Postage Pat

In the old days of the band, I'm talking like 2007ish here, you wouldn't really need to focus so much on postage. You'd sell CDs the old way: at gigs (you'd therefore have to play a *lot* of gigs), face-to-face, trying (with varying success) to stock them in local record shops, or by using those gnarly old paypal 'buy' buttons, hastily slapped onto your glittering myspace page.

For the handful of orders you'd get, you could marvel at the faraway places that appeared on the shipping labels: the US! Hong Kong! Australia! Bits of Europe! It was amazing really, and didn't break the bank to send these things (usually CDs because tapes and vinyl weren't really a thing yet, and we were still in the EU) and you could make friends doing it.

As the band slowly got bigger and the internet changed and morphed less around myspace and more around stuff like facebook & then twitter, something popped up to help: Bandcamp. Bandcamp is basically a big myspace page with a buy button on it, so you can upload whatever you want and people can just buy it there and then. Absolutely revolutionary really, and you've no idea how much it helped. Gone were the days of having to rely on slinging a handful of CDs at another shitty bar gig, or hoping Borders would stock your jewel case in their 'local music' section.

Anyway, enough of the history lesson. It's been this way for ages now: the bulk of the sales I make are through Bandcamp, which means for physical stuff, it's me sending CDs and tapes through the post to people. 

Over the years, postage has gone from a genuine delight to an all encompassing shitshow. I dread it, I'll be honest. To post to anywhere now it's anyone's guess how much it'll cost, and what documentation you need to supply alongside it. Earlier this year you needed to charge an extra £3 on top of anything you sold to the EU for reasons that weren't exactly made clear, as they just slapped a charge on it. Didn't matter that much though, because a month or so later, they just stopped you from sending anything.

There've been a few rumblings I've noticed recently about postage and how much stuff is, and I didn't know how much was genuinely meant at having a pop at me, and how much was just that they didn't actually know how much things are now. To take my physical sales as an example, I only really release in two formats: CD and tape. This helps keep costs down as well as a whole myriad of other reasons too, but that's another story for another day tbh. The CDs I press up are always slimline, so I can send as a smaller size, therefore reducing costs to you and making my life a bit easier. 

So in the UK, you have 3 sizes of packages you can send: letter, large letter, and small parcel. There are others above that, but they're not relevant to what we're talking about here, so I'll ignore those.

The aforementioned CDs will fit as a letter, so long as it doesn't go over 100g in weight and it doesn't go above 0.5cm in width. Tapes go as a large letter as they give you wiggle room of 2.5cm in width, but still only allow 100g (unless you want to pay more) so I have to be careful not to stuff these things with any extra material, or use big packaging.

So, let me break this down for you. To send either a CD or a tape to Europe (bear in mind, I still don't know if I'm technically even allowed to send anything there yet, but for the sake of argument, let's say I am for now) I can only use the 'large letter' service, as the 'letter' one is reserved for non-commercial mail. So these are my options:

 

 

Fuck me, right? haha. Tracked is usually best, as you can see where your package is whenever, and it has a higher chance of getting to where it needs to be. About 99% of the time though, I'll plump for the standard option, which is £3.70, but if it goes missing, I'm screwed.

 

So I enter all the details, and then right at the end, I get hit with £3.54 of fees, which brings our total to £7.24 before I've even thought about packaging, etc.  

 

Again, thanks to new rules brought in a few months ago, I'm unsure as to whether I can even do this, as according to everywhere I've looked, I now need a 'responsible person' on the satan payroll in each EU country I want to sell in (who charge anywhere between £150-500 a year) to do essentially nothing. Yeah, I can't afford that. But doesn't matter anyway, as I'll need documentation about the actual packaging itself too, and to provide that, I open myself up to a whole other world of pain if something goes wrong.
  

Anyway, so yeah, it's fucking expensive. 

Your favourite record stores, or online shops, or even some bigger bands, will use fulfilment centres to navigate these worlds: big massive warehouses full of their stock which deal with all this bullshit for them. And if they don't have those, they'll no doubt have business accounts with their couriers (Royal Mail, Parcelforce, Fed Ex, DPD, etc), which give them huge discounts on postage, provided they send a certain number of packages each day. I've worked in offices where they've had this before, and it's a world away from nipping to your local post office with a few jiffy bags, lemme tell you.

To send to the US, these are my options:
 

Again, sending something tracked, which gives your package a better chance of surviving in transit, it's nearly £11 without a signature and almost £12 for one with. Yikes. So yeah, I have to opt for the standard one again, only after I go through and head to the checkout, I'm hit with 50p for 'tariffs'. Annoying, but not bank breaking, and at least I can actually send the fucking thing.

