17/0709

Hi... i forgot how stressful it is having releases looming... when i get stressed i eat but i'm supposed to be all sexy and that now and i gave up smoking which doesn't help... anyway my record label told me that in order to get more excitement about dressed to kill i needed to quickly rustle up an undeniable super smash hit single to follow it up... that way the people at the radio stations have more of a sense of what is to come and everyone gets excited and then the album can come out. i had no idea how fantastic i really am until i recorded literally the best song i have ever done on tuesday... trust me... this song is massive... it's actually sort of a cover version and my brother helped me with the lyrics but it is great... phew!! also i am going to start getting back on telly to try and remind people that i am alive etc. which starts with big brothers little brother on monday... oh and i have some performances of dressed to kill coming up but still no band... i cant believe that i am actually going to have a record out... it feels like it has taken forever... im so nervous!!!! xxx

01/05/2009

so... listen up... here is the news... the company that was in charge of the upkeep of this website has fallen victim to the financial crisis... or swine flu... anyways they vanished a few months ago which is why no bloggage has been taking place... it's not that i stopped loving you... apparently one of the people who worked there has agreed to take the exhaust pipe out of his mouth long enough to put this post up... it doesn't matter anyway cos i have a shiny new website being polished in a lab somewhere ready to go live in the next couple of weeks and my new my space should go up even sooner!... there is all sorts of fun ready to go up including some songs from the finished (yes finished) record... it will be a multimedia orgy all in the name of preston... i want to tell you more but it would ruin the surprise... i am shooting a video next week... the artwork is nearly done... we are close to confirming a release date... i'm so excited i could cry!! i still luv u xxx

26/03/2009

hello my feathered friends... so... i thought i had finished the record but then i decided that i wanted to try to write a smash hit single for what is otherwise a fairly odd album... i've done it before so it shouldn't take that long... did that come across as arrogant?.. everything else is ready to go and the artwork is really really good... the weather is getrtiong nice again which reminds me of last spring when i said the album was nearly ready... a year and many destroyed spools of tape later and i'm genuinely almost done... you know i love you don't you?... i do... battlecat is massive now and he really acts like a dog... simon makes him do tricks for his treats and i always wake up spooning him like a baby who has had nightmares... i am quite normal but my diary entries always make me sound weird... bye! xxx

17/01/2009

so... the record is totally ready to go... my friend is finishing off the artwork and it needs mastering... i asked the label to take it to whichever mastering company will make it the loudest... this is killing me... i have the songs all done and sounding delightful and i have to wait to give them to you... it was my birthday yesterday which was pretty depressing... i am so excited to play gigs again... i think i am going to include a few ordinary boys songs in the set just cos they are so fun to play and i get to play the lead guitar parts now!!.... i also want to play more organic versions of the songs from whatever forever with more crunchy guitars and everything up to 11... as i sit here and worry about the credit crisis while i stroke battlecat like some mad villain in peaceful brighton i know that soon i will be worrying about which tie to wear on gmtv!!!! bring it on!... anyway happy new year... i love you... see you in the hitparade! x

09/12/2008

'supp. i am in philadelphia once more and it's cold and christmassy... i came over here a year ago to write the album and ended up mainly doing nothing much except the odd bit of hanging out and a little lounging around if the mood took me... but... now the album is done and i have returned i can really see how much i actually learned from this city... i have finally worked out how to be proud of my american roots and i reckon that the timing couldn't have been better... the whole country seems euphoric with the imminent posting of their new president...YAY i am getting the artwork done by some friends who run an art space from the city and it's looking great... before i left england i went to my old school in chichester and got the choir to sing on one of the songs on my new record and that was very possibly the most fun day ever... i wanted bratty chanting so they had to unlearn everything that my old music teacher had ever told them... i just got a cup of tea tattooed on my leg... i really really miss battlecat and simon but i'll be back soon possibly with finished artwork in tow... i love you xxx

