"Below The Sea" EP

Yay! "Below The Sea" has now been released. Grab a download here. Embarrassingly nice blurb too. Scarlet, I am!

Thanks (again and again and again) to Hamish, Mel for the mastering, and Barry for the beautiful artwork.

Filming the video this weekend for the funding project. "Echo" will see the light of day yet!

Whatchoo readin' fawr?

For this reason! Learnin me some proper production and mastering ting. It's all a bit of grey fog, still. No more, I tells ya.

Mel did a fantastic FANTASTIC job with "Echo", and she's mastering "Below The Sea" as we speak. Her ear is impeccable, clear as day when you listen to her own music too.

She's based in Brighton now with her fella Herv. Keep an eye and an ear peeled for the two of them.

Ya big Pledge!

Sooo.... this funding project doodah is starting so. Apparently, I need more fans for this to succeed.

:(

To the left, there is a widget. A widget with which to lure in new fans and potential funders of said album. The song, "Sunday Sun", is one of the first I wrote. Ahhh.

Ooohhh the world of internet marketing and self-promotion is a strange one. More of this in a while.

ECHO release!!

Well, kids, it's finally happening. "Echo" has found a home, on the excellent Alphabet Set. A long-standing (ten years old this year!), well-respected, electronic label of consistently high quality, I was bleedin delirah that they had room/time/yaknowwhaddImean for me and my thang.

Now all the admin begins. I'm getting records made, with big, beautiful, artwork, courtesy of Barry and Chris. For that (and for the cash moneys needed), I'm going to go the crowd-funding route - Fundit or Pledge or one a them crowds. Well, "pre-order" is closer to the mark. Gotta get my pro-active pants on now. If only I could find them.....

Meljoann

So, the album's getting mastered by the excellent Mel Ryan, also known as Meljoann. She makes deadly weird R'n'B, that manages to be accessible, interesting, melodic, unique, and wonky. She sang in the choir I got together for the EP launch, and I'm told she plays the flute too... The production on her songs is great, and I trust her to preserve the balance in my stuff. Electronic while not mad bangin, vocal while not swamped in Over Compressed Vocals.

Here's the record label she set up - checkit!

Demodemodemo de Mode du Monde

As we say On The Continent. So I've been getting my internet on, researching labels all over the world. All over the world, says she!

My cunning plan is to get the album released in as many countries as I can, or even just get talking to people who may be in a position to have us over for an aul gig. An aul gig, says she!

The UK, the Americas, Africa, Yerp, Australasia, Asia, I'm only limited by my reserves of patience. Philips' School Atlas on my lap, and away we go. Virtually speaking....

I've been fascinated by the island of Saint Helena since I read about it. On one side, the wind never blows, and on the other, it never stops. The only way to get there is on a Royal Mail boat, and it takes two weeks to get there (did somebody say "Hen Party"!!??). Maybe I'll leave Saint Helena for the time being, but I'll get there eventually.

More from the talented Mr Quinn

Barry put up a post on his blog about the artwork for the album. I like the hexagonal shape of the case, kinda mirrors the star/sky/geometry formation. It looks handy out to make the case too, just a couple of folds in a piece of paper. I'm going to hunt out different types of black paper, and the many shades of black. A nod to the magpies...

2FM Session, Bandcamp, trips to the shop, and "Echo"

I went into 2FM there a few weeks back and recorded some songs. Got to play a piano on one of them, which was great, a Steinway grand, no less. I suppose this means I'll have to make my peace with the TV licence fee.

Dropped in to Ed on Monday and he told me that there is real-live hard cold cash money in the Bandcamp ether from sales of the EP. Will wonders never cease? Paying for a download? Whoever you are, thank you so so so so much, lovely people! Thus heartened, I betook myself to Freebird (in the Secret Book & Record Store), The R.A.G.E., and Tower here in Dublin and stuck in some copies. Even to have them on a shelf somewhere is good.

But the biiig biiiig news is that yesterday we finished mixing the album.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Big huge thanks to Joe, not only for all the help, advice, amazing mics to record on and all that... To leave with a bit of a beginner's knowledge of Protools, and a rake of beautiful new plug-ins, well, that's the cherry on top of the seven-tier cake.

The Life of a Song

Little did I think when I named a song "Dwell" that it'd take so long to finish (touch wood - it's not mixed yet). But there you go. Took a few months to write, from initial earworm stage to being finished, and it's the oldest song on the album. Recorded and re-recorded over three days (as opposed to an hour or two for all the others), edited, re-edited, synths tuned up and tuned back down. I suppose it's very dear to my heart, so I want it to be propah propah, but it's ironic too, given that it's about eeehh not dwelling and all those Buddhist etceteras.

Echo progress

Barry put up a lovely video on his blog - a time lapse of etching he's doing, possibly for the album cover: I might as well finish

I still haven't thought too much about what to do with the beast once it's finished, but I've decided to call it "Echo" anyway. For an echo is a lovely thing, and where would I be at all without reverb?

Up in the studio this week for a few days again, four tracks mixed now. Saweet! There was some re-recording on a few of them, but it's all still going to plan. Cracking weather as well. It's so nice to get out of the city, and be up overlooking it all. The studio shares a side wall with the big shed where all the ewes are lambing now, so they're all doing their cute thing in there. The lambs, I mean; the ewes all remind me of hard-livin', hard-lovin' barmaids, with their dirty blonde perms and 40-fag-a-day "mmmeeeeehhhh"s.

Recording!

So, this evening I finished (I hope!!!!) recording all the vocal and cello parts for the album. Now a fortnight of editing lies ahead (shouldn't take that long, but you never know), and then back up to the studio for mixing.

Joe's great to work with. Amazing as the studio is, the real pleasure is in working with someone so open and helpful, who shares his (impressive!) knowledge freely, while giving you space so that your eeehhh "true voice" can emerge. Not to mention him and MT giving me a room to sleep in while I'm up there. And getting lunch off his Ma too! Very big ups!

Album To-Do List

- Write two more songs by the end of February.
- Think of a name.
- Record it (with a lorrah lorrah help from Joe).
- Mix it.
- Master it (or get it mastered, as a sound engineer I am not).
- The cover is in Barry's capable hands, so no worries there.

This by the end of March.

Then to release it. Releasing it is the hard part, two issues there.
The release itself - physical, digital, both? Pledge Music, Bandcamp...? Do I just go nuts altogether and release it on vinyl as I'd like to? Or make CDs to sell at the launch gig and as promo copies? CDs are a bit...hmmm....but still...hmmmm.....thinking aloud.

And the launch gig, and promotion thereof.

It's not so daunting when it's all written like that.