Diary of an album (Part 7) we’re getting there, Electronic Rehearsals

Hey all

Just a quick update

Having got down the lead vocals for No Easy Target the week before, Stee and Shane returned to the studio last Friday to record the vocals for our re-recorded super charged version of Old Street.  They started out the night using the Neumann U87 and Shure SM7 microphones together with Shane’s recently aquired Neve 4081 pre-amp.  Although that same set-up had worked well for the No Easy Target vocals, they couldn’t quite get the right vocal sound to suit Old Street.  Having spent most of the evening auditioning a number of combinations of different microphones and pre-amps, they found that the sound of Stee’s newly acquired Neve Portico pre-amp, with the U87 fitted best in the mix.  With time ticking on, they decided it would be better to come back  another day with with fresh ears and a rested voice.

On Saturday Marc, Sonny and Rob headed to Stee’s place to work on the new tunes we’ve been brewing up recently. As Shane was taking a breather from spending way too much of his time in the studio we decided to use my Korg ER1 drum machine to jam out some rhythms and we’re pretty pleased with the results, so much so that we are definitely thinking about heading out and doing a few gigs with our electronic set-up (more of that later). We have just started jamming with a keyboard player called Rob and some of the ideas he has bought to the table have blown me away, he’s also pretty useful on the guitar so a versatile guy to have in the band. Rob played my Novation synth and Stee’s newly acquired Roland JP8000 synth and the sounds he made with them were mind blowingly brilliant. Sonny has bought lots of new effects pedals and is making some really interesting bass lines that are unlike anything I’ve heard recently in popular music. Anyway if you want to hear these new creations keep a look out for upcoming gigs on our myspace page myspace.com/dearacetate

Sunday morning Stee, Shane, Sonny and myself returned to the studio to nail the lead vocals for Old Street, I think it was good to have the 4 of us in the studio as we could all listen to the different takes and put forward our thoughts which is better than the recent method whereby Shane would call us on the phone and play the track down the phone which is not ideal due to sound quality. After getting a great take and agreeing we had the lead vocal down Sonny and myself headed home and to the pub respectively. Later that evening Shane sent out a new mix of Old Street and I was quite surprised as Stee and Shane  had recorded a plethora of backing vocals which makes Stee sound like a small choir in the chorus. I am now confident re-recording this track due to the hard-drive failure is the best thing that could have happened, yes the album has been delayed but it will definitely be worth it for that shift in quality and how much better the playing is which far usurps the original version we recorded 2 or so years ago.

Have a great week and let us know what you think of the blog

Marc

Diary of an album (Part 6) – Don’t be Alarmed

It’s been a while since our last recording update, so about time we updated you on the album, and other things going on in the DA camp…

We’d decided on 12 tracks for the album, and 11 of those tracks are now recorded instrumentally.  In no particular order they are:
The Chalice
Had I Known (what you know)
Tied to Shadows
Dark Ideas
Tama Connection
When the Karma Falls
Coked Up
Perfect Soldier
Alarm
No Easy Target
Old Street

The last track remaining to be recorded is Out of Spite, which is an acoustic number which we’re approaching recording in a slightly different way, hence why it has been left for a separate session.

Of the 11 tracks we have rough mixes of the completed recordings for The Chalice, Had I Known, Perfect Solider and Alarm.  The remainder are waiting for us to finish off vocals, or finishing touches such as the adding of keyboard parts, which we’re writing in the studio.

You may remember in the previous blog we mentioned a “failure of an old backup drive”, well those sessions couldn’t be recovered, so we ended up having to re-record what we had for Old Street, No Easy Target and Alarm.  It’s not all doom and gloom though, as I think we’re even happier with these versions.  Having to get things set-up again for scratch, we took the time to experiment a little more with the sound we wanted specific for each of these songs.  This is probably most apparent for the way we recorded the drums for Alarm, where we tried different mic placement and recorded the tunnel that we’d created for the bass drum.

