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ABOUT
PETER & KERRY - 'Clothes, Friends, Photos' is the forthcoming collaboration between Peter Lyons and Kerry Leatham, out March 21st 2011 on Tape Club Records.
This 6-track E.P was completed over a few days in the summer of 2010, and was written, recorded and co-produced by London based artists Peter and Kerry at Peter's family home in Southampton, UK.
'Clothes, Friends, Photos’ is an atmospheric and eclectic EP that reflects the tastes and styles of two very different artists, but ends up sounding like neither. Both were indeed keen to capture the environment of the bedroom in which they recorded the songs. The result is a unique and creative collection of material, which you sense could only have come about in that place and at that time.
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RECORDING
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SEE
- March 27th - Electricity Showrooms, London (with Laurel Collective).PAST GIGS:
February 9th - Amazing Radio/Club Fandango, Bull & Gate, London.
January 11th - Music Week Breakout, Proud, London.December 14th - Corsica Studios, London (BBC6's Tom Ravenscroft curates)November 30th - Railway Inn, Winchester.November 26th - Tin Pan Alley, Colchester.November 23rd - Studio Private, London (with Lianne La Havas).November 22nd - The Social, London (with Monument Valley).November 20th - St Philips Church, Salford (with Lianne La Havas).November 19th - Thekla, Bristol (with Lianne La Havas).October 13th - Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen, London (with Kyla La Grange).September 7th - Pop, Southampton.
September 3rd - In The Woods Festival, Kent. Hosted by The Laurel Collective.
August 25th - SpineTV 'Stolen Moments' launch, Cafe Oto, London.
August 14th - Lucy Rose's Sunday Social, Old Queens Head, London, N1.
August 11th - Servant Jazz Quarters, London, E8.
August 5th - Knee Deep Festival, Cornwall.
July 13th - Station Sessions, St Pancras Station, London, NW1.
June 15th - Strongrooms, London, EC2A.
June 13th - The Slaughtered Lamb, London, EC1.
June 4th - Ejector Seat Arts Festival, Southampton.
May 16th - CAMP Basement, London, EC1.
May 5th - 229, London, W1.
April 26th - The Social, London, W1.
March 16th - The Hanbury Ballrooms, Brighton, BN2.
March 3rd - The Elgin, London, W11.
February 21st - The Slaughtered Lamb, London, EC1.
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WATCH
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TEASE
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CROON
- CLOTHES, FRIENDS, PHOTOS
I know that I have got to let you go.
Because I feel like I'm Ted Hughes and you're Sylvia, and I'm dragging you down.
Because I put on love songs, and you put on break-up songs.
And if I kiss someone new, will you just say "don't worry."
Maybe you're just letting me go like a mother letting their baby fall asleep.
You know like when you understand that you've got to do something you do not want to do.
Like I know that I have got to let you go.
This means I'll have to sell off all my clothes,
And find me some new friends that you don't know,
Forget about the things that you had said,
And stop eating food the way it was prepared.
This means I'll take some photos off my wall,
That is all, that is all, that is all.
But how can I really say how I feel when I've sworn not to say that I love you in song?
I need to find a better way of saying that we've been through whole wardrobe changes together,
Or maybe I'll say our skin cells died and over five years we grew back as new people,
But I've sworn not to say that I love you in song.
HALF EMPTY
Create the atmosphere.
Burn a candle, light some incense,
Take a seat at my desk.
Put on some thinking music.
Like Casiotone For The Painfully Alone.
Why won't the light shine in my head?
Why won't the words fall from my brain?
Rush down my arm and out through the pen to paper anymore?
Why won't the light shine in my head?
OH, NO
No, what have I done?
I don't know.
I don't know anymore.
THE SHADOWS
Relax my hands on the table.
Uncurl my fingers to reveal superficial indentations.
Crescent moon shapes mark the surface of my palms,
It's twilight: your shadows lurking over again.
Try to hinder foolish pride
From shooting out my mouth like a gust of wind
And blowing out your light.
All I want is you to shine.
And I'll wait here with you until sunrise.
I am blinded by your light,
Your dark shadows always lurking behind you.
And I'll wait here with you until sunrise.
KNEES
This can't just be a chemical,
From now any other pain is bearable,
And I feel as if I'm skidding like Somerset House skating.
