AS some of you might also be aware, for most of this year I’ve been working on my new material and pulling together a silver briefcase-load of songs to reach your ears sometime soon. But in the 2 months or so – since I got back from America really in August – I’ve felt that I have the album done, all the contenders are written, although I’m sure I’ll write one or two more. I have the album title too. So it’s time to move on. Time to call Avis rent-a-car.
I’m aware I’ve described the process of my previous albums before in a similar way, but then you’ll just have to trust me that I’m very excited by my new songs. As always, its important to me to move-on, continue to develop and stretch myself as a writer and artist. So, transitions in my choice of transportation device aside, that’s what I strive to do with my next album:
surprise myself, surprise you. God, 4 albums? I’d feel like the Beatles! Albeit, with more marginal sales (and transportation..), but I live in hope.
I’ve been to a few weddings this year and I think that’s been as big an inspiration as anything, its cemented something that I’ve had in my mind for a while: I want to make some music that makes you want to hit the dance floor. I’m not talking hardcore club music, but I want more of a groove, just something different sonically from what I’ve done before. Which has led to a big decision: I’m working with another Producer for the first time. Its not easy, being something of a control freak (so I’m told) to let go of the control, or the freakery – I just thought I was a perfectionist, but it seems like the reigns are flapping and, most importantly, its sounding fucking great!! More freaky! 3 songs are done. I have demos of another 20-odd, so there’s much more to do; much more control to freak over, but, in the end, the songs will stand up for themselves anyway I hope.
Album Recording Diary 4 - ‘The Harmonium Is King’
I suppose one good thing is at least all the entries on the site that talk about things happening ‘next year’ are still accurate. They really do mean next year now. As opposed to this year. Which is now last year. Fuck, we’re all a year younger! Horrah!
So, Camelot Revisited is out of me. There will be more. It has a weird effect on it. I was sitting at the harmonium – which almost every song has a bit off on it now – and the delay on the tape (or with the digital mice is more accurate) was giving off this crazy, ethereal ‘Cocteau’s’-type noise. All delays and echo’s every time I touched it or made a noise. It was like the thought police were hiding in wind instruments. So I recorded it. Well, I recorded me hitting it and making wheezing noises like a 4-minute miler.
Imagine it as the sonic equivalent of the ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ video, where the images spin off as domino effects of the one before. Maybe it was really nothing like that. You’ll never know. Nor will i. It’s gone. I think it finished off the song well though. All songs need flights of fancy or some basic fucking accident to give them a life of their own. I thank the digital mice.
I’m dying to get out and play these songs and have them out there for you. There’s no future for me in full-time carrot cake eating. Pavarotti beat me to it.
Anyway, this harmonium is ace. I wonder if it will work live, on a stage. I’m not sure where you would stick the mic (no wind jokes please..). If you’ve never played one, what happens is you sit at it and cycle your feet on the pedals and it pulls in its chest and pumps out the notes that you play. It’s the equivalent of a musical marathon. Which is good for when the touring starts again, it’ll keep me fit. Especially as I entered into the New York marathon this year and then deferred it. I was taken with the romantic notion of the long distance runner. And there is a charity that enters you and pays your trip if you raise enough money for them.
Anyway, I pulled out. Apparently they don’t stop at cake shops? I’d rather make music. Maybe I could have been pushed around in the harmonium, dressed as King Arthur, peddling away with my medieval sounds. Next year maybe. I’ve been laid a bit low anyway with a shoulder injury. Probably just as well that I haven’t been touring as I’m not sure I would have made it. Everything happens for a reason my Gran used to say.
It has nothing to do with my first training session when I limped back from the Thames with a sore knee after 1 mile. I wasn’t exactly burning up the tarmac as it was. I’m sure I saw a guy sitting at a harmonium passed me by.
I have 8 songs recorded. How many do you want? How many should I do? I think I’ll do 15 and take a pick from that. Like all good football managers, give them all a chance. Got put out in penalties in the Tobermory football tourney in the summer on Mull. I was player-manager. Not an easy role. It’s the park that I played on as a kid, and now it is rebuilt as an all-weather surface and named after my dad. Well, I’m away off the music now. Poor England in the world cup!..
I think to play the harmonium live I’d need a big hat. Not necessarily a dog’s wig shape. More like a tall black hat. Like an undertaker or a Worzil Gummage impersonator, serenading Aunt Sally. I just freaked ‘spell check’ out with that. I think to manage a team of harmonium players would be difficult. Too much wind. Difficult to overlap the fullbacks.
