Recording Day 4. Done! (but not dusted).

The main desk at Orchard.

Well on the 4th day (strictly the 4th session which was also the 2nd Thursday evening) session. I sang my lead vocal on 2 songs, Hayley and Emma worked on their last few backing vocal sections and I put on one extra dinky little guitar line behind the backing vocal sub-melody. Simon, though he had finished all his parts, made an appearance with Dorota (our "biscuit manager") to catch up with what was going on and add some opinions... And suddenly it's all over so soon. Next, the magical black art of mixing, leaving it to Dan Logan for the initial listen, then I'll join him next week for my input.

As this was the last session, I want to take this opportunity to really thank everyone at Orchard Studios, and especially Dan Logan for being not only being fantastically talented but also immensely patient and making the whole process a really friendly, enjoyable experience. Also to Mr Dayve Dean who has done so much for me and the band since "part 2" of  my career began, here doing us the honour of a guest backing vocal on one of the tracks.  The good really good photos from these recording posts are by Jamie Waddington, another fabulous, friendly & talented chap. I always try to put relevant links within the texts of this blog but lately this isn't obvious as they don't appear as highlighted as an obvious link (anyone know how to correct this??), so in the absence of this, please check out the links below;

Orchard Studios - http://www.orchard-studios.co.uk/

Dan J. Logan - http://www.facebook.com/danieljloganmusician

Dayve Dean - http://www.dayve.co.uk/

Jamie Waddington Photography - http://www.jamiewaddington.co.uk/

Also big thanks to the lovely Radley, who as far as I know doesn't have a website.

A couple of lyric sheets printed out in advance of the evening session

A complicated-looking part of Orchard

Recording Diary Day 3: "Widget Poobid Fapside"

"Widget Poobid Fapside" is a possible working title for the EP which Hayley came up with based on something her laptop “said” to her. Perhaps it makes sense to someone out there, perhaps it’s some sort of computerspeak/code. It won’t get past the status of working title though so don’t go looking for an album of this name!

So day 3 was really a Thursday evening session, I got lead vocals down for 2 songs and quite a lot a backing vocal work went on. In fact one song could just about work A Cappella when we heard all the vocal parts played back at once. Emma also put some extra keyboard parts down on a couple of tracks. Dayve Dean, who has done so much for us before, continued the tradition by adding his emotive vocal sound onto a backing track too. Dayve had been working in another room at Orchard, while we worked with Dan, preparing his new radio show The Cat Sessions (& you can "listen again" of course)which featured us “live” from a gig the weekend before – weirdness squared.

A relaxed atmosphere while Dan, our sound wizz beavers away at the desk.

So another evening session beckons with more lead and backing vocals to do this week, stay tuned.

Dayve Dean, putting a show for "The Cat Sessions" together.

Nice things to look at and play :)



Dayve giving it some backing vox

Mind The Gap...

A gap in recording that is... we managed to fit another gig in though, which included the new band T-Shirts for the 1st time (apart from a one off charity one a while back).  Have a look  below at some great photos taken by pro lensman Jamie Waddington (check out some others if you like on the facebook site HERE). Back in the studio this week so more soon!

At a rather splendid little gig (Thanks to Dayve Dean for the photo)

The setlist (we changed the order of the penultimate songs).

Hayley giving it some pom pom

On the lovely Tokai strat (could've been made for me!)

Simon digging in on the fat strings

Back to LIVE.

So, a couple of shows in between some spaced-out (time-wise, not drug-induced!) recording sessions. The first one being a very special, private nee secret birthday party gig for Bob, lead guitarist for the accomplished Look Twice Band who is also indeed the father of Emma, our keyboardist, accordionist and backing vocalist in The BYs and what a great night it was - quite nerve racking too to play in front of so many experienced muso's, Look Twice themselves for instance having supported Elton John among many other notables. Now we're getting ready for an acoustic show in Crewe and we've realised, having concentrated on organising recording stuff for so long we haven't played many of the songs going into hour hour and 40 mins or so since mid December. Never mind, it will certainly be raw and the great beer at this venue should see us through! (Check the gig list on the right for details).

Look Twice sound check before us in the background while Bob's family and friends gather.

Getting some BYs T-Shirts sorted for sale at coming shows.

One of the designs