Well, it’s the day before I set off to Oxford, guitar in hand, to make some more of the ideas in my head into songs, and to make those songs into an album. This is the fifth album that I’ve recorded, but it feels pretty different to any of its predecessors, for a lot of reasons, many of them obvious. It’s going to be seriously hard work over the next few weeks, I’ll be playing most of the instruments and arranging and writing the whole thing, some of it on the fly. I’ve got a bunch of string players, accordionists and so on pencilled in, a collection of nice guitars to play, and a list of singers that I want for backing vocals. It feels like my magnum opus, haha.. we’ll see. Wish me luck.

In other news, part two of my European diary is now up, and it can be found here. Enjoy. There’s also some kick-arse photos from the j’Est show in Moscow here. The next few installments, including the worst day ever, will be up as soon as I have time to get them written up.

On the touring front, I’ve got a lot of supports being confirmed at the moment, which is good for making new friends. I’ll be touring with The Automatic in October, and I’m playing a show in London with Dashboard Confessional on Tuesday next as well. There’s more to come later too, keep your eyes peeled. I’m going to be pretty busy all the way through the rest of this year, and then the album is due for release in early January, so it’s hardly going to drop off then. I think I’m going to take a holiday in December. Much deserved, if you ask me.

Finally, I was particularly struck by the wisdom of this article, and by the awesomeness of the new Johnny Cash record. Just thought I’d share.