Erasure News

Sorry about the blank page that was up for a while today. I have had a misunderstanding with my service provider - I thought I had successfullly upgraded my site and they seem to think otherwise. I had a long cycle ride this morning (longest so far) and went over a bridge to Cousin's Island. Today Daniel Miller (our Record Company Boss) flew in from Newark and we enjoyed an afternoon with him listening to the 11 tracks we have worked on so far and getting his impressions, input & criticism. A very positive and helpful meeting. I cooked a brown rice and vegtable risotto for luch which we enjoyed mid meeting - then Daniel headed back to the Airport at 18:00. The Band and I went out for dinner in Portland, had a lovely meal and I enjoyed a couple of Martinis. In spite of being a new Dad Vince has had time to make a movie. Vince's quote of the day "That's a good synth sound, if say so myself"

Fri, 20 Oct 2006

Rain in Maine. And a wet cycle ride. Very refreshing. Another combination day. We have a song with a good verse and pre-chorous and we have another song with a great chorous that we feel will all fit together. After Vince has worked diligently with scissors and glue for an hour or so it does all fit. Quote of the day (by Vince) "I don't want to waste a good bit of melody". 4 on the floor is strong on this song , but we are keen to try a different rhythm, and we do find something that works better. Vince has a mall crisis with the song ("I'm not really getting it") but then he zooms out and rediscovers it. I book a table for dinner tomorrow evening - our first meal out together. Daniel Noack sent a cool image. Vince gets off a little earlier (the weather is foul later we learn it takes him twice as long to get home as usual). The song has developed nicely and then it is transformed by Andy's vocals. Great lyrics on this tune. First person and very personal. I love it. Of course we try different keys, but once again we finish up in the key the song was written in. Andy leads the cooking - Roast Chicken legs, Yams roasted with garlic, steamed broccoli (all organic of course). I am experimenting with Knox - file vaults for the backups. We enjoy a glass of wine with dinner. I spend the evening doing a couple of rough mixes and burning CDs.

Thu, 19 Oct 2006

I was up early this morning, and for some reason I got involved in testing the sync between the G5 and the laptop. In my world the days of tight sync are long gone (Vince and I spoke fondly of remembered sync boxes - the SRC Friendchip, the SBX80, FSK from the MC4, The Unitor on the Atari) - but obviously sync inside one computer is good. A colleague on the Logic User List suggested trying sending MTC over Ethernet (supported by the OSX) which I had never done. I got extremely tight sync, but only about 1 in 10 times when I started the sequencer . Very sad. I also investigated an apparent patch saving bug in my Access Virus TI, but the problem disappeared when I restarted the Virus so I never got to the bottom of it. Why do I spend my morning doing this stuff? Anyway the tune went well. The demo was pretty vibey anyway - Vince wrote a M8 riff and a chorus riff that we all enjoyed. He had a small attack of "The Last Thing I did Syndrome" (Quote of the Day). Andy had too many lyrics for today's song,and he reduced them slightly. Less being more. Again a good vocal session. We also went back to an earlier song that Andy wanted to resing. The music sounded weak to me - I spent the rest of the evening working on that track after Andy had gone home. Joe brought in a new chair for us. Andy forgot his keys and had to come back for them. For supper we had a large Organic Salad with Organic Brown rIce and Onions. mmm. I had my fifth consecutive evening without a drop of alcohol (back on my London Regime) I might have a drink on Friday. :-)

Wed, 18 Oct 2006

My new 6176 arrived today. Obviously I switched it on immediately so as to get a good initial warm up time. The rain cleared up mid morning so I went out on the bike again. Of course I always wear a helmet and a reflective jacket. I want to be seen by those car drivers! Nice new undershirt from Patagonia. (in black of course) Very beautiful world out there. Vince arrived at the usual time and we went straight into a new tune - a very atmospheric song. We wanted to add in an extra part, and Vince worked hard with transposition and chord transitions to make this happen. When Andy arrived he was very disappointed with what we had done - he liked the song that we had taken the new bit from as it was, and when we listened again we had to agree with him. So we crafted in another section. It went way easier the second time. Joe picked up an SE Reflexion Filter from Guitar Center in town and so we changed everything in the vocal line (except the mic stand) Quote of the Day from Vince "I'm not sure about having 2 geniuses on this session" We spent the rest of the afternoon working on the drums and the sequencer sounds. VInce is really enjoying the ES2, and using it a lot. Also lots of different Reaktor synths (I can hardly keep up...) Andy made a pea and sausage soup that was delicious. After Vince left (to have Sausage and Mash with Brussels sprouts and Onion Gravy) Andy did his warm up exercises and I made a cup of tea. After a quick initial setup of the 6176 (Gain up to +10, fast attack and release, "10 to 2", 8:1 compression) everything started to happen in vocal land. We were very pleased with the peformance, the vibe, the song, the sound. Joe crept in as I was editing - I didn't even notice (now that's professional!) and we did the offsite backup. Excellent.

