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ANT BLOG

1st July 2009.

A Soft Place On Which To Fall.

When you're flying high with your heart in your mouth, watch out! There's only one way to fall. Make sure you're over soft ground when love comes tumbling down.

My song A Soft Place and Darren Hayman's song Bands That Don't Reform are out today on a limited edition split 7" vinyl single on Black Kitten Records of Italy. You can buy the single at the ANT webshop or the Hefnet webshop or the Black Kitten webshop.

15th June 2009.

When The Morning Arrives it brings demos, out-takes, rejected songs and a cover version. By Ant.

There are always a few songs that get left behind. Usually in my case because they have a clumsy, muddy lyric that I can't seem to clean up. So I turn my back on them and move on. Now once in a blue moon I'll get nostalgic and seek them out, apologise to them and let them come back out to play. Now seems like as good a time as any.

When The Morning Arrives, Cold Feet, The Only Girl, Grace and What A Wonderful View are 5 songs that got left behind.

(When The Morning Arrives is a 25 track MP3 album of previously unreleased recordings, demos, out-takes, rejected songs and a cover version, available now ONLY from the Ant webshop!)

18th May 2009.

The birds and the bees. By Ant.

When I first write a song, it sounds like this: just voice and acoustic guitar. Some people are of the opinion that I should leave it like that, in black and white. But I like to add a touch of colour here and there. Appropriately enough the song Magpies started out in black and white before Jack Hayter and his son James coloured it in beautifully, careful not to stay within the lines.

The song Magpies (acoustic version) is now available to download for FREE on VOLUME D of the Eardrums Pop compilation album BIRDSONGS AND BEESONGS from Norway.

16th February 2009.

Walking you down These Long Dark Country Roads and back.

By Ant.

When I lived in South London I spent a lot of time in the kitchen of the small council flat I shared with my big sister, having tea and biscuits, discussing life. One day I realised it was high time I was gone and so I decided to move country.

Now that I have kids I often think back to my own childhood and the many years I spent growing up on the Isle Of Wight, which has a lot of these long dark country roads. They featured a lot in my youth, whether I was running home way past my curfew or sheepishly walking a girlfriend to her gate, who had already decided that the charm of a quiet boy had worn much thinner than his skinny body!

I would always fall for the girls I worked with. One summer I worked with a girl who made me lose all my words. Everyday I would tell myself smile your best smile and something might happen. Of course it didn't, so instead I spent my days throwing bread to the beautiful little songbirds that filled my back garden, most of which have now sadly flown, having been replaced by those big old Magpies. It's not quite the same chucking a slice of white onto the lawn only to see it being carried off in one greedy go.

These days I write a lot of songs about the past maybe because I'm stuck when it comes to writing about the present. I tend to dwell on the break ups too much. I was never much of a talker so you can imagine that the telephone was of no help to me in a relationship. I would call like I promised I would and then hang up real quick before she could come to the phone.

And then you go and meet someone who you will gladly follow wherever they choose to go and in return they agree to follow you wherever you go and you walk in single file no more.

These Long Dark Country Roads is a 6 track mini album featuring guest appearances and help from Darren Hayman, Jack Hayter, James Hayter, James Milne & Tjinder Singh. It's released on Acuarela Discos of Spain on February 28th 2009 and is available from Darla, Emusic, iTunes, Amazon and loads of other cool places.

You can watch: These Long Dark Country Roads - (promo video) by Ant February 2009.