12 things we have learnt in 2023
Every year we learn some new and life changing things and 2023 was no exception. As it comes to a close, we thought we would share them with you.
Beard oil and moustache wax is not a luxury
A couple of years ago Simon ridiculed our youngest son Joseph when he waxed lyrical about the quality of his beard oil. Oh, how things have changed, these days Simon will not travel anywhere without his essential tin of Death Grip moustache wax accompanied by a Patchiouli scented vial of Dapper Dan premium beard oil.
We are remaining in Europe
Since getting together over ten years ago, it feels like we’ve spent our whole life on tour. We have moved around Europe (a lot), experiencing life, soaking up the wisdom of other ways of living and seeing the world.
We had no end plan - just going with the flow until we made our final ‘country’ move to Portugal three years ago.
Realising it was highly unlikely that we would ever reside again in the UK, we made the final stride into European living - a kind of domestic rite of passage - by changing all our remaining British type G plugs to the European type F plugs.
It’s a funny thing but it has some type of finality to it - tinged with a little sadness.
Other musicians are interested in us
Back in 2018, Suzy was featured in Bass Guitar Magazine. She was pretty shocked that other musicians took an interest in her playing. Wind forward three years and she is featured twice in No Treble Magazine and recorded her first bass play-through video of ‘Blow Them All To Pieces’. Encouraged, she has written a few articles on this very blog about her playing and experiences.
The British music scene is fucked
We recently returned from a UK tour and decided to write a warts-and-all account of what it’s really like touring theatres and grassroots venues. It’s an ongoing series of articles and currently on day six.
We’re not giving up - but the British music scene is pretty fucked right now.
Read all about it…
We are happy when they are happy…
There are always things lurking in the back of your mind, sometimes you can’t define it, just a little niggle.
As kindred spirits of the Star Wars era, we refer to this as an imbalance in the Force, usually related to our family and/or friends going through a tough time.
Families fall out and then fall in again. We are never happier than when all those close to us are in a good place - when there is balance in the Force.
We miss hanging out with art and artists
It’s clear that everyone was deeply affected by the pandemic, socially and psychologically.
We moved from Germany to Portugal right in the middle of the lockdown and have missed our artistic community - it’s taken a while to get back into the swing of it all.
This year was full of great moments meeting cool people, visiting and making new friends.
Portugal is full of art and following the COVID-enforced culture vacuum, we gradually immersed ourselves in the wealth that surrounds us.
We visited the Frida Kalho interactive exhibition, Joana Vasconcelos's massive installation at MAAT in Lisbon and Mark Bradford’s exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Porto.
We have also seen a lot of gigs: The Smile, Bill Callahan and a host of Portuguese artists including Marisa, David Fonseca, Carolina Deslandes - who our new drummer Hugo plays with - and our friend Pedro Abrunhosa.
God how we have missed this stuff.
Apart from our mega road trip to the UK, we have got out of the habit of travelling and exploring new places.
Although we had chatted many times about working together, we had never met the enigmatic and highly talented Paco Loco who is a studio owner, audio engineer and award-winning record producer.
His studio is based in El Puerto de Santa Maria, very close to the ancient city of Cádiz in Spain and a six-hour drive from where we live.
Fuck it, let’s go and visit.
It was a few weeks before Christmas and hotels were as cheap as chips. We packed up the van of rock with the girls and whammed down there.
Paco was as cool in person as we expected, his studio a treasure-trove of sonic excellence and during our three-day trip had some great food and experiences, the highlights included taking the girls to a wonderful beach, an unexpected tapas at Casa Pepe in Cádiz and a trip to The Califa Moroccan restaurant in the magnificent mountain village of Vejer de la Frontera.
To remember romance
Working and living in the same place has a tonne of advantages but as workaholics we realised that a new incentive was needed - a weekly mini-goal - to make the hard grind bearable, keep our spirits up, make time for each other and to remember the important part of the recipe - romance. So 2023 saw the introduction of date night.
One of our favourite pastimes is to go out for dinner. It makes us feel good to dress up and adventure to a place where we don’t have to worry about anything, just hang out like young lovers.
