The recording of "ODE TO J. SMITH" - The edited highlights by Dougie talking about each song. Sorry if some of it doesn't make sense / flow right, but I've put the different sections were he talks about a particular song together, so we can get a general picture in our minds of what they are like.
CHINESE BLUES
Written by Fran Healy.
There are naturally a few teething problems with the gear but by mid afternoon we are making noise and begin running through Chinese Blues. We go back into the control room to check how everything sounds and to be frank it already sounds massive. 2 inch tape and 40 year old machines are good! We do a total of around 10 takes and go in to listen. There is something very arresting about the second to last take and the consensus is that it is the one. I can't see it needing many overdubs to be honest. Which is of course a very good thing. Time has flown though, so we must have been having fun, and we decide to call it a night. Listen back to the chosen take of Chinese Blues and to our relief it still sounds great. We decide to have our first bash at overdubbing. With such a limited number of tracks we are going to have to put as many instruments as possible down all at once on to one track. So we try to put down 2 acoustic guitars (with Fran and Andy sitting round one mic) a glockenspiel, a shaker and a tambourine all on one track. Franny decides he is in the mood to sing and let's rip on "Chinese Blues". Two takes and a quite extraordinary vocal is in place. Andy puts on a good hooky guitar and then the three of us pile in to do a bunch of backing vocals. Emery does a quick rough mix and I have to say spines are tingling all around. Actually we have a late studio start because Claes has had a go at recording a piano part for Chinese Blues on Franny's lovely steinway piano. This, i have to admit, involves a little pro-tools action, (as moving the tape machine Across London to Franny's house would of course be ludicrous) but we will try to keep it to a minimum.
J. SMITH
Written by Fran Healy.
We decide to put the songs down in the order that we were playing them in the shows so next up is J. Smith. We do 4 takes have a listen and then, after a few minor tweaks, do 3 or 4 more. All of the last lot are great but it doesn't take long to decide which take feels like the definitive one. Today we are firmly entrenched in overdub town. With everything tracked it is now all about getting vocals done and any other little sprinkles we can think of. We bring up J. Smith which we haven't listened to since we did it. It's already a cracker and we still have the crouch end choir to come in on thursday to add a little fire and brimstone latin flavour to it! Franny puts his vocal on and Andy and I go in to do our backing vocals. We leave that to rest until it is accosted by the choir. Quite high excitement levels today as we have the crouch end choir coming in this evening to add a bit of gothic horror to J. Smith. We are about to move on but realise the choir will be here soon. So Raj and Nick clear out the live room to accommodate all 40 of them. The lovely Joby Talbot arrives. He is a fantastic arranger and composer who has done loads of movies and all kinds of things. We have worked with him quite a few times and he has written and arranged the parts for the choir. Nice to catch up with him as I haven't seen him for ages. The choir starts warming up. The leader David rules the roost. They sound great but we have to move the basses, tenors and sopranos around until we get the right blend of voices. Then we have to change some of the parts to make them fit better and sound a little more threatening. It is totally over the top but absolutely brilliant. Our tour manager, the legend that is Melvyn Taub comes in for a visit and to watch the choir do their thing. By around 9.30 we have got everything we need. The choir leaves and we realise we are all starving. We gather round the mic en masse. me, Fran, Andy, Neil, Emery, Claes and Nick to add some Ennio Morricone style hoo's and haa's to bolster the low end of the choir on J.Smith. Very enjoyable. Franny puts on his vocal and I do a b.v. Then to make a great morning even greater, Paul McCartney pays us a surprise visit with his son James. Bizarre that he should come in on our second last day when it was the Sgt Pepper/Lovely Rita experience that started all this off. He says he thinks he recognises the tape machine from Abbey Road. Very nice to see him and James. We play them J. Smith and they seem to like it Paul says "it sounds pretty different for you guys" which i think is meant as a good thing.
SOMETHING ANYTHING
Written by Dougie Payne.
With spirits up and enthusiasm at a premium we then, in quick succession, rattle off Something Anything! They sound huge with no embellishment. Which is a very gratifying thing indeed. The old machine may be a bit tempramental but it's making us do things it's way and that seems to be working for us. It's all sounding so good that as the clock strikes midnight and we roll into big neily's birthday a celebratory whisky is had by all. good times. We move on to 'Something Anything' which sounds pretty huge already. F puts an insistent guitar part down while Andy does a proper guitar solo. Perfect for air guitar. Make the sign of the horns if you please. This is a hard song to sing so F goes to work. By late evening though he's got it done. Sounds great. I put on some backing vox and we are another song to the good. We move on to "Something Anything". It needs a little something to lift it in the bridge leading into the choruses. F comes up with a really nice notey riff and he and Andy tinker with a few pedals looking for something magical to happen. It happens. There is a light in the studio that flickers sporadically for no reason. When it does, something good always happens. It is the spirit of Rak and is flickering madly when the guitar goes down. Emery and I have our arms raised in celebration in the control room.
