Clarissa Hall, creator of the Swapping Stories album trailer, tells us what it was like to work with Tom Gee Band 3 months sounds like a long time to be working on a 5 minute video, but that’s nothing compared to the amount of time and effort Tom Gee Band have put into their debut album, ‘Swapping Stories’. I’d first heard of blues artists Tom Gee Band a while before their EP ‘Better Things To Do’ was released last year and I was excited to be asked to come along to film some behind the scenes of the new recording.  I caught up with them in the studio at the start of February...

So we've been pretty busy since the last post - so I thought I'd put you all in the picture of what's been going on... The biggest news we've got is that we're doing a gig in the capital on SATURDAY 5th May!! Its kind of a big deal - we're being put on by FeedMe Music - who are an agency...so that means - if this gig goes well - then we should get even more gigs out of it!! But...we need a good crowd... So what's the deal? How do I get tickets? How much is it? It's a bit expensive to go all the way to London for a gig!... Well - we've got a coach going down - and we have a couple of spare seats...

It’s all too easy for bands to get behind a computer and declare that they are riding on the crest of some musical revolution found in their garage. And perhaps I am a hypocrite for coming online with the sole purpose of telling you why I love my band. I’ll live with that. However, there is a difference.  The difference is we are not trying to be revolutionaries. We are not interested in fusing musical antonyms together; there will be no punk merged with early musik no opera distorted with grime. Who wants that? Not us. No, we exist as a musical entity with the collective mindset of creating...

Morning. Well, it's afternoon technically but I don't really care. I'm very pleased to announce that we are Tom Gee Band and we are 8 beautiful people strong; David Sudall, Jim Jamm, Gavin Stevenson, Joe Roughton, Matt Newby, Laura Popperwell and Bridie Burkinshaw. And me, but yeah. Sort of goes without saying doesn't it? We have a gig at the Library with our good friend Richard from the 360 Club. It's 27th January a Friday night in Leeds. Get down for a chance to be on the Suzie's Rendez-Vous video! :) AND our 2 new tracks will be available. AND it's the first full band gig. AND it's going...

Okay there were no rocket-propelled grenades but we did launch the EP, sell CD’s and get recorded by the BBC! Yeah really - the performance was recorded for BBC Introducing and will feature on Alan Raw's show, which goes out on BBC Radio Leeds. Alan is a well known supporter of new music. He had us on the show previously for the launch of the ‘Speak Easy’  E.P. and we’ll be back for an interview next Thursday – don’t miss it! It was a top night with three other great acts: Neve, Nigel Passey and Love of the Brave [There was something familiar about the guy on the semi-acoustic but I can’t...

My wonderful girlfriend keeps telling me – “Men can’t multitask” (apparently reading on the loo doesn’t count!) However – On Sunday we shot and edited a promotional video for our E.P. Launch. On Monday after getting the EP mixes back from Roni I took them down to Warwick Pilmer & Tony Bonner at Clipstore in Kirkstall to do the mastering. Took all afternoon but really pleased with the finished product.  Left the boys at Clipstore to do the copying and printing of the CD and went home to upload the tracks to iTunes ahead of the launch on Friday.  Finalised the design for the inlay...

It’s 1:30 am and my phone vibrates. 1 message received from Roni Szpakoswki, it reads; mixes nearly finished just emailed you some rough mp3s let me know ASAP what you think. I’m excited. Roni runs Peak Studios in Bradford as well as his own studio, Peak USA, in Chicago. Yeah, you heard. Chicago. And he’s there mixing the EP. In Chicago. Did I mention it’s being mixed in Chicago? I check out the mixes, couple of things to change, check the time again, it’s almost 2:00 am. Resigned to wait until tomorrow for the final results I email the rough demos to Dave, Dave and Jamie. They’ll get back...

We're in June, we're on tour this month and that is a great feeling. Everything's hectic at the moment, been some fantastic performances by LCM students as part of the ensemble unit down at the Wardrobe all week, great to see the talent I've had the priveledge of performing and learning with for the last 3 years. Can't believe it's over to be honest. I'll be doing my solo performance, joined by my 3 best friends (Dave, Dave and Jim), on 10th June playing a bluesy Clapton-Mayer-Me set, should be a good laugh. I've been fortunate enough to be involved in Bridie Burkinshaw's performance and David...