Today in Glastonbury they were ringing a ‘full peal’ (I think) on the bells of St John’s church. ‘Ringing the Changes’ on New Years Day. A lovely English sound. I thought I’d go & stand outside to record an mp3 of the bells in the pouring rain, under an umbrella. I recorded everything as I walked up the high street towards the church, the rain, the cars swishing past on the wet roads, drunk people trying to dive under my umbrella, footsteps. Usually I’m just staggering around like a twat, swearing to myself, in a hurry to collect my kids & trying not to tread in dog poo whilst writing songs in my head at the same time.
When you walk up a street recording the sound through which you walk, you find yourself listening differently to the world around you. I noticed sounds that would have passed me by otherwise, -drops of water falling from windowsills splashing on the ground; fragments of conversation, birds calling; dogs barking; torn plastic bags flapping on fences; empty crisp packets skipping along the pavement on little whistling gusts; shouts in the distance; dry, raspy little farts escaping from the bottoms of pensioners whizzing past on mobility scooters. OK, I didn’t record any farts today, dry, raspy, little or otherwise, but it’s all a fabulous, crazy kind of music that’s so easy to miss. Anyway, we MIGHT hide some churchbells & stuff that I recorded in the new Flipron album. (Apart from the usual backwards Satanic messages that we use to hypnotise teenagers into wayward misdeeds.) Happy New Year folks! x