We recorded the vocals and keyboard parts for Alarm this week, which Shane is going to spend some time mixing over the next week or so.  We’re going to finish off the year rehearsing through some of the new material that we’ve been busy working on this year.  If you made it down to the acoustic gigs that we’ve played recently, then you may have heard Worlds Collide already, well that’s just the tip of the iceberg.  We’ve got what we think are a strong set of new songs eagerly waiting to enter the fray.  We’re really pretty excited about them, and secretly (or maybe not so secretly now) we’re thinking that the follow-up album is some way to being written already.

The album is coming together, and we’re pretty happy with the way it’s sounding already, and we’re yet to get to the final mixes, and mastered versions.  It’s taken us a bit longer than we thought it may have, “Rome wasn’t built in a day” and all that.  There have been a few things along the way that we hadn’t anticipated such as the hard drive problem, and nasty cold type things getting in the way of putting vocals down. Such things have dragged things out a bit, but the end is definitely in sight.

We should be back in the studio again early January to get more vocals down, and tracks mixed. Hope you’ve all had a great year, and look forward to seeing you at the album launch in the spring.

Cheers,
Stee J

re: Lost Days and Nights – choosing the album title

Since we last updated you we’ve worked our way through our short-list of titles for the album.  We’ve also met up with Alistair regarding the album artwork.  We wanted the artwork and title to work together, and also to reflect the vibe of the album.

We had an initial brainstorming session and came up with several title ideas.  None of the song titles seemed to work as an album title, and the lyrics we’d pulled out, and other ideas didn’t seem to quite suit the set of songs either.

A week or two later Marc had gone through the lyrics again and asked me what I thought of “Lost Days and Nights” as a title, which is taken from a line in the first verse of Old Street. He’d already mentioned it to Sonny who was apparently pretty keen on it, and my first impression was that I really liked it too.  I told Marc I was keen, but that I wanted to sit with the idea for a couple of weeks.

Shane had also suggested incorporating another idea in to the title, in a similar way to what we’d done on a Dear Acetate postcard in the early days of the band, playing on the band name ‘Dear Acetate’ as the opening salutation of a letter, and the title being an extension of that.  From that we derived the idea of using “re:” as a prefix to the title.  We thought that it worked when interpreted as being a prefix on the ’subject’ of an email or as the reference at the start of a letter.

Putting the two ideas together we had “re: Lost Days and Nights”.

We think it sums up the theme or themes of the songs on the album pretty well.

For the artwork Shane had the idea of showing the letter or email being written on a computer, or at least something to represent that, and from that came the idea of using a retro computer on the front cover.  Another idea I’d been keen on was using the image of the broken workings of a clock, suggesting that the time (days and nights) had been lost.  We’d also played around with the idea of somehow representing the logo in an interesting way.  We should be meeting up with Alistair again soon to go through the ideas we had, the ideas he’s subsequently worked with, and work out what artwork we’ll be using where.

Cheers,

Stee J

Diary of an album (Part 5)

Sat 16th August- we ventured back in to the studio for another weekend recording our debut album. After a late night the evening before playing the acoustic gig in Hemel, we opted for a late morning start. The plan for the day was to re-amp the bass parts that Sonny had recorded from the last sessions. Shane was first down, setting up the bass amp, and assisted in putting the mics in to position by Stee.

A couple of hours were spent positioning several microphones around the bass cab, with the intention of auditioning and using different mics for variations in bass sound for each song, and even sections within songs. Having experimented with positioning we achieved a variety of sounds that we were then able to try out within the context of the songs.

Marc arrived at the studio early afternoon, having been busy working on band promotion earlier in the day. Shane and Stee were busy re-amping the bass guitar for ‘Perfect Soldier’ and after some tinkering with compression and eq, we achieved a great bass sound with the desired punky feel. We then moved on to ‘The Chalice’ which we thought would suit a driving 70’s bass sound. The sound we settled on reminded Marc of ‘Ace of Spades’ by Motorhead. For ‘Tied to Shadows’ we decided to go for a mellower bass sound that worked with the softer sections of the song, and a more beefy, slightly distorted sound for the heavier sections. The plan had been for Sonny to make a start on recording the remaining bass lines, but unfortunately he wasn’t too well, so we postponed that until Sunday; Shane finishing off the session by doing a bit of editing of the takes before we called it a night.

