Recent Happenings

It’s been a while since our last post (don’t we always say that?) so we thought it was time to add some of our recent goings on to our website! It’s hard to avoid the fact that things have gone a little quiet recently but even though the live shows have become a lot less frequent, we’re still hard at work behind the scenes doing our best to make this album as amazing as possible! However, there’s a few things we need to get you up to speed on first…

A few weeks back (the 25th of October to be precise) we played possibly one of the most amazing and inspiring shows we’ve ever played. Supporting the incredible Kyla La Grange at Edge Hill University‘s brand new Rose Theatre, we had the surreal experience of performing every song we’ve ever released to a near capacity venue. After we’d finished our set there was even a small crowd lining up besides the merch table to grab a signed EP! It may not sound like much but when we’ve been used to playing small scale gigs in front of hardly any people (including the other bands), for us to turn up in Ormskirk and be greeted the way we were was absolutely incredible and we can’t thank everyone who made it happen enough!

Luckily a group of extremely talented individuals, who go by the name of Papertwin, were on hand to film the entire event. Not only that, they decided to use our music on not one but two official videos for Edge Hill University! Have a look below:

Finally, we’d like to just let you know where we all are at the moment. Although Kez and Finney have been living together in Manchester since July (regularly visited by Paton of course), Elle has been living and working in London for the past few months. Naturally, this means it’s a lot harder to arrange things like practice and gigs, but the fundamental structure of the band is still strong and the writing process is still ongoing. As soon as we have any news or updates to announce then we’ll be plastering it all over our Facebook and Twitter pages, thanks for your patience.

Recording in the front room

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The Betnav Sessions – Same Thing After All

A few weeks ago you may remember us mentioning something on our Facebook and Twitter about us filming a few of our songs in a tiny hallway somewhere. It’s been a bit quiet since then but it’s all been for a good reason. Our video guy has been hard at work and now we’re proud to be able to show you this!

The first of a series of videos from The Betnav Sessions, we play a completely brand new song not featured on any of our EPs in a stripped down acoustic style on a vintage second hand piano. We hope you enjoy it! Keep an eye out for the next video in the series in the next week or two.

Filmed and Edited by Robert Myler.
Audio by Daniel Finney.

Special thanks to Elizabeth Andrea and Frank Mathie.

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Inspiration

It doesn’t happen often but every now and then some new music comes along and just seems to captivate you and I’m pretty sure this is what’s happening with Diamond Mine by King Creosote & Jon Hopkins at the moment, I can’t seem to put it down. Here’s the official video to ‘Bubble’, my favourite track from the album:

Jon’s always been a massive inspiration of mine but in the past he’s always been involved in the electronic scene of things more by doing his own solo act and doing the soundtrack to the film ‘Monsters‘. He’s also worked very closely with Coldplay, performing most of the keyboard and co-producing their Viva La Vida album, so it’s really refreshing to see him taking on a project like this and collaborating with someone like King Creosote.

It’s also been giving me a lot of ideas and inspiration for our 2nd EP that we’re working on at the moment as it roughly follows the same kind of pattern that we do; guitars, piano, male/female vocals and a lovely bit of glitch percussion so it’s great to get an insight and see how someone with a lot more experience and know-how approaches the same kind of project. If all goes well then we should have this EP finished by the end of September but whatever happens, we’ll make sure to let you know on our Website, on our Facebook and also on our Twitter as well. Because we’re media whores like that.

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Lots Of Buttons And Lights

As some of you may have noticed, the set up that I use on stage isn’t exactly what you’d call conventional. Quite often I get people coming up to me after a soundcheck or a gig asking about what everything does. Also it’s quite hard to relate what I’m doing on stage with the sound that you actually hear coming out of the PA. When Kez plays his guitar you can actually see the strings being hit and different frets being used and…well…you can sort of see what you’re hearing and it all makes sense!

I just thought I’d throw together a ‘quick’ video to explain my set up and what it is I’m actually doing when we play live. Despite what Elle and Kez say on stage, I’m not on Facebook (and definitely not on some of the other things they may have suggested either).

Equipment List:

  1. Apple Macbook
    The hub of the entire set up. The Macbook runs a program called Ableton Live which contains all the sounds and loops and is controlled by both the Novation 61SL MkII and KORE 2.
  2. Novation 61SL MkII MIDI Controller
    This is the main keyboard, piano/synths are played live using this. Also used for controlling a few FX such as an LP filter on the beats and Bitcrusher on the synth. Connected to the Macbook via USB.
  3. KORE 2 MIDI Controller
    This is the main FX unit which controls a lot of parameters within Ableton, mostly the glitch on the beats. Connected to the Macbook via USB.
  4. MOTU 8 PRE
    The audio interface for the Macbook, connected via Firewire. Has two separate outputs so I can send all the audio to the PA and the metronome separately to the wireless in-ear system we use.
  5. EMU PipeLine Wireless Transceiver System
    A transmitter is connected to the MOTU 8PRE and we each have a wireless receiver with headphones attached. We need to do this because Ableton runs at a fixed tempo and when clips are triggered they will play at the start of the next bar. So for example when Kez is playing his guitar at the start of It’s Over Now, he needs to be able to hear the metronome/click that Ableton is using so that he can play in time for when the drums are triggered when the 2nd verse starts.
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