Day 14 Tuesday july 8th

Sometimes you got to be cruel to be kind.
Whoever wrote that got it spot on.

I think I had been awake for about 35 minutes when Adam walked in this morning, all pumped up and raring to go at what was going to be the fastest track of the session, provisionally titled "Nuthin".
Only problem was, I was the only one here.
There was no way that was going to stop him though.
I think he may have had a little too much caffeine for breakfast.

I have done this sort of thing before, and found it quite enjoyable. Just me, the drums and the click track, painfully piercing the morning gloom.

When I was recording The Wernt album, Wrecking Temples, we were on a strict budget, and the rest of the band got delayed, so to maximize the time, I went for it solo style.
I think I had laid down 6 of the 12 tracks by the time they arrived.
It..s a weird feeling, to create the music in your head, and have no reference other than a click track and a sheet of paper with the arrangement on.
Quite liberating and pure really I suppose.

It also means that no-one is there to question your playing hahahahahaa, and today, I snook in a little something that was incredibly challenging for me, and seemed to take an age to get right, but boy, was it worth it.

It's one of those parts that you know the band is either going to applaud or stamp furiously until it has been re-recorded.
Fortunately, when everyone arrived, although eyebrows were raised, I seem to have got away with it.
Of course, this means I have to learn to play it effortlessly. Ouch!

This seems to have been the theme of the recording so far, with everybody pushing themselves beyond their limits, and finding out how far you can really take your playing whilst working within the interests of the song.

Next up was a slight change to the song I thought we were going to do, and threw me a little, as I had never played this one before.

A few listens later, and some furious ad-libbing on the kit, saw me ready to take on "Just Hangin", with its dastardly typical Damned arrangement.

I have found through the years of learning umpteen songs by these buggers that , even though the song cruises effortlessly by, with a seemingly flowing arrangement, they always throw in at least one left turn to throw you off the trail.
An extra bar here, an extended line  or unexpected key change there that keeps it all refreshing and challenging to play.

Captain professes a hatred of anything that is not in a count of 4 or 8, yet listens to so many bands that have strange time signatures, that I don't think he can help himself to just throw a little something "extra" in the mix.
This song was no exception, and took some serious concentration and large notes taped to my forehead just to get through.
Not sure if I laid down the definitive version just yet, but it was enough for everyone else to be getting on with their parts.

Meanwhile, Mayumi , Captains ladyfiend ( zookeeper, she calls it) had arrived and I whisked her off to the local supermarket to shop for everyones food for the next week while various musical instruments were donned in the pursuit of rock godliness.

She had promised to cook for us, so I was under strict orders to keep my nose out of the ingredients, which, being a control freak, I found it very difficult to do.

All sorts of foodstuffs were being sniffed, scratched, rejected, accepted, and the trolley was beginning to resemble a small European food mountain.
This lady obviously loves to food shop, and would turn with enthusiastic glee and pronounce "my favourite, mmmmmmm" at a seemingly endless amount of products.

Now, to say the kitchen here is compact and bijou, would be to admit you are an estate agent, so, where we were going to secrete 190 quids worth of groceries was beyond me.
I did the thing that any man would do when trying to be the most helpful.

I left her to it.

Now that may seem a little cruel, as she had to stand on a chair to find any type of cupboard space to house our booty, but she did it her way and it totally worked, even though the fruit juice is now hidden in the ex- bin cupboard, and the only piece of meat in the fridge has been hidden cunningly behind a bag of ready to eat broccoli and cauliflower. Humph. Life with veggies.

I cannot complain at all though, as last night she served up a delicious pasta based veggie meal of very tasty proportions, which I surprised myself by enjoying very much indeed.

I'm one of those people who you almost have to trick into eating their veggies.
I blame it on my brother. He used to hide his peas under the mashed potato, and think he had got away with it.
Just meant he had to eat cold mash potato with cold peas mixed in. Silly Boy.
I also don't really like pasta, but it was late, I was hungry, and the food was great.
Two thumbs up to our personal chef.

The evening ended with the rest of the gentlemen adding their individual talent to bolster my drum tracks, and take these songs to a new level of Damnedability.

So, with the studio shut down for the evening, it was out with with the Wii, and specifically, the Wii Fit mat.
If you want to end the day smiling, there are not many funnier sights than watching Herr West, an honorary member of the Knackered Back, gyrate in front of the TV, trying to catch virtual hula hoops around his waist, and cheering with each one scored.

A real competitor our Stuart.

DAY 15 WEDS JULY 9TH

I awoke this morning to the smell of cooking food.
Was i just having bacon withdrawal, or was i still asleep?
I pottered downstairs to find Cap and Mayumi tucking in to their very first feast of the day.
They have many feasts during the average day.
Many more than i ever saw anybody have.
Ever.
Even the fat bloke i used to work with never consumed as much as these two.
Where does it all go?
He..s skinny and she..s tiny.
I only have to eat curry for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and drink 7 pints and my pounds pile on.
Life is so unfair sometimes.

