Studio diary

by Nigel Powell

Hello peeps,

After a few prods from various quarters, I've succumbed to writing another diary, even though there doesn't seem that much to say. I guess the main thing that would count as news is what's been going on with Virgin. I'm sure it's a big breach of protocol to be going at all public with this, but I have no need for a protocol droid, what I really need is a droid who understands the language of moisture vapourators.

Anyhoo, returning from Star Wars la la land, we seem to have this affect on people who we work with in the record industry, in that as soon as we like them and get compfortable and begin developing a working relationship with them they get fired, latest victim being Joanne our A@R person, who was rudely and unreasonably ousted at the beginning of the year. We didn't get to meet Paul MacDonald who replaced her, since we were on tour in France at the time, and when we got home we had a bit of a writing spurt, so concentrated on that rather than trolling off down to London to meet 'industry'. So, as far as we were aware we were all set to casually start recording in March, songs were flowing in an exciting and inspiring way, and to aid getting a producer or two interested we suggested we put together a tape of stuff to send to them, live versions of 'Landslide', 'Shed Your Skin' and 'Whose Side Are You On?'. 

When Paul received this tape, he immediately phoned us and said "the songs aren't much good, I don't think you should start recording yet, we should do some demos and find a big producer who'll get you to make a proper album, y'know, big guitars, loops, maybe be a bit more like Space or Catatonia, eh?" (I'm paraphrasing, and reading between the lines, but this was the gist). Natrually, we weren't much impressed by this, so we downed tools for a while while our we tried to sort it out (also it totally took the wind out of our compositional sails, which was a bummer in itself). After a bit of tooing and froing, we finally got our way, but now before they (and other events) had conspired to rush us into a choice of co-producer (Jim Warren, an old friend of mine, and a choice we're happy with but rather would have had a few more options and a bit more time). So we're beginning recording proper in a cottage on Monday. As for when it'll be out, that's open to a few things. 

One, if anyone at Virgin has any faith or belief in the band and wants to release it at all (no one involved in signing us, or even involved in working on the first album is still employed there). And second, the way they hurried us was by saying if we wanted it out this year we had to have it finished by the end of APRIL. Now I reckon this was a slightly transparent (translucent, if you will) attempt to panic us into agreeing to their demoing/Trevor Horn or Fatboy Slim producing plan, but whatever, we think we can at least have a single done by that time which will buy us longer to finish the album completely. BUT we're not going to rush it. If nothing's finished by the appointed time then we'll carry on until it's right and we're happy with it (unless Virgin don't co-operate). So, if we finish as we expect to, there may be a single in July, another in August, and the album in September, or something like that (we can't release the album after September because then it's the Christmas rush when all the big guns get wheeled out by the record companies, little old us would get swamped). 

Sonally been a bit stressed by it all, but it doesn't really matter, because we're so happy and excited by what we're writing that it offsets all the bad stuff. Now if we can just convince a record company desperately trawling for the next Steps or Robbie Williams to release it to the public, you might get a chance to hear it.

I might pop a note out while we're recording, if anything remotely interesting is happening.

Take care, y'all.

Nigel

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