Blog
13.04.20 This Week in the Studio
Written by Jimmy
Honestly, this has been my favourite day in the studio for about two years. Loved it and here’s why. We spent about a third of our time working on the Discovery Programme, a third of our time working on new songs inspired by Singing Wells and a third of time doing Singing Wells pod casts. The first third inspired me – there is so much musical talent in the world and this little studio might be able to help someone. The second third simply confirmed the synergies between Abubilla Music and Singing Wells. And the final third confirmed both how much good material we have from Africa and also how good our little isolation booth is for vocal work. So a good sunny day that maybe says we’re on the right track. And Olivia brought us bald bob, which is never a bad thing….
Before we begin… a small commercial break… on behalf of Squeeze. I am old. But I am made older with how young Olivia is. And Mike. They hadn’t heard of Squeeze. I cried cried, having just watched them on Songbook, playing their best songs. Here is Up The Junction but I really want to find Take Me I’m Yours (so I’ll give you the original). And I hope everyone watches Songbook.
And Take Me I’m Yours (I love the unplugged version on Song Book, but here’s the original).
Discovery Artists
We have passed the April 14 deadline for our 2013 Discovery Artist Search and agreed to meet in the studio on 20 April to review all the entrants. It was extremely inspiring – so many singer-songwriters and bands were so good, so original, so committed and passionate. We all came away wishing we had more resources to support more than a few artists at a time. We also felt that British music was alive and in good hands! We’ll be reaching out to the artists that we can invite to the live gigs quite shortly. Below, Mike and Milly present to the group the full set of submissions to our 2013 programme (See Separate Note on Fire Marshall).
New Music, Inspired by Singing Wells
We then jumped in the studio to try to do something interesting with a Singing Wells Song. This involved Martyn (guitar) in the main studio and Mike (drums) and Andy (bass) in the isolation booth. Jimmy pressed buttons and Olivia remained in the office working with Bald Bob (more on this below). These sessions are always difficult, but we found a great song, discover its structure and then played away. We know the Afridcan tribes say the same about our music, but we always find that the first time we listen to tribal music, we have a very hard time discovering its structures. But they are always there. While not remotely satisfied with where we got to at end of session, we think there is a ‘there there’ and will devote more time to this song in the coming weeks. Here are Martyn, Mike, Andy and Jimmy in the studio:
Pod Casts:
We then spent the final part of the day doing Pod Casts for Singing wells, confirming that we have a very good capability to do voice overs in the studio. Mike did one on drumming to the recent track. Martyn did a Pod Cast about being a Trustee for the Abubilla Music Foundation and then Jimmy and Andy went on and on and on around African music recordings. Jimmy recently completed a blog on his favourite moments with Singing Wells (CLICK HERE) and this served as a good start for the stories…. One of these is about meeting Akello in Uganda -here she plays with one of the bands we met in Kampala:
A few other things:
- Our 10th mouse was killed. We are using the passive voice on this one because we’re not even baiting traps any more. They just walk in and die in our little electric box. In spirit of evolution I think we are ultimately making the mouse race stronger. This one was high hank and we think he had the munchies. Olivia will expand on this later.
- We converted our mouse guilt into saving a wasp with bald bob.
- Olivia ordered hooks to make Bald Bob a reality.
- Olivia is also our Fire Marshall and instructed all of us in fire saftely. To practice an evacuation she didn’t yell fire (for obvious reasons) but ‘Pizza is here.’ We moved quite quickly. Funny that.
Here’s Mike rescueing a wasp with Bald Bob.
Jimmy
(From the Bridge, April 20th 2013)