More songs will be completed soon. There will be more random clips from my mobile phone direct from the studio on the website.
It will be worth the wait - I promise you! It’s sounding great I think.
Colinx
Been back in the studio again in deepest darkest England. One new song recorded is called ‘Camelot Revisited’. I think the English as a race are inflicting their Nights of the Realm stories of war on me. I seem to be on a medieval trip.
I’ve taken some time off the diary for the hot summer to go to play around with melodies, go see some gigs, write & read - and move to London for a bit. And also to attend the social highlight of the year…not the Ivor Novello awards, no, they were nothing compared to The Tobermory Highland Games! Although, with the Festivals all happening this summer I’ve really been desperate to get up there and play. Really! I think I’ll explode or something when the time comes. I remember at Wireless even the smell got me. I must be desperate. Things all happened so fast first time round for me that I don’t think I stopped to appreciate what a rush it is to perform. I miss it and need it. And it will be soon.
It was good to go out in May with Mark Fraser, your website host and mine. We watched Paul Simon strum and then took off into the night in London. Terry and Julie we were! Anyway, I meant to mention that in my last entry, that he was at the gig with me. That’s not to say we were an item. Oh no. But it was a moment in time. It was a curry. But I wonder who would be who?..
I’m aware that I haven’t performed for a bit. Well aware! And that I’m due – you’re due – a recording of songs from me. Well, I’m working on it. It’s a fucker and frustrating at times – the waiting - I’ve toyed with the idea of becoming a full time caber-tosser, but I don’t have the required upper bodyweight. So I’m going to continue with the music. The business end is taking some time catching up with my creative one and that is the reason for the delay in me getting out there again. Simple as that. The songs are ready.
Album Recording Diary 3 - ‘Kegs’
Colin has finished his next album The Water. He has spent most of this and last year pulling the songs together in Glasgow, London and America. For the first time he is working with another Producer: Lemon Jelly’s Nick Franglen.
In Colin's words "It feels a bit to me now like i felt before 'Loss' came out, where you're really proud of something you've created, and just need the world to hear it"
See below for Colin’s studio diary entries (most recent entries are on top), as well as to access audio/visual clips direct from the studio from Colin’s mobile phone. An additional gallery is located here
Been back in The Strongroom Studios in East London last month. That's where I recorded 'This Is Hope', so it was like going back to the scene of my ryvita and banana-eating crime from that spell. The new songs are coming on well and it all feels like there's some simple plan somewhere guiding the melodies home, or home to YOU. Lots of beats and melodies. Still got a few songs to record, which will need a bigger production, but all going well. Also a few new pop songs to complete. The boy trying hard. Giving 110%.
Actually, it's been very cool to visit the Strongroom Bar opposite the studio...it was so full-on for me during my last spell here for 3 wks (recording 'Hope') that the nearest I got to the bar was hitting a drumstick against the beer kegs outside ("My Friend The Addict') and hitting big drums outside the door (" ..Scientist"), and having vague discussions with Austrians about Hitler’s origins in the lane outside ("..Next Life") - so it's been good to actually participate in emptying some of these kegs!” Colin x
RECORDING DIARY 2 - THE VAPORUB SESSIONS
So i'm in a recording studio in deepest, darkest England trying to get rid of a dry cough to finish my vocals in time (i fly to America tmrw night...pity the other passengers...i've also had a curry tonight). i'll be here all night i reckon - finishing 3 more tracks for my new album, the songs are blaring out of the speakers and well, I'm so fucking happy by how it all sounds. My head is just out of a bowl of water after inhaling vaporub - i recommend it - and i've also just been singing through a distorted guitar hole, i recommend that also if you're stuck for something to do.
Songs completed this session are:
I Dont Have You To Ask
What Kind Of Man (The Art Of Disappearing)
Be My Saviour
Needless to say i'm very excited by the songs that i've written and am now recording for my 4th album – it will be released in ‘06. On this record i'll be working with another producer for the first time - Lemon Jelly's Nick Franglen - and it's going great, splashing on the vaporub, throwing out melodies. You'll hear it all soon. It feels fresh but it feels like me.
More info on the next record, and an update on my recording diary and all that i'll be getting up to, will obviously be coming up on this site v soon and on my blog.
