Around about two years ago we started filming all the parts needed for the ‘A New Beginning’ film clip as it was the second single for our second album ‘Births, Deaths & Marriages’. We were working with some amazingly talented film makers led by Director Eric So. We shot all of the band footage and the “main character” footage (Played by the very talented Dale James) all in front of a green screen….sorted.

Unfortunately for us (very much fortunately for Eric) our director and main man with the vision landed some really big ‘Visual Effects’ work on movies like Happy Feet Two, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Prometheus, The Great Gatsby…. so [26] waited patiently……and then…..we were presented with this masterpiece!

A huge thankyou to Eric So, Brandon Lee, Forde Lamberth, Mitch Pierias, Roger Wolf Oyen, James Base, James Fitchett and of course Dale James.

As a side note we are always being asked by lovely people all over the interwebs for the official lyrics for ‘A New Beginning’ so I thought I should post them here with the video for prosperity.

Nick [26]

A NEW BEGINNING

Three words: Emotional, Roller and Coaster! Sunshine Salvation is now ‘officially launched’ and available for pre-order on iTunes.

Last Sunday, we officially launched (and played for the first time) Sunshine Salvation to a very happy crowed at The Black Bear Lodge in Brisbane. There were a few nerves before the show, and some anxious peering at the door to see if people would come, but thankfully people arrived, we played well, and everyone left happy (and with an early copy of album).

Family members, friends, some randoms from the street and our guest artists Rose Carrousel and Seals, all helped us celebrate something we are very proud of. It’s out in the world now, and there is nothing we can do but hold our breath and see what happens. We hope you all enjoy it as much as we do.

You can pre-order Sunshine Salvation here. It will be released on the 26th of October.

Take care, all.

As you know [26] are launching our third album ‘Sunshine Salvation’ with a one-off show in our home town Brisbane, Australia. This will be an intimate pre-release show to celebrate the album and give it a live run from start to finish and we might throw in a couple of oldies if you’re lucky

Well, it’s the 26th of September today, so by band-law, we have to do something. The Outside extended iTunes single is now available. It contains The Outside single, the B-side We Will Survive and a remix of The Outside by SAINT HUGHS. [26] love B-Sides. It’s always interesting to see what didn’t make the final cut. More often than not, they’re some of our favourite material. As a result, you can expect to see many B-sides coming from [26] with this album, and all that follow. But we thought we’d delve a little deeper, and give a little bit more info on the B-Sides themselves – the unsung heroes.

We Will Survive

We Will Survive was actually one of the earlier tracks created for Sunshine Salvation. It wasn’t even called Sun Sal yet. It was simply Album 3. It was written at the time of the Iranian protests in 2009. It was the first real time that social media played a role in civil change. I was personally a bit inspired to see the younger generation trying to make a change through modern means. Who’d of thought that the “micro blogging website that tells people what you are having for lunch” would be used like it was/is? So this song is a bit of a nod to those guys that got out on the streets, used their brains and the systems available to them, and aimed to make some change. It was the start of a social juggernaut that still continues to this day. In terms of its creation, it was born from the crunchy, electric drum loop that it starts with (00:20 for those playing at home) and the sinister bass line that rolls the whole way through. Everything just grew around that. It was also the first time we crunched up Iain’s drums. Everything before that was just natural recording and reverb. It didn’t make the Sun Sal cut, purely because the album was organically growing with a particular group of songs, and WWS wasn’t fitting naturally. So we put it to the side, and earmarked it for a later release. We enjoyed it too much to leave it on the cutting room floor.

As for the Remix, well, we love a bit of electro, and the song just lends itself to be chopped and mashed. It was a no-brainer. So there you have it. Our first single and B-sides for Sunshine Salvation – now available on iTunes. Hope you enjoy them!

Take care all D (and the [26] boys)

P.S. I’ll make someone else write the next blog. You are probably getting sick of me by now.

We’ve had our first run through of Sunshine Salvation LIVE. We’d played a couple of the tracks on tour already, but they were the obvious live bangers and rock anthems. This was the first time we were able to look at the quieter and crazier material. I don’t think I am alone in thinking it all turned out pretty well.

It’s fair to say the first play through of each song was, ummm, how do I put this politely… let’s go with ‘Below standard‘. I personally had to get my keyboard chops back up to scratch (too much programming and not enough playing recently), but by the 2nd and 3rd run through, we were all back in form and everything was starting to work like it says on the box.

