19 Aug, 2008 Music and Monsoons
The Welsh Monsoons continue and the countryside is no less beautiful for that, but the drum and bass are done and Mel and Ed are leaving the compound.
We will miss them for their music of course, but just as much for the banter. They certainly stepped up to the mark and in less than three joy filled weeks they have managed to lay down twenty drum and bass tracks. We have never managed to move at such a pace, never having managed to get so much done in that kind of time previously.
The key as always is to prepare well up to a certain point in advance and then make whatever other quick decisions on the day of recording. The thing not to do if possible is get bogged down in minutiae.
We try to hone our song ideas enough prior but still leave them a little open ended, enabling an element of surprise to take place if on the day someone suggests an idea for the arrangement.
Experience is all of course and key is to have people in the studio who really know what they are doing. We score big on that one with the team we have at our disposal, it means that whatever problem arises there is almost always someone at hand who can find a solution or offer alternatives.
And now both Charlie and I will take over for the next three weeks. Charlie works on guitars and keyboards during the day and in the evening we work on the vocals mostly.
I sit in and offer Charlie some directions as he works on his parts and he does likewise when I am at the microphone. Jez as always overseeing way and above, truly the captain of the ship!
I must say I do like the vocal booth here in Rockfield, maybe it is the effect of the beaten up Chinese rug and the red velvet wall fabric. It has a faded glamour, reminds of the inside of a Victorian magicians cabinet, the kind people would be invited to enter and then somehow made disappear. I of course have no intention of disappearing myself, but any reservations I had that we should not set our aspiration too high with this album have certainly dematerialised leaving us shooting for the moon!
I now recall when we were making New Gold dream that I somehow strangely felt during the passing weeks that the album was somehow making itself. And at one point it all felt so effortless in the best way, not in a blasé sense. It just felt that all the essentials were in place and that the events of the days were tumbling into themselves just as we would want them to and that everything that was meant to happen was indeed happening. Like all we had to do was turn up, plug in, make a few basic decisions and for the rest simply have faith in the music that would come out of us.
Apart from switching drummer’s from Mike Ogletree to the then ‘ young and moustachoid’ Mel Gaynor, I certainly do not recall any problems, dramas, arguments, or troublesome days during that recording and it is therefore wonderful to say that these current sessions somehow mirror the spirit and feel of the NGD sessions.
And I guess it is the idea of what is essential and what is not that has taken a hold on of us. We deal with the essentials and discard the rest.
Jim Kerr
Pic of Mel by Hilko Nackaerts