Friday 20 January 2012

Day 5


The fifth and final day in the church, holds many positives and negatives. The positives are mainly: we can get back into a normal sleeping pattern and we won’t be cold. The negatives are: Not recording music everyday, not being in the countryside everyday, not eating so well, not seeing the stars so clearly every night. A major negative is packing everything up and leaving, going back to reality.

Recording strings last night
We started the day at a slower pace than previous days. Yesterday was long and we were all in a bleary eyed state by the end of it so this morning heralded a difficult start. I drove to meet the Chris’ at Chris B’s house. We listened to the tracks and wrote a surprisingly short list of things that still needed doing. With this in mind we set off down the horizontal car park that is the M5.

Upon arriving we found our fiend Joe had beaten us here and that the builders were in full flow, which did not bode well. However inside the church it was quiet.

As Jake and Jordan would not be joining us until later I took their places. I played the swelled bass in ‘Follow Me Around’, so when you listen to it, take note that the shredding on the bass guitar is me, yeah!? When you actually listen to it, you will see the sarcasm in that statement.

Jake and I pricked around with his kick drum yesterday to get a more throaty foreboding sound out of it. It ended up with all the padding been taken out and loosening the skin an extreme amount. A strange discovery with it is that when you put a glove over a mallet it sounds amazing on it, so today I recorded it alongside Jakes floor tom part.

Chris B wasn’t content with the keyboard swell he’s added in ‘Plinky Plonk’ so we changed this into a vocal loop swell, looping a range of notes I was singing into 3 DL4’s and reversing, speeding them up and slowing them down.

We were quite taken by its sound and conjured up a similar effect in the first chorus of ‘Untitled’.
Again, after listening back this morning Chris B wanted another attempt at the guitar in the chorus of ‘Untitled’ and ‘Our Heavy Hands’. A few runs at ‘Untitled’ didn’t take long and we had a good take. ‘Our Heavy Hands’ didn’t take long either; this brought all the guitar parts to a triumphant end.  

And so to lunch. Lunch break began with a sing song around the piano of ‘Pyramid Song’ by Radiohead with Chris D on the piano and by the time we sat down to lunch we had descended into roundtable versions of ‘Shadys Back’ by Eminem and ‘Re-arrange’ by Limp Bizkit. We were full of praise for the pea and ham soup my auntie had provided. I can’t say thank you enough to my auntie and uncle for their hospitality.

Back to work. This began with jam between Chris D, Chris B and myself. In the process of this I snapped one of Jakes mallets in half, sorry Jake I’ll buy you another set.

By now Amber had turned up and it was down to violins, beginning with ‘Our Heavy Hands’. Problems arose with harmonies on the chorus but this was soon overcome. ‘Little Spoken Wars’ next. This went together almost seamlessly, harmonies and all.



A small part in the chorus of ‘Untitled’ was decided upon and after a tinkle on the keyboard to decide its course. One take and then it was modified because Chris had changed his part.

There’s a small part in ‘Little Spoken Wars’ in the step ups that was done in a few takes.
Violins done. Smashing.

Excitement rose, just a few piano parts to do and that’s it! Over to my aunties house again.
We set up and were offered a cuppa to get us through. Amber had a stab at ‘Untitled’. This took many attempts, choosing when to dampen it and how to bring it up to the crescendo. This done, we now hit the final stretch.



‘Art is..’ next, a nice song to end on. 2 takes. Pow! Done. This lead to a celebratory glass of merlot and then off to pack up and leave.

All in all a successful and extremely enjoyable week that has come to up a huge sigh of relief. Thank you to all at St Nicolas’ church for letting us have the church for a week, it’s been perfect. Also a huge thank you to Steve & Jenny Tonry for keeping us warm, fed and watered, it’s really kept us going. We also thank, in infinite amounts, Chris Donald for working the hardest behind the desk, keeping us on track and sane but mainly for putting up with us. We eagerly await the vocal recording sessions.

All packed up


Live long and prosper.


