Friday 26th May 2006
It Can Be Done
Tuesday 28th March 2006
World At Your Feet
Monday 5th September 2005
Danny: We Won't Let You Down
Friday 24th December 2004
Embrace: Merry Christmas Everybody!
Monday 20th December 2004
Danny: What a year it's been
Sunday 14th November 2004
Danny: It's Absolutely Mental
Monday 8th November 2004
Danny: The Samaritans
Thursday 4th November 2004
Danny: This Could Be Our Time
Sunday 19th September 2004
Danny: The Best Fucking Fans In The World!!
Sunday 5th September 2004
Danny: What Does That Feel Like?
Tuesday 24th August 2004
Danny: Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!
Monday 14th June 2004
Danny: At The End Of A Very Long Road
Monday 5th September 2005
Sorry it's been a while but I wanted to wait until I felt like I really had something to say before writing.
When we finished our last album I really thought it was going to be our last. We were really proud of what we'd done but ultimately I thought it was too late for us. Bands rarely get a second chance. But this year has been without doubt the best the band have ever had... I said when we finished Out Of Nothing that we wouldn't make a better album. I didn't know how we were going to be able to do it. After spending three years hunched over an acoustic guitar I couldn't face a blank page again. I felt like I'd said everything I had to say and that I was just going to be repeating myself if we carried on... Just as we were at our most successful I was seriously considering giving it all up... so was Richard.
So when Andy our label man said that we should go into Youth's studio in Spain and start album five I wished I lived on the moon. My personal life had been shall we say turbulent and I couldn't face it... Now I've no idea what happened in Spain but basically we wrote most of the album in nine days. And we did it in a completely different way to how we'd ever done it in the past. Always in the past me or Richard have written the songs and then we work on them as a band. But we started the nine day session with a blank page and finished with twenty four songs. With the band writing the music and me singing along at the same time... for the first time in my life I felt like I was born to do this. Like I'd been kicking a medicine ball all this time only for Youth and the band to hand me a football and a wide open goal. In those nine days we started writing as a band and something changed. In the past I'd always used the old Dylan analogy about songwriting been like mining for diamonds... Youth was having none of it, he said it's a party you just don't know you're invited.
I won't go on about what it sounds like... it's too easy for bands to say the newest thing they've done is their best... but what I will say is that in nine days we've rendered almost all our back catalogue obsolete. Andy was so impressed with the results of that session he wanted us to put out the album this year... the man who'd spent three years telling us we didn't have the songs was now saying we had the album almost done after nine days. That in all his twenty one years in the business he'd never been so excited about a record. But we wanted to do it again... and so we did... we had another two writing sessions. Songs just kept coming. We now think we've got the album written... It's going to be called "Exploding Machines". I'll tell you why another time. I cant wait for you to hear it so it's lucky that we've got some big gigs coming up.
Last year we were on the dole this year we are playing arenas... We're still pinching ourselves... Theres lots of new people into the band now so we've decided that the three shows at the end of the year are going to be the last time we will ever play some of your old favourites. Also because of the scale of the show things are going to be very different from anything we've ever done in the past. Not only will we be playing some of the new songs from the next album I've just been talking about but we started discussing the production about two months ago with regards to the stage, lights, extras etc etc... it's time for us to take the next step. How do you play arenas when everytime you see a band in one it's always disappointing... You do it by having 10,000 people singing along, by turning it into one big party. A celebration and a big fuck you to all those who said we'd never come this far. Embrace concerts have always been as much about the crowd as they are about the band.
Without you we would be nothing... I just want to say to everyone reading this thank you for giving us this second chance - we won't let you down.
Love,
Danny