Five days in a studio with Francis Dunnery is quite intense. Neither of us like to quit on things or not do things properly.
The last five days have all been about recording vocals, which is really intricate word that requires a lot of attention to detail and patience. Every line has to be sung in the right tone of voice, on the right sound level, in the right timing, with the right expression. Oh, and you have to sing the right notes too! Which would be a hell of a lot easier if we had written songs with easier melodies…
We have worked 15 hours a day in Forge studios in Oswestry, run by the wonderful Phil Beaumont. On the very first day, we discovered a new tone in my voice and decided to use it as much as we could. Which basically meant I had five days to master it well enough to record all our vocals. Which would have been a hell of a lot easier if we had written songs with easier melodies…
Our breaks would mostly consist of discussing the song and vocals we had just recorded. Or about the psyche of singing. Remco would usually not be in the actual studio during the recording of my vocals, so our breaks would usually involve Francis calling Remco in to have a listen to what we had just recorded, Francis would then start talking about the recording (“So here’s what we have discovered/done”), we would take three minutes to go pee and stuff our faces with biscuits, Francis would order Remco to make coffee or tea, and we would continue to the next song. We would have a listen to what we had thus far, and agree that the next song was a difficult one, that no one else would have written like that, and that it all would have been a hell of a lot easier if we had written songs with easier melodies…
Lots of inappropriate jokes have been made to enlighten the hard work. I’m afraid I can’t (or: won’t) repeat most of them. The most innocent ones were probably the ones in which we threatened each other with physical abuse. Francis has been quite specific in what items he would hit me with or how he would punch me in the face if I didn’t sing the next take right (if only we had written songs with easier melodies…)
We finished late yesterday night. We were at that moment where we had vocal takes for everything, but wanted to see if we could improve a couple of difficult lines. After dinner, both Francis and I found our voices been affected by the Indian food we sent Remco out to get for us, I managed to re-record the last song that was on our list, but by the time we got to the difficult part, we had to give up. If a voice is tired, it’s tired and there’s nothing you can do about it, as frustrating as it is. As soon as we called it a day, Francis and I collapsed and for a while could do nothing else than sit on our chair, and stare into space. Remco walked in, cried laughing about the sight of the two of us and took a photo of Francis and me that I will not post here but is epic and shows how hard we have been working. We were completely empty. But I’m happy we haven’t written songs with easier melodies…
