"At Home with the Stars" genre: Alternative General
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	Groovy!
	CD: Lifestyles of the rich and famous EP L002CD
	Story Behind the Song Last time we were up here was for the `In The City` Music Festival playing to the cream of the world’s music industry. The Britannia Hotel, an enormous fairy light lit Edwardian building with a wonderful kitsch blue and gold interia accommodated many musos during that week, so we booked ourselves in there again. We arrive at 1am Saturday morning after a five-hour journey up from London in the van. We’ve been told that the studio is at the back of the hotel, more or less, so I go search, so we can drop the gear. It’s dark off the main street and a local girl soon greets me. “Hello love, you all right?” “Yes thanks.” I reply, considering whether to ask for directions. “Do you want some business?” “Ahh.” I say, realising that most shops are closed at this time, “…er…no…er...thanks.” I cough in a British way. “No? What’s wrong with you then?” I guess this challenge to manhood sometimes works, and one course of action would have been to walk Shakespearean-like to the very front of the stage, throw my arms in the air and announce “Nothing!!” like the whole play depended on it, then turn and make use of the nearest car bonnet. “Er…nothing…err…really. Thanks.” I return to the Hotel and report my findings and we load the gear into a “store room” amongst bits of old drum kit, mops, old clothing and dust. Our rooms turn out to be disappointing, mine particularly so as I fling back the curtains to let in some air and find the Manhattan skyline papered to the wall behind and a hopeful fluorescent strip lamp attached above. I turn the light on, recognising the Chrysler building, but the overall effect is not good. “Technically that’s not a room, it’s a cupboard.” Neil informs me as we approach reception to demand a room change, but there’s no argument, it turns out that there are about 140 spare rooms with windows. No music festival this week. The next morning we find the studio, about a mile from the Hotel. I always judge the quality of a recording studio by the width of the recording desk, I know that’s wrong, I can’t help it. This one’s about the width of a car bonnet but a quick nose around reveals some groovy outboard gear so we’re happy. Dave and Neil quickly decide that the drum kit and bass gear should be set up and that therefore they should go find breakfast. “Bye!” They grin and leave. Andres and I are up and running by mid-day, and spend time jamming through stuff to set the vibe. Our last recording was on expensive time and I feel much more relaxed this time round not having to pay. It’s very important to get the groove right before anything goes down to tape and to this end we jam “You Can’t Touch This”, moving the first beat of the riff each time round, I enjoy it. The others return and Neil gets guitar organised and seems to have a more professional air about him having just returned from a month in Europe touring with Vanessa Mae, all in-ear monitoring and perfect notes. He soon gets into it though, going louder and looser until we’re all smiling. We do a drums & bass take of `At Home With the Stars` with Dave on a scratch vocal so we don’t get lost in the song (that’s why we have him at the live shows) and go into the control room to listen. It rocks! I guess its what’s underneath the bonnet that counts… We get drum sounds and do some takes of “At Home…”. It’s slower that “Touch This” and I have to calm down and concentrate more. I normally put a scratch bass track down with the drum take. Steve, our engineer, is a nice guy but the headphone level keeps changing, cutting out altogether at one point. And he seems as unsure as we are what to do about it. Still, the groove remains good and we move on to `To Be The First`, 3 1/2 minutes of thrash. We get it on the first take, just as well since Andres slides of his drum stool at the end, slumping to the floor, exhausted. That afternoon and evening we finish the drums and bass, including some feedbacky noises on bass guitar that cause more hilarity than respect, so I fix those so they’re good. We call it a day and head to China Town for food. During king prawns with garlic we discuss our favourite topic, sex, deciding that it has a lot to do with upbringing and childhood experiences. Discussion gets heated and complex and we decide to pay the bill and retire to the hotel for further discussion, joints and wine. It’s about commitment to a person verses the temptation the rest provide. Difficult one and we never get nearer an answer, although I like to think that the band is modern in its concern over this issue. There’s a lot of research happening right now about what makes you happy. Pretty much top of the list is a stable trusting relationship. On the other hand two blonde women, one on each knee… Next day at the studio Neil gets in there with guitar and things get rocky. He uses a Fender twin and strat. with something called a ‘big muff’ and other effects. It’s such a cool guitar sound, not crunch, not British, kind of a palpable stringy rock guitar drive with lots of warmth on it. Steve looks freaked out when he first hears the sound. His last project was a Disney soundtrack with lots of string arrangements. We’ve got some string parts planned but right now there’s horror on his face and he leaves the control room looking pale and shaken, leaving us to man the controls. Neil runs through ‘To Be the First’ and, as if encouraged by our engineer’s fright, plays like he’s possessed. Steve returns having gathered himself and we efficiently put down a multitude of guitar tracks, some rocky, some clean, all cool and lots on the first take which is good for the vibe and ‘cos we only have four days. ‘At Home ...’ takes I little more time, it’s a moody little number, but after four hours, guitars are done. Dave gets his vocals down, lots on the first take except for ‘To Be the First’ where the screaming choruses take time. It’s difficult to get it controlled, but we’re aware that each take hurts a little more! But the desired effect is achieved and he fixes everything before loss of voice. Just. Overdubs next. Acoustic guitar, Harpsichord Baroque-style on ‘At home…’ and some piano, then the strings. Sarah tracks up five string parts, building a powerful effect, so cool, that really pushes the emotion of the song exactly where it’s needed. So ends day two, leaving two days for mixing. I leave that evening for home wishing the guys the best of mixing luck, but the next day I get a call - they’re coming home too. Seems it didn’t go that well and that Steve really is more into strings than guitar, Disney than Californication. The Studio and Steve are cool about it though and offer us the two days at a different time with a different engineer, Chris, who’d helped get the drums up and running on the first day. So after a couple of weeks to listen to the fadders up tracks we go back to Manchester, this time staying at a different hotel… Here’s my thoughts about our mixing sessions of August 20th – 22nd this year, working on the first three EP tracks. Once again we hit the road to Manchester, this time in my car, and stay at Sasha’s, a reasonably glam hotel that promises windows in all our rooms. The car grinds to a dusty halt on double yellows outside Sasha’s revolving doors. The pungent smell of weed floats into the air as we disembark. A jarring one-horse-town tune begins as the car doors slam shut. Camera pulls back & up, revealing neon signs, empty back streets; how small the car looks in this metropolis, how lonely we are against this bleak 1am northern landscape. Someone kicks a can along a street, unseen. A neon sign buzzes on & off… “Let’s get a beer” says Dave. “We’re hear to work.” Neil reminds us. “We need some sleep for tomorrow. We should go to bed”. The bar is open and the barmaid friendly; Dave’s suggestion wins. But chat is thin. Last time we were up here things went a little wobbly – I think we’re all a little tense, hoping for a better experience this time. We discuss what we want the sound to be like and mention some styles like Portishead dark loopy trippiness but it’s late… Next morning at the studio we put the tapes in the a-dat machines and things feel better – it already kind of rocks, in an unbalanced intermittent way. Talking with our engineer Chris, we find ideas and common ground starting to form – seems it’s easier to tell someone outside the band what we want than each other! Or maybe Chris is just a good listener…

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