While listening back to takes in the studio, I think that we've managed to capture the live sound I was after for 'Lights In Darkest England'. I've lived with these songs for such a long time now, it's impossible to say whether distilling the recording process into two 10-hour sessions has done them any justice until I start putting listening mixes together.
Recording an album under such conditions puts immense stress on you as a musician and as an individual, but I think that helps to hone your performance. I'm not sure whether it's an experience I'd like to repeat but the proof will be in the blood-soaked pudding.
Day 1 (acoustic sessions):
We decided to go for as live a sound as possible, so Jim set us up in the live room separated by screens to get maximum separation. Despite picking up some German radio on my right acoustic mic, the guitars were sounding beautiful - a warm, natural tone, which is so difficult to achieve when recording at home.
It took a couple of hours to set up the live room before launching into 'Dark Pines Under Water'. The day was punctuated by endless cups of tea and listening breaks in the control room. With five songs recorded as planned, we left feeling like we'd done a good day's work.
Day 2 (electric guitar):
After allaying my fears about the radio that had been printed on one of my guitar mic channels, I went about setting up my electric in the amp room. My Mustang definitely benefited from its last-minute set-up. Tim: "Was that your guitar?" Yes, although I did use Jim's Jazzmaster for 'The Blue Girl'.
Despite a delayed start, I managed to get my focus back thanks to imbibing some quality vegan organic beer. Whatever it was, it did the trick. The 'To The Woods' coda has always been a bit tricky to get right so we did a separate take. We got our groove back and committed 'Carnival Won't Sleep' and the title track to binary pretty effortlessly.
Suddenly we found ourselves back on schedule. Time, I laugh in your ugly face. Ha! 'The Blue Girl' was always going to be a bit of a problem child. Getting the speed right is crucial to the song - it makes or breaks it. While warming up, Neil and Tim were playing along together without me and Chip, and it sounded like the perfect intro. After several attempts, we got the tempo spot on and we felt pretty proud of what we'd achieved when listening back in the control room. The loud section explodes out of nowhere.
Then I had my "close-up" moment as Tim called it, recording my guitar part for 'Atefah'. At least I had the luxury of playing all of my electric-guitar lines in the air-conditioned bliss of the control room. After finding the perfect guitar tone for the song, I tried playing along to Tim's live guide vocal, which allowed me to concentrate on my finger-picking. Like anything in life, the more that you can just close your eyes, switch off and relax into it, the better the performance. I think by about the fourth or fifth take I managed to achieve the performance that I was looking for. It's probably the longest song on the album by far, so getting to the end of that take was the closest I'll ever get to running a marathon.
Before the others did their overdubs, I rewarded myself with a beer in the knowledge that my work was done and Jim cranked up the jukebox in the kitchen, putting on Domenico Mudugno's 'Nel blu dipinto di blu', popularly known as 'Volare'. It was a wonderful moment.
Chipple's cello and Neil's E-bow overdubs complete, it just left us with enough time for Tim to put down some piano on a couple of songs.
We achieved everything that we set out to do over the two days and I think that's all that you can ask for. I still feel mentally and physically exhausted by the experience, as I'm sure the others do, but I believe that the songs are worth it.
I'd like to go back into the studio for a day (or two) to record vocals rather than recording them in living-rooms like we did for the first album. I'm hoping that the listening mixes will come together pretty quickly, albeit punctuated by a much-needed holiday during most of September. I want this album to sound as natural and live (and un-EQed) as possible, so the mixing process should be a lot simpler compared with the 'Stasi' LP, he says.
Meanwhile, here's a lesson in how to relax into a performance (of a lifetime)...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-DVi0ugelc