20/11/2008

hey troops... it's not long until we can be together again... the album is finished apart from one middle eight that i'm going to get gwen wot goes out with simon to sing on but otherwised it's all mixed and sounding delish... i went to the guitar hero launch party which is the only party i have been to since i decided to employ the silence, cunning and exile motto and it was great... i was so drunk that it took a couple of days to get my sight back... i left a massive chunk of my dignity somewhere in a bar in hoxton but came away with a free plastic guitar and some mild liver damage... i digress... it is so good to be finishing up a record... i'm getting some friends from philly to do the artwork and my other friend produced it and basically this time around i'm dealing exclusively with people who are rad and no one grumpy is allowed to enter my aura at all... i'm not a scientologist or anything i just like smiles... peace and fucking.....believe xxx

13/10/2008

the album is done!!! i'm so happy with it... i want to tell you more but i don't want to ruin the surprise... it is proper electro but mainly due to my musical limitations... i vainly wanted to have a record that i wrote and played everything on and i have done it... i drummed on almost every song (Simon did one) but i needed to add some electronics to hide my sloppiness... then i decided i love electronic drums... i asked my label to get me a camcorder so i can start doing a video blog instead of the diary so my ramblings come unedited... iu have a new [pet axolotl (sic?) called malcolm mclarem who will feature in my new reality tv show... anyway i'm drunk and struggling with words and i keep typing wrong so i love you times a million goodbye xxx

23/09/2008

i know i keep writing diary entry's about how stupidly happy i have become of late and how sickened and saddened i am by this overwhelming new sensation but i have to reiterate... life is rad! i am putting the finishing touches on my first solo album... it is amazing... i completed the twilight princess... and i have just been on the best holiday of my entire life... i spent the weekend in edinburgh and i have officially decided that it is the best city in the world... i went to the tracy emin show at the gallery and did some record shopping and went to the castle... all the people at my record label are trying to work out which song they think could be left off the album because they fucking love them all so much... i have just thought that i have been with the same independent label for 5 years... i think that's pretty rare... anyway i apologise for my irritatingly upbeat diary... i will try to think of something to be hateful about for next time... i love love love you! xxx

05/09/2008

so... let me tell you a little bit about what i have been doing... i have recorded rough versions of what i think are by far the best songs i have ever written... i have to drive an hour and a half to and from the studio and i have had the songs on loop and i can't repress the triumphant grin on my face... i'm sure that every other driver on the m23 thinks tha i am on pills... i played every instrument and i'm excited for you to hear my guitar playing... i don't want to blow my own trumpet (although i actually did on one of the tracks) but it sounds fucking good... the record is really electronic but in a heavy way and the songs are deffo the catchiest i've done... i hate to say it but i'm starting to feel like it's a good thing that william quit because i can do exactly what i want... it's like brassbound never happened... me and battlecat are so happy with the album... it's got a strong ska influence (you know it) but it's much heavier... you are going to be blown away... other news is i gave up drinking while i am doing the record... i also had to give up nintendo... i think that there is a big mario influence on some of the songs in a polysics/ plus tech squeezebox sort of way... anyway if i tell you anymore then i'll have to kill you and i really haven't got the time for that now... i love you and i always will xxx

15/07/2008

it's been too long since my last diary entry... i have been in the studio and i have been being productive... i have been offsetting that productivity with some serious sitting around etc. but mainly i have been recording... it's so far been sort of a power pop lemonheadsy (sic) affair but i'm thinking of trying to follow on more from lonely at the top and 9-5... i reckon that would allow me more room to be self indulgent and eccentric whilst still being at lest not entirely unlistenable... anyways as soon as something is mixed i will get someone to put it on the website... the sun is out in brighton and battlecat is laying on the table sunbathing... it's all pretty picture perfect... i'm going to go on a bike ride and then try to write some more hits... then when the sun goes down i can play mario guilt free... i love you all... peace in the middle east...xxx

