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.

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.

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:

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.

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.

Potential Track-Listing for Next Album.

From https://www.facebook.com/tarpleemusic

Recording Day 3. Solo album. Tracking guitars (and a banjo, and more).

May 28th 2014

The final day of tracking at Orchard... GUITARS!

Sound-wise, guitars are my personal favourite thing as I feel I can truly express myself with a guitar much more fully than I can vocally or in any other way for that matter. This is especially so with electric gutars for me,  through the huge array of sounds which can be bent and squeezed out of them in all kinds of exciting ways and with their power to produce some incredible sounds that make the instrument produce a kind of super-voice or rather voices that can be screamed, squealed, roared, cried, sang, or just whispered out of them. Anyway this felt like a particularly artistically pleasing day which took me and Dan in some exciting unforeseen directions!

Dan and I played my black Strat 'Il Pirata', a studio Les Paul style of guitar, a Tanglewood acoustic and Dan also played banjo on one song.

I say "played"... I played my Strat for lead guitar parts in a more or less conventional manner whereas the 'Les Paul' and Tanglewood were more cajoled into getting lots of feedback out of them by strumming, twanging, waving, shaking and generally moving them in and out of the zone in front of  the Marshal amp. Dan then did some magnificent painting with these feedback sounds through and around a song, it's going to sound amazing. For another track some harmonic sounds I played on my strat found a new meaning and almost bell-like tones which strike the right feel in a couple of places in another song.

Thinking one particularly quirky song needing something... we just weren't sure what, Dan came up with the idea of a mandolin, but couldn't find the one he thought was around so tried a banjo instead. This turned out to be an inspired unintended-choice as it was perfect for this particular song and intertwined nicely with a nylon-string guitar track I'd already put down. Mr Logan really had his producers head on, and made lots of suggestions about my approach and things to try as well as coming up with plenty of sound and thematic ideas. This was great for me as it gave me confidence in what I both was aiming for and how the songs would end up sounding. 

Dan trying something out on the banjo

As you can tell, I'm not giving too much away (you'll have to buy the album!) but another song which has been kept pretty simple (just a live guitar/vocal/percussion sound) has been given a thematic soundscape in the background. Again, it will make perfect sense when you hear it!

Radders, as always lovely company.

All done! Now just the mixing.

For another track (not mentioned before in this post). My lead-guitar
sound was blended through both a Marshal & this tiny thing!
(Note the size of this amp in comparison with the mic).

Previously;

Recording preparation Part 1
Recording preparation Part 2
Recording preparation Part 3

Recording Day 1
Recording Day 2