Hi Guys & WELCOME to the first Barrel House Blog entry. Because this is the first, a quick recap of last year…
We had a massive year and played over 100 shows stretching from Melbourne to Gympie. Met a lot of awesome people and got the chance to play with some really talented muso’s!
We lost our trailer down a rainforest gully at a schoolies week gig. Thank God for the tree it got wedged against, upside down, half way down the cliff - and yes half of our gear was inside (we will get some footage of the rescue up soon!)
Whilst playing a gig on the Sunshine Coast our drummer (Jarin) broke his kick drum pedal and played the entire show with the strangest drum set up you have ever seen! Using the beater from the kick pedal to play the kick drum on its side, with his LEFT hand and played snare, hihats, tom’s and cymbals with his other hand… and didn’t miss a beat!

We also recorded our new EP “Open Road” . That was an experience! It all started on the 13th of September… we all piled into a little band rehearsal center and geared up for a weekend of tracking. We aimed to get all the guitar, drums and bass down for the 5 tracks. There was Jarin, Jordan and I and also Phil Eades (the recording engineer) and Scott Mesiti (our producer). Everything was all going according to plan and we had a productive day on Saturday. We got the drums and bass all done - so that just left a whole day to do guitar tracks and what ever else we wanted to add. We all came in on Sunday and were going great. We got a couple of guitar tracks down, went to have lunch, came back from lunch and when we turned the guitar amps back on we heard this horrible buzzing noise… it was very loud. We soon found out that the rehearsal room that we were using to record, was part of the Players Theater complex and they just happened to be putting on a show that Sunday… consequently, sucking a lot of power which the valve guitar amps don’t like so we had to call it quits… Frustrated we had to book in another day when there were no shows on to finish off the guitar tracks.

Then came time to do vocals. We needed somewhere where we could spend a lot of time, work late, was available any time and was cheap to hire… So we set up a vocal booth in the producers garage. When I say ‘Vocal Booth’ I use that term pretty lightly because it was more of a “sound-proof-foam-duct-taped-to-a-hot water-heater-and-brick-wall-booth”… yes it was quite rustic.
A few little tips for anyone planning to construct a “sound-proof-foam-duct-taped-to-a-hot water-heater-and-brick-wall-booth” DON’T.
The main problem with having a hot water system as your main support for your booth is that they are very noisy…EVERY time someone turns on a tap in the flat... We must have been good to the hot water gods because we spent about 60 hours in that garage and some how timed it to perfection every time. We didn’t get one take interrupted by loud hissing or bubbling noises. We did all the vocal tracks, percussion and trumpet in the garage. (If you listen closely towards the end of “Little Glitter Lady” you can even hear the sound of a schooner glass being struck with a door stop!).

We were nearly done tracking - all we needed now was some kick-ass soulful backup vocals. Our producer suggested “some on like Lisa Hunt” so… I checked her out and on first listen sent her a message asking if she would be interested? Not having scrolled down the page to see some of the amazing people she has shared a stage with like Michel Franti, James Brown, Pavarotti to name a few… I suddenly felt right out of my depth and wished I knew all this before I sent the message. But - to my surprise she was more than happy to help us out! Phil, having worked at 301 in Byron for a while, managed to pull a few stings and got us a little studio time after hours. Scott, Phil and myself had all planed to head up to Byron, get there at about 6pm do the tracking and drive home it was all to easy… then I got a phone call from the Children’s Hospital in Sydney and was told that my daughter was booked in to have an operation done on the same day (she is ok now). It was the age old choice of family vs work so I couldn’t go… So in my place I had to send off Scott and Phil to go and do the tracking. They would call me and play what they had done down the phone it was all coming together… Next step was mixing.

After some research by our Producer (Scott) we decided to get it mixed by Tony Buchen at 301 in Sydney. So on the 13th of November we set off to the big smoke, it was defiantly the right choice! Tony did some great things to the tracks, like running some of the tracks through vintage guitar amps and a few different effects to really give all the tracks good character. Not only that - it was a great experience for all of the band to see the studios and to watch all the ‘goings on’ and see first hand - how serious it can get in the recording side of things. It was a good eye opener and there was certainly no sign of a “sound-proof-foam-duct-taped-to-a-hot water-heater-and-brick-wall-booth”.
Now we had the music almost there – it was time to think about the artwork… I had been trying to get in touch with an old school friend of mine David Flitcroft to do some artwork for us but had no luck. I finally got a call from him the first day we were at 301 so he came in to the studio with us the next day and we kicked around a few ideas and he came up with our cover art work.

After the mixing we sent the tracks of to New York to be mastered by a company called Sterling Sound. We got the tracks back a few days later and finally had a finished product!
So the new Ep “open Road” is set to be released on the April 11th 2009 – same day we’ll be performing at the 20th Annual East Coast Blues & Roots! So when you listen to it, listen very carefully and see if you hear that hot water heater bubbling away in the back ground. Till next time cheers.

Dwaine
Barrel House