Current news

Oops!

Our website has been down for a little while, our apologies! Of course, any news we have will always be posted to our MySpace page, so make sure to visit there regularly so you can keep up with our activities..

Things have been very quiet in Tugboat land this year, but not silent. Some progress has been made on the third album, but there's still a long way to go. We have a range of guests we are planning to have play on the record, which ultimately won't be seeing the light of day til early next year. We are also having thoughts around what form we may release it in. Either way, we are keen to get the songs into the hands of everyone who will dig them!

In less positive news, Steve has departed Tugboat. We wish Steve the very best in the future with Heligoland and his other projects.

Tuesday 9th October 2007, 11:00 pm. Posted by James.

Rushes is here! and other news..

Tugboat are pleased to announce that after various delays, our new EP Rushes is finally done and ready to go!

The EP features 6 songs, and over 25 minutes of music. Two tracks from the EP are available here for you to preview and download on our MySpace page. Enjoy!

In other news, Tugboat will be taking a small break from band activities for the first half of 2007, due to Bek and Steve being overseas with Heligoland for the next six months. However there will still be some activity! James will be working on editing and recording parts for the as-yet-untitled third album, which we're aiming to have done well before the end of this year. We can only hope!

Tuesday 16th January 2007, 11:00 pm. Posted by James.

A brief update

Hello again from Tugboat-land..

The release of the EP has been slightly delayed due to some problems with the printing of the sleeve.. but we hope to have these all sorted out within the next week or so. Apologies to anyone hanging out for it, we promise it will be worth the wait.

In other news, we have made a big start on the recording of our next album. The music has all been written and we've started on 10 of the 13 possible contenders. While it's difficult to say at this point how it's all going to turn out, it's already shaping up to be quite a different piece of work from everything else we've done, and considerably more ambitious. Sneaky peeks will make their way here as things take shape.

Thursday 23th November 2006, 7:00 pm. Posted by James.

Rushes

Tugboat's new EP 'Rushes' is now finished. We're currently finalising the artwork/packaging and all things being equal we'll have a bundle of shiny new discs very soon!

The EP comprises six tracks: "Flightpath", "Round Again", "New Colour", "Remain In Light", "Trace The Outline" and a remix of "Round Again" by Dave Graney & Clare Moore. This is our first self-recorded/self-produced release and will be available in very limited quantities... Stay tuned for details on where you can grab a copy!

Two of the songs from the EP are available for your perusal on our MySpace page: "Round Again (Lurid Yellow Remix)" and the fuzzed out six-minute plus psychedelic love epic "New Colour". The latter is probably not what you've come to expect from us, it's very different...

Recording for Tugboat's third album is scheduled to begin next month. We've been hard at work writing and demo-ing for the new album over the last few months and we can't wait to get started on recording!

Monday 9th October 2006, 9:30 pm. Posted by Steve.

New recordings

We're nearing the end of finshing our new batch of recordings, which will form our next EP. This release will consist of five new songs, including two songs we've played for a while in our live set, "Trace The Outline" and "Remain In Light", and three other songs, "Round Again", "It's All A Bit Neither Here Nor There" and one song yet to be titled. This will be the first release that we've produced and recorded entirely by ourselves, so we're at once tentative and excited about finishing it and bringing it into the world.

All being well, our third album (which is already partially written) will follow closely behind.

Friday 7th April 2006, 9:00 pm. Posted by James.

Album launch, upcoming live-to-air

On Tuesday 6th December, Tugboat will be appearing on 3PBS radio (106.7FM) on The Morning After as part of PBS' Live Music week. We will be on air around 8.30am (yes, in the morning!) Melbourne time - listen in on your way to work, or with your morning coffee! For interstate and overseas friends, PBS does stream over the net.

Thanks to everyone who came along and made our album launch such a fantastic evening! Despite the occasional technical hitch we had a ball. Very special thanks to the Cannanes and Grand Salvo for their fantastic sets and to Simon Knight for the (so I'm told, I couldn't see it) great light show!

