STUDIO NEWS: 5 DAYS FROM BLAST OFF.

And so we’re now approximately five days from the aural side of this record’s completion (all bar mastering). Last night the very final vocals were completed by myself, Aleks and then the gang. It was slightly weird, as obviously the last song is left to last for a reason. Often it’ll be the song that people are least keen on or perhaps one that we’re not quite sure exactly what direction it should be taken in, but in this case it was because it was one of the songs I near completed vocals for about two months ago, and then forgot about and hadn’t got back into. Then yesterday, with the pressure on, I had a flash of ‘inspiration’ and the song was wrapped up in about 5 minutes. It then received possibly the best reaction from John Goodmanson we’ve ever had. A big “holy shit!” all round.

It’s the second shortest proper ‘song’ on the record and has me doing my best David Gedge impression.

It feels amazing to have all the tracking finally completed and as though the pressure is finally off. Plus, it was a euphoric way to end recording, with a rabble rousing gang chorus sing along. Here are some pictures from the final night’s recording.
This is my optimum recording get-up. Actually, this is my optimum look for doing anything. Expect it to hit a stage near you, soon:

Monnow Valley is probably definitely my favourite place we’ve ever recorded. You can project vintage pornography onto the ceiling while you record:

Ellen was in bed by the time we started on group vocals, so we had to drag her up, pyjamas and all:

Ollie is the best mascot a band could ever wish for. THIS IS HOW CONVINCED WE ARE OF THIS SET OF SONGS:

Yesterday, me and Aleks compared reference points for art for this album and the first picture we showed eachother was of THE SAME THING!! Srsly. And it’s a really quite unusual thing too. Which hopefully is a hint that we’re on the right track. Got to knuckle down to that now. But today, Wichita come to town to listen to the 8 songs that are fully mixed, and then I think to celebrate how INCREDIBLE they think the songs are, we should all go to Pizza Express for tea, because it’s Buy One Get One on a Wednesday if you print off a voucher, and I think the printer is working now and HI MARK, I HOPE YOUR TRAIN IS ON TIME AND EVERYTHING!!