Funnily enough, if I want to send something to New Zealand (that's NEW ZEALAND, nearly 11 and half thousand miles away), it's the cheapest of the lot: £4.50 to go for standard. Insane.

 

So yeah, there you go - a little insight into the bureaucratic nightmare that is being a band in 2026 with physical stock. With apologies to anyone I've overcharged in the past, but these prices don't stay the same for long - so, for a tape I put out, let's say a year ago, the postage I charged on that is now vastly different to a tape I'd have to sell now. And, of course, when you release a lot, you forget to go back and change postage costs for older bits and bobs you have, as you're more focused on the one you have now.

And let's not even get started on what happens when you, shock horror, buy anything more than one item! Then we enter into 'small parcel' territory, which, you guessed it, costs a whole heap more. The prices go up, the fees go up, the tariffs go up, the weight gets heavier, the packages get wider and longer. Vinyl? Yeah, that's small parcel territory, so if I wanted to ship 1 piece of vinyl anywhere, we'd be talking about anywhere between £10-15 (standard, probably closer to £20 for tracked) at a guess, and that's before I have to go and buy mailers and stiffeners and the rest of the shit I have to add to each package.

No wonder tapes made a comeback, tbh.  

Also! when entering details into customs forms these days, we're a long way from simply just your name and address in case it goes missing. They now require everything from phone numbers and email addresses (of both you and the buyer), to IOSS codes, tariff numbers, weights and measurements, and one thing Ive noticed recently: URLs to the actual item you've sold, as well and manufacture and seller IDs and product numbers. It's just more hassle on top of everything else and really honestly makes you wonder why the fuck you even bother sometimes.

So how to handle all this? Simply put, you don't. I can't incur fines if I mess up my QR code which has all the details of where my jiffy bag came from if I send to the EU, I can't afford to pay thousands of pounds every year to 10 or so people to sit around and be my 'responsible person', I can't afford and don't have the stock numbers to get a business account or a fancy warehouse somewhere. It's completely untenable, and if things get any worse, I'll have to just stop all together.

The one thing I've managed to do is switch my distributors, who will now get some limited stock to put in shops who can take the burden of postage off me and do it themselves, but of course that means I lose a Bandcamp sale each time, and the money I do get back from these shop sales is pretty paltry. But I get it, I do, it just sucks for literally everyone concerned.

So for the next satan release, which will be coming fairly soon, EU fans will have to try and find copies wherever my distro can get them, and my UK/ US fans can plump for Bandcamp if need be. What a fucking bananas world, honestly. 

 

Outland

Surprise!

A new album, out right this second for your listening pleasure:

It's called Outland (fans of the Peter Hyams sci-fi film starring Sean Connery may be disappointed that it has little to do with that, other than me nicking the title off it) and it's being released by the brilliant US based label Constellation Tatsu.

It's out right now as part of their fall (aka autumn) batch of albums, alongside new ones from IKSRE and r beny (you might remember him from his excellent remix on the Celebrity Bloodsport album), and so if you'd like to buy all 3 together as a batch on CD or tape, you'd best head here. 

Looking back, this all happened really fast - I first contacted Steven at the label in May, as I had a whole heap of new stuff I'd been working on, and wondered if he'd be into putting it out. We talked a little, and then constructed Outland for him.

It's so funny, as this one is actually a collection of stuff I'd had sitting around with no real home, so to have it on this massive label is a real nice thing to happen. I usually have very definite ideas about how an album will look and sound when I start putting stuff together, but for whatever reason, the tracks on here just didn't sit right with the stuff I'd been doing in that time. They had the juice, but just didn't play well with others. In fact, there was a very early version of No Knock No Doorbell which had a few of these tracks on.

So they sat around for a little bit whilst I did other stuff and other albums, until I started to think they'd probably gel together all as one album, which to my surprise, they very much did. And that was Outland.

Oh, and the cover is a shot of Gare Loch, in Helensburgh (just north of Glasgow) from a few years ago. Me and Sophie took a little holiday up there after a gig I did in Glasgow.

Here I am, just about to take the photo

 

But anyway, I digress. 

I hope you enjoy it, and see you later this month for that Jo Quail gig, and then again in February for that headline show at the KCC in Shipley.

 

A new gig: February 12th

Next headline gig news!

We'll be playing the small room at the KCC in Shipley on February 12th with our friends Spiral (that's a new band formed of Teresa Winter and Tom James Scott) and Hexama.

