Like many London bands, our live performance rite of passage begins in The Bedford, Balham, on Wednesday 23rd October 2013. It’s a really nice venue and I’m looking forward to being back there with Jez and Lee. It is indeed a long time ago that I was playing there in Foy Vance’s band as he started revealing his talent to the world. Good times, good memories, and new ones to be made.
Mixing is going really well with Leo Abrahams. He’s amazing. We’re having so much fun playing with the sounds and getting the whole thing feeling coherent yet more vibey and interesting than the rough tracks that have been around for a while. My favourite transformation so far is So Long which has taken on a darker, more mysterious character. We’ll be working on More Is Less this week.
Leo’s approach is so musical. He listens, considers, decides and just does it. I’ve let go into that. Normally I’m a complete control freak when it comes to sound and mixing, but in this case it’s been a pleasure to get away from it slightly and just let Leo loose on the sounds. Initially I was reticent about breaking up the drum machine sounds, which I had wanted to sound quite clean and just like the original sounds that came out of them, but as time went on, I realised this was not the best way as Leo introduced more and more vibe by crushing the sounds and doing cool things. I totally trust him – and so far everything is sounding excellent.
I have rewritten the music for the verses of our track Time To Fly which will finally be revealed very soon. It’s been something of a journey to get that one right… but I had to persevere as Maurice’s lyrical additions were so good and the main guitar riff is my favourite on the record. Juliet Turner sang some lovely backing vocals on it too.
I’m off to edit some Juno x