As I write this I have moved on from Changi…only a few hours but a great many more kilometres, where I now find myself on a train between Zurich and Aarau in Switzerland. Trains are without a doubt my favourite form of transportation. They are fast and efficient, yet smooth enough that they permit me to enjoy the view and a coffee at the same time. It’s like travelling in a high speed coffee shop. Switzerland is without a doubt the best place to do it too…one minute you are in a green valley, and the next you are exiting the depths of a dark stone tunnel to find yourself flying through cloud banks of snow amidst alpine lakes and chalets…magical. It’s a cheesy description, I know; but if you are ever lucky enough to experience it, then I am confident you will agree that it is the correct one.

I am here for work, but am lucky enough to find time to visit an old friend, her family, and her song namesake son, Laurin. My travel regime didn’t permit me to bring a full size guitar, but I’ve brought along my uke in the cutest little hardcase you’ve ever seen – think mafia violin meets Lego. In any case it will be fun to work out how to play my songs on the little four string…wish me luck!

some great things are on tonight…as i speak Sam Cromack is warming up at Black Bear Lodge; but I’m on my way south for some r&r and a sampling of the best surf swell we’ve had in over a month!

but before i get out of range of civilisation and into the hills behind the tweed coast, i thought i’d mention that next saturday night (17th) i’m playing a gig in Surface Paradise gig at the Zoo. i don’t know what time we’re on…we could be first or last! but i can promise it’s going to be good fun. i know this because i’ve just spent the last 2 hours laughing my arse off at Massive Studios with Matt Redlich and the latest in Surface Paradise’s growing roll of incredibly talented and famous drummers – Mr Jono Kirkham of YesYou fame.

what does fun look like? well, it looks like this:

**Fun!** - now with added turban.

i plan to have some fun on the night…on stage dancing is definitely on the cards; and there *may* even be the occasional opportunity for percussive crowd participation……(please don’t steal my cowbell!)

in other news, i’ve also been busy at Junkship Studio with Jamie, Ed Gug and Sam, putting the finishing touches on the next Edward Guglielmino album. just how ‘finished’? well, Ed flies out to europe on monday where he’s chasing down those magical creatures who can turn black goo into deliciously carved vinyl. yay!

cheers
rowley

"Do not what the world expects; do what makes you come alive"

So, the church around the corner from me has one of those ‘quote board’ thingos. You know the ones…they stand there on the side of the road when you are stuck in traffic, looking down their letters at you with ominous statements from John or some other fellow. Now that’s ok; they can write what they like. Which is why I like this place; because they just seem to have found a coffee book of cute motivational quotes that they’re slowly working through. Now, stuck in traffic, I look up and see this smiling wall of text screaming excitedly “you can do it!! only 15 minutes to coffee, and 2 days to Friday!!!”.

Thank you, little church near the lights.

It’s by pure accident that all this has happened, but it has certainly put me in the right frame of mind as I take this week off to focus on my album. It’s been 9 months of interruptions (mostly good ones!) including finishing albums with other bands, and touring; and it feels good to be back in the music frame of mind. It feels good to hold a guitar again. It feels good to sing.

It feels good.

FIRST AND FOREMOST!!! Watch this. It is a new web ad for ZFlex skateboards made by awesome people at Graetz Media (including Jaymis), and more! It’s fabulous. And they decided to use one of my songs!

HOLY CRAP I AM IN A SKATE VID.

**GRIN**

Click here to view the embedded video.

The song itself is called “Morning Prayer”, and I really recommend you watch the full video below – see if you can beat me at a game of stare

Click here to view the embedded video.

And if you like the song, you can get the full version here!

In addition to this, I’m playing some more Open Air gigs. In particular, I’m playing on the night they screen Project Zim…I’m pretty excited about seeing it and playing.

Related show

• Artist: Cowper
• Date: Sunday, October 30th 2011
• Time: 5:00pm
• City: Cowper in Brisbane
• Venue: Brisbane Open Air Cinema, Southbank
• Country: Australia
• Age restrictions: All Ages
• Notes: Cowper playing Open Air, with some wonderful sounds by Sam!
• Add to Google Calendar | Download iCal

• Artist: Cowper
• Date: Sunday, November 13th 2011
• Time: 5:00pm
• City: Cowper in Brisbane
• Venue: Brisbane Open Air Cinema, Southbank
• Country: Australia
• Age restrictions: All Ages
• Notes: Project NIM!!! (and a little music)
• Add to Google Calendar | Download iCal

Rowley

The album continues to prod along, and although the slow pace can be maddening from time to time, it does have a few benefits…one of which is the pleasure of playing the various ‘new’ and exciting instruments that find their way into Massive Studio, the latest of these being a wonderful synth keyboardish device known as an MS20. All I can say is that I never understood synth junkies until now – I spent a whole afternoon twiddling knobs the first day, and since then I’ve been reading up and playing with a few simulators through Ableton…brilliant.

All this ‘break’ stuff is good, but at the same time I’m pretty excited by the knowledge that the next 3 months see me a little more permanently located in Brisbane, where I’ll be able to spend more time on creating!

Happy times

Anyway, one band that I do the obligatory guitar/bass/keys/vox split for is the amazing Edward Guglielmino.  As an avid (seriously…top 10 Australian albums of all time) fan of his first album, I have been really fortunate to join Ed and Sam Schlenker (Skinny Jean) to work on the next album, which is finished and ready to cut vinyl!   I really hope you like this other project as much as you apparently must enjoy ‘Cowper’, given that you’ve taken to sifting through all my drivelly posts

Anyway, recently we took part in the 100 Songs Project where in true style we rocked up to a 4 hour timeboxed recording/mixing session with an unfinished, unrehearsed piece.  In Ed’s own words…

“We wrote and recorded this song in 4 hours. Please excuse the mistakes. I wrote the melody and chords. Sam Schlencker arranged it for us and Rowley Cowper wrote the amazing key part. Tristan Hoogland recorded and mixed the song. All in under for hours. Very proud of it. Go Team Ed G. We will be re-recording a version of this song for the record coming out in September.”

So there you go.  It’s called “Middle Of The Night”.  I hope you like it! (P.S. if you go to the link you can download it for free).

Rowley

Now here is your gift for being so lovely - the download track for ~Rails~ from the behind the scenes slideshow video! Enjoy!!!

If you’d like to know more about how it came about then Jaymis posted about how we made the clip over at CreateDigitalMotion and so did Mr Dan Graetz of the amazing Graetz Media. Whoo!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

“Rails” – Behind The Scenes from Cowper on Vimeo.