Sometimes we go just down the road to our local bar where the atmosphere is busy, the staff are friendly and the bill is very kind to our wallet.
About every 4-6 weeks we try somewhere new. Our favourite discovery is Alochetano, an authentic Portuguese restaurant in Alcochete - pronounced Alco-Shit - we kid you not.
Dina who runs Front of House is a star! Daniel the Head Chef is a great cook and when he discovered we were musicians, bought our whole six CD discography. The food is delicious - especially the fish - and we feel special and loved. Obrigado.
This time we visited on Sunday for lunch and then had a walk around the town until sunset.
We love making art
We have always written articles on respective blogs and ever since we opened our studio in Valencia have recorded podcasts.
Suzy has always made visual art and Simon loves film photography. It seemed logical that we should join all this up as a multi-media project and in 2022, the embryo of the idea became our multi-media project - Starlite.One - which during 2023, has grown into a troublesome teenager.
It’s been intense as since the beginning of the year we have written/recorded a weekly article & podcast and finished the new studio album STARLITE.ONE which was released on September 1st to pretty amazing reviews - available on 180g vinyl, CD and paid streaming - plug, plug.
Besides creating the collage artwork for the album, Suzy made several other pieces and developed her skills as a video creator.
We love making art…
We need the ocean
As you have probably gathered we work all the time, every day 1000-0000. This summer we made a pact that, when possible, we assimilate our date night into a weekly day at the beach.
There’s something about sleeping on the sand on the shores of the mighty Oceano Atlantico that rocks you to sleep like a baby and heals your soul.
We feel better if we are thinner and fitter
After a dalliance with a cross-trainer at home, Suzy decided it was time to join a gym. Simon is allergic to the usual sterility of this kind of place preferring long walks with our two hairy beasts, but through pained and gritted teeth, went along in support.
We joined the Dream Gym in Samora Correia for an initial six-month trial and seriously have never looked back
We also needed to lose weight. Although we cook from fresh every day using local produce and never eat processed foods, we started weighing all our food and making sure we weren’t overdoing it. We stopped drinking wine at home and now work out three times a week for two hours.
We had three months to prepare for our two-week UK tour and each lost 10Kg in that time. It was a real surprise just how much better we both felt physically and just as importantly mentally.
It’s a lifestyle change and something we continue as part of our weekly routine. We feel supported, part of the community and have a lot of fun!
We often hear these words over the speaker system: Suzy/Simon: more speed - more weight - more reps - more pain!
We don’t need a real Christmas tree
There is no music on a dead planet and along with thousands of artists worldwide, we support Music Declares Emergency.
This year we decided it was time to adopt a high-quality artificial Christmas tree which would last us for many years - the only stipulation is it had to match our wardrobe ie. not pink or white - it had to be black.
And what a perfect addition to our home, adorned with ornaments from Starlite’s Mum and Simon’s Dad - finished off in galactic style with our Yoda tree-topper!!
To approach our work at supersonic speed
The final thing we have learned this year is to create at supersonic speed. You never know when it’s going to end.
We have lost so many great artists in 2023 and those who particularly touched us and in no particular order: Tony Husband, Wayne Shorter, Shane MacGowan, Alan Rankine, Jeff Beck, Burt Bacharach, Tom Verlaine, Mary Quant, Robbie Robertson, Tina Turner, David Crosby, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Bernie Marsden, Andy Rourke, Ahmad Jamal, David Lindley, Khaled Khalifa, Jimmy Buffett, Roger Whittaker, Roberto Rodríguez, Paul Reubens, Ian Bairnson, Astrud Gilberto, Jane Birkin, Louise Glück, Tony Bennett, Richard Roundtree, Fernando Botero, Gordon Lightfoot, Denny Laine and the late great Sinéad O'Connor.
We have found out today Steve Beastie, a beautiful man, radio presenter and one of our biggest musical supporters, passed away over Christmas..
Carpe Diem.
May the force be with you in 2024 ✌️❤️😎
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