Blog
This Week at the Studio: 10.01.23
Written by Jimmy
This was the closest we’ve come to achieving the full vision of Abubilla Music: Chaos, Creativity and Community (the 3 C’s!).
1. Chaos: We work and play in utter, total and entirely welcome chaos. The band began arriving one by one to a house already filled with a) four 14 year olds having a sleep-over, b) two 16 year olds sleeping late after a late night out, c) a 17 year old having to get up very early to go to school on Saturday for punishment for being late 8 days out of 32 school days of school year. And there was a drunken friend of a friend of one of the kids that was passed out in one of the rooms having rung the door bell at 130AM explaining he had no where else to go… All these teen-agers shared space with a big sloppy gold retriever, Toby, who brings rocks into band members all session long, an eight week old cock-a-poo, the size of a guinea pig who yaps around the ground floor (he’s Lewie) and a very angry cat, Sammy. We then had nine band members on top of this who ended up dividing into three separate ground floor rooms — Sophie playing cello in studio with Andy, Imogen, Nataasha and Louise in Conservatory talking thru vidio for The Knife Will Come and Mike, Rob and Ed (yes, in two places at once), working on One in A Trillion. And on top of this we had the door bell ringing 17 times (8 band members, 4 Mum’s picking up 14 year old, 1 mum picking up hung over gate-crasher, 1 Amazon delivery, 1 Ocado grocery order, 1 punished 17 year old returning from detention and 1 poor older man lobbying for the lib dems – he was number 17 and treated a bit rudely, as Sophie was going into a nervous breakdown at the number of recordings put on ‘door bell hold). Oh, and the four 14 year olds who were chased from the TV downstairs, exacted revenge by going to room above studio and jumping off bed just as they heard Cello start, thus contributing to Sophie’ s breakdown. Oh and the final straw — Ed and Andy were writing Sophie cello lines but didn’t have enough paper so had to write all over the last remaining manuscript page … but not left to write or top to bottom. Just all over. So Ed had to use a stick to point at which part of page Sophie should be looking at as she played. We are not 100% sure she will be coming back! Although WE’D love to see her again.
2. Creativity. A great day with contributions by all. We started by driving an acoustic version of Immovable Thing. Ed and Louise worked out a new version, with just acoustic guitar and Louise’s voice. Sophie then added the cello lines, some new, some from Ed’s trumpet lines on the fuller version. Lovely song and potentially part of our Valetine’s Special. Over lunch, Nataasha briefed us all on the new video and the huge community of production folks she’s assembled… all buying into the Abubilla Music concept, the song and Nataasha (my words not hers). Louise is joining her on Monday for a bit of acting! The band has asked for a flip to be available for ‘behind the scenes’ shots of burning and drowning bit. Imogen followed up with lead vocal on Invading London, giving a voice so tempo/pitch perfect that she could actually do quadruple vox tracks against her voice (with no variation between tracks). She also added a couple Yoko Ono primal screams to the whole experience and peppered the tracks with juicy swear words. We had asked her to get in character of ‘angry rock chick’ and by the end we all were a bit, …well,… nervous. In front room, the boys laid out a fantastic groove (combining Donovans Barabajangle with Paolo’s Candy) for a song we’re calling One in a Trillion,but we’re not sure the groove and lyrics will ultimately match up. But they’ve got a groove that rivals Big Knees. And meanwhile, Andy was acting as producer and song-writer for cello lines for Big Old Bird, which now has a more stripped out acoustic version. I was able to mix and post 4 new songs to the group today, two of which are pretty much ready to go… and might be part of an exclusive Valentines Giveaway. And by the way, where was Martyn? Well, let’s just say, ever since the MBE thing, he’s never been the same. Where’s Jimmy? Ordering Pizza and supplying Diet Coke to all these idiots!
3. The Community Thing is Self Evident. Jimmy beget Andy and Louise and Ed and Martyn and Mike. Louise beget Nataasha and Sophie. Martyn beget Rob. Ed beget Imogen. Rob begets bongos! Sophie beget extraordinarily fresh versions of two of our songs, taking us in a new dimension. Imogen rock chicked thru Invading London and helped bring a nice little groove to One in a Trillion. Nataasha is taking us into an extraordinary world of film making, pulling Louise in to act. Imogen, Nataasha and Louise have now circled around acting and film making. Louise and Rob circle around graphics design with Wes and Nigel. And the scores of teenagers orbit around it all soaking it up. While the pets circle around absorbing nothing, but leave little comets of poo, of stones and of extraordinary cat anger. And Saint Kathy now escapes … this time resorting to watching a movie alone…happily. If you’ve got more to contribute than that, please join the growing tribe.
Watch this space for the new music. And please join the newsletter so you can get it.
Jimmy, on a Sunday.