Blog
Happy Christmas and New Year
As I write this final blog of 2010 in front of a roaring fire and next to a pile of letters to Santa, Justin is hanging his stocking on the tree and Tom is already sipping his second pint of Egg Nog. We have been working hard in my studio recently putting our new album together and it's time now to kick back for the festive period.
We'd like to thank everyone who has helped, supported, made things possible and listened to us this year. It's been a very eventful year, we've not only had the privilege of playing many festivals and touring the UK, Europe and America, we also released our debut album 'Methods'. We are very proud of it and have enjoyed watching the reactions of people we have shared it with.
We're now looking forward to what 2011 has in store and are very excited to finish our next full length record for you all to hear. It is shaping up to be an amazing record.
Here's a Spotify playlist of Christmas songs to get you all in the mood for Christmas.
http://open.spotify.com/user/craigpilbin/playlist/4PDfF8C0PzDoEZWQxrKlfE
Have a White (Belt) Christmas and great New Year, see you in 2011.
Craig
Howdy from camp White Belt,
We have pulled together a little video from our CMJ trip of us performing an acoustic track. It was filmed in Washington Square just after we had been to pick up our delegate passes (we never managed to find the free bar the whole time we were there!). Anyway, we were filmed for Aux TV, check out the site here...
http://www.aux.tv/
And here's our video from the park...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A_e8ik8kew
It's been an awesome week this week, in between writing songs I took a break to make a stop motion music video for my friends band Tomahawks for Targets. They're a cool band, you should check them out. A whole 3000 pictures later and here it is...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FI4a7U2XQg&feature=player_embedded
Have fun in the snow if you get some this week.
Craig
Good news everybody
We've been discussing dates to get into the big boy studio to start recording the new album! I had a listen through the record so far and it already sounds immense, working titled songs 'the volcano' and 'first to die' being my current most listened to.
It's got to have been the coldest week of the year so far up here and I hate the cold. Summer in Newcastle is great, there are plenty of parks and beaches around to hangout and have BBQ's in but the winter months are a bitch.
I'm one of those people who doesn't like being defeated by the cold and will protest to wear as many jumpers as I own. This week I even pulled out my scarf and have still been unlucky enough to contract my third cold in as many months!! It could be 'man flu' or a real cold, I'm not too sure of the difference. So I've finally given into the central heating and flipped the launch button, we're burning at a tropical 25 degrees.
This in effect has slightly interrupted my writing process, sneezing between takes. So I've taken to 'getting myself better' with the help of Heinz and Tesco's own cold and flu capsules. To relieve the boredom of the getting better process, it's been a media fueled week, bringing back classics from my DVD collection such as 'Days of Thunder' and 'Caddyshack'.
I hope your all wrapped up warm!
Craig
Tap into America
Back into the swing of things after our awesome trip, working hard in my demo studio on new songs. The days seem to blend into one while I'm in my little world writing. They are sounding immense, I am very excited and looking forward to recording them in the big boy studio. You've probably seen all the nice reviews from our America trip but here's one that you might not have seen, it's our interview with Exploding in Sound
Other great news is that after our successful trip to America, Musebox will be putting our EP out over there in January. More details to follow.
With Halloween now over, the fancy dress costumes can be put away for another year. My flat mate Dave always puts so much effort into his costume and this year went as the 'Black Knight' from 'The Holy Grail'.
That's commitment. I hope you had a good one.
Craig
WBYT CMJ NYC
Exhaustion and jetlag aside it’s hard to disguise our massive grins after our 3 shows at CMJ. We’ve made so many new friends at our shows and to each and every one of you we want to thank you for coming, seeing us and hanging out and reminding us why we loved New York so much last time and we loved it even more this time.
Before we get too detailed in our reports from across the Atlantic (you’ve got plenty of treats to come trust me) we have compiled a list of highlights or reasons to visit New York especially if you’re in a band.
1. Everyone we seemed to encounter was so polite, appreciative and really passionate about great music
2. Epsteins again for their cheesesteak still bewitching our taste buds
3. The lower east side for being the best neighbourhood. Our home in NYC official!
4. Off Soho Suites and Direct Loft for making our stay so comfortable and exhibiting their ‘how can we help make life easier for you’ attitude.
5. The Musebox, Magnum PR and BMI for being such a support in helping make this trip a success.
6. The Central Park rollerdisco massive for their good clean fun. Especially you ‘Dreyfuss’
7. Blue Moon for keeping us lubricated
8. In jokes that are still funny… To us at least!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO3jaoLeB..h0
9. Hot dog stands for food on the go
10. Williamsburg bridge for the best skyline view I’ve ever seen.
To view these pictures and loads more visit our Flickr site
http://www.flickr.com/photos/whitebeltyellowtag/sets/72157625255534484/'A short history of the last week'
With only 1 week to go until we head off to the infamous CMJ music extravaganza, we are all very excited here at White Belt HQ. The writing is flowing comfortably for the next album and even with the lack of time to read over the past month I've just finished revisiting Bill Bryson's 'A short history of nearly everything'. I recommend this to anyone who hasn't read it. The chapter on mold is a little tough but once your through that it's plain sailing.
