The Mighty NDV

I got an email earlier in the month from Rob Aubrey at Aubitt Studios to say that legendary prog drummer Nick D'Virgilio of Spock's Beard and Big Big Train fame was available on the 30th if I wanted him. YES!! but I'm not ready!!. At the time I had 1 track nearing completion and the rough ideas for two more, so needless to say it was a bit of a battle to get enough material together make the session worthwhile. One of the tracks wasn't quite 'drummer ready' and Rob in his usual inimitable style told me the 'timing sucked'. Thankfully Rob always offers a solution with the 'tell it how it is' criticism and he'd retimed most of the bass track before I'd cursed myself for getting carried away adding bass and guitar parts against my chronologically challenged guide drum track, instead of the click. Schoolboy error! "Nick needs the bass spot on to get the feel of the track", said Rob. OK. Thankfully timing on the other tracks didn't 'suck' quite so badly so we were in business.

Then it goes something like this, Rob plays the track to Nick, who sits there silently, while I suffer and squirm in the studio chair dying of embarrassment at my V-Drum track. The track ends. "Cool" he says and heads off to the drum room. The first take goes off and I'm grinning like an idiot. Now I've studied a lot of drummers; as wannabee rock stars in our teens Steve Dunn (Also Eden) and myself used to Air Drum to the finest, but you can't predict Nick. He never performs the same fill twice, and when you think you have a clue where he is going he pulls of the most audacious fill or venture into a groove which leaves you with jaw firmly open. He's an amazing talent and throughout my session and the one that followed, I witnessed the most diverse and enthralling 'set of chops' I've seen from any drummer. He's also a jolly nice bloke too and it was a thrill just to talk to the guy let alone work with him on my music.

In 4 hours we managed to get 3 tracks completed which will be coming to a Cosmograf album near you soon. Just got to surmount the more than trifling task of writing the rest of it....

In other news, Graeme 'Twig' Bell has once again agreed to reprise his role in 'artwork de cosmograf extraordinaire' and I'm really looking forward to getting stuck in with him throwing concepts around. He's also threatening to write an album himself which with his muso contacts should be pretty amazing.

Just like last time I will need the help of the prog community (and maybe musically further afield too) to help deliver the next album. As usual I'm reaching the end of my own talent and inspiration reserves in some areas so will be looking to delegate roles to more talented folk soon. I have however learned to play a stylophone and will be delighting you all with the results on the next record.

As a post script I've developed the smallest Pro Tools mixing suite in the world. It's incorporated into the arm of my sofa, and means I can generally twiddle and experiment with the more obscure editing features in between long sessions at the more amply proportioned, but bloody cold facility at the end of my garden.

Step into Christmas

It's Christmas once again and this time last year I was wading through drum tracks and getting stuck into mixing for WAHDID. An awful lot has happened since then, and there's been some stonking reviews including some great coverage in Classic Rock Presents Prog. Since the release on F2 Records, I've been busy with interviews, articles and radio shows too, and I'm finally getting the feeling the album has really put me on the prog map at last. It's been a stonking year for prog all round with some amazing releases.

It's time to move on though and I've got the urge to write the next one. The ideas are flowing and I've already got the bare bones of about 4 new tracks. I'm already talking to two exciting and well known guest musos in the prog community, and if it comes off it's going to be very exciting.

As well as writing a new album I'm trying to resurrect an old one. Many folk have enquired about my first album 'Freed from the Anguish' and how they can get hold of it. It was never actually released as a CD but sold for a while as a digital download, and the truth is after the mammoth increase in production standard in WAHDID, I wanted to bury it as I didn't feel it was representative of my output anymore. Hence it was made unavailable and can't currently be purchased. The good news is it will return in slightly different form as an EP. I've taken the best tracks and I'm busy re-recording, and remixing, these for a release hopefully in the first quarter of 2012. Included in these will be reworked versions of 'Please Save Me' and 'Falling Down' which will be renamed 'Freed from the Anguish'. The theme of the EP is a characteristically melancholy piece about a man facing battle on D-Day and his thoughts about those he's left behind. Graeme 'Twig' Bell has also kindly agreed to undertake digital scribbling duties for the cover.

