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.

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

<a href=”http://music.cowperband.com/track/rails-slideshow-version” _mce_href=”http://music.cowperband.com/track/rails-slideshow-version”>~Rails~ (Slideshow Version) by cowper</a>

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.

So, on a cool night in March a group of incredibly talented people descended upon the location.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The first thing you would realise if you were part of this talented band of cohorts would be that derelict abandoned studios don’t have a great deal of electricity running through them.  Such people are resourceful, however, and thus prone to bribing the neighbours with a bottle of whiskey in payment for one night’s rent of a power point.  (resourceful people also seldom go anywhere without 100m+ of extension cables!).

The next thing you would come to appreciate is that if you put one person, one amp and one guitar in the middle of the room, then the reverb is unbelievable.

After a while, you’d become hungry.  The only thing that will solve this hunger will be lamb and haloumi goodness from Lefkas.  Cider would probably help too.

You’d also figure out that there is a lot of fun to be had with camera dollys…which are essentially oversized skateboards in the right hands.  At this point, caffeine will become a staple.

Then, in the wee hours of the morning, it will all become worthwhile.  A bunch of good friends, standing around having a beer and laughing at how silly they were to lock them selves in a flood dust encrusted space for 1o hours.

You’ll probably wet your pants laughing a hell of a lot too.

This is the first official video, and I guess single, from the debut Cowper album out later this year.  We’re all really proud of it…we hope you like it too.

What can I say…my friends are amazing.

Cowper, meet Neumann

Well, after a lengthy ’injury break’ the album is well and truly back on track, and it’s been done so in style if I may say so.  Last Friday a crack team of talented people (Loveday, Graetz, Redlich, Dainer & Smith(s)) descended upon an abandoned, flood destroyed film studio with a mission: Record and film an entire song and music video from scratch in a single night.  The first challenge was power…evidently a collection of antique and modern tube amplifiers don’t take too kindly to a generator, and so with payment of a bottle of Canadian whiskey, and a suspicious looking 50 metre long extension cable stretching from the next door neighbour’s warehouse, we were up and running.

The 2nd challenge?  Trying to stay focused on the job at hand.  I’ll let future video releases speak for themselves, but needless to say the breathtaking location meant that the first 30 minutes was taken up by everyone’s attempts to capture the immenseness of the space with Mamiyas (is that right?), Canons, Nikkons, R3Ds and the humble iPhone.

Fast forward 10 hours; an esky full of cider, beer and coke; several greek foodgasms from Lefkas; and a LOT of sweat and riverdust-come-mud, and we had the job done. In fact, it was done so well there was even time to record two other pieces.  Whether these make it on to the album or not, we felt we had to share at least part of the night with you all so you can share in what has been one of the most wonderful nights of my life…made all the more amazing by the stupendous talent and generosity of those who helped out.

Matt & I are in the studio right now continuing the work on the album, but we took a break yesterday to put this together.  Take a look, and we hope you enjoy it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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

Rowley

Awesome Friend Who Shall Remain Nameless: Hi

Rowley: hi!

AFWSRN: how’s your tuesday?

R: pretty good.
amazing in fact.

AFWSRN: oh yeah?

R: i decided that 2011 can go f#%k itself. i’m not standing around for it.

AFWSRN: lol

R: i walked right up to it yesterday and kicked it in the shins.

AFWSRN: sounds like a bad breakup
clearly it deserved it

R: i bought a new bass guitar. and then went and filmed another music video demo. and then today my piano arrived.
boo yah.

AFWSRN: letterbox woes?

R: Letterbox? nah, that’s awesome too. you should SEE the plans.

See?  Pretty darn self explanatory.  2011 hasn’t started well, but i’ll be damned if i’ll let that get in the way of my fun.

Oh, and that little bit at the end about Letterbox Lullabies?  That’s a teaser.  All I can say is that I have a bunch of hand drawn schematics that resemble a plan for world music one night only domination that is smeared in m n m grease and happiness.  it’s going to be amazing.

Cowper Family Photo, February 2011

so busy, in fact, that i went to the trouble of creating a separate poster…so regardless of your style, you can’t help but be hooked!

it should be a great night…and between now and then (two weeks away, yay!) i’ll be sure to work my poor little body into the ground, recording in the studio and rehearsing Cowper and Surface Paradise material. Show your love at the facebook page if you plan to come!

lots more have been happening, including another photo shoot to add to the first one; and my personal favourite…a new music video for Ben Stewart.

Ben Stewart – Violet the Killjoy from Jaymis on Vimeo.

after the gig (literally, the next day), i’m heading off to europe for a 4 week holiday/tour. if you want to know where i’ll be and maybe even have me in to play, then you can see my itinerary here.

it’s only 4 weeks, but i’m secretly hoping i fall in love in a small spanish village, never to return

well, at least for the odd tour!

cheers,
rowley

i thought i’d put out a quick little update. in between sessions to record the new album, i’ve also been working on a few other projects, including filming a new music video with Jaymis for Ben Stewart of Angry Birds fame. the video will be released soon, but we had so much fun making the video, that i thought a small teaser would be in order.

it involves over 400 party poppers, 6 cameras, and 200 frames per second. Oh, and it’s COOL.

that’s all the hint you’re going to get, missy

(awesome photos by jen dainer of madhouse studios brisbane)

cowper – The Kite Song – live at The Edge – 30th April 2010 from Jaymis on Vimeo.

cowper – Capulet – Live at The Edge – 30th April 2010 from Jaymis on Vimeo.

after a whirlwind day trip to sydney, i had planned to crawl into bed and succumb to the weight of the qantas complimentary beverages ebbing through my blood stream. that was until i received this email from jaymis about rehearsal tonight:

Hey man. I’m totally destroyed, so I’m going to have an early night. Been busy though. Uploads:
Vids:
http://vimeo.com/12336652
http://vimeo.com/12336894
Audio:
http://cowper.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-the-edge-30th-april-2010

Wanna make a blog post?

when a friend this talented goes out of their way to create for you, how can you possibly say no?

one final thing, i’m playing my last “Brisbane Open Air” gig this wednesday at Southbank. the movie has been changed to “Bran Nue Dae” which will be interesting. i’ve watched two other movies so far that i would not have otherwise chosen to see (“Blind Side” and “Remember Me”) and actually quite enjoyed them. (we won’t speak about the penelope cruz “nine” movie…thankfully rain stopped play then, too!).

anyways, hope to see you there.

r

With a little help from my friends… from Cowper on Vimeo.

jaymis kindly informed me today that the site was up for renewal as of today. this means that cowperband.com is now 1 year old! this is a pretty amazing thing for me. so much has happened over the past year that i thought it would be nice to note a couple of them:

- i’ve played a gig at one of my top 5 ‘all time want to play here’ places; and i did it with my best friend on stage with me.
- i’ve started an album
- i’ve started a stack of videos (and finished some of them…)
- i’ve met some amazing people and been lucky enough to work with several of them
- i’ve had my first ever australian tour, travelling around and playing in bookstores and being paid in books.

it’s been incredible! and the next year is going to be even more amazing; but before i get into that, i thought i’d post a video that jaymis filmed 5 months ago. i’ve been waiting for a good time to post it, and i think the birthday celebration is the time to do it, because it says so much – none of this could have happened without my friends!

thank you, and there’ll be cake soon enough.

(ps, this was shot on a very lovely camera so you should DEFINATELY click on the video and go to the HD version at vimeo.)