Check out these links for the build up to our New York shows.
A lovely BMI write up:
http://bmi.com/news/entry/549417
More Radioplay on East Village Radio:
http://www.eastvillageradio.com/shows/playlists.aspx?contentid=1266&showid=67266&list=23574
And a nice CMJ Preview:
http://top40-charts.com/news.php?nid=59752
As part of our little 30 years of CMJ trilogy, I have put together part 2 of the Spotify playlist we started a few weeks ago. Check it out, I'm sure there are songs on there you'd love or haven't discovered yet...
10 great acts from the past to have played CMJ:
http://open.spotify.com/user/craigpilbin/playlist/541QfSt6Wnd5C40rBOwG7M
Craig
Yorkshire Tea and Mars Duo's
It's been another long week working in the studio and I'm loving it. Fueled by Yorkshire Tea and Mars Duo's the album is shaping up very nicely. I had planned to put a short studio film/diary together but I've just been snowed under with writing the album. I hope to get round to it in the next week or so.
Exciting news, the flights are now booked for our CMJ show cases over in New York. We head out on October 19th and are playing Bar Matchless in Brooklyn on the 20th and an afternoon show at Bowery Electric in NYC on the 22nd.
If your at CMJ this year, come see the shows and share a beer or two with us.
Craig
WBYT DOT COM
Today we launch our new website www.whitebeltyellowtag.com. The site is quite primitive, the content will be updated with live shows and stuff to buy as and when, there's the blog and the banner is the music player we hope you enjoy it.
Also if you haven't, please join us on:
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/whitebeltyellowtag?ref=ts
Twitter: http://twitter.com/WBYT
Mailing List: http://wbyt.fanbridge.com/
We've been kicking ass in the studio this week and have pulled another few demos together that sound mint. We're really excited about the next record and can't wait to show you guys, but you will have to be patient.
It turns out that my new shop keeper is an idiot. One of the things that I hope for when I move house, which seems to be every year at the moment, is a good old friendly shop keep. I've had many over the years, Sid being a personal favorite. The shop keep is the corner stone of the community, someone to brighten your day with a quip and the same old comfortable small talk as you shop for the over priced essentials. My new shop keep... the moodiest person I've ever met, it's been 2 weeks and i already hate the guy. There wasn't even a look in the eye as I spent my hard earned cash on some, possibly out of date coffee the other day. I mean, the art of being a good shop keeper is to make people feel like their not being ripped off, as they leave the shop. The people who work in the video shop across the road on the other hand, are really nice.
For some unknown reason I had a massive craving to get Ghostbusters 2 out this week. I've got Ghostbusters on DVD, but not 2 and I'm a huge Bill Murray fan. They didn't have it. Can you call yourself a video shop if you don't stock Ghostbusters 2? I also found out that you can spend about an hour in a video shop and not even realise, I spent 45 minutes trying to fulfill the craving and in keeping with the theme settled on the frighteners. Ghosts, comedy and Michael J Fox. Winner.
Craig
Coming to America Part 2.0
While dying of man flu this week, complaining to everyone I come into contact with and generally feeling sorry for myself, we received some pretty brill news. We've been invited back out to New York next month to play two shows at the CMJ Music Marathon, we'll be giving you the details of these in the coming weeks. To celebrate 30 years of CMJ Music Marathon we have chosen 30 tracks that encapsulate the history of the event and formed them into playlists on Spotify. The first part of the trilogy is up now here ....
10 great current bands to have played CMJ
The trip has been on the cards for a little while but we didn't want to jinx it before our flights and accommodation we're booked. We're all really excited about heading back to New York. Last time we were there we had a fantastic time as you can read from Justin's Blog here ...
Coming To America Part 1.0
I used our last trip to the big apple as a way of breaking in my new video camera I've pooled together some footage to give you a taste of WBYT in NYC ....
We've been busy beavering away in the studio this week and regardless of the fact I'm obviously inflicted with a hideous flu (not meaning to keep mentioning it but the fact I can't taste anything drives me mad), we have finished 2 more new tracks for the next record. They sound amazing for demos and are a little darker than our last record, maybe due to listening to Portishead 'Third' on vinyl all week. The Rip is such a mint tune.
