Recordings

Recording Progress

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Yup.

Recording is going great. Was up at 4am yesterday to make the 5 hour drive up to Glasgow. There is something liberating about driving on empty roads. It’s what I imagine rural USA to be like. Only without the occasional Romanian driving his truck like he stole it.

I have managed to get all my acoustic parts down, the bass down and Jono has nailed all the drums. Not bad for a days work. Especially when we ended up recording five tracks, rather than the three we had planned.

That said, I hit a wall at 1 am. 21 hours awake, and two bottles of pinot noir down, is not ideal for getting the best bass take. We redid that final track today…

My man Steve arrives today to lay down his guitar parts. We’ve made enough progress to be able to go for a run through Newton Mearns, and eat Lebanese food. That’s a recording experience I can get behind.

We also have the documentary makers coming to film all day tomorrow. I best make sure I look like I know what I’m doing. They think I’m a musician after all. I’m really the last of the small town blaggers.

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New Recording In November

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Ayup.

After recording Campfire, I took the plunge into fatherhood, and chucked the guitar down for a bit. Seven weeks of colic can really mess with your mojo y’know?

Elora is (kinda) sleeping through now so with a fair bit more sleep, I have been able to complete the new record, ready to head back into the studio.

It will be recorded over a few visits with three more tracks being laid down this time, and then another couple of studio sessions taking the record to ten tracks overall.

The record doesn’t have a name, or a theme as yet. Campfire was a different direction for me sound wise, so I intend to follow that road and see where it leads me.

Recording in a home studio in Glasgow gives me a lot more freedom as the sessions aren’t structured. If I get a vocal idea at 3am, I can grab the mic and lay it down. I always get my best ideas after a few red wines. Well, at least I think I do.

Me, Jono and Stephen have put the list of tracks together and we need to pick three for this particular session. I’m not sure which ones yet, but they’ll get recorded eventually so I suppose it’s kinda irrelevant.

Red Brick Heart, My Favourite Summer and Action Over Hope are currently winning.

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Gareth Icke Book & CD Bundle.

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I’m feeling in a bargain mood. So, here is a wee bundle of my stuff, at a knock down price.

Buy Gareth Icke’s book ‘How Not To Be A Rockstar’ and Gareth’s albums ‘3’ and ‘A Brand New Battle’, for only 10 pounds.

Click here.

New Recordings

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Ayup!

I have booked myself back into the studio for a couple more recording sessions before the end of the year.

In September I am heading in to record an EP of tracks I wrote for the Travelling Band Project. (Here is some background on the project) They will be real simple acoustic tracks. Just a guitar and a vocal.

As soon as they’re done, I’ll pop them all up on Spotify and Bandcamp so you can have a listen.

I’ll be recording Red Brick Heart (Belper), Like A Wagon On A Roundabout (Ilkeston), The Great Pretender (Ashbourne), Little French Cars (Ripley), and High Peak, How Are You? (Wirksworth).

We’re currently waiting on Arts Council approval, but hopefully we’ll be able to extend the project further afield and work with communities across the entire midlands, before the end of the year.

I’m also back off up to Scotland in November to record three more tracks to follow on from Campfire. It was a real different style for me, and I need to go through my tracks and see which new one’s will work in this way. I’m hoping Red Brick Heart will work, because out of the entire Travelling Band Project, that was by far the strongest track in my opinion.

If you haven’t heard Campfire, and the particular style I’m referring to, have a watch of the video.

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Campfire – Out Now!

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Oi Oi!

Finally, here is the video for my new track, Campfire. It’s a bit different from my usual sound and I know that might not be to everyone’s taste. I’m not trying to reinvent myself like Cher or anything, it’s just a natural change that came in the studio.

Me and my pal Steve (the one I’m bullying in the video) took a drive up to Glasgow to record with my pal Jono. There was zero preproduction. We had a basic acoustic track that I had written and toured a little bit around Europe, but that was it.

We sat up eating Italian food and drinking whisky, and this is what we got. I hope you like it.

It’s available at all the usual culprits, but best of all is my Bandcamp page. They rob less off me!

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