Recording Again

We're currently at Blackberry Lane studios to update the EP for promo work, and Ren is itching to get back in and finish her take. I think it's because she likes playing in the dark! Her fiddle playing is absolutely stunning.
We're all just blissed out here :)

Some statistics you might be interested in (NOTE: Updated every minute depending on particular bodily functions):

Coffee breaks: 2
Munchie breaks: 1 (due to Paul forgetting to load the MAIN TRACK onto his laptop, so he had to run home and transfer it on - way to go!). Mannie is happy because I run out and come back with Cheezels for everyone and a Whopper for him.
Alcoholic drinks: NONE! But plenty of Coke to go round, resulting in burping competitions between myself and the boys (I win), and Ren looking rather stunned.
Barking spiders: 3 (from Mannie, looking straight at me with a defiant 'wot?' facial expression that made me choke on a Cheezel in wheezing laughter).
Barking spiders from the Arse of Death (aka Paul): 2 - standing right next to me and grinning in satisfaction as I type this. Manky bastard.
Recording criticisms from me: A few. Ren is incredibly patient. Apparently I'm incredibly anal.

It's 11pm, and Mannie is feeling 'knockered' as usual. The last time Mannie was tired he fell asleep in the recording booth and started snoring, which resulted in the most hysterical audio track we've ever recorded. This time Mannie is just asleep in a chair. Tried to take a photo, but he's become jammy and wakes up every 20 seconds. They learn so quickly. We take no prisoners in this band!

It's now 3am, I'm home and utterly 'knockered'. Ren put in a fantastic effort tonight. Go girl :)

Goodnight from the wee tired Nuala :)


Listening to: 'The Drop of Nowhere' by Mirko Ruckles

The Zillmere Festival

Well Friday's gig went off because Renee's entire family decided to come and see us perform. It wasn't my best gig vocally (and not Hayley's either, she was sick with a cold, poor thing, but did a great job like the trooper she is), but I had a fantastic time and they made the most brilliant audience! Kudos to your lovely grandparents, Ren, they're lovely, particularly your grandmother who sang with us all night and wanted to take Mannie home (what is it with Mannie-lovin' Nannas?? Must be a hair thing). It was a late night as usual, and we were playing the Zillmere Multicultural Festival the day after.

Saturday morning dawned bright and far too early - well for me anyway, because I was woken up at the crack of 9am (scream!) by Hayley's boyfriend Graeme telling me that Hayley couldn't even get up letalone sing.

Shite.

Anyway, the boys and Ren picked me up on the way to the gig, and of course Mannie had his little esky cooler thingy full of cans of Bundy rum. Ren was having some and I laughed because I said to her, 'I didn't think you liked rum?', and with a completely straight face she answered, 'I don't', and proceeded to chug half the can down :)

The scene is pictured as normal - I enter the van hurling obscenities like the vulgara I am. Mannie is driving with no shoes like the gimp he is, Paul and Mannie are bantering as usual like the old ladies they are, and Ren was trying her hardest to act amused, but failing like the crap actor she is.

Woo, sets the scene for a FABULOUS Sunas gig!

I couldn't stop laughing at Mannie, because Paul kept razzing him about having rum before any sort of public gig. Mannie must have taken offense at this (whyso, my Eamon? It's true), because he said he couldn't go anywhere without getting pissed. This continued throughout the day - long after the small amount of alcohol wore off. Mannie kept bitching about it, and goddess help me, I laughed :)

So. The gig. Me being the muso I am, I forgot to bring a hat, so I ended up buying this fun-kee straw number. Coupled with my tie-dyed velvet dress I looked like a hippie cowgirl or something! Mannie mumbled under his breath about not being able to wear a hat because he was too pissed. It was disgustingly hot. Just before we went on the sound guy came up to me, handed me a bottle of water and warned me, 'Be careful up there, it's really warm'.

Yeah yeah, we've played in the heat before, let me up there.

Oh. My. Furnace.

We were playing in direct sunlight at 2pm in the afternoon. I managed one song and one tune before my trademark Medusa hair went up under that hat, and to hell with what the boys thought!! I have never been so hot in all my life. I was terrified Jem, my flute, was going to crack. As it was I had a hard time keeping everything in tune! Mannie, in his shady comfort, shouted to Paul that he couldn't play in the sun because he was too pissed, and I snorted into my whistle mid-play and made it shriek - good on ya! Paul
looked like he had run a marathon, his face was bright red.

The gig itself was great fun, just really uncomfortable in the horrible heat. The audience were fantastic, they really got into it. I got horrendously sunburnt. Ren has gorgeous olive skin and didn't seem particularly affected at all, until she confided that she thought she was dying up there. Crap actor indeed! Ren could spend the entire day in the sun, lucky cow! Mannie smirked at me when he saw my sunburn and said he couldn't get sunburnt because he was too pissed. I was too exhausted to punch his head in :) We all practically staggered off-stage from heat exhaustion - Paul looked like he was going to pass out. That one little half hour gig totally sapped me of whatever energy I had left - I had to go and recuperate in the back of the beloved van.

We headed back to my place for coffee and rest, and as soon as they boys and Ren left, I had a shower and fell straight into bed.

What a weekend!

Thanks to the Festival organisers for having us and for putting on such an eclectic day -despite the heat we all had a great time!


