If you were in the mood for a puzzle or two, February would satisfy those particular desires without issue. It was a month that had a lot of questions raised, all of which will be conclusively answered during March and April.
Belgium loves Editors. If you thought you knew the depth of that country's affection for the band already, it's time to reconsider your position. It goes so much deeper. If you were a traveller through Brussels Airport last month then you would have seen Mr Smith staring out at you from a large billboard, as part of the
Dressed by Antwerp campaign. The idea was to promote the influence of Antwerp's fashion scene not only in Belgium but also more internationally and Tom was chosen as one of the featured models. He was wearing garments designed by Nick Haemels and contrary to what you may think, this isn't new ground being broken as he and other Editors have acted as models in the past. For example, if you look at the
official video for Bones, the footage from 1:07 to 1:20 is from an Italian Vogue photoshoot which I'm pretty sure was in late 2007 or early 2008? I think Dressed by Antwerp is perhaps the most visible he's ever been while doing so, however. The amount of people that saw the photo will be pretty huge. Here's what Tom had to say about his involvement:-
Tom Smith doesn’t think he’s a fashion expert. He has worn designs by Dries Van Noten in the past, and has visited his shop and workshops in Antwerp, with his band. “I admire the fact that the city wants to promote its fashion scene. And it matches my idea of the city. It has a special vibe. Here they embrace less obvious, avant-garde ideas in the arts.”
Some of the photos from the shoot are in the zip file below.
On the 13th of February some new studio pictures emerged on Instagram and Twitter. There was also a slightly cryptic tag line that read:-
"I know you better than you know yourself."
Are these words from a new song? Maybe Barricades (see below for further details)? I read nothing into these things because there was a monumental gap between Tom posting a picture that contained the lyrics to Magazine ("tight ships and fat lips"), and that song becoming what it actually became some years later.
As with a lot of things I took special note of the details, which led me to notice that there were also some photos shared by James Lockey from the same location. This could mean that this is a piece of Lockey home turf or that he's made the trip to be there with the band. If the latter is true then he may well be filming some of this as part of the Hand Held Cine Club...or he may have just been innocently dropping by to say hi.
There was some more cross pollination between bands as Tom joined Andy Burrows onstage at the Railway Inn Winchester on the 13th February. More photos were also shared of Smith and Burrows together with the promise that new material is being worked on. What with the rehearsals for the upcoming Editors gigs and creating new songs for them, it's certainly a busy time to be a Smith.
There was an announcement that a competition is being run in Mexico to have the band personally deliver a copy of VI OLENCE to a fan's door. It's a fantastic idea, which I hope will work better than if it was run in the UK. Firstly, you'd anxiously wait in all morning for the delivery, only to succumb to the foul pressures of nature and your weak bladder to have to use the bathroom. It is at this critical moment when your lower clothing is around your ankles and you're feeling a little bit lighter, little by little, that the doorbell will ring and then you have two distinct choices;
1. You can stop in mid-flow and hastily gather yourself together to run at the front door. No time for washing your hands which is both unhygienic and weird, and it will make for an awkward greeting should the band want to shake your hand and congratulate you. That is if you actually make it to the door without tripping and falling over your own underwear. Worst case scenario is that you accidentally get tangled up in your skivvies and crack your head on something porcelain in the bathroom, leaving you as a crawling blood stained mess who answers the door with your unmentionables hanging out all over the place. Still, at least you'd get to meet the band, as they dial 999 and summon medical help for you.
2. You can continue to do what you need to do, finish up, wash your hands and then confidently stride to your front door safe in the knowledge that they will wait for you. Even though in reality, that's not how deliveries work in this country. Once the doorbell has been rung you have approximately 3 seconds to answer the door before you receive a little red card saying "Sorry! We missed you" and you end up having to go to a sorting office to pick up you items 24 hours later. Even if you do get to the door within the allotted time, nobody will be waiting there to see you, having already disappeared to their next delivery. It is the eternal mystery of the parcel delivery world. Be sure though that if you miss the doorbell due to your lack of bladder fortitude, the band will most certainly not at be at that sorting office. Instead it will be a bored and slightly grouchy assistant that will be neither Ed Lay nor Elliott Williams, and they will demand identification. Photo ID is preferable.
On the last day of the month some rehearsal photographs were published. What was striking about one of them was that it showed an old friend, Mr Nicholas Willes back in the room and playing guitar opposite Justin. Just like that, potential scenarios start to swirl of what exactly is going on here. The most intriguing possibility for me, is the possibility that Editors will be arriving onstage as a six piece band the next time we see them. They have an undeniable power when they play normally, but the thought of their sound being fleshed out even further with more guitars is in itself a puzzle. If that's the case, does that mean that the new album will be more guitar based? Could be. Or is the introduction of another guitar a way of freeing up Elliott from his own axe bothering duties so that he can perform more electronic sounds? Maybe they're just trying something out to see how it sounds, because after all this is a band who have precedent when it comes to switching things up occasionally. As I said earlier, the next couple of months will provide all the closure we need.
Right at the very end of February came the official release list for record Store Day April 13th 2019, and Editors are on it. They will be releasing an album on coloured vinyl and limited to 500 copies called "The Blanck Mass Sessions", and it contains the following tracks:-
1.“Barricades - the Blanck Mass recording”
2. “Cold - the Blanck Mass recording”
3. “Hallelujah (So Low) - the Blanck Mass recording”
4. “Violence - the Blanck Mass recording”
5. “Darkness At The Door - the Blanck Mass recording”
6. “Nothingness - the Blanck Mass recording”
7. “Magazine - the Blanck Mass recording”
8. “Counting Spooks - the Blanck Mass recording”
The very handsome looking artwork is by Editor number 6, Mr Rahi Rezvani. If you look very, very closely at the label on the front of the album in the photo above, you'll notice that it says "Includes album download", meaning that if you are unable to play the vinyl itself then you'll still be able to grab the songs. This is especially important because as well as variations on tunes we already know, there's a song there that was a Japanese rumour, then a myth and now a reality. Barricades will be the first unheard material outside of Dream Dark as Your Heaven (we will never forget!) that the band have made public since VI OLENCE was released. There are also suggestions that a video will be made for it. Hmmm...
One thing that I find very interesting indeed is that Blanck Mass actually gets a writer's credit. Referring once again to the photograph above you can see the name "Powers" alongside Lockey and Williams, which is of course Blanck Mass' real surname. My initial thought was that the band had recorded some songs in Oxford and then these were given to Blanck Mass to rework and shape into something with his own stylings on. These were then resubmitted to the band and the resulting album that ended up being released was a combination of those two artistic takes. With the release of that one photograph, however, I'm not sure anymore. This seems to have been a much closer collaboration, particularly if Blanck Mass is being cited as a direct creator of the material alongside the band themselves. Whatever the case, Saturday April 13th is a date for your diaries.
Here then is the complete collection of Editors paraphernalia from the month just gone. Ever wondered what Mr Smith would look like if his image was printed onto the froth of an alcoholic beverage? I have a video that demonstrates this very feat and it's included here. Enjoy ;)
Editors Instragram February 2019
For all of Editors' previous Instagram posts, go here.
brought to you with lots and lots of lemming-love :) x
