Homelife 1997-2008

https://homelifeuk.bandcamp.com

Formed in 1997/8 by Paddy Steer, Anthony Burnside and Simon King. Recruited Rosie Lowdell and Semay Wu; in 1999 Seaming To, Graham Massey, Richard Harrison and ‘various’ other personel throughout 10 year period.

We also worked with Sophie Choupas on our animations/images

1999 – 2004/5 – our live gigs had ~ 13 people on stage, sometimes swelling up to 20.

2004/5 – The big band Homelife became a duo with Paddy Steer and Tony Burnside.

We were on Ninja Tune.

https://ninjatune.net/artist/homelife

https://www.discogs.com/artist/10507-Homelife

Homelife have recorded six albums , three Eps and have various unreleased material including another Forkbeard Fantasy soundtrack Shooting Shakespeare.

Multi-projection sequence from Forkbeard’s stage show “Shooting Shakespeare”

https://www.discogs.com/artist/10507-Homelife

Albums: Homelife, ChoCho, GuruManHubCap Lady, Flying Wonders, Shooting Shakespeare, Exotic Interlude ( – Homelife duo here).

Eps: Arsonite, Wobbly Jack, Too Fast, Wonderly, Unknown, and others…

Formed in parallel with my classical training in Manchester, this brought to head all the different ways to play music: listening to sounds in abstraction and in the mix; how a sound was produced; how to play them; exploring and improvising; how knowing how simplicity –> complexity works; how to play ‘out-of-tune’; how to feel the groove; love thy melody; understanding group mentalities – either hierarchy or friendship (ours was friendship); to the creation of unity in sonics; and also understanding that, in recordings and therefore performances, ‘nuance’ and ‘feel’ really are the best director. Gurus in rhythms and wonky melodies, the motley crew and I carried on for 10 years touring festivals in UK and abroad; playing in big venues and strange and wonderful small ones; recording/jamming loads of music; and rehearsing in fine industrial units where I found the perfect chair for sitting on. A mixture of different social/cultural and musical backgrounds, we all came together for the love of Homelife’s music. You can hear Paddy’s, Tony’s and Simon’s individual styles in the tunes whilst being hammered by everyone else’s contributions.

Photos:

homelife 1999 — Me, Rosie and James Ford in Early days

Spawned music:

Paddy Steer – all kinds – now does his solo thing; 12-piece Sun Ra homage band called The Part Time Heliocentric Cosmo Drama After School Club, and other

Simon King – gtr family – improvises and composes for an eclectic mix of amazing bands and theatre/film inc: Lotus Pedals (who worked with Forkbeard Fantasy), and Kenny Process Team..and other

Tony Burnside – gtr and voice – Still plays music and whistling ‘that’ tune that goes [[: duh da duuuu da duuuh duh :]]

Rosie Lowdell – Violinist – of all styles – dance, tango, and other improvised madness

Seaming To – voice, clarinet and piano – now does her solo thing, composes and sings on all other kinds of projects inc: Lotus Pedals, Toolshed, live soundtracks etc.

Richard Harrison – drums and perc – SpaceHeads, and countless other..

Graham massey – synths and wind – 808 State, Massonix, Biting Tongues, Toolshed, 12-piece Sun Ra homage band called The Part Time Heliocentric Cosmo Drama After School Club, and other

Howard Jacobs – drums and perc – Mr.Wilsons Second Liners, Architects of Rosslyn, Toolshed, Lotus Pedals and countless other..

Matthew Batty – violinist, busy freelancing all kinds of music, and other..

Justin Lingard – violist, still music’ing and now lawyer’ing..

Sophie Choupas – illustration, animation and live visuals – entrepreneur in food and catering in South France.

Videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/madwaltz/videos