One step forward and two back

Well it's been a busy couple of weeks. 'A Day on the Moon' was released on YouTube a few weeks ago.

I also got to spend some time mixing in the studio with Lee Abraham, formerly bassman with Galahad and producer of prog rock material including his own acclaimed album 'Black and White' www.leeabraham.co.uk .

The short time spent with Lee was very educational and he certainly added some smoothness and commercial perzazz to 'A Day on the Moon' which was sadly lacking. You can listen to both versions at www.cosmograf.co.uk/music.php . Lee commented that I should really consider getting some real drum tracks done rather than using my trusty Roland TD20 kit. This has caused much thinking. In real terms, if I was making a commercial record with the budget that goes with it then it wouldn't be an issue to a hire a real drummer in, but I think much of the enjoyment I get from doing the drums myself would be lost. I think I'm probably prepared to sacrifice some of the sound quality to maintain that control over the music , just on this album anyway. Ultimately, it's the way to go for sure and I need to find a drummer who'd like to take this stuff on, maybe even to a few live gigs.

As an interim measure I've revised the drum setup to output 8 discrete channels so it at least gives you more to play with EQ and timing wise in the mixing process.

Our time spent mixing also highlighted a number of issues for improvement including recording vocals with way too much gain and perhaps using mic'd up guitars rather than DI to the recording interface. All this of course has caused a major issue though in that, it's highly likely I'm going to have to re-record a lot of stuff I've already done. We'll have to see whether the results justify the extra hassle. I'm looking forward to working with Lee again soon but need to spend a little time practising what I've learned.

I was thrilled when my good mate Steve Dunn (Also Eden) agreed to guest on one of the tracks, 'The Dark that follows the Light'. I've not worked with Steve for about 18 years and it's great to kick off the songwriting partnership again, if only remotely across the internet.

I threw a few keyboard tracks together and emailed them into the ether, and Steve weaved some prog magic across the top. It's sounding very dark, like a John Carpenter soundtrack. Lots still to do but I think it's going to be good.

Another track written in a day last week was 'Ministry of Failure'. Simple Piano and a few nice harmonies with a characteristically dour theme.

I reckon I have 50mins of music written now so enough for the album.


Overall recording progress so far:

- La Iglesia - Done
- Sins of the Father - Done
- In the Sea - Done
- Evolution Railroad - Done
- A Day on the Moon - Done
- Ministry of Failure -Done
- Heard you were Going (San Francisco) (WORKING TITLE)
- Who will you serve - More song writing/recording to do on this
- The Dark that follows the Light - More song writing/recording to do on this