Hello and welcome to the May issue of ‘A Dave in The Life’. And no, that’s not a mistake. Let’s just pretend I’m not publishing this two days late please... My mission was to try and write one of these every month and I’m not prepared to fail just yet! So here I am, recapping the month of May for you in this, the May issue.
I hope it was a good month for you and as sunny as it was here in Bristol. For me, it was full of time spent outside with friends or inside at gigs, and I’m looking forward to much more of that over summer. Anyway, without further ado, I’d like to follow the example of American YouTubers and “jump right into it”.
ACOUSTIC SINGLES
I mentioned in the previous issue that I’m currently releasing acoustic versions of all 5 tracks from my Home, Come Home EP (remember?) and the most recent of these is ‘Saw You In The Crowd (acoustic version)’ which is out now. You can listen to it on Spotify here.
The next acoustic version will be of my one-hit-wonder smash-hit-single ‘Dreams About Rooms’, out on Thursday 8th June. You can pre-save the single here if you like. I’m doing little to no promotion or marketing for these versions and am mainly releasing them for my own enjoyment, but I hope that you might also take a listen and appreciate them in some way.
The artwork for this acoustic EP is below.
LOWSWIMMER
My friend and Novo Amor bandmate Ed Tullett, aka Lowswimmer, released an excellent new album recently titled Red-Eye Effect. I remotely recorded parts for this album in Dorset, early 2021, while locked down during the pandemic. This was the first major project I worked on as a newly freelance musician and I had a lot of fun with it. I played trombone and sang gang vocal parts on all tracks. You can listen to the album here.
At the beginning of this year I was involved in recording some live sessions of tracks from the album and it was great to get to play these songs in real life with some good musical friends. All four of these session videos are currently on YouTube, and below are my two favourites: ‘Beelining’ and ‘Go Getter’.
POST-TOUR
The Novo Amor UK & Ireland tour was a huge success. Every date was sold-out and we played some of the best shows that we have so far as a band. The big highlights were playing the enormous and intimidating Barbican Centre in London, and playing a hometown show at Tramshed in Cardiff to lots of friends and family. It was so lovely (and a bit nerve-wracking) to finally perform these songs close to home and know that acquaintances and loved ones were in the audience.
Touring is strange, and I might write a bit about it in the future for anyone who is interested in hearing about life on the road, but in general it’s an incredible experience and I love it. The next date in the diary is playing All Points East Festival in London this August, then more touring abroad in wintertime. More news on that soon hopefully… Until then, all dates are on the Novo Amor website.
NEWS
A couple more nuggets of news for you:
My friend Freya Ridings recently released her excellent new album ‘Blood Orange’ which peaked at number 7 in the UK album charts. I played trombone on the track ‘Wither On The Vine’. Listen to it here.
Another excellent album, ‘Absentee’ by Alfie Firmin, came out recently featuring me. I played trumpet and trombone on the opening track 'Can’t Stop Thinking About You’. You can listen to it here.
PHEW
There you have it. That accidentally ended up being a long one, apologies! As usual, congratulations if you read all the way down to here. You are exactly who I'm writing this for and I appreciate you very much. I’ll be back with another, hopefully shorter (but just as whimsical), issue later this month.
Until then, enjoy the sun (wear at least factor 30 please) and take care.
DJH.
CULTURAL HIGHLIGHTS
Currently reading:
Roger Deakin - Waterlog (still slogging away…)
Albums I’ve enjoyed:
The National - First Two Pages of Frankenstein
Fred Again.. & Brian Eno - Secret Life
Pinegrove - Montclair (Live at the Wellmont Theater)
Amy May Ellis - Over Ling And Bell
Langkamer - The Noon and Midnight Manual
TV I’ve enjoyed:
I Think You should Leave - series 3