For some reason I feel like i have been run over by a truck this morning. I'm blaming the apple tart and custard. I believe it was a bridge too far for someone who barely has a sweet tooth in his head.
I am , however, delighted when Kell tells me how well "No country" did at the oscars. Fantastic.
Head in to the studio.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 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 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.
Our dear friend Adam Buxton comes in to say hi and we have some dinner. Afterwards Franny is in the mood to sing, so he goes for it. Neil and I take the opportunity to nip out for a couple of hours to meet Adam and see Spoon at the Scala.
They are great. And very pleased to be playing a sold out show in London. I am delighted that word seems to be spreading about one of the most underrated bands around.
Very nice to see them all afterwards. They are happy with the show and on very good form.
Have a quick beer with them and head back to the studio.
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.
The Travis web team has arrived so we playback 5 of the tunes. It is the first time we have listened back to a few in a row and it all sounds great together.
As they used to say about british rail, We're getting there.
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