WE ARE BODIES
Here is the video to the song Capsize, which is the first single taken from the self titled We Are Bodies album from Robin Foster and myself.
Some of the songs were written a while ago, some were written drinking grog, some were written in an abandoned church, some were written in the car and some were written looking at bats from the top window of Robins Studio.
Album Tracklisting:
1-Pressure Compressor 2-We are Bodies 3-Calling Out 4-Capsize 5-Shadows 6-A Light On
7-Under The Sea 8-Guide Me Home 9-War 10-Knife 11-Fake Shelter 12-Replicants
The Album is out on March 23rd 2015. More news on this project to follow……..
I am Dave Pen
Saver Destroyer
I’ve been busy packing up copies of the new BirdPen Saver Destroyer E.P and Global Lows albums to send out across Europe. Hope the fans who ordered like what they hear. I think it’s a cool E.P and it feels good to get out material we have recorded a little while ago. tor interested folk The track ‘Goodnight from the Green Bear’ was Produced by Darius keeler with us and the drums were played by the Seagull. The artwork design was designed by myself and is a captured still from an Indian ceremony that I was allowed to film whilst travelling around southern India a few years ago.
Also on the E.P is a cool Moody remix from my good friend Robin Foster. You can hear it below:
The Ltd edition E.P and Global Lows Album are available to buy from the BirdPen website shop here – http://www.birdpen.com/shop
Cheers everyone for supporting what I and my good friends create. I salute you all x
I am Dave Pen
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE LYRICS
I’ve had a few enquiries from lands near and far asking for the lyrics for songs from Robin Foster’s Where Do We Go From Here album. To oblige the reading minds of the fans who asked, here they are:
A COLLAPSING LIGHT
I got nothing you’ve got something and it’s all I need
You got feeling I got stranger a collapsing light
You went searching I got lost
You found hope I ended up
Going on and on and on and on
Captured feelings locked them up
Sent them away from my heart
Left you standing in the dark
With the hurt tearing you apart
Going on and on and on and on
Going on and on and on and on and on
Called out empty saw it fall
Felt so heavy under it all
Saw the night of a hundred souls
They were wondering all alone
A reflection of my own
Left me singing my own song
Round in circles chewing up
Everything that I’ve lost
Everything that I’ve lost
Going on and on and on and on
Falling down inside I’ve gone and lost myself
…………………………………………………………………………………
CONCRETE SKIES
All these heights are so tall
They cover me tonight as I fall
Through structures to the cold ground
I feel lost in the muted life of this town
With hope I’ll carry on with the dawn of light by my side
These machines gather speed
Creeping up on me as I run away
Though the streets and red slip floors
Souls trapped in silence
There is nothing here no more
With hope I’ll carry on with the dawn of light in my eyes
Skeletons in wire and dust
Frames of lies and blood all rise above
Panic high all doors are locked
This blinding god controls everyone of us
This blinding god controls everyone of us
This blinding god controls everyone of us
With hope I’ll carry on with the dawn of light by my side
With hope I’ll carry on with the dawn of light in my eyes
With hope I’ll carry on with the dawn of light in my eyes
………………………………………………………………………………………………….
FORGIVENESS
I remember the first time
It made me feel I was leaving
To find light to begin
I had to forget and keep moving
Let the days fade my emotions slip into nothing
They slip into nothing
They teach us to prey forgiveness
But I won’t swallow what they feed us
No more no more
I’ll carry this rock
This old dead weight
like a noose around my broken next
Won’t fall down to the ground
This will be my lonely end
My soul time
My time
I won’t run away won’t hide away
They teach us to prey forgiveness
But I won’t swallow what they feed us
No more no more
………………………………………………………………………………..
WAIT FOR HER
I don’t know why she makes me feel alive and leaves me under hypnotised
I will go to the end I won’t fall I’m not here to let you go
You will shine forever high above my world you seal the cracks in me
We eclipse the facts of loosing time
We unite with our hands holding tight
But time is running out out time is running out time is running out
Time is running out time is running out I will wait for her
I don’t know how she opens up my soul and leaves me free to breath
I will go forever on and through the storm I won’t say no
I feel you from miles away
I feel you always
But time is running out out time is running out time is running out
Time is running out time is running out I will wait for her
Time is running out out time is running out time is running out
Time is running out time is running out I will wait for her
I will wait for her I will wait for her I will wait for her
………………………………………………………………………………………………….
