Beat by Beat.

We're in tour prep mode. The rush of getting on the stage and sharing the behind-the-scenes work with a live audience is gaining on us. Also, we hope you're not having too much trouble finding tickets - if so, don't hesitate to contact us directly. Usually Instagram works best.

But there were more reasons for us to be excited recently. We spent the first days of the week with our first recording sessions for the new album and singles. Before getting to that - our plan is not to wait with releasing the songs. The idea of having an album is still valid, but we want to have a regular, healthy release schedule of new songs once we start, i.e. every 2 months or so. Interest to see how that will go, but the signs are good. What has been recorded so far are the bass and drum tracks for 7 songs. Two have now been edited and done. The next step is to finalize the tracks for the rest, then to move on to guitar recordings - hopefully in a few weeks time, while we're still riding the tour hype wave. 

Nothing would be real it there wasn't for some drama. We were set to record on Monday in the Red Room, until we remembered that we're not allowed to make noise there before 7pm. As a result, we had a few days to find another location (for free...). Luckily our Gogo is people who knows people and by Saturday we had our new recording location. For those not familiar with the Sofia music backroom landscape, the recording room was on the 2nd floor of yet another abandoned factory/warehouse. Run-down building that you would pass by thinking it's void of any life and could crumble any second. That's the reality. It's also where the Voice (Bulgarian edition) band rehearses. Fun fact.

Back to the gigs, we're live in:

- Sofia (Kabana) on July 2nd

- Burgas (Barabar) on July 10th

- Varna (Menthol) on July 11th

- Plovdiv (Philgood Festival) on July 17th

Again, let us know if you can't find us. The feeling is good in the rehearsals, we even decided to skip one session not to overdo it. All in good measure. The setlist is stuffed and marinating. A new song that we've never played in front of the audience, including, so join us for the live premiere of Top of Hell in all the locations above. Mitko the Magician-Tech and his underground network of tech talent providers will make sure the visual part of the show steals your attention. And we got something special lined up for Burgas and Varna, but we'll brag about it only once it's 100% that it actually happened.

Last hype-up for the live gigs - the limited edition t-shirts are ready. They're quite custom and, as always, of top quality, so we're quite positive you'll like them!

A definite highlight since our last entry is finally meeting in person the new member of the House of ALI. Her name is Dimana and we welcome her with all our hearts full! She'll be taking over the content creation and channel support from Moni (whom, if you remember, we're sending of to Berkeley end of summer!). Dimana visited our latest rehearsal to finally produce some proper videos (the last one we did was outright rejected by the marketing crew because of excessive boomerism). We discussed how to be more efficient and regular, our hopes and confidence are high.

In other personnel news, we remained true to ourselves of missing at least one birthday of a band member per annum. This time, we forgot the calmest and most intellectual component of our cocktail that is Orli! A man with the nerves of steel, steadfast internal clock and a never-ending smile. If you run into him, don't miss a chance to greet him and see that smile for yourself.

In terms of internal organization, we've moved from Teams to Discord. The goal is to try to automate some of the organizational overhead. It's baby steps, as always, with hiccups and surprises, but we're hoping that it pays off in the end. Why Discord? Because all the cool kids are there. And now we have to find the place at one of their tables.

In industry news, Spotify has introduced the "verified artist" concept. Like most industry news, it's another doozy for us. One of the requirements is having 10K monthly listeners. Highest we ever got was around 3K. For most artists not coming form a major market it's another in the series of barriers that will be hard to overcome (but we'll still try!), until which moment there will likely be more repercussions as we fight for the attention of the Algorithm. It can feel disheartening at times as you fight for the right to get your music heard, but no one said it would be easy. We're here to stay.

As the concert season is starting, we're also excited as fans. We had the pleasure of seeing Garbage in Sofia, Tony's currently in Liverpool about the hear the Foo Fighters, and the same evening in Sofia we'll be welcoming one of our favorites and, it's fair to say, influencers - the IDLES. Two days ago, we also witnessed the biggest concert by our friends from Tsar Plyh (Цар Плъх), who produced a hell of a show (with flamethrowers and the lot) and drew a 1000+ crowd. Couldn't be happier for them!