LONG WAY DOWN
Written by Dougie Payne.
With spirits up and enthusiasm at a premium we then, in quick succession, rattle off Long Way Down! They sound huge with no embellishment. Which is a very gratifying thing indeed. The old machine may be a bit tempramental but it's making us do things it's way and that seems to be working for us. It's all sounding so good that as the clock strikes midnight and we roll into big Neily's birthday a celebratory whisky is had by all. good times. We move on to "Long Way Down" around midnight. F does 4 takes of the vocal with me and Andy waiting in the wings to put backing vocals on at the same time. This is a throat shredder for Franny and involves perhaps one of the most blood curdling screams on record. Sitting in the room while he's doing it I'm reminded how loud his voice is. Frightening. We eventually call it a night around 1.30 and leave the song on the reels so that Claes can put his piano solo on in the morning. Very very good stuff. This morning it's Claes' moment to shine. I should calrify that this is just one of many. The piano solo he has worked out for 'Long Way Down' is a great thing. Melodic and understated and doesn't outstay it's welcome. Fran wants the piano to sound a bit odd so liberally sprinkles cutlery over the strings. With a bit of sonic tinkering from Emery it sounds surprisingly good. All rattle-y and bar room. I put on a high guitar part that I liked from the demo and then with a bit of tambourine from Neil it all sounds done and dusted.
BROKEN MIRROR
Written by Fran Healy.
After a late dinner and a quick eno inspired ambient jam (we christen it "music for bus stops') we set up for an atmospheric evening doing the mean and moody "Broken Mirror". This tune is pretty straight forward to play but it's all about feel. The lights are low, the wine is poured and a little cigarette smoke is provided by Nick. In fact it all feels so good that it is slightly disappointing when we get a great take pretty quickly. We make up for this with a brief hard rock singalong incorporating thin lizzy, rainbow and van halen. It certainly breaks the Broken Mirror ambience. Franny moves on to vocalise on "Broken Mirror". We move on to Broken Mirror and Fran gets a fairly authentic big bell tolling sound out of his telecaster.
FRIENDS
Written by Fran Healy.
We have a bash at Friends but it's late and we are a bit weary so decide that discretion is the better part of valour. After Ian and Sally left we started on "Friends". This is the last backing track to do before the overdubs start in earnest. "Friends" is a rather lovely thing and has to be played in a very laid back fashion. It sounds a little uptight until Franny comes up with the direction. "Think the doors". We do. And it works a treat. I think we may even leave it overdub free. Just a pure performance. Emery puts up "Friends" and Franny comes up with a rather good idea. It would involve a convoluted explanation but the upshot is that we have everything double tracked in stereo in a rather unique way. Sounds amazing. Franny sings it really well and after that there isn't too much else to do. It's such a cool little band performance that we don't want to do anything to take away from it. A little glockenspiel from Andy and Fran adds some sparkle and I pop on a tiny bit of piano and some backing vox.
GET UP
Written by Fran Healy.
So while we wait for another one to arrive we decide to crack on with a tune where he plays acoustic. This breaks the tradition of recording the tunes in live running order, but means that we get to do 'Get Up'. This is a big loud tune with both me and andy on bass and claes on a very dirty sounding hammond. Great fun to play but actually quite tricky to get a tight sounding take. It has to sound fat but angular if thats not too oxymoronic for you. After quite a few takes it settles down and we manage to get a good un on tape before we all go deaf. It is brain bendingly loud in the live room for this one. So we move on to overdubs on "Get Up". Emery makes it sound fantastic. No mean feat considering that it could easily be a mess of low end. Andy nips in to put on, what he terms, "milk bottle guitar". After a few twiddles on his pedals he does indeed produce a sound reminiscent of bottles rattling on a milk float. Sounds great. Afterwards Franny is in the mood to sing, so he goes for it. Fran's vocal is done and dusted. Sweet and creamy and uncommonly good. And i am very pleased (and surprised) to hear that the backing vox i did on the live take are keepers. After a very tasty dinner of sea bream on puy lentils we move on to "Get Up". Franny re sings it and Andy and I go into put some thuggish backing vox on. I put on some very high (for me) bvs which take few goes to get. Then more bvs on get up. F does a touch of tambo. All these little things take a long time.
