The recording session for the debut album from Stinging with Bigness soon to be released on Ballagroove Records took place this last weekend (10-12th October) and went really well.
The band have put down all the instruments for 7 tracks and only have a couple of vocal takes and backing vocals left to record. The recordings are sounding great and we are all looking forward to hearing how they will sound once they’ve been mixed down over the next couple of weeks. We’ll be posting up work in progress mixes of the songs on the website as and when they arrive, and there will be a collection of remixes (some subtle and some radical) appearing on the website in the near future, remixed by the band themselves and other Ballagroove artists. The band are currently deciding whether to record another few songs to expand the material to a full album or to release the 7 tracks as a mini-LP as was the original plan. Keep checking here for updates 🙂
Ballagroove Records
Aye, an excellent weekend all-in was that 🙂
Plenty of entertainment all round, with funny incidents including a power cut immediately after we’d set everything up (which was a bit concerning as we thought there might not be enough juice for the equipment, but it turned out to be Danny’s old-school electric heater overdriving on dust & spiders!); a Shetland pony that does Mr. Ed impressions when you feed it beer; a chicken playing, errr, chicken with the farm dog and losing (the dog looked really sheepish with all those white feathers stuck to her mouth!); plus constant barnyard noises adding to the atmosphere (the Shetland stomping, cockerels crowing, sheep butting into the barn, just the usual!) – it’ll be interesting to hear if anything’s prominent in mixdown 😉
Not to mention the masses of talent that the SWB boys provided of course, we were all very impressed with their musicianship, with strong and skilled performances from every single one (and throughly sound lads as well!); Ballagroove’s itching to get the CD out so everyone can hear how good their songs are!
Big thanks go out to Danny, John, Pete, Ste, & Stuey for a thoroughly cool, interesting weekend session; Gypo for being such a proficient yet easy-going sound engineer/producer; Smeg for the funky artwork concepts on the spot; Dan’s folks for the use of the barn (plus TV to watch the footie and chips and sandwitches, ace!); Bobby & Julia for comfortable couches and the awesome fry-up breakfasts; oh, and Stuey’s better half for the amazing apple & almond cake – well tasty 🙂
If every Ballagroove recording session goes as well as that did then bring ’em on!
Stef
You’ll be delighted to hear that Dannys vocal takes have lots of ‘cockadoodledoos’ going on in the background, not sure if its the poultry that was hanging around outside the studio or Dannys ‘inner voices’ coming through subliminally, now you wouldn’t get that kind of rural authenticity in a pro-studio :-))
Have a ganders at this weeks Courier (23rd October 2003) Page 18 🙂
Congratulations !
A BIG THANKS TO GYP, STEPH AND SMEG FOR A THOROUGHLY ENJOYABLE WEEKENDS WORK. LOOKING FORWARD TO MEETING UP AGAIN SOON AND CHECKING OUT SOME MIXES/ARTWORK/PICTURES. OH AND YES IT IS A GREAT PICTURE OF ME AND THE WIFE THANKS. P.S. THE HORSE HAD A STINKING HANGOVER AND VOWED NEVER AGAIN…….’TIL THE NEXT TIME.
Really enjoyed the whole process lads and thanks for everything…hope it’s the start of things to come.
Meeting up with John, Danny and Stu tonight (it’s Pete’s 30th today so he’s out celebrating) to start putting together a new batch of songs on John’s new eight-track.
After feeling a little jaded with the whole band thing for a while and wondering where we were going, this has offered us the chance to enjoy the creative process more by becoming self-critical just by being able to hear what we are playing!
Looking forward to hearing the mixes and will be in touch shortly.
Cock a doodle doo
Happy Birthday Pete, welcome to the ‘older generation’, get that 18-30 holiday in quick before its too late 🙂