Every band dreams of getting to record in a proper studio. For us, The Felt Tips, recording at CaVa was even more special since records we loved had been recorded there, including ones by Camera Obscura, Arab Strap and Hefner. The studio had downsized and, when we visited, was located in a space underneath the church hall which it had been well known for recording in previously.
Since we were working on a tight budget, and because they were in the middle of some renovation work, CaVa gave us a good rate but asked us to split our recording into two shorter sessions.
We all took a week off work for the first 4 or 5-day session and I recall walking in with my guitar on a winter’s Monday morning with that floaty feeling you get when you’re spending time doing the exact thing you’d choose to do if you had the choice of doing anything you wanted.
We only had a week to record, mix and master the record – when bands say they recorded an album in a 3 days that maybe doesn’t include the time-consuming part of mixing it! But CaVa’s Brian McNeil had the energy and the ideas to make it a fun and memorable experience.
We had to make split second decisions like detuning the snare to give it more weight, using a DI’d acoustic guitar (plugging it in as opposed to recording it with a microphone) on certain songs and adding a pinch of autotune to my vocals. We’d no doubt have reconsidered some of these choices if we had had more time and, in particular, I wish I’d never agreed to the autotune, as I much prefer the sound of my vocals without it.
Particular memories stand out: Listening intently in the live room as Brian loudly played a nearly-finished Lifeskills back through into a pair of large speakers that must have been for bands to practice along to; Lounging on the control room couch, surrounded by Miguel’s dreamy guitar on Double Bluff as the dimmed lights sparkled in the studio’s disco ball above us; and Brian recounting entertaining stories from previous recording sessions with other Glasgow-based bands. Kev helpfully captured some of the action on video, clips of which I’ve added here.
A lot of studio time is spent sitting watching and listening as the engineer works on small details and processes you don’t always understand.
These days I’d probably be trying to learn as much as I could that might help me with my own recordings. But back then, it was more about soaking up the studio atmosphere and enjoying hearing your cherished songs incrementally come to life. Of course, there was also a considerable amount of having a laugh and filling in time drinking coffee, eating snacks and having the odd roll-up cigarette in the studio’s back garden. I don’t smoke much, but not having a roll-up or two when I’m having the time of my life is something I can’t imagine.
Brian joined me to smoke a couple of times. We all liked him and appreciated how much he was putting into the recording. It would have been nice to take the opportunity to let him know, but I probably stuck to small talk. He had ideas for just about every song, and it was Brian who suggested making Miguel’s guitar part the introduction to Silver Spoon. The shimmering noise made from random guitar notes in Garden of Roses was his idea too – he called it McNeil’s Miasma or something.
The second shorter session was focused on finishing the mix and some quick in-house mastering. Afterwords, there were the inevitable doubts about how the recording sounded, and we went back to iron a few overall eq issues which Brian was happy to try and sort out. Even after that, I had mixed feelings about how the album sounded. Naturally, we wanted to have a record that sounded as good as possible, but that was always going to be a lot to ask given the time constraints.
Over time I began to appreciate that, we, and Brian, did a really good job, and I use the tracks as a reference now when I’m mixing music at home. One nice result of having to work so quickly is that the recordings are more or less how we play the songs live. It’s always tempting when recording to add extra instruments and parts to what’s there, which can be good but risks losing something as well. Less can be better, and I also prefer having the album as a fairly accurate representation of what we sounded like at the time.
Read part 1 here and part 3 to come…