Somewhere. 9am, on my way to London for ‘nothing at best’ video shoot. Our next UK gig (pilton) has sold out but fear not, we have more plans…

response to our forum:
the collaboration
we have an albums worth of material recorded, but the new TPT album has put it on ice for the time being.  Certainly not ditched.
the ‘cover’ single
couldn’t be bothered in the end.
the remix album
we’ve had some really good remixes through.  Once we have enough grade A material this MAY go out as a limited release, digital download…
the next podcast
i’ve given up making any promises on that one!
the next album to be remastered
not sure, will need to check with Kscope.  Probably 10 Stories but at the moment, all energies are focussed on ’someone here’…
future gigs
We are in the process of confirming dates throughout the year, more news on that soon.  The main focus will be our uk/euro tour in October though.
the confirmed release date for the new album
No date set, it may slip a little due to some ‘logistical’ problems so likely to be May.  Not a problem for me, as no one wants to rush these things…
the bonus material for the special edition
I will have to speak with Kscope nearer the time.  We have some interesting options for some VERY special limited editions and there is one track that made the grade but was dropped from the album as it didn’t compliment the order.  Watch this space.
when we can pre-order the new album
Soon, as soon as Kscope give us the order.
the t-shirt to accompany the new album
Definitely.

Friday 12th Feb, 11:50am, somewhere between Yeovil Junction and London Waterloo.  I was on my way to attend the Storm Studios shoot for the new album cover.  It was a memorable day, for many reasons.  But you’ll have to wait a bit before you see anything.  Sorry about that, it’s the law.
Release is now likely to be late April.

Did I say track 4 was ‘The Sorry State’? – ooops, I MEANT to say ‘The State We’re In’….

1 – Nothing at Best
2 – Wake Up The Dead
3 – The State We’re In
4 – Preparation For Meltdown
5 – Barely Breathing
6 – Show A Little Love
7 – Someone Here Is Missing
8 – 3000 Days
9 – So We Row

Time goes by and I have spent 7 happy days not thinking about music at all, probably for the first time in well over a year.  The masters are with Kscope and everyone is happy.  One slight hitch is that Storm has some logistical issues with the cover we chose.  Storm Studios work by listening to albums and reading the lyrics.  They then get their heads together and mock up sketches of ideas inside their crazy brains.  We had 6 to choose from.   Unfortunately the one we chose doesn’t really work at this time of the year.  It’s not entirely cancelled but we may have to go for plan B.  Luckily, I couldn’t decide between the ‘roughs’ – they all said something unique about me and the album so I am happy, no matter which idea comes to fruition.

Here’s the album track listing from my memory:

1 – Nothing at Best
2 – Waking Up The Dead (or did I say ‘Wake Up The Dead’) – either way, I will find a way to wake up the dead.
3 – The Sorry State** (see post above!)
4 – Preparation For Meltdown
5 – Barely Breathing
6 – Show A Little Love
7 – Someone Here Is Missing
8 – 3000 Days
9 – So We Row

The release date is not set in stone at the moment while we wait for the cover to come, but it’s likely to be late April.

Oh, one other thing – we’ve been invited to play a headline show by Michael and Emily Eavis at a special gig in Pilton (the home of the Glastonbury Festival).  It’s only 30 minutes down the road for us.  And just after the new album is released to so it’ll be a special launch occasion too.    You can get tickets here.

Even I would go at that price.

One thing to announce for the new album – Storm Studios is doing the album sleeve design.  The studio is led by Storm Thorgerson who (as some of you know) was responsible for all the Pink Floyd covers (yes, including Dark Side of The Moon) and a lot of the Led Zep covers in the 70s.  More recently the studio has worked with Muse, Mars Volta and Biffy Clyro.  So, it’s good news for the Thief.  If you look at an old November blog post, you’ll notice I went up to London.  It was in fact to meet Storm and chat about concepts.  A very nice bloke he was too.

today I received the final masters from 360MASTERING in london.  Very pleased with the results.  I am now off to my studio to compile the tracks ready for steve to send Kscope the production master.  It’s almost over, thank goodness!  One controversial bit of news, we have decided to drop one track as we felt the album didn’t need it ‘as a whole’ (although on it’s own i maintain it’s a great track) so the album is now 46 minutes, 9 tracks.  Not too short, but short enough to make you feel like you need more?  And the album is called ‘Someone Here Is Missing’.more news very soon……

The album is now just about finished.  I have locked myself out of the control room and allowed the mixing engineers to do their job.  Just a few minor tweaks away now.  I am extremely pleased with the result.  14 months of hard labour.  What’s it all about?

So what you get?  An empty burnt out wreck?   No.  10 tracks, about 51 minutes long.  Some short, some not so short.  Is it TPT?  Maybe TPT 2.0.  Album title?  I’ve not decided yet.  Cover art?  Concept decided (more on that soon).  Launch gig?  There will be one, probably May.  Where?  Not sure, London, Holland.  Maybe both.  Tour?  yes, September/October time.  Bonus stuff?  Yes, first 5000 probably.  But that’s up to Kscope.  What will it be?  Not sure yet, maybe a few bonus tracks or even a bonus EP.  Probably some bonus packaging too.

All I know is that I am bloody exhausted.  I feel like I haven’t slept in a year.  All in all, it’s been worth it though.  I think.

