Sunday: to Rooz in Old Street for the first Fosca rehearsal of 2006. Kate plays my guitar on the bouncy “It Only Matters To Those To Whom It Matters”. So I can, well, bounce around the stage with just the microphone.

We also start work on “We See The World As Our Stunt Doubles”, “Come Down From The Cross, Someone Else Needs The Wood”, and new versions of “Confused And Proud” and Kate’s song “Evening Dress At 3PM”.

I dust off my sky-blue Cocteau Twins-esque chorus pedal, in the new Fosca spirit of attempting something dreamy but wordy. Rachel says we still sound like Orange Juice, though.

I like to think my vocals on “Cross” are quite Dean Wareham-y circa Galaxie 500’s ‘Strange’. That means nothing to many, everything to me. Mr Wareham’s voice on that song is a kind of existential boyish squawk, breaking up – cracking up – as it battles with a melody that’s clearly too high for him. I far prefer it to his later, lower & safer vocal performances. I remember how upset I was when the first Luna album came out (Luna being the band he fronted after Galaxie 500). He’d started singing within his range; perfectly in tune, but less exciting to my ears. I prefer the Icarus hysteria of his early singing style. It just has to sound confident enough, that’s the trick. Deliberate rather than a sheepish mistake. Like Mr Samuel Beckett said, ‘fail better’.

The hands that build Fosca:

Tom Edwards:

Kate Dornan: