Exciting times in travistown. Two Travis babies on the way and an album getting ever closer to completion. We’re working in a place called The Hospital. The studio is in a building that houses a members club, two restaurants a t.v. studio and most dangerously of all a martini bar. Thankfully the studio part is on the top floor, nicely separated from all the temptations.
This is our third session in here. It’s a funny place. Very hi-tech entry system involving credit card keys and translucent panels on the wall which unlock doors and tell lifts which floor you want to go to. Would be great if it worked. Tend to find myself trapped in small areas between soundproof doors trying to get someone’s attention.
The studio, however, is great. Nigel G. has done a great job of setting it all up and we also get to use all his lovely sounding vintage gear. I don’t know what it all does but I like it! It’s a really nice working environment. Only ourselves and our engineer Steve are around, it kind of feels like we’re in our own little bubble. Steve did 12 memories with us it’s all very relaxed and familial.
We’ve got about 20 songs recorded. This includes stuff we did in Westside earlier in the year and one tune goes back to the sessions we did with Eno last December. Last December! Making this album has been a labyrinthine process when you stop and think about it. Lots of different things in the mix. It sounds like we’ve got two albums worth of material but I reckon we are still a keystone short of a bridge. We are being pretty hard on ourselves and quality control is paramount. We wouldn’t want to give you something below par after all.
Me and Andy arrived at the same time. Neil was already here as he always seems to be, no matter how early you get in. Steve had been in all day yesterday setting up the gear and was in bright and early today too. He may be reckless but he’s brilliant and works like a bastard. Franny was last in but was spared a punishment exercise as he was laden with guitars, keyboards, boxes of mystery percussion and a full drum kit.
We started the day listening back to what we have so far. We wrote all the song titles on sheets of paper and taped them to the wall. As we listened we put them in to three groups.
1. Done and ready to mix
2. Needs more work
3. B side
Opinions were pretty much unanimous. Which is a good sign.
We’ve got two weeks in here this time around and reckon most of the time will be spent finishing off those things that need more work but we decided to start off the session with trying a new song. Always a good way to start. This is one written by our friend Suzie Hugg. We’ve recorded a couple of her songs before (“reason” and “unbelievers” were both B sides a few of years ago). She is a great writer. This new one is beautiful.
It took all of the afternoon to get it to settle down though. After dinner we had another shot at it and got the basic track done. Sounding good.
Suddenly it’s 1 a.m. We had a brief visit from Nige and our friend Ced (who is over from L.A. to play at the “hall of fame” show at Ally Pally this week), but that doesn’t account for how quickly today has gone. Time behaves very strangely when you’re concentrating. Great first day back.
Get Travis Blogs via RSS (RSS?)