BLACK MOUNTAIN
I’ll wait for you in the drought down by the faint flowing river
Slowly breathing in and out
I’ll be there at the end
Looking up at you
Looking up at you
I’ll call for you through the storm and the worlds broken and fragile pieces
Like a siren Sounding out your heart
Looking for you Looking for you
Looking for you Looking for you
For you
………………………………………………………………………………………
I am Dave Pen
RUNNING INTO 2013
I feel the pounding of my feet, the pulsing of my blood, the driving of my mind as I climb the steep hill after eight miles. I find slowly counting to a hundred helps me with my Zen like state when the steep inclines hit me where it hurts. I control my breathing, I keep moving on. It’s a buzz. Running works for me.
I’ve been training hard the last few months and was thrilled to complete my first ten mile race. I came in at one hour, nineteen minutes and fifty four seconds. I’m happy 1954 was in there, cheeky little number likes to pop up now and then. I am starting to feel that many more endurance challenges will be on the horizon for me and I don’t just want this to be all for me, I aim to start trying to raise money for charities as well. More news on these adventure/endeavours will be posted when they are planned.
January was used for not only training to accomplish this race but also for writing, recording and performing.
As the cold snap nipped away like an arctic crocodile two brilliant recording/writing sessions were completed with Archive in a remote studio in the Cambridgeshire countryside. I’m gonna keep the vibe of it under wraps for now as I don’t want to let the wild boars snuffle the truffles too soon… or maybe it’s a mushroom of some sort only found in the forest. Expect more wild animal and vegetable news on this soon.
It was good to then get a show in at the Midem festival down in Cannes in France. Of course once the long, long journey was completed and we had arrived. I woke up to rain and a cold breeze whipping up across the beach and marina. The sun did come out later whilst catching up with the Kendal mad man that is Robin Foster. We had coffee and spoke about the film Metro Manila that had just won the Audience Award for World Cinema Dramatic at Sundance Film Festival. This was great news as Robin created the music for the soundtrack and also the lead song, which is called Life and Death, which was co-written and performed, by Robin and myself.
Click to watch a live version of the song below:
The Archive show was a short, tight energy filled hour and ten gig, and it was a nice privilege to headline the festival. After a quick sip and some chat we all then climbed back on the tour bus for what ended up as a twenty three hour long journey for me to get home and through my front door. Lots of Who documentary was needed and kept us entertained on this trip. Pete Townshend’s autobiography “Who I am” has kept me company the last few weeks and has been a brilliant insightful read and I highly recommended it to any music fan or fan of The Who.
So into February we go, lots of stuff happening this month but that will be in another blog.
Went to The Garlic Farm after the race, stinky victory’s all round yeah.
I am Dave Pen
ARCHIVE W.U.U.Y.D. TOUR BLOG DISPATCH 3
And so we carry on, Germany continues back to Hamburg on Halloween to re-visit the scene of the illness stricken gig. It was a good show as was the show in Berlin, then onto a festival in Dortmund and now somewhere I can’t remember without looking at my itinerary.
Still in Germany we have been joined by my old Madman friend from Kendall that is Robin Foster with his band of merry French men to accompany him onstage.
Its Friday night and I’m sat on the cold bus and it’s raining outside. I can see people mingling around the venue front doors smoking in the wet. Silly bugger that nicotine bloke, he used to be a mate of mine but I realised he was ripping me off left right and centre so I gave him the sub and got the fuck out of dodge.
Gotta day off in Cologne tomorrow so that should be nice, the last time I was in Cologne I almost dies from vast amounts of Absinthe and a herbal tea, Think I’m gonna find the steam room this time and rest my beard for a bit. Be sensible and all that.