Like when you need to puke,
And you're feeling so weak,
You're on the floor folded on your knees.
I mean:
You had me on my knees.
This can't just be a chemical,
From now any other pain is bearable,
And I feel as if I'm skidding like Somerset House skating.
And maybe sending just one 'X'
Is my new goodbye-for-life text,
And trying to think just what is next:
You've got me on the floor again.
All I can picture is held hands coming apart.
CRASH AND BURN
I want my memory back,
I'm tired of drinking it away.
I want fluidity.
I'm exhausted trying to write this story when I can't see.
Some don't mind waking up in strange places;
I like the feeling of my bed.
Every corner, dip, creak tells a story I'm familiar with,
And i find solace and comfort in that.
I want my memory back,
I'm tired of drinking it away.
I want fluidity.
I'm exhausted trying to write this story when I can't see.
What you put in is what you get out.
The toxins in my body are poisoning my head.
Giving me false senses of security.
You're not my bodyguard, and if I'm not careful you'll make me crash and burn.
I want my memory back,
I'm tired of drinking it away.
I want fluidity.
I'm exhausted trying to write this story when I can't see.
THE SUMMER HOUSE SONG
It's 4am, and September.
And I feel like I'm five years of age,
As I sit here I anticipate.
I hope it's not trite to say:
It makes me feel like it's Christmas Eve.
It's 8am, and September.
And I shouldn't be, but I'm freezing,
But something is close to happening.
I hope it's not trite to say:
It makes me feel like it's Christmas Eve.
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READ
- Peter:
HALF EMPTY
Kerry showed me her demo of this at about 5am one night in July 2010, and I pretty much melted straight away. In fact, I nearly cried. Hearing that first demo now instantly takes me back to sitting there listening to it in her room, jealous as hell.
This was the second track we did of the E.P sessions at my Dad's house - we started it straight after we finished Knees on Thursday 12th August, and finished it on the Friday. Kerry played ukuleles, toy piano, drums and did vocals. I did glockenspiel, keyboards, bass, drums and vocals.
Something I still find really nice about this track was that on the Friday I woke Kerry up at 10am with two cups of tea and we both wanted to instantly turn on the computer to listen to what we'd done the day before (Knees and half of this track). We started to listen to this, I picked up a keyboard and we carried on recording the track straight away with a breakfast-less Kerry still in her pyjamas, and finished it by 2pm.
THE SHADOWS
Throughout May, me and Kerry were in the studio where I worked at the time to record a new track of hers - she chose this one. Nice recording evenings with lots of pitta and houmous involved. She played acoustic guitar, keyboard, percussion and sang. I played banjo, glockenspiel and keyboard.
We intended to work on this song over the E.P sessions, but my laptop charger had died, so there was no way of getting what we'd done so far onto my studio computer. We thought about leaving it off the E.P, but when we got back to London we recorded bass (played by our manager, Will), lots and lots of new drum tracks and even more vocal tracks (including some shouting parts that nearly made me faint, and that I seem to remember made Will, sitting in the next room, a little concerned).
I remember us wanting to make the ending sound like a more folky Flying Lotus; I have no idea if this worked or not.
KNEES
We started this as soon as we got to my Dad's place in Southampton on the Thursday - and I mean literally as soon as we put our bags down and made a cup of tea. I guess I was just too excited to record to give Kerry a tour of the house or any other niceties like that. We played the piano parts simultaneously. After recording piano, we recorded drums simultaneously too, and then Kerry played some one-handed electric guitar parts which we put through the Space Echo (I thought I was being super clever at this point with the one-handed guitar). I quickly recorded some simple toy keyboard and electric bass parts, we did some shaker shaking, and then started the vocals (of which there are over thirty tracks). We finished it super, super quick and then celebrated our first completed track with some crackers, brie and spiced rum. We then started on Half Empty.
CRASH AND BURN
We started this on the Friday evening when Will and our good friend Prokopi (www.itdrewitself.com) came down to visit. This was a track we did because another wasn't working - from a pure selfish point of view, I couldn't be happier that we chose to do this one instead.
We started by recording some electric guitar (Kerry) and toy-keyboard drum parts (me) - after a bit of alcohol this was proving pretty difficult. All four of us then did some hand claps and other percussion bits, and that was it for the evening (we went out, I missed the world's easiest pool shot and me and Kerry danced to 80's songs.)
