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.

Foxes & Emus

Updated 27-03-25

Fox Barn Studios - Recording Day 1

A truly wonderful & significant day for us as we headed to Fox Barn Studios to work with producer Dan Logan for the 1st time in our band production seat since our debut EP All These Things Right Now.

On a fabulous spring day we recorded some tracks and met the local Emus! 

We recorded 3 tracks live -the four of us playing all the main or rhythm parts on our instruments. Without vocals and lead guitar licks (to avoid leaking onto through the drum mics as we were all in the same room, playing together), it proved tricky for us all to keep track of where we were in the songs without these cues, but we got three nice vibey tracks in the end. Overdubs of vocals, backing vox, lead guitar and any additional percussion are to be added next week.

Top Day!

 

Project José

 My good friend & talented producer has an exciting new album project & I'm thrilled to be roped in. We have recently been co-writing a song - it's the most excited I've been about a co-written song with him since Travelling Light which I love so much.

Recently Completed

 24th March 2024 

Our good friend and production maestro José kindly offered to mix & master this & our following track. We couldn't say "no". José is a musical perfectionist and he's had the stems since late February now & we know won't have rested until it sounds as good as it possibly can. Now

we can really get the ball rolling!

It's all going accordion to plan.

Day (or rather night) 2 in our makeshift studio and it's time to laydown some melodic keys and some pumping accordion.

Simon recorded his bass lines the modern way; remotely and dropboxed me the wavs... and Wav not, I mean why not?

Soul Sounds

I've been doing plenty of tracking on a little-but-often basis with Soul over the past few weeks.

It will take a while but I'm looking forward to seeing what comes out of this. 

A sound bite

 09/10/2022 

A trip to Soundbites Studio to record for a special project - more of which later in the year. 

Three is the magic number.

Jose Left, me on the right (from youtube - Boxing Day tracking)

It feels like my life in music is currently much less exhausting than usual but that’s actually because I’m still not doing much in the way of live music and rehearsing, both of which demand a lot of physical and emotional energy, considerable travel and lots of humping heavy equipment around. So it’s easy to feel that I’m not doing much at present.

The truth is though I’ve currently got three recording projects on the go; José continues with his next EP for which I am contributing some composition co-wrtiting, lyrics, vocals and guitar. A previous collaborator Jase (Jason Louth - see a previous co-write “When this Flower Opens” in my back catalogue for instance) has also asked me to write & record vocals for him. 

I’m also producing and experimenting with what will hopefully become the next Kitten Jynx releases (& the first that will have widespread availability beyond some Bandcamp loops). This is electronic music that might fit somewhere in between ambient, trance and EDM though to be honest I’m a bit out of my depth here in terms of knowledge (but not enjoyment) so my approach here is one of exploring production possibilities and having fun with it, which I hope will reflect in the finished tracks. All of course fitting in with working with lots of music students of various species.

Blue Yellows rehearsals are booked along with our 1st festival appearance or two of 2022 so normal, exhausting but exciting service will soon be resumed!

Future Kitten Jynx sounds?

Boxing Day Tracking

 Pleased to be doing more tracking for José.

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.

Logically Blonde

 A few days ago,  I had what was really just a friendly chat withTess from Redshift for her Logically Blonde Podcast as part of the online tour for A Minute in the Sun.

You can listen again here: https://player.captivate.fm/episode/9e139e44-abf8-4671-8891-8bbd252ca03e

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.

EP Day 3: Keys to a great sound.

Third time in the studio and time for the band’s “secret weapon” according to a recent review, Em.

Both keyboards and accordion were deployed with keyboard sounds ranging from Grand Piano to a Fender Rhodes sound for use with one song, the plan being to record both the ‘natural’ sound of the keyboard through amp and through the infinitely flexible midi, in the end using ‘just’ the midi was fine,  plus the more breathy tones of the accordion caught with 2 mics (or was it 3 with an additional room mic?) through the air.

Emma made fast work of whipping through the tracks, mostly in one take (some tracks being doubled -up in any case). You couldn’t really meet a calmer, more professionally focused pair of musos than Em or José.


Top work!

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.