Thursday 19 January 2012

Day 4


Today was the day we very nearly left for the church at the time proposed the night before. A landmark I think you’ll agree. Having almost enjoyed the breakfast begrudgingly prepared by the artist formerly known as One Take Jake we headed off.

Having already finished the drums, bass and the bulk of the guitars today was to be a slightly more experimental day. It turned out to be even more experimental than we thought due to the fact that the builders had decided today was the day they needed to operate heavy machinery. The world isn’t ready for a record full of pneumatic drill noises. Rammstein take note. Brian Eno wouldn’t even touch that shit.
Consequently we headed into the house to record some piano. 

Will’s deft hands nailed Our Heavy Hands fairly quickly and unusually I managed to get a new intro track down in a couple of takes. Just a couple more bits of piano and we moved onto some minor glockenspiel parts. All in a days work.


Hoping the builders had lived up to their stereotype and broken for an extended tea break we headed back to the church only to find we were unlucky enough to have come across some particularly industrious labourers.



We attempted to track some of Will’s cornet in the gaps between the destruction (ironic for a project who’s aim is restoration) but eventually conceded and went for lunch, during which Jake displayed a flagrant disregard for the boundaries of mixing sweet and savoury and once again Will came dangerously close to exceeding the recommended five fruit and veg a day rule.



The possibility of recording anything involving microphones was scuppered for the immediate future and so I fannied around twiddling knobs for an hour or so (quiet at the back!) getting some looping for the intro done. We found to our confusion and amusement that given the right combination of leads into one of my delay pedals being loosened it can receive radio signals. Apart from the odd bit of Coldplay and Oasis and with the right amount of delays and loops, this proved quite an atmospheric sound. It even sounded at one point like one of the multiple voices being received was saying the word ‘abacus’ – the title of the following track. It had to go in.

A walk was suggested to pass some time until the builders were done. Anyhow, we strolled up the lane and into a field. A little muddy we thought, but nothing we can’t handle. It turned out when after about five minutes of walking our feet were caked in a seemingly impossible amount of mud that we had probably misjudged the situation. We walked back, stopping occasionally to flail around in the hope of flinging at least some of the mud off. By the time we got back Jake’s attempts to scrape his shoes in some dead grass had him resembling Wurzel Gummage.



On returning we finished off the brass just in time for Josiah (Chris D’s housemate and fellow Fiction Fighter) to arrive and after I did my best to destroy Jake’s drum beaters recording some rimshots for Little Spoken Wars, he and Chris D helped us out with some rowdy shouting.



After shouting in the gaps in ‘Little Spoken Wars’, Amber appeared. We took this opportunity to do the choral sections in ‘Follow Me Around’ with the aid of Josiah and Chris D.

Violins next. Will had taken on the jug of rancid watered down juice we brought on Monday and beat it, remarking “Fruit juice turned me into a vegetable”. Cabin fever has well and truly set in.

Amber set up it’s all go. ‘Moscow..’ first. Slightly troublesome because of the cold but she soon worked through it. ‘Abacus’ was next and after some discrepancies over the length of the second verse and after some more quality miming along to the track, perfection was achieved. ‘Art is..’ and ‘Plinky Plonk’ were much of a muchness in that the twiddly bits were fiddly and took a fair few takes. 

By this point we were all extremely tired and tomorrow was going to be a long one so we adjourned. 

Chris B

Wednesday 18 January 2012

Day 3


Today it is actually warmer outside than it is in the church, which seems to have gotten progressively colder as the week has gone on, or maybe we have just complained about it more. The latter seems more likely. Despite the temperature things are going well. We had an early scare when we thought cabin fever had set in but I don’t think we’re quite there just yet. A good sing along to some James Brown classics got it out of our systems.

As Chris B has sat around scrutinising my every move or wrapped up in a blanket like Babushka most of the day, all he has done on this entry is the paragraph above. Typical English student, more context viewing and less writing. Sorry Chris, that’s payback for yesterday.

I’ll begin by saying that on my drive home last night I saw a man running like he was being chased, wearing a Santa outfit. Too early, too late, in danger or mental? You decide.

