Hi and welcome to the Squire newsletter! The weather has suddenly become summer! A new day!
While working on the Smash LP release, I’ve been reminiscing about the time spent in California and realising that a lot of the stories have been subjects for the Squire newsletter, that is now up to 160 editions! While its May Bank Holiday in the UK, it’s a good time to relax and think about some of those stories in the context of how I’m writing longer posts on Substack as ‘Sunday Listening Sessions’ and introducing new tracks from the forthcoming record.
The latest track, New Way, New Day epitomises the optimism I felt when going to LA either to mix Get Smart, or play live dates. It was a different world, alien yet familiar at the same time. What was interesting was that without the internet, without instant media and an always available archive of music that makes now and then seem like the same moment, communication really was on the telephone, reading magazines and catching glimpses of something hard to describe. Bands played to a different set of influences, yet we all had the same records! They were as curious about London as I was about how the Southern California mod, ska, psychedelic and garage scene were such a huge catalyst to each other. There was room for everyone and it was appreciated and creative. They played the same shows! There was no ‘get rich quick’ mentality you kept coming up against when dealing with making records in the UK. Mod or pop wasn’t separate from the rest of music. It was all the same scene and incubator for establishing your ideas.
I was lucky is as much I could see both sides of the world at the same time! I thought everyone could, but actually, it was quite a unique perspective from street level!
Mod had always been about movement, curiosity, modernism. That was the same everywhere I went, but translating that into an idea that made a record that would find its way to a new fan was hard work when you had to rely on mainstream media to be interested you. So you relied on fanzines, local promoters, and the wide world rather than ‘blow up’ locally! It was a two tier existence, major labels and Independent labels didnt have the same goal.
Heres a link to the latest substack post that connects London and Los Angeles at the time of the Paisley Underground. Most bands didnt make it to Europe, yet it was as vital and exciting as anything Id experienced at the height of the Mod Revival. Similarly, Squire were one of very few UK bands to land in LA, and as an independent you had to take the risk, but it was worth it.
Heres a link to the substack post and the new track - New Way, New Day!
https://anthonymeynell.substack.com/p/new-way-new-day
And if the California connection resonates, here's an earlier newsletter from April 2021 where I wrote about the sunshine influence and mixing Get Smart at Ocean Way in Hollywood.
