We’re celebrating Record Store Day on 21st April by releasing a limited edition run of 250 CDs – the Ghostess Live Studio Sessions.

“Ah Pip do you remember the giddy dance we would do down the promenade after buying a new CD from Mr Milligan at the Virgin Megastore?”

For me, Record Store Day is not about the nostalgia of ye olde days, it’s about enjoying music on CDs, vinyl and cassettes as well as online. It’s also about a physical place you can buy these things at, talk to staff about music, buy things you wouldn’t normally buy, look at packaging…

With unlimited tracks to listen to on Spotify and YouTube, I browse and channel-hop, but sometimes find I treat music too lightly. It can feel harder to fall in love with music like that and harder to remember which songs I’ve fallen in love with.

I still love … Read the rest

So we’ve covered The Lyrics Table and the previously unreleased video for The Light. The rest of the DVD is taken up by a full-length live concert and a track-by-track interview.

The live concert featured was shot in a small chapel in Soho, London, shortly after the album was completed. You might already be familiar with it if you’ve seen this video:

It’s all rather semi-acoustic and stripped back – very different to the album or how you’d see us live now – which I hope makes it more interesting to watch.

The tracklisting goes like this:
The Light
Reeling
I Saw Something
Pondering On A Scenario In Which I Am The Hero
Freddie Laid The Smackdown
This City
Inside My Mind (unplugged)
Sideline (unplugged)
Be With Me Once More (sort of unplugged)
Feet Don’t Fail Me Now
Many Fish To Fry

Finally, we also filmed a track-by-track interview … Read the rest

A while back I got mentioned on twitter when a guy randomly drew this:

\

Needless to say I was impressed. Because look at it – it’s bloody brilliant.

It was the work of Mister Castro, a creative type who’d recently moved from Edinburgh to New Zealand. I looked at the rest of his portfolio and saw this:


And bizarrely this (which it should be pointed out to youngsters is a totally accurate non-comedy educational video):

After that I asked him if he was interested in making a video for The Light. Happily…. he was.

Even more happily, the resulting video is extremely beautiful. We stuck it in the music videos section of the DVD as an exclusive, next to other sections that I’ve been writing about.
If that’s too annoying just wait until someone rips it and puts it on youtube :-)

much love again
jake x… Read the rest

I miss gigging. I used to do it all the time, and now I just do it in tour bursts with big gaps in between. This is a privilege, and great if you’re writing a new album, but if you’re busy promoting an existing one then not so good. Whatever happened to heading out the door with a guitar on your back and not knowing what happens next?

I’ve decided to spend April gigging up and down the country playing open mics and little acoustic nights.

– I want to reconnect with playing live
– It’ll help promote the full band tour in May
– I love finding cool songwriters and new music. I’ll ask ones I like to open the gigs we do in May
– I want to have an adventure. I like adventures.

If you know of or run little acoustic gigs and there’s a slot … Read the rest

This is my table at home. Each morning I shovel cereal into my face here whilst reading crap on the internet.

Underneath though, it looks like this:

Lyrics to every song on the album are there. Some are written on with marker pen, some are the original scraps of paper that I first wrote the words on, complete with crossings out and changes of mind, all pinned to the wood. One day I’ll auction it off for charity, or put it on freecycle or something, but for now I still need it to eat from.

On the DVD you can explore each section of the table whilst listening to the album. It’s got plenty of other sections too – I’ll talk about a different section tomorrow.

Hope you’re all enjoying the spring weather. Love and best wishes to all, including people who aren’t reading this which let’s face it is … Read the rest

I’ve set up a new email address – supports@jakemorleycom-2.onyx-sites.io – for anyone looking for a support slot at my gigs.

Who knows whether I’ll do one more tour or 100, but either way I want to take pride in which other acts play at my gigs. So where I can, I’ll pick them myself.

Also – I love listening to new music. So it’s a double win for me :-)

Keep it simple, short and friendly. Weblinks are better than attachments.

I won’t reply to everyone, but I will listen to everyone. Promise.
Love
Jake… Read the rest

Robert Sherman died yesterday. Together with his brother Richard they wrote the music to Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Jungle Book, Bedknobs and Broomsticks… Loved their music a lot.

… Read the rest

I’ve never been good at receiving compliments – so how do I feel about criticism? Especially a comprehensive annihilation of the idea there’s any worth in my music at all. I got served properly in Paul Lester’s piece in The Guardian last week.

For a little while I decided not to read it. The ‘ignore your own press’ mantra has always been an attractive one. But ignoring has to be a thoughtless act, not an incessant effort, and I was failing at that so I read it.

I can’t pretend his critique was totally off the mark. Yes some of the lyrics on MFTF don’t lay out the secrets of the universe like a tapestry at your feet. I don’t have that fantasy other-worldliness quality of Lady Gaga at the O2 or Ziggy Stardust in 1973.

But then I’m not a stadium act, and playing that grandiose shit would feel … Read the rest

In May, me and the band play gigs in Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, London, Bury, Leeds, Kendal, York, Sheffield, Liverpool, Cardiff, Exeter and Bristol, with more TBC.

Wow… exciting but that’s a lot of tickets to sell, and I’m no Ed Sheeran. I think I’m going to need some help.

I’m looking for local champions for each of these gigs. If you’re up for lending a hand, I’m up for giving you free stuff. The more hands you lend, the more ways I’ll think of to say thank you and the better each gig will be. Here are a few things you could do, but maybe you can think of more?
    – make a noise about the gig online and in real life
    – bug your local blog, radio station or newspaper about it
    – put up posters and give out flyers (if you’re allowed to)
    – help collect … Read the rest