Produced by Iain Lowery

Heart of a Dog

The Sound of Sight

Heptonstall Old Church

This was played as the 'Headphone Moment' on BBC6 music today.
It's a Milly Hirst song featuring Jessica Wilson.
I recorded it at my house.

p.s. it was also the MPFree on Thursday's Lauren Laverne show.

I did this a while ago, with Milly Hirst... 

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.

Love the new bandcamp players

Current Projects

I have quite a few projects on the go at the moment and I thought I'd mark the occasion by listing them here, so that I when make my rare venture back to this blog, I can hopefully give myself a pat on the back for completing them.

So...

Currently in production of 2 singles for Heart of a Dog

Almost completed production on a track called 'Hepstonstall Old Church' for Milly Hirst

Pre Production of a 3 or 4 track EP for Jess Wilson

Pre Production of a 3 or 4 track EP for 'The Real Paul'

Preparing some of my own tracks for a potential 5 or 6 track mini album release - More on this later

If anyone else is looking for someone to work with them on recording then please get in touch.

A Review!

I already feel as though I have shouted about this too much by posting it to facebook and a few of the many twitter accounts that I run but I'm really chuffed to have received this review of my recent 'Februum' album on a great little music blog called Quantum Bleep. You can read it here

Februum

I'm pleased to announce (on this blog at least) the completion of the RPM Challenge February album I mentioned in the previous post. I did write, record and finish 10 tracks during February and released this album on my bandcamp page on March 1st. I didn't however submit the finished album to the RPM website. Perhaps that was a mistake. Still, it's exists and I'm pleased about that.

Gentleman's Wash

The boiler in our house has been broken for the last week and won't be fixed until next weekend. We've been boiling the kettle to wash. I don't have anywhere near enough work at the moment, and that means I'm at home more than I normally would be and we only have one fan heater! so, I'm making an album during February. inspired by a rpm music challenge to do so, stipulating that it must be either 10 tracks or 35 minutes. Normally I would never be able to complete such a task but I'm trying to be far less precious with stuff and write and record quickly and instinctively. I'm having to try quite hard to keep pushing through the pockets of self doubt and frustration. So far I actually have a few tracks on the go and am still going! This alone is a miracle. I haven't written anything for ages but I'm stubbornly forcing myself to do this task that the back of my mind thinks impossible. I'm also holding the belief that no one will ever hear the results. This is an essential element to the writing process.

Update

It's probably a good thing that this blog has been a bit neglected over the last few months, it means I have been busy. I quit my job, got a new and better one and now find myself making all my money from music or music related things.

I took a look at my 'Current Projects' page a second ago and thought I should update y'all on how these things are going -

Barn - Barn is alive and well. We have a proper website,  two releases ready to go and more being planned. For more info on Barn Recordings follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google+

Lost Levels Album - The album, which we're calling Byebyeland is now complete (except for last bits of mix downs and masters etc..) We're currently thinking about artwork, track order and most importantly how to get it out.

Heart of a Dog - I ended up producing the 2nd HOAD EP - '...With the Head of a Beast' in my home studio. It was released by Barefeet Records. Listen..!  

Shane O'Linski  - I'm in the process of getting Shane's vast back catalogue of unreleased albums available to hear and download and have set up a sort of label called Gaga & Pik to talk about it. We are releasing the albums gradually. Here is the first one... 

It's very sunny today so I'm going outside now.