Merry Xmas & Happy New Year...i'm off to America for the happy holidays to start a campaign to run for President but i'll have a few stocking stuffers on the site for you for xmas.
Ignore all spelling mistakes..and Vicks Vaporub-friendly advertising.....i'm getting back to the music and am now pressing 'add post' and hopefully going to get to bed this week!” Cheers, Colinxx
Bow To The Ford Focus God – A Week’s Recording Diary.
AS some of you might be aware from reading my studio diary for my last album (featured on this site somewhere), the last time, for the transportation to the recordings of THIS IS HOPE in The Strongroom studio in East London, I hired a Vauxhall Corsa; for my new album it seems like I’ve jumped ship, Ford is my new God. Well, for 2 weeks anyway.
I’ve started recording. My months of supposed hibernation – doing things like writing new songs, searching for inspiration, moving back to Glasgow (although I still seem to spend half my time in London), trying to write novels, spending some time in the U.S., reading loads, going to gigs, trying to widen my creative community (among Ford Focus drivers/songwriters), playing in gigantic revolving gerbil wheels – is coming to an end: it’s time for the songs to come out, just in time for Winter. I always thought David Attenborough said that hibernation worked the other way around, but then what does he know about the smooth-runnings and the loud indicators of the Ford Focus?
So, its with all this in mind – and “Women’s Hour” or something similar blaring out from a crackling MW radio signal about a story on the prospects of the first ever female German Chancellor – that I returned to London early on Friday morning after a week recording on the south coast of England. My eyes were stinging and my body aching (it was a full-on week) and then I control-freaked a bit, again, when I encountered a car full of what seemed like joy riders careering around a roundabout somewhere beyond Brighton, obviously searching for perfection themselves in their 80-mile-an-hour cornering technique. They pulled up alongside me and I imagined my Crimewatch debut but then they moved on. I flipped on the CD of the rough mixes of the first 3 songs. Their first plays to the outside world. But at 2am it seems to be a world that’s dark and unpopulated? Portsmouth is next the signs say. I turn onto the A3 after missing it the first time and send the Focus into overdrive, Martin Brundle needn’t get out of bed, but they’re surprisingly nippy, even if they’re not German.
Fuck, somewhere passing through the fog around Guildford, I think it sounds good. This week has been cool and lots of fun; as well as the more usual instruments I’ve played a harmonium and a sitar for the first time, the contents of a toolbox and the coins in my pockets too. I like trying new instruments and recording new things, it’s what helps make me feel like a musician, as opposed to a call-centre employee. Even the Focus’s keys have been rattled near a microphone. It’s been a great week. Every other future listen I ever have of these songs wont sound like they do now, because this is the first time I really hear them, out of my head so to speak, even though they’re still rough mixes. Still on the A3 and then a speed camera flashes. Who cares. Who gives a fuck? I have my songs! Am I aloud to sing over my own songs with my arm in the air and munching a banana? I think it’s a good sign. It’ll make for a good photo on the speed cam. I can feel the smugness of the Focus itself, now
listening with pride at the sound of its own keys coming through the speakers. One of the songs reminds me of something off Loss, the other 2 feel different.
More will be recorded soon. Songs, not speed-cam photos. It’s only now, back in London, that I realize I’ve lost weight. Not something I can afford to do. I need to gorge over the weekend, more bananas, put the weight back on, because I’m back there next week. More info will be on my diary as things develop. Including a website revamp, with more audio goodies. Some photos and short films from these sessions – hopefully none from the Sussex Constabulary – are to follow. Something new happened this week, something that’s never happened to me in the studio before. It was a good thing.
Track 1: The Water
Track 2: I Can, I Will
Track 3: Famous For Being Famous
Cheers
Colin
Album Recording Diary 5 - ‘The Curry Years’
On what at last feels like the final stretch now with the album. I'm back recording in deepest England. I'm able to really focus on the songs now with the Record Deal in place and it's a good feeling. I even have a man at the hotel down here who is becoming the Geordie night porter to my Alan Partridge. A fine man he is.
Every album i suppose is a story, and with this one i've had a journey. But it feels great. Truly thrilled with it so far and it's going to be hard to keep any songs off. One of the songs has a special guest, i cant say too much yet but it's somebody i respect and i think some of you will too.
I think a lot of the songs are about me, what i see around me, and society changing, and our roles within. I think i'm right in saying that, i look forwards to somebody else explaining. But i know you need a sugar rush, so working on that too.
