So I sleep in a bit this morning, getting up around nine and, by ten, we are on our way to a Garden Centre near South Queensferry for breakfast and for Anne to buy some more plants for the garden...
When we get home, Anne goes to the garden to plant plants and I fully intend to find my notes re the studio settings for my album "Anotherhappyday" with a view to making a start on the follow up, "Deeperdown" but, of course, I have to open the computer first and it sucks me in again...
I’ve got my first session for a couple of weeks with Ian Sclater tomorrow at 10 so I need to prepare for that...he has two guitarists coming round to work on some songs so I’m hoping for a productive day...
I read Robert Fripp's blog/diary and see how mundane a world famous guitarist's life on the road really is...you can link from this blog to Robert Fripp's Diary...it was this that inspired me to blog myself to prove how normal and mundane my life really is despite the pretence of glitz and glamour of a so called musician/artist - not that I experience much of that of course...you can see from this blog that I actually spend very little time at all either making music or art....
Some readers have said they find my blog almost voyeuristic because I put in so much detail – it’s a bit of a conversation stopper when we meet up as they generally already know everything I’ve been up to before they even arrive...Anne is of the same opinion - sometimes it's a bit embarrassing - but it's really just a diary. I am contemplating toning it down a bit though...we’ll see
Ian Sclater, I think, gets a bit frustrated at the recording method I use – which is basically recording actual performances, one on top of the other – meaning that each take has to be perfect or as near to perfect as possible – there’s no remixing or dropping in and out to correct mistakes – it’s the way I’ve always recorded since the days of two mono portable cassette decks back in 1977.
I have Cubase and Sound Forge and Wave Lab and all manner of computer recording, mixing and editing programmes but have never got round to learning them.
In an MSNMessenger dialogue with Craig this morning, he reckons Cubase is suited to me because I have midi on my PC, so I should be able to record straight into Cubase and edit directly from there - no more layered recording... record straight onto channels and rework if necessary..
Of course he’s right BUT he’s forgetting that while he creates music by using myriad downloaded samples (he doesn’t actually play any instruments into his system) I need to spend a hell of a lot of time learning how to use the system - I need to get out of my comfort zone of course...
It seems daunting because of all the graphics and buttons but Craig reckons if you just look past that and stick to the basics initially, the rest will fall into place – again I argue that since I am creating everything from scratch it may be a bit more laborious for me - or maybe I should change my music to suit the software...
He wants to know my favourite Bowie album – he’s in the process of downloading them all via BitTorrent – I advise it’s “Low”....
You can't imagine how that sounded when it was released...of course, it sounds pretty normal now - people have caught up..
Bowie’s trilogy of “Low”, “Heroes” and “Lodger”, recorded with Eno and Fripp have got some amazing music and outlandish techniques involved - listen to the guitar solos - mostly by Fripp and Adrian Belew - both of King Crimson – listen to “Boys Keep Swinging” from “Lodger” - listen to the guitar solo - imagine - there had never been anything like that in pop before.
Not only that but, using Eno's Oblique Strategies Cards (chance instructions) the drummer played bass and the rhythm guitarist (Carlos Alomar) played drums - that's why the drums sound so strangely and “badly” played...
Whilst chatting to Craig I’m transferring more tracks from the Jukebox back to the computer – all 8,000 odd had to be wiped when the computer was being rebuilt...I’m back up to 1,500 so far....
We lunch in the back garden basking in the sun with Meg the Black Cat lying on the back step....I’m listening to disc 4 of the new King Crimson box set I got via e-bay – it’s a 12 track live set compiled from performances from 1973/74 and it rocks...so I need to keep the volume down re the neighbours of course! Here's a collage - that's not Caviar by the way, rather it's mushroom pate...
By this time it’s around four and I head back upstairs and work on Ian Sclater’s project, and e-mail details to him of where we are and where I think we’re going. We’ve spent 28 hours on it so far plus quite a bit of pre and post session work from me on my own back at Crispycat (hey, I have been working on music after all...) – we’re probably less than half way thru and Ian wants to finish by the end of July – so I think we need to up the ante somewhat...
I update the blog and go back downstairs and flick between Andy Murray’s Wimbledon adventures and the Confederations Cup semi final between German and Brazil – in the end both my “teams” lose as Murray goes down 3-2 after winning the first two sets and Germany lose 3-2 to Brazil.
And so it’s eight o’clock and time for a curry, then CSI New York, then pack up the studio for tomorrow and then...bed..or back to the PC....a reasonable day...
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