I’ve posted over on Soundcloud, but haven’t caught up over here as there’s been a lot going on…
First, we’ve moved house, and that’s quite a lot of work. Very much worth it though! I sit writing this, glancing out at acres of green fields, often populated with cows. Quite the transition from urban (and urbane) Didsbury, to very rural Cheshire, close to the borders with Wales and Shropshire.
Second, racking, wiring and testing a studio in a new place is very time consuming. Of course, as soon as noise starts to come out of the various machines, it becomes obvious that certain parts of the setup have to be rethought out, especially as this is the final home for the studio. I mean, when this was all running in a converted garage in West Seattle, it made sense to have a monitoring configuration that allowed me to run sound through different speaker pairs. In this tiny, snug, and beautifully situated new room, not so much! Plus, when I was recording drums in the garage it made some kind of sense to have a pair of channel strips for overheads etc.. Now, all I’ll be recording will be guitars and the occasional vocal, so one UA6176, will suffice, along with the Neve and the API. Yeah, I know, a struggle right?
Studios are never done!
Anyway, let’s get to the tracks in order of posting, though, as you’ll see, not recording:
Tango Victor started as a chill piano piece – there’s that rhythmic single note motif again, but in this case, it has no Morse significance (or does it?) It kind of morphed when I discovered Loopcloud, and found a lovely muted trumpet lick that went really well with the bits I had. Then I found a funky Rhodes part that added a nice grittiness.
Crossing Over is another song I did with Leslie. It’s probably fifteen years old, but sounds really fresh. This isn’t Cantona, but a side project called Flatpack. I remixed/remastered it, just because why not? This was one of my first serious forays into string arrangements, and is one I’m very proud of. I must have been listening to Sufjan Stevens when I arranged this, because it now reminds me a lot of his “Illinoise” record.
Finally, and literally posted minutes ago, there’s Bravo Sierra. This song started out as a strange, scratchy drum loop, that had a really interesting four note piano riff buried in it. The crunchiness appealed, and for some reason I decided to track a bass on it. I was very taken with the two bar riff that came out, something was happening, though I didn’t quite know what. I kept bringing up the file and tinkering, but not saving anything, until one day I found a really nice electric piano patch and a cool figure that gave me a tune. After that, I came across a very funky guitar arpeggio (I can’t really record guitars easily at the moment, so I have to rely on samples), which took us to the next place. After that it was just a matter of arrangement. Some more piano added a chorus of sorts, though essentially all of the other instruments carried on playing the same parts (bass, guitar are more or less identical.) I had to do strings, because I like doing that, and there was a very satisfying little song.
Next up, I have to get the studio set up for recording guitar. Watch this space.
I cried when I wrote this song 