KlangHaus : Four Storeys day 4

So we are in the middle of our Norwich Klanghaus get-in. Day 4. Improvements so far are, the power distribution was in from day 1. The building is exciting to be in, load in was easy as we can drive in and the building owners are very accommodating. We have a show shape. We have found some interconnecting holes between the floors, so some rope and pulley fun ahead.There is a telephone intercom still connected. It is very cold. We are installing trees in the safest way we know. Let's see if they get past H&S! More soon.

Day 6 KlangHaus :Alight Here

Today we fine tuned. Two shows under our belt, one was passable the other was great! Each show is different because of it's audience. The unique combination of enzymes in the room! We got the bus sound really wide and full, more mics feeding into the PA to spread the sound around the room beyond the bus. The bus sounds fucking great as a resonant room!! Then Mark and I choreographed our movements leading up to Ball in The Hole. It's getting there, getting better. The thrill for the audience is lessened by hesitant movement. We aim to walk with intention at all times. The first show tonight was moved to half an hour later so it was dark enough for the projections, it worked wonderfully. The vibe in show one was wonderful, exciting, electric. The bus ROCKED!! Show two was glorious but a little tamer, with the audience standing further back. Maddy Costa from The Guardian popped up at the hot rum table, lovely!My only fly in the ointment is me being slightly grumpy, getting pissed off at tiny details. So today I'm not going to be like that.

KlangHaus Alight Here Day 4 & 5

The days fly by and also lollop along in treacle at the same time. so much walking, up and down the depot and also around Colchester trying to find equipment, leads and asking favours, so many favours! I enjoyed my Day 4 morning, in the space on my own singing and making friends with the building. We work in a structured way, we check in with each other regularly and make lists and schedules, this stops us drifting aimlessly towards an immovable deadline of TODAY at 6.30pm. Show 1 at 6.30pm was in daylight... by the end the audience could see the projections in the dusk, lesson 1 learned. The first audience was huge, maybe 60 people... but when we got to the bus section,they piled on! They literally rocked the bus. Show one was odd because of it being so light. Show two was a corker. We tightened up some silent gaps, the projections were glorious. Blocked by stars a favourite moment and Go Have Fun. The bus rocked agin, we took our time and were present. Lesson 2, get a non paying 'false-audience' in as part of set up. You cannot know how an audience will feel just by imagining it...you need bodies. We were a bit of a h&S nightmare for the two Arts Centre owners present. the team did really well. I got all bossy and need to pipe down! We end the show under the bus.

Day 2 Colchester Klanging

Days seem to go on forever. Perhaps it's the single focus. It's great, I'm exhausted and I look and it's only 8.30pm, then we relax and it's only 11.30pm. Today is another day of being charming, what a delightful way to spend some hours, being helpful, sunny and buzzing along problem solving. Tomorrow I must do some singing! The pigeons are getting on our tits and we are playing the calls of hawks to piss them off, they are shitting on us in retaliation. We came home and ate wonderful food cooked by Lingford. Great day.

KlangHaus Alight Here : Day 1

It's not all about rushing and being stressed. It's not all about being early and knackering yourself. We took a realistic timescale and all arrived at Colchester from our triangulation of homesteads at 2pm. We went on a hunt for a cherry picker and used all our charms of reassurance to get what we needed. We looked at books in Firstsite Gallery that made us feel sick. We did a floor plan for electric power location needs. Tony George flung locks around and wrenched open doors so we have miraculously got gear safely locked away in anti-rooms. We food shopped, we snacked on mountains of cheese and salty olives. We planned for tomorrow and are soon to be sleeping in this amazing, ancient Georgian house, which feels like it's been modernised to the 1940s. The light switches snap on and off very loudly. A great day after weeks of anxious uncertainty.

KlangHaus: Alight Here, Colchester Old Bus Depot

Tomorrow morning we leave for a weeks KlangHausing at the old Colchester bus depot. The first KlangHaus in a semi derelict building since our early beginnings at Westlegate tower. That comes with it's own challenges, like no insurance possibilities. We are now liaising with over night security guards...interesting and expensive! We have had an amazing week. Funding for the project was confirmed..that was a nerve wracking wait! We confirmed accommodation on Tuesday, again, nerve wracking leaving it so late in the day, but I had a hunch it would work out, lesson learned...follow the hunch! Listen to intuition.We are all in varying states of exhaustion but looking forward to coming together and helping each other thrive. We are on the cusp of becoming full-time artists, thanks to the continuing support and arse-kicking from the Norwich Arts Centre. I hope to share our experience, share our determination and hard work and inspiration with others. Dream and make it real.