Popping back into the venue now, this will continue……
A nice day off in Cologne was had and the gig was even better. The Monday was onto Saarbruken where I found the biggest men’s shoe supplier in Germany. The woman in the store told me that they get 500 pairs of men’s shoes a season, that’s pretty impressive I reckon. I managed to find my self some new moccasins for 30 Euros reduced from 100 Euros so I was super chuffed at that bargain, I need some new ones as my other pair have been worn down so much if I stood on an ant I would feel the murderous guilt crunch under the thin layer of sole that is left on the shoes.
On the film front I’ve been watching more and more and the scores are as follows
Skyfall 6/10
Cosmopolis 3/10
TT Closer to the Edge 8/10
On the Waterfront 7/10
Incendies 7/10
Spun 5/10
The Hunter 8.5/10
The Hunter starring Willem Dafoe is the best film I’ve seen so far, a soul searching and dark film with some awesome and bleak scenery of Tazmania with a superb score accompanying the film.
I’m sure there are other films I’ve seen which I can’t remember right now so will add later.
So we played our final show of the German leg of this tour last night in Saarbruken. This was a new town for us so a new crowd to play to which attentively listened to the set. We also bid farewell to Darth Robin Foster and his band of imperial troopers after there support of a few shows with us, what a splendid bunch they are and I’m sure they will return in the future to open up again for Archive.
In France now and the sun is shining so that’s a good sign, am sat upstairs on the bus as just got up to write the rest of this blog, am gonna grab a coffee like a doctor on ER, Said the grumpy Mr Partridge.
I think this is Dispatch three complete.
I am Dave Pen
GUIDED BY LIGHTS
So it goes, I’m back on the bus where we sleep, eat, chat, drink and watch bad horror movies.
Archive were in Berlin to play a show for the Radio 1’s ten-year anniversary. Changes and re-arrangements were made at short notice to our show but we managed to pull it off. My first time playing the new material went good and playing the “other drums” alongside Smiley was a new and intense experience for me. I wished the tour had started here and it will be good to ground in the new tunes once we start the wheels rolling along the fuzz filled tracks on the Archive super sonic highway.
I stayed on in Berlin alongside fellow band members Pollard, Darius, Danny and Steve for some Acoustic performances. Some TV was to be filmed which is always a bit nerve racking but the new tunes transfer well on keys and acoustic guitar. We then played a full set to launch the album in Germany in the Hotel Michelberger where we were staying. A huge crowd turned out for the intermit show and we had to perform with only one monitor for the whole band as the other monitor decided to head to the light and flash a white death through the sub hole in front of me. The show was intense and a huge thanks to everyone who came, we were overwhelmed at how many of you there were and sorry to all the people that couldn’t get in. The Hotel was very “rock n roll” and any establishment that screens the movie The Big Lebowski 24 hours a day in every room and along the corridors is damn OK in my book.
I stayed awake and got a cab at 5.15 am to go to the airport, by this time everything around me wasn’t quite focused and a bubble of some sort had formed around every breath and movement I made. I queued up for 35 minutes at the wrong check-in desk then had to move quickly to make sure I made my first flight. I ate a Snickers bar in the line as I was boarding as the hole in my stomach started to feel bottomless. As soon as I sat in my seat towards the back of the plane I immediately fell asleep and awoke with a bump as we landed. I then ran a maze of trying to find Gate 2G, delayed shuttle bus after delayed shuttle bus meant again I only just made the flight. I thought the businessman alongside me on the bus was gonna explode due to the slowness of the shuttle buses. I boarded my plane and was seated at the very back; I fell asleep before we even started to taxi for the runway. I awoke when we landed.
Now in Brest France I was here for a show on an island called Ouessant with Robin Foster. We drove to the port of Camaret then boarded a boat to the island, my mind was back with my body after some nice healthy lunch and the sun was shining, summer decided it didn’t want to leave us just yet after all the delays it had had this year.
The evening was spent with mellow beers and some photographs of us jumping from a small wall. How very grown up we are.
The show was played to many a drunken islander and the fog rolled in. I walked back to the house guided by the circling light of the huge lighthouse on the island. I could hear the waves of the sea and the salty breeze against my face as I stepped along the winding paths near the beach in the deep black of the night.