So Stu laid into a couple of tracks in the early PM today, and made a very fine job of it too,
flying from the intensity and manic bass runs of Nuthin,to the silky smooth brown noting of our untitled slowy.

All this was taking place while Cap was wailing for an hour non stop ( at least) upstairs in his makeshift overdub suite.
He set it up so we could be doing two things at once, and really going to town on chucking ideas around without tying up the studio and engineer.
Not just a grizzled face that man.
The only downside with the OD suite, is that it blasts through the whole recreation area, and unless you go for a walk in the garden, there is no escape.
Talking of which.....

The heavy rain made prisoners of us all for the whole day yesterday.
There was no escape, and things started to get a little, shall i say, tense.........
Me and Cap had a rather intense disagreement over the lyrical content of one of the songs.
Normally, i encourage and celebrate, even, the digs and snipes that litter his well chosen words,
but the content of this song was too much even for me, and i was pretty insistent we have a rethink.
I made my point very clear, courtesy of a semi-dramatic storm out that would have been right at home on Neighbours.
After a few laps of the garden, muttering profanities, i had calmed down enough to re-enter the fray, and was greeted with a peace offering of assorted nuts.
Damn, i can never resist a man offering me his nuts( kaboom!)
Not everything smells of roses here, but i..m trying to keep the negatives heavily outbalanced by the positives, which they absolutely are.
Luckily for us, we have Adam, who is a calming voice in a sea of twitchy egos.

Which brings me onto Monty, and the fart that shall forever be known as "Feldmans Guff"
We watched a show on the semi tragic career of Marty Feldman, and right at the end, apres credits,
 Monty lets rip with something that can only be described as a multi timbral, elongated splutter.
Of course, we were howling, and all sorts of topics were raised about going for a picnic down in Feldmans Guff, or ,
my auntie just bought a cottage in Feldmans Guff.
Easily pleased aren..t we?

Monty laid down almost the final piano tracks to the slow one, which, apart from backing vocals, sees his job almost done.
He has been a real revelation on this session, personally and professionally, with no sign of a freakout apart from being in the stir crazy club briefly.

At some point , Mayumi had to go and get some rice and tea bags today.
Like any lady, she returned an hour and a half later after spending 50 quid on more groceries.
Our cupboards overfloweth, but our bellies are thankful.
Another great meal tonight of egg and sweetcorn soup, followed by Spicy Hot Veggie stir fry. Yum.
I have to point out that we have several different chilli..s in this place.
Some normal, Jalapenos, Birds eyes, chilli oil, piri piri etc, but Stu, ever the competitor remember,
well he has hummus on toast smothered with Scotch Bonnet Chilli paste.

For Breakfast........every day.
The sign of a real mans man.

with

Once again the evening ended with some Wii antics,and todays game was  Kororinpa, a strange ball balancing game.
It kept us occupied for a good while until Stu beat the last level with a fist in the air salute.
Very competitive that Stu.

All that remained was Captains incessant hunt for Mosquitoes, that has seen him on chairs, tables, worktops, bannisters,
brandishing any variety of insect killing weaponery, and not resting until the evil buzzing in the air has been silenced.
And he says he is an animal lover.
Hrumph.

Day 16 Thurs july 10th

Some days, you just don..t want to get out of bed, and today was one of those days.
I laid there for a long time listening to the rain slam into the roof outside the window, a very calming experience, and not at all conducive to getting up and making or listening to noise of any sort.

When I finally surfaced, Monty was noodling yet again, under Caps guidance.
It..s a funny scene when those two are at the controls.
A perfect pair of (faux) idiot savants, with Cap conducting Monty like a band leader.
I just can..t help thinking of Terry Jones from the Monty Python team, naked at the piano, when Monty is learning stuff. A good stiff back, staring straight forward, with the odd glance sideways when a strange note is whacked.
A quizzical look, as if to say the paper in front of him is lying.
They seem to get the job done between them though, with Cap always gleefully clapping his hands in honour of another piece of moronic genius.

By this time, it was mid afternoon, and various overdubs were getting dumped onto tracks from Caps OD suite upstairs.
He seems to have taken to living a double life in this place, disappearing for hours at a time with just his computer and headphones for company ( and a truck load of software).
Armed with multi tracks of certain songs, you can hear the twang of strings occasionally, punctuated with shouts downstairs for cups of tea and large ( meal sized) snacks to be delivered by his long suffering zookeeper.
Sometimes, you don..t even realize he has worked on a track until you get to hear it at the main desk again, and suddenly there are several more instruments than we own being liberally splayed all over said tracks.

His Reply?
"You can always take it away. At Least it's there if you like it"

Problem is Cap, we like most of what you do anyway, so it then becomes a chore to dump bits.
Oohh, don't lose that part, it's really nice etc etc
I think we definitely need to have at least a  tambourine player when we play these tracks live, but where are we going to find room for a choir every night????

