It will never end ...

Just when I thought that this blog was about to draw to a close .. perhaps with an entry saying "CD is now available" .. we were dealt a bit of a blow earlier this week. Chris, our singer, has decided that his heart is no longer in Skeleton Crew and has decided to hang up his hat and SM58. We wish him all the best, there really is no animosity there, and he will be sorely missed, but we all agreed that if this band ceased to be fun, then it was time to stop. We have had a marvelous 3 years together.

Skeleton Crew will continue, and we have already had applications from singers to replace Chris. If anyone's interested in applying, please drop us a line! Once we find a suitable candidate we will then proceed to re-record the vocals and continue on with The Master Plan ...

Just when you think its all over

We've been back in recording mode again ... almost at the 11th hour of mixing, it became clear that My Life My Rules simply wasn't working. And after much soul searching, we realised we weren't prepared to let it go through as a filler, when it had potential to be such a great song. So we tried some different ideas and ended up with markedly different version ... and then it was time to blow the dust off the mics again and record the revised version.

It really has made a difference. My Life My Rules was the first Skeleton Crew song, and has probably suffered from being played to death, so its nice that the rewrite has given it a lot more energy and enthusiasm, which is much more in keeping with the rest of the tracks. It also marks our first recording at our new home, the Barnstone Country Club.

"I must not look up teacher's skirt"

Graham dispenses a little "aide memoire". And yes, I have avoided an obvious pun.

This week saw the conclusion of our recording sessions, with the last of the backing vocals now recorded. Most of the tracks have almost completed the mixing stage, its just a case now of listening to them through and making a few final tweaks, which means after all that we are still on target for a March release of Bring It On.

It may well be that the last recording session was also out last week in the scout hut too. In a strange and rather alarming way, we'll miss it, as we have done a hell of a lot in that place. I for one will miss the hot chocolate that tastes like effluent, the fact that we could play football in doors, braving the spiders in the toilet and the heaters that smell of burning children.

The recording process has so far taken 3 months. However, in that 3 months we have had 3 hours a week. Thats 12 hours a mont, 36 hours in total. A total of 12 hours of recording at my house, gives us 48 hours. So in total we will have made an album in 2 days. Niccccce.

Video finished and single released!

So at last we see some fruits of our labours! We released "How Come I'm Never Around" and the b-side "Driving Me Crazy" yesterday, as a £0.79 download for both tracks, and the video is now up on youtube. We're also adding the incentive that all those who buy the single will be sent a link to purchase the album for just £5.00 when its released. So if you fancy it, go ahead and click on the buy-it-now button below:

You can see the video on youtube at http://youtube.com/watch?v=Px8dvGmuRAs

And now, the briefest of little restlets, as gigging starts on Friday ...

The Band Who Came In From The Cold

Friday night was another long one. Rehearsals have now started again for the upcoming live dates and there's quite a bit of "recording rust" to be worked out.
We also took the time to film the video for our upcoming single, How Come I'm Never Around. Like the recordings, we did this all ourselves. A word in your shell-likes though - filming outside late at night in the first week of February is ... quite chilly! Our rehearsal room is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, so we decided to film it all here. Kind ties in with recording everything here and by us too. An interesting point is that some of the footage if of the actual recording, rather than a restaging. A lorry driver who had parked up nearby though must have wondered what the hell was going on when we started carrying all the kit out and setting the cars around with full beams on...

Happy days. I think I have thawed out now

Still for the video.

Apparently cats have problem with 2d ...

In an otherwise 3d world ....

Before anyone feels obliged to comment, I am well aware that this picture has nothing whatsoever to do with recording an album. It just amused me.

Put what right was wrong ...

Friday night we got together to nail half of the remaining lead vocals. It was a somewhat surreal atmosphere as we convened at Grahams and Kate's house which had become a sort of NFL Grotto. It was bitterly cold, that sort of cold that you can sense even when you inside in the warm ... we'll nonetheless we did the vocals for If This Is It, I Know Your Name, Bring It On and All Or Nothing. 2 old ones and 2 new ones, Bring It On and If This Is It having both been recorded for the original demos, it seemed strange to have down the "definitive" versions of songs that we have been playing for so long - in fact If This Is It predates my joining the band and was, I think, possibly the first song of the band.
With recording old songs like this it poses the difficulty of trying play it as energetically as the newer stuff, to avoid all the "live cheats" as it were and try and find some new bit of creativity. I have been mixing the tracks since and can say it is a pleasure to approach them from this angle though...
All or Nothing and I Know Your Name are quite the opposite though in the sense that they have never been recorded, and its nice to hear them "for the first time".
A long trip back due to road closures completed my Friday night. I always though Friday nights were for partying. Guess I was mislead...
Viva la Derci

Chris gets distracted by a wall full of cheerleader photos. Those are balloons above his head by the way, not thought bubbles

Radio Edit

Decided it was, by all those concerned, that a radio edit of How Come I'm Never Around needed to be made, to meet the requirements of the lovely radio people that will refuse to play any songs with even slightly suspect words or references. So last night I knocked up a new version with the offending passages removed. It also simultaneously gives us a comedy version, ideal for children's parties, funerals and clown conventions.
Its easy to become indifferent to technology these days, but the ease of putting this edit together really makes me appreciate it anew ...