'I Have Been Burned' & 'Faith No.2' & 'Future Gods & Past Kings' all ready to mix. And 'You're A Star' blaring out the speakers. It feels a bit like just before 'Loss' was finished in that i'd got a lot recorded, but then with playing some of the songs live, it helps when you go back to them, and fine-tune, having seen what works. Like a second hand call salesman. It feels a bit like jumping from a cliff. Into a lake of Tikka Masala.
I've finally got a song with the word 'Zeitgeist' in it too, but i'll see how it turns out. It feels a bit Ziggy..
Okay, i'm off to get on, having yet again proved that it's not my bag describing music, but there's nothing like making it. I just need you to hear it.
My next update will include the album's tracklisting.
Been eating loads of curry too. I love curry.
Final Recording Diary
Hi All
I've finished 'The Water', my new album !! Here's the track-listing; news of release dates / tours etc etc to come on the website.
1. You're A Star
2. Be My Saviour
3. The Water
4. I Can I Will
5. Famous For Being Famous
6. Camelot Revisited
7. I Don't Have You To Ask
8. I Have Been Burned
9. Stalker
10. Future Gods And Past Kings
11. Faith No. 2
12. Pay Attention To The Human
(Featuring Tony Benn)
I 've been wanting to update you with this news but i felt i needed to let the dust settle a bit, it has been quite a full-on time - but I have made my best album. Cant wait for you to hear it! This is the first time i've ever worked with a producer and i think the results are really outstanding. It sounds really fresh to me, but also pays some homage to the music i've released so far.
It feels a bit to me now like i felt before 'Loss' came out, where you're really proud of something you've created, and just need the world to hear it. It has been really important to me all along the way with this album that i made no compromises. And i can honestly say that i haven't. And nor has the producer, Nick Franglen. It was always a great creative join between us. It just sounds so perfect to me.
I finished mixing the album at the middle of July, two days before playing T in the Park. Killer schedule! But all worth it. Then went back to London to master it and then i flew off to America, with headphones on, and my first proper listen was in the air on top of places called Poughkeepsie and St Johns, while the Atlantic must have frothed below and i got back to writing my novel. (It reared its head annoyingly during the 2 months of the album mixing, but then maybe that's not so bad, sometimes creativity arrives like buses and shooting stars).
I wont talk about the songs in detail right now. You just need to hear them. There has been some samples of work in progress uploaded on my webspaces for a bit now - and also the 'Stormbreaker' version of 'Be My Saviour', which was really in demo form and unfinished - so it's great to have all the tracks now sounding as i intended. There will soon be some clips on the site to hear the new material. I dont think i've ever played so many instruments, from zithers to cardboard boxes - but mainly guitars. Big fat ones!!
There will soon be more info on the songs on the website, lyrics etc, and a photo diary, which mostly features a variety of cakes - it became a theme. All the artwork is ready, designed by Jo Burton, whose work appears elsewhere on my website, and again, it's been exciting to work with Jo on that and gain a designer's perspective. I think it looks great.
But i have to thank the people of hi-fi store Bang & Olufsen situated below the Flat Iron Building in New York (NY's first skyscraper). I would never have known it: but after a fair journey with this album and the many songs and the endless pieces of paper and phone melody reminders and through-the-nights sessions and twists and turns (and cakes and red wine and multi-flavored fudge) - the end of the road was this store on Broadway, N.Y. That's where i blagged my way into hearing it properly, beyond the constrictions of my i-pod, (the only other previous listen being in the 3am haze of the mastering room).
It was in the listening room of their store, with $20,000-a-piece speakers !! facing me, that I sat back listening to my album blaring out. Comfy chairs, the lot. And as the rain dried on my forehead (i'm Scottish, it follows me..) i watched customers on the other side of the glass imagining their homes furnished with new and shiny sonic produce, and I, thinking about my home, and the horses that used to neigh me to sleep would never have believed such a day could come. But it did and it has. Unfortunately i didn't make a purchase.. And when i got outside it had stopped raining. And the Empire State Building loomed like an exclamation mark pointing to the sky. And i had a record which i'm just, well, delighted with! And soon, you will have too.
Cx
p.s. During my time away from the UK i've written songs for something else too. Different kinds of songs. Stripped bare. Written on a very small acoustic guitar. Or maybe it was the world that was too big. I'll let you know more about that as it develops.
