An Article

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Selling my van

Right world,
I’m flogging my cruising / gigging / surfing / festivalling van:

Citroen Dispatch van – 1.9 diesel. (cheap to insure, and to run)
W452 BFC (year 2000)

3 seater, 2 sliding doors, 5 speed, stereo (tape, admittedly, but I’ll leave the adaptor for plugging in the iPod)
MOT until 22 April 2013 – tax until end of January 2013.
Tax is around £200 for the year.
It’s plywood lined in the back, and I’ve carpeted the doors & roof for insulation and to lower noise when travelling at speed.I have fitted a double bed to the back which pops out entirely in 5 minutes so you have a full empty van if you need to transport large things.

Down-points – it needs about a hundred quid spending on these things, and I can’t be bothered, so I’m selling it remarkably cheaply out of laziness:

A small air leak in the fuel system. This only really makes itself known if you park up for more than 12 hours, you have to pump the fuel primer 2 or 3 times before starting up. This can be fixed easily by a garage looking at which pipe in or out of the fuel pump need a jubilee clip putting on it.
This hasn’t bothered me much, so I’ve ignored it for about 4 months. No hassle.
There is a fuse needs changing as the fan in the cab has stopped. Not affecting the vehicle performance in any way, just means you can’t blow hot air on your face at full force, although there is still temperature control. Again, this hasn’t bothered me so I haven’t bothered sorting it.

Wheel-arch in the back is letting a little water in so the carpet is a bit damp when it rains. Again, not a big enough problem to bother me enough to sort it. Obviously, that’s up from bottom, so it doesn’t rain inside. All my equipment has been fine, and I’ve been camping in it fine.

I’m hoping to get £600 for this.

Spread the word if you’re not interested. I’m keen to sell as soon as possible.

Cheers,
Lukas

07929 415 051
lukasdrinkwater@gmail.com

I’m selling as it’s time for me to get something a bit bigger again. Me and my band compadres need to fit ourselves and our gear in, and it’s pushing it a bit in a Citroen Dispatch.

Cheers.

Absent Friends

So, today I’m having an overly emotionally charged one.

I’m missing a lot of people.

 

I’ve been living in Exeter for over a month now, and prior to that I had a nomadic month living between my van, my brother’s sofa (which I secretly enjoyed more than he knows) and being on tour with 3 Daft Monkeys.

The dust is now settling from what has been a pretty explosive few months and I am now installed in my new home-town.

I’ve been living in Cornwall for nearly all my life. Most of the time I’ve had a pretty varied travel schedule, I’ve been lucky enough to live in France for a stint as a child and to travel to lots of exotic countries on sailing trips and on tour with bands, but for the most part have always come home to where my family are. And by family, I mean extended family, the friends who have loved me like I’m one of their own as well as my blood relatives.

Now the festival season has come to an end, and my touring up and down the country has slowed down considerably I have a bit more time at home on my hands, and now my home is somewhere else, I feel quite different about it.
For the last year there has been a girlfriend in my home – that is no longer the case, for reasons I will never fully understand.
It is my own doing I know, but it still takes some adjusting.

There’s also been my brother and his 2 little boys living just down the road, and my dear friend Truen living round the corner, regularly popping by for a late night smoke & cuppa.

There’s been my Mum and her collection of Dalmatians living only a few miles away, and countless other friends and family within a short drive/walk/bikeride.

Let’s just say I’ve never been short of company from the ones who I love and who love me.

Now I live in a new town. I’m blessed to have moved here with friends I know nearby to keep me entertained, give me work to do, inspire me and keep me company.
I am conscious of the fact that my life is a million times better than it could be, and I am eternally grateful that I’ve been given the opportunities that I have, and that I’ve been loved as much as I am.
The thing is, it does feel a bit lonely. I am in a shared house living with people I don’t know. They’re really lovely and I could’ve done a lot worse. In fact I’ll go further and say that I’ve absolutely struck gold with my housemates.
It still doesn’t feel quite the same as having the family just around the corner.

 

Fortunately for me, my home is only a 2 hour drive away, and I still have regular cause to go back and see everyone, so although I miss a lot of people, I get to see them every few weeks.

 

Today I felt deeply sad about the friends I’ll never get to see again. I’ve been thinking about the whole process of missing people. The feeling of longing is more present in my world right now than it has been for years.

I miss my family so much, but I know it’s fine. I’m heading back to Cornwall at the weekend to have a rehearsal with my band Frootful, and I’ll get to see Mum, my brothers Matt & Dan, and nephews and all the friends I can fit in to an action packed weekend and I’ll be topped up again.

There are friends who are truly gone. I miss a lot of people whose company I’ll never be topped up on again.

 

Here’s to you Dom, Matt, Danny, Bob, Sandy & Deirdre.

 

 

I love you all.

