Pedestrian zero

The plans we make

Posted on by

Well well..

This month a day’s recording became a weekend’s recording. Not a solid weekend, mind. But a very enjoyable weekend.

In order to accommodate the people I’d asked to contribute to Somewhere in between, I had to shift things around, and we decided we needed to record the drums before Sunday. It also worked to throw the bass into this session as well. The original plan was to start early evening on Friday, get a scratch track done, then set up and record the drums, and then record the bass.

Traffic on the M25 threw this plan out of the window, so the new plan became to record the scratch track Friday evening, which we duly did, then do drums and bass on Saturday evening. By this point we’d also determined it would make sense to get the lead vocals done after the bass, which we could then comp and edit on Sunday morning ready for Han Goslett to come in and do her vocals.

And so it was that I trooped to Awesome Source studios with Paul and Si on Saturday evening. A good time was had by all. Pizza was consumed, sick beats and phat bass were laid down. It was, once again, a wonderful experience to see something I’d written come alive with other people’s creativity. The night was wearing on by the time we got to the vocals. But, minor disaster! My sinuses thought it better to flood with mucus. Singing “Subwhere id betweed” wasn’t really cutting the mustard for Paul and a fresh plan was settled upon.

An early start on Sunday was conceived, and, fresh from a very hot shower and hopped up on vocalzone, I recorded an 8am Sunday vocal rather than an 11pm Saturday vocal. Potentially less rock and roll, but definitely less congested. The wonderful Han came by mid morning to record her harmonies and a lead part for the end of the song. Then we had the multi-talented Tom from Beer Pressure coming to play both a keyboard AND lead guitar part.

The benefit to “front-loading” the recording process was that, following a late, relaxed lunch, we only had the acoustic guitar and a guitar/vocal intro to record before calling it a day nice and early.

There might be a slightly longer wait for this one as mixing won’t happen ’til next week, but it’s turned out well so far.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Lyrics – Somewhere in between

Posted on by

Oh yeah, it’s recording week again this week. They do come around.

I’m kind of toying with the idea of including earlier phone recorded versions of the songs in these posts where I tell you what I’m recording and allowing you to read the lyrics. Not 100% sure whether that’s a good idea or not. I will continue to think about it. So you know.

Anyway. This week I’m recording a li’l mid-tempo thingamajig called Somewhere in between. Kind of hoping to avoid a soft rock feel. We’ll see how that goes.

This was apparently the first song I wrote in 2012. Around the same time as As Any Fule Kno, Longshore drift, I don’t think they’ve told him and a few others that have yet to surface.

I don’t tend to go for intensely autobiographical songs, but this is a kind of tongue in cheek closest I’ll get. I take enormous satisfaction in mugwumpery. Of the fence-sitting variety. I find it hard to settle down to a concrete opinion on things. Somewhere in between is usually where you’ll find me. It’s not super clever lyricality you see.

I guess in this case I applied it to songwriting and music. They say that life is about the journey, and I get that. But sometimes the destination can be fun too. And I do still find it amusing that I don’t really feel like I have anything important to say, but I still keep saying stuff.

So there we go. Got some more great musicians coming in on this one. Very interested to see where it ends up.

Somewhere in between
Don’t ask me
Where this all goes
Don’t tell me
I’m trying not to think about it
The answer’s rich
And the question’s poor
Did you ever stop to dream?
And did you never ask to skip the journey?

Somewhere in between
Is where I’ll be

Take this down
It just might be
Write it down
It could just be worth remembering
See I’m not sure
I’ve ever chanced to say
A single word that’s mine
A single thought that bore repeating
But I’ll still be singing

Somewhere in between
Is where I’ll be

If there’s a single truth and I don’t get it
If I’m forever lost and still repentant
If it’s the only way I can make it through this
If there’s nothing else to say I’m in between

Studio day – Mind your PMQs

Posted on by

Tracking Mind your PMQs

I won’t take you on a magical mystery tour of the day this time, as it’s not proved to be my favourite format for reporting studio days. Instead, I’ll just throw out thoughts in random fashion. That’s proved popular so far. In as much as I haven’t had any comments posted saying that you don’t like it.

One of the amazing things about recording every month is the fantastic improvised bands we end up with. This month’s offering will feature splendmazing (getting bored with my superlatives) contributions from Paul, Ant and Matt O all of whom it was a pleasure hanging out with during the day in addition to adding their musicosity (almost definitely a word) to the song.

I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned, but Mind Your PMQs was only written in the last couple of weeks, so it hasn’t had time to embed too much. There was a little more writing on the spot than we’ve previously experienced, which did lead to a slightly longer day and we’ll need an extra evening session this week to get the backing vocals done.

It’s an obvious thing to say, but doing this regularly really does increase confidence. Particularly with vocals and acoustic guitar. I’m still a bit ‘fish out of water’ with the electric guitar (borrowed from Aj of strangeday fame this month) but I do have enormous fun playing the parts. Once we’d worked out what the parts should be.

The vocals were pretty good fun to do. We were really trying to get some passion in there and I attempted my best Dave Grohl impression (I’m rocking the Discount Dave Grohl look at the moment) for the final verse. I’m interested to see how it comes out. Hopefully Paul will be able to work his majicks.

I will say this. This recording/releasing lark is getting addictive. I’m already trying to work out how I might be able to step up the pace to twice a month. Stay tuned chizzlers.

