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I knew Christmas was just around the corner when the headmaster of the school my grandson attends called me into his office last week. Whatcould Isay but yes? I supposeI've grown into the role over the years! What a joy to be able to ask your grandchild whathe wants for Christmas. If the answer is too expensive I always have the option of explaining the elves are in dispute with the management so he might have to settle for another football! Last year was easy - he was onlyfive - but this year I know I'm going to come under more intensescrutiny. Let's just hope he doesn't start peeping under my beard. I'll have to change my deodorant though as last yearhe commented that"Father Christmas smelt just like you Bampa!"
Christmas is also an opportunity for writers to relaunch any books with a Christmas related theme. Goodreads has listed its top 20 favourite fictional Christmas Books. Click on the image below to view it for yourself but before you do, try and guess which book you think would be top of the list. My guess was that perennial favourite, and my personal number one, Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. I was astonished to find I was wrong. See if you fare any better.
I was delighted to see that listed among them was Dylan Thomas' A Child's Christmas In Wales not just because I'm biased but because it is a magical book. Christmas seems to have inspired many fantastic stories. So much so that the classic fairytale The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Anderson did not even make the top 20. I was also astounded that one of my favourite stories that was turned into a smash hit BBC serial never even got a mention. John Masefiled's The Box of Delights is truly a delight. If you have never read it then give yourself a treat this Christmas. Also do all you can to get a copy of the BBC DVD starring the late great Patrick Troughton. Christmas still provides inspiration for stories from contemporary authors like the ones featured in this blog that embrace many genres.
Probably the most famous Christmas character after the Infant Jesus and Santa Claus is Ebenezer Scrooge the hardened old miser who found redemption and joy in the season of Hope and Forgiveness.I have always been fascinated by this particular character and it was one of the motivational factors behind my own particular Christmas story contribution A Christmas Carol Revisited. Set in contemporary Manhattan it attempts to explore issues that Dickens may well have written about were he alive today. Here is Ebenezer Clinton Scrooge III's take on Christmas as he watches the bustling sidewalk crowds from his penthouse eyrie.
"Scrooge gazed out of the window. Somewhere
below, the river flowed blacker than the Styx through the citys dark heart
into the eternal depths of the poisoned oceans. But Scrooges eyes were fixed
upon another river. The unceasing flow of humanity condemned as surely to
follow the course of existence to its inevitable conclusion as the river was
compelled to flow into the embrace of the blind and restless sea.
Christmas held out hope that the journey
was not in vain. That was one of the reasons he despised it. Christmas was for
the weak, for sentimental fools who had never grasped that salvation in this
world was something to be wrung forcefully from lifes unwilling grip. Once the
presents had been opened and the parties were over what was left apart from
hangovers and a bigger overdraft? He smiled. He was above that now, had been
for years. Just as detached and aloof as the gigantic reflection of himself
superimposed on the vista upon which he cast such a scornful eye."
Ghost stories are aso a great Christmas Tradition so next week we'll take a look at some Indie authors who write within this genre.
The first of our authors with a Christmas theme is Carol DeVaney.
Her novel is entitled 'A Smoky Mountain Christmas' .
Tina Cole has one goal: to take back control of her life. Falling in love isn't
part of the bargain. On the rebound from a fizzled relationship, she lands on
writer Hank Gordon's doorstep and finds that everything she thought she wanted
out of life means nothing without love.
Recently divorced and disillusioned
by love, Hank Gordon has sworn off women. He isn't in the mood to entertain a
woman with an attitude who frustrates him more than any woman hes ever met.
Hanks novel deadline is twenty-four hours away and he's cut off from the world
with no phone or email service, and a beautiful, aggravating crazy woman to
distract him. If Hank thinks his life couldn't get any worse, he's wrong. Not
only is he baby-sitting a sassy Southern princess who has no idea what a kitchen
is for, but two escaped convicts turn up at the cabin, while Hanks horse is
about to foal.
