Happy New Year! Hopefully 2014 has started well for you. Christmas and New Year gave us a little break from music and a lovely time with our families eating lots of chocolate and cheese! I (Steve) have also discovered the joys of Coffee over the festive period and I mean proper coffee, not the instant kind! 2013 was a brilliant year for us and a lot of this was due to the wonderful support you gave us. You can read a round up of our 2013 and the adventures we had HERE. You lot are lovely you know!

At the start of January we recorded a session for Tall Trees Sessions on a very cold morning in Coventry. The weather before we filmed  was rather interesting as it rained very heavily, so much so we weren’t sure if we were going to be able to do the session at all! Our feet got very muddy and my hands just about managed to survive the cold! We recorded three tracks and the first song ‘Eyes Form Tears’ is below. Please do comment and share the video, as this really helps get our music to a larger audience.

Our album Hospitality for Hope has picked up some lovely press and radio support since the release in November. BBC6 Music, Xfm and BBC Coventry and Warwickshire Introducing and Amazing Radio have supported our music which is brilliant. Here are a few of our favourites quotes from reviews:

“The sound is DIY, slightly lo-fi, folk – styled acoustic pop.” – R2 MAGAZINE

“There is a homegrown charm to them, they could be airbrushed and polished and become the new Civil Wars or Lady Antebellum” – Americana UK.

“As much as Grisedale’s voice is a wonderful counterpoint to that of Jones, it is her innate sense of the melancholy and his optimism that perhaps provides a greater balance. This collaborative process is heard to brilliant effect on ‘Love’s Tale’ where their voices and emotional responses dovetail together in a song of quite simple, yet perfect execution.” –God is in the TV

“Overall, I have to say that this album is unbelievable. It doesn’t just consist of songs that are folk or country, it moulds each track into a personal experience which differs every time. I noticed that each song had a message, whether that be to dance, be happy, or to share a personal experience from which these two have put into music.” – Venture Mag

2014 has started off very well for us as we were featured in Acoustic Magazine in their ‘The Next Big Thing’ section. We were interviewed by them at the end of last year but we weren’t quite expecting such a massive double page feature! When we went into WH Smiths to look at it I was pretty surprised, but very excited, to see our faces in the national press! I did feel slightly awkward going to buy four copies of the same magazine!

You still buy Hospitality For Hope from live shows and through Bandcamp HERE. The hand printed CDs and downloads are £8.00 and you can also buy the album in bundles with hand printed notebooks or our Lantern EP. The album can be downloaded from iTunes and Amazon etc but it helps us much more if buy it directly from us through Bandcamp or at a show. The CD is also on sale in various record shops around the UK and in Europe including Rough Trade in London. We did actually keep selling out of the ‘Keeping a Light’ notebooks which is lovely but apologies if your order was delayed while we made more! Here is another live video, this time ‘Lantern’ from the album launch show with our band The Turntables:

Just before we round up this edition The Stylus Folk we have a couple of live dates to share with you. We are still booking dates over the  next few months so keep your eyes out.

8th February – The Tin Music and Arts, Coventry
Supporting Chains – BUY TICKETS HERE

16th February – The Yardbird, Birmingham

As always we very much appreciate all your support. Together with your help, we can grow our audience and play our music to more people, so please forward this email to anyone who you think would like our music and also share the videos on your social media pages. You could even be very kind and buy the album as a present for a friend!Love and fresh coffee,

Steve and Rachel
xx

 

 

Stylus Folk Update #5
23th November 2013

 

Hello folks,

How are you all?I hope this finds you wrapped up warm with a hot cup of tea (or coffee!) and some cake! It really does feel like winter is now upon us doesn’t it? We have lots of exciting things to share with you.Our debut album, ‘Hospitality for Hope’, was released on Monday on Wild Sound Recordings. The physical CDs, which we have hand stamped and sewn, have already been selling fast. They can be ordered for £8 from our Bandcamp page, which is also the best place to download the album from (although you can get it  from iTunes, Amazon etc). You can also order different bundle deals which include our new badges and our ‘Keeping a Light’ Notebooks. Click to visit the BANDCAMP shop.Writing, recording and releasing the album really has been a wonderful journey and we have worked with film maker Mick Paulusma to make this short video. The video shows us in the various studios, talking about the writing and discussing musicians that play on the album. We hope you enjoy it.

