Rich Watson and Order – The New Goodbye music video

Order have delivered their video for Rich’s track now, and very nice it is too. Full of stop motion, HD goodness. The video is the result of an awful lot of painstaking location-based animation work, the bulk of which was undertaken at The Cube in East London. We owe a lot of thanks to Araceli there for allowing Order to use the space for such prolonged periods of time.

The New Goodbye - Music Promo from ORDER on Vimeo.

Thanks are also due to EBB Paper, who provided all the bright card you see shooting around the screen.

The video was conceived to work on both standard sized monitors and also the iPhone display The video embedded here is hosted on Order’s Vimeo channel, where you can see more of their work, including films for the Tate and Design Museum. It will also of course be included on the next update of The New Goodbye app, which will be here in a couple of weeks. The update is having the very last touches put to it now.

Shh. Don't tell anyone...

... But we've struck a deal with Foyles, one of London's oldest, most famous and prestigious booksellers, who will be promoting The New Goodbye in its stores come the update in a couple of weeks time.

The update will also have some lovely Foyles goodness too, in the shape of money-off and free ticket vouchers created by one Ms J Basford. Once we've added the update, visiting any of the Foyles stores with your iPhone will also let you unlock some exclusive extra content for the app.

There'll be the music video too of course, created by Order for Rich Watson's title track. Rich has also recently updated his MySpace page with a new music player, so if you don't have an iPhone but want to hear The New Goodbye, take a trip over there.

It's been a while...

But things of The New Goodbye variety are still ticking over a-pace. We're working on the phase two of the app, which as well as featuring the music video will also include a new short story, discounts for anyone with the app off of purchases made from a major British bookseller and a couple of other bits and bobs. We're aiming to submit the update to Apple by the penultimate week of this month--so that's soon. Better get cracking.  

Video, blogs and bookshops

A few things of note from the last week or so. Firstly, my piece on digital books and more specifically book apps was posted on The Bookseller's Futurebook blog. This received quite a bit of Twitter-love, and also got picked up by Chris Meadows over on Teleread.

The much bigger news though is a major bookseller has given the nod to a deal hinted at in the Futurebook piece, and that The New Goodbye app should soon get a rather significant push in some bookshops in London.

In other news, last weekend Rich and Order completed filming for the video of The New Goodbye, which consisted of much pain-staking live action stop-motion. Here are a few not particularly illuminating photos from the shoot.

A fancy camera and a sockless foot

 

 

More feet - this time they're on a storyboard

This is more like it. Animator 'Tank'

and some colourful card (courtesy of EBB)

Congratulations also to Russell, who's now taken up his full-time position with McSweeney's.

An interview with Rich Watson

Rich Watson is a singer/songwriter with a line in melodic, sixties-tinged guitar pop. As well as contributing the title track to The New Goodbye, he has recently worked with Ford and The Times, and recorded with musical statesmen Mike Rutherford (Genesis, Mike & The Mechanics) and Kenney Jones (The Small Faces, The Faces, The Who). He is currently working with producer Tim Woods on Department 66, his debut album. 

Rich playing The Albert Hall with Neil and Andy from Travis

You’ve been writing songs seriously for a number of years now. Recently you seem to have found a more distinctive voice. You’ve retained that sixties musicality you have always excelled in, but there’s a more modern feel to the music, that I think is very much a good thing. The New Goodbye is probably the first public demonstration of this, but is this a conscious move? 

I have been writing fairly consistently since I was about 14, when I started my first band at school. I guess I've been refining and honing the sound that is gradually crystallizing into Department 66. Ultimately, the bottom line is to make something of quality with a strong melody, an interesting lyric and that is reflective of its time. A tall order, but that was the brief I gave myself when I started the project.

Tim [Woods. The producer] has been invaluable in bringing this to life and Avatar, another track we worked on together (before the arrival of the James Cameron film I hasten to add), is in a similar vein.

They’ve updated The Prisoner. Shame they didn’t give you a call for the soundtrack. Marriage made in heaven, I reckon. 

Funnily enough I've just completed work on a new track for the album, entitled Just Around The Corner. It’s an instrumental piece, directly influenced by the likes of Lalo Schifrin. I’ve recently been turned on to his work, like the score he did for the Bullitt (the Steve McQueen film).

Can you tell us a bit about Department 66? 

I’m planning it as an album of 10 songs. The writing kicked off with Avatar last year, and the album will of course include The New Goodbye. I'm halfway there now. Ultimately, I'm keen to have something that incorporates the full range of my writing. I've always loved albums like London Calling [The Clash] or The White Album [The Beatles] where each track effectively creates its own little world.

So individual concept songs, rather than a concept album. And the title? Where’s that from? 

Department 66 is the road that crosses the border between France and Spain via Catalonia. I overhead the name on my travels last year and it struck me as an interesting title. I chose it for the sound of it, but also for the sense of transience it evokes; that place between borders.

That’s one of the themes of the novel too. It fact, it’s directly referenced, except in the book it’s the Mont Blanc pass between France and Italy.


You tasted a level of success a couple of years back when Six O’Clock was picked up by Ford (who, I have to confess I think helped murder a great song), and then there was the tour for Teenage Cancer Trust. But is that how you see yourself, as a front-man of a band? 

I enjoyed both experiences very much and certainly performing at the Royal Albert Hall was a particular highlight. I guess the idea of fronting a band and performing my own songs has always appealed, as, like most musicians, I have a very clear, defined view of how my songs should be performed. That’s not to say I’m not interest in writing for other people.

Originally from the Midlands, Rich now lives in Kent and works in London. Department 66 should be with us sometime next year. If you’re interested in contacting him, drop him a line.

What is The New Goodbye?

The New Goodbye is a pretty special iPhone app, designed and developed by Russell Quinn, the man who brought McSweeney’s to your pocket, along creating the Wallpaper*’s City Guides and Creative Review’s Annual 2010 apps.

The New Goodbye is also an arts project, managed by me, Neil Ayres, and centred round my new novel, also called The New Goodbye. As well as Russell’s beautiful design, which helps thread the separate elements together, the app features illustrations by Johanna Basford, photography by Nicole Heiniger and others, music by Rich Watson and writing by Miguel Cervantes, arguably the inventor of modern fiction. Also, in a month or so, anyone who has downloaded the app will find it updated with a music video, created by creative collective Order.

How do I get it?

If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, you get it from the app store. But not for a couple of weeks or so. There’s a free ‘lite’ version, which includes a sampler of most of the content, along with the 'Romantic Gestures' feature. The full version will set you back £1.99, or $2.99 or so if you’re Americanically-inclined.

Why would I pay that?

Because that would get you a novel, two short stories, some fantastic visuals, an exclusive music track and a sorely under-read novelette by a master of fiction that will help you impress your friends/dinner party guests/mates down the pub with.