The new album... The story so far

Anyone who read the blog about the making of the last album will know that it was not an entirely pleasant process. This time around I wanted to change everything. I now had an ace band to use which meant we could do things live, rather than overdubbing which would speed the process up no end. I've also been listening to a lot more acoustic music (Gillian Welch, Philip Roebuck, the Jayhawks to name but a few) all of which is recorded pretty much live, in a room with a few mics kicking around. As well as this, my dealings with the Edible Doormouse proved how quickly this kind of music can be thrown together, and how much fun it can be.

This next project was to be recorded live at my house in one weekend. Ambitious but a bit of a laugh.

First job was to write some tunes, a process which, for the first time in ages, I really enjoyed. Every day I got up played my guitar, made copious notes then went up to a pub called 'The Navigation' and sat by the canal with a pint writing lyrics. It was great to be able to put some proper time into writing as it had been ages. The nature of the material was much more fluid and simple as I knew we would be doing it very quickly. I often try to over-think things and this was a great way of getting out of that habit.

After a week of writing I went into the studio with my friend Will and did a load of demo's. I played all the instruments and it was very loose. The demos were just to give the band an idea of the tunes so they wouldn't be coming to them cold on the weekend of recording. I was really pleased with how the songs turned out and the guys really liked them. You can download one of these demos 'What would be left' from the 'Miscellaneous recordings' section on the 'Music' page of the website http://www.ricneale.co.uk/

We picked a couple to work on for a gig we did at the 'Fox n Newt' in Leeds. both of which worked a treat to say the least. The guys brought their own ideas to the material and it was really interesting working so quickly. I thought the new tunes were the best of the night which bolstered me to keep writing and demoing even more.

The weekend deadline came around and all was in place for a fruitful few days. However, Stu was called away for the weekend on a work emergency so all was cancelled. We were all gutted, most of all Stu, as we were all well up for getting the tunes down. Me and Spence coped admirably with the new found free time, going round Leeds getting drunk and playing pool (which I won) and talking shit (which was a draw).

We've not yet had chance to re schedule the recording due to being as busy as we all are. but the tunes are sounding lovely and it won't be long... I promise... Haven't we heard this somewhere before...?

Second Wind

Whilst in the middle of writing songs for the new album I was offered the opportunity by my friend Jamie to get into the studio and do a shit hot recording of a tune. Jamie was doing an MA and wanted something for his portfolio so I knew that he'd want something quite smooth and AOR sounding. The problem was that this didn't really fit in with the stuff I was writing for the new record which was largely acoustic (more on that later). That said, I really wanted to take him up on the offer as I'd not done any new recordings with the new band and it would be a good bit of practice.

Second Wind was a musical idea that I'd had some time before and the pre chorus key change is from ages ago but i hadn't found the right way to use it. The rest pretty much fell into place quickly - it was not difficult to write a lyric about busy I've been, in fact it was complete in one sitting. Musically it's very similar to the stuff on the first album with it's ultra short verses (don't bore us get to the chorus...) and modulating pre chorus leading to a harmony laden hook line. the middle section is very similar to the writing on "Seemed like a good idea at the time", in fact the first half of it is very similar to 'Give myself to you', but there's no harm in stealing from yourself.

I went and did a rough demo version at Jamie's which i sent to the band all of whom seemed to like it very much. It was suggested that it sounded like it should be in a Rocky montage but what the hey...

we recorded it in two sessions at the studio; Ivan on drums for the first session, Stu and Spence came in for the second. Jamie did the mix himself and did a pretty fine job of it. something about the tune doesn't quite add up for me, but you can be the judge.

Download it for free from the 'miscellaneous recordings' section on the 'music' page of my website. www.ricneale.co.uk