Blog Archives

I’ve been working with an amazing band recently – Walking On Cars. They’re awesome folks from Ireland. Tim Bran and Roy Kerr are producing, who are fantastic. We were at Terry Britten’s studio, State Of The Ark, in Richmond, which is a great place to be – lovely environment, amazing equipment. It’s really everything you could want in a session. We’re back in there for most of May.

In the meantime I’m doing a load of writing and recording with my writing-partner-in-crime, Ben Townshend, tracking with guitarist and song-writer Michael Tonge, remixing and mastering some material for Helter Skelter, and enjoying spending a bit more time at home with Jess and the child.

With the sun bursting through the attack wall I’ve been spending the last few days mixing the project we’ve been doing with Singaporean artist Jonny Ong. It’s a very cool with a retro feel and I’m loving working on the mixes. The outboard racks are quivvering, Pro Tools is purring, and we’re nearly done.

We’ve just had a great couple of days tracking drums at Terry Brittain’s incredible studio – State Of The Ark. The microphones in there are out of this world. It’s high-end vintage paradise.

Our new drums have arrived. Master craftsman Preston Prince has made us these beautiful drums. They sound fantastic…big and resonant. We’ve gone for quite classic sizes, 24×14, 16×16 and 12×9. I don’t really like the modern trend for very deep kicks. You see a lot of 22×20 etc and I find they sound ‘slow’. I much prefer 14 or even shorter. They maintain their attack much better, like the old Ludwig kicks do. These are Keller shells, 6mm maple with reinforcement rings (except the kick which I think will be 10mm). The wrap is the new version of charcoal pearl. I love the blueish tinge. Can’t wait to get tracking with these.

Today is an exciting day. Because I have managed to get my hands on this original SSL G series bus compressor. They don’t make them the same way anymore and these are extremely sought after. In fact I’ve had my eye out for one for about three years and I have not seen one for sale in that time. Until now.

Soldano Hot Rod 50+ and 1967 Fender Super Reverb.

So last week we were back at The Old Chapel tracking with an awesome band called Lecarla. Check them out on YouTube and stay posted for a forthcoming release.

So, I’ve finshed building the first module of my VP26 pair. I’ll test it and then crack on with the second one. Provided it works, it was pretty straighforward.