Tue, 17 Oct 2006

Today was musically the most difficult day so far (for me at least). We slowed the song down, we slowed it down some more, we sped it up again, we tried 5 different bass lines, loads of different beats, we turned musical parts on and off. Vince wrote new parts. We muted old parts. We transposed the song up and up and down and down. Andy wrestled with the lyrics. He tried the Bridge up an octave and back down. And we still haven't cracked it .:-) It's all part of the process. Quote of the day from Joe " When in doubt, take notes out". On a positive note we enjoyed a delicious supper of brown rice, sardines and steamed red chard. Vince went home to Shrimp, Pea and Mint Risotto. The new monster cables and the U87 changed the vocal vibe. We set the mic up in another part of the room - Andy walked around singing and chose a spot. I ordered a 6176 from Universal Audio (thanks to Marsha and Kendra) - should be here tomorrow. I am wanting to try the SE Reflexion Filter too, and I have asked them for a demo. It rained and rained but not during my bicycle ride. Daniel from the record company is in New York and he called up - he will be visiting us on Saturday.

Mon, 16 Oct 2006

Monday Morning - always seems to be things to take care of. Today was no exception So much so that I missed going out on the bike, but I was well prepared for the session when Vince arrived, with lots of business taken care of. It's hard to keep the writing interesting without playing you the material we are working on - the method of working on the song sounds similar on paper, but each tune is different so each day is a fresh new adventure. The first part of the day Vince spent creating a middle part for the song, new chords and new melody. The drums on today's track were made with the Moog Modular and µtonic. I made a beautiful pad with my Virus, and I spent a bit of time tweaking the chord shapes.Vince had already created a great solo sound with the moog Modular. We also made a big warm bass with a couple of ES1s and the Virus TI. Andy's replacement credit card finally arrived so that was a relief (he lost his card on the first day in Portland). We are still working on getting the very best we can soundwise out of the vocal performances. Today we tried going directly into the RME Fireface instead of through the GT Brick & Millenia Twincom chain. Somehow there seemed to be an extra openness......Tomorrow we try a U87 instead of the TLM 103 we are currently using. Quote of the day from Vince "quite an easy way to do it, without getting into all that complicated shit"

Sun, 15 Oct 2006

Day Off! I discovered the beautiful townof Yarmouth on my bike, Enjoyed lunch at Bull Feeney's and stocked up the kitchen at Wild Oats. I find that I can easily get depresed on a day off, especially when I am away from home - it's part of the decompression process, and for me a necessary part of a day off. I was pleased that I managed to avoid working anyway, I know it is better for the week ahead. In the evening I watched TV (mindlessly).

Sat, 14 Oct 2006

Today was Joe's birthday. Happy Birthday Joe!

Once again this morning I was struck by the beauty of the Maine trees and coastline. Fantastic! Vince was in the gym this morning and so arrived a little late - this gave me time to do laundry. Today was a bit of a laundry day, as Andy brought his laundry here as well. Whilst Vince started on the new song, I swept the leaves off the deck. I decided that the room is a little too echoey so when Joe arrived with Andy we set up lots of mattresses around the singing corner to make an simple vocal booth. That seemed to improve matters. It makes the place look a bit more like a squat though. Today Andy brought food and cooked. The end result was delicious. Meanwhile Vince was programming. Or giving advice. We had more fun with Reaktor and the Nord Modular G2 on this track. When Vince left Andy voiced the track that we had spent the day working on fairly quickly. Then we voiced the first track that we did on Monday. We tried a number of different keys and tempos & finished up 5 semitones higher than the track was written/demoed, which was very exciting to both Andy and I. After Andy left I did a couple of rough mixes and enhancem,ents with the Virus doubling up sounds and adding pads and claps (strings and percussion!) :-) Also I ordered some nice Monster Microphone cables for the vocal chain. Let's see/hear if we can get a bigger sound. All in all it seems like we got a lot of music done this week. We worked on 6 six songs, pretty effectively in my opinion. Vince and Andy delivered lots of creative input and the songs grew as a result of our nurturing.

Fri, 13 Oct 2006

As I returned from my bike ride I was closely followed by a large black vehicle . I pulled into the drive & realised it was Vince, which was funny at the time. (He was early). Vince went straight to work and I dived in the shower. I brought Vince up to speed with the singing that we had been working on - we particularly enjoyed the lyrics on P23 (last night's song). Also Daniel Noack sent a modified Happy Team Picture. Today we worked on P25 (which is a bit funky, in Erasure style). Vince wrote a couple of different melodies for the middle part, but didn't seem that happy with either of them. He is a perfectionist of course. We explored Reaktor some more today - which is a huge collection of modern and vintage style synthesizers. Vince was particularly impressed by the sound of a Juno6 emulation. We recorded some live Analog Stlye sequencer performances. The quote of the day (from Vince) "After that impressive performance I definitely need a banana" Later in the evening we tried lots of vocal ideas and different speeds for teh song. We wanted to have quite a few backing vocals onn this song, and we started to sketch those out...As always with Andy, this was a lot of fun. After the session I went into Portland with Andy and he took me out to a bar, where we had just a couple of drinks.