X

thanks Gladys for looking after me today while I hit the bottom. X

Joining the revolution

Sadly, after refusing to take part in the ‘Facebook musician’s page Like-a-thon’ that all musicians are judged by, I have finally had to give in.

The truth is, there probably aren’t hundreds of people that will ‘like’ me on Facebook, and that’s just fine, but alas as a chap who is doing more work as a solo musician, most promoters or venues aren’t willing to consider me solely on merit, or quality even.

It seems that the true measure of how bookable an act is now, is the number of ‘likes’ received on Facebook. I understand that it is a way of measuring popularity and therefore could give an idea of how likely the act is to bring a return to the venue, but it could also just be marketing strategy for a pile of shite.

Just saying.

Up until now it’s been quite easy for me, I’ve worked in bands where we all take a share of the load of pestering folk to ‘like’ the page and interact. It seems a whole lot less selfish to do it as a group, but a part of me dies when I am touting for ‘likes’ for my own solo page.

It is a must however, so if you’ve read this, please do me a favour and go and LIKE my page.

https://www.facebook.com/lukasdrinkwatermusic

Thanks.

X

New Direction – Man

There’s a lot of newness in the offing.

In April this year I played at a small festival in Harrogate called Harefest, at Harefield Hall. There I proceeded to get utterly shitfaced after we played, which is usual for me, especially when there’s a real ale bar that doesn’t charge musicians for booze.

During this drinking session I got to meet loads of new people and made loads of friends – Some of whom probably know me as ‘that wreck-head bass-player’ – but hey, that’s an occupational hazard.

Two of the people I met there, and whose performance I witnessed, and adored were Alex & Emily Johnstone of the band

The Big V.

 

 

These two are a brother and sister duo from Exeter who totally blew my mind with their originality and obscene amounts of talent. So much so that I offered myself to them should they ever wish to play some music with me.

4 months later – I’m in their band, and am moving in to their studio.

Amazing how quickly things move in my world.

It seems like providence, as I had to move out of my current house in Cornwall for various reasons, not least financial, and had been considering a caravan for the remainder of summer to help me pay off some debts.

This also proposes a good option for other projects I’m involved with, two of which are based in Exeter: Lack of Afro & The Unity Sextet – Meaning I can get a load more work done with them, and a lot less travel.

Having made this decision, I started to consider what other options I had for work in that area and decided to trawl deep around contacts and friends, and so far it’s looking really prosperous. It transpires that I’ve got quite a few mates in the area, and there’s quite a lot of hope for gigs for me around the place, involving a lot less driving distances than the gigs I do in Cornwall. So all in all, I think it’s going to be a winner.

I am still terrified, as it means leaving the immediate vicinity of my family, whom I absolutely adore and spend a lot of time with, particularly my adorable nephews, and consequently my slightly less adorable, but equally loved brother and best friend Dan.

Worst of all is the distance from the surf.

Surfing is a huge part of my life, and when I’m not away on tour, I like to get in the sea as often as I can, which is why I’ve been living where I do as it’s between 2 of the finest surfing spots in the UK.

This is a hard thing to swallow, but in my line of work, the prospects are seriously slim in Cornwall, and even a move to somewhere like Exeter can really increase the work available.

So off I go.

In the meantime, here’s a new piece of music I wrote recently, spurred on by all the change in my life.

This is entirely unlike anything I’ve written before, so I’m keen to see what people think of it.

I wrote the main acoustic guitar part without even realising. I was watching a surf movie online one night, having a smoke and noodling on my guitar. When the movie ended, I carried on playing and realised I’d come up with something without thinking about it.

I immediately set to work and recorded the guitar part. It grew from there, and within half an hour I had the whole thing recorded.

Mixing has taken a few attempts, and to be honest, I don’t think it’s over yet. But I am so eager to share, so here it is:

Without Thought.

Cheers.

X

Covers

I’m testing out my abilities to record a balanced guitar/voice thing with my new soundcard at the moment. Not sure why, I think I just like the honesty of it. Not too many options for post-production. So here’s my first offering.
There’ll be more.

New Website!

I got me a new website!!

Have a look:

www.lukasdrinkwater.com

I’m not really sure whether this spells a natural conclusion for the blog or what, we shall see. In the meantime, I’m touting around for endoersement / sponsorship from equipment manufacturers to help me sustain my career.

I thought having a website has got to help a bit. I’m not so sure about the current trend for absolutely ANYONE who’s ever performed at an open mic night having their own Facebook Music Page. I don’t like the competitive side of that, so to represent myself and what I do, I thought steering clear of that whole thing would be best, and just have a good clean site to showcase my work, show off my gig-list, and try and sell myself.

I shall be filling it up a bit more as a CV, but in the meantime, please look around and make any suggestions to me, I really am keen to streamline it to what people think is best.

Cheers.

x