Final week at RFH

I'm currently in Dressing Room 15 at The Royal Festival Hall. KlangHaus is about to do it's 33rd show of a run of 41. I am relaxed in here. I iron all the show shirts and do my vocal warm-ups. When we are all in here it's pretty snug, though we calmly fit around each other. Often Mark asleep on the floor or recording/writing songs. Jeron on the sofa. Sal pop's in and out. Jon pop's in and out, he prefers being outside. Lingford will pop in and out. I am often stationed at the ironing board or in the massive bathroom doing some singing or putting my hair up. That's our routine we choose to anchor ourselves. This show has been a wonderful success so far, affecting people on a deep emotional level. This is due to many reasons but Sal and I laugh about how our sexuality as women plays no part...flat shoes and flat chests. I wear a shirt buttoned up to the collar. There is something honest and different about this show. Being in the show actually makes me none the wiser of it's effect. All I know is that it feels pretty damn good to be in. My voice is just about holding up. I got too over emotional on Friday night and over-sang. Then had there shows on the Saturday. The first show I realised I'd lost my vocal power, not really the notes, just the strength. I 'Rod Stewarted' through the next three shows. I remained calm and went with it. I still remain calm, I'm curious as to it's state today, so warming up fully and gently and gargling salt water...weirdly I love gargling with salt water. Then finally I tell myself a story about how my voice will be fine, stoopid, but it works!

15 shows in at The Royal Festival Hall

This is a place in my life that is hyper real and yet unreal. I'm performing daily in the RFH, which feels like an enormous brilliant dream. Trying to maintain energy, be real, be here now. Not only are we at the RFH doing music and singing and mucking around all evening. We get to touch our audience, get close-up. Let them feel the air between us. Once installed we have a lovely time. The build is pretty painful, especially if we are stressed. So a strategy is needed, we will be working on this in the next week. We walk miles to, from and during the show. We behave with grace to all we meet. We attempt our most skillful ways of communication. This is heaven, the world and its politics are mayhem around us. We make our own world in KlangHaus: On Air and allow ourselves, us and the audience to escape for 50 minutes.

Day 3 RFH

On the first day we had to be inducted and sign lots of forms. We were in offices near our workspace in the ceiling, with a view over Waterloo. I had a moment of realisation that this is actually happening and a massive flush of pride...' We are here now'. Rosie is being complimented on her astute risk assessment. This is real. Then to work. What has been great is that over the last two days if one of us has floundered, another has scooped them up and either helped, or distracted them from themselves. We are a strong team, the skills between us are diverse. We are gonna make this show the best yet.

We're about to leave for London

On the eve of leaving. Very tired now but a good day. Collecting artwork, dimmer racks, perspex, ordered sharks tooth gauze,BNC convertors, watched Dan's new video for Jon Hopkins, a drone flight over Stiffkey marshes, so beautiful. Had artwork chopped, we were assisted by all manner of Norwich folk. Sorted a cash-flow plan, paid people we had to. Remembered at 7pm that I hadn't chased up the insurance people... Karen our event manager sent the unhelpful folks a stinging email at 11.30pm...nice! We've done our best and that's all we can do. Sleep well all and let the adventure unravel.

7 days to go before RFH

Feeling calm and determine. Today's list is to be in touch with friends of friends to help on the show, being 'hosts'.To begin the insurance form, that is now urgent! I have an interview with the EDP local newspaper.I need to send Sal the lyrics to new songs we are including in the show. I need to email the head tech re technician requirement times for the get-in week. The biggest task is gathering the component parts for book finishing. We will be taking with us Butcher of Common Sense books to sell. T-shirts will be printed on Tuesday. Artwork is being made tomorrow and hand-outs will be risographed also on Monday. Thursday we will be visiting a school to thank them for lending us 6 school gym benches. In between time we are learning songs. Last week we had two days rehearsal of the music in the country -side at the Bakehouse in Glandford Norfolk. This was heaven. Just time with the music away from logistics. It gave us focus and space and allowed us to visualise and imagine the sound of the building. We visited the building in between rehearsal days. We laughed a lot. Very lucky, delightful times much work ahead.

Rewiring for calm

I find it helpful for me to remember how it feels and what I'm actually doing before a show or set of shows that in my mind are important. So, stress levels rise. I thought I would be able to steadily plan and write songs, but it comes in waves. Waves of nothing then bursts of ideas and energy to push forward. I am making a mental note of this. I berate myself for not steadily completing stuff that needs doing. Came across an idea of work intensely for 20 hours a week and relax intensely for 20 rather than doing 50 hours full pelt. I have certainly had some days where I can't stop working and I am physically trying to balance them with walking around in the sun just thinking about anything. However, I am 50% relaxed... I think the key for me would be to do something more physical so the brain gets de-fragged. I have some exercises to distract my brain from strategising ( my default setting!) they involve eye movements and overloading the brain with menial tasks of humming whilst spinning my eyes in different directions... so,simple and yet you can feel it work! It reminds me of that fantastic discovery of how gaming immediately after a traumatic incident can stop the brain creating flashbacks. Re-wiring. I have been feeling overwhelmed, but that's just a feeling, so I'm changing the feeling so I can get on with stuff. My personal biggest stress buster is singing practice... which is handy. That's what is happening for me three weeks before the show.

