I promised you guys an update so here it is! (Finally) But first of all i’d just like to back up a bit and start again for all you new fans.

Me (Adam Denby) and Jonathan Buschenfeld are members of Apple Shampoo. We both met at the age of 15, playing Blink 182 covers and collectable card games in the very short amount of time we had away from school work. As time went by our song writing, singing, and instrument skills increased to a level we thought was good enough for the general public, and so we decided to record an album. After 4 years of writing songs, we took the top 12 and headed into the studio (my garage), where it took me about 8 months to figure out what the hell i was supposed to be doing. 

Anyway, those of you who bought the record know that the album we produced was Five a Day, which is available on iTunes:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/5-a-day/id372789626

or Spotify if you wanna listen to it for free. Five a Day was released last year in May, and ever since then me and Jono have been writing songs 10 times a good. Having our work published online and seeing real people write reviews about us inspired us to start work on a second album. At this point I should add that Istarted a degree in Music Technology and was rapidly increasing my skills and studio equipment.

So summer of 2010 arrived and i hid myself away in my garage avoiding the nose watering pollen, and started experimenting with shapes and sounds like Abbey Road studios in 1965. As a result i had collected a small number of songs for our second release, and set off along the highways to the big city of Manchester, where me and Jono would be attending further education. Me as a music producer, and him as a graphic designer, sharing a house there was no stopping us. However we forgot to take into consideration the amount of work required for our courses, and on our nights off returned to collectable card games and video games.

All was not lost as we came up with a plan to release a huge album, something to fans could really sink their teeth into. While i had been recording a few tracks over the summer, Jono had been writing them. Eight of them in fact, which meant i had to match his amount to give us an equal number - a 16 track album. So every once in a while we recorded one of Jonos tracks from a selection of his demos, and i recorded mine when he was away at weekends or busy with work. 

After a while i began to realise that a handful of my tracks weren’t good enough to make the album, so i came up with the idea of releasing an EP. Jono liked the idea and recorded ‘Warlocks’ just for it. We named the the EP ‘Magic Missile’ and is available to download free here:

http://appleshampoo.bandcamp.com/album/magic-missile

5 new original tracks, plus one acoustic version of three weeks from ‘Five A Day’.

It is at this point that i should mention Jono’s side project ‘Sailing Day’. Check it out here:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sailing-Day/123111464412637

Sailing Day was created when we had a disagreement about writing a Chirstmas song. I wanted to write about spreading joy and happiness over the festive season, and Jono wanted to write about father christmas molesting kids. I felt it didnt quite fit in with Apple Shampoo’s pop punk direction, so he began recording comedy tracks and sending them to me. Every now and then we make a hilarious video which requires a lot of time and effort. It involves professionally recording the track, writing the video, buying wigs and beards, filming, and editing. After all that we try and promote it ourselves. You can check out the videos here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/SailingDayMmhmm

Anyway, my point is that we’re trying to do a million things at once and that’s why our second album isn’t finished yet. In March (2011) we were only a few tracks away from finishing the album, and then it would mean album artwork, title, getting it on itunes etc. However, we were approached by Grant Berry, a producer who was looking for a decent band to record. I told him we were recording a second album, but that didn’t seem to matter. He said ‘How about a third album?’. I said ‘sure, i’ll just have to write one’.

Before i knew it was recording demos and starting the whole thing all over again, but i wasnt gonna pass up the chance of a new project, im just driven by work. So since then we’ve written a new album, we’ve got a great drummer playing drums on it, we travelled across the country to record guitars in a farm house, and we’ve returned to my room to record vocals. It has been constant work for the last 3 months and i am exhausted. Ive been filming the whole thing for a ‘making of video’, we’ve been coming up with art work, cd sleeves, track lists, the whole deal. We’ve recorded a new Sailing Day video, we’ve ever built our own Green Screen. I have not had a moment to relax without feeling guilty for 3 months solid, but it will all be worth it when we’re done.

