Continuing our underlying theme that there is a great song writing scene on the UK’s south coast, the second edition of ‘Xan Phillips presents…‘ features south coast singer and songwriter Dave Pen.
He first came to my attention in the duo Birdpen, an act that is dark and inventive in the studio while on stage they stand out as totally professional unit, that produces a sound so large it fills every inch of available space in the venue.
Occasionally Dave would mention he was in a collective called ‘Archive‘ who were doing quite well in Europe. As my brief at the time focused on the south coast it took a while to investigate this strand of his career, especially as the albums were just available on the continent.
It was only when I bought Bridpen’s debut album from Amazon France did I realise how modest Dave had been as, on the cover, was a sticker proclaiming ‘On, Off, Safety, Danger’ featured ‘Dave Pen from Archive’
This success abroad was on the back of Archive’s albums ‘Lights’ & ‘Live at the Zenith’ just before Archive’s 2009 release ‘Controlling Crowds parts I-IV’ which is a double album of rare beauty.
Ironically it’s also the last recording they made under their deal with Warners who, for some inexplicable reason, have dropped the band just at the wrong time. It’s a bit like the Beatles being ditched after Sgt. Peppers.
Controlling Crowds will feature in later editions of ‘Xan Phillips presents…‘, however for this episode we concentrate on Birdpen’s debut album ‘On, Off, Safety, Danger’ and Archive’s ‘Live at the Zenith’ which the French Rolling Stone magazine stated was one of the best live recordings around.
We’ve also got more music from the UK’s south coast including our hottest export to Europe and America: Band of Skulls. Along with them you can investigate Betika, Boe Weaver, The Shanklin Freak Show, Big Num, Scarlett Soho and The Moulettes.
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.
One day you hear an idea; the next you almost have an album!
And it was 23rd June that Julian Aplin from ‘Angry Badger Records‘ suggested we put together a compilation album.
Julian had become a regular at the Showcase UK nights in the Soul Cellar and decided to put on a few gigs at the venue to showcase some of his own acts. He asked me to perform a DJ set between the bands following that sent an email with the immortal words: “How do you fancy a Showcase UK/Angry Badger compilation CD?”
There was no need for persuading as I had been thinking for the past two years we needed a follow-up to the previous South Coast collection “The Coming of The Railways” which introduced me to Birdpen and many others.
I would have loved Birdpen to have been on this collection but as they are now signed to a French label this excellent trio are beyond our reach. However we both know many great acts and could easily find 15 for a compilation which we’ve called ‘Showcase Sett’.
Where Julian and I agreed immediately was that it had to be quality through and through, at a very reasonable price.
Showcase Sett by Peter Jaques
So we enlisted the wonderful painter and graphic designer Peter Jaques to create the cover (left). For the design and layout of the inner sleeves Oliver Taylor was recommended by the Soul Cellar.
The music had to have a flow, and each song sound it’s best, so we visited Peter J Croissant at Grand Master Audio to master our first pick of the South Coast’s talent.
We’re expecting this to be the first of many. This area is rich in quality musicians and, as I have been saying in the Daily Echo, there is a ’scene’ on the South Coast and scene is quality song writing.
And here we are, almost a month later and we are sending the elements to be turned into ‘Showcase Sett – Propeller’, a limited edition album (400 commercial copies) which is already receiving pre-orders.
You can see the full track listing and place your order at Iconic Culture. It is released August 1st 2009 priced £4.99 online and £5 in the flesh.