Since WAHDID was released I decided to invest in some more studio gear and I'm now the proud owner of a 8 core Mac Pro running ProTools 9. There's also a much needed mic upgrade on the way, although the most essential piece of equipment will be my portable heater which I'm going to have to work remotely if there's any chance of me leaving the warm house for the studio during the winter months.

In the meantime I'm intending to enjoy Christmas and spend some more time with the family. Have a good one folks and here's to another amazing year for prog in 2012.

Will the last recording musician to leave, please turn out the lights

I haven't blogged for a while and have been quite busy with various Cosmograf stuff, interviews press etc. for WAHDID. The album has been very well received by the critics and more importantly prog fans so far and I've been really pleased with the feedback especially some of the European reviews which despite the language difference seem to have nailed the true essence and meaning of the album in a nutshell.

On a less positive note, I was doing my usual tour around Google this morning, searching for Cosmograf related links, and found the album is now littered over just about every single illegal music download site on the internet. I did wonder why CD sales from the website had come to a standstill in the last couple of days and now I know why. The irony of this isn't lost on me, bearing in mind that I have recently been seen on Facebook arguing that download culture may not be all bad for new musicians. Sadly it's looking pretty bad from where I'm standing now, and I may have to concede the point. Time will tell what impact it has on the record company sales long term, but at this stage, it's helping to justify my decision in signing to a record company.

To those of you that actually put your hand in your pocket and bought the CD I truly thank you. Your generosity and moral fortitude means that I actually just about scraped enough to recover the recording costs, which means there's a good chance I can come to terms with writing off financially, the ridiculous amount of time taken to write and record the album. This means there's a good chance there will be another album arriving in the future.

How anybody does this for a living is beyond me but you certainly have my utmost respect. Let's hope there are enough recording musicians left in this genre who can afford to keep making the music. Sadly, I fear many yet, will fall by the wayside.

Selling your CD or your soul

There's been much discussion on the internet in recent times about the merits or otherwise of self-releasing your record or signing with a record company. Most aspiring musicians probably won't have the luxury of that choice, in which case the only way you are going to get your music heard is by self releasing it and either uploading to the likes of Bandcamp or getting the CDs printed and distributing them yourself.

Never believing I'd actually get any record company interest with this album, I initially decided to self release it, inspired in part by the wonderful self promotion, music sharing model that Matt Stevens is currently following to good effect. In order to build an audience for his material, Matt even goes so far as to encourage his listeners to upload his music to torrent sites, the very enemy of the traditionally minded musician. This is a brave new world indeed.

So I printed the CDs for WAHDID, produced audio samplers, put videos on Youtube, free track download on the website, advertised it on Facebook and then sat back and waited to be deluged in the rush by all those prog fans wowed by the prospect of Bob Dalton, Steve Thorne and all the other great guests playing on the album.

Guess what folks?

I barely raised a ripple of interest. So what do we conclude. 1)The album is crap?, 2)Prog fans don't like new acts? or that 3)I didn't spend enough time schmoozing the right people and spreading the word?

Well based on the fact that I ended up with serious interest from 3 record companies, and the great initial feedback, I'm inclined to think the album wasn't a stinker. The jury is still out on point 2), and 3), yep, guilty as charged.

Self release is great, you get no interference, you get full creative control, and you get to keep all the money. The big big problem is you will need to sacrifice every waking hour, sending off promos, posting endless updates on Facebook, Twitter 'till your friends unfriend you for spamming them, not to mention the costs in printing, packing and posting of all those CDs.

But guess what there are tens of thousands in the world doing exactly what you are doing too. You need to know the right people, you need to know how to get them interested in what you have, and you need a whole lot of effort....and that's the reason I've handed the job over to a professional. I've handed over the bulk of the revenue too, but it's not about money for me. I can earn far more for less effort in the day job, but what I really really want is for people to hear my music, just a little recognition, a little virtual pat on the back from as many people as possible to say, 'really enjoyed that album'.

When Age Has Done Its Duty will be out on F2 Records later in August.

