Period: 2010-2011
History: 2010-2011
January '10 / Writing and Recording New Album / Martin Joins
After the successful gigs in the autumn, the band are pleased to announce that Martin has joined on a permanent basis and look forward to his contribution on the new album and on forthcoming gigs.
In the meantime our old friend Troy is going to be having a very busy year with The Bad Shepherds and other artists and has recently had some of his great music played by a symphony orchestra over in the USA in a project for hi-fi manufacturers Bose.
The band announce that they will be undertaking their first USA tour for many years in June. With appearances already booked at Near Fest (19th June) and Cornerstone Festival (30th June), USA booking agent Kathy Bunker is currently working on filling the space in between with a number of other gigs.
The band also announce a run of UK dates scheduled for May.
January to May - Writing and recording on the new album continues between January and May at various locations in England, Ireland and The Netherlands and continues after the USA trip.
Towards the end 2009 Dave does several other interviews for various websites and magazines which are now published:
www.backgroundmagazine.nl/ Dave talks about the re-release of Iona's 'Journey Into The Morn', his collaboration with Nick Fletcher on 'Cathedral of Dreams' and all things IONA.
http://fansiter.com/2009/11/01/exclusive-interview-with-IONA/ Dave talks about all things Iona
iO Pages Magazine (Holland) A two page in depth interview on a range of subjects (in Dutch of course!)
www.musicstreetjournal.com Dave talks in depth about his life in music.
In the meantime our old friend Troy is going to be having a very busy year with The Bad Shepherds and other artists and has recently had some of his great music played by a symphony orchestra over in the USA in a project for hi-fi manufacturers Bose.
The band announce that they will be undertaking their first USA tour for many years in June. With appearances already booked at Near Fest (19th June) and Cornerstone Festival (30th June), USA booking agent Kathy Bunker is currently working on filling the space in between with a number of other gigs.
The band also announce a run of UK dates scheduled for May.
January to May - Writing and recording on the new album continues between January and May at various locations in England, Ireland and The Netherlands and continues after the USA trip.
Towards the end 2009 Dave does several other interviews for various websites and magazines which are now published:
www.backgroundmagazine.nl/ Dave talks about the re-release of Iona's 'Journey Into The Morn', his collaboration with Nick Fletcher on 'Cathedral of Dreams' and all things IONA.
http://fansiter.com/2009/11/01/exclusive-interview-with-IONA/ Dave talks about all things Iona
iO Pages Magazine (Holland) A two page in depth interview on a range of subjects (in Dutch of course!)
www.musicstreetjournal.com Dave talks in depth about his life in music.
March '10 / Recording in the Netherlands
The whole band assemble at His Master's Noise Studio in The Netherlands to continue working on the new album. In a very productive week a new song is also completed and recorded. It is fun to be able add instant updates on the album on the band's Facebook page as the week progresses.
April '10 / Studio Session Cancelled
The band's next studio session together in The Netherlands is cancelled due to the ash cloud coming over from Iceland! Flights to The Netherlands are cancelled, which causes a major delay in work on the album due to everyone's busy schedules and the upcoming USA tour.
May '10
Jo and Dave play as a duo at the O2 Church, Rapperswil, Switzerland, leading worship in the morning service and playing an evening concert which includes on stage interviews.
June '10 / Raphael's Journey CD Released
The band tour in the USA and Canada for the first time in 13 years including appearances at NearFest and Cornerstone festivals! Some great pics from NearFest by the official Festival photographer can be seen at http://www.studiomlive.com/NEARfest2010/
Joanne's 'Raphael's Journey' is finally available as a physical cd release.
Joanne's 'Raphael's Journey' is finally available as a physical cd release.
August '10 / Two IONAs
After a photo of a USA based band also called IONA appears in the Cornerstone Festival programme instead of a picture of us, Dave contacts IONA (US version). Although aware of their existence for some time there had been no dialogue between the two bands so it is nice to finally make contact. The US band are a traditional folk outfit who play mainly in the USA, so our audiences are generally quite different. After some friendly emails we agree it would be great to play a concert with both Ionas someday!
September '10 / Switzerland Gigs
The band return to Switzerland for the first time in about 4 years to play 3 dates. Whilst there they are interviewed and filmed for a Swiss TV programme caled 'Fenster zum Sonntag'.
October '10 - March '11 / Recording Continues
Recording continues on the new album with sessions at Dave's and at Frank's studios. It becomes clear that there is more material than will fit onto one CD - but leaving off much of it doesn't seem like an option. The band weigh up whether to release the album in two stages or as a double CD release.