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Days 10 and 11 in the studio - we are now at the exciting stage of the recording process where most of the music and vocals are done, and we are now applying the finishing touches.
Gideon came back into the studio today to record Glockenspiel on a couple of tracks. This is the first album that we are using the ‘glock’ on, and it sounds very awesome. It’s an instrument that sounds magical at times, and always seems to remind me of Christmas. Gideon is the master when it comes to adding finishing touches to songs.
The next day, we had Helen come in to the studio to record Cello on the track DRAW NEAR. I’ve always thought that cello is probably the most beautiful instrument there is. It has such a haunting sound to it, and I love the richness of the low notes. It was amazing to use a string trio on our last album, and adding string parts can really bring a song alive. Helen did an amazing job with her parts on the song, and it’s going to add another depth to the song and album.
Tomorrow, Andrew will be recording Mandolin on some tracks. It’s been so great to branch out and experiment with different instruments and to try out different sounds for this album. I really feel that we are ‘maturing’ on this album, and I’m so happy with the sounds that we are getting. Maybe I’ll play the ‘nose flute’ on a couple of tracks just to complete the picture!
Day 9 in the studio - days and nights are blurring into one. So much has happened in the last 9 days that it’s getting hard to remember what happened on which day. Alison came into the studio today to record vocals on COME, DRAW NEAR, and SING WITH THE ANGELS.
Doing vocals is pretty fun, but pretty scary too. The microphones in the studio are insanely expensive, and they pick up everything. Every single little wrong note or slightly pitchy part is magnified and blasted out for everyone to hear. It can be pretty intimidating when there is a control room full of people listening to you sing. The flip side is that the microphones and compressors also make your voice sound amazing.
We’ve been working on a song called COME that was written by Trevor Siu who is one of the youth in our church. We’ve come up with a very crazy vocal part in the middle of song. It’s difficult to explain, but it’s got a bit of an Imogen Heap feel to it. Again, it’s great to be able to do stuff that you could never do live. It allows so much more creativity.
Darran is trying to convince us to do a re-mix of WE ARE CHAMPIONS and turn it into a dance track. What do you think? Would you like to hear The Vine Band remixed into a club track?
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Day 6 in the studio - still recording guitars. Today Ephraim Bano came in to record guitars on WE ARE CHAMPIONS, OUR GOD REIGNS, RELENTLESS GRACE, MORE OF YOU LESS OF ME.
In my mind, if you are looking for someone to give your song some serious ‘cool points’ there is no one better than Ephraim. He hears guitar parts in his head that are quite different to what most other people hear. The first time I ever met Eph was at a Micah68 gig about 12 years ago. I reckon it must have been the first rock show he’d ever been to because both him and his brother went nuts moshing and playing air guitar at the front. It was a sight to behold. The next time I saw him, he played me note for note every single Micah68 guitar part.
He’s probably pretty embarrassed by that now, but it’s very cool that 12 years later we are still playing and making music together. There’s something special that comes from playing music together for a long time. Non-musicians probably won’t understand, but it means a lot to me, and I’m honored to still be standing alongside these guys after all these years, worshipping together and glorifying God with our music.
And now as promised - here is a photo of that toilet. The photo doesn’t really do it justice, but you get the idea. It has one of the shower heads with multiple nozzles so that you get sprayed by water from every direction. Awesome.
