The listening Stool

 Today was another special studio day, this time in just sitting and listening to the (almost) finalised mixes for the Fox Barn Studios part of the coming EP. 

One track stood out as a potential, though perhaps unusual lead single. 

Afterwards I missed my train by 6 minutes so Dan & I were forced, unwittingly - to the pub! 

Updated 18/05/2025

The band-gang have approved the mixes so the next stage is mastering. 

Outboard spring reverb deployed! 

Automated reverb on lead
vocals - now that's perfectionism! 

Fox Barn Day 2

 

Another utterly fantastic day for us at Fox Barn Studios under the direction of the mighty sound-brain of Daniel J. Logan. Recording in such a quick, creative way is a big part of what we're all about even if we rarely get a chance to do it quite like this, and - there's a bar!

Paradise.

One of the songs in particular actually transformed in today's session, from sounding more breezy straight-rock to gaining a much more punky approach than we were originally looking at, and we're loving it.  We're loving it all.

Recording prep.

 

Back in & trackin’

 Back in Jose’s studio to put some finishing touches on the lyric co-write and track lead vocals for this next project. José had increased the tempo of the track by just 2bpm and it’s remarkable to think such a subtle change then felt so much more ‘right’ for this track.

Then we went out for a beer of course.

Further Journeys in Sound

Last night I was back in José’s studio to start on a brand new project. Some weeks ago José had sent me a couple of tunes and lyric ideas to work with and, in spite of managing to mix up which lyrics went with which tune (!) we met to bash out some ideas, and lay down a guide track with some draft lyrics rather than what will end up being the final version.

We also jammed out some ideas from a number of other draft tunes.

Onwards!

 

BYs EP - Latest Progess

Although all the tracking from the main band members is done, we were we delighted that the talented youngster Alba Muñoz-Burgess laid down some great backing vocals. There’s a particular part of one track which seems to require female vocal tones higher in the mix than in other areas (for reasons we might be able to make clearer at a later point), so both Em and Alba are more prominent here.

Alba who is just 12 years old, is the daughter of our friend and producer José who is also in the mix somewhere on gang backing vocals and a few percussion parts here and there.

Without giving away too much, see/hear below for a 1st teaser:

Vox Pop. Day 8.

09/08/2020

I should point out that when I entitle these recording posts “Day #” etc it’s nothing like a whole day, normally we’re  starting at roughly around 5ish and done and dusted in a couple of hours or three. I’ve honestly never known band recording to be such a breeze (though our friend and producer José has all the detailed craft of mixing and production to do). This efficiency says much about José’s skill and how much at ease we, The Blue Yellows all are.

The same was true tonight where the main focus was backing vocals, so Em (pictures) came in to do her ‘live’ backing vocal parts plus a few other backing ideas we came up with. I also added some lead vocals and an acoustic guitar part we somehow forgot about earlier.

It’s all going just TOO well! 

Recording Day 7. Pedal to the Metal (Blue Yellows EP)

A beautiful July evening for recording electric guitar and doing all the lead vocals and backing vocals. Again, José’s skill and the fact he’s a good friend help things run as smoothly as ever. 

This is just going TOO well. I sang and played with quite a lot of improvisation and with all the emotion I could muster, and feel pretty spent now, but that’s a great feeling. As it should be.

Photos by Manu Arteaga

Dave brought the thunder!

Day 5 & 6 25th/26th July 2020 

Finally! For the 1st time since February we were back in the recording studio. Thunder rumbling overhead and Dave bringing his own thunder (if forgetting his drum kit at 1st!) for some remarkably quick work from José and Dave. Top work!

Back on José’s EP.

A return to José’s studio, this time for more work on his own EP for which I co-wrote the lyrics on this track, having co-written a song we recorded a couple of years ago.

Thanks, José for a couple of your instagram shots, used below.

