Studio

My home studio has had a big upgrade, mostly due to my good friend Alan Southgate giving me a whole bunch of his equipment which he no longer had space for since moving out of his house and into a caravan. It's possibly the most generous gift I've ever received. So, as well as some shiny new equipment I've had a shift around, build some new acoustic treatment and generally tidied everything up in an effort to make my music room more useable and more comfortable. I'm really pleased with it now. It's the best music room I've ever had. So, what have I been using this music room for? Well - A couple of days ago I (along with Mark Thorby) completed the two new singles for Heart of a Dog, these are 'Horse' and 'Tir-Phil' and I think we did a really god job on them. Mark made the initial live recordings which the tracks were started from. We only ended up using the Drums and Piano takes from that session, with everything else being replaced or added at my studio. As well as the HOAD stuff I've also been recording with Paul Hubbard, a.k.a. The Real Paul, as he's been billed live recently. Paul was just getting back into making music after a bit of a hiatus and needed a bit of help so I agreed to record three tracks with him, two of which are so far complete and tomorrow we are making a start on the third. Paul has a really 60's style to his writing and wanted to incorporate that idea with some more modern sounds and recording techniques. At this point in time he doesn't have a band so just plays solo with an acoustic guitar, though he always writes with a band in mind. Part of my job on this project was to help realise Paul's ideas and arrange the tracks for a much larger ensemble of instruments. I really love doing this and know that I am quite good at it so it's been fun. I also played some bits and sang some harmonies. I'll post the tracks up when all three are complete. I've also secured a place for one of Paul's tracks on Kingsley Harris' (NRONE Records) forthcoming Compilation CD which will be given out to delegated at this year's Sound & Vision festival in Norwich, and helped Paul find out about a music course which has since been accepted onto Plus, I'm currently dealing with a company that arrange music syncs who want to represent the tracks we have made. Job Done. In other news, I've made a start on a debut Jess Wilson EP and we're a track and a half in. It's going to be amazing. Starting work on a new Milly Hirst EP next month. If anyone reading this is looking for someone to record with, get in touch.