30/05/08

so here it is... the song that was going to be the follow up single to i luv u... busy wasting time... i remember the weather being especially beautiful when we recorded this but i think i was going through a tumultuous divorce and probably living is some kind of horrible state of denial... i feel like that gives hidden depth to the song... my new songs are beginning to take shape... i've stopped indulging myself in creative ramblings and doodles and starting trying to structure some sections together... it's like some sort of magic circle arrangement that i have to keep a secret but it's a necessary task... i'm going to see sparks on friday... battlecat ran off with my phone and buried it in the garden somewhere... i just saw the trailer on the internet for a film called worst case scenario where all the nazi's from world war two come back as zombies... it looks fucking amazing... i still love you all very much (except nazi zombies... you're rubbish) xxx

07/05/08

brighton is really the greatest place to spend the summer... there is music everywhere and everyone is sexy and in love... i would have normally been disgusted by both of those attributes of a city but i think i might finally be morphing from an angry yoof into a jolly grown-up... battlecat seems to genuinely enjoy listening to me strumming chords in the sunshine... i've been drawing loads... i had a tattoo party on friday night and i did my first tattoo... the germs logo on my friend wob's leg... i think it went quite well... i was pretty pissed at the time but i think that adds to the charm... maybe charm isn't the most appropriate word but i also got some pretty silly ones done too... i'm almost free of the shackles of my sleeping pills... it feels great to finally have real, human sleep rather than some kind of chemical equivalent... it's making me wake up much more than i have done for years which is what is to blame for my irritatingly positive air... i think that the white rabbits sound like what i always wanted to ordinary boys to sound like... do we like them? i've been listening to take a walk around the table every morning for a week... i'm going to be cohabiting with a real, live american in 2 weeks... oi... i'm so in love... i remember ordering loads of stuff from the internet drunk last night but i can't remember what it was... does anyone remember when matt berry did ad/bc?... that's the only thing i remember... this diary entry is wierd and boring... i apologise... i had a surreal dream last night that a white deer came into my bedroom through the air vent and gave me a mug that was signed by h.p. lovecraft... i love you all a lot xxx

21/04/08

i'm in philly again sitting in the park in the hot sun finishing some lyrics off and reading the new will self... i saw louie theroux in a cafe in philly which was so odd... i just stalked him for a bit but i was too nervous to say hello... i spent passover with my girlfriend and her family yesterday and ate gefilte fish... i recommend trying to avoid it wherever possible... this record is sounding so summertime already... i think it's going to be me at my least bitter and jaded... whenever spring arrives i dust off it's a shame about ray and turn it up while i put all my winter jackets into storage and dig out my sunglasses... it's fun to be making a record at the same time as nature is being productive... i've been watching a lot of jim henson documentaries and behind the scenes footage... i watched the making of the labyrinth this morning... as soon as i get home i'm in the studio so i'll be able to put some music up for you to hear soon... i'm sorry if i'm sounding positive and happy... ftw... love preston xxx

1/04/08

i had a celebrity wedding and all i got was this lousy hangover- where do i begin?... i've been back and forward between philadelphia and england trying to decide what my next move is... as you probably guessed the ordinary boys are no more... i have heartbreachingly happy memories of the whole thing but everyone wanted to go off and do their own thing and perhaps that was beginning to show... i'm on a mario detox... i replace drugs and alcohol with super mario galaxy and get ten times the thrill... i've started my solo record which i've decided is going to be a proper record... the great challenge is avoiding the cliche of self indulgence and self importance that has secured unlistenably pretentious solo careers for so many before me... battlecat is helping me a lot... he's sort of more into metal... he really likes the melvins... i've started collecting vinyl and therefore actually listening to music again... i'm aching to perform so i'm on a double super productive streak with my record... i'm sorry about growing a beard... it's gone now... we had a very complicated relationship but we are better off apart... i've been living by advice someone once gave me... silence, exile and cunning... i think i am going to try to keep that up until i have written a smash hit album but just promise you won't forget about me... i love you... check back for more ramblings soon... xxx