We Exploded

Hey,

Well, there's been no word from us for a long time and I am afraid it is bad news. I'm not sure who will care now, but I know there are people that definitely did at some point! Before I Explode are no more.

Sophie is going to be leaving to the USA for a while, so even with the internet...gigs become impossible. It is a massive shame to think of the huge effort we put into each and every song and performance. We met some amazing and creative people along the way and I had one of my favourite summers playing around crappy london clubs and flogging our music at next to nothing. For the first time ever I was making music with someone and getting genuine fans, who would not just listen to the music but promote us, take photos and do some fantastic art for us.

So, before we ever even got that big break, we exploded. or rather imploded. the important bit there is the d-e-d. which spells dead. The macbook is in pretty poor shape too. We gigged him too hard...

These days I'm working on my childhood band MINIMUM and working on producing a COUNT FERODO album, so you'll probably hear about it on this page. I'm sure Sophie will be lending her voice to something successful at some point, too.

Well, that's it. I wish I could think of a fitting, more poetic end.

Ciao, for now

Jak
Beforeiexplode

x

d i s a s t e r

jak's mac broke. it just, broke. but all is not lost, it can be fixed! they've managed to recover parts of the hard drive, i think, but we'll see just how much, some point this week. i guess really jak should be the one writing about this, but it's MY TURN and so he's not.

we're finally on i-tunes (and napster and rhapsody)! we've put up our latest 2 cds. minor arcana/bat company is £1.58, and ep2 is £3.49. hopefully this should makes things easier for anyone overseas, i guess postage costs can be a bit of a pain for something that only costs less than a fiver. we're not on spotify yet, but should be soon. then you can put us on all your playlists and show us to all your friends...




i'm going to marrakesh next week, pretty excited. i want to buy a lute or a flute or some sort of violin. or a drum. and put it in ALL of our songs. before i go we should hopefully have started putting together a remade ep1! we're recording a new acoustic it's beautiful up here as well as bulkier versions of both sleeper hit and the skeleton song. hoping that'll be out by the end of the month.


we've some new stickers, too. they have our faces on.


take care. love from sophie x

(oh, it turns out jak's mac is all good. i just couldn't be bothered to rewrite a new blog when i had already put SO much effort into this one. the apple man managed to save everything on it! so, a happy ending...)

Shut The Blog Up

HAIIIIII.

Another blog, haven't done one in time. So, what's the haps peeps? Well, watch this space but in a few weeks...we'll be on spotify oh wooo. Gotta contemporiiiise, be in it to win it.

Played in Oxford the other week. I like that place, even though we only saw it in the dark and I'm pretty sure I was hungover to death. Small crowd but JESUS we are used to that by now. The sound was okay, but not as good the 02 Academy ( 3..) that we played last night. I lost my voice so couldn't do any of my usual vocal garbage, but the sound was pretty sweet. Again a small crowd, but at least we got a dressing room this time.

We totally 100% have to get signed by someone before the summer and get put on a tour. I don't care what they say, I think it's about time we got that privilege (i paid my dues, maaan!). Only sold one cd last night, oh the shame!! I'm going to have to stop getting taxis to gigs at this rate (poor old band fund).

No new songs at the moment, we're just trying to road test the ones we have as much as possible. I'm pretty happy with the set we are jamming out at the moment, it's pretty well rounded. But man, sometimes I just want people to dance to Everything and Nothing, cause I'm always dancing to it when we play it. I guess no one wants to dance to an unsigned support band. Or maybe just us. FA!L.

Anyways, we had a mass prang out about this BBC6 bullshit, as they are the only station to play our music (about some station my friend ash works on, and some spanish radio station). Sort it out fat cats.

OH YEAH. We're going to be on the soundtrack for a documentary being screened at SXSW festival (who Idiot Pilot are playing at, fucking love those guys). More news on that when there's more.

Should be re-releasing It's Beautiful Up Here as just an acoustic track, and an improved Sleeper Hit and The Skeleton Song. A nice little treat for all you ambient lovers who don't approve of the beatz and arpeggios. If we get it on spotify you can just stick it on and fall asleep to it (then wake up and BUY it for a reasonable price).

We need more fans. But love to the ones we still have, who keep popping up at random gigs and leave random facebook comments or myspace ones (it's sad myspace is dying).

Who knows what's gonna happen, all I can say is it's about time we were doing more. So hopefully we will. Who knows, life is cruel and a pain in the ass.


