Bill Cutbill has returned with Resolution Remastered - a New Year's resolution for 2024 that starts today and will either be kept or broken.

Many years ago Bill set himself the task to write, record, mix and master one new song with accompanying video every month for the whole year.

The rule was: each video had to be released before the end of the month. It was quite ambitious, and spoiler alert, there are 12 videos on the internet you could watch immediately if you have the right detective skills.

Speaking of the January track entitled, Treat Yourself, Bill Cutbill said -

“Here we are once again dealing with the January winter blues. Personally, I find a lot of comfort in sleep and that’s what this song is about.

Back in yesteryear when I was struggling with harsher mood instabilities, I found that by committing to a good sleep pattern I was able to start days with a better mindset.

I also find that tea helps… not with sleep necessarily cos of the caffeine, but a good cup of tea helps with every stress; any difficult moment life throws at you.

So yeah, brew yourself a mug and take this time of year to relax and recuperate. There’s a reason why animals hibernate.” - 💙 Bill Cutbill

Bill will be revisiting each track to give it a fresh burst of instrumentation/ mix/ whatever the hell he want.

Just like with the original RESOLUTION project, these REMASTERED songs will be released once a month with a fresh cut of the original video, formatted for the mobile phone age.

The real question is, will Bill be able to keep his Resolution?!

Only time will tell.

Today marks the release of the incredible new StillWaves LP, Undiagnosed [SS122].

It is available worldwide via streaming and also on strictly limited Safe Sounds cassette. Listen to Undiagnosed on Spotify, Bandcamp, Apple Music or your preferred music platform today!

Lead singer and bassist Dan Carlyle sat down with us to discuss what it was like to record Undiagnosed with engineer/producer Josh Korody at Candle Recording Studio, and also how the album came together with the late guitarist Eric Pentz -

"In all honesty, I almost pulled the plug on recording the album because Eric and I had fallen out of touch. We drifted apart when he started to hang out with new friends who liked to party a lot, but ultimately we decided to push on and record the album over 4 sessions.

Undiagnosed is very personal for a few different reasons. I was going through a divorce and hard times when we were recording it, and Eric passed away shortly after completing it.

Eric's fingerprints and influence are all over the album; songs like 'I'm Haunted' and 'Reform' we built around his guitar. Another track that really encapsulates Eric and his playing is the title track 'Undiagnosed' - it's a beautiful guitar melody yet still somehow morose."

StillWaves returned to work with the engineer/producer of their first album, Josh Korody, who you might know as the frontman of 90s nostalgia group, Breeze (check out the Breeze live sessions we recorded in our bank vault here).

Speaking of the relationship and recording process with Josh, Dan continued...

"He knew exactly the sound and direction we were going for, so that made the whole process pretty seamless.

Andrew Heule recorded live drums for all the songs, but Josh liked the sound of the original electronic drums I programmed on the Korg Electribe, so we ended up using a combination of both with the digital drums being more prominent.

Everything was recorded at Candle during the covid pandemic, and it was a huge energy release to be in there during that period of abnormality.

Eric was a character. A memorable studio story is when he complimented Josh... "Josh, I have to say, I just love your vision."

Josh, taking it to mean his artistic vision, replied, "ah, thanks Eric."

This was followed by Eric exclaiming, "Yeah, I don't know how you can see all those tiny little tracks on the screen while you record."

Eric was hilarious and always lit up the room. When recording our first album, he was doing vocal backups on the track 'Trust Yourself' and kept blurting out weird things. I was going to go into the vocal booth and get him to stop, but Josh said to let him keep rolling and we laughed our heads off at all the wonderful gibberish."

Speaking about the meaning behind some of Undiagnosed's tracks -

"'Aurora, CO' is about Elijah McClain. He was the young African-American youth that was killed by police officers in custody, for doing nothing wrong. I read the story of his death and it made me so angry the only thing I felt I could do was write a track. He used to go and play violins for cats in shelters - he was a gentle soul.

At other times the songs don't have any profound meaning at all. 'Redlines' I wrote about a road trip to Nashville - we were driving towards Windsor where all the giant wind turbines are, and the red flashing lights were in time with the song that was playing on the car stereo. I like that track, it reminds me of closing time at the bar. Eric's guitar in it, both tone and playing are fantastic.

'Somewhere I'm Happy' is about Eric and myself and our breakups that coincided at roughly the same time. We were a good support system for each other, albeit we were also each other's demons too at times.

Releasing this album will be cathartic. At the time everything was so disconnected and life felt like it might never go back to semi-normal again, so it feels good to finally have it come out, and showcase the wonderful lost talent that was Eric."

You can catch StillWaves celebrating the release of this album on Saturday at The Monarch Tavern in a very special Class of 2024 show brought to you by Exclaim! View the event here.

Strictly limited edition StillWaves cassettes will be available to purchase at the show, or for those of you further away you can grab one on bandcamp.

Thank you for supporting independent local music.

You can catch Idious Carrie performing their first show of 2024 this Sunday at The Baby G, Toronto.

And what's more it's absolutely free and includes performances from Ace of Wands and Rosie Wyse.

Sunday 21st January
At The Baby G. Doors at 8PM
Facebook Event

Happy New Year!

2024 is here and we've got a bunch of content on the way for you, starting today.

Back in 2017 the debut EP from RUM DO, lay down, lovers [SS101] was our very first release here at Safe Sounds. The avant-garde pop duo released their third EP last year, You Just Have To Be.

WHOLE is a brand new video featuring the entire RUM DO discography with uncut visuals. It's perfect for ambient watching and listening... stick it on and let your mind wander across diverse landscapes, open your eyes for rushing colours and abstractions.

Ever since the start of the project, RUM DO's music has been released with abstract video. The final frame of one track always linked to the first frame of the next.

Finally WHOLE can now be experienced as it was always intended. The run time is 1 hour and 6 minutes.

I guess in some ways it's odd to mark the start of the new year with the death of a project. Harry Perry and Bill Cutbill will now focus on new musical ventures. After all, time is not infinite.

It feels fitting and romantic to wave goodbye to RUM DO in this moment. It's just the point from A to B.

With that, we place our feet firmly on the ground and start walking forward.

RUM DO ~ "an adjective meaning 'odd' or 'strange', and nothing to do with the drink rum."