the Butterflies of Love

next friday sees the return of the Butterflies of Love to a UK stage - along with Sodastream, Flowers and Darren Hayman - it's going to be quite a thing, and you can get tickets here

i only mention this as Famous Problems are 80% of the Butterflies of Love, and you can get their single here:

Part 2: Record The Songs

so here we go with part two of our seven step guide to releasing your own records... for those of you following along at home, Fortuna POP! mogul Sean Price told us where to Find The Bands last month

this month recording star, performer, producer, singer and songwriter (basically Walthamstow's answer to Prince) Darren Hayman gives us a guide to recording your songs:

Recording the songs:

Don't get weighed down by the myth of recording technology and studios. Studios are great but so are you. Studios are just as likely to dull your ideas as they are to make them shiny.

If you own a tablet, laptop or phone then you already own more music technology then the Beatles did for Sgt Pepper or Brian Wilson did for Pet Sounds.

If you are going to prioritise spending money then buy a decent £200 condenser microphone and a sound interface for your computer. This will cost less than two days in a studio and will give you years of recoding time.

Garageband is perfect for a beginner and Logic gets cheaper and cheaper and has more inside it then you will need in a lifetime.

If you can't afford this, then just use your phone. Jafar Panahi is an Iranian film director who's Government has banned him from making films for life. Two years ago he made a movie on an iPhone and smuggled it out of the country on a memory card in a cake. He risked jail to make a movie on his iPhone because he needed to do it.

You have no excuses.

Think of your priorities as a long chain running from the source to the listener. The most important thing is the song and the performer, followed by instrument, microphone, room, recording device, mastering, medium, listening device. It's all gone to shit if you don't have a song.

There are million tips on how to make your recording sound 'good' but what is 'good'? You have imagination, press record and start. Capture everything. There is no 'wrong'. 

Try not to think about recording THE version of the song. Think about recording A version of the song. The biggest mistake I see in people new to recording is endless, slavish attempts to make something definitive. No-one cares about your vision. Perfection bores everybody. Record buyers want to hear unrepeatable moments, mistakes. You find this magic by recording everything, all the time and then editing hard.

I'm not advocating punk rock. You can make beautiful, pretty intricate things in this manner too, but we still want to hear the accidental.

Don't be scared of the red light. It’s just a light.

Here's the hardest thing though, finish it. Everyone starts things. Few finish. Houses everywhere are full of uncompleted songs, novels, poems and movies. Starting is easy, finishing is trickier.

In fact don't finish it. Just abandon it and give it to the world. If you did it with enthusiasm and bravery then it will be fine.

Let us hear it.

You have no excuses.

77 days til Christmas

YES!...

so now would appear to be an IDEAL time to get yourself an early Christmas present:

as all the singles from this year's singles club are now available to order, here's a smashing playlist featuring a track from each one:

wiaiwya-7777777 by wiaiwya

the bags have arrived

these are for subscribers, to keep all their HIT RECORDS in... it's a snug fit!

and you can still subscribe you know, just a couple left... seven exclusive 7" singles, all solid gold HITS, seven download codes, seven inserts, and seven unavailable elsewhere gifts, from Darren Hayman, Jeff Mellin, Hong Kong In The 60s, Sourpatch, Pups, Comet Gain and the Middle Ones!

to subscribe to wiaiwya-7777777 2013 (all seven 7" singles)

incl UK p&p £35.00 GBP incl EUR p&p £42.00 GBP incl US & ROW p&p £49.00 GBP

add 2012 membership number

all the singles

well, the rest of them are due to arrive with me this week, so i've uploaded a track from each of the singles to soundcloud for you to enjoy:

a mention of Darren's Old Man in today's Guardian

wiaiwya-7777777 release date - Darren Hayman and the Long Parliament

it's not too late to subscribe to the whole set of seven 7"es (Jeff Mellin, Hong Kong In The 60s, Darren Hayman, Sourpatch, Pups, Comet Gain and the Middle Ones) here:

to subscribe to wiaiwya-7777777 2013 (all seven 7" singles)

incl UK p&p £35.00 GBP incl EUR p&p £42.00 GBP incl US & ROW p&p £49.00 GBP

add 2012 membership number

the second batch

the second pair of singles from wiaiwya-7777777 2013 will be sent out next week - just packing everything up on the sunniest week of the year (so far)... that's exclusive singles from Darren Hayman and Sourpatch, along with an exclusive plectrum and beermat...

so if you haven't subscribed yet, now's the time... seven exclusive 7" singles, all solid gold HITS, seven download codes, seven inserts, and seven unavailable elsewhere gifts, from Darren Hayman, Jeff Mellin, Hong Kong In The 60s, Sourpatch, Pups, Comet Gain and the Middle Ones!

to subscribe to wiaiwya-7777777 2013 (all seven 7" singles)

incl UK p&p £35.00 GBP incl EUR p&p £42.00 GBP incl US & ROW p&p £49.00 GBP

add 2012 membership number

the beermats are HERE

yup... thanks very much to Tim at Half Pint Press, all subscribers to wiaiwya-7777777 will get one of the beer mats used in the video for Darren Hayman's Old Man:

Old Man beer mats - hand made by Half Pint Press

so get subscribing!

Culture Brats song of the day

yup, Darren's Old Man is Culture Brat's song of the day today, and you can get your copy here:

new video from Darren Hayman

here's the video we made while recording Darren's 7777777 single - Old Man... those nice chaps at the Quietus have mentioned it too
or subscribe to the whole set of seven 7"es (Jeff Mellin, Hong Kong In The 60s, Darren Hayman, Sourpatch, Pups, Comet Gain and the Middle Ones) here:

to subscribe to wiaiwya-7777777 2013 (all seven 7" singles)

incl UK p&p £35.00 GBP incl EUR p&p £42.00 GBP incl US & ROW p&p £49.00 GBP

add 2012 membership number

a pint of Old Man

Old Man Don't Waste Your Time

Credits for Darren's record

Darren Hayman single available for pre-order

oh, yes... the third single from wiaiwya-7777777 2013 (out May 7th) is by Darren Hayman... as he says himself:

 "just a proper normal song. That you can play air guitar to. Like what I used to make."

this is the b side... just wait til you hear Old Man...

numbering Darren's records

777 records, numbered in violet:

additional insert for Darren's single

we've gone and done another insert for the Darren Hayman record, a photo taken on a miserable morning in Canvey Island:

Darren's singles have arrived too

so that's going to be a busy week numbering and packing for me:

Labels for Darren's single

yup, a nice shade of violet (well, two shades of violet)...

Darren Hayman masters have been sent off

the third single of wiaiwya-7777777 are on their way to manufacture too... that's 2 brand new Darren Hayman tracks - you're going to love them...