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STUDIO DIARY PART ONE

    
    January 8th 2007

    

    I should start with what 
    happened in the studio at the end of November I suppose after all that is 
    where the music was created and without that….

    

    Let’s get this straight. 
    Recording is 99% about WORK. I mean usually by the 
    time you go into record the creative stuff has been done i.e. the songs have 
    been written, arranged and rehearsed. To be fair this is the way I have 
    always done it, especially in the Angels period. But in recent years I have 
    grown tired of the same old process, ending up in a studio at some 
    ridiculous time in the morning leaning into the speakers trying to figure 
    out if a snare beat is in  time or not or a note I had sung was bang on 
    in tune. BORING and to be honest it just squeezes the life out of the 
    stuff…so this time I made the decision to go in with NOTHING fully written 
    only a couple of mini discs full of ideas. Mainly just riffs or hummed 
    melodies but nothing concrete. My time as a picky detail perfect artist was 
    over. Now I wanted to re discover what made me tick all those years ago when 
    I first entered a studio with nothing more than enthusiasm and the 
    desperation to succeed pulsing through my veins. It is a question I have 
    asked myself so many times over the years but until now I was unable to 
    succinctly arrive at an answer. What is the answer? 

    

    Well it is something to do with 
    not trying to hard coupled with an instinctive understanding of how to 
    recognise a RAW emotional idea and live with it in the moment! Clear as mud 
    I know…but I have spent years trying to figure this shit out so maybe this 
    is as close as I will ever get. I suppose in the long run it is really all 
    about having fun producing music that I like first and then hope to God and 
    all the Angels that everyone else gets it.

    

     Ok, so we all went down to 
    sunny Surrey, this was after I visited Manchester for a number of meetings 
    and to attend the THUNDER show at the Academy (very good it was to)

    

    
    I woke the next morning and got 
    on the road around 8am only to simply join an enormous traffic jam on the 
    M6. I swore a lot that morning and eventually arrived at Rogers place around 
    4pm…not happy, but at least glad the bloody journey was over.

    

    Initially we had to congregate 
    at the ACM (Academy of Contemporary Music) which is where Roger works as the 
    head of the part time courses. En route I had spoken to Dean about meeting 
    there and had not given much thought to the fact that I hadn’t played with 
    him for nearly ten years! It just seemed like business as usual and I 
    literally walked into the college, sat down in one of the performance 
    studios and began working on some of the riffs/ideas that I had brought with 
    me. Dean did not bat an eyelid! And it felt to me like he had always been 
    there. Ok, so I know what your all thinking, that this is the kind of thing 
    that people like me always say when situations change, you know the kind of 
    thing: ‘yeah well it was as if he never left’ or ‘it was the most natural 
    thing in the world’ etc etc la la la…it is usually to put a brave face on a 
    sinking ship and positive fanfares are always the order of the day, I mean 
    hell, who would come out saying stuff like:

    

     ‘well I suppose he’ll do, I 
    mean it will never be as good obviously but well see what happens…’

    

    I mean COME ON! 
    

    

    But genuinely I felt like the 
    right thing had happened with the departure of Nick and the re introduction 
    of Dean. It is very clear to me having been through similar things before in 
    bands, simply put, if it isn’t working then it is very obvious. How we 
    present ourselves to the audience is often not what is really happening when 
    the dust has settled and the personalities have to get on with each other. 
    Like I have said many times now, my problem with Nick isn’t so much a 
    problem more of a miss-matching of ideas and behaviour. Nick is astounding 
    as a player but it really isn’t about that. Dean has a quiet confidence that 
    is completely compatible with me; I love his creative impulse because it is 
    based in gut feeling and true grit. Dean is no fool and has had enormous 
    experience in the rock biz and brings it with him in a non showy manner. I 
    realise now that this is exactly what has been missing! A sense of control 
    over the music through the players and more importantly a feeling of genuine 
    equilibrium amongst the ranks… He fits like a glove and the rest of the week 
    would prove to only fully underline this point.

    

     So far so good…lead on McDuff…