Green Thoughts

So I'm sitting with my back to a gum tree in the Minnippi parklands in Southern Brisbane. The lake is pitifully dry, with just a smattering of ducks scratching around in the centre, but Bulimba Creek to my left is flowing nicely. It's hot, but there's a cool breeze (that Summer will soon swallow I fear). Charley is wiggling in her pram like a fat spider monkey and a couple just walked past with a cat on a lead. I'll probably see a talking crow in a moment. It's that kind of day.

Tonight I'll be laying down my guitar parts for the as of yet unnamed new tuneset on the album. Three reels, moving at quite a crack. Once they're done, then there's only one more set to do. The artwork is chosen, so all that'll be left is the final mix and the layout.

It has taken a long time, but in our defence, circumstance hasn't always been on our side. We've been close before, very close actually, but then something always seemed to happen (usually someone leaving) that caused us to stall. It would usually go something like this:

We'd have maybe half or so of an album recorded (which is many, many hours of time), then someone would leave. We'd have to set about finding a new member, whilst at the same time having to tweak our sets to accommodate the fact that all of a sudden we were a person down with gigs outstanding. So that's more time spent not recording. Then we'd find someone, and of course then they'd have the task of learning a lot (over five hours at least) of reasonably well arranged material, and that doesn't happen in a vacuum either; we all need to be there. So now not only are we not recording, but we're also not learning new material for a time. Then comes the dilemma of do we start recording with the person as soon at they're able, or make sure they're going to stay the distance first. That's a tricky one, as it's really hard these days to commit to long-term projects, and especially as some as mercurial as a band. Okay, so we start recording again, but then we come across the fact that there's a whole lot of stuff already recorded. Regardless of whether the person departed on good or bad terms, we can't really use it as they won't be around to help sell and promote it, and also, it's not that fair on the new member. So we start rerecording tracks only to find that the new person has a different style and some of the other things like guitars or mandolin need to be done again . . .

Anyway, it's not meant as an excuse, it's just the way it is, and why it's taken us so damn long.

But like I said at the beginning, only a little bit left to go. And besides, I've just told Woodford that we'll be having cds for sale so they must get done :)