Day Thirty Five: Wednesday 6th July 2005
Martin was first in this morning and spent an hour or two tweaking the computer system. We are using a Mac based system with Digital Performer 4.5 as the main recording software and MOTU hardware as the audio interfaces between the instruments and the hard drive. We have also been recording at 96khz which gives the recordings a lot of depth. Martin has just upgraded the system to use the new Mac OSX Tiger operating system. Craig came in to check his bass playing over once more before heading back to Yorkshire. I then set out to record a demo of ‘Zero’. J.J. had managed to get me a couple of days grace on the deadline, but he has to have it tonight. I use my black Gibson Les Paul Custom (the one I inherited from Chris Anderson during the Rise album recording sessions). It sounds great and it stays in tune really well. The first part I put on is the main riff which starts in G and has an ‘Anarchy In the U.K.’ vibe to it with a half tone sequence at the end. I record the part all the way through to the end of the song. the chorus sounds great especially with Craig going to opposite notes to me on the second half of the chorus. While doing this I hear a picking part for the verses. To record this Martin switches my guitar over to the rhythm pick up and uses the tone controls on the instrument to mellow out the sound a little. All we need now is a ‘solo’, and as I’m no James Stevenson I just create a sort of descending ‘Led Zep’ style slide guitar part using a bottle. I learnt this trick whilst working with John Porter on ‘Rain In the Summertime, it was also something he passed on to Johnny Marr and The Smiths. Vocals. I have written the lyrics and am just about to sing them when I see Jules and my boy Dylan out in the Garden. Dylan comes into the studio and watches me sing the take. It is the first time he has seen me sing in full voice from close up… his little face was a picture…… Couple of backing vocals and we have the track in the bag. Not much time to do a mix, but Martin does a good job with what little time we have, and I then take the track and upload it onto the magazine’s server. Job done.
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