A Smoky Mountain Christmas is available on Amazon Kindle. Click the image to access the book.
The next author is the exotically named 'PY Lab' .
Her Christmas offering is 'A Chinese Christmas Carol' .
After giving birth to her daughter, Joies world begins to fall apart as she becomes a whole different person. She is not the happy person that she once was. One evening, she meets a woman, and from then onwards, she finds herself re-living specific moments of her painful childhood past.
Our third author is Christopher Lord and his book is entitled The Christmas Carol Murders .
Its the holiday season in Dickens Junction, Oregon. Local bookstore owner Simon Alastair is getting ready for the communitys annual celebration of Charles Dickenss well-known story. But when a mysterious stranger shows up in the Junction and is murdered hours later, Simon begins to suspect that his little community has been targeted for destruction by a shadowy organization. And why is everyone suddenly reading Ayn Rand?
Christopher's novel has received rave reviews on Amazon.
[ The Christmas Carol Murders ] is full of love for books...readers will
eat it up. Full of homespun characters and curious goings-on, Lord's mystery is
a love letter to both Dickens and to the small town amateur detectives who've
kept the peace in hamlets from River Heights to Cabot Cove.
- Chelsea
Cain , New York Times best-selling thriller writer
A delicious romp
through the world of Dickens wonderfully imagined in the 21st century by
Christopher Lord. The Christmas Carol Murders has it all: mystery,
eccentric characters galore and a touch of frivolity. You don't have to be a
Dickens fan to fall in love...
- Margaret Coel , New York Times
bestselling author of Buffalo Bill's Dead
"...a different, yet
delightful, type of cozy mystery...coupling old fashioned values with au
courant perspectives and literary interests... The Christmas Carol
Murders is one treat you won't need to beg for! Just go out and get it or
gift wrap it up for a friend!
- Audrey Lawrence , Fresh Fiction
(tinyurl.com/9ocubkf)
Lord [brings] this story to life in an old
fashioned kind of way with a modern day twist...The murders were tastefully
done...[Lord] had me guessing to the very end...Mr. Lord writes with passion,
pulling you into the story, not letting you go until the end, leaving you
wanting more. I say he has a hit on his hands.
- Robin ,
Romancing the Book
NOW: One to look out for:
Kelly S Gamble
Her darkly humorous Christmasnovel They Call Me Crazy is due for release this December.
Roland Adams was just a good ol' boy from Deacon, Kansas. When his wife, Cass, is found trying to dump his body in the Spring River, the town can only come to one conclusion: She's crazy. Certifiable. Always has been.
While Cass' big city lawyer fights for her freedom, Cass' life unfolds, as do her odd relationships with her worm-farming brother-in-law, her psychic grandmother, her gold-digging sister, and her estranged best friend ... her only friend, a promiscuous fifth grade teacher. What binds them together has also torn them apart, and their secrets may be the key to Cass' deliverance.
But Roland is the only one who has all of the answers. And he's not talking.
They Call Me Crazy is due to hit the shelves this December.
Good Luck Kelly
NEXT WEEK: Ghost Stories For Christmas
SwanTV were pleased to contribute to the Dylan Thomas Literary Award ceremony by producing the video shown at the beginning of the evening and by following the finalist during the week as they were involved in different events including talking at local schools to inspire pupils.
Jamie Owen of BBC Wales hosted the event. We heard excepts read by each finalist from their book.
Chibunda Onuzo read from The Spider King's Daughter. Born in Nigeria in 1991, she is the yongest of for children. She gradated fro King's College. London in 2012 with a first in History. When not writing Chibunda can be found playing the piano or singing.
D W Wilson was born and raised in the small towns of the Kooteney Valley, British Columbia. He read from Once You Break a Knuckle . He is the recipient of the University of East Anglia;s inaugural an Booker Prize Scholarship - the most prestigious award available to students in the MA programme. His stories have appeared in literary magazines across Cananda, Ireland and the United Kingdom: and The Dead Roads won the BBC National Short Story Award in 2011. He lives in London.
