VIBRATIONISTS
A sonic tapestry of contemporary alt-folk, prog-rock & blues by Suzy, Simon and Dave Boyd.
Greetings folks!
We're thrilled to announce our new band and upcoming album, VIBRATIONISTS.
After three diverse Starlite & Campbell studio albums, we felt the time was right to record an acoustic-based album—something we’ve wanted to do for years.
We’ve already written four songs for the album, some you may have heard during our live streams or duo sets. One of our favourites, It Started Raining, was released as a single way back in 2016—shit, that was almost ten years ago, can you believe it?!
// Get rhythm
We were considering rhythm section collaborators for our new album when we received a serendipitous message from
, on the recommendation of our mutual friends and supporters and .Naturally, we looked him up and arranged a lunch meeting at our favourite regular haunt, Café Central in our home town of Foz do Arelho.
Our shared life feels like an endless corridor lined with doors, each representing a chance encounter or decision. We choose a door and open it, and if we like what's behind it, we step through and spend some time in that place. Inside, we always find another door, which if you choose to walk through, leads to a new corridor and again more doors and more choices. Welcome to our world…
Suzy & Simon
/// Pissing in the park
Musicians can be a bit like dogs when they first meet. There might be a certain amount of speculative sniffing, low growling and the option of a nip on the scruff of the neck to demonstrate dominance, or there can be a joyful dash around the park together, taking turns to piss on everything. It can go either way, but suffice to say, when we met Dave, there was no growling and plenty of pissing.
“One of the things I value deeply in musical collaborations is authenticity. Music is a notoriously tough career choice, and to survive for as long as we all have in the industry involves the tricky balancing act of maintaining enthusiasm, practice, and a kind of critically honed weather eye for bullshit, of which there is a vast amount.
To find folks living just down the road in rural Portugal who do what they say they will do, stick to their artistic guns, write great songs, and groove like fiends, was something of a miracle.”
Dave Boyd
/// The Bodhrán
We decided to get together in the studio the following week and see how we got on musically.
Dave is a master of the Bodhrán (pronounced ‘bow-rawn’), the traditional Irish frame drum, and arrived at the studio with an eclectic selection of these wonderful instruments, plus other drums and lots of other strange-looking things that went, bonk, boom, shick-a-schick and ping.
While frame drums are ancient and widespread globally, Dave has developed his own unique style, utilising delays and digital effects to create impressive sonic landscapes —as we call it —‘fucking up’ the sound—making it far more interesting, especially for us.
This is a short video he sent us early on in our musical relationship—it's truly cool.
What we didn't realise at the time is that Dave also plays a vast array of percussive instruments, fabulous piano, synthesisers, sings backing harmony vocals, and is a wizard at programming, video editing, multimedia design, and arranging. Great!!
Seriously, check him out.
// We don’t do bands (until now)
Being in a band can be incredibly rewarding and creatively stimulating, or it can be a huge pain in the arse. Just look at the end stages of groups like The Police, The Beatles, and The Eagles – even they couldn't stand to be in the studio together.
Since the mid-90s, we’ve primarily worked with session musicians. While this approach has its own challenges, it's generally a lot less stressful, and we've continued this modus operandi with Starlite & Campbell.
But now, for the first time in a long time, we decided to form a band. This isn't just about hiring musicians; it's an equal unit that came together naturally because we connected both personally and musically. There’s space in this band for our individual skills and instruments; we both challenge and inspire each other— it became evident that we love playing music together. We also get on famously and have a great craic, which is hugely important.
It just felt right from the start.
VIBRATIONISTS // It’s all in a name…
One of the biggest challenges when starting a band is finding the perfect name—one that truly captures your sound. Dave's social media profile offered an unexpected solution: ‘Noise and Vibration specialist.’ With little hesitation, the name VIBRATIONISTS was born.
We love it because every atom and subatomic particle in the Universe is always in a state of motion or energetic fluctuation—they are always vibrating. Hence, if you think about it, WE ARE ALL VIBRATIONISTS!
