February 2012
2 posts
Sift and sort and mould
The daily ritual of banging my head against the music continues. I have amassed plenty of songs and arrangments, certainly enough to bring you a whole piece of work. Now I sift and sort and mould it into something whole. There seems to be a greater unity this time to everything as a lot of the same keys and similar themes keep cropping up in a way I cannot control. I’ve been mostly at home...
Watch
December 2011
3 posts
WatchHappy 2012 everybody! jx
Watch
A daily page, improvised at 6:25am before anyone was awake. Long, rambling, incoherent and fun to play. Can you guess which 30 seconds I like?
November 2011
2 posts
WatchEvery morning when I go into the studio I record a quick improvisation before I’ve even had a chance to think. It’s a great way of clearing the airways for writing. Students of creative writing call it “The Daily Pages”. It is designed to be created and discarded. The philosophy is that because you lose the fear of it being heard/read/judged you lose your inhibitions and...
October 2011
3 posts
September 2011
1 post
Regarding Sophie Dahl and the Hut
Statement from The Roald Dahl Musuem and Story Centre
On Radio 4’s Today programme on 13 September, Sophie Dahl did not ask the public for funds to save the hut where her grandfather, Roald Dahl, wrote his legendary children’s books. No appeal to the public was made, nor was the interview intended to be seen as such an appeal. The aim was to highlight a genuinely exciting project,...
August 2011
3 posts
July 2011
1 post
May 2011
1 post
March 2011
1 post
Japan
To my friends in Japan,
My love affair with Japan started at University whilst studying film. Quite by chance I ended up taking a course on Japanese cinema mainly because everyone seemed more interested in the module entitled “Modern American Cinema”. I discovered the works of Ozu, Mizoguchi, Kurosawa and later works from Beat Takeshi. I was hooked, not only by the images, the...
December 2010
1 post
A precarious position
It’s going to be an interesting year. Not only am I about to have my first child but I also am looking to pursue alongside each other the writing and recording of a new album and studies in both piano and voice.
I began voice lessons last year out of necessity. I got very sick in the first tour in the USA of last year. In an effort to get through the schedule I pushed my voice in new...
November 2010
1 post
Unedited Dave Brubeck piece for the guardian
My brother Ben and I were musical kids, not Rachmaninov toting 9 year old prodigies, just kids who were enthralled by music. Before walkmans, car journeys were four hour chats, squabbles, thumb wars, sticker swaps and a shared listen to the family car tape deck. In order to help keep some order in the back seat and guard against the usual onset of toddler boredom, Mum would provide us with a pair...
May 2010
10 posts
WatchMeet Sweet Billy Pilgrim. On tour with us all week and one of my very favourite bands.
http://open.spotify.com/user/semprini/playlist/1oh3Qi04M4cBMDgPjGydkF Spotify playlist: May Mix
1 tag
May Mix for those without Spotify
The Radio Dept. – The Video Dept. Matthew Herbert – Palm Springs Mose Allison – My Brain Erykah Badu – Love Paul Weller – Pieces Of A Dream The Whitefield Brothers – Sad Nile Efterklang – Modern Drift Curios – Roadster Pantha Du Prince – Lay In A Shimmer Massive Attack – Saturday Come Slow Sweet Billy Pilgrim – Kalypso Charlotte Gainsbourg – Vanities Iggy Pop – Dum Dum Boys Hot Chip – Alley Cats
WatchRealities
Tindersticks
How strange and wonderful it feels to be playing and touring in the UK after all this time. It’s not that it feels so different making music here. It is more that you can combine traditional home comforts with the very familiar day to day touring regimen - your favourite newspaper, a proper bacon sandwich, tea, long drives through familiar and beautiful countryside, the BBC. It adds a...
September 2009
4 posts
A brilliant song and a superb video by a great new artist, Alexander Wolfe http://bit.ly/R1UmA
Nice to hear “I’m all over it” on the radio this morning but I should point out, it was a ‘radio edit’ not the album version.
Posted a new blog: “No specific destination” http://terrifiedstudios.jamiecullum.com
Webcast coming this week now we’re at 20,000. Anyone hit the Skyride in London today?
August 2009
7 posts
mixtape http://terrifiedstudios.jamiecullum.com/
terrifiedstudios.blogspot.com
terrifiedstudios.tumblr.com
terrifiedstudios.tumblr.com
Records bought today - Hampton Hawes, Steve Kuhn and Sheila Jordan - all from the late 70s.
An odd state of affairs.
I’ve got that year zero feeling again. A new album is in the can and I’m at that blissful stage where no one has actually heard the thing yet and no judgements have been passed. If any of you have read Paul Auster’s “The book of illusions” you’ll remember the character who makes movies that no one ever sees. He seals them in a vault only to be seen once by one...
April 2009
1 post
All things need to be this good
Music by Moby, video by David Lynch.
March 2009
3 posts
Uke
Depending on what mood I am in during an interview I’ll say that I started my music career on the guitar/piano/drums within the rock/jazz/hip-hop/folk idiom. The bald truth is that it started with the Ukelele playing the tune “Show me the way to go home”. I am still fascinated by this miniature hawaiin instrument and wander around the house with it regularly close to my...
Nouvelle Vague Iceland
Sigur Ros - Við spilum endalaust - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo. This is the most I’ve ever liked Sigur Ros, and I always liked them a hell of a lot. Big bands in small situations. Frank Sinatra with just a piano. Hendrix on acoustic.
My Organ
I just procured a 1960s Hammond Organ and Leslie speaker from eBay after a few years of searching like a rabid junkie. It’s currently in the repair shop getting some love like a classic car. If the truck is big enough next time we hit the road I may just bring it on tour with me.
February 2009
4 posts
Blossom
Dear Blossom Dearie passed away on February 7th. She was a master interpreter of the great songs and has committed to record some of my favourite versions of standards - When the world was young, On Broadway, The Party’s Over - to name a handful. Her tiny voice could fill palaces with it’s style and poise and I always thought her elegant and swinging piano playing was just perfect....
My secret hero
/Users/jc/Desktop/hannahhauxwell.jpg
She is my secret hero.
Spotify
Spotify
I can’t work it out. I have been a music consumer my whole life. Obsessed by it, saved for it, longed for it. Now it appears that feverish collecting is coming to an end. Spotify even has those hard to find, Japanese Herbie Hancock albums. It is however missing quite a few independent gems. No Grizzly Bear, hardly any Rhythm and Sound - a lot of stuff on some great labels - Stones...
I found a way to hook it up to the piano
And it sounds outrageously good!