Fun with photos for the new album

We're still debating a title for our new CD - the working title is "Together," - because we're both singing on it and we're a duo etc ...  but we're both feeling it's not quite right.  There's a couple of days yet to decide.   But apart from that, progress is well on its way - we're in the final days of mixing and getting artwork and photos done alongside that.   It's a bit like tidying in all the loose threads on a massive patchwork quilt - great fun.

It's hard getting photos of a couple that don't look like wedding photos - so I wanted to share a few of the fun photos we got - probably never be used for anything serious.

I have a condition called Sjogrens Syndrome which leaves my eyes very sensitive to light.  For the last CD cover I wore sunglasses and felt really stupid - but this photographer, when I said I needed glasses, suggested Tom put them on as well. So we had a good laugh pretending to be the Blues Brothers - and turning out more like Peters and Lee as some smart alec suggested :)  Poor Tom's knees were wrecked having to come down to my height!

Check out our Kickstarter campaign, if you fancy pre-ordering the CD,  which will be launched at the end of July at our local folk festival.  I'll preview a few songs over the next couple of weeks.

Remotely Bass

The recording process has changed a lot in recent times for all but the top  rock and pop acts.

In the old days we used to book a studio usually for 3 consecutive days on 4 consecutive weeks and completed an album in that time.   It was costly but exhilarating to be so immersed in the recording process.

Nowadays, because CD sales have dropped dramatically and online sales are negligible, recording budgets need to be controlled more tightly.   It's relatively easy to have a small studio in your own house if you know what you're doing and have good microphones and equipment.   We've had Ballyneddan Studio for nearly 10 years now - it's perfect for acoustic projects and for spoken word recordings.  Tom's a great engineer and our house is in a really quiet setting.  It's only one room but we sometimes use all the other rooms in the house to separate the instruments.

It's lovely being able to record at home, but there is a downside - everything else that you're doing takes precedence over your own creative process or practice.  Everyone else's needs take priority - teaching, recording, promotion, editing, family etc.

The plus side though is that the recording process is totally in your own control.  So if you complete one session with a musician and something needs to be changed on your own tracks then you can go and fix it.

I know there are some young singers and musicians who read here from time to time, so for you here's a bit of clarification.

A session is where one instrumentalist comes in and records that instrument on multiple tracks.   Sometimes, like with guitar for example, that instrument may be on almost every track on the album so the session may last as much as 3 days.

James, adding bass to our songs

But with bass, we are only using it on 4 songs on this recording.   So with the wonders of modern technology we were able to send the tracks by email to our bass player, he plays and records his parts on to those tracks and then sends them back digitally.  Wonderful:)  All of sudden the songs are taking shape and it's a delight.  

The start of winter routine

September is well into its stride now
The holidays are quickly becoming a distant memory ...
Although this picture will bring me back again...

Tomorrow I start back with my school classes
not looking forward to it
It's only one morning a week
but it's a part of life that takes me away from my own creative process
I get so absorbed in everyone else's improvement....
But y'know what? It'll be fine once I get started.
Don't know how many students are coming along yet
Hopefully some of last year's will return
A great bunch of singers
And we'll find new material to sing.
It's interesting being around teenage girls
Reminds me so much of myself
and hopefully I can spare them some of the horrors of my own teenage years.

But gradually all my schedule has filled up for the winter

Choir starts in another couple of weeks and a new guitar class starts before that.
and all my lovely adult singers will be well into their process by then as well.

§§§§§§§§§§

So, daily, in my morning pages, I'm reminding myself of who I am - what I am - a singer, a performer, a writer, a musician, an entertainer... and after all of that I also coach and teach.   In previous years I've allowed me to get lost in everyone else's drama - the year before last I didn't even learn one song during the 9 months of term.    I was wondering why I was getting so stressed out and fretful about starting back into September.    But this year, it is not going to happen.   If I have to write a reminder to myself every day for the next year, then that's what I'm going to do.

So, here's what's going on in my creative life ....
I started back in the recording studio last week - making a start on the new CD.    This will be my first time playing guitar on my own recordings and I'm really pleased with the results so far.  Although I've recorded 7 CDs to date, I only ever played guitar in the background on one or two songs - I always got someone else (better) to interpret my ideas and then tried to get my own ideas back out of what their interpretation was!!!    Strange one .... There'll be some songs still to write, but to start with we're putting down all the songs that are ready to go.
 
I've also got backing vocals to do for another recording project next weekend and all of those songs to learn...

between now and then - a revisit to some music I put to a Hungarian poet's work during the Summer - we've been invited on to a local TV show on Friday to promote her work - and mine.    (That was so interesting - putting music to someone else's words).

And I've started on the songbook that's been in the pipeline for a long time now.  I'm trying to do one thing every day to move it along until it gets its own momentum -  initial copyright queries haven't gotten very far today but tomorrow's another day.  

If that's not enough ... I actually drew a face in my new art journal this week!!!  It's not completed yet, but the start was a big leap for me....  Art has been such a distraction all summer - in fact for longer than that - perhaps a couple of years now - but it's finally producing the results that I've wanted .... by being creative in another area it would spark my own creativity again - and it worked!

How is the Autumn settling in for you?   How do you keep your focus when you have to deal with other people's creative output?

Studio days Part Two.

Brendan's back for a second session to complete the basics of all the songs for the new CD.

A wee chat with Tom to start ...

 I'm doing guide vocals in the sitting room - Brendan's in the studio with Tom ...

The album keeps changing direction - it hasn't decided where it's going yet ...  I don't know how he keeps the idea in his head of where the track is going to .... a bare guitar that will leave room to be eventually coloured around by other instruments - a bit of bass or fiddle or accordion and definitely percussion ... and last but not least my voice.   Oh how exciting this process is this time.  


It was 20 years ago when we released the first album, The Light Beyond the Woods - I was in awe of all the musicians and hadn't a clue really as to what was going on.   I have never been happy with my voice on that CD but it lead me onto a journey of discovery that started me teaching other people to help them get over stage fright and deal with the beliefs that they couldn't sing.

It's been glorious today - the first sign of Spring in the air -  we could go out without a coat for a short while.