In June 2010, despite a successful audition and being subsequently offered a recording contract and publishing deal, my brief liaison with a certain small start up record company came to an abrupt end. I had entered into this doomed relationship in good faith, with clear focus and best endeavours but thankfully due to a mix of my seasoned ‘antennae for shysters’ being alert for once and a fatefully timed conversation with a friendly ally, I avoided signing my foreseeable life away and wasting more than the 3 precious months I already had. However I did come away from this potential car crash with two new like minded friends and that is worth celebrating.
So in the absence of any other potential lights on the horizon and after consulting my closest and much wiser friends, I decided I had no choice but to take a calculated leap of faith and spend some of my dwindling emergency savings even at a time when I could ill afford to. I knew if I was to have any real currency to respectably approach management and publishing companies as a singer / song writer or solo artist I would need to present the best set of songs I had, recorded and produced to the most professional standard I could afford and packaged accordingly. Note I was not intending to also approach record companies as these days without the standard expected minimum 10,000 plus active bona fide online fans, hard gigging track record and video footage to prove it, as well as a great songs, one would just be pissing in the wind.
I had recently tracked down an old friend who was the drummer in my old band. For the past 10 years he had been enjoying great success as a much sort after session and live drummer touring all around Europe and beyond and luckily for me was based back in the UK in our old stomping ground working for a leading established events and function band agency. It was a joy to speak to him again and hear that he was just the same light hearted, genuine, reliable and decent bloke he always was and I took this a sign that there could at last be a light at the end of the tunnel. He was pivotal in organising the first stages of my album recording, bringing two other fellow musicians of the highest calibre to the table as well as introducing me to the established and industry respected ‘Skyline Studios’ in Surrey and two extremely talented producer / engineers who have since become good friends.
Like all recordings made on a shoe string budget time was limited but sometimes that’s for the best as you have to commit and stand by your decisions or risk ‘fannying’ about and getting nothing done, which I confess if one of my poorer traits. After deciding to drop a track that wasn’t in keeping with the others, I had material for a 10 track album. Two of the tracks were piano based and purposefully stripped back and could be done later so I first had to capture the bones of the other 8.
I hope they won’t mind me mentioning their names as I have only the highest praise for Wayne ‘Freddie’ Riches – Drums, Allan ‘A-Funk’ Salmon – Guitar and Russ ‘The Bass Ninja’ Carr – urrr Bass who learnt and developed 80% of my songs in 7 very sweaty hours, sandwiched between a very hectic 48 hour gigging schedule of much travel and stinking heat then laid them down with total professional application and care in only 8 more, also very sweaty hours; we definitely had a collective ‘bead on’ that weekend as they call it J
My engineer Sam, who I didn’t know at this point, was a total pro all day, working efficiently, tirelessly and carefully without breaks to ensure we got down what we needed to in the session and always coming up with impressive solutions when we needed guidance on how to approach a songs’ introduction, optimum tempo or feel. Amazingly we only overran by half an hour which everyone was thankfully happy to do and is also impressive I think considering the volume of quality work completed.
I had initially planned to complete my album by other means to save money but I quickly realised I would have recording continuity if I finished the album with Sam and things has begun so well it would be a shame to scrimp on the vital next stages. An opportunity arose in August which I grabbed.
I had booked 5 days in the studio with a view to recording the 2 piano based tracks, finishing production on all 10 and getting down as many of the final vocals takes as possible in the time, mixing and mastering to be arranged later, a familiar challenge to any musician without the financial backing a reputable recording company behind them...I was constantly plagued by an internal voice that said “you get what you pay for” and “more money = more time = better results” but I won’t apologise for my budget especially as I remain delighted with the results.
The sessions commenced well enough, acoustic guitars going down next where required (shredding my hands and wrists after so many years away from regular playing), additional electric guitar parts, keyboard lines and ongoing production. I was taking so much in all the time, learning all I could from Sam and pinching myself at the fact I was recording my ‘debut’ album when only a few months prior I’d just lost my job and everything had been thrown into disarray. I was aware of a sort of balance in myself beginning to return that I hadn’t felt for so many years and for the first time in ages I was in an environment where I belonged.
A special note of thanks must go here to my good friend Benny, who prior to me going back into the studio, contributed his extremely awesome guitarness at short notice to grace some of the key tracks on the album that needed some additional spice and gave me a good excuse to go Manchester.
So with most of the backing tracks down it was time to start recording the vocals. Then out of the blue I hit a wall. I couldn’t sing a note. My throat had been a little sore after the first weekend of rehearsal and recording the 8 backing tracks with guide vocals as I was rusty after years away from it but that had soon recovered. I wasn’t ill and I thought I was in a good frame of mind. The truth was I hadn’t slept well for the previous couple of nights despite staying in comfort with good friends; I was just churning stuff around in my head about the recording, stressing myself out about the best stylistic direction for the songs and the future if nothing happened as a result of all my efforts. I worked myself up into such a state I became kind of emotionally paralysed. Though getting this recording right, especially the vocals, was so vitally important to me and those I love the most, it was like all the years between when I had last been a full time musician and now, with all those nasty demons constantly questioning my whole raison d’être, decided to come crashing down on me all at once to jeopardise my recording.....those ‘black dogs’ had descended and were biting at my soul.
Anyway Sam thankfully noticed my state and as I hope any good mate would do and prescribed just what the doctor ordered...a change of scenery and a bloody good night out on the town. I’d become so uptight over the course of the year, with a lot of stress and responsibility on my plate, I was like a taught spring ready to snap. So I got drunk, not stupidly but more than enough and smoked, after 8 years of having quit (but was too drunk to care) and smoked some more ‘other stuff’ and again (was too drunk to care) then slept like a stone. Next morning I woke to find I didn’t feel that jaded at all and actually felt very peaceful inside like I hadn’t for ages, by rights I should have felt like shit, this amused me like I’d done something bad and had got away with it J
In that days’ session I laid down the vocals for 3 songs which came out great and felt amazing. Now I’m not advocating excessive drinking, smoking or ‘other smoking’ at all, it’s just what I needed to do to break the deadlock so I could finish my recording.
The rest of the recording went smoothly and I learnt so much, about myself, my music and the joy of working with other like minded people. Though I would have liked the budget to have had more time I know I came away with a fantastic result that I’m very proud of which I now know stood me in very good stead for the next stage of my journey.
