted by the empty village Landlocked forever and more I believe I have heard whispers From the sofa on which I lay But I feel like a megaton fugative Caught up in the richochet Chorus As the Canteen Bridgroom flirts with regret We shoplift the salesman as we depart the boat with their property on board I look shorewards Blasted by the guillotine tenements Nothing has a place of its own Sinless like emancipated celebrities The sociopaths harmonious psalm