Mind your PMQs – lyrics

Posted on by

Good Wednesday to you all. I headed over to the studio last night to do some final writing and guide tracking on a song that I will be recording on Saturday.

This one’s interesting and a little tricky. Inspired by some of the behaviour of parliament, in particular during Prime Minister’s Questions, and having come up with a title that’s probably attempting to be funnier or more clever than it actually is, I have gone ahead and written a “political” song.

It’s really a catalogue of things that frustrate me about modern politics and journalism, neatly tied up with a smartarse title and no particularly helpful solution. I understand that there are different political philosophies, I just wish we’d recognise we generally have more in common than we realise. I don’t think all politicians are bad. And I don’t think any party is ‘wrong’. But I’m not particularly impressed with how the whole system is getting along in the UK.

I do also think there are people that are wholly out for themselves at every level of society. I would never presume to accuse a specific person of this, as both sides of the political spectrum are far too fond of doing. I may have my suspicions, but none of us knows the whole story.

So this song isn’t directed at any party. Or even just politicians. It’s meant to be a plea to have some damn humility. I’m aware that it may well be misinterpreted, or (more likely) unnoticed.

I say tricky (I did, honest, it was just a few paragraphs ago) because it’s really hard to write a song where you’re being critical without being guilty of the things you might be criticising. I don’t want to be too negative, but I also think certain behaviours shouldn’t go unchallenged. And honestly we’re all guilty of some of this stuff at various points. Ad hominem is the most insidious logical fallacy because it’s so easy to attack people when we’re angry.

I’m posting these lyrics knowing full well that they might not be finished yet. I suspect even once they’re in the can I’ll have my doubts. That’s probably a good thing.

There’s a whole ‘nother post to be written at some point about my (I think) judicious use of language that some deem offensive to stress a point. Some people won’t even see a problem. Others will be curious. There may even be some people who are disappointed. I don’t want to cause unnecessary offence (please don’t read the lyrics below if such language does offend). If the line prevails come Saturday we’ll probably release a censored version for sensitive ears.

Here we go then. My first attempt at some kind of protest song.

Mind Your PMQs

This is little better
Than a playground argument
I find it hard to tolerate
Your willful insolence
Bluff bluff bluster
Ad hominem
Straw man straw man
Ad hominem again
—
Scaremonger, warmonger
Others are to blame
Exaggerate our differences
Shoot them down in flames

And I can’t believe
This is how we get things done
Starting to feel
That you’re stringing us all along

Turn a profit line your pockets
The little guy’s at fault
Cherry pick your data points
Sell the bastards short
Use other people’s weaknesses
To undermine their claims
Rig the rules, damn the fools
Everyone’d do the same
—
Oversimplify the issues
Turning up the sound
Pick a side pick a side
Refuse the common ground

And I can’t believe
This is how we get things done
Starting to feel
That you’re stringing us all along

Greed will be our ruin
Pride will kill us all
Hatred our undoing
Ever as it was
Greed will be our ruin
Pride will fuck us all
Can’t stop this hatred brewing
Are we headed for a fall?
It’s simply not worth the fight
If what you’re fighting for
Isn’t love, kindness, bravery
Not evening the score

And I can’t believe
This is how we get things done
Starting to feel
That you’re stringing us all along

Pint of gold released

Posted on by

Not really sure how this should work around here. I mean, I’ve updated the releases section, I’ve changed the Latest Music promo box, I’ve updated the homepage promo, emails have gone out to the subscriber list. Kind of seems like overkill to update the blog as well.

But then it also seems weird not to update the blog when something has happened. So here we are.

Go go go! Also, you can download for free from the bandcamp page.

Pint of gold, Pedestrian zero - cover art

Pint of gold

Posted on by

Remember how I mentioned in the previous post about recording and releasing one song a month? Well tomorrow I go into the studio with Paul to record the first of those offerings.

The song is Pint of gold. I wrote it a few years ago for a friend, Matt. He helped out with loads of strangeday stuff when we had little or no money (for instance with this promo), and the promise was that we’d buy him a pint of gold (actually 4 I believe) when we were rich and famous.

This is of course never happened, so I took it upon myself to write a song inspired in part by our friendship and late night chats. Matt (and subsequently everyone at our poker games) drinks to the south. So in the song we drink to the south, but other compass points are valid.

Looking forward to getting it down and sharing it with you. In the meantime, here are the lyrics:

Pint of gold
Times we’ve had
Remember that
Sometimes you’ve been the only thing that got me through
I think that I’d
almost forgotten
But there it is
There it always is

Times move on
And here we are
We’ll sing our song
And raise a glass
To the south, to the south
Singing la la la la la la la

Staring through
People who
Make me think of somewhere else and something new
Shake it off
Back to the present
Here we are
Here we always are

Times move on
And here we are
We’ll sing our song
And raise a glass
To the south, to the south
Singing la la la la la la la

There’s always a time for regrets
Always a space for turning inside out
But life is who we are
And time will tell our story
We’re still here
Yeah, we’re always here

Times move on
And here we are
We’ll sing our song
And raise a glass
To the south, to the south
Singing one more time la la
Moving on
And here we are
We’ll sing our song
And raise a glass
To the south, to the south
Singing la la la la la la la
la la la la la la la etc..