Centre Straight Atom

Its no secret that one of my favorite bands at present is Kassassin Street from Portsmouth.
High energy, psychedelic, and great songwriting, with an underlying tone of opening your eyes to whats around you. When I first heard Centre Straight Atom (their new track from the up-coming EP) with the sound it deserved, it was at the New Theatre Royal when they were supporting myself & The Watchmen.
I instantly loved it and so after the first EP Russells Teapot this year I sat down and worked an alternate acoustic version that I thought I may do something with at some point. Rowan Bastable (lead singer Kassassin) is a producer himself so I thought it would be good alchemy to let the him produce the cover.
Heres what we did......

New EP will be out very soon, I have finished copies in my hand now. Finishing the last scenes on the video for "Heartbeats".

If anyone wishes to PRE-ORDER heres the link to the shop and you will see "New Criterion" in there
http://www.andrewfostermusic.co.uk/#!shop/c8nj

Stay Safe
Andy x

Who is this bloke, and is he made of moon dust?

WHO?

1) Andrew Foster grew up in the small town of Havant in Hampshire in England....on the world....thats in the Solar System....thats in the Universe....then its God, Allah or Brian Cox's house or something....or where they make Jaffa Cakes

2) He used to record the chart show on his tape recorder every Sunday night.

3) Andrew owns various Dance compilations from the early 90's but prefers not to mention them in interviews.

4) Andrew says the following things were just a few of his big musical milestones

* Finding his Sisters old guitar in his Mums cupboard

* The tape of Ravels Bolaro his Dad had in the car
* His brother giving him a copy of Micheal Jackson's "Bad"
* "Definitely Maybe" by Oasis
* His friend Chris Walls (who is now a mystical beast that lives in a cottage) giving him a copy of Jeff Buckley "Grace" and Nick Drake "Five Leaves Left"
* Neil Youngs "Decade"
* The Dr Who theme tune that he had on vinyl that had a hologram of Davros on the front
* Pencil Case Keyboards
* Learning the chord sequence to "Polly" by Nirvana
* Queens Greatest Hits
* Motown music his Mum used to listen to
* Playing guitar at an ex-girlfriends party in his teens
* His friend Chris Jackson who he grew up with, was the coolest Mod that ever graced the earth
* Watching the night sky from a his Dads car window as there was a meteor shower whilst on the way to a shopping trip. "Somewhere in my heart" by Aztec Camera was playing on the stereo.
* www.aaronbennettphotography.com got him into bands like Placebo, Bush, Smashing Pumpkins, and recording silly tracks on his Tascam 414
* The Classical music that used to play in as he walked into assembly at first school
* The Acoustic guitar

* Playing The Wedgewood Rooms with his first band he was in years ago "Paradime"



5) Andrew likes Earl Grey Tea and one day hopes to sponsor either Tetley or Twinnings and has no shame in admitting that. Other things he likes are Monster Munch, the colour green, girls that do that pointy eye make-up thing that makes them look like Cats, freshly cut grass, new guitars, old guitars, guitars, and magazines about anything...he will buy them.

6) Andrew studied Music Technology at Thames Valley uni in London where he did work experience on Top Of The Pops, Later...with Jools Holland, Jonathan Ross and various audio post production houses. He also worked at Goldcrest Post Production as a runner/trainee for a while where he met lots of celebrities and brought them coffee and juice.  He says  "When you see Kevin Spacey come out of the toilet everyone becomes the same". In this time he developed a skill for making good noises out of cheap equipment, a fear of Onions and a love for Gameboys.



6) Andrew once fell out of a tree on the first day of the 6 weeks school Holiday and broke his arm and his rib. The cast was taken off a day before he went back to school.



7) Andrew writes quicker than he can release and has already released 7 records with some on I-tunes, and written over 200 songs most of which no-one has ever heard. There are possible rock albums, pychadelic meanderings, Dance wierdness, and string arrangements but prefers to keep things simple with walking out with an acoustic guitar because thats normally where it starts. If he stopped making music he would die...its a bit like that film Speed with Sandra Bollock.



8) At middle school Andrew was good at Drama and used to get picked to play lead roles which he found pretty girls liked. Unfortunetly shouting loud and playing a cockney scamp doesnt work later on in life.



9) Andrew has supported Mumford & Sons, Hard Fi on the day of thier number 1 album, and walked in on Rumer when she was getting changed but says that Stephen Fretwell dedicating a song to him was..."special that".....

