During January, I was up in Scotland with Alex Cornish…
First off we supported Sandi Thom at the Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow. It was the first gig with just Alex, Bevis and myself playing, and it worked kinda well. We played some of the new tunes off the album, and some of the ‘Classics’, as Alex likes to call them! It was great to meet Sandi and her band again, and as we watched their sound check, it was obvious that these guys are at the top of their game, and after paying close attention to Craig (Connet) on drums, I was left with a great urge to get out the practice pad, as I’ve got a lot of work to do! Unfortunately, we couldn’t stick around to watch their set, as no sooner had we walked off stage, we where asked to make our way over to The Royal Concert Hall to play a late night session. So, we loaded up the van, made our way over to the concert hall, and were promptly sent to a very nice Italian for a meal… Fantastic hospitality!! After the feed, we went and played a great second set, to an amazing crowd, and left Glasgow buzzing, which made it very hard to sleep!
We where up at 4.30 the next morning, and made our way up to Ardgour, in the north west of Scotland to record the drums and piano parts for Alex’s second album, which is yet to be titled. For the session, Alex booked us in to Watercolour Studios, which is situated in the back end of beyond, amongst the mountains…. A perfect setting to record in, it was going to be a fantastic couple of days!
On the the last day at Watercolour,  we recorded a live acoustic session for Radio Scotland, to an invited audience of 30, which is to be broadcast later on in the year. Iain Morrison joined us on stage to play small pipes on Won’t be Found, and to take over lead vocals on a cover of Into The Mystic (click link to watch the video), by Van Morrison, which was amazing! Mary Anne Kennedy then joined us on stage and played Harp on Scotland the Brave, which is the next single, and is currently sitting on  various radio playlists, including Radio 2 and Radio Scotlands.
Any way, on to the recording…
As on the last single, Untied, we hired in this beautiful old Ludwig Classic kit, which dates from the 60’s. It really does sound fantastic, and provides exactly the right sound Alex is looking for.
Alex had been very specific about the snare sound he was after, which was a sort of fat, floppy sound. I wasn’t quite sure how to achieve what he was after, so I consulted the good fellows of MikeDolbear.com, who instantly informed me that the correct sound is achieved by placing an old skin on top of the snare skin. Sounded a bit weird to me, but we tried it, and it works a treat!
So, after a cup of tea and a chat with Nick (Engineer) and Dan (Studio Tech) we set about the recording.
Words can’t really explain the experience. The new tunes are amazing, and I’m seriously looking forward to gigging them during 2010. As I really can’t put the session in to words, it might be better to watch this short video that Bevis put together about the session.