So, our debut recorded ep ‘That’s What Thinking Does’ has served it’s purpose, it got our name out there and got us plenty of gigs. Now, 9 months later, it’s time to do some more recording. We have better songs and are tighter as a band unit. This is good. We do have an imminent free recording session in Redhill to look forward to, but one day is not quite enough, we want to do more. So, Ben books us in to ‘No Machine Studios’ to record a track as a trial run.
Mark, Kat and I arrive slightly early, which is great, as we have no real idea where we’re going and can’t seem to find the place anywhere. We have the address, we have a sat-nav, but all we find is locked gates and lots of units without any signs on them ! Mark stops the car, jumps out and asks a nearby welder to be told ‘yeah, it’s just there !’ to which we pull up, and, “as if by magic the shop-keeper appears” when the studios’ owner / engineer Neil steps out and greets us from one of the units. Now it all becomes clear. Bass-player-Neil’s arrived as well now, but still no sign of Ben as of yet, the only person to have been here before. Typical ! He does arrive after we’ve finished unloading though ! Typical ! We let him off though, when he offers to go to the shop for essentials while Engineer-Neil and Mark set up the drums.
“What’s the song called ?” asks Engineer-Neil. “Sid ?” cries everyone in unison, looking my way. “Depression Is A Young Persons Art Form” I reply. He gulps and types in “DIAYPAF” into his computer. Hmph !
A couple of warm-ups later and 2 or 3 takes and the drums are done. What ? It’s never normally this easy ! Instead of persisting until we’d got a complete take in one-go Engineer-Neil picks a good one and touches that up instead. A bass-drum moved slightly more in-time here, a snare there. Done. Too easy. Sounding really good too. Mark then lays down a couple of percussion and extra drum bits on top. This is sounding ace. Most of “Brassneck” are smiling. It must be good. It gets better too, Bass-player-Neil’s bass-take was good as well. So, no need for massive over-dubs or drop-ins there. Shall we go to the pub ? No, seriously.
I’m up next, just 2 guitar parts and I’ve only brought 2 guitars with me. Less really is more sometimes. The ‘clean’ guitar part is completed on the second take and my Rickenbacker has none of it’s tuning problems that we had at the last recording session. Probably due to the fact that ‘No Machine’ is a lovely studio without any temperature extremes like we experienced before. A Slightly heavier sound used for the outro riffs and a ‘whack-everything-up-to-11-and-stand-in-front-of-the-amp-til-it-distorts-and-feeds-back’ sound used for the very end and I’m done. Get in !
Ben’s up next, strumming his acoustic to give the recording a real warm feel to it. Now we really can hear how this song is building.
Kat then duly takes her acoustic violin in and lays down her two, repetitive-but-very-effective, parts. The song is starting to sound dark and maudlin in some places, uplifting and bright in others. Perfect.
We’re still not quite at the vocal stage yet because Ben’s back again, this time recording his harmonica solo for the middle eight. What a solo it is too. Bass-player-Neil and I look at each other in the control room and say “Wow, Ben really can play that thing !” Although the song is 7 and a half minutes long none of the band members have ever realised this until we timed it recently. It has everything in it and is never dull. We all thought it was only around 5 minutes long !
So, next up it’s vocal time and Ben goes in first. “Just remember it’s ‘came’ and not ‘come’ I shout at him”, The rest of the band look at me like I’m a freak and Ben mumbles “Words, schmurds !” to himself as he ambles in to the vocal booth. It’s all key I’m my book. Anyway, again, the lead vocal is laid down in only 2 takes but the outro long-notes take a while longer to get right. Understandable when you hear it, this is why when we play it live Ben normally feels faint afterwards. He really does go for it at the end. The ‘spoken word’ part in the middle is then recorded on a separate track and sounds menacing and sinister, just what I imagined ! Just wait ‘til you hear Ben breathe the word “Eh ?” !!
Finally Kat and Bass-player-Neil lay down some backing vocals which are double-tracked and heavy on nice-ness. Then we just have time to add our amazing intro effects of modem, rain and spoken word quotes. Then, that’s it. Engineer-Neil has been doing amazing job of tidying things up as he went along and mixing it as he went along too. We’re all very happy. A great days work. Personally one of the best recording sessions I’ve been involved in for a long while. And so, we’re booked to go back again on 22nd February to record the second track for our eagerly awaited next ep ‘With Something Amiss’. Keep your eyes and ears open. It will all be coming to a cd player near you, soon.
Sid.
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