WARNING: LONG RAMBLING SCROLLING PAGE. I COULD HAVE BEEN CONCISE BUT WHERE'S THE FUN IN THAT?
Recording Diary for "Under The Moon"

Every now and then I like to record a CD of entirely new material. Since it has been a few years since "Direct From Hollywood" and I have a few new(ish) songs I felt it was time. I performed a couple at my 40th back in January this year. I played "Losing Streak" in the acoustic set and a solo version of "Dumbing Down" at the start of the electric set. "Dumbing Down" is also on the FREE ACOUSTIC ALBUM as is another song, "Tell Me Something New".

I planned to record electric and acoustic versions of the songs with a view to making an electric and acoustic version of the album. In the end this proved impratical as it would have taken twice as long and would have meant taking up more of my guest musicians time.

What follows is a summary of the album as it progressed and the odd mp3 of work in progress.

1st Session / Rehearsal: 16th Sept. 2006

This was the first run through of the songs with John Wilson (Bass), Glenn Harris (Drums) and myself (Guitar / Vocals). Both John and Glenn are members of The Carpet Sharks.

Although this was a first run through with the guys I had half my mobile set up with me (8 tracks instead of 16). We recorded each song a couple of times. We played "acoustic" versions of two songs and I decided to use those versions rather than record them again later. Both had a great laid back feel.

Songs recorded (and used): "Losing Streak" and "Tell Me Something New" (both "acoustic versions").

MP3: Busted Surfboard, Broken Head: Basic Rehearsal Track

For these first tracking sessions I used my Strat and Telecaster into a Peavey Classic amplifier. I only used pedals I had built myself over the Summer. These include a Simple Compressor, Overdrive, Distortion, Tremolo and a Treble Booster.

Yep, a little sad but I am quite proud that I recorded some great sounds with some pedals I had made with my own soldering iron.

First Overdub Session: Sept. 16th 2006

With some time on my hands that same evening I overdubbed acoustic rhythm guitar and Mandolin on to both songs. Neither the guide vocal or electric rhythm guitar parts were used.

This meant that two tracks were nearly finished already. Both would need backing vocals but in the end this work was lost (see below) and I had to start again.

John Wilson (Bass) and Glenn Harris (Drums) are also the engine room of The Carpet Sharks and played on the Driscoll Brother's "Almost Unplugged" album back in 2003.

2nd Tracking Session: 30th Sept. 2006

This as the first full recording session. I used my full 16-track set up, using eight for drums, two for bass, one for guitar and one for the guide vocal.

For the five songs I played just rhythm guitar, leaving space for the solos to be overdubbed later. Glenn and John simply played as if I was taking a solo. For the instrumental, "Busted Surfboard, Broken Head" we played the whole thing live. When it came to the transfer I used the track as we played it that day, except a little cheat: I used about 2 seconds of guitar solo from an earlier take.

With a little time and tape left at the end of the session we knocked out a version of The Driscoll Brothers "All Right Now" for the new Best Of.

Songs recorded: "Dumbing Down", "Remember My Name", "Losing Streak", "Tell Me Something New", "No Suprises" and "Busted Surfboard, Broken Head".
Shortly after I had recorded all the overdubs and Sam Beveridge had come round to record some backing vocals my computer crashed, taking with it both hard drives and all my work so far. The original backing tracks (Gtr / Bass / Drums / Guide Vocals) were backed up but I had to do everything else from scratch! I also had to have a new computer built, in the end this turned out to be a blessing but at the time seemed like the end of the world since I had lot a bunch of instrumentals from a seperate project, my accounts, students notes. Once the new system was up and running I set up a bakc-up system with exeternal hard drives.