For the love of Bass

Working out some bass lines for these
songs back in Summer (see insta post below)

At the time of writing, two songs on which I play bass, yes bass! ..are due out tomorrow, or if you are reading this on or after Valentine's Day 2020, you can enjoy them right now (see videos below!).

Tim Lee is a wonderfully talented songwriter of moving, heartfelt music who I've had the pleasure of sharing stages and recording studios with many times. He knew that I was really getting into bass playing and was kind enough to offer me the chance to perform bass guitar on his to-be-released album 'Tulpa'. 

Back in mid-summer; myself, fellow bassist (and another close collaborator) Rob who is also playing on the album (and, I understand,  made the video for 'Love is Easy', below) joined Tim and producer Glyn from Collossus Productions who are releasing the whole thing, for a recording session which I blogged about here.



In a sense, these songs represent my bass debut, so it's an exciting moment for me, though in reality , I have also recorded a solo album of songs in which bass features very heavily some two summers ago (though this is now on the release back burner for a number of reasons, not least because of the new recording project with The Blue Yellows which is now underway). In fact, so excited have I been about my new favourite toy, the bass guitar, that many of the songs which will be on my next solo album have been written on bass, and are very bass-orientated in terms of groove and rhythm. On the experimental ‘Raflessia Dreams’ I ‘played bass’ on the lower strings of a standard guitar, or did a vocal bass thing, and then EQed it. It seems almost impossible to pick the bass up without coming up without coming up with new grooves. Maybe I'll even get to play bass live some day, who knows?

Anyway, enjoy these two great tracks!

EP Day 2: Rock Out with your Sock Out.

Updated 05/02/2020

Although recording full drums would be the ideal way to start tracking-proper, time restraints and a keenness from all concerned meant we wanted to get on with it and record what we can in the hours available.

Drummer Dave, myself and producer José gathered at a José’s brand new home studio to record percussion and acoustic guitar tracks.
Recording sessions always seem to throw up some quirky moments... Dave found that zip-tying a pair of José’s socks to his mallets perfected the tone on the wash effect he was aiming for on the ride cymbal.

José and Dave discuss the approach.

Add caption

EP Day 1: Pre-production & guide-tracking.

*Post updated on 30/01/2020

Our good friend and talented producer José Arteaga offered to record us an EP. José, who started out as an indie-rock guitarist has spent years composing and producing music for Spanish theatre and film, including award-winning productions.
Last Friday was spent making rough phone-recordings of songs we might want to include. We sent these to José after the session and he had a say in which ones we should go ahead with.

Then, last night José worked through finding just the right tempo for each track, by both using some rehearsal recordings as a guide and working with me on whether playing the tracks like this felt like as if they were 'pushing' or 'dragging'.
So, EP guide-tracks done. Next, time, the whole band may be in.
It all starts here!

Post from producer José.

Hatching a baseline.

Today I’ve been involved in bass-playing capacity to do some tracking on Tim Lee’s next album, along with partner in musical crimes, Rob. Top producer in these parts Glyn Sutton of Colossus Productions.
The day started unusually with a 2nd brood of chicks requiring some help to get off the bow of my boat and into the canal with mum (where 2 of them has already made it). Thankfully this proved easy, and the recording session that followed proved just as smooth, unflappable, without too many quacks.
I know Tim likes a quick turnaround from recording to release, so I imagine this will be out in a matter of months.
Should be good, some great songs on there!

Rob (left) and myself.

Garage Band - Blue Yellows mini-album project, Recording Session 3

Very close followers of this blog may know that my band The Blue Yellows have been intermittently recording over quite a few months, three days in all. If you are in need a of a quick catch-up (and WHY wouldn't you be, huh?!), you can do, via these links;

Blue Yellows mini-album project, Recording Day One

Blue Yellows mini-album project, Recording Day Two

and now...

24th February 2018

Blue Yellows mini-album project, Recording Day Three!