Since the last Stylus Folk update we have been very busy playing shows in Leamington, Burton Upton Trent, London (a sell out no less!)? Leeds, Birmingham and Nottingham. All the shows were brilliant and we have met some truly lovely people. It was really enjoyable to get out and play in some new places, so a big thank you if you are one of the people who joined The Stylus Folk recently. Our first show in London was great as it was the Wild Sound first birthday event. Travelling up to Leeds was a challenge due to the amount of traffic on the M1, however opening for Rachel Sermanni more than made up for the long journey! We will be posting blogs about each one very soon, so keep an eye on the website. Here are a few photos from the shows.

All Hallows, Leeds

Green Note, London

Malt Cross, Nottingham

Hospitality for Hope has been picking up some fantastic press and radio play. Xfm, BBC6 Music, Amazing Radio and lots of other stations have played tracks from the album. We have been interviewed by Musos Guide which you can read HERE. The album has been reviewed by a number of Music Blogs. Here are just a few quotes:

“…oozes pop loveliness… brimming with an array of delicately placed arrangements that intertwine themselves throughout the record. … Steve and Rachel of Stylusboy fit together like two musical peas in a pod!” – HATTIE PEARSON (XFM)

“reminiscent of the soundtrack to Once” – RIGHT CHORD MUSIC

“Steve and Rachel were really meant to sing together. Raw and stripped back, the duo just compliment each other beautifully with their warming harmonies and soft melodies.” – GUY TALK MUSIC

Last weekend we hosted to Launch Party for the album at The Tin Music and Arts, which is our favourite venue in our home of Coventry. David Sanders opened the night and the stunning She Makes War came to play too. It was a brilliant night! The musicians who played on the on the album came to join us especially for the launch. We throughly enjoyed playing alongside Tim (Drums), John (Double Bass) and Polly (keys and extra things). Here is just one of the lovely photos from the night (you can see more on Redwood Photography’s blog HERE).

We have been bowled over with everyone’s response to the album and have been very touched by the things people have said about it. Reviews are lovely but it is the connection that people like you have made with the songs that has meant a great deal to us.

Please keep in touch and take care in this cold weather.

Steve and Rachel xx

The artwork for our releases has always been incredibly important to us. With so many people buying mp3s, CDs for us should be an interesting thing to buy and look at, not just a hard copy of the music. I (Steve) love the process of creating the images and working the Cheyenne Bristow (our resident artist) to see what she can create. The journey of the album artwork was quite different to the previous releases. Working now very much as a duo, it was brilliant to have Rachel sharing ideas which I would never have thought of! In fact the cover idea is very much what Rachel came up with, which is based on a photograph taken by Rob from Redwood Photography. The album is released on 18th November on Wild Sound and is £8 for the CD or the download. Pre order it now on

BAMPCAMP or come to a live show:

Barry has directed and filmed this lovely video that tells the story of two little mini figures set against the backdrop of the

medieval streets of our home city Coventry and the quaint streets of Leamington Spa. Lantern is the first track from our Hospitality for Hope so please do share this video around as much as you can.This is a hugely exciting time for us and we cannot wait for you to hear the album in full. It is the result of 18 months of work and we are

incredibly proud of it. Thank you so much for your continued support and encouragement and we look forward to seeing you at a live show soon.  

Steve and Rachel

xx

Hello there Stylus Folks,

We hope you are all keeping well. How was your summer? Ours was brilliant! A warm welcome to everyone who is receiving this for the first time and we hope you enjoy being part of the Stylus Folk family. It has been a busy time for us completing the artwork for our debut album and playing shows…

One of our highlights this summer was playing at Greenbelt Festival 2013. Over the four day festival we did five performances, sold out of our Whole Picture Ep and the hand drawn copies of Lantern Ep! Live performances included playing to over 2500 people, playing various shows for the wonderful festival volunteers, playing an in store show, doing a signing and playing a packed out show at the Performance Cafe.

