It’s a tale of two cities; a tale of two bands and might leave you wondering: “What the Dickens is going on in the world of music!”
However its all good news and we’ll start with a wedding.
Birdpen front man Dave Pen (right) married his sweetheart Nicola last Friday and a joyous occasion it was.
His best man was Mike Bird the “other half” of that fine Southampton duo.
At the reception I was reliably informed that if the ceremony had been held in France, Dave’s European fans would have been scaling the walls.
Pour quoi?
Dave is also in Archive, an avant-garde British collective, who on Sunday are headlining the last night of “Rock en Seine” in Paris.
With ‘Foo Fighters’ topping the bill on Friday and ‘Arctic Monkeys’ Saturday, you can appreciate the heights Archive have reached.
Side of stage will be Mike Bird. He’s also Archive’s guitar and keyboard tech and, as he points out, “It’s a billing the band will undoubtedly feel the pressure to step up to. The fact they are playing with a 32 piece orchestra will make the show quite a spectacle!”
He’ tech’d from Fleet Foxes to Sophie Ellis-Bextor which means: “I am always surrounded by music and meeting like minded people.”
These experiences are rubbing off on Birdpen and naturally opening bigger doors on the continent.
With a second album written and waiting to be recorded all they need is a British backer to line their nest.
First published in the Southern Daily Echo, 26th August 2011
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.
