June 2011
30 posts
UFO
27/6/11
Apparently one of these has just been spotted over London…
Hmmm, what's next?
16 Superfine - how it turned out!
Let me see you work it on the floor
We laughed, we danced, we drank whisky, and six hours later we had what we wanted… Gold.
Pure. Disco. Magic.
Monique Brumby is the disco diva in town. No meat suit required. And it’s not Friday.
String line is Superfine
Our string section bears an uncanny resemblance to a bright red Swedish keyboard complete with tiger stripes. Amazing.
Play
Disco. Yeah you heard it right.
And that meant one thing… a killer bass line.
We nailed the writing of song 16 pretty quickly. This was ideal as it gave us plenty of time to nut out the very best parts for each instrument.
The bass part in a disco track can make or break the song. Think Disco Inferno. We play everything live, no programming. It took around 3 hours for Nick to work out the bass part that he wanted to play on the track and record it.
17 Two Day Drive - How it turned out!
Viva Sarah
Sarah Carroll. Tall. Vivacious. Brilliant.
Fortunately I picked up the camera early on in the night. Sarah finished the vocals on song 17 in about 3 takes. This is after having heard the song maybe a handful of times (as a not-so-excellent demo), and being sprung with lyrics on the night of the recording.
Play
Ode to Bobbie Gentry
Bobbie Gentry on the Tallahatchie Bridge (1967 issue of LIFE magazine)
In our working-out-ideas phase for song 17, we decided to listen to some Elvis. We started at Never Been to Spain, and in standard YouTube practice, ten tangents later, ended up with the legendary Bobbie Gentry singing her self-penned classic, Ode to Billie Joe.
It’s a must listen. Bobbie Gentry sings and plays a nylon string acoustic guitar. An inspired string arrangement serves as her only other accompaniment. She tells a vaguely indifferent tale about the untimely death of Billie Joe McAllister. Each refrain closes with the line, the day “Billie Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge”.
It’s utterly compelling.
Something for Sarah
“She’s a super tall, tattooed, Elvis loving, ukulele playing, tear your heart out roots singer…” this was Nick’s description of Sarah Carroll, our singer for song 17.
The skies have it
She's back, too
Jo Cotsonis, singer of 25 I’m On Fire, came to visit us in the first week of our song 17 fortnight. It didn’t take long before she was back on the drum kit having a Carpenters moment.
