THE UNION

HERE IS AN UPDATE FROM MY PALS
''THE UNION''
FROM THE RECORDING STUDIO..
ALBUM COMING SOON..!!! 

CLICK ''READ MORE'' TO SEE THE DIARY OF EVENTS AND UPDATES ...

February 11, 2010 - Thursday
Studio Diary Part 1
Studio Diary Part 1....
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Mon Feb 1st....
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Arrive Leeder's Farm Studios, Wymondham, Norfolk at 11am. Good to see studio manager/engineer Nick Brine again after 14 years. Nick was assistant engineer on Thunder album ‘The Thrill Of It All’ when he worked at Rockfield Studios.....

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We start setting up our equipment at 12pm. By the time we start recording it’s 5pm. Being a guitar player’s studio, (Leeders Farm is owned by Dan Hawkins of Stone Gods and The Darkness fame) there’s a lot of different amplifiers to peruse. Pete tries nearly all of them but ends up with one of our trusty Marshall VM heads.....

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1st track we concentrate on is Easy St. It goes down fairly easily. We change the intro slightly from the demo and it works well. We break for dinner and make our way to the kitchen where it’s a pleasant surprise to see Dan Hawkins. He’s just dropped in briefly and looks very awake for a man that’s just recently become a father!....

Dinner @ 7.00pm....

After dinner we crack on with;....

2. Watch The River Flow....

3. You Know My Name.....

We decide to visit the local pub, The Boars for last orders where Nick informs us that you're not allowed to swear! Apparently, the first time you utter any kind of profanity the landlord rings a bell. Thereafter it’s a yellow card and then, if you insist on keeping it up you’re banned for the rest of the evening!....

I can’t see that ever happening in my local!....

We make our way back to the studio swearing heavily and listen through to the live mix from last December’s debut show at the Garage. It sounds very good.....

Bed at 2am....

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Tue Feb 2nd....

Up at 9am. ....

My bedroom overlooks a large pond/small lake so I open the curtains and watch the local birdlife. There’s a family of Moorhens, Great Tits, a Wren and even an iridescent flash of blue from a Kingfisher who sits on a branch briefly before taking off again.....

Start work at 11am. We’re set up in a large room where we can all see each other so it feels like a collective performance. Pete sings the odd word here and there where a vocal cue is required. We tend to run each new song through once, have a quick discussion about the finer points and then go for a take. Today goes in this order;....

1. The Space Between Us....

2. Amazon....

3. This Time Next Year....

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We break at 2pm for lunch. Our two cameramen, Paul and Theo arrive. They’re documenting as much as they can for a DVD release further down the line. They get their kit set up while we eat.....

In the afternoon we carry on with;....

4. Black Monday....

5. You Won't Break My Heart....

6. Everything You Want....

All goes well until a faulty camera light shorts out the whole studio! Theo looks mortified but thankfully order is restored quickly and there’s no harm done.....

Dinner 6.45pm....

After dinner there’s a moment of great hilarity when Paul the cameraman comes into the control room when we’re in the middle of listening to a playback. He starts talking loudly to me not realizing that everyone in the room is concentrating on the music. My response lets him know it’s not a good time and realizing his faux pas, he apologizes but just as he makes for the door, Kenny, the studio dog (a King Charles Spaniel) runs towards him barking ferociously. It’s as if the dog is telling him off. Paul falls out the door and we all laugh mercilessly. ....

7. Anne Marie....

8. Step Up To The Plate....

SUTTP is a song we’ve written very recently and is the most up-tempo song on the album. It’s very exciting to play.....

Finish 10pm....

We listen back to all tracks. It sounds very raw and exciting. Pete is concerned WTRF may be too quick. He has had a couple of glasses of wine though and that can make everything sound fast. Go to bed very pleased at 1pm....

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Wed 3rd....

We listen back to Step Up To The Plate and decide to give it another go. We also re-do the beginning section of Black Monday which feels a bit too slow. WTRF is definitely not too slow! Alcohol definitely impairs judgement!....

Today’s order of play;....

1. Step Up To The Plate (take two)....

2. Black Monday (intro only)....

Having got all the louder material down, it’s time to move into a gentler mode. The reason for recording the different types of material together is that they require different drum sounds and approaches so microphones need to be moved and settings adjusted etc.....

3. Saviour....

Lunch @ 1.30pm....

Marty Moffatt our genius photographer arrives to do what he does best. Chris calls Marty ‘the sniper’ because you never know when he’s there! Shame the video boys don’t seem to have mastered this skill!....

4. Lilies....

Phil plays great brushes on this. It’s not a skill often associated with rock drummers!....

5. Come Rain, Come Shine....

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6. Holy Roller – Pete always wanted the percussive aspect of this song to be a little different so when we made the demo, we sampled a slamming door at Walton Castle to use in place of a bass drum. After a quick discussion we get Phil to thump a narrow side drum with a beater in a sort of military style. It ends up sounding like the drum that gets beaten in medieval films shortly before an execution so we decide to use the slamming door sample and handclaps from the demo instead! It’s the last drum track so Phil is done. He has done a splendid job!....

Dinner @ 6.30....

Chris has to leave the following morning so we decide to listen through to all tracks checking the bass parts and correcting them where necessary. Predictably we’ve listened to seven songs before we hear a mistake! As a songwriter/producer/whatever I can’t tell you what a privilege it is to work with great musicians!....

By close of play at 10.45pm Chris is also done. The camera boys are also done and leave.....

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Thurs Feb 4th....

I drop Phil off at Norwich station and congratulate him on a splendid three days work.....

By the time I get back to the studio Nick has got up a fantastic acoustic guitar sound and Pete has almost finished his part on Saviour. We basically alternate all day until dinner....

Today goes like this;....

Acoustic guitars on;....

1. Saviour....

2. This Time Next Year....

1.30pm lunch....

3. WTRF....

4. Amazon....

5. Come Rain....

6. Holy Roller....

7. You Won't Break My Heart....

8. Lilies....

Dinner @ 6.30pm....

After dinner we look at piano. I think Pete is more than capable of doing what we need than he does! Once we get into it he does a great job and I can’t remember why we contemplated using a ‘proper’ pianist.....

Piano on....

1. This Time Next Year....

2. You won't Break My heart....

3. Black Monday....

4. Saviour....

Finish 9.45pm....

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Fri 5th....

Spring out of bed at 9am. Really looking forward to today as it’s big rhythm guitars day!....

To be honest we rattle through them at such a rate of knots I don’t get time to write down the order we do things in! Sufficed to say by bedtime we’re almost done.....

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Sat 6th....

After breakfast we finish the outstanding rhythm parts & begin solos.....

Guitar solos, like lead vocals, can depend on mood and how you feel on that particular day. Luckily there was nothing to worry about and we breezed through all the tracks, keeping what we thought was good from the recording of the drum tracks.....
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So there it was; fifteen songs recorded (with the exception of lead and backing vocals, percussion and additional overdubs) in six days. I can’t remember ever working that fast in all my twenty-five years of making albums. I hope it’s a good omen!....


See Marty's photos and video of our week at Leeder's Farm here;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVsVDYu4srQ