Sun 17th August- Shane arrived in the studio mid-morning to finish up the previous days’ editing; ensuring the tracks were all ready to work on by the time Marc and Stee arrived at the studio. Fortunately they came armed with sufficient sustenance to get them through what was to be a monster session. Sonny although still suffering a little, put his bass takes down ready for re-amping.

With bass parts put down for Tama Connection, Coked Up Russians, When the Karma falls and Tied to Shadows, Sonny headed home for some much needed rest. Whilst Shane sorted through and edited the recorded bass tracks, Marc and Stee headed off for an hour in search of a backup hard drive from the nearby shops.  A failure of an old backup drive meant that some earlier sessions needed to be restored, and with us about to revisit those tracks, we needed a backup drive to send off with the broken hard drive.  Fingers crossed we can get the sessions back, or else it’ll mean re-recording what we had for Old Street, No Easy Target and Alarm.

The next task was to re-record the guitar verses for Coked Up Russians.  Marc decided to use Stee’s Brian Moore i8.13, instead of the vintage Fender telecaster he’d been using for the majority of the album, to get a metallic, modern aggressive sound. Stee had to turn guitar tech and open up the back panel before we could start recording the guitar parts, as the battery in the Brian Moore was dead, and then again to re-string after Marc broke a string. After Marc stretched the strings out and tuned up, he got a couple of good takes, before switching to the piezo pickup to achieve a slightly fatter sound that would give Shane more options sound and tone wise when mixing the track.

With the guitar parts for Coked Up Russians finished in just over an hour, we took a short break for dinner and had a quick chat about the vocal ideas. Shane discussed the microphones we would be using to record vocal takes and the reason for their suitability when recording different types of voices.

Shane wanted to try backing vocals on The Chalice, which began with doubling up the falsetto vocal in the chorus of the song. This process involved us listening back carefully to the two vocal takes together to ensure that the vocals were the same length, had the same phrasing, and complemented each other in terms of dynamics and volume. Shane thought that the bridge vocal may want thickening up too, to match the intensity of the music, but having listened to it double tracked, Stee thought he may try a backing harmony instead.  The harmony part seemed to work well, and when listening back Stee came up with a second harmony to sing over the top of the one that he had just recorded. The harmony vocal takes sounded great, but Stee was in a particularly creative frame of mind and despite the late hour, a further vocal idea began to formulate in his head which he immediately put down. When we listened to the vocals all mixed together but without the music, it sounded very much like a barber-shop quartet.  Although the new parts took a little getting used to, after a few listens we all agreed that it could definitely work if lowered in the final mix of the song.

We were starting to feel pretty tired, but that didn’t stop Shane from rallying the troops to carry on into the early hours. We decided to record Marc’s backing vocal for Had I Known What You Know. After about four takes, Marc was starting to feel quite fatigued, and left further takes for another day when he had the energy to deliver the vocal.  Stee with a sudden second-wind decided to ad-lib the breakdown section, resulting in him belting out the last ‘Go’, which from out of nowhere he held for over 20 seconds!  Something he couldn’t normally do live as he’d be too busy throwing himself and mic stand around the stage.  With the time approaching 2.30am we decided to call it a night after what had been a pretty productive weekends recording.

Our 1st acoustic gig

Last Friday we played our first ever acoustic gig which took place at Boxmoor cricket club in Hemel Hempstead. It was a great evening with a very laid back atmosphere with people singing and clapping along to our songs. We had planned to play the gig as a 3 piece with me on electro-acoustic guitar, Sonny on acoustic guitar and Stee on vocals, however our drummer Shane was in the audience watching and by the time we were on stage for the first song he had got on stage with a bongo drum in his hands ready to play.

This was very amusing to myself and Stee as Shane had previously said he would never play an acoustic gig! After we finished our 8 song set which included a few new songs the crowd wanted more so we had to work out which songs we could play acoustically that we hadn’t already played. After much deliberation we ended up playing ‘No Easy Target’ and a punk/folk version of ‘The Chalice’ which we thoroughly enjoyed playing. We will be uploading a few videos from this gig so keep checking back regularly for updates.