Craig
Super ace wicked blog
I've been itching to record an acoustic version of Remains from our first album Methods for a while. I didn't however just want to knock down an acoustic version, I wanted to reinterpret it almost as a new track. So this week I decided as I was already in the studio that I would lay it down. I've uploaded it to our mailing list to give away to all you people that sign up here:
http://wbyt.fanbridge.com/
If you're having trouble, click here:
http://fburls.com/44-DrosO63M
It's a strangle life that of a musician. It's kind of like a drag race, you wait around all day, then you get the green light and it's all go for less than a fraction of the time you were waiting round in the first place. It's a crazy but addictive life style. Sometimes writing songs can be much the same, I played around with a bunch of ideas this week then suddenly 2 really great demos came out in about an hour! Using our unique filing system they have the working titles, "Super ace wicked beans" and "Mega awesome mint tune". This can get quite confusing later on when there's 20 tracks, and we have to explain which tracks are which to someone mixing it. I feel for Chris Potter mixing the last record, how he managed to decipher one track from another i'll never know.
So, the internet has finally arrived at Chez Pilbin. After calling tech support to get it all switched on, it didn't work and their only response to fix the problem was, "Can you pull out the power, leave it 10 seconds then plug it back in." Does this work?? The following day a tech guy came over... pressed some secret launch button, working. I kind of thought that as soon as I'm back online I'd forget about playing the old vinyl and log back into my spotify account, but I've grown attached to these few LP's now. Besides, there aren't any adverts in between. I've had The Doors (best of) on a lot this week that I must have picked up from some jumble sale at some point.
We have also sorted out our official Facebook page, like it, comment it or just have a look here:
http://www.facebook.com/whitebeltyellowtag
CraigNew house, new record
It's got to have been one of the most chaotic 2 weeks I've had in recent times. Rounding up an amazing festival season where we played The Great Escape, T in the Park, Latitude, Les Ardentes, among others by playing V Festival, where we got to see our most anticipated show of the summer 'Air' at the Chelmsford site. Ridiculously they played to no more than a few hundred punters, what's wrong with people these days!
Once back from V, I had a day to pack before heading out to gay Paris for a few days holiday. It was wonderful, my highlight was eating Croque Monsieur up The Eiffel Tower and if you've never been you should definitely head to The Catacombs underneath the city where you walk for about a mile surrounded by piles of skulls and bones which is quite an eerie experience!
Although it provided a much needed break it wasn't the greatest of timing as I actually needed to be moving house at the time. So on my return from gay Paris I had to get straight on gum tree, 48 hours before I was to be kicked out of my house. Not stressful at all! Anyway, house found, moved in, thank you gum tree!
I called to get my new house connected up to the Internet and logged back into my spotify account. Expecting a few days for installation after a nominal fee of 25 big ones, but no. Turns out it will be a few weeks without the Internet. I don't own a tv and I have about a thousand CDs that I keep in a massive box without owning a cd player. The only entertainment I'm going to have over the next few weeks will be my turn table and my very limited collection of vinyl. This could be a little inspirationally restrictive, considering I'm also about to start writing our second album.
Anyway, new house means I have a nice big demo studio room to write in, I'll be spending a load of time writing and roughly recording song ideas over the next few weeks for what will become the second album. When Justin and I first started writing together we weren't White Belt Yellow Tag just two guys with some song ideas and so much has happened since then. From writing and recording the album, signing record and publishing deals, releasing records, touring around the UK, Europe and US, playing festivals, to hearing our records played on the radio so as a consequence I'm approaching the writing of this record from an entirely different head space from where the first album stemmed from. Whilst writing Methods I had no frame of reference for that experience and just immersed myself in the whole making of an album. This time I plan to document the creative process so I can connect the dots on how the whole thing came together.
I may post a demo or two up as and when they are completed.
Looking through my vinyl for inspiration this week and it would seem that someone has defaced my "Bridge Over Troubled Water" LP by scrawling a beard/tash combo and some specs on Art Garfunkel. I love that record. Onto the turntable.
Craig
Visit our spaces and places...
Coming to America
Photos by Jen Maler
By William J. Lockey of the pale, and interesting ‘indie’ band White Belt Yellow Tag from the North of England. Near Scotland. But far enough from London to have manners and a common sense of taste and decency.
Being at best 67.3-percent confident of my Visa status being approved and legit in time to escape this fair isle of Great Britain meant me and the other two members of ‘future rock behemoths™’ White Belt Yellow Tag were what you Americans would refer to as ‘totally stoked’ at the opportunity to melt faces by the sheer power of electrified music in The Empire State. Not only were we excited at the prospect of playing two shows in the land of life, liberty and Fruit of the Loom, but we also had enough time to be quasi-tourists and meet loads of new and interesting people too.
