We have a drummer!

And just a quick update on the song – we’re actually working on two songs at the same time at the moment.

Why?  Yes, good question.  We wrote a verse and chorus – both of which we liked – but they didn’t work together.  So we kept them both, split them up and we’re working ‘em both up : )

In other exciting news, we’ve started booking some gigs in and around Bristol.  You can see info on the Gigs page.

And there’s also a remix of Daylight - Exitproject (43842) on the horizon, I’ll keep you posted!

Man, there’s been lots going on… I should blog more.

ps – I don’t technically know if this is actually time lapse, not even Google could tell me.  Anyone?

And Exitproject said, ‘Let them hear cake.’

Or something.

But the high point of the evening actually came when we were arguing about the chorus.  We were passive aggressively discussing if the piano should be syncopated or straight.  But our heated debate evaporated when we heard some birds tweeting in the background of the vocal track.

GENIUS!  You can just about hear the birds tweeting here:

Birds tweeting in the background 'Daylight' (4159)

(it’s right at the end of the clip – you’ll have to crank the volume to hear it.)  It makes me EXTREMELY happy…

The February track is coming along, people!  Feeling the burn a little, but I think that’s part of the reason we’re doing the one song per month thing.  Come rain or come shine, February’s track is just around the corner.

It was an eventful day in the studio today… we’ve just limped out.  Our head’s are sore from being squeezed by headphones and our ears are knackered from listening to the same verse and chorus for 3 hours…

But spirits in the camp are high!  Recording has been done, progress has been made, tea has been swigged (and a special ‘thank you’ to Ben and Jill Weaver for supplying the AMAZING Betty’s biscuits for sustenance)

The first thing we realised when we listened to the tune was that it was too slow.  Not great news,  but I think we were relatively brave about it.  I manned the controls while J laid down new acoustic guitar, bass and electric guitar parts.

J strumming

The aforementioned broken-tuning peg on the Les Paul finally gave up the ghost good-and-proper.  J tuned the offending string with some pliers – rock n’ roll…

Broken tuning peg of dooooooom...

Then I did re-did a wheezy rough vocal (I have a sore throat) so J could get down to some serious production-action.

The tune has changed a lot since the last session, but I’m having trouble putting the differences into words.  It’s probably because we’ve been listening to it so intensely – it’s a big fuzz in my head.

J mentioned the other night that we wanted to make a track that sounded really ‘Bristol-y’.  I think that’s probably the best way to describe it…

I think we’re both feeling the ‘holy madness, it’s February 13th’ pinch in terms of launching this track.  But I say ‘meh’ to any of that stress shenanigans – I’m flippin’ LOVING it…

But J (never the type of Ninja Butler to sit around) just wandered in and confessed to a little late night tweaking…

of the SONG…

Lordy!  You have a filthy mind…

Anyway, J went into the studio with his game face on.  He listened to it a couple of times, made some quick decisions, took out a couple of tracks that were causing a ruckus, and emerged triumphant and grinning.

WOOHOO!!  Mixing awaits!

Fellow musos will know what I mean when I say that you always reach a point in a day where you’re not really ‘hearing’ any more.  There’s been so many ‘try adding this’s and ‘try muting that’s that all you can hear is a kind of muted-through-the-walls-cranium-party of cymbals, strings and vocals.

THIS, my fellow peeps, is when it’s time to leave the studio.  So on Saturday, leave we did.

Tonight we went back in and listened to the track twice in a row – it’s amazing how obvious things can become after a couple days of rest.  The changes we needed to make were staring us in the face like a lairy punter  - woop!

Here’s the list (caution: non-musos might not give a crap about this list)

• Mmmm’s in the verses
• Hand percussion in the verses
• Harmonies above the second verse
• Some kind of metallic sound (or maybe just a pause) to mark the transition between the 4/4 and 5/4 section
• Ridiculously high harmonies towards the end of the outro
• Some kind of other fat-but-floaty vocal sounds in the outro

Then I guess it’ll be on to mixing for the Ninja Butler – BRING IT!!!

We’ve got a fair bit done today and all is well.  J is in the studio listening back to my vocal takes even as I’m sitting in the living room typing this (I laid ‘em down while he went out for a stroll to catch some daylight…)

AHA!  He’s just come in to say he likes the outtro harmonies – WOOP!

All celebrations aside for a minute and let’s get down to business.  What did we do today?  Here’s a tidy list:

1. Wrote the bridge (C-section, break-down, middle 8, or whatever you want to call it).  After working on it for awhile, it turned into the outro (magic!).  We decided it should be a little weird compared to the rest of the song.  We were discussing adding a loud creaking noise, or the sound a tin-building makes in a storm, or jerky-guitar parts – but we settled on making it 5/4 instead of 4/4 as a start…
2. Hunted for a heinous digital buzz for a couple of minutes (it was because we were recording with a large-diaphragm condenser mic and I hadn’t turned on phantom power – SCHOOLGIRL ERROR!)
3. Recorded 3 different acoustic guitar parts
4. Recorded 3 different electric guitar bits, one of which we scrapped
5. Snapped one of the tuning pegs on J’s Les Paul (see below…sadness)
6. Changed the lyrics of the chorus – it used to be ‘You make it seem easy’ four times in a row, but it seemed like a lyric cop-out, so (after struggling with this simplest of tasks) I managed to mix it up a little.
7. Re-recorded all of the vocals with harmonies and whisper-y whisper tracks
8. J’s working on a new drum part for the verses right now…

Also included were drinking coffee, drinking tea, eating biscuits and eating lunch – CRUCIAL in any session.  Especially the coffee… and tea… and food…

I’m in a freakin’ good mood because this song is about my brother is his lady-wife and working on this tune reminds me of how awesome they are…

I’m luuuurving the bridge… I’ve got a big crush on it.  I’m gonna pass it a note in study hall.