Today I are bin recording my guitar bits on everything, which started surprisingly well in ‘Abacus’ but soon went downhill in ‘Moscow Peasant March’ as my hands were falling off due to the cold. Today the church is like the bat cave: cold, hidden and full of people rapidly developing split personality disorder.
After many attempts at “Moscow…’ I had to warm my hands as finger picking was becoming impossible. This helped and a few takes in the funeral waltz was achieved.

Waltzing it.
Our latest song was next. Gypsy/punk/thrash/post-rock crossover romp ‘Little Spoken Wars’. Again, a smooth ride after some intonation issues were resolved. The delay heavy chorus sounded magnificent in here.  It must be said however that my telecaster is starting to show signs of its abusive life style.  
The song currently known as ‘Plinky Plonk’ was completed in minimal takes, this pleased me as this ones finger picking pattern is more difficult but I suppose being on beat helps.

‘Art Is An Escape, Escape Is An Art’ came next. Room mic in place to capture what the bowed guitar was producing in the church and we were good to go. This caused much frustration but after a bit of jiggery pokery and multiple runs at it and some overdubs we gained a hefty sounding section.


Onward into ‘Our Heavy Hands’ or ‘our attempt at a pop song’ as its more commonly known. As we have become horrifically conditioned to this song we can practically play it in our sleep so recording this was a welcome respite and done in a few takes.

What goes up must come down. Other newbie ‘Untitled’ proved a lot of fun as: 1. We grossly over estimated the length of the intro and 2. Tuning to the capo was just not happening. After Chris D and myself pricked around tuning by ear we gained the desired sound. Many runs through, with and without effects and its considered fit for consumption. My mother, brother, his girlfriend and niece, disturbed the first run through. Probably dropping in to make sure I was doing drugs or hanging around with women of a doubtful reputation. The problems with this are many. In this part of the world the drugs that exist are arthritis pills and the only women around take those pills, go figure.

The idea of taking drugs and having a party in the ‘studio’, a myth perpetuated by many pop stars (Lady GaGa is the biggest culprit for it). The grim reality of recording is that you spend a long time sitting around doing bugger all waiting for death. Maybe its different if you’re recording in LA, but somehow I doubt it.

Break for lunch, as provided by my mother and auntie. Again it was wholesome and enjoyable.
Straight back in for never played outside of the practice room ‘Follow Me Around’. This one produced major issues, as the swelled effect I use was producing some strange sounds through the microphones. Chris D worked some magic with my equaliser pedal and dulled it down so its now listenable.

I threw my guitar, mass of effects pedals and leads back in their boxes. I’m done until piano, cornet, mandolin, vocals and whatever else is required. Time to sit down while Chris B takes the helm.

He followed the same pattern as me. Luckily for him he doesn’t play guitar for every song and with the style of music we play you spend a lot of time crippling your back gorping at effects pedals. Trust me when I say, it grinds you down.

‘Abacus’ proved a little challenging, as the final crescendo wasn’t flowing as smoothly as it does when we all play it together live. However Chris persisted with it and gained something he was happy with.
‘Moscow..’ Chris doesn’t usually play guitar in this song however some swells are required in the first verse so he swiftly obliged. 

Chris gets away with no guitar in ‘Plinky Plonk’ or ‘Art is…’

As I said we’re all well versed in ‘Our Heavy Hands’ so a few takes of the swell, the stadium rock chorus and closing section came together with relative ease.

The subject of the stadium rock chorus is of some controversy amongst us. As when we recorded the demo of it, it did not exist. Last summer we were asked to record it for a friend of a fans uni recording project in Cardiff. We went through all our parts respectively until Chris’ part came up and out of nowhere this Bon Jovi-esque cock rock riff came out. No one really said anything until we went out on the night. Jordan asked “Where the fuck did that stadium rock chorus come from?” From then on he hasn’t lived it down. Neither should he I say.

Next up ‘Untitled’. Chris has never been keen on what he plays in the chorus so first of all came the re-arrangement under Chris D guiding hand, which began smoothly but he gave up to back to it. A wise move, cause if you get pissed off with it you make a hell of a lot more mistakes. This lead to Chris recording the last section of the song, plagued by cold hands this was not easy however persistence won the war.