The album launch will be Sunshine Salvation from start to finish. We took a lot of care in picking the track listing and the running order of the album, so that it made sense as a whole and as an experience. That’s what we want from our albums. Having now played it live, I think we made the right choices. The set flows beautifully (if I do say so myself) with appropriate moments of light and shade, energy and tension, sadness and joy.

For those lucky enough to live in Brisbane, you can find all the launch details on facebook or on the column to the right of this post.

We can’t wait for you all to hear it, both live, and on your MP3 player of choice (let’s face it, it’s probably got an ‘i’ in front of it)

Take care, all
D (and the other boys)

Here is our clip for ‘The Outside’. It’s the first single from our third album ‘Sunshine Salvation.

The first single from our forthcoming third album, Sunshine Salvation, is our bass-banger, The Outside. It was conceived from its orchestral string line, with no intention of it becoming the heavy hitter it has evolved into.

This track is a band favourite. We gave it a live ‘test-run’, when we were last on tour in merry-old England. Thankfully, it proved to be a crowed favourite as well.

To celebrate my dog’s first birthday, you can listen to the track on SoundCloud (free) or download it from Bandcamp (pay what you want/free) right now! Today! As you read!!

There will be an extended single with b-sides coming to iTunes shortly, as well as the official film clip.

Single No.1 – The Outside. Listen to it on the SoundCloud widget just to the right of this post, or at the links below. Enjoy.

The Outside – Bandcamp
The Outside – Soundcloud

Whether it’s to our detriment or not, we take a long time to make albums. Births, Deaths & Marriages took us three years, and I think the new album has taken us the same. I’d love us to be the kind of band that can bang out an album in a couple of weeks, but sadly, we can’t. Partly because we are scattered across the east coast of Australia, partly because it’s all self funded, partly because we gave BDM an additional tour in the UK, but mostly because that’s how we naturally write. If we don’t write naturally, we end up just writing tosh. So in a bid to not write tosh, we take our time, and craft the best body of work we can. Our latest album is complete and is titled Sunshine Salvation.

After BDM was given so much praise for it’s ‘soul and heart’, we were concerned as to whether SunSal was going to be able to deliver the same – how wrong we were. Sun Sal, in my humble opinion, is an even bigger beast with more energy, more heart, more polish and an even more complete and rounded collection of songs (but of course I would say that, wouldn’t I?!)

So come October, Sunshine Salvation will be released, and you can all judge for yourself. Tomorrow (the 26th of course), we will release our first track, The Outside. It will be available on Soundcloud, Bandcamp and an extended single on iTunes shortly. The official film clip will follow in early August.

It’s taken time, but now it’s done. We’re immensely proud of it, and hope you will all enjoy it as much as we’ve enjoyed creating it.

Those with a keen eye will see that we have removed the artwork on our website for our second album, Births, Deaths & Marriages. (BDM) It’s a bitter sweet moment for us. On one hand, we are delighted to have a new album sitting in front of us, and are keen-as-punch to show it to you all. But on there other hand, it’s a time where we rest an album that has taken up most of [26]s life.

BDM has taken us to Canada, Los Angeles, England, Scotland, Hong Kong and around Australia. It had pipe organs, choirs, harpists, guest instrumentalists and a good dose of rock added to the mix. It’s gotten spins on BBC6, Triple J, FBI, and a plethora of US stations. And we’ll never forget it’s 3 minutes of fame on the NBC tv show life which opened up many many doors for us.

Above all else, it was a special album for us on an emotional level. During its creation, one of us said I do, one of us welcomed a little human into the world, and we all said goodbye to 2 special people. As the titled suggested, we saw the full spectrum of life in one album. To say it was a special part of our lives is a bit of an understatement. So how do you top that?

Well, we think we have. It is its own beast.

SO it’s time to say adios to Births, Deaths and Marriages and prepare for our new album ******** ********* (going to make you wait just a wee bit longer). It’s a bitter sweet time, but mostly an exciting time.

Hope you all have/had a good easter break.
Talk soon
[26]

The worst and most deluded part of SOPA, is that it goes far beyond simply ‘protecting’ intellectual property, and into the realms of destroying this amazing tool we have been given – the internet. Have a look at the video linked below for a further explanation.

[26] does not support SOPA, and never can support SOPA. We support an open and free internet, because without it, we probably wouldn’t be here. If you want to sit with your guitar in front of a webcam and cover one of our songs, we want to thank you – not damn you.

The internet is an amazing thing. We’re big fans!

http://www.fightforthefuture.org/pipa