Monday 4 February 2013

Fletcher Debut Album Upon Ayr available March, 2013 Melbourne and Sydney shows announced



Upon Ayr, the debut album by Fletcher, is a compelling, storytelling record that opens with an ode to the sadness of Jack Kerouac's legacy, closes with the creak of the foot driven mechanical pump of an 1840s western Harmonium and paints scenes of Polynesian whale myths, a 1920s synchronised swimming mermaid's dream and the death throes of a love affair.

Written and produced by Fletcher, Upon Ayr was recorded in Sydney (‘stolen’ studio time in a university), London (his bathroom and Urchin Studios) and Stockholm (Decibel Studios), with the record mastered in Berlin. Written over two years, while Fletcher was on tour playing bass, guitar and keyboards with friend and fellow Australian artist Sarah Blasko (who features on backing vocals), this is the multi-instrumentalist’s first album.

Signed direct to UK label Dramatico, Fletcher’s debut album will be released in Australia in March ahead of the UK release in April 2013.

First single, Don't Breathe A Word is a meditation on the death of a relationship.  “Near the end when all love is lost and you start to become someone you aren't and say things you don't mean to survive the fall out… The end of a love affair is a cold dark place,” says Fletcher of the track.  Don’t Breathe A Word will be serviced to Australian radio on Tuesday 19 February.

Currently performing with Sarah Blasko on her national tour, Fletcher will perform two intimate shows at the Workers Club in Melbourne on Sunday 17th March and the Vanguard in Sydney on Wednesday 27th March.

A founding member of Bluebottle Kiss and, later, The Devoted Few, Fletcher joined Blasko’s band in 2005, moving to London in 2010 to continue touring Europe and the US with her. This time on the road proved to be the perfect environment for Fletcher to write this collection of pictorial tales in what has been, as he explains, a natural and surprisingly simple process:

What you're listening to is demos; fleshed out demos. Throughout 2010 I was on a world tour with the beautiful, Australian singer Sarah Blasko. We played almost 200 shows that year and most of the songs on this record were written during that period. They developed in sound checks, in band rooms, in hotels, on trains, in vans, or humming into iPhones. In early 2011, while still on tour with Sarah in Australia, I got together with two of my mates to sneak into a university studio where a friend of ours had been studying musicology. Our friend's course had finished months ago but he still had the keycard and security code that opened the doors to the studio. We snuck in around 11pm and would record all night till 4am or 5am, turning off the lights and hiding every 2 hours while the security guard cruised by. We did this for three nights and I recorded the guitar and vocals for around 14 songs.

2011 saw more touring and a little more writing. I recorded more songs in London, this time in my bathroom, two of which (Here Stands The Broken & Swim Through The Mouth Of The Whale) ended up on this album. I thought these and my Uni studio sessions would just be demos, but they sounded pretty good and everyone I played them to said, you should use them as your album. So I did.

Not to say I recorded this whole album in the shower. These songs needed a little more rhythm and pulse, so when I finally got off tour in early 2012 I went into Decibel Studios in a snowy Stockholm to record some extra bits, including bass, drums and the amazing voice of one of my best friends: Sarah Blasko.

I brought my album back to London to mix at Urchin Studios in May 2012, and there you have it. Simple and easy, like I've always wanted but never fully achieved in my past recordings. Most of what you hear is first take, all the vocals were done either in a bathroom on a borrowed mic that would sometimes electrocute my lips, or in a little wooden room I had to hunch to fit into. I've always felt like I've been guilty of over thinking my recordings but this all happened without me even realising it.

You're hearing the first album from me as Fletcher. Upon Ayr is the album title - a nod to one of first recorded uses in the UK of the name Fletcher, in a little southeastern town of Scotland, Ayr.

Enjoy,
Fletcher
FLETCHER – TOUR DATES

Sunday 17th March 2013- The Workers Club, Melbourne VIC
Tickets: $8.00 (GST inc) + BF on presales & $12.00 (GST inc) on the door
Tickets available through The Workers Club / Corner Hotel Box Office - (03) 9427 9198 / www.theworkersclub.com.au

Wednesday 27th March 2013 - The Vanguard, Sydney NSW
Tickets: $8.00 (GST inc) + BF on presales & $12.00 (GST inc) on the door
Tickets available through The Vanguard - (02) 9020 6959 / www.thevanguard.com.au

Filmmaker Finalists of Tropfest and Trop Jr 2013 Revealed!




Tropfest announces the finalists for the world’s largest short film festival on Tuesday 5th Feb 2013. Australian Logie award-winning actor Rob Carlton will announce the finalist directors of both Tropfest Australia and Trop Jr films.

Tropfest 2013 is set to be the biggest and best event to date, celebrating 21 years as Australia’s most prestigious short film festival and one of our most iconic cultural occasions, attracting around 150,000 attendees!

The finalist films will be screened on Sunday the 17th February 2012 from 7:30pm.
The films will be premiered to hundreds of thousands of Australians at live sites across the nation including: Melbourne, Canberra, Perth, Wollongong, Surfers Paradise, Hobart and of course the main event at The Domain in Sydney.