First up, I have to quickly mention our first night. Due to an unforeseen monumental breakdown in confidence and language our accomodation for the duration was royally fucked…Not as bad as our co-headlining label buddies Sparrow and the Workshop—theirs was a veritable clusterfuck of real life internet scams like you see on the TV—but fucked nonetheless. Anywho, we ended up in a place called Travel Inn, slap bang in the center of the tourist/tramp/bad guy/retina-burning area, Times Square. Now the first thing Team WBYT likes to do post-hotel check-in is to locate a good bar/eating establishment within the band-regulated ‘5-minute walk’ radius. After what transpired to be a 10-minute dick around, pointing at blindingly bright adverts on massive buildings, we found a Belgian bar. It was ‘awesome’ in the way any bar would be after a 7.5-hour flight in knee-chafing steerage class on Virgin Atlantic. (Kudos to said airline for the movie choice and lack of turbulence, though.)
Day two comprised of moving accommodations from the Travelodge to our new abode Soho Suites, which is actually properly nice, functional, and clean. Digs sorted, we headed out into the East Village and tracked down some kind of cheesesteak/burger situation at Epstein’s. After being blown away by (a) immense burgers and cheesesteaks and (b) reasonably priced alcohol, we decided that this is the only place we would eat at for the whole trip. How very English of us, and a wise choice.
That night we went out, drank a lot, smoked like French people, ate some Twizzlers and met up with Fellow Northern English gents the Futureheads. Muchos fun was had in a place called Lit, where we also encountered the world’s worst DJ…Why didn’t the goth girl just stay on the decks? We couldn’t work it out, but the atrocities of sonics that followed by what appeared to be a 12-year-old girl with a trust fund, a bad attitude and serious lack of taste were unforgivable. Daddy definitely should have bought her a pony that year she asked for turntables. False economy and epic fail on his part.
Morning after…No hangover and gig day—double good news. We went to Brooklyn to meet up with Sparrow and the Workshop to play at Union Hall in Brooklyn. After dealing with the world’s most hateful and ungrateful taxi driver, we encountered some ankle-breaking stairs for loading in down to an excellent gig room. Post soundcheck, we headed back to the East Village and met Jen Maler, an amazing photographer, wise ass, and now our international super best friend for life fo sho! She told us we were too British and stuck up, called us pussies, and then took loads of pictures. After being bullied, we dropped into East Village Radio to talk shop with Elhaam on her Guilty Pleasures show. She is the smiliest woman in the world. I think she arrived at this personality by avoiding all news and current affairs. Bliss. Tom met his friend Andy Rourke from the Smiths. (Oooh, look at Tom and his famous friends.) Back to Brooklyn. The gig was grand, good fun was had by all. Back to Soho Suites for air conditioning, clean sheets, and our sound man sleeping in a kitchen.
Next day, next gig. Pianos. We spent the day in Epstein’s eating strictly beef and potato-related foods, drinking Blue Moon, and objectifying the waitresses. It was outright sexism but in a socially acceptable 1970’s kinda way so calm down, sugar. Then came a curious incident…the fabled meet and greet, a phrase that strikes fear into any self-respecting band member. Musicians and social skills rarely mix, but tonight the planets aligned and team WBYT were working the room like future congressmen/silver-tongued pimps. I’d say it was the alcohol, but it could have been the beef diet just fucking with our mostly inward personalities. Cosmic.
The show was great. Our equipment told us to fuck off for the last two songs, so we had to cut the set short, but hey (!) we’ll blame the same cosmic spiritual forces that earlier in the night turned us into chatty, socially aware and general all round good humans. Hours passed and with our shaman and spiritual guide Miguel at our side, we headed to Cabin. Cabin is a spectacle to behold, an unassuming place crammed full with unhappy hipsters, the creme de la creme of who’s who to anyone who gives a fuck. I didn’t, but I’m sure some people do. I was unsettled and generally indifferent to the following: (a) the smallest, hottest room in the world—instant claustrophobia!; (b) one toilet—that’s just not right; (c) the actual size of Noel Fielding from the Mighty Boosh’s face.
Anywho, English people outnumbered the natives. It was like someone freeze-dried the UK indie pop scene, then threw it in someone’s very small living room, then went all Call of Duty: Modern Warfare with a hose pipe, but they didn’t really need the water, just a good meal inside them. Bless ‘em! Geldof and Bono need to get their heads straight and their priorities right and do ‘Meal Aid’. Fast. There’s literally millions and millions of starving and unhappy hipsters in Manhattan.
The Futureheads were there though, which is always a pleasure, never a chore. Bonus. We Stayed in a most awesome triplex that night. Seriously, that place is why New York is ‘Le Shit’. A cup of tea was had, as well as sleep. Then back to the England. That is all.