Seating Arrangements was read by Maggie Shipstead . She graduated from Harvard in 2005 and earned an MFA at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Currently, she is
a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. Seating Arrangements is her first novel.
Tom Benn read an except from The Doll Princess . Born in 1987, he grew up in Stockport. He is a graduate of the UEA Creative Writing MA and was a recipient of the 2009 Malcolm Bradbury bursary.
The White Shadow was read by Andrea Eames who was born in 1985. She was brought up in Zimbabwe, where she attended a Jewish school for six years, a Hindu school for one, a Catholic convent school for two and a half, and then the American International School in Harare. Andrea's family moved to New Zealand in 2002. She worked as a bookseller and editor and now lives in Austin, Texas with her husband. Her first novel, The Cry of the Go-Away Bird, was published in 2011.
It was no surprise to hear that the judges had a tough job selecting a winner, each book was a joy to listen to, and I would highly recommend reading all.
The winner was Maggie Shipstead and she was presented with a cheque for 30,000 by Hannah Ellis, grand-daughter of Dylan Thomas.
The
evening celebrations were held at the Waterfront Museum, Swansea and
this was a superb sumptuous setting for such a glittering prize. 
This is a bi-annual event and will coincide with the century of the birth of Dylan Thomas.
- More local info at http://swanseabay-tv.blogspot.co.uk/
RNA visit to St Andrews Junior School Service of Remembrance
Sometimes we tend to dismiss the children of today as being so preoccupied with playing computer games and watching TV, theyre totally oblivious to routine events that are occurring all around them.
But this morning the children of St Andrews showed how wrong that assumption can be as they welcomed numerous ex-members from all the branches of the Armed Services to their Service of Remembrance.
I have to say we felt very humbled and extremely proud as we entered the hall and saw the children all standing to attention, their faces glowing with awe and respect for us Old Soldiers and Sailors who came to spend an hour with them.
Acting Head Teacher Mrs Lesley James made the introductory comments before the children sang I Vow To Thee My Country and The Remembrance Said so beautifully there were a few discreet dabs of the hanky to moist eyes by both teachers and visitors.
The crisp, clear tones of Last Post preceded a dignified minutes silence, followed by a touching Reveille.
The children then sang Blowing In The Wind.
This was followed by the beautifully written poem Alls Quiet , read with amazing authority by Jacob Marsh. Even the Right Worshipful Mayor of Newport Councillor John Guy was seen to slip a tissue from his robes and give a discreet blow of his nose.
We were then invited to lay wreaths around a tree outside in the yard, and again the children performed their duty with dignity and respect.
Afterwards we all gathered for a welcome cup of tea and a selection of biscuits in the Staff Room (is it still called that?) and spun our old salty tales to the children, who gave a good impression of believing some of them.
One young lad - Im sorry I didnt catch his name - brought in some wonderful mementos from his grandfathers time in the Army and his face beamed with pride as he showed them to us, handling them with enormous tenderness and respect.
So, on behalf of Newport RNA and all who were invited to this wonderful day, a heartfelt thank you to the Acting Head, all the teachers who worked so hard to make this day special, and especially the children.
God Bless you all.
A harsh winter in store I wonder?
Shrubs with an abundance of red berries, little mice searching for warm shelter in the house and enormous spiders webs are just some of the countless old wives tales that suggest a harsh winter is on its way. Some believe that nature has its own way of telling us what the weather has in store and they feel that the forecast can often be determined by the behaviour of animals and plants. Farmers, amongst others, who work the land and with animals are very familiar with these superstitions and many are passed from generation to generation. Between the covers of a new picture book published by Pont Books, A Very Berry Christmas you will find shiny red berries on a tree and the tree is covered in snow!