Listening to: 'Here Comes The Sun' - The Beatles

It Really Exists

I just thought I'd post these two pics of the amazing guitar that Davy Stuart is making me. Yep, this is the one that I've been on about for many years now (I'm an oddly patient person when it comes to this guitar. I figure it'll be ready when it wants to be ready). Davy is the genius behind my two tunable bodhráns and Mannie's sublime bouzouki, and makes instruments for the likes of Donal Lunny, Andy Irvine, Christy Moore and Trevor Hutchinson.

Anyway, it's a spruce small-bodied steel string with an English walnut back and sides, and the back really is something special. As Davy says, the pictures don't really do it justice.

As much as I am Mr Cool Cucumber Patient Man, I must admit my fingers are tingling in expectation!

(As I wee side note, I'm in the process of building a page for our instruments, as we seem to get quite a lot of emails asking after them).





Listening to ''Cerulean'', by Jon Hopkins

The Nuala Strikes Back...

It's been a while since I've blogged, and I think the girls have done an admirable job in the meantime!

Things worth noting:

In the 'Twiddling Her Frog' blog, Ren mentioned that I was staring up at the sky looking a bit dazed. That might have been because there was a massive storm brewing, and I didn't want to go inside, I wanted to watch this thing develop (which disappointingly never hit Meadowbrook at all!). Yes, I do love looking at the sky, I'm hopeless like that, but I love Mother Nature and all the wonderful things she throws at us :)

My crazy big-haired little sister Hayley has been such an godsend these past few months. Her voice is stunning, and she has given us lots of laughs. Cheers Hailze! The funniest thing people say to myself and Hailze is, 'I can't believe you're related!' Heh, neither can we!

Ren is only allowed a maximum of three coffees in a night, otherwise she starts getting really jumpy & paranoid. I'm fearing for Mannie's safety if she keeps it up! Kudos to Eric the Meadowbrook Barman (no half-a-bee in sight, I'm afraid) who makes the coffees :) The look on Ren's face when we took her to the 'dodgy servo around the corner' was utterly priceless. She was literally stunned. Must've felt like Alice when she fell down the rabbit-hole :) I can understand how dodgy servos can look like a fluro Wonderland with the attendants sometimes resembling a Cheshire Cat . . . sort of!

At the last gig Paul's new guitar pickups debuted, they sound fantastic. Keep up the harmony singing, btw, Paul! :) Poor Mannie, he'd flown in from Mt Isa that morning for work, and was understandably & not surprisingly 'knockered'. At times like this Paul or myself drive the van so he can chill out. I lent Renee my mirrorball silver glitter to outline her incredible eyes, and halfway through the gig she forgot she was wearing it and promptly rubbed her eye! Well. The panic that ensued! I half expected an ambulance to turn up at one point. But she bravely played on like the trooper she is :) And you go girl, the voice that came out of her last Friday during Dreams sounded completely different to the one we heard last time -she had practiced her head off and she sounded amazing. Bring on the songs!

Listening to ''Air/Border/Holmes' (With Corrina Hewat)'', by Kathryn Tickell

Another Saturday

The gig last night at Meadowbrook Hotel was amazing. We were like totally on fire! Like like. Sarah lent me some awesome glitter eye shadow, which was very cool. We decided it would be great if I could be on stage the whole night, so I just spent most of the time improvising, which was fun. Poor Mannie had to sit down for most of the gig cos he was so tired. And we missed you Hayley! However it gave me a chance to try singing some songs, like Dreams and Hallelujah. We spent most of the gig coming up with Irish names for my nickname. However most of the names weren't Irish at all. I think in the end it was between Megan and Ashlyn. Overall the gig went really well and I enjoyed it immensely. The highlight for me was when played Diggers. I love that song! Afterwards we sat around listening to tunes and fantasising about which new pieces we want to learn. Eric our favourite barman made us some yummy coffees. Mmmm coffee.

Listening to: Lisa Gerrard on Gladiator soundtrack

Yet Another Hello

(In her best Troy McClure voice) Hi. I’m Hayley, sister of Sarah. You may remember me from such songs as ‘Dreams’, ‘Jug of Punch’ and my personal favourite, ‘Galileo’. Being a part of Sunas for about two months now (Is that all?!), I’ve learned a few things in order to survive. Firstly, you must take the piss at every opportunity. This will gain you much respect and result in your secret ‘initiation’ into the band. Secondly, you must quote many movies, songs and generally ‘get’ anything talked about. And thirdly, learn Irish names and use them. If Venus is in the right house, you may have one bestowed upon you.

Moving on, to a gig from two weeks ago. This night we all wore black. Well, apart from my ‘non-black’ top, according to Paul, everyone else did. I happened to look up as I was chilling during one of the tunes, and my mouth fell open. It was like a scene from a movie. Like Zoolander, when you finally see the look ‘Magnum’, it goes into slow motion and everyone is like ooooh! It was like that. I was looking at a kick-ass celtic band. They looked so complete. And professional. It just looked awesome! That was also the night I remembered all the words to Beyond The Fields. YAY! Paul, why do you have to write such damn wordy songs!
Last week’s gig at the Meadowbrook Hotel, was a really good one. There were heaps of people there. We must’ve been doing something right because even when people had finished eating dinner, they turned their chairs around and sat watching us. It was awesome. Then, it came to that time of the night when everyone else had gone home, it was just us. I had the pleasure of hearing Renee do a roaring rendition of ‘Dreams’. She was great.

I’m unable to, but if you attend the gig at the Meadowbrook Hotel this Saturday night from 6-10pm, be sure to give Renee much thunderous applause from me! She deserves it This is Brona, signing off.

Listening to The Poozies! They rock.