If you've ever shared a stage with Starlite or stood in the front row facing her cabinets, you'll know exactly what we mean by VIBRATION—which can occasionally result in unplanned visits to the bathroom.
Sound vibrations are the movement of air molecules caused by vibrating objects. These vibrations travel through solids, liquids, and gases as sound waves. When the sound waves reach our ears, our brains interpret them as sound.
/// Design
As you may know from our previous posts, our local city, Caldas da Rainha, is a vibrant hub for musicians, artists, and designers.
We recently rebranded our studio and gave it a fresh identity - it is now called the Supertone Sonic Lab. We wanted to work with and invest in our Caldas creative community, and following a vivacious and insirational first meeting, we contracted, TURMA Creative design agency to handle the work.
At the same time, we also asked them to develop a design for VIBRATIONISTS, and they subsequently delivered a stunning collection of logos and icons.
Here's what they had to say about the project on Instagram. We like it…
Alternatively, you can…
// Our journey so far
Initially, we envisioned VIBRATIONISTS as a live mixed-media performance. We planned to reimagine select songs from our previous five studio albums, alongside new material, in a three-piece format featuring guitar, bass, fife, processed bodhrán, and vocals.
But then...
Delving into the full extent of Dave's creative arsenal, and given our love for expansive and emotional soundscapes, our collective vision unexpectedly exploded!
We have now incorporated a plethora of other instruments and sonic delights with guitar/bass effects, percussion, Wurlitzer electric piano, synthesisers, drum machines, Korg Wavedrum, Moog Taurus bass pedals— and a trusty looper pedal to tie it all together.
It's a much bigger setup and we are now writing songs for our debut VIBRATIONISTS album, slated for release early 2026.
/// So, what does it sound like?
We are primarily storytellers and songwriters, and as you will most probably know by now, don't confine ourselves to specific genres. If a song calls for a solo piano or an acoustic guitar, that's what it gets. If it needs frantic arpeggiated sequences? No problem. What about sounds that go ‘boing’ or ‘clang’? Of course. This is all a natural fit for our creative soundscapes, and together, our new band delivers all of it.
Take a look at our new website, where you'll find links to our social media channels and an option to sign up for updates, livestreams, new music and dedicated VIBRATIONISTS emails.
VIBRATIONISTS: A sonic tapestry of contemporary alt-folk, prog-rock & blues
// What’s next
Our VIBRATIONISTS live setup is complex, which significantly increases the chances of monumental cockups, especially when we factor in videos, lighting, and back projection.
We always say that one gig is worth 20 rehearsals—that's when you truly discover what's working and find out what needs more attention. Playing live gives you a real feel for how the songs flow in the set, how the music connects with the audience, and what needs tweaking.
With this in mind, and before we book a full mixed-media tour with production rehearsals, we've decided to play a few low-key warm-up shows with the occasional live stream.
In May, we played our debut gig at Marcianus 3.0 in Foz do Arelho, and in June, played the outdoor stage at Prohibition in Óbidos—it was purely music without visual effectS—taking it slowly.
/// Video
Before we can book any shows, agents need to see our live performance. So, we decided to record a few live tracks at the Supertone Sonic Lab from our back catalogue that truly showcase the new VIBRATIONISTS sound.
For our first video recording session, we reimagined It Ain't Right from our second studio album, The Language Of Curiosity (featuring Suzy on lead vocals) and had incredible help from our brilliant Latvian friends, Raivis Struncens and his wonderful daughter Veronika. They rocked up with their cameras and tripods to capture it all.
Here are three stills Raivis captured during the recording session.
// And finally… Are you a VIBRATIONIST?
Watch out for our new LIVE video released in the next couple of weeks.
Check out, subscribe (and click the bell icon to receive updates)— on our brand new VIBRATIONISTS YouTube channel.
So that’s it—come on board and let’s enjoy the ride together - after all, we are all VIBRATIONISTS.
Much love
Suzy, Simon & Dave
When the universe vibrations are high very cool and wonderful things happen. Much love ✌️❤️🎶 heading back across the pond now… see you in August 😎