In this magical story by David FitzGerald and Robert Dudley, snow has been falling all over Wales and is a thick white blanket over the garden of T Penybryn, home to Mr Hedges and his dog Meg. As Mr Hedges feeds the birds and breaks the ice in the bird bowl so that they have water to drink, Meg is having a whale of a time jumping around in the snow. But the snow soon starts to fall even faster and by the following day, the roads are closed.
It just wont be the same this Christmas, said Mr Hedges sadly when he realised that he wouldnt be able to get to the shop to buy his Christmas tree this year. Having found the box of decorations in the attic, he attempts to decorate one of the trees in the garden, but despite his best efforts, it looks nothing like he had planned. But watching Mr Hedges from a branch is a robin with a red berry in his beak. Before long the sky is filled with birds and by the time the sun sets on Christmas Eve, all the birds have brought a little gift for the tree. On Christmas morning, Mr Hedges opens the curtain and a magical sight awaits him decorated with berries, holly, feathers and icicles the most beautiful tree he has ever seen. It will be A Very Berry Christmas for Mr Hedges!
This enchanting Christmas story also encourages children to notice the wildlife around them. The book contains detailed illustrations of birds such as the robin, the thrush and the blackbird, each one possessing their own unique characteristics. The RSPB encourages families to go outdoors and enjoy the fresh air, giving children the chance to learn more and appreciate nature. In a recent survey, the charity found that childrens disconnection with nature is one of the biggest threats facing the natural world and wildlife and considering the many threats that face our wildlife, it is quite a statement.
So why not go out into the garden with the children to look at the birds and see if you can name them before cuddling up inside to enjoy the heart-warming tale of Mr Hedges and his very special Christmas present?
David FitzGerald is the voice of Saturday mornings on BBC Radio Devon. He started out in radio in the early 1980s, before moving to television, reporting for Sky News. He is also an experienced writer, having scripted television favourites such as The Bill and Spitting Image. He also co-authored three highly successful, humorous stories for children with Simon Weston OBE A Nod from Nelson , Nelson to the Rescue and Nelson at Sea .
Robert Dudley is a celebrated painter and teacher, whose work reflects his love of the British landscape. He lives in Devon with his wife Sin, who is also an artist. His work has been widely exhibited across the UK, but younger readers will know him best for his work on popular CBBC show Shaun the Sheep .
A Very Berry Christmas is available from all good bookshops and online retailers.
For more information, please visit www.gomer.co.uk
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Folks, we need your cooperation with any Christmas orders you wish to place with us. We are asking that you place your orders EARLY and that you separate any products listed under the 2012 Christmas Products Category from those in other categories. This simplifies our processes in shipping our orders. Due to shipping problems with our suppliers on the East Coast we have some delays on receiving all the products we have ordered and show on our website.
We have many British Football (soccer) products on line for the top league teams and will have Team Scarves available for viewing in the next day or so along with Irish, Welsh, Scottish, English and British U J Flag Scarves also available for purchase as presents or for yourself. Look at our perfume items for that special lady in your life, as we carry Woods of Windsor and Bronnley products amongst others for your choosing. Coronation Street 50th Anniversary Pint Sized Mugs and Mugs available for those of you that remember seeing this sitcom on TV when you resided there. All your favourite British Christmas foods , desserts and cakes await you, along with a fine selection of Christmas Crackers to decorate the table along with the joy of pulling them and seeing what gifts they contain and then wearing the Crowns that are also placed inside.
Have relatives or friends in Britain or other parts of the world that wish to gift you British products ? Let them have our website address to purchase and we will deliver to you at domestic shipping charges, not the high international costs involved from shipping directly from Britain.