OK, fast-forward to the freezing but sunny February day that was yesterday (at the time of writing), with the burgeoning 'Best From the East' tapping on the garage door, the garage being that converted into a rehearsal studio by the amazing Sheena Bratt for her fab band Venus Rising. Many thanks for Sheena and family for letting us invade the place for the day!

Once again, we were in the capable hands of Tim Lee who was actually doing all the hard work of concentrating and focusing all day, while the rest of us could mainly wait around for our turn, although in my case, I needed to learn the lyrics of the newest song going in too. Today was the most rock of the days, style-wise and Tim shot some snippets of the day for youtube;


Of the three days all together, very spread-out through they've been, I think this has been the most smoothly productive, with some of the best ideas brought into the project from my fellow bandees in the BYs and especially from Tim, with the ideas he came up with during the day. It has been especially satisfying for us to get a brand new song in, that we barely know yet ourselves, and which I was still making a few lyrical adjustments to on the day!

Thanks to Em for this pic of me at the mic.

So, a great experience for us, and as if you have not had enough blog links to read yet, Tim has already made his own pretty comprehensive account of the day from his perspective on his recording blog post at https://timleesongs.wordpress.com/2018/02/25/producing-songs-for-the-blueyellows-24-02-18/

Read more about the day on
Tim Lee's blog post HERE

Em, from Tim's Instagram

Simon, laying down the bass
Photo by Em

The brilliant Dave 'The Groove' Coomer, who else!?
Photo by Em

Software to Station.

Updated 05/01/2018

Last week I had the honour of being described as "a folkie David Bowie" and also having a song, Forget Her said to have a Frusciante-esque arrangement (by someone who would've had no idea I'm a huge fan). Praise indeed. No amount of discussions of artists of such magnitude or cultural impact can ever do them justice, neither can a cover version.

Nevertheless, having worried about how I might possibly do anything but a disservice to Bowie, having been asked by Tim to contribute a song for a special tribute show on his  radio show, I thought I'd better just do it anyway as they say. So did it, I did, in my dressing gown, late on Christmas night.

It was interesting and kind of heartening in a way to me, how many of the 16 year old students I work with regularly were shocked and felt really crushed by his death, his reach was far beyond that of music nerds and musicians, and impacted our culture so deeply and on so many levels, touching and empowering particularly perhaps, those who feel different or alienated, which is perhaps itself part of postmodern culture, therefore widespread, even if many strain to fit in.

In the face of no money to record my most recent album, it was thinking about Bowie's approaches to art that made me realise I should be creative, and go for making what turned out to be quite an experimental, home-made and nil-budget album. I started writing for this in January 2016. He has also undoubtedly inspired countless millions of course to create, to express, to be themselves and to keep on going.

I understand the show will be broadcast live in January with this recording from myself and other artists, 2 years after the great man's death. I will also post an update here, once the listen-again feature goes out. It will be on The Doorstep Mixtape, on Redshift Radio (every Thursday night).

Over the Christmas/New Year period, I should have a lot more free time than usual (i.e. some!), so I plan on doing some more writing and recording for what looks like being a 2019 solo album, with the next Blue Yellows release scheduled for 2018.

Listen to the whole Bowie tribute show here:


Something that might make it onto a 2019 solo album.

Cheat sheet.

Everything but the plums.

Thanks to original Riot Grrrl Steph for these photos.

Sometimes music making seems as easy as the proverbial falling off a log (a true proverb I can attest to, by the way) and so it was today.
I was though, just playing a small part in a big project. Jose is making an album of 'caravan sessions' consisting of recorded songs, all or many of which he is co-writing.

Jose is a super-talented producer as well as musician,  better known back in Spain where he has won awards in short films for soundtracks he has composed and recorded. He sent me a song a few days ago, one that has a long history in fact (which I may go into when it comes out), perhaps three quarters written. I added some lyrics and a 'bridgey part' and today we met up, in said caravan, to record.
Super-smoothly it did go: After a bit of working out who would do what and how we would transition from one part of the song to another we went for 4 takes in all, and now left him and Steph to work out where it goes from here. Steph had already started experimenting with her backing vocals on this track before I left, she is also playing a major part in terms of writing and recording on this whole project/album and I can't wait to hear it in it's entirety when it's all done.

