I was grateful for the opportunity to write some new material without any agenda. It had been a while since my previous projects, The Nine and Alien#Six13. Pulling on influences from my favourite era of music, the 80’s, but giving it a new twist with modern production and mixing techniques. Writing the album allowed me to have a creative freedom and try all sorts of approaches on the production side of things. Continue reading “Geoff’s Blog – Stateless Re-Release [March 2018]” »
So as we prepare to re-issue ‘Stateless’ nine years from it’s original date of release I thought I should write a proper blog about the album, how it came about and what the album means to me personally.
Continue reading “Pete’s Blog – Stateless Re-Release (Part II) [March, 2018]” »
Hello All,
Things have been pretty quiet on the tenek front for a few months as both Geoff and myself work on other projects such as ‘Silent Unseen Productions‘ and as many of you know I’m currently working with Bristol band ‘Sinestar‘ in the studio and also live too. But we have been busy behind the scenes with preparations for the back catalogue re-releases that we have planned for 2018.
Continue reading “Pete’s Blog – Stateless Re-Release (Part I) [March, 2018]” »
Hello all,
I thought it was about time for another blog regarding the band and what’s been happening as we’ve received quite a few enquiries about the future of Tenek. Most recently we’ve been concentrating on the preparations for our 10th Anniversary show at the Dave Charles Extravaganza at Market Harborough which we performed at last weekend.
Photo by Andrew Garley
Firstly, we’d like to thank everyone that came down to support us and all the other bands at the event. It really was such an honour to headline on Friday night alongside Rainland, John Costello and Dancing With Ruby. All are good friends of ours and we’ve shared the stage with them all at various shows/events over the years. The whole weekend was a fantastic celebration with a lovely atmosphere and it was also a great way for everyone to come together and thank Dave for all his support in the 10 years that he has been broadcasting his legendary Sunday night show from HFM.
Photo by Ammie Sandquist
Continue reading “Pete’s Blog: Tenek Update [September, 2017]” »
tenek chat about their experiences with the well-known German band and friends De/Vision. – Written by Susanne Schaller / Stargazer
“Hey Pete and Geoff. Thank you very much for taking the time to give Stargazer the Interview with you.
Geoff: You’re very welcome. Thank you for your interest in the world of Tenek!
First of all How are you?
Geoff: Very well, thank you. I’m keeping myself busy writing music for TV/Film and some other music projects in between Christmas shopping!
Most of us should know you well since you were the Chosen band for the 25 Years Tour of De/Vision. So how did that all came that you supported De/Vision the first time?
Pete: We were asked to be special guests by De/Vision who we’d played our first overseas gig with at the PLUSWELT Festival in 2009 where they very kindly lent us a rather fab EMAX keyboard to use on stage. Very kind of them as we didn’t know them then! They were very friendly and helpful which we really appreciated!
What things did change since that first support tour?
Continue reading “Stargazer: De/Vision Fanzine – Interview with Tenek [Feb 2017]” »
‘Imitation of Life’ was one of the last tracks that was written for the ‘Smoke & Mirrors’ album and it was around May/June 2014. The original demo was entitled ‘Stuntman’ and at the time we were trying to write something a little less electronic and something with a more ‘New Order & Kasabian’ vibe. This track marked a big change for the band as it was the first song we created in Cubase on the studio computer as previously we were using Logic X so it was a bit of a learning curve at times during recording!
This started out with a very simple vintage drum machine pattern, some basic guitar parts and the prominent lead line in the chorus. It also had the ‘gothic’ style motif in the bridge which I thought sounded similar to ‘The Cure’ and possibly a touch of Peter Hook too. Even though it sounds like a lead guitar, I’m certain it was played on my trusty Squire Fender Precision bass guitar which I paid £71 for on eBay which has to be one of the bargains of the century! It got used on several of the album tracks actually, it records so well and has that Bruce Foxton/Paul Gardiner sound that I’ve always loved.
Continue reading “Imitation of Life – Pete’s blog [Nov, 2016]” »
So here is the latest blog, I must apologize for our lack of news and updates recently. I think we’ve forgotten about our plans to do these regularly once the new website went live. Must be an age thing!
The year got off to a great start for us, we played 2 fantastic gigs in Bristol (as special guests to Sinestar at their ‘Evolve’ album launch) and then onto Southampton with our good friends Vile Electrodes and John Costello. Great attendances at both which was very encouraging to see for all the artists involved.
Since then Geoff has been extremely busy in the studio producing other artists and working on various projects for film and TV. Geoff was also invited by De/Vision to contribute backing vocals for a few tracks on their newly released album box set, ‘De/Vision 13’. Guess which ones! [Click Here] Shortly afterwards, came the first release from this Summer’s production sessions with a new project from Richard Sinclair called ‘Murmurs of Earth’ and the single is called ‘Take It All’. This will be released on all major digital platforms on the 1st July via our Alien Six Productions label. [Click Here]
I’ve been spending my time updating my own studio with new software and hardware including Logic X, Roland TR-8 Rhythm Performer and the Novation Ultranova synth which will replace my Akai Miniak at future live shows. So there has been much reading of manuals, tech phone calls, video tutorials and occasional head scratching of course! As always, we’d like to thank our friends at Absolute Music who are always so helpful to us and come up with many helpful suggestions regarding our studio and live set-ups.
We have also recently commissioned a video for a track from the ‘Smoke & Mirrors’ album which is currently in production, we are very much looking forward to seeing the finished product as it is a very interesting concept. This is planned to help promote our next EP which we are aiming to release later this year to include some remixes and also a brand new track that we are currently working on. Plans are in motion to release this EP and the ‘What Kind of Friend’ single (which was a digital release only) together on a limited edition CD so more news on this soon.
This month has also seen the release of the ‘Electronic Saviors – Volume 4’ compilation from Distortion Productions (also our US label) via Metropolis. As many of you know, we appeared on Volume 2 back in 2012 with the exclusive ‘World of No Relief’ track and we are delighted to be involved in this new release too. The track featured is ‘What Kind of Friend? – Republica Balkan Boogie Mix’ which was remixed by the brilliant Tim Dorney. These compilations are to raise funds for cancer charities so please support if you can. Jim Semonik has once again done a tremendous job putting this all together and is an inspiration to so many people. [Click Here]
We are currently pulling together some live dates for later in the year to coincide with the release of the next EP, so once these are confirmed we’ll let you know when and where these will take place.
For anybody that might want a ‘Smoke & Mirrors’ limited edition t-shirt, now would be a good time to order one as stocks are getting low and we won’t be getting any more of these made! [Click Here to Order T-Shirt!]
That’s pretty much it for now and hopefully we can be more regular with these blogs, as always we’d like to thank your for your support. It is very much appreciated!
Pete x
