...And we're back in Stirling!

Wow! Amsterdam was a whirlwind of bicycles, canals and cafés. (Cafe Brecht being our favourite!) It really is a beautiful city and we were so pleased to have spent a week there. It's a shame that we couldn't pack up our instruments for the trip because we really do love busking and it would have been great to bring our music to a new city. If anything, perhaps we'll return to Amsterdam in future. It would definitely be the perfect place to record an album!  

Although...we did notice that there's a distinct lack of buskers in Amsterdam city! We saw just two buskers during our stay. One a guitarist. The other a double bassist with jazzy vocal styles. He was an interesting character and he sang Amazing Grace with such trembling, heartfelt vocals. So, whilst the buskers were scarce to be found, we still managed to find a little bit of jazz in Amsterdam! We also managed to get our hands on instruments. But only fleetingly, and in the form of an open mic night. Still, it made for a quick set and even more memories of our stay. 

I, (Nikki!) was so excited to see my favourite band, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, on the night of my 22nd birthday. Whilst seeing a Dutch man crowd-surf on a foam surfboard made for a very mad time, I left inspired by the music. The 12-strong band have such a huge, ambitious sound and their energy and passion on stage is truly infectious. Most of all, they are so free when they perform and I think that's something we can aspire to as a band. I recently came across a Joseph Chilton Pearce quote which said that; 'To live a creative life we must lose our fear of being.' It definitely goes hand in hand with the idea of being free creatively and I hope that, this year, our music and lives can reflect this. 

In terms of the EP, we're getting there! We're looking forward to meeting with a potential brass soloist soon and an accordion piece is hopefully in the works for one of our newer songs. The thought of new Penny Pluckers is definitely an exciting one and like-minded, passionate people can only bring good things. This month brings busking and working our way round all the Glasgow and Edinburgh open mic nights that we can. We'll also be headlining a poetry slam in March, details to be found here! 

Dream big,

The Penny Pluckers.