North For The Winter

So it would seem that we have inadvertently stumbled into some sort of BBC local radio competition! Apparently we’ve made it through the initial selection process and will have our latest track, “She Self Medicates”, reviewed by the presenters of BBC Berkshire’s “The Session Introducing” - a show designed to shine light on local unsigned acts, such as ourselves! Excellent!

So, if you’re near a PC (or radio for that matter) on Sunday evening tune in to BBC radio Berkshire at 7PM and listen to a local radio ‘expert’ tear apart our hard work in the review section! We’re looking forward to it!

In other news, we have a few gigs lined up this summer so catch us at one of the following venues, or don’t… either way we’ll still love you!

Friday 24th July – Plug n’ play, Reading
Thursday 30th July – The Hobgoblin, Staines
Saturday 22nd August – Reading Fringe Festival (Face Bar all-dayer)

Also, we’re now listed and have been played a large number of times on StudyVoxFM, a global radio station designed and run by students. Visit/listen here: http://www.studyvoxfm.com/

BBC Introducing…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/berkshire/ (listen live here on Sunday 7PM)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/berkshire/content/articles/2007/10/03/demo_panel_new_feature.shtml (here’s the other 2 demos being reviewed!)

The ’stoner rock’ webzine, NineHertz, have recently reviewed our new album. If you haven’t had a listen yourself yet, here’s what ‘Rob Himself’ thought:

Incredibly, despite playing maybe ten or twenty gigs in their 5 year + existence, Hampshire post-hardcore types North For The Winter have released FOUR (count ‘em) full-length albums. What they lack in live experience (with the exception of bassist Andy, formerly of Mfkzt and largely studio-bound stoners Cicadas), they make up for in prolific songwriting and you have to admire their tenacity.

‘Perfect Automation’ is an 11-track slice of succinct, melodic indie, displaying all their tricks in one handy, highly listenable package.

Benefiting from the recent addition of a teenaged, female vocalist, the songs are well layered and dynamic - album highlight ‘She Self Medicates’ is built nicely round an bizarrely Cranberries-esque vocal line. Sharing singing duties with guitarist Chris, the two-part harmonies tend to waver at times, but the solid, busy drumming and sturdy basswork keep things moving.

Four albums in (it makes less sense the more you say it), the band bare their influences a little too much given their longevity, with Biffy Clyro being the most obvious and prominent. That said, the likes of ‘You’re Ruin’ call to mind parts of the Deep Elm roster and elsewhere there’s an honesty to Chris’ songwriting that outshines any lack of originality. There’s no pretension or desperate image maintenance here.

‘Perfect Automation’ is the sound of a band struggling against a tide of apathy, but if honestly tuneful, ambitious indie-rock is your bag, you’ll be rooting for them on first listen.

The album is available to download for free at www.northforthewinter.com

Click below to view the article on their website:
NFTW - Perfect Automation Album Review @ NineHertz.co.uk

Good day to you!

We at NFTW HQ are finally pleased to announce the release of the band’s 4th album to date, entitled: Perfect Automation. This production is available FOR FREE in both CD and Digital Download format.

To grab a free CD, come to any of our upcoming gigs we’ll be handing them out, or track down and shout at one of us until we surrender a copy to you. If you’re an interwebz fan, visit the Media section of the website to download the album zip.

Enjoy, and if you like it, please drop us a line!

Jim - NFTW

Well the thought of doing more mixing and mastering is just making me feel ill so I thought I’d post a blog up first (no-one wanted to talk to me on fuzzbook!).

It’s been around 4 days since the rest of the band left the studio to return home while I’ve been left here to finish work on the tracks. So far I’ve managed to complete 8 out of the 11 tracks, come up with some funky album artwork as well as complete the single player of TrackMania. Umm. Can you spell productive?! Pot noodle cans litter the room…

The website update is next on the to-do list; you can expect that to happen somewhere between track 9 and 11 - I’d say in the next few days. We’ll also be releasing the album artwork shortly in conjunction with the website once we’ve settled on a track list.

This album is easily the best sounding set of recordings we’ve done, we hope you’ll like it.

Jim - NFTW

P.S. oh, and the beard is making its return.. ..slowly.

So we’ve been mixing for a couple of days, I’d forgotten just how repetitive this shit can be. However it’s all been worth it, the mixes are sounding great and certainly a big step up from anything we’ve done before.