Read our Greenbelt blog HERE, look at the photos HERE and watch a live video HERE.

We recorded the whole of our Performance Cafe show (pictured above) and one of the songs we were particularly pleased with was Hold My Hand (previously known as A Song for Noah). This is a track from our debut album and ass a thank you for such a marvelous response at Greenbelt we have decided to give the live recording away. You can download it by liking our Facebook page HERE  (Click on the FREE LIVE MP3 tab). Please do share the link with your friends in person and online.

We are really excited that we can exclusively share the cover artwork for our debut album Hospitality for Hope:

It has been hand drawn by our resident artist Cheyenne Bristow and we are delighted with what she has produced for us. The album will be released on November 18th on Wild Sound Recordings and will be launched on November 16th at our favourite local venue The Tin Music and Arts (formerly Taylor Johns) in Coventry. We are hugely excited as we will be performing with a full band for this one off show. The support acts with be announced very soon. Tickets are £4 in advance and you can purchase them HERE. You can also join the Facebook event HERE. We very much look forward to you joining us to celebrate the release of the album.

Finally, we are going on tour in October and November. We are playing lovely venues, including our very first show in London. We look forward to sharing the album tracks with you at these dates:

HOSPITALITY FOR HOPE TOUR

Oct 5th – House Show, Coventry

Oct 17th – The Tin Music and Arts, Coventry

(supporting Hope and Social and Atlum Schema)

Oct 19th – The Brewhouse Arts Centre, Burton

(with Emily Baker)

Oct 25th – The Grand Union, Leamington Spa

Oct 30th – Green Note, London

(with Polly Paulusma and Harry Harris)

Nov 1st – All Hallows, Leeds

(with Rachel Sermanni)

Nov 12th – The Malt Cross, Nottingham

Nov 16th – ALBUM LAUNCH SHOW @ The Tin Music and Arts, Coventry

Stylusboy and the Turntables (our full band!)

Thank you for your continue support and kind words. We really do appreciated it.

Keep in touch,

Steve and Rachel.

xx

 

Stylus Folk Update #2

Hello Stylus Folks,

Happy August to you all! Have you been on holiday or to visit anywhere lovely? We do hope so! Welcome to the second update of The Stylus Folk and special welcome to all of you who have recently joined us, it is good to have you along.

The first news is that Lantern EP is officially out now on WILD SOUND RECORDINGS. You can download the EP or buy the limited edition hand printed CD from our BANDCAMP site for £3.00. If you come along to one of our live shows you can buy one of the very limited (only 100!) copies of the CD which have individually drawn artwork, yes, every single one is slightly different. The EP has two tracks ‘Lantern’ and ‘Love’s Tale’ from debut album (out later this year) and two live tracks recorded at Hot Numbers in Cambridge in May of this year. We are very proud of the EP and hope you enjoy listening to the songs.

Our friend Mick Paulusma kindly shot two live videos from the Hot Numbers show for the two live tracks from Lantern EP. Here is the first video for Open (Click on the image to open the video):

BLOGGING, BLOGGING, BLOGGING…
We have been blogging quite a bit recently about what we have been up to. Read about the rather warm and cosy Lantern EP launch show, our very early morning photo shoot or even listen to of our Stylus Story audio blogs. So head over to our BLOG.

Because we love you (the Stylus Folk) we thought we would share some exclusive updates about our debut album. Our album is finished. It has been a very busy 7 months working around jobs and families but now finally the album is complete. We have recorded a collection of ten songs that we are very proud of and we can’t wait to share them with you. They are very much a full band Stylusboy (like Lantern and Love’s Tale) recordings with drums, double bass, keys and the odd sprinkle of cello and glockenspiel. We will announce the release date in the next update and also share the live dates which are now booked.

As always, we greatly appreciate all your support and kind words.

Love and more lazy summer sunshine,