The record is now out! Well it's really odd now to hold the physical product in our hands after so much time since we started. But its always a good feeling. 

Well this bill is pretty much awesome anyway, but the fact it is practically weeks before our release, in our hometown and NOFX play d"Punk in Drublic" in full and Alkaline Trio played "From Here to Infirmary" in full..... just took the biscuit. We also fitted in another photo shoot. 

Today we announced our first headline tour of the "New Horizons" Cycle. We'll be heading back to  Germany and hitting Bratislava for the first time which is exciting. We'll be joined by our new friends in New Deadline from Holland. 

The first music promo video was released today. A lyric video for the song "The Blindside." 

Today we announced the pre-orders and track listing in full for the album. We also showed for the first time the artwork made by Neal.

"It was take at sunset on Hermosa Beach pier, California. It was about halfway through the session, Jon had flown home the day before after completing his drums and myself and Kev were left to finish up............

Today marks the day we release a teaser video, hinting at news on the album soon. I guess technically this is the start of the PR cycle. It seems like a long time coming but hopefully this diary will show people inside and out of the industry how an independent band makes an album from scratch, and the processes and obstacles that occur. 

Day two in Coventry, UK consisted of a full day at a Green Screen Studio. Which was our first time, and actually really odd. Plus we found the controls so had fun super imposing monkeys into our shots. The post production would be pretty hefty in this video.

Day one of our 2 day shoot for the song "Fractures" in our hometown of Birmingham.

A nice little festival run in Europe to break up the recording cycle.... in clouding our debut at Punk Rock Holiday in Slovenia. Absolutely beautiful country and festival... also on the bill: Ignite, NOFX, Lagwagon, Authority Zero and more

Doing what any English person would in California.... Watch England play in the World Cup at an English Pub and drink Newcastle Brown Ale. 

Only two more songs left to track vocals for....Managed to hit a good rhythm with tracking guitar extras in the morning, hitting the Pita Pit or pizza for lunch... then tracking at two songs vocally in the afternoon. 

Double checking bass comps and dropping some verse clean guitars. Typically on the day we are due to start vocals Neal has a cold. Only the British can get a cold in California in the summer.

So we head to the store to get as many drugs as we can buy. Our friend Coop who is on tour with Bastille kindly invites us over to Sunset strip to go for beers at the legendary Rainbow....So we oblige in the hope we bump into Lemmy.

In the morning we tweak more minor glitches and Kev finishes of the rythym guitars. Jon is now on Coffee duty (Fresh pot!) Neal Starts and finishes All the Bass tracks in the afternoon on a vintage 1977 Fender Precision bass owned by Ken’s Grandfather and used by the late Jason from Pennywise, rumour has it he wrote Bro Hymn on it. We also track through his amplifier.......

Dennis heads over to lend an ear and being the guitar tech for System of a Down he knows a thing or two about guitars more than us. So we spend some time fine tuning the tone for the rhythms and choosing the right guitar and amp/cab combination before laying anything down. 

Everyone pitches in re-stringing the vintage guitars Ken has for us. He also has a stack of amps for us to choose from and play with... including Fletcher's JCM Marshall Slash head which was given to him by Brett Gueritz of Bad Religion/Epitaph for his birthday, and Fletcher's Crate stage amp. 

We settle for a Vintage les Paul through a Slash JCM head and Marshall Cabinet for the majority of the rhythms. Kev ploughes through the majority of the guitar tracks in between minor drum glitches we find in editing.

After a day of tweaking extra drum parts we have an early break as we all feel a little delicate from the Kings win.

We are kindly invited to Ken’s friend’s Cody and Kelly’s for a bbq on Memorial weekend Sunday. Little did we know whey would waste Filet Mignon steak (the best we have ever eaten and expertly cooked by Cody) and $60 bottles of wine on us, with an awesome Avocado Salsa and Lemon Blueberry cake. Felt silly taking Liquor store Chianti and Modelo from Abe's now. They invite us for more meals before we leave, all extremely nice people great company.

Jon finishes off the last three tracks and we send drums for editing and treating to our mixer Dean in Hollywood. We got for our first Tri-Tips down at the ford fair and we take the evening off and go to Critters to watch the LA Kings play off ice hockey game.

Soaked in Bud Light we get over enthusiastic when they win. Little do we know this is the first of many games. We follow up with visiting Fletcher from Pennywise’s opening night of his burger joint The Standing Room. After nearly getting turned away to the “List only” event the bouncer suddenly realises Ken is top of the guest list. We sink Hoisin burgers, sweet potato fries and free beer jubilantly. Go home in a food coma where Dennis reveals he is the proud owner of a Blue Peter badge.

After everyone not being able to sleep due to jet lag and adrenaline, we head to early breakfast on the beach at Scotty's.

We head to Ken’s house and studio bright and early. We meet the studio animals Rags the Dog and Roks the Cat. Drums have already been setup and tuned by Arctic Monkeys' drum tech and sounds great. All pre-prepped and tuned for us so we literally jump straight into laying scratch tracks down for Jon one by one.

Once Jon hits his stride (and gets over splitting his head open early on on the garage door) by the end of the day we have 8 songs fully drum tracked ready for editing. After a productive full day I borrow Dennis's Bike and cycle to Abe's our go to Liquor store for a 24 box of Pabst Blue Ribbons. 

We arrive in LAX at 7:30pm after an 11 hour flight on the behemoth A380 airbus. Ken our manager and all round main man picks us up through the holiday weekend traffic, and we get our first glimpse of Hermosa Beach at night. Dennis our host takes us for a few local beers (Pabst Blue Ribbons) at a veterans bar and food is consumed and an early-ish night is needed as Day 1 begins early tommorrow.

We thought we'd set up with our live crew for one last double-check we are all good to go. We had a few guests drop by to give their opinion.

Nothing better than going where no-one can find you and scribbling away. Cathartic.

Great news not only are we making a new album but we are recording it in LA!. When the option to record in LA came on the table we jumped at the chance, like anyone would. But it’s more than a location to us, it’ll be great to record an album in the same area where a lot of our influences and tour mates are based.

More rough guide vocals going down on the demos with the mobile rig at the lockup. 

We hit double figures. Kev & Jon rejoice.

Things are shaping up....words are starting to form. The lid has been officially taken off the pen. 

So now the cat's out of the bag we better get our heads down writing....another afternoon writing and tracking demos.