LITTLE TRIGGERS 3

Little Triggers is a series of posts about the influences that have helped shape our forthcoming debut album. This one’s about Emperors HQ in London…

We wrote, rehearsed and demoed the album (and live in) a house that used to be the home of legendary poets Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath. Peter O’Toole was their long-standing lodger (in what's now Bobby's bedroom) and he, Hughes and Plath would drink and read poetry aloud to each other late into the night with friends including David Lean, Jacques Tati and Albert Finney. O’Toole especially was known for giving monologues so long that, one by one, everybody would leave until he was performing to an empty room.

We like to think we're in some way carrying on the tradition of the house and take a great deal of pride in its heritage. Much of our record was conceived in the same room O’Toole drunkenly emptied and, to be honest, the ability to clear a room after a few drinks too many has been passed on to some worthy successors.

We often throw shindigs where we play host to musicians, artists and writers who come down and share their work and this has resulted in some very memorable moments and great performances. The house feels like a special place that draws creative people to it and its association with great artists has encouraged us to explore their work and lives. Inevitably, this has made its way onto our album.

A good example is our song “Gazing at the Dying of the Light”. It was inspired in part by the immortal Dylan Thomas who was often to be found drinking round the corner from Emperors HQ in our local pub. Thomas was also an inspiration to Hughes and Plath and the track quotes directly from his poem “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night”.

We realise what a privilege it is to have this house as our headquarters and very much hope that some of its spirit has rubbed off and affected the work we do. But regardless of that we would encourage anyone reading this to go off and explore the work of Dylan Thomas, Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath - your life will be much richer for doing so.

Best,

Tom

Sneaky Peek of the New Album

Hello Friends,

We hope you're well. We're delighted to let you know that we finished making our album this week. Some tracks have been posted on MySpace - www.myspace.com/tommckeanandtheemperors - so feel free to have a sneaky listen. We'll be rotating the tracks regularly over the next few months. Hope you enjoy 'em.

Tom