LAST WORDS
Written by Dougie Payne.
We have to get "Last Words" done before Friday as we have sally coming in with a string quartet to do a little arrangement for it. Am very excited about that as i think it'll be lovely in perhaps a Lennonish way. This is another one that's quite hard as we are all kind of playing against each other and nobody has a particularly easy ride on it. It takes quite a while to fall into place. We try different guitars, amps, sounds for everything and eventually it begins to gel. After around about 20 takes or so we are all a bit brain numb and go in to listen. Thankfully we have the take. And for once it's the very last one! Had to get in a little earlier than usual as we had Sally (string arranger and violinist) and her husband Ian (cellist) coming in to put strings on "Last Words". Mike Hedges (producer of some of The Man Who, and some The Boy With No Name) introduced us to Sally while we were making The Man Who. She played on Writing To Reach You and did the arrangement on slideshow and has been a godsend on many occasions since. Her and Ian played beautifully today and came up with some fantastic parts for the song. The whole thing just came together and lifted off. Move onto "Last Words". The strings are beautiful on this one. F re-does his banjo as the live one is a little too over driven. And then Andy goes in to put down a brilliant solo. It's all shaping up and Franny cracks out Brian Eno's dx7 synth. Mmmm ambient. He does a lovely, quite odd, part that compliments the strings nicely. Starting to sound amazing this one. It's pretty late so we leave vocals for another day and head home as fatigue is setting in. We spend the first part of the day listening through to "Last Words" for any possible overdubs. The banjo is proving problematic as it insists in going a little out of tune so Nick has a tweak at it and Fran goes in and re-does his part. All good. Unusually, he decides to sing the song in the control room sitting at the mixing desk with a hand held mic. Once the vox are done, Neil comes in for a bit of shaker and tambo action. We have our last supper and then move on to last words. Andy and I do our harmonies.
QUITE FREE
Written by Fran Healy.
Up next it's Quite Free. A tune that has been around for a wee while but has only recently found it's feet. We have a bit of difficulty with it to be honest. And all of the afternoon is taken up with trying different sounds for pretty much everything. We have three drum kits set up so neil can chop and change as he wishes. Once we've got it sounding right we do loads of takes. I think the most we've done of any of the tunes so far. Eventually much to everyone's relief we get a great one down. When you do a lot of takes there does come a point when you think you might never get it. We bring up "Quite Free". If you remember this is the song we felt we had some problems with but as soon as Emery pulls up the faders it sounds great! Relief. Franny doubles the bass line on acoustic and then puts on another guitar. The middle section needs to go a bit space-y so it's another time for Claes to shine. He goes for Jupiter 8 and echoplex again. Ooh pulsating. Very nice. Miraculously, however, F puts down a bunch of great vocal takes for "Quite Free". We decide to have a bit more fun with the middle sectionand backwards piano and a few Emery's special tricks (trade secrets) give it what it needs. We then, for the first time on this album, all gather round the mic and indulge ourselves in our trademark handclaps recipe. I can't divulge too much about this, but can say that it involves partial nudity. I do a couple of little backing vocals and Emery puts down a rough mix. It's pretty late so we call it a night. Then we move on to put a nashville tuned guitar on Quite Free. We get to work and do the last little bits on Quite Free. A high strung guitar and a little tambo go on and Emery does a rough mix. Done.
SONG TO SELF
Written by Fran Healy.
Decide to have a bash at Song To Self. I am very excited about this song. It's great to play and feels exhilerating in an almost springsteeny type way. Claes is drafted in to play an old analogue synth called a jupiter 8. He works a bit of magic with a litttle echoplex and a tiny wee amp. And it has to be said even on the first run through the whole thing sounds magic. Within a handful of takes we've got it done. Listening back to it we all get rather excited. We also got them to sprinkle a little magic on "Song To Self". Not too much mind. Just a little of that. It's powerful medicine. This is all getting very exciting you know. Franny feels like singing some more so we put "Song To Self" on the reels. When he discovers a wee frog in his throat we decide to call it a night. Get into the studio and F has a pop at singing "Song To Self" but it is proving to be quite a resilient throat frog. Get in to the studio and Emery is treating the strings on "Song To Self" in an interesting way. Very nice. Andy, Franny and I play three acoustics round one mic for a cool little bit in the middle section of "Song To Self" and then F goes about the vocal. Sounding great. Me and him go in to put some high oohs and aahs over the chorus. Mmm ethereal. Dinner time seems to roll round ever quicker as we run out of time. But i think we are still on course. It is after midnight when F moves on to vox on "Song To Self". There are a few tough big notes on there but he nails them. Emery puts down rough mixes of everything.
