Greetings Ladles and Germs
As Jimmy Greaves used to say, "Songwriting is a funny old game". Much has been said on the subject and among my favourite theories is the one whereby the Songwriter is basically a Antenna and Songs are simply signals floating around in the ether waiting to be tuned in (turned on, dropped out?). Now that is, indeed, a lovely image of the Songwriter sat with either a Pencil (true Artist), a Pen (struggling Musician) or a Laptop (Teenager) and grabbing these Tunes out of the sky and claiming them as their own. However, in reality (well, mine at least) it is more akin to staring blankly at four walls, praying for inspiration to beam you on the head, Newton -Apple style.
Inspiration comes in the strangest form and, presently, the Muse of yours truly is to be found within the pages of the mighty (mighty, spade and whitey) Facebook, of all places. No, Please wait, before you switch off - let me explain. On signing up to be a "Booker" (I have no idea if that is the correct term, but, I prefer it to "Fooker"), I hooked up with a lot of old school friends and someone had posted a school photo from 1975 and I got to wondering what curveballs life had thrown at those boys over the last 33 years. Well, before I knew it The Muse had turned on the Hot Tap and was filling up the Bath for me to hop in and soak it all up (you just don't get that kind of analogy in the Guardian). Some 3 weeks later I am 4 new songs to the good and, trust me, for someone who once took 10 years to complete a song, that is nothing short of an Elvis Costello-like output rate.
Today's show was brought to you by the Number 3 and the Letters J and Z.
N.B. Pronounced Zee if you are either
A: American
B: A Sesame street addict or
C: Under 13
Pronounced Zed if you are either
A: Quentin Tarantino
B: Frank Windsor or
C: Had no access to a TV in the 70's
Peas and Glove
Mick
Thursday 20 November 2008
Wednesday 19 November 2008
Are we Taping this?
Greetings Ladies and Germs
As mentioned previously, back in the day, I recorded onto Analogue tape recorders (Reel to Reels, as my Dad calls them). The only other choice of affordable recording format available was cassette tape based Portastudios and while these were a great first step into the world of Multitrack recording the recording quality did get pretty noisy. Tape Hiss to be precise. Now, I recently unearthed the master tapes for the first ever recording session I did back in 1982. A few old friends/band members asked if I had a copy of said Demo tape, no names mentioned, but, for the sake of privacy laws, let's just call them Ray and Paul, Doh! As I still have an old Revox recorder in the cellar I thought it would be fun (perhaps not the best term to describe what eventually transpired) to transfer the master tapes into Pro Tools and make some MP3's to send to the guys. Now, the Revox is a lovely old machine, but, like any Vintage equipment it actually needs a service once in a while. Which in my case means service it once and we'll worry about the while later.
A few days later, I fired up the Revox and, Hey Presto, all the lights came on and it actually seemed to be working. I loaded the tape, set up the Mac and hit record - easy and ,indeed peasy. Next, came that moment of pure clarity (a bit like the line in Father Ted where he explains to Dougal why some cows are bigger than others "Some cows are near and Some cows are far away, Dougal") whereby I realised that there are rules to easy-peasy ness:
1: If it looks easy, it's not.
2: See Number 1 above.
3: There is no Number 3, but, 1 & 2 looked a bit lonely and I always preferred Trios to Duos.
So, imagine the fun I had trying unravel the tape that had wrapped itself around the Capstan (a spindle on the Revox and not Headwear for Hard drinking, Heavy gambling, ex-QPR players), it was quite the "Oh Merde" moment. The end result is that the master tapes now have a lovely loud "Pop" sound every 10 seconds or so when played.
The moral to this story is that "The Past" is called "The Past" for a reason. When you bring "The Past" into "The Future", they do not always result in a nice "Present".
Or, to put it more simply:
Don't fuck with "The Past".........
Best regrets,
Mick
As mentioned previously, back in the day, I recorded onto Analogue tape recorders (Reel to Reels, as my Dad calls them). The only other choice of affordable recording format available was cassette tape based Portastudios and while these were a great first step into the world of Multitrack recording the recording quality did get pretty noisy. Tape Hiss to be precise. Now, I recently unearthed the master tapes for the first ever recording session I did back in 1982. A few old friends/band members asked if I had a copy of said Demo tape, no names mentioned, but, for the sake of privacy laws, let's just call them Ray and Paul, Doh! As I still have an old Revox recorder in the cellar I thought it would be fun (perhaps not the best term to describe what eventually transpired) to transfer the master tapes into Pro Tools and make some MP3's to send to the guys. Now, the Revox is a lovely old machine, but, like any Vintage equipment it actually needs a service once in a while. Which in my case means service it once and we'll worry about the while later.