As always, we appreciate your continued support of our efforts on bringing you joy from Britain and Ireland throughout the year and especially for the Christmas and New Year Season. May I and my staff ask you to place a prayer for Susan and her brother Andrew. Susan, one of our helpers, is presently in Britain at the side of her brother who is suffering from Prostate Cancer and is not expected to survive for more than a few weeks. Your Prayers and support would be greatly appreciated by us all and any messages of support will be sent to Susan.
Yours Gratefully Harry, Greg, Susan and Chris our wonderful Webmaster.
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Here at the AmeriCymru bunker ( built to withstand natural disasters, electoral media storms etc ) we have received credible reports that the Points Reward System is working reliably and ready for prime time.
Consequently we have decided to announce the date of the first annual AmeriCymru prize day. The date in question is October 27th 2013. This coincides with the birthday of a certain famous Welsh literary figure ( no prizes for guessing who ) and we felt that it was an appropriate occasion to reward our members for their creativity and contributions to the site.
To add to the fun we have constructed a Rewards System of such Byzantine complexity that it cannot fail to engage if only for the satisfaction of being able to say that you have truly mastered its intricacies
Points Reward System Explained
It's a long time till Oct 27th 2013. In fact in these here United States of Arithmetic we reckon it's the best part of 12 months. We are allowing a full year for people to advance their rankings so that there is plenty of time and folks can proceed in a relatively leisurely manner. More prizes will be announced as we proceed.
Any and all disputes, claims for arbitration etc will be referred to our umpire and referee , Swansea Jack who ( for a small fee ) will ensure fair play.
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Ghost Carriage Phantoms - The Boy Lives More details here.
AmeriCymru: Hi Michael and many thanks for agreeing to be interviewed by AmeriCymru. How did Ghost Carriage Phantoms come into being?
I'd been in a band for a long time and it had made me very very unhappy. then when we split up i was, paradoxically, even less happy. at around the same time i started having conversations with my friend mark estall about how we would go about doing things were either of us to get back into music again - he'd had a similar experience with a band he'd been in for many years and so we were in the same shaped boat - eventually we decided we may as well put our ideas into practice and start a band populated only by people we loved and wanted to spend time with, one that had no secondary motives - meaning nobody is looking to get famous or rich and nobody is looking to take the spotlight or get involved in power struggles or ego clashes - the usual stuff that makes being in the wrong sort of band an horrendous experience.
We wrote up a set of rules, like a manifesto and there were all kinds of ridiculous things in there that we never even tried to stick to. but it said something about us that that's the approach we wanted to take - away from the music business, away from the egotism of rock bands, away from the constant disappointments of the exploitative promoters and industry people we'd all had such a poor experience with. so it was myself, mark, a guitar player and filmmaker called shaun grimsley , our drummer stuart and kate quigley playing bass who has since left us to live a proper life but who I hope shall return to at least record with us at some point down the line.we just wanted to spend more time together and enjoy making music without any kind of goals or concerns about outside opinion. actually we didn't really care if we were any good or not either, just as long as we were happy and there was no element of dishonesty to what we were doing. most bands are liars you know? they'll pretend to be about the music or about the work but there are other agendas at play - same as with almost everyone in the business - there's always an element of dirty self-promotion and cruel ambition under the nails of even the most clear-hearted seeming people. anyway we went along like that occasionally rehearsing, bringing in stranger and stranger sounding material and we were working under the name Grace Cathedral Park , named for the red house painters song rather than the park itself in san francisco (none of us has ever been there). we couldn't fix on a genre, we couldn't settle on what anyone was really doing in the band even...it was fantastic to be honest. we tried to write a set that consisted entirely of a cover version of an old a-ha song with stretches of it improvised and pulled into post-rock. that must sound awful. it never quite came off happily for all involved.