10) Andrew once played a mini Festival with McFly and didnt realise he had his own dressing room so sat in the rain.

11) Andrew has seen both series of the Office 12,456 times ...and by the time you read this that figure will be bigger.

12) Andrew likes Dr Who and sometimes actually believes he came from Galifray

13) Andrew is an Indie Folk Rocker with pychadealic leanings in a bubblegum pop Orchestra conducted by Tim burton with Jazz guitars and poetry readings......and he likes trees

Creating the front cover of the New Criterion EP

The idea behind the cover was brought to life by Aaron Bennett whom I have talked a lot about of late.
Nicky Robinson Is the girl in the photo, a model friend of ours and make-up artist.

Im not going to talk too much of the concept for this one as yet. 

Nicky Robinson 

Nicky brought sweets...this happened

Nicky also gets bored if shes waiting too long

Aaron Bennett the photo genius http://www.aaronbennettphotography.com

Miss Deadly Red http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottchalmers/7192038604/

Stay Safe x

New Criterion EP is coming....

More info this week.....new website going live soon

Stay Safe x

Art concepts & Aaron Bennet Photography

This is a dedication to the work of Aaron Bennett

A close friend of mine who I have known for many years whom I've watched become an incredibly respected photographer locally, nationally and within the media. He does most of my concept work and has helped me create a visual style for every release. We have a huge archive of photos of me for the releases over the years but heres a few as one day I'm going to compile them to show them off properly.

Click on them to make them large

The Media Ghost session in the dis-used chalk factory is possibly my favorite shoot. The colours.. the premise behind the artwork and the finished article were perfect for the tone of the album. Aaron drove past this location one day by accident and clocked it as a great place for a shoot. When i described to him what i wanted, the two married perfectly. I could go into the concept behind the image all day, but for now just look at his work ;-)

The Butterflymind EP concept was something which Aaron devised and ran with. Shot in a field near to Buds Farm and the Immunity Tip in Havant (where we used to prowl the industrial state at night whilst it was being built), It was the perfect setting for the desolate isolated piece of work that was the EP itself. He wanted me to wear the Tee-shirt and to keep the hat on, and the strange effect he put over the final piece made it look as though it was slightly not of this world. Venerability and isolation where the themes but what i like about the pics is that however clever the effects or coloring, they still capture disconnection.

One of Aarons faves this one....I needed some promo shots done for my new sponsorship deal at the time with Adam Black guitar company to show off the S8 Dreadnought acoustic id just received. Aaron led the way again and led me to the old garages where i used to live growing up in Havant...Juniper Square. The whole concept was his idea. This was in one of the old garages next to where i used to live.

Adam Black loved it and used it in there sales catalog which I believe its still in.

The main promo shot i used for The Garden as it reflected the music on the album perfectly.. dark, slightly Tim Burton. The dark jagged trees reference the track "Evil Tree" but it is in fact the wall outside the flat in Southsea where i was at the time! Although quite psychedelic in places we wanted shots that lept between fantasy and realism, like the lyric Old Traditions...New Fabrications that was in one of the tracks. Around this time his shots of me were always a little strange like he was shooting The Gardens lyrical content from his lens!

Panic Moon and the Watchmen gig that came at the end of the year were an opportunity to get some Dr Who references in there and to have a little fun. The shoots were portraying less darkness and more optimism... apart from the watchmen photo which I got lots of messages about saying how creepy it was! I like these photos because he directed them throughout yet managed to get the style i was after. A visual aspect for the music is really important to me, always has been so its important to work with someone who is complimentary and understands the vision of the artist...no-matter how pretentious we can be as songwriters/bands etc he understands that its important to have a look.

Russells Teapot was a new start and outlook but keeping with older ideas. In fact...it reminds me of the Media Ghost shoot as nothing was a mistake, everything in the picture had its place and a meaning behind why it was there. Again I loosely gabbled a concept at him he brought it to life, and the picture perfectly encapsulated the music, lyrics and feel of the EP. This was actually an old friends of ours Dad's shed at the bottom of his garden. He was a little bit of a mad scientist himself....a hippy scientist ;-).

Perfect shot, perfect location...another win for Bennett :-)

I love this shot ;-)

This is the back of the new EP.....

The front is Aarons best shot of me and that will be up soon

 info of the new EP including release date and tracks will be up soon

currently devising a video....

Andyx

Stay Safe

please go to www.aaronbennettphotography.com

check out his wide range of work it really is exceptional