The third album is nearly done. The last of the vocals were recorded today, and will be handed over to Grant tomorrow to be mixed and mastered, which will take about a month. While that is being done I’ll be heading home to my house in Cheshire to finish off our second album, and edit the new Sailing Day video. In other news I’m thinking of starting my own side project, a much more electronic one. All this heavy recording has made me want to give the guitar a rest for a while.

I will keep you updated the best i can, i know i’ve not been as informative as usual, and we’ve gain a lot more fans since the last time i check. Just want to say thanks to you guys, i wouldn’t be writing this if it wasn’t for you wanting to here from me. Tell all your friends!

Adam 

Apple Shampoo - Studio Diary Part 1

Hey there AS fans! As you know we’re always working hard on new projects, and just wanted to take some time out to tell you just how much they are going to blow your mind. So we started recording our second album about 7 months ago, and its slowly been coming together, and turning into the best record you will ever hear. Its probably the proudest thing that iv’e ever done in my life, and hopefully that will reflect in the music. A few weeks ago we were approached by a producer that was interested in recording us, and we took him up on his offer. We’ve written a whole new third album, and been working hard in the studio recording it for the last few weeks. He’s even sorted us out a sick drummer for our record.

Apple Shampoo cover of the new simple plan single!

Look what we’ve been doing in the studio!

Simple Plans new song!

HEY. Sorry we’ve been away so long, i cant even remember the last time i wrote an entry on here. As always we’ve been busy recording our second album, and we’ve got nearly 12 tracks 100% done, isnt that exciting?! Still, some of the best tracks are not even started yet, we’ve got big plans for them. We’ve been sorting out artwork and trying to come up with a track list, but chances are we wont know until we’re nearly finished.

Not only have we been working hard on new material for you guys, but we also did a deal with a company called A&G sync, which you can check out here: 

http://www.agsyncmusic.com/ 

We also have been signing contracts to get the E.P. “Magic Missile” on iTunes, Spotify etc, so if you anyone misses out on the free download, you’ll soon be able to get it there.

So as i mentioned we’ve been recording, 2 tracks since my last entry. The first one is titled “Emma” a JB track sang by me, which deals with the issue of having a crush on an unobtainable famous woman, full of bouncy guitar riffs, and thunderous cymbals crashing against your ears. Another new track that has been recorded this week is titled “Your Dad Hates Me”, a much more chilled out song which features harps, violins, chellos and plenty of lyrical goodness.

Remember you can drop us a line, and we’ll get back to you. Don’t be afraid to tell your friends!

Thanks a lot man, you got the free EP?

HEY GUYS! We’ve not blogged in a while, and here’s why: We’ve finished our FREE EP.

That’s not all, we’ve also been taking photos, designing an official website and recording videos! Just in case you’re confused out what we’ve been recording and releasing ill clear a few things up. We released our first album last year in May, and hope to release our second album around the same time this year. We’ve been incredibly busy recording our second album, but we realised we had a hand full of tracks we recorded that weren’t going to make it onto the album, and so we decided to give something back to the fans that support us and have bought our first album. So we decided to put together an EP.

The tracks are a little different from what you’ve heard previous, but you can always count on use to deliver great songs. The EP is named magic missile as you’ve guessed from the artwork above, and comes complete with a digital booklet containing pictures of use dressed up like wizards, you know, the usual.

Although the EP is free, it will eventually become a purchase only product after the first 500 people have downloaded it, but don’t worry, i don’t think we have that many fans, so if you’re reading this blog entry you’ve got nothing to worry about, just make sure you get in the first. There is no release date as of yet, but it will most likely be this week or next week.

You want a track list?

1. Nobody

2. Warlocks

3. Tonight

4. Teenager

5. Gossip Girl

6. Three Weeks (Acoustic)

ALSO WE HAVE A WEBSITE NOW. The address is:

www.apple-shampoo.co.uk

But i’ll do a separate blog about that later, probably after i eat lunch and play the new episode of Back To The Future: The Game.

So ive been a recording this artist in my home studio. Check him out!