The best show on earth

We have a show, 41 shows, at the Royal Festival Hall in July. It is a dream come true. How did that happen then? I want to answer that question so I can remind myself! It came about through a series of events over several years and I think a large part of that was talking to people, making friends with other musicians and artists and building working relationships. We have done large shows in unusual places since 2011 and on a much smaller scale in derelict shops, behind gallery walls and in attics since 2008. The show at the Edinburgh Festival in 2014 was a catapult into having a national profile and being written about in the national press. Building relationships with people over many years, building a reputation for solid, innovative work. Pushing and following up off-the-cuff remarks, "I know an interesting building, perhaps you could do a show in..." Listening to people we trust, trusting our intuition. Avoiding people we don't trust (often after trying to trust them for a year or so!). Talking to people, not worrying if we come to a dead end. We have been especially excited by our own work since our trip to Berlin in 2008 when we took 9 artists and musicians to an extraordinary building The Funkhaus and played games in order to make new work. We became obsessed with the building and its sound/acoustic/resonance and all realised that we could literally 'play', muck about in order to make songs,images,films. As a band we had already been playing together for 10 years. We re-found the fun. we stopped feeling like we had a race to win, to get a record deal, to 'make it'. That was a golden moment. I remember walking on stage at a gig in Belgium not long after sensing this feeling of freedom and saying, "Wow, we don't have to make it". So when faced with the daunting task of making and performing 41 shows at the Royal festival Hall that we want to be exciting, innovative, moving and unforgettable, our armoury is, trust, trust in each other and calmness in order to play, muck about and continue working with a sense of fun and to get on with it. Make enough stuff so that 70% of it can be rubbish and the 30% is more than enough to fill the show. That's the challenge. Join us in July and see what happened!KlangHaus:On Air

Vision & Mission & DNA

A back to basics course on marketing was surprisingly relevant to most areas of my work. I'll try and relay the good bits! 1. What is your VISION? What are we doing? Why are we doing it? Where are we headed? What is your core purpose and your core values? A vision is bigger than you can contain, forces you to grow, longterm direction, how you want the world to be. It's longterm 5-10 years. It touches the heart as well as the head. It's bold and audacious. EXAMPLE: " A just world without poverty' OXFAM KlangHaus : Boundless joy-inducing sound and art pioneers 2. What is your MISSION? The mission is why you exist, the difference you make, how you make the vision happen, what you do and why, your cause. EXAMPLE: " Everything we do... supports our mission: to promote understanding and enjoyment of British, modern and contemporary art." Tate Modern KlangHaus is part architecture, part art installation, part live gig. We take over buildings, respond to the history, the acoustic, the architecture and do live promenade, close-up shows for small audiences of around 30 people. Our intention is to refresh the live gig environment: music is innovative, why have a conservative format. KlangHaus: Bold adventures in sound, light and space. 3. Where might you use your vision? Make it public, share it with all co-workers, headed note paper, email sign-off, invoices, receipts. Use it before a decision is made? Programmes, tickets, translate into different languages. Where might you use your mission.... more internal business, less public...though I think the KlangHaus mission is equal to the vision. 4. BRAND horrible word, but really it means what is your DNA, your essence, what makes KlangHaus KlangHaus, what describes you at your best? For this we use our manifesto: WE ARE bold , innovative, risk-takers, fun and generous. WE WONDER when does a show start and when does a show finish. WE FEEL, we aim to make you feel, we are warm. WE DO take care of the experience people have. All core people you work with must understand your brand. things that are off-brand will be jarring. i.e. if the music you create builds tension, if someone is constantly resolving the tension because it makes them feel more comfortable, that is a problem. Brand - How are you different? A commitment to harmony, melody and meaning. A simple desire to connect with the audience by sharing a narrative. What impact do you have on people? we are known to inspire people, 'A joy-inducing original' The Times What is it that you believe? What are you like? How do you treat people? What do they get? How do you attract people? KH; pioneers, mystery, bring buildings alive, immersive experience, bespoke, experimental, one-off, surprise. What impact do you have on people? Inspire, give permission to others to be theatrical, alternative, innovative, odd. How do you engage people? You can spend time in the installation, participants are up close, so they feel involved, part of it. That's enough of a chunk for now....