A few days later, I fired up the Revox and, Hey Presto, all the lights came on and it actually seemed to be working. I loaded the tape, set up the Mac and hit record - easy and ,indeed peasy. Next, came that moment of pure clarity (a bit like the line in Father Ted where he explains to Dougal why some cows are bigger than others "Some cows are near and Some cows are far away, Dougal") whereby I realised that there are rules to easy-peasy ness:
1: If it looks easy, it's not.
2: See Number 1 above.
3: There is no Number 3, but, 1 & 2 looked a bit lonely and I always preferred Trios to Duos.
So, imagine the fun I had trying unravel the tape that had wrapped itself around the Capstan (a spindle on the Revox and not Headwear for Hard drinking, Heavy gambling, ex-QPR players), it was quite the "Oh Merde" moment. The end result is that the master tapes now have a lovely loud "Pop" sound every 10 seconds or so when played.
The moral to this story is that "The Past" is called "The Past" for a reason. When you bring "The Past" into "The Future", they do not always result in a nice "Present".
Or, to put it more simply:
Don't fuck with "The Past".........
Best regrets,
Mick
Sunday 16 November 2008
Mellowed Ron?
Greetings Ladies and Germs
"What's a Mellotron?" I hear you ask. Well, for starters it's not Jeff Bridges bogarting a Joint. It is, of course, one of the earliest sampling keyboards produced way back in the 60's. Still not with me? Think of the intro to "Strawberry Fields Forever" - ah yes, now you 've got it. Well, those wobbly sounding Flutes at the beginning were played on the mighty Mellotron keyboard.
Now as any Beatles obsessed Musician will tell you, that sound is almost like the Holy Grail when it comes to wearing your influences on your sleeve (not quite sure where Jeff Beck wears his). So, with that requirement in mind I got to thinking that the Tron sound would sound really cool on the middle eight of my new song, "Hoxton Song". Armed with the new GForce M-Tron Pro software instrument, based on the Mellotron and it's many incarnations (Optigan, Birotron anyone?) I set about adding the hallowed flutes to the track - some 4 hours later it was all done, when I say 4 hours what I really mean is 1 hour to record the Mellotron parts and 3 hours wallowing in the majesty of tape based sampling. Now can I interest you in a small slice of Brass B revised, with perhaps a side of Chamberlin Harp Arpeggios? No? Perhaps Sir would prefer the Black Sabbath Choir instead?
Anyhoo, you can check out the song at http://www.myspace.com/mickeyterry and for those non-practising musicians in the audience, the middle eight of a song is the bit which is neither the verse or the chorus. It is also supposed to be eight bars in length, but, Hey, who's counting?
Best regrets,
Mick
"What's a Mellotron?" I hear you ask. Well, for starters it's not Jeff Bridges bogarting a Joint. It is, of course, one of the earliest sampling keyboards produced way back in the 60's. Still not with me? Think of the intro to "Strawberry Fields Forever" - ah yes, now you 've got it. Well, those wobbly sounding Flutes at the beginning were played on the mighty Mellotron keyboard.
Now as any Beatles obsessed Musician will tell you, that sound is almost like the Holy Grail when it comes to wearing your influences on your sleeve (not quite sure where Jeff Beck wears his). So, with that requirement in mind I got to thinking that the Tron sound would sound really cool on the middle eight of my new song, "Hoxton Song". Armed with the new GForce M-Tron Pro software instrument, based on the Mellotron and it's many incarnations (Optigan, Birotron anyone?) I set about adding the hallowed flutes to the track - some 4 hours later it was all done, when I say 4 hours what I really mean is 1 hour to record the Mellotron parts and 3 hours wallowing in the majesty of tape based sampling. Now can I interest you in a small slice of Brass B revised, with perhaps a side of Chamberlin Harp Arpeggios? No? Perhaps Sir would prefer the Black Sabbath Choir instead?
Anyhoo, you can check out the song at http://www.myspace.com/mickeyterry and for those non-practising musicians in the audience, the middle eight of a song is the bit which is neither the verse or the chorus. It is also supposed to be eight bars in length, but, Hey, who's counting?
Best regrets,
Mick
Wednesday 12 November 2008
Let the Recording commence...............
Greetings Ladies and Germs
So, after bathing in a Tsunami of nostalgia for the last few months - read as: Man finds old demo tapes, Man listens to old demo tapes, Man decides old demo tapes are not a quite the musical legacy he remembered, I have decided to resurrect my recording career and finally complete the long overdue, unfinished, lost, etc, etc, Debut album. This blog is intended to Diary the events leading up to, and including, the release of the Opus that I have heard in my head all these years.