Oh...and last night was the first BIE gig to feature pinch harmonics. I think they were mainly accidental

Jak

XxXx

new cd for sale!

so we've finally got our new cd finished, and done, and dealt with. it's a 2 track ep, featuring our two newest tracks, minor arcana and also bat company. we've put it up on our bigcartel site, if you'd like to buy it, it's cheap at £2.50! :

beforeiexplode.bigcartel.com

it's the first cd in ages where i haven't had to colour in hundreds of castles, there has been no glitter involved... so much easier! but you do get a free sticker...exciting! we've also put the tracks up on our myspace too, for a few days, so if you fancy it, you can listen to them there first. and then buy it! buy it buy it buy it, please buy it.

myspace.com/beforeiexplode

make sure to let us know what you think of the tracks, too.


what else? we finally got some new photos. taken a week or so ago, although we perhaps didn't spend as long as we should have done on them, because we got intimidated by some fishermen. importantly, we got a newly updated version of the infamous keyboard shot!




now that we've got this ep out, i'm going to be re-recording some vocals for an old track, sleeper hit, and i think jak's writing a song with some sampled sea organ in. so, two watery songs. shipwreck songs, for anyone lost at sea. and we've our first oxford gig, on the 27th. google gappy tooth industries for more on that.


take care!
xx sophie.

You've Got Some Blog On Your Face

Welllllwellwellwelll. I trekked up to the studio and got the last elements done with Sophie. I forget how long it takes us to get songs done. When writing, it doesn't take long at all. Y'know, I'll write a song in a week, maybe less, then send it to Sophie, she normally does her vocals and such in about a week, sends it back, i do guitar. BAM, it's ready for the road test in some grotty London venue or wherever. But getting it ready for release and radio play, more stress. Sometimes doing everything apart isn't the easiest option.

The two tracks are, in a way, my favourite two songs. They really feel like an organic pairing; they're both dance influenced, with recurring patterns. Def more electro than ambient this time around, not to say we'll ever drop the ambient sounds though. After heavily layered tracks like Chutzpah! and A Certainty, I felt we needed two songs with s p a c e. I think Bat Company definitely captures that. Again, who is to say which way is better. Have both, that's what i think!

The studio video isn't really insightful. You don't get to see me playing any keyboards or sophie doing any singing. TBF I would make a video of these things, but we've had zero demand for them! I know I said I'd do The Skeleton Song guitar tutorial, but the song is so old and only about 60 cds with it on are out there. It needs a re-recording and maybe re-release, so maybe I should get round to it. You also don't see sophie much in the video because she just hides her face, and me and my shit looking hair are stuck to the lens. Really, I don't look my best in that video AT ALL.

Of course, EP2 is still available from HERE

Not much more going on, got a gig this month (check it on our myspace/facebook). Kept the gigs quiet just to get ourselves sorted with this ep. But now I've got a few days break before mixing starts, I'm getting to work on a new song for y'all. All I can say is it has trumpets in it. About time, I know!

If there are any questions you've got for us, or any tutorials you want doing, drop us a line at beforeiexplode@hotmail.co.uk.

Jak

XxXx

It's all so quiet.

We're not dead, I'm not dead. Just, busy! We've a new release type thing coming out in a couple of weeks, no set date as of yet, and we've just been getting that all sorted and dealt with. It's a double A-side, of sorts, featuring some brand new tracks, Bat Company and Minor Arcana. In a few days we'll have a studio blog for y'all.



Shh. Sophie x

New Year, New Cd, New Blog!!

Well,

another year, another blog! what has been going on, I hear no one cry. Well, I'll tell you. Due to excessive snow and all the xmas jazz, we haven't played any gigs since James' party (epic fail on the way back). Been pretty much partying and playing Zelda, but what's that got to do with anything?!

A new CD, limited to a certain amount (can't remember how many, not many) will be out soon. Consisting of our two newest songs, and currently, my two favourites- Minor Arcana and Bat Company. After getting endless back pain from carting all my FX around, I thought, maybe it's time to live in the future and run my guitar through the laptop. If this happens, be prepared for some freaky new guitar sounds (i'll try not to get carried away). It may look less impressive, but at least I'll still have a working back at 22.

Also, I got a new (very cheap) bass, so expect some BASS RIFFS (a beforeiexplode first). Also just about to start blogging for GigJunkie, so expect to see us up on there soon, in some form or another.

New guitar tutorial to follow soon. It might be The Skeleton Song, which is a very old song but probably one of the better ones on guitar, if you have any suggestions though PLEASE let me know and i'll be more than willing to make one ( piano/keyboard ones also). Even though my friend Joe takes great delight on trying to make work mates or just mates watch them when I'm around, so everyone can laugh at my awkward nature.

Sophie has been without internet for a while, which for us is like a life support machine, so I imagine she's prangin out (word of 2010). Anyway you crazy cats, look forward to our new songs, and please, if you haven't...BUY EP 2. It costs four quid. We make about a pound each out of each cd sold, so yknow, we really would appreciate it. We don't have much spare cash.

Anyway, here's some random and stupid photo of my new bass. I'm so shit at this I can't figure out how to upload the other photos.

love and stuff

jakus xxxx

oh and when we get some money, i'll be investing in a korg nano controller, so we can have live keyboard playing back in the mix!