Abubilla Music

This Week in the Studio: 10.10.09-10.10.10

Written by Jimmy

A massive turn out at our London studios as we rally to finish If I Were a Little Birdie, in advance of our next Spanish Jam.Our Music: Here are the main things that advanced on the music front; apologies for being a bit bitty and boring, but this is a pretty accurate reflection of what late stage album production is like and we promised to tell all (it is also why we want an album DONE before Spain, so we don’t have all these bits hanging over our heads):

• Jimmy and Andy started the morning reviewing where we were on the third album.  Decided that No Bells, 500 Letters, Depth Perception, Angel of the Dark, and Whisper, were all close to ‘in the can’ and could move to final editing and mastering.

‘Andy and Jimmy’ find that many of our songs are ‘in the can’

• Gus arrived and we re-did his vocals for Blue Eyes Looked Up (Over You).   Later in afternoon, Adreas arrived and worked with Ed to write a final sax part for Blue Eyes Looked Up (Over You).  With these two additions, this song also moved to final editing and mastering.

‘Our new Sax Guy, Andreas, Spices up Blue Eyes Looked Up’

• Rob and Sophie arrived and we added bass and re-did Sophie’s cello bits for Strange Clock and moved that over to final editing and mastering.

'Sophie puts down cello for Strange Clock'

• Imogen then joined us in the studio (having patiently waited in the conservatory), to re-do her vocals for Cold Light of Day.  Andy decided to work with her in another key and accompanied her with the new Les Paul Studio guitar and she did a fantastic first take.   She re-did some verses and it was done.   Andy then brought the band in to add all the instruments and this song also now moved to final editing and mastering.

‘Imogen does a cover of Cold Light of Day (not really)’

• Finally, and with great excitement, we brought the full gang in to do TWIRL as a live band take (very similar to how we’ve done King of the Biosphere a year before).    Andy on acoustic guitar and vocals, Mike on drums, Rob on Bass, Martyn on lead guitar, Ed on keys, Andreas on Sax — all jamming through take after take.  We were happy on take 8.  This take is most notable for Mike’s ‘final thump’ – by end of song he was banging only Toms and Cymbals with both feet over the ground – the final note on the take is his feet crashing to the ground (picked up by Andy’s vocal mic.).  We’ll somehow try to keep this.
• This was Saturday:  we then re-opened the studio on Sunday for Andy to do vocals on That’s What I Really Want and Wisconsin.   Lara then joined us on Sunday to start Tuesday in May from scratch with Andy.  They sang it live with our new Les Paul, with Lara on lead, Andy on backing vocals and three layered guitar tracks.  Took the song to a new and better place.

‘Lara and Andy work on Tuesday in May, which follows up on Moody Blues Tuesday Afternoon’

Everything Else: Our description of the music is highly mis-leading, because it sounds organised, methodical and straight forward.  It isn’t because everything else is happening.  A few points:

• Chaos:    The image is important.    You walk into the front room of the house and the studio is straight ahead.  There is a ‘front room’ (the nice room for guests) and then a kitchen/conservatory area that spills to the back garden.  Here is what was happening while Imogen was recording Cold Light of Day in the Studio.   Jimmy and Andy were in the studio with Imp (3).   Morgan and Rob (5) were in the conservatory on two separate computers working on the Birdie cover and downloading Ketebul photos for the brochure.   Martyn, Mike, Andrea and Ed (9) were in the front room working on the sax session for Blue Eyes Looked Up and playing around with new songs.    And Gus and Sophie were on swings in the back garden with Greg (12) with Toby, Sammy and Lewie (15) trying to look like a happy couple for the ‘home movies’ section of the Whisper video.    Meanwhile, Hunter and Tati (17) were trying to make breakfast and Kathy (18) kept running in and out trying to get work done in a very chaotic house.   Tory keeps moving from room to room trying to find privacy (19).  That’s 19 living beings (not counting the two fish), colliding in a small space.   Now a moment on instruments.  In the hallway we had Ed’s Trumpet, Sophie’s Cello, Mike’s random drums, bongos, Martyn’s amps, Martyn’s acoustic guitar, and then we have 8 guitar and cello cases spilling across the floor.  And the Only Thing that’s Missing in all this was  Lou and Lew.

‘It is all about Chaos at Abubilla Music (please watch this thru if you like American Football)

• Kenya/Ketebul:    The most important ‘everything else’ on Saturday was, of course, Andy reporting back on his trip to Kenya.  A couple key points emerged.  First, we are very lucky to be able to work with Tabu and his team and are proud to be associated with them.  Andy reported on how great the organisation is in Nairobi and how impressed he was by the musicians.  We played a number of the CD’s and videos and were blown away.  Second, we talked thru the timing of the fund raising and trips to Kenya and next steps on the fund raising brochure.  We’ve got all we need now to a) describe the project fully and b) also the output we want from the trips.  So watch this space, but increasingly, once the album is finished, a lot of what we will be describing is work to support Ketebul.
• Gus’s Album:     We are beginning to understand better our artist proposition.   What defines the Saturday Morning Canasta Club is we are a demo factory.    We are a band of folks with full time lives outside of music.   We are a Saturday day band.  We don’t gig.   But we are determined to support emerging artists that aspire to be professional musicians and make a go at it.   Gus and Mike are our first two folks that are actually devoted full time to this music thing.    So Andy and I met with Gus and agreed we’d get an album done of ‘his songs’ (either his own, or the SMCC songs where he is the lead).  So watch this space as we move to release one of our first artist releases under the Abubilla Music label.

Well that’s it.

Jimmy