Well what a night it was last night!! I arrived at CaVa studios around 6.30pm after battling through the traffic (nnggrrrr) to a cheery Bill at the front door. Bill Matthews manages The Gospel Truth Choir and booked myself and Malky (drummer) to record bass and drums for the Choir's album, their first.

All we were originally told was we'd be re-working some Scottish Classics and that is all I'm giving away just now too :-)

Once Malk had set up his Gretsch Kit (what an awesome sound) he started to soundcheck, which can for some drummers and studios take forever but with Malk and Geoff from CaVa on-board we were ready to start recording at 8.30pm!! No mean feat It tell you. I've been in studios before where its taken 3 hours to get a good drum sound "Is that all the Moon Gel you've got??", "What about gaffer tape....we might need more rolls" etc.

We had Steven (from Nightshift) on keys and Stuart (Matthews, Bill's son) on guitar. We set the click and away we went. Track One took about 4 takes but we were playing live and had only 2 rehearsals prior to the recording to get it right. Track 2, we're warmed up now and after two takes we were there. Quick break for some pasta,chocolate,tea and a beer (ahem, not my idea but yes please!) and we started on track 3. This took a bit of time to get the feel right. As we were reworking Scottish Classics we wanted to be generous to the original but add a little flair as well, we all like to play and stretch our legs but going all out on a fill to show off might not be the best way to get a callback :-) We managed after a few attempts to get the feel, a few times through, yeah, much better, right this is the one...take 2....take3...got it!

Track 4 was a bit easier, getting late now, everyone's tired and most had work the next day too so....first part Malk recorded with a Cajon its got a great sound. He sat on top and just hit away with his hands, Geoff miked it up and it sound great! Bass, Cajon, keys, guitar and guide vocal...one take!

Then Malk got behind the kit and played from the top of the track himself so we could dub in the drums over the Cajon for the 2nd half of the first half - keep up!

Then, we reset the click to a much faster tempo :-) Bass and drums started then the whole band kicked in, repeat many times so we could do a fade on the album but added an endig so the Choir can use the recording for their live shows but on the album the fade out would kill the ending before it happened.

That's a wrap!! 12.15am. Tired we all drove home. The Choir now go in in a few days to record their parts.

This is the first time I've recorded with/for a choir so I'm keen to hear the finished results.

I'll keep you posted :-)

Graeme

PS Images of the recording can be found here

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=153802&id=28284803600