The next day we cooked some breakfast, Pro took some photos and we carried on recording the track. Kerry recorded the E.P's funkiest bass part, Will taught us the physics of audio frequencies, I programmed some casio beats, we both recorded some simple drum parts and then did the vocals (which we put through the Space Echo). I remember Kerry saying she wanted the vocal bridge before the last chorus to sound like Deacon Blue - which may or may not have had something to do with the copious amount of 80's music we'd consumed the night before.
We finished this one pretty swiftly too - and then afterwards sat on my bed and listened to the E.P as a whole about 10 times through.
THE SUMMER HOUSE SONG
In September 2010, a few of us from Tape Club went to stay in a rented cottage in Devon for a week, doing some recording and dancing in the kitchen a lot.
Me and Kerry were usually the last ones up over the week and one night we decided to write a song together in the summer house, and came up with this. We spent the next night recording it in the living room of the cottage after everyone went to bed, and recorded the vocals when we got back to London.
The first instruments we recorded were the acoustic guitar and banjo parts, which we played simultaneously. The song initially had a 30 second intro of us trying to start the song but repeatedly getting it wrong, which I kinda liked.
ONE THING
Kerry and I have been big, big fans of the Amerie track for a long time. We were sat at her dinner table one night in February with a guitar and toy piano when we started to improvise a much softer, slower take on the original, and it all just seemed to fit. We then recorded the track a couple of weeks later in her flat, which we then gave to our good friend Stan Gabriel to mix and polish up. It will be released this summer.
Something to listen out for in this recording is Kerry's use of a china bowl as percussion. This came about purely by accident: we were enjoying a nice serving of soya yoghurt whilst recording, Kerry's spoon accidentally knocked the bowl, we both instantly looked at each other as we realised that the sound of the bowl was in the same key as the song, and recorded it straight away.
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NOTE
- 17th October 2011
It's been a little while since we told you of our goings on, so we thought it's about time to fill you in.
We have been beavering away behind the scenes writing new songs for our up and coming debut album, of which we currently have around 16 new tracks to choose from! We're both pretty excited about incorporating them into our live set too.
The next step is to get them recorded properly and sounding nice, which is probably the part we are most looking forward to. We have managed to rope in our amazing drummer Emily Dolan Davies, wonderful guitarist Alistair Mackenzie and incredible bassist Al Green to play for us on the album, which is great news.
And lastly thank you to everybody who came to support us last Thursday at The Hoxton Bar and Kitchen. We had the most wonderful time supporting the brilliant Kyla La Grange. We think it was our most enjoyable gig to date - we tried out a couple of new tracks with our new band line up which includes:
Peter and Myself (obviously)
Emily Dolan Davies - Drums;
Matthew Giraudeau - Keyboard/drum pad/floor tom;
Alistair Mackenzie - Guitars/banjo;
Al Green - Bass;
So with this new gang we are definitely sounding a lot bigger than we used to - we've even got five-part harmonies on a couple of songs which is lovely to try out. We're both looking forward to playing plenty more shows in the near future.
Take care now!
P&K x20th August 2011
Wow. We really have been slack in maintaining this part of our humble website. It's been a good four months or so since we wrote here, hopefully that means there's been lots going on.
We went to France one week in May to start writing our debut album. We drank a lot of wine, ate a lot of cheese and wrote a lot of new songs!
June and July were spent doing a few nice little gigs, refining our new songs and also working on our solo projects.
In early August we played a lovely little festival alongside our label mates, the Laurel Collective. We all had a great time and managed to include some of our new songs, which seemed to go down well. We then played a couple of lovely shows with the excellent Monument Valley and Lucy Rose, and are now continuing to work on our new songs.
Lastly - we cannot wait for In The Woods festival in early September - it's going to be great.
P&K x
28th April 2011
Okay, so we've been pretty slack in maintaining this portion of the website. Hopefully this just means that we've been really busy with the music!
We've been recording and mixing our cover of Amerie's One Thing, which is going to be dropped later on in the year. We also filmed a lovely performance video for it with Tim Bowditch and Jonathan Gales, two amazing film and photography people.
We're also starting the writing process for our first full length album. Both of us are still getting stupid excited about production ideas, and are trying hard not to fall into familiar patterns when writing our new stuff.