So, a brilliant afternoon, the only downside being some offered, but forgotten plums! They have a tree for which our rainy/sunny August has worked wonders, resulting in a ... swarm(?) of plums... a plumage(?)... I'm sure one of you will provide the collective name, anyway, more than can be consumed by a household alone, but I sadly forgot to remind them about some of the offered surplus!
Thanks, you two, for having me along for the ride on this part of the journey, it was a great experience today!

Getting in Key. Recording with The Blue Yellows; Session 2.

Em had been absent from the 1st recording session with the band for the current record we (The Blue Yellows) are working on, as she was really quite busy with her newborn baby, Heidi! Now, she was ready though, and her keyboard sounds were the main thing yet to be recorded on the tracks we're laying down with our production maestro, Tim Lee.
It all took place in very domestic, relaxed surroundings and went really smoothly. 

Em at the Keys, Tim at mission control.

Em worked quickly, not needing to go over anything too much on keys, pretty impressive really, given how much time she has been out of the band lately. I was there to do some backing vocals with her; she used to work really well together with Hayley when Hayley was in the band and I thought it might help if we were both there to help sort backing vocal harmonies out, in the end, for technical reasons we recorded one at a time on vocals and it wasn't a problem. A really quick, productive session, and two tracks are now sounding really promising. Exciting stuff, we can't than Mr Lee enough for all his hard work!

There wasn't as much waiting around as usual in recording, but I just had time to see some niceness outside.

Recording  doobries.

Recording Update...

(Copied from my facebook page, just so you know)...

Recording update; I've been too busy with all kinds of rehearsals, live shows, teaching guitar, promotion etc... & neglected this lately but have just managed to put in a couple of good 15 hourish days in and think I have now done all the recording for this experimental project. Hurraaahhh! 

It's seems to have come to a natural end in the sense that what is probably going to be the last track on the album is a significant change in direction, musically, though it fits in thematically with the album so far, if that makes sense. I think the last track, as an ending, may also mark a new beginning as I will keep on recording the next, next album, before this one is released.
I'm really pleased with the last couple of tracks I've done and not so fussed as I used to be, about the first couple (though I hope to fall back in love with them soon, especially when I work out how to play some of them, live), another reason, I think, to round this project off.

When will it come out? I don't know is the short answer!

The BlueYellows are also recording. Preparing an album for release; including promoting it, sending off press copies for review, organising launch events and sorting everything for physical copies (if there are going to be any) is a very time consuming and expensive process and I think I will need at least a 6 or more like 8 month gap between the release of the next BYs thing and my solo thing, and I don't even know which one will come first yet.

Next,/in the meantime; lots of live very exciting live stuff, including Autumn shows with The BlueYellows as well as my solo ones. Stay toooooooned.

Well done if you got this far, by the way, just felt like telling someone and there's no one here apart from the friendly sounds of Helen Kay's Chickens (in my headphones)!
See you out there somewhere!
PEA C E O U T !

Recording begins with The Blue Yellows; Session 1.

26th June 2016

Our friend, top-songwriter guy Tim Lee kindly offered to do some recording for The Blue Yellows. A large and windswept haunted hall near the Cheshire/Shropshire border was the setting.

An inspirational message had been left for us on the door.

 The only downside of the whole thing was that Dave, our poor drummer was really suffering with terrible back issues, lugging equipment about and drumming itself, doesn't help. Get well soon! Em wasn't available yet at this stage, having recently given birth to little Heidi but will add her keyboard parts and any backing vocals sooner or later. :)

Tim Lee in Red, mixing for us, Simon prepares on the bass
while Dave runs through a track up on stage.

The night before, Tim had been preparing the
guide tracks I had made.