Hi, my name is Ben and my middle name is Reginald.
The last couple of weeks have been pretty busy in all aspects of life.I got together with Joe and Frank to play our first full-length gig as a band in around six years and it went spectacularly. We pulled a few old Hollowpoint songs out of the bag, as well as a mix of Halley's, mine and Joe's solo work and a couple of covers (including a version of Man In The Mirror that we were all very proud of). For an intimate (but busy) crowd, it was probably one of my favourite live performances to date; this might have been due to a small part of me enjoying what it represented, or maybe because Joe and Frank are moving away in the next few weeks (making this, realistically, probably the last time the three of us will play live together). Either way, it was a great night and one that I'll remember for a long time.
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| You can identify me as the artist by the anatomical accuracy. |
Meanwhile, the album photo shoot with Andy Casey went really well and the artwork is coming together very nicely - there's one more photo that I need to take, but it needs a specific person to make it work (I'll be taking it the first chance I get) and after that it's finished. With everything non-musical for the album pretty much in place, I've also been finishing off writing the songs themselves. The last song of the eleven to be written is still in need of some more lyrics, but is musically all there - this is kind of handy as we start recording tomorrow!
Tomorrow is going to be spent creating and populating all of the songs' project files (probably using the existing demos as bases), before tracking all of the drum parts. It's going to be a long day and probably the most work-intensive of the whole recording process, but with Frank moving away next weekend it's more of a 'get it done while he's still around' situation. Luckily, working hard in the studio is something that we do fairly well, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem; everyone involved always has the best time recording, but at the same time we all know how to work hard when it counts. Add to this the fact that Frank is an absolute machine when it comes to recording drums and we should be alright - as long as we remember to bring a can of WD40 to maintain the guns.
Once the drums are down, we're going to do something we haven't done before and bounce very rough mixes of each track to take away and listen to. The idea behind this is that then Joe can use these to lock his bass lines in with what Frank's playing on each one and make the most out of any musical ideas that might emerge as we go along (we'll then go on to do the same for guitars once the bass is recorded, etc.). It also gives me the ultimate in exclusive so-indie-you-probably-have-never-heard-it iTunes playlists for a little while, as I trundle along analysing snare patterns and off-beat paradiddles in my free moments.
I'm so, so excited to be recording again, but it's coming along at a pretty busy, weird time for me. I've probably worn out the metaphor of life being a Rubik's Cube, but it's the most apt description I've ever been given (by Bob Penny, a good friend and very wise man who'd never admit it). Music, love, work, money, family, friends all have their own colours - with probably more to add to that (I know that stops it being a cube, this is a metaphor!). For most people, we can only hope to complete maybe one or two sides at a time before either we have to re-jumble the whole thing in search of another colour, or someone else does a bit of well-meaning jumbling of their own. My cube is always a mess, always. At the moment, though, I've got to go for completing that 'music' side and see if maybe the others fall into place along the way.
YOU ARE UPDATE!
- Ben
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