We had the absolute pleasure of releasing two very special remixes of our track Knees recently, by two incredibly talented London based artists Tommy Tempa and Raisa Khan. Both completely reworked the original, and we love the results. Tommy's is a soft, organic beat that you can bounce to; whilst Raisa's is a lush soundscape that reminds us of early cLOUDDEAD. You can listen to both on the Tape Club Records Soundcloud.
We've also welcomed a new member, Alistair, to the Peter & Kerry live band. Alistair will be joining up with Emily, Arthur and the two of us, and will be playing banjo, guitars, ukulele and singing harmonies with us from now on - meaning that we're both free to roam around the stage with just a microphone in our hand. (Peter - which almost certainly is a result of watching Bob and Martin from Laurel Collective.)
We'd also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has bought the EP and came to see us live. We'd also like to the radio DJs who are playing our music, and everyone else involved. We've got some more gigs and festival slots to announce shortly too.
P&K x
18th March 2011
So, we thought it'd be pretty swell to have a section on here where we can bore you with what we've been upto, what we've got coming up and just generally what's running through our head...
We had our EP launch last month at The Slaughtered Lamb, a lovely little venue in Clerkenwell. We were incredibly lucky to have some amazing artists play with us - Lianne La Havas, Dogtanion and Lucy Rose, who were all really great. We also played a wonderful gig with the splendid Hannah Peel a couple of days ago in Brighton (Peter - blighted only by a rather strange decision by myself to absolutely howl a line of 'Half Empty' at the top of my voice, and way beyond my vocal range - for which I apologise. It was one of those "I immediately regret this and hope no one noticed" type affairs.) If anyone from either audience is reading this, you were lovely and we hope to see you again soon.
We've got two new musicians playing with us - Emily, our new drummer (emilydrums.com); and Arthur, our new bass player. We're really loving playing with these guys - they've become a real solid base to the band.
We've got some really cool stuff coming up in the summer - firstly, we're being sent away to start working on our first full-length collaboration in a secluded cottage. We've started to write some bits and pieces for it - but mostly we're finding ourselves just getting together production ideas and giggling with excitement about the scale of the project. I think we both work in an unusual way, in that sometimes we hear a musical/production style or group of instruments in our head before we write anything at all...
We've also got some really nice festival slots to announce shortly; special tracks to give away; stunning remixes by other artists to drop; and more gigs to play.
For the time being, we're both really excited about the E.P that's coming out in three days - is it ridiculously cheesy to say that we hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed making it? Well, we've said it already.
P&K x
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Posts
SUSPEND MAG.
The lovely folks at Suspend Mag did a feature on us for their first full digital issue. You can watch the video and read the whole article here. The wonderful video/photography is courtesy of Miles Langley.
VOCALS.
Hello all, here’s a very brief update on the last couple of weeks.
We’ve basically been recording our album at a lovely little studio called Press Play! And we’ve pretty much finished said album too - just a few more backing vocals here and there, a good mix of the whole thing then it’s artwork time!
Both of us are unbelievably excited about finally having a finished piece of work. We had a few minor (major) setbacks which only makes completing this album all the more satisfying!
Anyway, here are a couple of photos from the studio.
Speak soon.
P&K
P.S., photos by Miles Langley.
HAPPY NEW YEAR.
Hello all! We thought it about time to write another short message - firstly, to say happy new year, and secondly, a massive thank you to everyone who supported us last year. We’re really looking forward to playing and recording more music this year - can’t wait to get started!
Here’s some more photos of us in the studio recording some Moog synthesiser by the wonderful Miles Langley.
LIANNE LA HAVAS.
Between recording sessions, rehearsals, gigs, filming and other musical tidbits, we were asked by good friend Lianne La Havas to be the support for her mini tour in late November. We played with her in Bristol, Manchester and London, and her crowds were absolutely lovely. The three of us learnt some new fancy footwork in Bristol, and also managed to annoy the hell out of the crew by singing 90’s power ballads at the top of our voices on the long journeys. If there’s anything else to do when you’re stuck in a mini-van for hours, I don’t wanna know about it. Thanks to Arash Fatehi for the lovely photos.
MORE GUITAR / VOCALS.