BEFORE YOU WERE YOUNG
Written by Fran Healy.
We have to hold fire on tracking "Before You Were Young" as the gong doesn't arrive until Monday. Am doubly cheered, when I arrive, to see the gong being hoisted from it's case by Nick and Raj. All night long let me see that gong. gong g gong gong gong. Everyone arrives and we go straight into tracking "Before You Were Young". This is the last track we have planned to track but who knows if anything else will pop up? Franny and I were tinkering with a new tune last night. So anything is possible. We decide that, in the spirit of getting as much down as possible at the same time, Nick should be gong master. It is a role he assumes with some aplomb. Musically this is quite a sparse song but it's all about big textures and gestures behind beautiful vocal and piano melodies. We get it right on about the sixth take. We decide to try a little experiment on it. At the end of the song franny reckons it should be like an extended non stop drum fill. So, as we have three kits set up, Neil, Fran and myself go in and play them all at once with Nick of course gonging away like the rank film man himself (loincloth notwithstanding). It's incredibly loud and very good fun and we have a strawberry fieldsesque rythm track in no time. F will go back and sing this one later. For "Before You Were Young" Franny has got in touch with a friend of Sally's called Eliza to come in and play flute. She arrives at around 4.30 and is so talented that she has everything done by bang on 5. It sounds beautiful. A peculiarly delicate counterpoint to the mental rythm section underneath. Franny puts on a bit of acoustic and its time for dinner. Back in the studio and we listen through to a few things including "Before You Were Young" and find that we are getting to the point where all it needs is a vocal. Fortunately Franny is in the mood for a little late night singing. Good voice. We then bring up "Before You Were Young" and add some bits of vocal. I know it sounds like we are all over the place but this is how it is as you get closer to the finish line. And we are very close. Emery does a mix of "Before You Were Young" this will be the last song on the record and we want it to end very intimately after all the fireworks before it. So Emery spends a bit of time pulling all the reverb of the vocal to make it very dry just at the right point in the last line. This is a good example of the little things that make all the difference.
Ian comes in and we put togther a rough edit of how the first 4 songs are going to run. we spend quite a while getting the joins between the songs just right. Holy shit. It sounds amazing. Lola will possibly see the light of day but we have yet to record it. Been a bit busy. The 3 tunes Franny was talking about were Something Anything, Long Way Down and Last Words. We are not using the c word. Paternity leave starts on Monday. Favourites at the moment are all of them. Honestly. The album will be 11 songs long. there are no extra tracks recorded yet. We are no longer with Independiente. we completed our 5 albums for them. and the parting was entirely amicable. This time round we had a very complete plan of what we wanted to do in the studio as we had played the new songs live. And we knew exactly how we wanted to record them. we still left room for happy accidents though. We don't know what the artwork will be like all of this and the business side of things will fall into place over the next couple of months. We will tour later in the year. Nora and Clay pay a visit and clay has a lot of fun with the mixing desk. We record his first vocal. The boy is a natural.
If you have anything to add to any information abut the new songs, please reply, and also say which ones from the descriptions made by Dougie sound the best to you.
[i]CHINESE BLUES
Written by Fran Healy.
There are naturally a few teething problems with the gear but by mid afternoon we are making noise and begin running through Chinese Blues. We go back into the control room to check how everything sounds and to be frank it already sounds massive. 2 inch tape and 40 year old machines are good! We do a total of around 10 takes and go in to listen. There is something very arresting about the second to last take and the consensus is that it is the one. I can't see it needing many overdubs to be honest. Which is of course a very good thing. Time has flown though, so we must have been having fun, and we decide to call it a night. Listen back to the chosen take of Chinese Blues and to our relief it still sounds great. We decide to have our first bash at overdubbing. With such a limited number of tracks we are going to have to put as many instruments as possible down all at once on to one track. So we try to put down 2 acoustic guitars (with Fran and Andy sitting round one mic) a glockenspiel, a shaker and a tambourine all on one track. Franny decides he is in the mood to sing and let's rip on "Chinese Blues". Two takes and a quite extraordinary vocal is in place. Andy puts on a good hooky guitar and then the three of us pile in to do a bunch of backing vocals. Emery does a quick rough mix and I have to say spines are tingling all around. Actually we have a late studio start because Claes has had a go at recording a piano part for Chinese Blues on Franny's lovely steinway piano. This, i have to admit, involves a little pro-tools action, (as moving the tape machine Across London to Franny's house would of course be ludicrous) but we will try to keep it to a minimum.
