Trucking On...

D-Troit has been working like a beast and we are almost done mixing in brixton, we're back in reading for a few days but will head back on thursday for two more days to tie up all the loose ends, hopefully the album will be mastered next week. Its been such an intense period but so worthwhile, we can't wait to play it to people. I played some of the songs to my parents yesterday and they were impressed that they could almost make out all the words(!) Praise indeed. As soon as the album is finished and our team have it in their hands i think things will begin to move rather quickly and i would imagine that the album will be released towards the end of the year, we have a few more tricks up our sleeves first though including a French release of Be your Alibi in the last week of May,followed by an Italian release in June..more details to follow.

panic over.

Gra is off the chocolate eclairs, I think he was just missing home or something.

We have just had a lovely lazy afternoon in brixton outside in the sun playing table tennis, having a bbq, watching the football- drinking ice cold beer...oh and listening to a couple of mixes. Life is good.

* STEAK *

Is on its way. Our record label have come up with an ingenious way of offering people who believe in us a way of sharing in the profits from this album (for the next 5 years) in exchange for £25 stakes which will enable us/them to give it a push big enough to actually have a chance of selling a large portion of race...---> make profit for the stake holders/us /them, this will probably be a fun thing for people who like maths.. I think its only available in house right now but there will hopefully be some stakeage left (there are a limited number) for regular people like you and me..the more people involved and taking ownership of this lovely record the better! Its a quality idea so sit tight and i will present it when i can.

We are having our final rest day before we hit the final 5 days of mixing. I have the first two songs downstairs playing in the lounge and I'm finally allowing myself to believe that we are going to end up with a record that we have so longed for in terms of being understood musically/mentally etc by mr eringa..he has a gift. We decided to just let him get on with mixing the first song yesterday and not say too much about how we hear it in our heads, 4 hours later that very sound came out of his speakers and jess began to giggle with glee. We were very happy.

I'm worried about Gra, he seems to be addicted to chocolate eclairs, 2-3 every night although i think he may be smuggling down more away from the group. My beard for the football comp next week is looking pitiful I'm not sure whether to give it a trim or just ride it out? Strange times.

at the dairy.

We are in brixton..cooking on gas. My vocals are all finished so i have a warm fuzzy glow inside - a bit like the last day at school. There is a very nice house attached to the studio for us to exist in, it has a wonderful aga, I'm not sure if we are allowed to sit on it? Driving in yesterday I noticed lots of young mothers with posh coats and alloy/off-road/slick buggy type things, lots on my mind I guess?

I'd rather have an old school pram any day.

Today I am going to explore brixton and finish my book.

robbed.

Big Dog (james) went up to our practice room this morning and was rather impressed that the door was open and one of us was obviously back hard at work..unfortunately that wasn't the case and he spotted that our trusty door had been levered open. Thankfully our local rude boys/girls weren't too hot on music stuff---lucky us. The room is very precious to us so its wierd to have shared it with some uninvited guests- no doubt they now know what we look like and who we are too from some of the posters -how wierd. Hello if you're reading this by the way..

When we get out of the studio next week we are playing in a football tournament with some bands in Reading..I'm not sure if it has a name yet..we are forming an alliance with our friends ok tokyo. It should be fierce. I've put the word out and J has already started growing his play-off beard.

Pretty cool huh?

PAUSE.

We loaded out of keynote studios last night at 3am having spent the day finishing off all the extra bits of recording we needed, it was a long old day but puts us in a really good position for the start of mixing next week and the last bits of vocals that need doing first. It was an even longer day for J and Gra who then undertook a 3 hour return trip to chez eringa with a van load of his gear, I hope they got back ok. We now have exactly 6 days to relax and think about what we have done before we start a further 8 days at the Dairy in Brixton.. Perhaps the most productive 10 days of our lives have just elapsed. I wonder. On record it seems to work too. Thanks D-Troit.

hhmmmm...

we have 3 days left of recording in Reading and the pressure is definately on to get everything recorded in time. If it were just guitars, drums and vocals things would be easy, but we have glockenspiels, broken tambourines, jingly bells, daggy keyboards and welsh sounding male voice choirs to consider- no expense spared.

Heads are beginning to fuzz and afternoon naps are becoming the order of the day. We will get there I'm sure. Challenge Annika stylee. Today my friend ben came over and took some photos, I really like them.

HOW.

Today we are having a day off.

I thought I'd would have a go at explaining how we are making this album.
We have 18 days to play with, 12 for recording and 8 for mixing and final overdubs.

Last sunday night mr eringa travelled down to Reading with james with a van load of gear, this was quickly merged into the set up at the studio through the night ready for when we turned up at midday on Monday.

The drum room was decorated and lit and then James, Jess and Gra were set up with their instruments in the room with Andy and their amps in other sealed romms/cupboards.. and hundreds of ambient microphones thankfully there is loads of space in the studio to do this. We then recorded up to four songs a day recording all of the performances and changing the drum sounds/mic set up depending on the song. This ended Thursday night for us. Dave then set up a wall of of amps in one room and a row of cabs in another in which to record the guitar and bass sounds back through..this took over 4 hours and and looked complex, we had tea..gra then returned until 4am to re-amp the bass back through the amps and get the perfect sounds for each of the songs with the performances that had already been recorded. Friday lunchtime james and Jess began guitars and the plan is to do two songs each day with me putting down vocals for those songs each night. Dave then sends us home and stays up putting it all together..the man doesn't sleep!

His attitude is that he wants us all to be fresh to perform and and he does all the rest, so I've been spending alot more time at home than I thought.. Its been such a fun experience and its great not sitting around in a studio all day long getting cabin fever.In fact yesterday Andy was banned from the studio because he had a cold

The vocal stuff has been an eye opener too..all about the performance/performer.
Another live room is all lit up with a little stage to stand in, totally seperate from the others..incredibly personal, he gets a perfect mix in the headphones and then passes them over then gets me to sing the song through about 4/5 times and then thats it. I've not even heard any of my vocals played back yet but the others seem excited and he is a perfectionist so i trust him. He then stays on at the studio and puts them all together ready for the next day. I don't know how he stays so focussed for hours on end but we are loving it. Mr Newton from our label came down yesterday and contributed well to us thundering through a few more crosswords. We like him too.

cooking on gas.

We are now into day 5 of the recording process. We have 18 days in total to play with. We are recording in a studio near a lake on the outskirts of Reading..its remote but equally close to our beds+sleep+morning jobs. Our producer dave eringa has been playing a blinder and we are all relaxed and having an amazing time, today he built a wall of guitar amps and speakers to record guitar sounds through, James, Gra and Jess began to dribble with glee. I went and got my hair cut. I always look about 15 after a hair cut, I think its something to do with having a double crown.

I shall try and take some pictures tonight when I go back. Before we began recording Mr Eringa spent an hour or so putting up lights in the live room..'you have to get the right vibe man'.

I like it.