........
Well, so far so good.
The first week of recording is done and
dusted and we have a couple of days off to catch our collective
breath.
It all kicked off on Sunday.
I picked up the drummer, a guy called
Mike Iveson, from the airport that morning. The bass player, Brett
Hurst, was driving into Sydney from his home in the Blue Mountains
and the guitarist, Richard Ashby, who shares a flat with me, jumped
into the van for a lift to the studio in Neutral Bay, Sydney.
It was the first time I'd met Mike and
Brett. They're both pretty well regarded in the industry, having
played on numerous successful records including both Lior LPs, which
I'm a big fan of. Was a little bit daunting meeting them to be honest
but it was apparent pretty quickly that not only are they great
musicians but they're pretty cool dudes as well. Phew...
It took us a few hours to get
everything set-up in studio one at Alberts: amps, guitars, drum-kits,
outboard gear etc etc. We jammed quickly through the first song,
Emotional Blackmail, to make sure everything was working and sounding
ok then bailed to the local pub, The Oaks, for some pizza, beer and a
little team bonding.
The video above (follow the link) shows
us getting into the recording for real on Monday. We started again
with Emotional Blackmail, working on the feel, the arrangement and
the parts. It was a good song to start with as the demo was pretty
close to where we wanted to get to which gave us a chance just to
play and suss each other out a little bit..
For the first two weeks of recording,
what you're really concerned with is getting the feel of the songs
right and making sure you get enough takes of the bass and drums.
It's kinda like building a house, you gotta get the foundations
right.
We got through about seven songs in the
first week, just following that process; working through the feel,
tempo and parts but at all times trying to get back to where the song
had come from: what was the spark, source, emotion, memory or
experience that we were trying to convey and connect the listener to.
For me, that's the most important thing above all.
Was a fun few days in general but hard
work too. More mentally tiring than anything else but we made sure we
had plenty of time to sit back, have a few beers and a few laughs
along the way. It's been nice to take a couple of days off to reflect
but to be honest I can't wait to get back into it tomorrow....lots
more to do.
Stay tuned.
Ed