I saw crank for the first time last night, its retarded but in a good way. After spending 8 or 9 hours mixing it was the perfect antidote, no really. We’ve watched a several really shite films this week, but the medal has to go to “Hercules in New York”, Arnie’s first movie. On its original release it was dubbed by an American as ¼ of all of the lines are completely indecipherable but we managed to watch the real 100% Arnie version. Epic! Seriously, go and watch it… do it, do it now.

Chazz hinted at the departure of the bands fifth member yesterday. Well, I can confirm that it is a sad day here in NFTW’s secret midlands recording HQ. The photo below should explain all.

Jim is beardless, I repeat, BEARDLESS! Defcon one people, batten down the hatches, lock up your daughters, deploy smoke, repent! REPENT!

This was my reaction:

… and for the purposes of fair a balanced reporting, here is a picture of a fish.

The next post by one of us should actually contain some worthwhile news on the progress of the album. By then we should have confirmed a track-listing and the thorny issue of what to name it. My suggestion of “Stolen From The Granary” was dismissed, although Jim was dead keen on “2” Maximum Diameter”.

Rock On
Chris - NFTW

Well hello again all you fine people!

Good news- the album is now done! All we’ve got left to do is mix down and pick an order for all the awesome tracks to go in… let the arguments commence!!
Still, to have done all the vocals in 2 days isn’t half bad, even if we did nearly bite each other’s heads off about MORE harmonies….Oh well.

There was sadness in the early hours of the morning as our fifth member sadly left us, but more on that later.

But I do have a question to pose you, and what of your loyaltea? Yes, tea is no longer the loyal beverage as we once thought, and shall soon come to dominate the world; at least it will in Chris’ eyes, as opposed to loyaltaay, which is just lovely =]

Anyway, Chris will be back later with a vengeance and some shocking photos for you all!!

Peace. Chazz - NFTW

‘You have balls… I like balls’

Yes, yes that is the quote of the day, and as cabin fever inevitably sends Jim spiraling into the depths of insanity, the recording of the vocals begins at long last. It seems that the efforts of last night’s recording transcended into lan gaming madness, and todays conclusion leaves us in… well exactly the same place really.

There was some progress made in the 8 hours i’ve been here though, weve managed to burn through 5 songs and get them finished, with a few ‘minor alterations’ that mainly consisted of the inclusion of 5 dozen extra harmonies, vocal octave changes and even MORE epic guitar wanktro. And yes, that IS possible… honest.

It has been discovered that whilst Jim loves balls, and we are pretty sure that he would have eatten a ball burger instead of a screamburger for lunch had it not been for the amazing ammount of mayonnaise the screamburger offered, he doesn’t think the creation of a mayonnaise swill roll is a good idea! Shame I wasted so much time making one really…

Anywho, having completed Always, The Fall, She Self-Medicates, Questions, You’re Ruin and half finished Talking Untill Dawn, (having added a million and one new Harmonazz’s… yes, I have my own jargon- woo!!) we have decided to call it quits for the evening, and go watch Team America…

‘I LIKE BALLS’

… Chazz - NFTW

Day 5. Today we took a fairly relaxed approach to the session but still managed to do all the remaining bass parts and complete the backing vocals including the occasional magnificent ‘’screamy” line from our resident song writer and hunter-gatherer: Chris, despite suffering from colds. I imagine any mucus entrenched in his vocal chords did not remain there for long after we started the screamies. Who needs Lozengers?!

All in all, I’d say it’s been a pretty productive day and we’re in a good position to make a final few additions to the tracks in preparation for Chazz’s arrival on Sunday.

The tracks are all sounding pretty good and it shouldn’t be too long before we meet the finishing line. It’ll be nice to get out of this studio - it’s starting to smell like musicians! Quick, someone open the window. Oh god!

Jim - NFTW

Day 4. Most of the guitars are done now, there’s a pin-hole of light emerging in the distance. Tomorrow will see the start of vocals (yelping, screaming, growling and the occasional bit of singing).

It’s all sounding very good. The guitar tone we’ve got is far better than we’ve had before (thank you Mr Marshall) and the bass is as wide as a bus. Hardcore. We’re recording a handful of new songs and a couple of old favourites, after all we have a new singer and are pretending that we actually want to take this stuff seriously. We think there’s far less filler on here than on our previous efforts, the new songs are killer.

Jim and I have not killed each-other; this is a surprise to me at least. Chazz is joining us shortly, we’ll try and get her to write an entry… expect talk about how infectious cabin fever is. The Easter Eggs have run out, the situation is grave. HELP!

Chris- NFTW

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