An unimpressive pic of the studio where it all goes on


The Radio Edit

Guitar recordings

And, without pausing for nary a breath nor to chew on a kitten, its on with the guitar recordings the next day. All solos and rhythm parts are now done, which just leaves the vocals and mixing.

Bass Recording

Yesterday Steve came to my little studio to do the lions share of the bass guitar recording. Not much more I can really say about that ... he brought his bass, he plugged it in and played, and I recorded it. We have gone with the idea of D.I'ing it, and add the amp sound at a later stage.

Single 'B-Side'

Friday night saw the completion of the track that will be the B Side to How Come I'm Never Around ... with Steve's bass recording, Graham's guitar parts and all the vocals. Also done were the backing vocals for How Come ...
And all the while the rain came down ...

Giving it large with some backing vocals

Yank my leghair to stop my plug buzzing (have I got that the right way round?)

Also finished last night was the bass recording for How Come I'm Never Around, which makes the recording of the first song complete. Relax, release, repent, remix. And wonder about the unsightly smell. Well almost, complete that is not the latter, as there are backing vocals to do but they are quite happy to wait for another day thank you very much.
One note of amusement however was an anomolous buzz from Steve's bass. Despite turning off all the lights we couldn't cure it until he touched the plug coming from his DI box. Didn't go away when anyone else touched it only him, which posed the momentary problem of how could he play whilst having to touch the jack plug. In the end it was decided that Graham should complete the circuit, so the entire bass part was recorded with Graham lying on the floor with one hand on the offending jack plug and the other on the equally offensive leg of Steve, to general heckling of all others. I kid you not.

Whats going on here? Nothing you want to know about, trust me...

Drum recordings complete (take2!!!)

Last night saw the completion of the drum recordings. OK, so we had thought they were all done, but on listen back it became clear that I Know Your Name was way too fast, whilst Soul was so slow it felt like bad medication time .... Redone with a click track this time and a decent amount of time spent getting the tempos right. We all really felt for Drew with I KNow Your Name, its his favourite and that virtually guarantees difficulties for anyone! But we nailed it in the end. Which was nice.

Chris gives his facial opinion on endless drum recording. Let the stylish headgear indicate to all just how cold it can be in our little wooden box ...

First Mix!!!

Just finished the first mix of How Come I'm Never Around and it ROCKS!! Oh hell yeah, can't fait for this to see the light of day! Its on the cards to have some gang vocals added, to redo the bass guitar and perhaps to record my guitar parts again with a different amp, but its almost ready to go as is.
And I'm, as WrongDonalds say, Lovin' It.

This is something I have wanted to do for many years, record everything using real instruments, and hear it all come together, and its giving me a great feeling of satisfaction to hear it actually happening. Its so easy these days to put tracks together with loops, synthesized parts, fabulous drum samples and modern tech amp modelling, which almost makes it impossible to get a bad mix. And I know, cos I do it loads! But this is realworld; non perfect instruments in a non-perfect room and I am learning tons doing it. I mean, as well as finding the best ways to record the parts, we're even having to go away, analyze the results and come back and change setups when problems appear as we have no control room as yet. So when you hear what you hear, you're getting the actual sound of the band. No drum sound replacements, no autotune, just modern technology used in an old fashioned way!

Its actually kindling in me a desire to have a go at a true analogue recording one day. But not on this budget.

Peace y'all. C'est tout que j'aime. Rx

Vocal Time

Today Chris and I got together to record the vocals for How Come I'm Never Around. Always better doing vocals when no-ones up against the clock. In fact thats the beauty of this whole recording process, just not having the tick tock of your money filling someone else's pockets. Vocals came out great, some lovely takes and the usual cockups to be added to the pisspot of outtakes at the end ...

And as if that wasn't enough ...

We also pushed the boat out and got Graham's guitar parts down for How Come I'm Never Around. We had hoped to get the vocals down too, but by that time it was between half 12 and 1 in the morning and it really wasn't happening ...

I have a personal preference for recording small combos rather than full stacks. There are much fewer phasing problems between speaker at the mic point and they don't have to be catastrophically loud to get a good sound usually. Graham has a really good sounding Marshall combo that we opted to use instead of his TLS half stack, and we found a really good on it with an SM57 close on the speaker and the omnipresent 414 about 2-3 feet away. Graham did his annoying usual trick of nailing everything on the first go, but its nice to truly capture the unique sound of a solo being played as the guitarist falls over. Niiiicce! Unique!

Steve also tuned up and effeminately played an effeminate bass. Mine.

Breaking the back ...

Last night was a very long one, especially after a full days work for all concerned, but we got plenty done. Basically just got in there, got set up and went for it, and in one fell swoop, got the drums down for 8 songs in one go: Soul, My Life My Rules, World Turns Upside Down, Bring It On, I Know Your Name, If This Is It, Tempting Fate and All Or Nothing. Hats and bandanas off to Drew for managing all that lot on one sitting, thats impressive stuff! We had thought Bring It On and Tempting Fate were down from the last session but on listening back there were issues with the tempos, so we redid them with a click this time to prevent gig speed ...

We may find on listening that some need to be redone, but I'm keeping fingers crossed that we can go with what we have. The vibe certainly felt good this time which is why we kept going.