Hey everyone!
As the festive season approaches we wish you a merry HIPSWAY thank you for helping us get this far.
The first album since 1989’s SCRATCH THE SURFACE has now been written, recorded and sent out to all the lucky Pledgers from around the world.
They will receive the physical copies first, but in the meantime everyone can now find it online on all your favourite digital platforms – just have a search and it will be there.
Physical copies will be available through our HIPSWAY merchandise store via our website very soon..
SMOKE & DREAMS will be sold at our upcoming December gigs: Airdrie 12th, Dundee 13th, Oban 15th, Inverness 16th, Aberdeen 17th, Edinburgh 18th and Glasgow 20th.
Get a CD or vinyl album (blue while stocks last!) or a new t-shirt at the show and perhaps you can catch us to sign them for you afterwards.
We have said it before but without you guys and girls – the audience – we might be sitting at home twiddling our thumbs and gazing into the middle distance, thinking of something fun to do… or down the pub.
Big thanks also to everyone behind the scenes: Iain at Oriel Records, rehearsal rooms, amp and guitar builders, rental people, sound and road crew, merchandise makers, photographers, designers, and everyone else who is less visible than the band but made it happen.
An especially large chunk of gratitude goes to Mr Mark Freegard, the owner/engineer at Kyoti Studios, Glasgow, who used his long experience and considerable technical and people skills to help us realise the music with the minimum of hassle or waiting around while the creative juices were flowing.
In the olden world of HIPSWAY, recording was a drawn-out and very expensive process where often you might become fed up hearing or performing the same parts repeatedly until they were ‘perfect’, and that was before the mixing even started. So it was a novel and slightly daunting experience to set ourselves up in one small studio without headphones or separation and play live – the old way. For us this has left the record with a certain soul/charm/rawness/depth – call it what you want but repeated plays will reward the listener, with small details popping out here and there. And as if that wasn’t enough we have a casserole of great tunes with a handful of disco and soul flavours, a grinding of new wave, a few twists of art rock and a shake of good honest pop.
Check it out and let us know what you think.
See you very soon!
Skin, Pim and the gang
xxx
