“Right,” said he, giving the old
blogging muscles a bit of a flex, “time to sit dull-eyed in front
of my laptop while I have a gap between lessons and buh-log a mofo'in
buh-log!”
This last month has been mental. Not
'kind of interesting', and not 'lots of fun, when you think about
it'... no, it's been
taking-off-your-clothes-and-running-from-the-police,
the-studio-audience-are-zombies, talking-to-a-fish Mental. With a
capital 'M', and possibly a capital 'E' too, just for good measure.
In the last month, One Horse Pony did most of the tracking for our
debut album! With a capital '!', cos thats how I roll...
After much talk over fine cigars and
brandy (or possibly beer and cigarettes; my memory of that night is a
little hazy) Badger and I decided that, in order to make the best
album possible, inflicting ourselves on an unsuspecting studio wasn't
a viable option. There could be casualties. Instead, after much
humming and hawing (although I'm not actually sure how one 'haws') we
decided that there was really nowhere we felt more comfortable, and
nowhere we bounced off each other better, than home. So Ranch, sweet
Ranch was where we recorded! And who better to bring down to engineer
than Barra Vernon; engineer extraordinaire, not to mention drummer
in Fast.Like.Fun.
In the weeks running up to starting
recording, the whole thing was put in danger by a serious personnel
change. Harmonica Niall parted company with OHP for personal reasons.
Despite the fact that it wasn't an easy parting, I wish him well.
'Nuf said, really. We decided to truck on regardless, and were
rewarded almost instantly. The week before we were set to record, we
had a big jam session at the Ranch, for which we had finally got our
hands on a cello for our houseguest Ohio, a self-confessed cellist
and reformed Heavy Metal enthusiast. No sooner had he bowed that
strange bastard instrument of doom and destruction, smiles erupted on
the faces of all present. Cello works in blues!! I mean it really
works! The way Ohio plays it, the cello does the work of a double
bass, as well as occasionally raising up an octave or three to
deliver lead breaks that will cause all and sundry to grab their
partner, skip the dosey-doh'ing entirely , and move right on to doing
unspeakable things to various parts of them. His inclusion on the
album was immediately agreed upon.
So recording week arrived, bringing
with it an atmosphere of excitement, anticipation and perhaps a wee
bit of trepidation. Barra's extensive arsenal of recording equipment
was deposited in the lounge (henceforth, the live room) and the
man-cave (henceforth, the control room). Meerkat (henceforth, the
Meerkat) was deposited in the spare room (henceforth... ah, you get
the picture), all ready for kick-off bright and early the next day.
And, despite an attack of
batarang-wielding vampires and that guy from my old work who was
inexplicably dressed as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, that's exactly
what happened. Maybe that last bit was a dream. No, I remember it
clearly. Anyway, guitars went down first, a seriously long and
lengthy process. Long and lengthy due to the fact that we decided
early on use a click track, which is metronome-like audio track that
is used by cunning engineers to frustrate musicians through their
headphones. That, and it keeps us excitable types in time, allowing
further instruments to be added to the track at a later date with the
greatest of ease. It means though, that the first track to be put
down on every song is a thundering beee-atch to do properly. I've
worked with click tracks before, and experience has taught me that we
don't get on. They're inconsiderate and refuse to compromise, their
taste in wine sucks and they're respective mothers didn't raise them
right. Eventually however, we managed to get it all done.
After that,
in fairness, all went well. Once the primary guitar track was
lovingly (huh) set down by either Badger or myself, the other put
second guitar track down. A mish-mash (a word? I think so...) of
bodhran (the traditional Irish hand-drum, played expertly by
Meerkat), cello and vocals, followed and were individually ticked
off, track by track. In my experience, recording can be a seriously
stressful affair. Regardless of the studio, be it Abbey Road, or a
converted living room, that search for the perfect take, frustration
at oneself, nerves, and Satan-worshiping click-tracks, can cause
tempers to fray like kittens attacking a tapestry, chairs to be
hurled at walls, bandmates to be defenestrated, and, in the extreme case
of a Ary
Barroso recording in August 1939, a world war. Our recording process, on the
other hand, was a peaceful and productive affair, where any
frustration was brief and spirits remained high, mostly due to the
lovely atmosphere, copious amounts of good food, and the presence of
automatic weapons.
One
particular piece of good luck occurred on the last day of primary
tracking. Having maintained a bit of a 'closed shop' policy for most
of the week, we suddenly found ourselves with half a dozen guests on
the sunday afternoon, just in time for everyone to don a pair of
headphones and roar along with No More Water, an a cappella gospel
song of mine. The results sound like a fire 'n' brimstone
congregation, ready to lay some righteous smack-down on sin,
temptation, and probably click-tracks. Or something like that.
So
that's about it, as it stands. A few more recording sessions, and
everything will be done. We'll be well on the way to unleashing a
great album, of which we're exceedingly proud, on an unsuspecting
public. Low whistle (a traditional pipe common to Irish trad music, again played
wonderfully by the Meerkat), backing vocals, claps, shakers, a little
bit of guitar and a few other bits and pieces all need to be put
down, and thankfully I'm surrounded by dear friends who can do all
that with the very best of 'em. This is the first album on which I'll
be producer as well as musician, and the people I'm working with have
made it an absolute blast. The ball is well and truly rolling on a
very exciting time in the life of the Pony. As always, I'll do my
best to keep you posted. Life remains sweet.
More
to come, guys. Thanks for reading :-)
R