 

Tickets are here!

We'll have something new with us at this one too, so save your pennies for some treats at full time.

As far as the line-up goes, ho boy we've got a treat for you. Hexama are our old friends and have played many times with us: think drifty ambient post-rock but with some krautrock chops (Mike's a phenomenal drummer) - they don't have a lot of recorded stuff, but we recently did a split tape with them, which is ace (obivously)

Spiral are the duo of Teresa Winter and Tom James Scott - two names that should be familiar to a fair few of you. Think beautiful swirling atmospheres and dense atmospherics. They don't have anything released just yet, so I'd recommend checking out this album by Teresa, and this one by one of Tom's projects, Fallen Flowers. 

If you need a few pointers on the venue, everything should be covered on their website, which is here.

Everything will be done for last trains back to Leeds, Bradford and further afield, and the venue itself is a 10-15 minute walk from the train station (you can pretty much see the venue from Platform 1!) and if you need to eat, there are plenty of options kicking around - you're round the corner from a Greggs and an Asda if you want something cheap and on the go, or there are loads of options for sit down food and decent curries. I went over a lot of them in my post about the Pye Corner Audio show back in May, so have a read of that here.

The Triangle will be operating the bar as usual, but there are loads of other pubs around the place if you get in early and want to explore Shipley and Saltaire. They're also listed in the PCA post, but if you can't be arsed reading it, you have The Ring O' Bells, The Triangle (obviously), Reconnection, Fanny's and a ton of others. Personally, I'd stay clear of pubs in Shipley itself and wander up towards Saltaire - you'll hit a decent pub before long.

Anyway, as always, timings *should* be something along the lines of:

Doors - 7pm

Hexama - 7.30

Spiral - 8.15

satan - 9

although, obviously will be a bit rough on the night as things always are, but it'll all be done by 10pm anyways.

See you there! 

Three EPs out today

Out today, not specifically to coincide with Bandcamp Friday, but it's a nice coincidence, is this collection of 3 EPs I did under my own name back in 2013.

 

To help release the first Ghosting Season stuff way back when, we'd kicked off our own little mini-label called This Is It Forever (named after the Hood song of the same name) and then as time went by, we decided to broaden the scope of it and start releasing other bits and bobs and make it a little cottage industry.

It lasted like that for quite a while, and it was really nice to be a part of something, a little mini underground DIY scene full of weird and wonderful packaging, helping friends release things, getting our own experiments out there, cultivating a fanbase, etc. it was nice!

Anyway, these three were part of that. It'd been the first time I put music together by myself for a long time, and it felt really good to get some ideas out there that probably weren't going to be used for Season/ satan stuff and have no pressure on what they were.

Me playing live solo in London, 2014

Me playing live solo in Manchester, 2014-ish

Looking back from 2026, it's mad how I let these things loose without much thought haha! The mixing on some of these tracks was *diabolical* so I went back in and fixed them with the knowledge I've gathered over the past 13 years (although some would that's not much lol) and freshly re-mastered them too, as again, some of them sounded pretty ropey by today's standards.

Musically, they're all a little scrappy, a little rough around the edges and not totally fully formed yet, but then again, that's what they were supposed to be - just little ideas, and getting them out was better than doing nothing. Fotograf is the ambient one (part 2 was featured a lot on Adam Curtis films from Bitter Lake onwards, Curtis-heads), Instruktion was me trying to do synthy krautrock and Manuskript was my foray into brittle electronics (with a great big dollop of jungle at the end)

But anyway, I very much hope you enjoy em, it was a lot of fun going back in on these things and I guess it's a fun way of charting how far satan has come. 

Next gig: 23rd October

It's been a while, hasn't it? 

We don't do much in the way of gigging these days, and like to keep it to a minimum per year, but make them extra special.

Well, the next one is coming up - October 23rd, we'll be supporting the lovely Jo Quail at the KCC in Shipley.

 

Tickets are here, and as usual, we'll be doing this year's live set, which is all semi-improvised between me and Sophie. If you've still not caught us live, you can check out a whole boat-load of live shows that I record with my trusty gopro and Zoom recorder (audio comes straight out of the mixing desk, so it's tip top quality) on the satan youtube. Here's the last one, when we supported Pye Corner Audio back in May: 

 

If you're coming from out of town for it, there are plenty of public transport options available, with Shipley train station being a literal 10ish minute walk away, with bus stops, taxis and parking all available outside the venue too. In fact, there's are two car parks round the back and a ton of on-street parking out front, so it'll be fine if you're bringing the car. Loads on info on the KCC website here.

