NEWS

Recording in Ireland...

Saturday 3rd March

It was time to have some fun in the studio today. Lots of experimenting, trying to add a little icing to the cake. We played around with lots of different backing vocals, as well as glockenspiel, piano, keyboard, hammond organ, tambourines, hand claps etc... Lots and lots of fun, and it's really made a difference to the tracks. Managed to get everyone involved too, with backing vocals from Dave Redfearn, Dan Rogers and myself. I was also lucky enough to get irish songstress ODi on a few tracks. She put down some lovely harmonies, as well as a beautiful melody into the middle eight of Pictures, which has really given the song another dimension.

So that's that, tomorrow we'll be packing up and getting ready for the 12 hour journey back to Cambridge. I'm so happy with the amount of work that we've managed to get done, and I think the songs are sounding great. Huge thanks go to Dave, ODi, Ruby and Mo for letting us take over their house for 10 days. Also to Karl Odlum, Dan Rogers and Séan O'Leary for the hard work and great playing.

Thanks for reading. I'll be making a single available shortly. Sign up to the mailing list so I can keep you posted. Cheers, Dan

Friday 2nd March 2012

The tracks are sounding close to completion now after a full on day of vocals. We managed to record all the vocals for the band tracks, as well as 3 solo tracks that we recorded live. I don't think I've ever sang so much in one day. Thankfully I shouldn't have to do much more tomorrow. There are bits of backing vocals here and there, but nothing major. We're using a Brauner microphone. I have absolutely no idea what that means, but I do know it's an absolutely incredible mic. I'm really pleased with how the vocals are sounding. Can't wait to finish these tracks off tomorrow

Thursday 1st March 2012

Another productive day started with Dan Rogers putting down the double bass part for 'Out Of Nowhere'. As always, Dan was on fire, which meant it didn't take long to get the perfect take. This meant it was time for me to lay down the acoustic guitar. I've been playing these songs live for quite a while but I wanted to experiment with a few different ways of playing them in order to leave more space. I tried a few different things but we ended up sticking with the original parts for most of the tunes. Next up was Dave Redfearn on the electric guitar. We'd worked out most of the guitar lines during the rehearsals at the beginning of the week but there were a few tweaks here and there. But we managed to get them all finished about 1 am. We're tending to start work at around 2 in the afternoon, so a good days work. Tomorrow I'll be recording all the vocals, and with a bit of luck we may even try and record a few live solo tracks.

Wednesday 29th Feb 2012

After a great gig at The Sky and Ground in Wexford on Tuesday, we were a bit knackered. So yesterday we started work at about 2pm. Karl is not really an early morning man anyway, but he makes up for it the early hours. Our aim was to get the drums down for four of the tracks - Previous Experience, Out Of Nowhere, You Are A Fire and Pictures. Sean was on top form and riffled through them in no time at all. After a little dinner break we then started on the double bass takes. Dan pretty much nailed every tune on the first take. It was late by this point though so we decided to stop after 3 tunes. So we've got one more bass part to get down, then it'll be time for me to lay down the guitar.

Everybody's feeling good about the way it's sounding and there are definitely good vibes going round in the camp. We're having a real laugh and I'm really enjoying the process. We're on track for getting the 5 tracks that I wanted to get done. We might even start on a couple of other tracks. But we'll see.

Tuesday 28th Feb 2012

So, we arrived here in Wexford on Thursday night after setting off from Cambridge at 5.30 am. It was a 5 and half hour drive to Fishguard in Wales, where we took the ferry to Rosslare. On arriving in Ireland we almost immediately got lost. There are no post codes here so my sat nav got a bit confused. Fortunately there aren't too many places in Ireland called Bastardstown (a great name for any place). It's out in the sticks and not a lot goes on round here. It's a good thing though as there are no distractions, it's quiet and peaceful.

We've had a couple of days to settle in and we're now starting work. I travelled to Monkstown yesterday to pick up Karl (the producer) and all his gear, and we spent yesterday evening working on getting the arrangements sounding right. Things are really coming together now and I'm really happy with how the band are sounding. I think we're pretty close to hitting the red button now. The plan is to come home with 5 tracks, one of which will be released as a single. Then I'll come back in a few months to finish the album. I'll keep you posted on how things are going, so check back each day for the latest.

 

Live At Highbarn

Click here for some new live videos that were recorded in at Highbarn in May.

I was joined by Dan Rogers on double bass and we played a couple of new tracks that are likely to appear on the next album. So it's a good chance to have a sneaky peak at what's to come. This one is called 'Pictures' but you can see the whole set in the media section

'A Simple Twist Of Fate' - Bob Dylan Cover

I recently recorded a version of Bob Dylan's 'Simple Twist of Fate' and it's now available on a compilation CD called 'Younger Than That Now'. You can listen to the track above.

Other artists on the album include Martin Simpson, Steve Tilston, Ewan McLennan, Dave Burland to name a few.

You can buy the album on Amazon and will soon be available from this website.

Hope you enjoy