My good intentions were delayed by my body demanding a power nap – one minute I was looking at the laptop, next minute I was waking up

It was a looooooooooong day yesterday, but it was really cool, touching, and humbling to see how both Bishop and my brother put in hours of work, and are preparing to put in even more when they begin mixing the tracks – Oh Yeah, we have done all five!

I also need to shout out to Doug who was in the studio till 2am  Wednesday night/Thursday morning laying down the bass.

Sidenote: The rest of this post is a day out due to sleep deprivation and having to get back home and straight into some meetings yesterday (Fri 17th) 

So how did it all end?

My brother didn’t get any sleep, I had half an hour, – our combinded total of sleep can’t have been more than 10 hours – Bishop and G began mixing the tracks at around 8am, and we jumped into the car at around 10.30am in order to get back for planned appointments. – Needless to say, the stereo was blaring on the way back, and I am thankful to God that we got back safely!

Some mixing still needs to be done, so a trip back up to Wales may happen later today – I love my brother!

Hope you’ve enjoyed hearing about some of my showreel experience, look out for some samples of the tracks once they are mixed!

Bye-Bye Wales

I didn’t think we’d be able to do all the tracks and suggested we drop one of them. But, my brother – who at around 3am Thursday morning went to bed for the first time since waking up Tuesday morning- was adamant that we should stick to the plan.

His determination (pigheadedness) has reaped rewards. All the tracks are now done vocal wise, two have almost full instrumentation, and according to some friends who dropped by – it’s all sounding very nice.

I must say that these past 2/3 days have been challenging, sometimes frustrating, and confirmed that I definitely prefer live gigs to studio work, but I am feeling very rewarded by the experience. I am also excited to see what may happen next as I step out once again into the world of music, session singing and explore seriously my song writing.

It’s amazing what a chain of events a simple question can lead to.

So why make this mad trip?

Ans: A simple request for some singing sessions, followed by the question “do you have a showreel?”*, began a chain of events which started as a plan to do a simple recording at my brother’s and has become an ‘out of orbit’ plan to record 5 tracks of varying styles, with lead and backing vocals, drums, bass, keys, guitar and whatever else is inspired along the way, ready to take home early – first thing early – Friday morning!!!! – Whatever happened to pressing record on a tape recorder and if you had a mic you felt stush

Before heading for bed, we had a look at the studio, it’s looking good.  Bishop’s guitars are looking impressive on the walls, the desk looks ‘da business’ without being pretentious, and the vocal booth looks inviting. – I haven’t recorded vocals for a long time, so I hope I settle into my new home really quickly. ‘One take wonders all the way!’…

Tiredness began to set in, so instead of going to sleep, I started trying to figure out a 2nd verse for one of the songs. Needless to say, I fell asleep somewhere along the line, until awoken by birds chirping crazily outside my window at 5.34am.I couldn’t believe the sound of them. So loud and so many, definitely haven’t heard that in a long time and most definitely haven’t heard that in the city.  After my initial wonder, I really wanted them to pipe down! Umm, maybe they had a 2nd verse LOL.

Well it’s now 7.32am and I am well and truly up, so I have to get on with that 2nd verse and get ready for this day. – No hours to waste! I also have to hope and pray, this blocked nose feeling is going to go away!

I’ll update on progress tonight, and look out for some samples of the finished work come Friday…

*Here’s a link to some information about creating a showreel and why it is important. – It is geared towards composers for TV/Film, but the essential principles are the same. Showreel