Wednesday 23rd November 2005, 8:00 pm. Posted by James.

"Two Schools of Thought"

Quite a number of the songs on "Two Schools of Thought" are about a lack of communication between people – 'Offside' revolves around feeling alienated from friends – but at a deeper level these songs explore how you feel when the lack of communication between you and your partner is so profound that you realise your relationship is unsalvageable. Not the usual sort of subject for a pop album perhaps.

The weight of our first album, "All Day", was substantial. We were shepherded through it by our producer, Richard, and couldn’t quite believe it when the EP we thought we were recording became an album. We didn't know that we had enough ideas to get us that far. We recorded it rather sporadically and probably learned some bad habits as a result.

We did, however, like the way the record sounded, and we particularly liked the airplay we got and the reviews from all sorts of interesting places. That led to more (in a rather lazy fashion) gigging, and before we knew it a year or so had passed. Then we got Room 13 (see below).

Like so many of our songs, the sound is often upbeat to the casual listener, while the words themselves are rather bleak. Tellingly (in hindsight all things are clear) the happiest song on the album is also the shortest and the most contemplative - and it's not at all about romantic love, it's about new friendship and – with a nod to the album's title – crossing the river to find yourself. Locations are important – and Melburnians will know that two sides of the river in this city are like opposite ends of the idealogical spectrum – you need to feel like you belong in order to settle somewhere. Jim and I both moved North at different times during the recording of this album, and are much happier for it. Two schools of thought: neither is wrong, but when there is a gulf between two people, everything feels wrong.

Monday 24th October 2005, 11:00 pm. Posted by Bek.

A few things you wanted to know...

...but were too afraid to ask

Between the first jam and the last mixdown, between us we had eight relationships, and moved house three times, three bands were joined and left. There were periods of grief and intense sadness during the three years we spent with this record and there are also happy endings.

A few years ago, we got together in a little room with Number 13 on the door. It smelled pretty bad. Jim and I cleaned it the best we could – I got some second hand carpet from a friend, which was great - except for the billowing dust that we couldn't seem to beat out of it even after a solid half hour of whacking. We washed the walls and burned incense, and James brought in a bin and a table.

James and I began to jam – we set up drums and guitar and casio and recording devices. We were above the Rob Roy band room, but during the day it didn’t matter – the only noise was the tram whine going into every amp every six minutes or so. We would get in there on Saturdays and Sundays and weeknights and just play. We came up with some pretty wacky ideas which transformed into some of the songs on "Two Schools of Thought".

We transformed our emotional lives on this record too – for James and I our relationships are always the things we write about most readily. The period of writing seemed to go very quickly – we had been itching to jam - but the time we spent recording took much longer than it should – and it was entirely our own fault.

We were so keen to get in there I think we hadn't really worked out the details and suddenly came up against not having lyrics and arrangements finished.

A lot was happening for us personally over this time as well. Admittedly it was hard work sometimes finishing the lyrics especially for me as I was living them, feeling vulnerable and not really wanting to talk about stuff that was happening – but I prefer honesty in my songs, so many of the songs I was meant to add my stamp to simply got left off.

Perfectionists that we are, we simply worked on it, and got other people to work on it, until we were happy.

Some people, to my amazement, never stopped asking me when "Two Schools of Thought" was coming out. I'm sure some of my friends were fairly sure it was just a fantasy of mine that we actually had a band anymore.

Plans? Well, having learned a lot of lessons from this album, we have good plans. We have Steve (Wheeler, from Heligoland) on board now, and he has breathed new life into every song. We have several new songs which are well underway recording-wise and I think it's fair to say we are pretty excited about them – the creative block I for one dreaded was happening has well and truly evaporated in the sunshine of having finished a longterm project.

So we love "Two Schools of Thought", but we also can't wait to deliver details of some of the happy endings I referred to early next year.

Monday 24th October 2005, 9:00 pm. Posted by Bek.