Marc

Recording plans & acoustic gig

Shane is back with us, and Monday night we got together to look at the recording schedule, go through the album production notes that he’d been making whilst he was away, plus sample another night down the Amber Rooms in Watford for Camel Club. We’ll be continuing to document the recording of the album on here as we go along; from the sound of some of Shane’s production ideas it should hopefully make interesting listening.

Friday sees us play a charity show at Boxmoor Cricket club, our first ever acoustic show, and the chance for you (and us) to hear some Dear Acetate songs played live with a slightly different twist. We’ll be debuting a couple of new songs, which we’re looking forward to trying out. You can pay on the night only if you’ve reserved a ticket. You can reserve a ticket by emailing the promoter – lukehinton@hotmail.com

We’re back in the studio all weekend, so will update you all soon. x

Brown Booze, Tequila and Radio Interview

With Shane whisked away for a birthday weekend, and acoustic rehearsing out the way on Friday; Saturday saw Marc and Stee take a trip in to London for boozing, music and a catch up with friends. First stop was Earls Court, normally a pretty straight forward trip by train from Watford… when they’re not digging up the tracks that is. So rather than 45 minutes we were looking at around double that door to door. Marc parked up at Stee’s and off they set. Having just missed one ’slow’ train, they sat around waiting for another. There was plenty of time to chat about band stuff as the train proceeded to lose time, but finally got to Willesden Junction where we had to take the replacement bus, and by now it was raining fairly heavily. Not only that, we’d just missed a bus by about a minute. We decided to while away the half hour wait by asking at the ticket office about an Oyster card for Marc, pretty thoughtless considering the counter staff were busily playing their DS Lite, which they eventually put down to answer our query. Two and a half hours from leaving Stee’s and we were off the bus and definitely ready for beer.

A quick wander in the rain and we were finally inside Earls Court for the Great British Beer Festival, meeting up with friends, and making a b-line to sample the 2008 Champion Beer of Britain. And so it continued for several hours, sampling beers from all corners of the UK, finishing off with a rather potent Italian beer. Next stop Farringdon, to take in a Delete All Demos night, and yet more travel fun on the way with a slight detour as a fire alert had closed King’s Cross. A short wander from the station, passing the Betsey Trotwood (I still can’t believe we played such a small venue once upon a time), and we found our way to the Wilmington Arms. It wasn’t the free jelly babies and tequila that tempted us down, but rather to watch Watford band the Fullertons. Although it was still raining, the benches outside were covered, so we took the opportunity for a bit of fresh air, clearing our heads a little before heading back inside to watch the bands.

The Tequila was flowing freely, the first band even necking it from the bottle on-stage; the rest of us making do with shots from the passing tray. Next up the Fullertons, and after a well received energetic set from them, and time ticking on, we said our goodbyes and headed back to Watford. It was a relatively simple trip back, no major delays, and only crossing paths with one mentalist on the way back. Back at Watford Junction, and Marc spotted an old friend, and drummer from a former band outside the Flag pub next door. They had a bit of a catch up, before heading back to Stee’s, where Stee spent the remainder of the night drooling over the prospect of a new mic and pre-amp.

Sunday came and fortunately the heads weren’t too heavy from the previous day’s excesses. A bit of a review of some of the new songs ideas, and Marc headed off home. Stee had a radio interview to look forward to with Radio Victoria, who being Blackpool based chatted to Stee about the band generally, about him coming from Blackpool, and the gig in the resort supporting the Proclaimers. Dear Acetate tracks Old Street and Tama Connection were also played on the show. We should hopefully have a clip from the show in a week or so, which we’ll make available on here.

Acoustic gigs & a welcome back to the birthday boy

It’s been a little while since the last update, perhaps because there hasn’t been that much in the way of news, but that’s not to say we haven’t been busy.  Shane flew back from his holidays last night, and we had a bit of catch up on what we’d all been up to.  Rather than just lying in the sun, he’s been busy writing production notes for the album, and is eager to push on with getting it completed.  Today is his birthday. Happy Birthday Shane!