We’ve been busy beavering away in Strongroom Studios recording some more guitar and synthesiser bass parts for the new album. Our good friend Al has been engineering the sessions again and making sure that it all sounds delicious. We’ve been recording some vocal parts in our drummer Emily’s lovely home studio setup too - things are taking shape pretty swiftly.
Yet again, all photos by Miles Langley.
BASS.
So recently we’ve been lucky enough to be given some time at Strongroom Studios with our bass player Al Green. He engineered the sessions and then bulldozed his way through seven bass parts in a couple of evenings, leaving time for some synthesized bass too. He made it sound absolutely stunning, technically and musically. We really cannot stress how utterly amazing it was to be there.
GUITAR.
We spent Tuesday with our guitarist Alistair making a start on fleshing out our new songs. We used his beautiful guitar and tiny Fender amp going through a Space Echo 301 - it sounds loverly.
Again, all photos by Miles Langley.
DRUMS.
Hey hey! The debut Peter And Kerry album is finally underway! We’ve been recording drums the last few days with our lovely drummer Emily and engineer Colm Ennis at Press Play Studios. We also found some scrap metal next door to use on the album - we’ve been adding layers and layers of it on top of Emily’s drums.
All photos by Miles Langley.
ONE THING.
Hey there folks! Our lovely label Tape Club Records have released our cover of Amerie’s One Thing as a free download through Soundcloud. You can also watch a video here, courtesy of the wonderful Tim Bowditch, Jonathan Gales and Matthew Giraudeau. Enjoy!
WORDS.
We are currently sat in our pyjamas at Kerry’s family home writing and recording lyrics for our new songs. And yes, that is a homemade pop shield made from an old pair of yellow tights. We seem to be swearing a lot in our songs at the moment.
TEARDROPS.
Just thought we’d put up a link to a live video we did with the incredibly talented Miles Langley. It’s a cover of one of our favourites, ‘Teardrops’ by Womack & Womack. You can watch it here.
We’ve also been recording demos the last couple of days, and we’re incredibly excited about our latest song. Hopefully we’ll be able to play it at our next gig in Hoxton with Kyla La Grange on October 13th.
P&K x
DINOSAUR.
Hey team.
This is us rehearsing for a gig in Southampton tonight / writing new material along the way. Maybe we should record our whole album in dinosaur kigu’s?
P&K x
WELCOME.
Welcome to the new Peter & Kerry Tumblr page. Here we will be posting up photos of recent activities. We are currently writing and recording new material for our forthcoming debut full-length album.
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Tweets
- A year ago today was our debut EP launch ♥Feb 21, 12 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- @milesnz @TapeClubRecords so are we!
- @tom_ravenscroft Oh noooo!! That happened to us halfway through making our album... I feel your pain.
- POST ALBUM CELEBRATIONS, WITH ANIMAL COSTUMES. http://t.co/4Al2MezHFeb 20, 12 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- @matthewkilford Lovely to meet you too! hope to see you again. P&K
- the wonderful @suspendmag & @milesnz did a feature on us for their first full issue. thanks so much guys! read it here http://t.co/ILdZBhACFeb 16, 12 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- Read about Kerry's love for Chris Isaak here: http://t.co/IlkHJDVSFeb 16, 12 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- @itdrewitself it makes you a modern day hero, is what it does.
- @Molly_McQueen @Cherissedrums @gabriellecdolan @PhilDavies1 @Emilydrums @hannah_1989 Best Sunday ever!
- @JemimaMchugh ah amazing! :)
- Pete & I just tried to glue my shoes and ended up supergluing our trousers to our thighs. Ps Pete just said 'bended' - think he meant 'bent'
- @dogtanionmusic nooooooooo!!!!! :(
- @Lesluhhftw okay! if you can lend us some $ we'll be there :)
- @nedMONVALLEY was lovely seeing you again! let's hook up soon. x
- @dearlucy @amazingradio wow thanks!!! i wish we could play gigs every day!
- @Emilydrums get one get one get one! I've just been watching cat videos!
- @amazingradio @wearefractures @BUIL_DINGS @matthewkilford thanks very much for having us! was nice to meet you all.
- @Shhhewitt thanks very much! :)
- Lovely crowd last night in Kentish Town - thanks very much for watching!Feb 10, 12 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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WRITE
- Management:Will@tapeclubrecords.comKwame@atcmanagement.comPress:Peter@partisanpr.com
