Last week I promised some interesting news about Archive, the collective Dave Pen (Birdpen) joined in 2004 as an emergency tour replacement for an errant singer.

Archive have eight albums under their belt and a very strong following in Europe.

Their most recent double album ‘Controlling Crowds’ fulfilled their contract with Warners and instead of re-signing with a major label chose to go it alone.

To look after the global distribution of their back catalogue AWAL (Artists Without a Label) have been given that task.

However, to raise funds for future projects, they’ve turned to an exciting musician led company called PledgeMusic.com.

The pledge system involves fans buying the CD or DVD in advance through incentives, such as signed merchandise, being the band photographer for the day, or just having a signed set list.

On 19th July Archive asked their fans to help raise funds to record a live DVD at a 5000 seat amphitheatre in Athens: ten days later they’ve achieved their target!

“The response has been over whelming,” Dave Pen told me, “I personally didn’t think it would go so quickly so am very happy it has done.”

Numbers of fans is the important part of this equation.

When you consider Archive have over 60,000 ardent followers on Facebook you can appreciate that raising money this way is blindingly obvious.

So pledging might not suit bands at the start of their career but it’s a massive incentive for looking after your fan base and encouraging its growth.

First published in the Southern Daily Echo on 30th July 2010

There are many reasons for loving Birdpen: their next album is one.

Even though it’s untitled, and the tracks are yet to be decided, the rough mixes I was lucky enough to hear sound fantastic.

They’ve been putting samples on www.birdpen.com and out of the five you might’ve heard ‘Sorrow’ is the one that has the potential to break the band globaly.

These recordings deliver a natural progression from their debut ‘On/Off/Safety/Danger’ presenting the same amount of depth but with cultured experimentation.

The two albums are likely to be bridged by the track “Only The Names Change” which is classic Birdpen: a giant, tension filled riff lurking beneath a melodic sub-plot of a lyric.

It’s already a firm favourite with Birdpen fans across Europe and they are desperate for an immediate release.

So if you are curios check out this French TV show “One Shot Not” (Arte) and you’ll see a great live performance from March 2010.

“Only The Names Change” might come out as an EP later in the year and for album2 we’ll have to wait until 2011.

Another reason for admiring this Southampton duo is their unassuming nature.

When he’s not in the studio Mike Bird can be found guitar tech’ing on some of the hippest tours around.

While Dave Pen can be found singing for Archive, a European collective that has released seven albums and attracted many thousands of fans on Facebook.

Archive have recently announced something really cool and we’ll talk about that next week.