See you all there! 

New Marta Mist!

Back in 2010, me and Sophie did this little experiment and called it Marta Mist. The name was from a character in a murder mystery book we were reading at the time, and the experiment was a big, longform track called 'Distance/ Skeletal/ Union', which we amazingly managed to get signed to a small label called Hibernate (real heads know!) 

Anyway, we decided to keep the whole thing a secret (as was the style at the time), and it was nice to escape the rigours and pressure from the whole worriedaboutsatan thing (which was slowly becoming the Ghosting Season thing at that point) and Sophie's involvement with Her name is Calla. It was nice to have something for ourselves that wouldn't enrage anyone else. 

That all feels like such a long time ago now, and ever since, we've been putting out sporadic little tapes and CDs with the Marta Mist project - just taking our time, away from the more relentless schedule that satan runs with, just our little cottage industry shuffling along as and when we feel like it.

The latest is this one, called 'So Long, Goodbye and Good Luck', which isn't a cry for help, or a document of our impending closure of the project, but a sort of cathartic way of dealing with redundancy from my day job. 

We'd recorded everything on here in fits and spurts over the last year or so, and eagle eared fans might be able to join the dots between 'A Company Man to the Bitter End', and the middle section of the old worriedaboutsatan live set we were playing all last year. Thought it was too nice of a piece of music to leave it there, it needed recording! The rest though, are just little doodles me and Sophie put together whenever we had some spare time, and the closing track, 'We Never Did Get That Victory Lap' is, I think, the first MM track that is 100% Sophie. 

Any road, it's out now and pay-what-you-like for digital, and only £6 for a natty handmade CD (just like the old days of handmade satan CDs, eh?!) 

A tour around Shipley with my album covers

A random shower thought I had the other day was just how many photos of Shipley and Saltaire end up on my album covers, and if you ever had a day off and wanted to explore BD18 in a satan style, here's where everything is:

 

No Knock No Doorbell (2026) 

Victoria Road, Saltaire

This one was taken by Sophie when we were walking home after our local pub's quiz night. It was still summer, hence the green still being on the tree. It's right at the top of Victoria Road, just as you walk onto Bingley Road. 

 

 

The Dream is Over (2026)

 

 Bingley Road, Saltaire

One just round the corner from the album cover, so it's nice they keep a geographical similarity as well as an aesthetic one. This one was a shot I got on my phone one night as I always thought it was cool when they didn't have anything to put on the massive board and just kept it on with an asterisk.

 

The Future Can Wait (2025)

 Caroline Street Social Club, Caroline Street, Saltaire

This was a shot by Marc Leighton, a photographer who was a friend of a friend to start with, and once I'd seen this shot on his instagram, I messaged him to see if I could use it for a cover. He agreed and I think it's one my favourite satan sleeves ever! It's in the main room of the local members club the Caroline St. Social Club. Been to many a gig here, which is just as well as they don't really open the bar to non-members, but allow it once in a while when something's on, or when there's an open day in Saltaire village, 

 

The Pivot (2023) 

Upstairs at The Triangle, 47 Bradford Road, Shipley

As taken on an old camera by me whilst setting up for my first solo gig as worriedaboutsatan, upstairs at the bottle shop The Triangle. I've done so many gigs here since, it's daft even trying to count them. A really nice space though - just go upstairs and wander to the opposite end of the room and you'll see this window.

 

 

I Hope You Like The Bundesliga (2023)

Park Street, Saltaire

Taken on my way to where I used to work around this time one very wintery morning. We were set to buy a house on this road once, which was weird as my dad later told me some of my very old family used to live on the street way back in the day. Never happened, sadly, but the football pitch is nice to kick a ball on every now and then.

 

 

Providence (2021)

 

Shipley clock tower, Kirkgate, Shipley

Taken by John Cade, a local photographer. The old clock tower is a real brutalist beauty. It's recently been in the news as the town applied for it to be a listed building, but as with anything outside of the M25, no-one was interested, so it's seen better days. It's slap bang in the centre of Shipley if you were wondering.

 

 

Time Lapse (2020)

Milner Field Mansion ruins, Higher Coach Road, Bingley

OK, so technically not Shipley or Saltaire, but it's accessible through an old road you follow from the back of my old school in Saltaire. If you follow it up towards Bingley, you come across the old ruins to the Milner Field Manion, that amazingly haven't been cleared up since the 50s/ 60s. It's a wonderful bit of history, and a very very very creepy backstory, which I got intensely obssessed with around this time