I jokingly mentioned to Shane that we’d written half the next album whilst he’s been away.  It might not be that far from the truth, as Marc and I have been throwing around quite a few new song ideas.  It’ll be interesting to see how they turn out when we work them with the full band. You probably won’t hear most of them for a little while as we’re trying to get the album finished off, although we might air one or two acoustically, perhaps even capturing a video of one or two if we get chance.

Which brings me on nicely to mention a couple of acoustic shows that we’re going to play over the next month or two.  First off is a Charity gig at Boxmoor Cricket Club, Hemel Hempstead on Friday 15th August.  It’s £5 entry, ticket only, but tickets can be reserved to pay for on the door by emailing the promoter (check myspace listing for more details).  Our other gig is at Amber Rooms in Watford.  It’s a venue we’ve been frequenting of late, for the Camel Club nights which after a bit of a hiatus, have found a new home.  We’ve caught some cool bands doing stripped down and acoustic sets the last few weeks, so hopefully see you down in the basement there on Monday 22nd September.  It’s quite an intimate setting, so rather than risk your ears we’ll most probably be playing sans-drums.

Stee J.

A catch up from Stee – Back home for the Proclaimers gig, and trips to Download & Glasto

Rather than let the Dovemeister hog the blog, and with a Sunday evening free, I thought it was about time I threw in my tuppence worth (as my gran used to say when I was a nipper).

Well it’s been pretty hectic the last month or so. The highlight of which being our gig supporting the Proclaimers back in my old home town of Blackpool, which fell between weekends at Download and Glastonbury festivals (just watching unfortunately). It was my first visit to Download, and although the lineup was generally a bit heavier than I’d usually go for, there were still several bands that I wanted to see. Friday was a pretty busy day having just had confirmation of the Proclaimers show, so a few arrangements to sort out before I drove up the Friday evening, getting there in time to see Kiss, which although not quite my bag and a bit before my time, it was still interesting to see their stage show. More of interest were Biffy Clyro and Ash. Unfortunately I was too late for the Subways. Ash were a bit of a surprise addition to the line-up, and perhaps not to many people’s taste as the crowd for them dwindled. Perhaps with the crowd in mind they came out more like thr-Ash than Ash, with a far heavier set than I’d seen them play before. I think they really had turned everything up to 11, smashing through some classics and not disappointing those that had stayed to watch. Fortunately the predicted bottling didn’t happen; that honour was saved for some of the emo bands on Sunday afternoon.

Back from Download and it was time to get down to some serious rehearsing in preparation for our gig with the Proclaimers. Due to the recording and preparation for the album we hadn’t played through the set for several weeks, other than what we’d done in pre-production; during which we’d made a few ‘tweaks’ to some of the tracks. The first run through was a little iffy, but we soon had it together and a set worked out. Having seen Ash tailor their set to a heavier audience, I was wondering if perhaps we should think along the same lines for our gig with the Proclaimers, tailoring the set or sound to more of a pop crowd. After a bit of discussion we decided that we’d go out there and do our usual thing. The set list we decided on was The Chalice, No Easy Target, Tied To Shadows, Dark Ideas, Tama Connection, Perfect Soldier, Had I Known and Old Street.

I contacted friends and family back in Blackpool about the news, and chatted to Robin Duke at the Blackpool Gazette who seemed keen to run a story on us (you can read the online version of the article here – Gazette article link). We were rehearsing down the studio when my mum rang, having just spotted what was almost a full page story on us, and read the article out down the phone; I must admit it looked more impressive in print when we got up to Blackpool. Saturday morning came and with the cars already loaded we made our way up to Blackpool, a route I’ve travelled many times. I arrived at my mums to find I was first one there, with Shane arriving just shortly after. We made ourselves feel at home and made the most of my mums hospitality, knowing it may be a while before we got chance to eat again, by which point Marc and Sonny had turned up too.

