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.

Sprrrring Cycle

Spring-cleaning and packing with the windows open and the sun streaming in. Listening to Morphamish and a gem from last December by Redmonk (which I can't find a download link to now. Boo! But check out this and An Dord is Mó on Raidió na Life. Always a treat.)

I saw Laura Sheeran play in Tower last Friday, just beeeeeaaautiful. Harp, accordion, ukele, double bass, guitar, live electronics, and herself. Two "proper" launch gigs will be on later in the month, in Galway on the 17th, and Dublin on the 18th. Worth a look and a listen! I'll be outta the country by then, alas.

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!

The XX-Chromosome Question

A few weeks ago, Kathleen Lynch, Professor of Equality Studies Department in UCD, went onto Vincent Browne's night-time talk-show. In the course of the programme, she made some not-too-out-there comments about the lack of critical journalism in this country and the general conservative/right-wing slant in the media in Ireland, a slant that is so endemic and ingrained that it has become accepted as objective truth. She was subjected to a torrent of abuse on Twitter, some of it overtly sexist.

Transcript of the exchange on Vincent Browne, and the ensuing distastefulness.

She was interviewed on Mediabite last week, and part of the interview touched on the events of the week before.

Quite a long interview, but worth the read.

I got asked recently to take part in a gig organised by The Irish Feminist Network on the 8th of March. By the time I got back to them, the bill had been filled, but it still got me to thinking. A gig on International Women's Day, consisting of a solely female line-up - how do I feel about that? Eehhh, fine, no problem there. Sometimes a quota, or favourable discrimination, is needed to assist a minority group (especially if the minority includes 50% of the population). Will the sound engineer be a woman too?

The Women's Audio Mission are a San Francisco-based organisation that provide training, support, and general "you can do it!" for women and girls looking to work in production and recording. Hmm, I wonder about starting such a thing here. A few years in the future, but there's no harm in thinking about it now.

There is, of course, a wider issue here. As ever, eh. More chewing on this bone will follow.

Rekids, innit!

How long does it take to plug in a record player? Ten months, if you're me. And counting... But oh, those big shiny black records! And my computer and its fan off!

Dinternet is many things, and it's great for music - listening, passing it around, etc etc, we've all heard it, and it's all true. Soundcloud is a wonderful thing, Mixcloud too, but. But. But oh, the ever-shrinking attention span. And the computer as the focal point of the room, the jack-of-all-trades. And those beautiful records weeping, abandoned, in their beautiful big sleeves, with their lovely artwork. As for mixing....!! (Yes - records, on the internet.)

Having said that, tonight I was listening to Ilex on Soundcloud. Great stuff!