I awoke after only a few hours sleep to make my way home. A boat had been hired for myself, Robin’s manager Charlie and guitar technician Cyril. We boarded in the haze of the dawn light and after around 20 minutes the captain of the boat asked me if I’d like to drive it, of course I said yes so cruised the boat along watching the radar and the GPS to see our destination. Not far from the end I noticed something grey in the corner of my eye jump from the water, I looked to my left and there were around 8 Dolphins about 10 metres from the boat swimming alongside us jumping in and out of the water. It was a fantastic and beautiful sight to see and a great way to round of the hectic few weeks I’d had rehearsing and playing shows with Archive and then alongside Robin and his band.
I slept all the way home on the plane.
I am Dave Pen
The Terminal
Trying to catch up on some blogs..been a bit slack of late. here is one.
I feel like a proper regular at the airport these days. Most of the Taxi drivers have stopped talking it seems so my journeys in the backs of cabs have been silent. Then I get to the airport when not much chat happens, as I’m my own company. Just a quick information blurt to the woman on the ticket stand then rev over the English Channel where 95 percent of conversations are in French so not that much talking is done there also. I have been singing and performing the songs I co-wrote with Robin Foster from the “Where Do We Go From Here” album released late last year. I’ve played some strange little places. One festival that stunk of smelly fish mud near the sea of some old fishing town, a filmed show at the Rennes University and a few clubs dotted around Brittany. The small selection of low key shows are now coming to an end with the last show in good old Brussels in Belgium, a first for Robin and his band of talented cool musicians. I’m sat backstage writing this whilst the lads have a few in the bar. Its tuff sometimes staying away from the grog I must say. Keeping your limits at pretty much zero and not letting the valve explode. The sweet fizz of a cold one all to tempting most of the time!! Water is a man’s best friend, but Champagne is a good buddy as is Heineken and a nice fine Ale plus a Rum and Coke chaser. The old saying that the booze isn’t good for singers and the voice has been said over and over and I’m checking it out as don’t want to sound like a dying dog all of the time rather than just some of the time. Breath in…….and out……. Time for a banana I think, pass the crystalline would you, I’m a bit parched.
Here are some slightly odd photographs taken on my dying Blackberry
Since writing this post I have been out on the Booze, A little bit. laaaalaaaalaaaa!!!
A YEAR IN PICTURES
THIRD LINE DOWN
DP & RF
A GIG
HE IS MANGLEBIRD
JOIN HANDS
RETURN TO THE DEAD FACTORY
WAITING
BOAT GIG
FIREWORKS
G.L.B
HELLO
MR E
S.F.C
THE BEATLE
WHITE LIGHT
ME & D
FRENCH COAST
GRID
ORGAN
SOILENT GREEN
EVE TEAM
THE KILLING MOON
I AM DAVE PEN
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE – RELEASED TODAY!!!
Today is Friday and today sees the release of Where Do We Go From Here. Robin Foster’s second studio album. Haven written in previous blogs about my musical escapades with The Kendal Born French Speaking Brittany Harbour Living guitarist It is with pleasure to see this album available to the public.. The track listing is below:
Happy/Sad
A Collapsing light – Feat Dave Pen
Concrete Skies – Feat Dave Pen
Pick your god or Devil – Feat Ndidi O
Forgiveness – Feat Dave Pen
This is not an Exit
Wait for her – Feat Dave Pen
Left Turn
Deadwood
Black Mountain – Feat Dave Pen
Sad/Happy
For anyone that hears this album I hope you enjoy it and live shows are planned including a show at Le Transmusicales on December 2nd. Below are a few links to buy the album and its also available on itunes
http://musique.fnac.com/a3695989/Robin-Foster-Where-do-we-go-from-here-CD-album
Many thanks I’m off to make a fresh pot and carry on mixing the BirdPen album.
Enjoy the weekend
I am Dave Pen
Where do we go from here ?
Robin Fosters new album will be released on the 18th November 2011. I have co written 5 songs on it.
I will be playing live with Robin at Trans Musicales Festival on December 2nd 2011..Check the add below..Cheers x
Dave Pen's Blog 