It’s that time of year again.  The day when we are forced to reflect on another year gone, consigned to the dust of my fading memories.  Lucky I have my blog to remind me exactly what just happened…So 2009 was a good year for the thief.  I wrote the eighth album, released the 2 cd retrospective (3000 Days), those weird EPs, sorted the Little Man re-issue and gigged throughout Europe and popped over to Canada for good measure.  But it was a weird year too.  Kscope did well to keep the momentum up but without a major release, 2010 was a ‘preparation’ year for us.   The preparation began in Oslo.  What exactly happened over there?  I remember arriving, playing, sleeping and drinking far too much gin in our hotel before stumbling into a Marillion gig. I then have a hazy recollection of the 5 of us fighting in the snow in the park (much to the bemusement of the locals).Snow is fun for us British you know.  It WAS all great fun, but only the beginning of our rise.  The headline tour of Holland that followed pushed the boundaries further.  The gig in Breda remains one of the highlights of my career so far.  It was a special night, for many reasons.So, we returned from Holland, energized and with a new manager.  What next?  Oh yes, a trip over to Quebec City to play a festival and shoot some hoops with the locals.  Seriously, our rather tall drummer could have been a contender had he not been the laziest player in the world.  Pairing up with him was the closest the band has come to splitting.Quebec is a wonderful place with lovely people and good beer.   We must return.Italy next.  We had a great time with No Sound.  Can’t remember too much about the gig, followed by Germany, probably our biggest cock up of 2009.  Still, we got through it, just that it wasn’t one of our better performances.(italy above, loreley below)Next?  Oh yes, I remember now – the charity gig and fan footy match.  Remember, we played a charity band five-a-side match against fans?  We hammered them the first half, then the magical invisible referee decided to reset the score at half time.  It was then stale mate as the opposition refused to let us play our flowing game, cancelling out our sublime skills with their old skool argy bargy (well, that’s how I remember it!).  I then decided to faff about with the ball in defence, only to be robbed and subsequently give away a goal to the delight of the fan (who congratulates himself daily on our forum – my revenge will come).  One nil to the fans.  Luckily, Jonny managed to drill home the equaliser in added time.  Our careers were saved.  Off to the gig.  If Breda was a highlight, the gig in our home town of Yeovil was an equal highlight, but for different reasons.  The opening acoustic set was one of a kind, not just our performance (did I forget an entire verse of Freefall?) but for the great atmosphere in the crowd.  All singing along to Part Zero.  And we raised a load of cash for the cause too.Next up the 7 date tour with Riverside.  It was a great time to spend decent time with my band mates and reflect and plan how we were going to conquer the world in 2010.  And the gigs weren’t bad either.  By this time, we had scaled back A LOT on the amount of beer we drank (by order of the management).  On the last day, we bought a case of vodka to say thanks to the Riverside crew for looking after us so well.  We didn’t intend to drink it with them!  Have you seen Riverside and their crew??  There was no way we could keep up.  I have absolutely no recollection of what happened after that.  I woke up with an almighty hangover and a cut under my right eye (I still have the scar).  I’ve been assured I wasn’t floored by Riverside, but that I fell into some bushes like a drunken idiot.  Lesson for 2010 – do not attempt to keep up with the Polish and their vodka.  But you’re not stopping me letting lose on the last night of a tour…(above photo by bert treep)So, 2009 has been a busy year, we’ve come a long way.  It has been dominated for me by the writing of the new album.  Moving to kscope has given me so much more power, I have to exercise that power.  For over 12 months my mind has been dedicated to the new songs and melodies.  It hasn’t helped that one of my 2 3/4 year old twins is obsessed with playing ‘daddy music’.  So, not only have I been obsessing about the music in the studio, but I have also been driven absolutely insane by having to listen to it again on my kitchen stereo every living second.  The little blighter will turn the laptop on, find my keys (with the memory stick containing mp3s of my roughs), plug it in, double click the mp3, turn the volume up in winamp, plug the lead into the stereo, find the stereo remote, turn it on and pump up the volume as loud as he can.  I tried to wean him off ‘daddy music’ and had partial success with Biffy Clyro but generally, only ‘daddy music’ does it for him.  He can now sing along to most of it.  I never want to hear this album ever again.  The other ‘twin’ is equally as appalled and regularly tries to hide the remote.  Still, at least I’ve had extreme exposure to my songs to iron out any problems.(above pic taken by twin1 during a very recent session)What now for the thief? I end the year feeling like we are teetering on the edge of something, but I have no idea what.  The new album is coming and it’s brilliant.  The album cover is going to be brilliant (trust me on that one).  Our forthcoming headline tour is going to be brilliant.  Our new videos are going to be brilliant.  And the reviews with be mixed, as always.  Luckily, after 8 albums I really have no concern about that.  I’ve written an album I am proud of, that’s all that matters to me.  So I sit here typing feeling oddly nonchalant.  But I’ve devoted my life to this?  For who?  Maybe I’ve finally figured that one out.Bruce, New Years Eve, 2009.

i’m currently deep in the new album, sorting out the final arrangement for ‘barely breathing’, the most melancholic song on the cut.  In fact, it’s the only soft tune on there.  One thing you’ll notice in April is how much more ‘in your face’ this album is.  Anyway, where was I….  Yes, I’m working on re-arranging a song I’ve been listening to since April this year – replacing parts and re-working them.  It sounds a lot better now.  Definitely a case of ‘less is more’ in the production department.

Next week we’ll be doing the final mixing sessions, hopefully with Steve and an engineer friend of mine currently working in a top studio in London.  After that, mastering and delivery to Kscope early january.  Then my mind will be free at last.  It’s like i’ve had a TPT8 music box going around my head for over a year now.  It’s flying around my head until I’m mad….

Podcast, mailout, HOT news and a new year’s eve address still to come.  Don’t worry, i’m almost definitely going to think about possibly making good on my endless promises this time.