Ahh, the magic of the recording studio.

About this time, I realized I was going to have very little to do with the rest of my day, as vocals were on the agenda for the evening, so what..s a chap to do when everything..s a bore?
Well, there was always the barrel of Inferno in the Knackered back.
The rain was still pounding its merry rhythm on the earth, and it was very comforting to sit there and shoot the shizzle with my fellow bandmates over a pint or ten of the golden nectar.

The rest of the day gently folded into a long blur of songs getting sung, sounds being tweaked, inspiration being inspiring and bed seeming like the perfect sanctuary.
I gently drifted off to the strains of a drunk moron at the helm of the piano, muttering incoherently to himself while playing some absolutely beautiful ad lib.
Goodnight Sooty.

Day 17 Friday July 11th

Got rudely awoken today by the chug of a rather loud engine outside the bedroom window at about mid day.
Turns out it was Dave in his rather unusual form of 3 wheeled transport ( and I don..t mean a Robin Reliant).
This thing was LOUD, I mean Harley Davidson LOUD, or maybe it was my fuzzy head, but to me, it was reminiscent of listening to a Ministry soundcheck, which is not a pleasant experience.
This comes from someone who has fallen asleep at a Motorhead show before, and woke up with a migraine (surprise!).

By the time I was compus mentus, after the usual round of showers and smoothies
( todays flavour, Strawberries, Mango, Orange Juice,Blueberries and Lime), Mr Vanian was ensconced  in the vocal booth, working on the first of the three amazing tracks he would lay down by days end.

By 7.30, he was on his merry way, and we all sat down to dinner, and tonight it was veggie sausage and mash with peas and carrots and a wonderful onion gravy.
I have never known a whole jar of English mustard get eaten in one sitting before, but tonight was the night.
In the absence of the need for chilli, there had to be a substitute, and the potatoes ended up like a proper wasabi nose streamer, as everyone got the taste for heaped spoonfuls of mustard.
It was almost like a competition to see who could create the most fiery traditional English meal.
Oh, I forgot, Stuart was there, of course it was a competition.

Which leads me nicely on to the days end, and the Wii darts tournament.
Don't know why it was virtual darts, when the real thing was hanging outside.
Oh yeah, it was still pissing it down.
But, Stuart obviously has a knack for this Virtual sports thing too.
He was unbeaten for the first several games, then I had to step in and show him how it was done.
I kicked off with two tons……and quickly got worse.
I had 3 darts to get 41 to end the champs reign.
I threw 20, 20, ( you don't have to go out on a double) went for 1….and busted.
He still had 189 to get, so it was going to be easy right?
He scored ok and got down to 101, which left me still wanting 41.
3 more darts.
Dart 1…..double top.
Dart 2……treble 17 ( don't ask!!!!)
Bust again.
I still had the upper hand, or so I thought.
Mr competitive altered his seating position to defend his crown and threw…….
Dart 1…..double top….dammit!
Dart 2…..1 hahahahahaha
Dart 3……Treble 20 and out, thank you and good night.
A rather intense victory dance followed.
As I was skulking off to bed, I could still hear the jibes ringing in my ears.
The ipod was donned and I drifted off to the wonderful Sing Sing album,
 all the while thinking…………………………
…….………………….very competitive that Stuart.

Days 18,19,20  july 12^th-14th..:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

As this session goes on, it becomes more difficult to write anything of interest, as the main core of work has been completed.

The comings and goings of band members is a regular feature and myself and Adam are really the only permanent fixtures.

Aside from a very small amount of bass and keys to go on the songs, all that remains are main and backing vocals on the majority that we have recorded.

As of Monday, we have 14 days of work time left.

Sounds like plenty of time to finish everything off doesn..t it?

If you..ve ever been in a recording studio, and gone through the absolute tedium that is mixing, you will know that there is only so much the human ear can take in a single day.

What starts off sounding really full and lush, can so easily end up sounding like a cement mixer churning whilst a teacher runs her claws down the blackboard.

It also puts you in the position of hearing the songs so often, that you never want to hear them again.

That..s why I am winding this blog down, and letting the end parts take their natural course, with only Adam and DV needed to finish this thing off.

I need a few days away from this thing.

After mixing A Danger to yourself with Adam, I know we are on the same page when it comes to what is a good sound, and the balance and tones that he gets in his mix really showcase this band at its best, reminiscent of all the live, smack you round the chops excitement that we , and you, know can be achieved.

I..m going to come back in a week or so and sit in on the ( hopefully) final tweeks that will make this thing sound like it deserves.

Thanks for reading, and all the kind comments.

All that remains is for me to ask you to link this blog, or at least the news that the album is underway, to as many people as you can.

Any future news will be on our website www.officialdamned.com and our myspace page.

Take care, and thanks for the support.

Pinch