Recording sessions

Had another session with Al today. We had a final look through the string arrangements for Sweet Lady Life, a ballad which I loosely based on the Streets of London by Ralph McTell. The combination of piano and strings works well and I intend to couple this with multi-layered vocals, including a sort-of call and response harmony similar to that which Simon and Garfunkel use in their version of Scarborough Fair. It'll be lovely when we're finished with it!

Had a great session with Al Park today, at Byron Bay, working on tightening the midi string and wind arrangements for Merlin's Song.

We incorporated the recorder and flute parts I recorded at Top Cat Studio on Sunday and overlayed them with the midi arrangements. The result was excellent! Great sounds, and a great feel. The midi samples and the recorded audio worked very well together, each complimenting the other and combining to create a wonderful accompaniment for the song.

After a couple of months away from the studio for holiday's, schoolwork, etc. I've started back recording in earnest! Last week I took a drive to the Coast and sat with Al Park to work on some of his wonderful midi string and woodwind arrangements for the songs - Merlin's Song and Seesaw Marjorie Daw. These songs are coming along so well - they are nearly ready for inclusion in the studio and any work we need to do on them now is basically just some minor tweaking!

Had another great session last week. Daniel Muszynski took a few days away from his touring schedule with his band, The Glass Towers, currently touring with Neil Finn, and came into the studio to record a few more drum tracks.

While in Katoomba in March this year I purchased a new Cort 12-string guitar (I already have a Cort 6-string acoustic and love its clean, crisp tone!) and, once I'd taken it to Byron Bay Luthier Stuart Newton to be correctly set up, it's sounding fantastic! I went in to the studio about a month ago and recorded another six tracks - including some awesome lead acoustic 12-string work on my Medieval-based piece "The Sword in the Stone". This piece give a medieval flavour to the Arthurian legend, and gives King Arthur himself a voice.

I have written many songs and pieces of music over the years and up till now they've been firmly buried in the filing cabinet of my brain. Well, at last I've decided to have a good spring clean and record my first album.

This process begain in May 2010 when I recorded some classical guitar tracks at Byron Bay's S.A.E. audio institute with Dirk Terrill. The first session was very productive and I managed to record six complete tracks - four songs and two instrumentals.

Back from another session in the studio today. I had five hours recording at Top Cat studios: http://www.topcatstudios.com/ where I've been recording the album since early 2010. Dirk was unable to continue to work with me at SAE due to time pressures and so I approached Brad at Top Cat and he was very happy to work with me.

Since September 2010 I have worked with Brad at Top Cat and we've had a fantastically productive six months. So far I have recorded guitar and vocals for fourteen songs, and the guitar for three instrumental pieces.