Let's set the scene: After certain changes in lifestyle, i.e. The arrival of children, my Recording Studio has taken on an Incredible Shrinking Man-like quality and transformed itself into a combination of Pro Tools and a MacBook Pro. Now I, being an old analogue head, have to admit that while I will always miss the sight, sound and smell(!) of a (Please insert preferred Tape size here) Reel to Reel tape machine spinning away in the corner, I have rather enjoyed going over to the dark,digital side. Of course there are arguments for both sides ala'
Tape: Press record, song gets recorded.
Digital: Press record, press record again, press reboot (one for all you PC users out there).
Tape: Press record, Spend evening untangling tape from tape heads.
Digital: Press record, press save, press play on DVD and watch Sopranos boxed set for remainder of evening.
Now inbetween trying to find time to record the aforementioned LP, there is the little matter of actually writing the material for it. In true Blue Peter style there are already 5 songs "I prepared earlier", so that leaves a shortfall of 5 songs (or 2 songs if you're The Blue Nile). After the recent purchase of a full size Piano, new stuff seems to pouring out faster than a can of Hooch goes into a wino's belly and so the first twist to the long imagined opus is that rather than being the guitar driven, Power Pop extravaganza I had always yearned for, it appears to be heading into "Singer/Songwriter" territory. The absence of James Blunt references, either by comparison or rhyming slang, would be much appreciated. The arrogance of youth appears to have been replaced with, dare I say those terms, Maturity, Lived in quality, World Weary- yikes....... Taxi!!!!!!
Come with me now on a journey into sound.
Warm Wishes
Mick
So, after bathing in a Tsunami of nostalgia for the last few months - read as: Man finds old demo tapes, Man listens to old demo tapes, Man decides old demo tapes are not a quite the musical legacy he remembered, I have decided to resurrect my recording career and finally complete the long overdue, unfinished, lost, etc, etc, Debut album. This blog is intended to Diary the events leading up to, and including, the release of the Opus that I have heard in my head all these years.
Let's set the scene: After certain changes in lifestyle, i.e. The arrival of children, my Recording Studio has taken on an Incredible Shrinking Man-like quality and transformed itself into a combination of Pro Tools and a MacBook Pro. Now I, being an old analogue head, have to admit that while I will always miss the sight, sound and smell(!) of a (Please insert preferred Tape size here) Reel to Reel tape machine spinning away in the corner, I have rather enjoyed going over to the dark,digital side. Of course there are arguments for both sides ala'
Tape: Press record, song gets recorded.
Digital: Press record, press record again, press reboot (one for all you PC users out there).
Tape: Press record, Spend evening untangling tape from tape heads.
Digital: Press record, press save, press play on DVD and watch Sopranos boxed set for remainder of evening.
Now inbetween trying to find time to record the aforementioned LP, there is the little matter of actually writing the material for it. In true Blue Peter style there are already 5 songs "I prepared earlier", so that leaves a shortfall of 5 songs (or 2 songs if you're The Blue Nile). After the recent purchase of a full size Piano, new stuff seems to pouring out faster than a can of Hooch goes into a wino's belly and so the first twist to the long imagined opus is that rather than being the guitar driven, Power Pop extravaganza I had always yearned for, it appears to be heading into "Singer/Songwriter" territory. The absence of James Blunt references, either by comparison or rhyming slang, would be much appreciated. The arrogance of youth appears to have been replaced with, dare I say those terms, Maturity, Lived in quality, World Weary- yikes....... Taxi!!!!!!
Come with me now on a journey into sound.
Warm Wishes
Mick
Tuesday 11 November 2008
And so, Dear Reader..........
Greetings Ladies and Germs
After lurking in various corners of cyberspace over the last decade, enough is enough. It's now time to publish the ramblings of what is now left of my addled brain. So, over the coming days, weeks, months and years (yeah, right!) there will be an outpouring, on a semi regular basis, of stuff that stimulates my psyche enough to commit it to text or, failing that, the late night ramblings of a drunken musician.
Let the fun begin.
Mick
After lurking in various corners of cyberspace over the last decade, enough is enough. It's now time to publish the ramblings of what is now left of my addled brain. So, over the coming days, weeks, months and years (yeah, right!) there will be an outpouring, on a semi regular basis, of stuff that stimulates my psyche enough to commit it to text or, failing that, the late night ramblings of a drunken musician.
Let the fun begin.
Mick
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