When Mastering has Done its Duty

I read on Facebook a few weeks ago that mixing your own album was a surefire route to insanity. They were right. I went through the mill last week and have also been on the steepest learning curve since picking up Pro Tools for the first time about 18months ago.

The mixing was done, then it was off to Aubitt for Rob Aubrey to weave his mastering magic on it. Well that was the plan, but I quickly learned that mastering also stands for lets see how your mix stands up to the kind of pro standard that Rob puts together on Big Big Train records. The answer was OK , but could do better! So I went away armed with a list of problems and remixed, came back, remaster, problems found, went away and came back.......several times.

Rob thought the end section to On Which We Stand was great but needed a bit more drama. He went delving off into his sample bank and within 10minutes had grafted in a set of Moog Taurus bass pedal samples all in perfect time and tune, like Mike Rutherford had stepped into the session to accompany Simon Rogers spine tingling solo. I've since dubbed it the 'voice of God'.

Two weeks later and we're finally done. It's now twice the record it was when I first took it to Rob, and now I have twice the knowledge too. It's painful when people start picking holes in your mix but it's so worth borrowing the ears of those who have the experience like Rob and also Lee Abraham who told me from Day 1, 'make it the best it can be'. That means no deadlines and 'it's not finished til it's finished

Graeme Bell delivered the artwork last week and it looks great. Graeme's really making a name for himself as a top Digital Artist, and I hope he goes from strength to strength.

Anyway all done, off to the duplicators and release date will be announced in a few days time.

BRIT Prog, it's the future, I've tasted it.

I'm sat here copying the final mixes to a USB stick ready for mastering tomorrow at Aubitt Studios with Rob Aubrey. When Age has Done its Duty has taken 18months of my life in agonising over writing, recording, mixing, production and it's all condensed here on a tiny bit of silicon chip encapsulated in green plastic.

To be honest, looking back, I can hardly believe how far this has come.

WAHDID came about after the unearthing of family history following a death of my Great Aunt who brought up my Mum in rural Shropshire. I was asked to read at the funeral and I wrote a piece that contained the line, 'When Age has Done its Duty, our bodies, weak become'. This was the lightbulb moment, and the start of the concept album.

Some of the music had been written months before. In fact the classical guitar parts on 'On which we Stand' were rattling around my head, and the house to the annoyance of the family, for months before. A large part of the reading I made in a packed church in Cleobury North Shropshire also made it's way into the lyrics on the same track along with the great writing input from Simon Rogers who weaved the beautiful 12 string and Ebow parts into it.

I think a new trend is developing in Prog currently. BRIT Prog. At the vanguard of this is Big Big Train. Their wonderful album 'The Underfall Yard' was a big inspiration for me with it's quintessentially English themes, and musical feel. Tinyfish, Also Eden, and Sean Filkins amongst others are all producing the most wonderfully British music at the moment and it all tells wonderful stories, expands the imagination and tickles our nostalgia bones. I'm proud to consider this album is very much part of the same genre.

I really hope people give it a go.

The ever moving deadline

"I love deadlines, I like the whooshing noise they make as they fly by."

Well the plan to get the record out by February has failed, and it won't be out in March either. April maybe, but I'm going to have to go some.

Due to work commitments, general malaise and lack of motivation, I'm not getting nearly enough studio time to bring this project home. The sheer task of getting this album mixed and sounding great has turned into a monster effort and there's much still to do. I'm quietly excited though, by how it's sounding. Several of the tracks are sounding fairly immense with Bob Dalton's drums in the mix. It's amazing how adding the real drums cements everything together. The artwork is also looking most awesome courtesy of Graeme 'Twig' Bell.

I'm 100% happy with what I've written, that's been the easy bit, but much less so with my own performances and production which I'm constantly re-recording or adjusting the mix in order to improve things.

I've had the music rattling around my head now for 14months or so which feels like a huge chunk of my life, although in album making terms really isn't that long. Secretly I'm rather scared what will happen when it get's released. I'd be gutted if the album failed to make any impact but these things take years to reach consciousness.

More soon.