Thu, 12 Oct 2006

Another day another bike ride (this time in very Misty Maine) and another new song of course. We installed Stylus on the G5 and also the Sonalksis Essential plugins (a nice creamy sound on Andy's vocals). I realised my Nord G2 was not working properly because I had to switch it to USA power setting (it was on European 220 volt). I shot quite a lot of video (for the "making of DVD" - if there is one) which was fun. I usually remember to take the lens cap off. We had fun with Stylus. Andy was a bit tired (there were big storms last night and I think it kept him awake), but he woke up later and we had another good session. Happy Team. Some neighbours surpised us with a bottle of wine and snacks, so that was a pleasant diversion. Andy is working really hard on lyrics and we were excited by the sound of this song (P23) when we voiced it in the evening. We thought about going to a bar and I wanted to see "All the King's Men" but in the end we did neither. (Relatively) Early Night. I cooked Black Bean and Carrot Soup.

Wed, 11 Oct 2006

I started the day with an hour bike ride - it was great to see the trees and the ocean, and an amazing selection of beautiful homes . Session started at the usual time - I played Vince the vocals that Andy had done the night before, and we moved on to a new track. This one was a little more difficult, especially because Andy and I especially liked Vince's original demo work. Vince worked on the intro and outro and Middle Section and after he left Andy and I put bak several of his demo elements into the body of the song. Sometimes Vince doesn't realise that, without thinking about it too much, he has done something worthwhile. Andy did some more singing on this track. As usual he was great. I ended the session backing up and Networking the computers. O yes, and in case you are wondering I made roast Sweet Potato with Onion and Garlic, served with a spicy Tomato Salsa. It's raining. And I added a counter to the bottom of the page to see how much this page is read. I hope no one minds.

Tue, 10 Oct 2006

I woke up really early -the studio looked ready for action. It was another beautiful morning and I went for a walk on the beach. Joe picked me up at 10:00 and we went to get a rental bike for me at CycleMania. The session started at Midday and we dived into another song. Masters at Work! Another enjoyable and creative day.We bought a cheap printer today and Andy started printing out lyrics. We did our first vocal session - a very warm sound with the Valve Vocal Mic preamp (Groove Tube) and compressor (Millenia). Andy in fine voice. I made a simple Organic Salad for supper. In the evening I cycled to the cinema to see "The Departed", then came home to do this diary entry.

Mon, 9 Oct 2006

Today was the first "proper" day in the studio. We spent all day working on one song (P7). First we slowed it down a bit and then worked on the rhythm and the sounds of the riffs and melodies. Andy also did a lot of lyric writing - I think the lyrics are almost complete for this song. A great first day - we were all buzzing! Joe got me an office chair to edit in and we will probably have to get a new table (this one is too high for comfortable editing). I cooked Spelt Spaghetti with a Puttanesca Sauce. Andy read Angel Cards for Joe.

Sun, 8 Oct 2006

Vince went for a hike with his wife and child. Andy and I went to Wild Oats to stock up our apartments. What a great store! Then Andy and I had a thorough listening session in the studio. We needed to get organised because there is so much material AND Andy has named all the songs, whereas Vince and I are still using the original numbers so everything was very confusing. Also we made a note of which bits of the unused songs we really like, the better to be able to combine these bits. We ate left over rice with Organic Black Beans and Corn.

Sat, 7 Oct 2006

Today we set up the studio and Vince arrived and bought his gear and work so far. We listened through to all the ideas and started to select and combine. We chose a first "Top 10". I cooked Organic Brown Rice.

Fri , 6 Oct 2006

Left Hotel Early. Got the Amtrak up to Portland (beautiful colours in the trees) - except it stopped half way and we would have had to load all the cases onto a bus. Luckily Joe Brien (our assistant on the ground in Portland) was able to drive down to Dover to pick us up. Dropped Andy at the Hotel for one night (he moves into an Ocean Front apartment tomorrow) and cruised down to Falmouth to check out the house that will be the studio. Seems very workable and the cable modem had already arrived for Internet joy. The rest of the day was spent shopping for food and bits and pieces and collecting equipment from Ted at MusicToyz. Tomorrow we set up the studio in the living room overlooking the ocean.

Thu, 5 Oct 2006

Flew to Boston with Andy today. Tomorrow morning we take the Amtrak up to Portland where I have rented a house for the studio and me to live in, and a nice looking apartment for Andy. We are putting speakers in the house and a couple of Computers and a Microphone (minimal setup). Mostly soft synths but I have with me my Access Virus TI and Nord G2 Modular. We will then start with Vince on developing the songs that we have been working on in pre-production, but now all 3 of us in the same room. Right now we are in a really horrible hotel, but it's only one night.....Hopefully the accomodations in Portland will be grand.

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