By this point I was convinced that cabin fever/Stockholm syndrome had set in as Jordan, Jake and our friend Joe were dancing about like unmedicated lunatics.

‘Follow Me Around’ required some guidance as it’s much of a muchness, so I sat in front of Chris miming like a terrible early nineties one hit wonder pop act on TOTP. One take is all it took.

Backs turned on the bulk of the material; it was time for the little details to be tacked on. Chris messed around with 3 DL4’s to loop some ambiance for ‘Abacus’. At this point Amber turned up from work to make sure we hadn’t killed each other and to see what we’d got done.


Ambiance complete Chris turned his attention to the harmonium for ‘Art is..’ and ‘Moscow..’ I have to say, it sounds fantastic in here, almost like the instrument was designed for this setting.

Hefty organ is also required in ‘Abacus’ so Chris fired up our keyboard. We did attempt to use the churches organ in residence but we couldn’t get anything out of it that didn’t sound like the boss level on a classic gameboy. With that done, using the same keyboard Chris vinraphoned the hell out of ‘Plinky Plonk’ and so brought a conclusion to the third day.

And so we head home for Chris B and Jake to cook something for us. Lovely

William

Tuesday 17 January 2012

Day 2

Tuesday 17th January
Day one ambled to a fairly productive close, Jake having laid down some pretty solid takes for 5 of the proposed 9 or 10 tracks. The customary post-recording wine was quaffed and we were treated to a brief tour of hip-hop courtesy of Chris D. Day two then, free as we were from the time consuming woes of arranging microphones and tuning drums, got off to a swifter start. So however did the builders working on the church tower, lending some occasional clangs and bangs to proceedings. They sound pretty hideous but I think we can get away with calling it avant garde.




Jake had polished off the remaining tracks in time for lunch and Will’s Auntie once again provided us with a hearty meal of homemade soup and sandwiches. We haven’t eaten this well in a long time. Chris D set about editing the drum tracks leaving us a couple of hours free while he got on with things we don’t fully understand. We had a stroll around the countryside, had a sword fight with some sticks and nearly had an accidental game of ‘What’s the time Mr Wolf’ with an old man. All in all good old fashioned hijinks. After resisting the temptation to nap, we busied ourselves with other things. One such thing being the piano in the house. A real piano nonetheless, it would be rude not to play it. 

One of many brilliant houses in and around Dormston

Shortly after Chris D had finished the editing and we had made our way back into the church to add some occasional percussion Will arrived back from a hard days thinking at uni and told us how according to some theory everyone is racist by default. Psychologists are the worst kind of people. We soon overcame our crushing sense of existential guilt and Jordan soldiered on with some bass guitars. 

Shakey Jake (or the artist formerly known as 'One Take Jake')

On a side note, being in the countryside we have seen some cracking place names. The following is a list of my three favorites in no particular order:
  • Ronkswood - Pleasingly deranged. Undeniably comical sexual undertones.
  • Peopleton - Sounds like a fictional town in a kids TV programme. So bland it’s almost sinister, I imagine it to be inhabited exclusively by morph-like, featureless, asexual clay people.
  • North Piddle - Like a big ol’ puddle of frozen piss. Rumor has it there is also a ‘Middle Piddle’ which would most certainly take the place of it’s northern counterpart were it not for its current mythical status.
After a food run to a non-existent service station which turned into an aimless and dizzying tour of the local roundabouts which then turned into a trip into nearby Worcester in search of sustenance Jordan had finished all seven songs. By this time it was nine o’clock and we were all getting weary, not least Chris D who had been slaving away all day behind the desk. It was time to head back. Tomorrow, guitars!

Chris B

Monday 16 January 2012

Recording diary: Day 1

Apparently last night was the coldest night of the year. Not hard really as there has only been 2 weeks in the year, calling the coldest night is slightly defeatist I feel. Anyway, I’m inclined to agree with the powers that be, it was bloody cold. At 7.20AM I began to defrost my car and felt the frostbite instantly set in.