We ended up finding this old great western railways logo that an artist who collaborates with us called lucy williams re-shaped to read GCP and so we realised that everything from there on in would use those initials and that's the plan now. we've played some shows as grace cathedral park - we've only ever played at one venue in south east London the fox in lewisham (because the people who run the place are people we trust) and every time we play the set is totally different. each set is purpose-written and the last twice that's meant performing a single song that lasts 30 minutes whereas before we've done 6 song pop sets and even a full hour set of mostly acoustic misery accompanied with video and artwork. we did a fully improvised electronica set under the name great carpathian poets where i got to wear a lion hat and mark dressed as an eagle. that was good. people didn't enjoy that if i'm honest though. never mind.
Ghost Carriage Phantoms came into being, to finally answer your question, because i was writing songs and recording them on garageband and mark was ready to produce something unlike that which he had produced before. we saw it could be another incarnation of GCP and pretty soon we were making the record in mark's bedroom. The songs didnt suit grace cathedral park so they found another life here. not wildly dramatic i'm afraid.
AmeriCymru: From your press release we learn that your first release The Boy Lives is - based around the conceit of making a record that would sound like the ghost of a robot child. Care to tell us more?
I really like the film AI . it has a bad reputation but that film reduced me to tears. the last 40 minutes of that film are pure poetry. that was kind of in the back of my mind when we started asking ourselves how the album should sound. mark sums it up really well by saying that it's the sound of nostalgia from the point of view of someone who is old enough to appreciate that the past is never coming back. i'm obsessed with things sounding slightly otherworldly, slightly out of place. it doesn't come much more 'other' than trying to sound like 'the ghost of a robot child' i suppose. it's really pretentious but we laugh about it as much as we take it seriously. i think it does sound like that but who knows?
AmeriCymru: We also learn that at some point during the recording you "went through the process of tearing out all elements of singer-songwriter bullshit". What exactly did that entail?
I'm a rudimentary musician at best so the demos were scratched out on my girlfriends acoustic guitar. Very simple songs with very simple strummed chords and the occasional arpeggio part that I probably couldnt even play well enough to record for an actual record. so what we could have done is record a straightforward acoustic singer-songwriter record and maybe shaun would have played my guitar parts or something. doesnt that sound wildly unappealing? It does to me, so we went entirely the other way sub bass, beats, synth, lots of percussion, auto-tune mark just got in there and used his immense production and arrangement skills to turn these weird shells of songs into even more strange and strangely appealing metallic creatures. id keep insisting as we went along that I wanted to make a dubstep album and that all the vocals should be auto-tuned out of all recognition. luckily mark didnt listen too hard to that. though theres always the next album
AmeriCymru: OK the usual boring question about influences. The album as a whole reminded me of early Magnetic Fields ( and is at least as good ). Who do you feel that you have been influenced by?
It's extremely kind of you to draw a comparison between us and magnetic fields . I strongly believe that stephen merritt is a latterday one-man bacharach and david , just with added weariness and spite. Which only makes me love him more. mark, lucy and I saw them play recently and it was one of the highlights of my year I think. so yes, they are an influence for both myself and mark but not, I think, as prominent a one as people like mark kozelek , leonard cohen , john cale , paul simon there are influences that are reflected specifically in the phantoms endeavour that dont necessarily shine through in the other gcp incarnations people like james blake , squarepusher , radiohead , aphex twin , r stevie moore . In grace cathedral park we probably show off a little more of our appreciation of bands like mogwai , slint, swans sometimes a little bit of superchunk , afghan whigs ..that kind of thing (not that I would compare us to any of those bands we just like them!) i think im most inspired by whats going on around me shaun, mark, stuart, lucy, their work and what they bring to the room influences me. other bands i know and respect, people we've played with or spent time with like flash bang band , sweetheart contract , vaelium , the understudies , civil love . mark and I run our own label and we put out a record for blue balloon this year and rob who plays in blue balloon and now plays in the live incarnation of ghost carriage phantoms is the songwriter id say has had the most influence on me in recent years. the guy is an actual, legitimate genius. gcp as a whole is as influenced by filmmakers, artists, comic books, charlie brown and cm punk as we are by bands though. The DIY ethic of minor threat and the straight, unbending, music for music's sake attitude of shellac are perhaps the two facets of modern music I look up to the most if we need to get musical/political about it.
