That Was Then, This is Now Live at The Underbelly from Rob Marr on Vimeo.

Although I’ll have a couple of oldies up my sleeve, I’ll mostly be playing new material. As the band is still under construction I’ve been working out how to translate what was recorded into a solo performance, picking and choosing what feel like the defining parts and working them into a coherent whole that can be delivered by ten slightly stumpy fingers and one voice.

Just because I can, I’ve bought a handful of guitar pedals to give the wurly a few different sonic flavours. They’re called ridiculous things like the D.A.M. Red Rooster (Germanium Booster) and Malekko Trem. They’re rather beautiful. They’re fixed with Velcro tape to a pedal board that will sit on the floor, under the keyboard. Left foot is for the Rooster and friends. Right foot is for the sustain pedal. Fingers and thumbs are for playing and voice box is for singing. Ordinarily I’m a little clumsy so who knows what’ll happen. It’ll be fine. I’m a bloke. I can multi-task.

Lots of people have said they’re coming, which is amazing. I think pretty much my favourite thing in the whole world is playing to a room full of people that are really listening and getting something out of it. That and Marmite toast, obviously. If, after all the practice and writing and recording and thinking people enjoy it, I’ll be happy.

The lovely people at Ambiguous Records are putting out Fencebuilding as a single on 12th December. Enjoy!

Now I aspire to those heights but have enough self-awareness to insert at least a paragraph break between their names and mine. So how did I get to work with him?

In October 2009 I’d been asked to put a band together to play at a BBC 6 Music Festival for Tom Robinson. My friend Al had done a session with Andy for the Smoke Fairies and, knowing my obsession with drummers who groove like mothers, suggested giving Andy a call.

Andy is a New Yorker gone native in the Kent countryside. He had a listen to the tunes and, despite them not being his ‘cup of tea’, was gentlemanly enough to offer his services for the gig. Now I like honesty in a man, and I really like playing with classy drummers, so I bowled down to his place for a couple of rehearsals.

We practiced. We bonded. We discovered, to both of our delights, that my music was an acquired taste. The gig went down a treat. Wine was taken. Mutual expressions of admiration were made. I carried on writing new songs and figuring out how I was going to turn them into an album.

A couple of months later an email landed in my inbox.

What’s up?
When do we start recording in the country mansion of your choice? I’m ready.
Short of that, we can do demos in my back room.
Did you connect with Smoke Fairies?
Andy