Loaded in and ready to head to Coventry to pick up Chris Donald, I waited for Chris and Jake with the heating on full blast. Eventually they turned up and Chris joined me as navigator. Wagons rolled.

After sitting in the rat race for what seemed like hours we picked up Mr Donald and loaded in the mass of recording equipment required aided by fellow Fiction Fighter Josiah Gillespie. Onward to Dormston.

By now the weather had bloomed into the idyllic winters morning. We reported in with my Auntie who lives across the lane from St Nicolas’s church in the old farmhouse (which will also host some recordings in the week). We were introduced to the vicar and the workmen who are restoring the belfry and without further adieu we loaded our complete collection of our equipment into the church.

We were all like excited children as we walked inside, faced by the tired but beautiful wooden beams that straddle the roof, the weathered stone and the modest yet grand masonry that makes up the main arch. Once everything was in it was down to business.

Chris D set about with a snare drum, hitting it in different locations within the main hall to gain the best sound and once decided on dead centre, Jake set up. Tuning the kit took some time as the cold had taken its toll on the skins but all good things take time and once Chris and Jake had fettled with each drum the result was monstrous.

The microphone set up became fascinating. 11 on the kit and 2 room mics. Once they had been set in place it was time to break for some soup and sandwiches, which were kindly, provided by my auntie.

After we were fed and watered we head back in to the church for Chris D to fiddle with levels. This took a while as positions had to be tweaked in order to gain the most out of the church’s natural acoustics.

Eventually after a few false starts Jake laid down the drum track for ‘Abacus’, which is the track we tend to open with live. Slowly but surely Jake and Chris worked through a lot of the drum tracks required leaving only 2 for tomorrow.

By now we were tired and hungry but pleased and ready for more.

William

Tuesday 10 January 2012

All quiet on the western (midlands) front, until now.

Bonsoir mon amis.

Well, the blog we intended to keep updated regularly hasn't exactly stayed updated, apologies all round, but we intend to turn it around.

So whats happened since the last time anything was posted up on this dusty shelf I hear you say. The Watchfires events have been a successful venture so far with many people commenting on how good each event is which is incredibly encouraging. We've had; Tim Fletcher, Mitch & Murray, Spotlight Kid, God Damn, Arc Vel, Stuart Garry, ThisIsSinister and Swim Deep. Every one has been fantastic and I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for taking part and to everyone who has come and supported all the bands and us, It means alot.

Apart from putting on Watchfires, last year we were initially pro-active, in regards to recording, then became lazy. We have recorded an EP but we are not overly keen on its quality as we went down the DIY route and we're not exactly Quincy Jones. Not even a little. Enter our friend Chris Donald of Fiction Fight fame. He's wanted to work with us for a while but we've never really got the ball rolling. Chris came to Watchfires last month and we got round to discussing recording. Working with Chris is extremely exciting as he produced Fiction Fight's latest album "I Am a Theif", which has stunning production quality and I couldn't recommend it highly enough. It can be purchased for whatever price you would like here: http://fictionfight.bandcamp.com/album/i-am-a-thief

We sat down together coming to the conclusion that we would take a week out and power out 9 songs for an album to be produced by Chris. This seems like normal activity for a band but as you know we're not overly normal..

My auntie lives in the tiny Worcestershire village of Dormston in a medieval farmhouse and when they moved there they became the custodian of the local church's key. The church is also medieval and had a massive restoration effort put into it in the 1930's. The location is idyllic
and the structure is fascinating.

Recording in churches is not a new idea, many bands have recorded pieces in churches or cathedrals because of the natural reverb. We use lots of digital reverb so why not go for the natural equivalent? I pitched the idea of recording in Dormston church a few years ago but we had neither the material or the means to do so and now we have it's all systems go.

The Dormston church committee have approved us to use the the church for a week so we are gearing up for working our arses off for a week so we can finally give you an album that we are proud to release.

We'll keep you posted and hopefully soon have something to give you.

Au revoir les enfants
William