AmeriCymru: Your lyrics resemble poems that have been set to music. Which comes first for you ? The words or the music?
Well when springsteen did an acoustic show followed by a Q&A in the states he said hed answer anythingexcept for what comes first, the words or the music? so that question made me laugh. i used to write a lot of bad poetry as a teenager and I think thats still evident in some of my work. I often look back on lines and think really? Are you sure thats good? and sometimes the answer is a hefty no. not so much on this record though, i actually like most of it quite a lot.
The process is as simple as this a melody comes out and if it sticks with me then the guitar gets picked up and the words fall in line into that melody while I try to keep up on guitar. so everything comes at once, almost every time.
With grace cathedral park its entirely different anything can happen I might bring in a whole set, or shaun might or we may bring in half a dozen songs between us or literally write from scratch based on a drumbeat. thats the stuff I enjoy most.
AmeriCymru: What can you tell us about 'The Projectionist'? Shades of John Cale?
When I was a child i saw the formative films of my youth at the castle cinema in merthyr tydfil . The building had its ups and downs turned into a venue briefly, a bingo hall, back into a cinema and finally fell into disrepair. rather than sort it out the council demolished this enormous, beautiful palace of a building that loomed large in the hearts of anyone whod been old enough to go there. it makes me sick when you see these astonishing places, cinemas and theatres, with this rich history turned into branches of wetherspoons so people can drink themselves to death while funding far right politics but the actual mindless lack of imagination involved in destroying something as wonderful as that just seemed even more inhuman. so i conjured this sad man whod been working at the cinema for his whole life and in exchange for his life being taken from him hes going to finally break from reality and murder everyone he can lay his hands on. theres so much rage in there even though it comes across as quite prosaic.
Again, very kind of you to mention mr cale. the boy is a hero.
He and a few others have done spoken word very well so I thought id just have a go because it suited what I was trying to say.
AmeriCymru: Where and how can people obtain copies of 'The Boy Lives'?
From marketstall records, from our bandcamp, from our shows..they can ring me and ask me for one, they can take hostages and demand one, they can stalk us on facebook and hack our hotmail accounts until we surrender a copyideally one of the first three options though. if people buy it instead of ripping it off the internet then well get to make another one. if they dont, we wont. simple as that. and also theyll get to own something beautiful and handmade even if you think were terrible the packaging is neat.
AmeriCymru: What are you listening to at the moment? Any recommendations?
I'm listening almost exclusively to prefab sprout at the moment. paddy mcalloon may be the most undervalued songwriter of the last 20/30 years. Id recommend blue balloon to anyone (even though thats on our label so very cheeky of me to say so) and you cant go far wrong with a bit of low now that its getting nice and wintery.
You're based in portland is that right? do you know ross cowman and his label bicycle records and his band june madrona ? That band is just perfect. hes an amazing human being too.
AmeriCymru: What's next for Michael Hall?
We'll play a bunch of shows as ghost carriage phantoms. I doubt any two shows will be quite the same but they will have songs from the album on the set list. weve reined ourselves to that. well try to break even on the record and then well be releasing the first grace cathedral park album which may be a double album in spring 2013, thats called ante rock and then I hope well work on a second blue balloon album for rob. shaun and i are writing scripts, we just had one optioned by a little uk studio, were making music videos, well make films. im still hoping to get a book of photography by anni timms with accompanying writing by myself published somehowtherell be another phantoms record at some point too i hope. Im still writing a lot about music for various placesi know mark is getting more and more production work were busy. we just want to stay legit and create and make and make and create and enjoy the process that we all love so much. more of that, forever.
AmeriCymru: Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?
Thanks for reading this far.
Interview by Ceri Shaw Ceri Shaw on Google+