We headed off in convoy to the venue, parked up and unloaded. The Proclaimers were still sound-checking so we began to assemble the drum kit stands back stage. Having set-up and sound checked, we made our way to choose ourselves a dressing room. Knowing that everyone from the Beatles to Radiohead had played the Winter Gardens, I wondered who else might have shared that dressing room before us. I nipped out in to the venue to say hello to friends and family who were already out there in the audience, and saw that the venue was already starting to fill up, with the crowd several people deep pushed up against the crash barriers at the front of stage. I was starting to wonder if once we launched in to our opener ‘The Chalice’, not one of our more poppy moments, if they’d all step back. I headed back to the dressing room to chill for a while before we took to the stage.

The gig went well, the only thing that wasn’t quite right was the faulty mic cable, which was popping and banging, and curtailed my movement on stage a bit. It took me a while to realise it was me and not the guitar or bass. In the scheme of things if that’s all there was to worry about then things were cool. We came off stage, had a quick word with the Proclaimers, I forget what was said exactly as I was still buzzing from playing, before going back on to shift the gear off.

The reaction from the crowd was good, and I needn’t have worried about the crowd moving back. It was very much a family crowd, with a mix from teens to older music fans, fairly different to an average DA audience, which is usually a bit younger. Although we’re quite a lot heavier (and louder) than the Proclaimers, the crowd took to us, and there were plenty of people coming up to us afterwards who’d clearly enjoyed our set. We’d had some new flyers printed up, which people got us to sign, and I gather Sonny was even collared for a kiss. It’s a pity the album wasn’t ready as there were quite a few people asking after it, but hopefully they’ll have looked us up online for another listen.

We watched the Proclaimers set, which was well received, especially ‘500 miles’ which had the whole room jumping, before finishing up packing up and loading the cars. With the gear back at my mums we headed out in to town for a few pints, hitting a couple of my old haunts, and then on to a mate’s house for another drink or two, a bit of pool, and some weight lifting by Shane which demonstrated why it is that he hits the drums as hard as he does.

Sunday we went in to Blackpool on what must have been the windiest day of the year. Gale force winds were lashing the prom as we took a wander down the front. The rest of the band seemed captivated by the tourist traps, which being a sandgrown’un, I’d pretty much left to the grockles when I lived there. Realising that time was ticking away and we still had a long drive ahead of us we headed back, said my goodbye’s to my family and hit the M55.

The following Thursday and it was off to Glastonbury, leaving the boys behind to work on the guitars for the album. The weather was looking better than last year, but with the tent up, came the first sign of rain. Out came the wellies on Friday, but fortunately it started to clear up, and by Sunday I was even back in a pair of converse. A far cry from the year before. With it possible to walk around the festival site, I took the opportunity to check out some of the other stages (last year I caught a lot of bands, but they were all within the mud soup triangle of the Pyramid, Other and John Peel stages. I also decided to check out some acts that I wouldn’t normally have gone to see and was glad I did, as there was far more to Glastonbury than just another rock show. One of the questions I got asked when I got back was did I see the Amy Winehouse incident, and what did I make of Jay-Z. Well I didn’t watch either of them as they clashed with the Futureheads and Biffy Clyro who were over on the John Peel stage.

Anyway I guess that’ll do for one blog, as it’s become a bit of a monster. (note to self: write smaller more frequent blogs in future)

Cheers,
Stee J.

Diary of an album (Part 4) A meeting with the album cover maestro

Picture Above- Stee J and photographer extraordinaire Alistair Murphy discuss artwork ideas for Dear Acetate’s debut album cover.

Sunday 20th July- We had our first meeting with album artwork designer Alistair Murphy in Hemel Hempstead at the Full House. Being a breeding ground for chavs we stood out like a sore thumb with Stee sporting the rock star look! Surprisingly enough we didn’t get started on, that has to be a first for me I must admit.

After a good meal and a pint we discussed the artwork and brainstormed some very interesting ideas with Alistair. I don’t want to give too much away but our album cover will be very striking! If anyone has seen album covers by ‘Pink Floyd’, ‘The Mars Volta’ and Led Zeppelin then you will see that we are planning something amazing. If anyone is interested in checking out some of the greatest album designs ever then check this out, you won’t be disappointed! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_Thorgerson

Enjoy the rest of your weekend

Marc D