Posts Tagged ‘Steve Daoud’

Master preview and Andover

Tuesday, May 12th, 2009

I’ve heard the new master. We got given two versions of “Vivo Molto”… one a bit cleaner, one a lot thicker. Naturally I’ve asked for a mix between the two. It’s certainly a whole lot brighter.

A big thank you to everyone who came down to the Guildford Andover show. I had a lot of fun. The night didn’t go down without a technical hitch…. Andy from A Stranger In Moscow couldn’t reschedule his work so A Stranger In Moscow played their set without him. At the last moment Jonny filled in on guitar and, not knowing any of the songs, just jammed away. It was much better than you’d think too. He even took over singing for one song. They figured Jon should pitch in about 15 minutes before the set up to play. There was no rehearsal.

Besides the terrible sound on stage, and the practically non-existent (in volume anyway) foldback amp for Freddy, we made lemonaid with lemons. Our second show performing the songs (ever) and it was clearly better than the first. Still didn’t get the right tuning at the start of one song. Not good. Taken as a whole though, good.

In other unrelated news, keep checking out Steve Daoud’s illustration blog. He has produced two illustrations for us and a third is on the way. His latest story is about a fisherman. I loved ‘the Discontented Bear’ so I’m looking forward to how this one turns out…
http://stephen-daoud.co.uk/blog/website-updates-and-maintenance/the-joys-of-progress/

Now, time to not sleep, quit procrastinating, and spend the next 19 hours writing my yet-to-be-started essay on ethics and the Bible. This isn’t the place for theological ramblings but I’m going to enjoy this one. Widows, orphans, strangers, the poor, disabled, the sinners, thieves, outcasts and oppressed… Jesus gravitated towards people like that. Remarkable. That’s all.

Final day of mixing

Sunday, March 15th, 2009

Today me, James, Jim and a very sleepy Rich finished mixing our album. It was a fun experience. We removed all the compression from the recording, worked some interesting dynamics in to a couple of songs and, much to my liking, we brought up the level of the guitars when we really feel like the song needed more rockin’. Happy to say the whole album is now at 100% rockin’ capcity. Once we get it mastered I dare to think how awesome it will sound. Not because I like our music but simply for the fact Jim Turner has done a sign and a wonder in producing this album and Alan Douches has got the history and skills to master this record to new levels of hugeness that no man on earth has yet witnessed. Ok I’m slightly hyperbolic but I’m excited.

In other news I had an interesting conversation with photographic extrodinair Chris Law and illustrative genius Stephen Daoud about business ideas, life management, marketing and networking. It certainly got me thinking….. if there isn’t a good record deal to sign and we self-release this puppy then how on earth am I going to market it? I couldn’t care less for the money but that doesn’t mean I’m willing to not put value on art. It’ll be a terrible day when people don’t buy good records anymore just because they feel entitled to free music. As the mantra of the working band and record label goes: support independent music.

I typed this on an iPod touch… sorry for my probable lack of good spelling.