Recording Adventures, Pt 1

I'm writing this on a brand-new top of the range iPad, in the back of the stretched black Hummer that the ABC has kindly provided to chauffeur us from our penthouse accommodation on Hastings Street, Noosa, to the plush studios overlooking the river at West End (*).

Ferry Road studios is massive. It's the rehearsal and recording space for the Queensland Orchestra, so the actual recording space is about the size of a basketball court, except with funky baffled walls and ceilings, hardwood floors and lots of mic stands. We're trying to record as much of this album as live as possible, so we're set up in a nice little square, close together, with transparent barriers between us to stop the fighting, thrown coffee cups, bodily gasses (and sound bleed). By live, I mean that we're recording together as much as possible. This is really important to keep as much of the energy as we can, and eye contact is also incredibly important. The only time this gets impossible is for the parts when Sarah or Bridget are playing at the same time as singing, and for extra instruments like the bodhràns, mandolin and gazouki.

Yesterday went really well, we got a three-part tune down in the morning, and the afternoon was devoted to one of the new songs. Today it'll be Drink up me Boys in the morning, then perhaps one of Dougie's songs in the afternoon, either Turning Away or Storm.

This is a very different recording experience for us. Martin the producer and Geoff our engineer bring with them about four thousand ear-hours worth of experience (actually, that's sixteen thousand if you think about it), and it's fantastic to get honest feedback (perfect take Paul), and opinion (do your bouzouki *again* Mannie ). Actually, joking aside, it's been brilliant so far. We're stretching ourselves nicely in all the right directions. But it's not all been tea and cookies.

I saw a ghost.

I was coming down the stairs by myself, and when I rounded the corner (the stairs are wide, open plan with a double descent) I saw a blonde haired girl, about 4 years old and dressed in blue, walking silently below me. She didn't pay me any attention whatsoever. I didn't think too much about it until I got the the bottom of the stairs and she was gone. The stairs empty out into the big foyer, so there's nowhere she could have gone to in such a short space of time. Oh, I should mention that the studios are closed on weekends...

I told the others, and surprisingly, neither Geoff or Martin laughed. Martin just looked thoughtful and mumbled something about The Ghost, then wouldn't talk about it any more

Late night trips to the Coke machine have become a whole lot more interesting now.


(*) This part may or may not be exactly true

Exciting Times

You might have noticed we've been pretty quiet recently. Thanks for all the emails asking about our whereabouts. Other than a few gigs here and there, basically we've been closeted away working furiously on a bunch of new material. And by a bunch, we mean an album's worth.

Yep, finally, a new album. I *know* we've been saying this for ages now, but this is different, this is *definite*.

We've just signed a record deal with the ABC. (That's the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for all you non-Australian types)

It's been an interesting couple of months, but this all dates back to May...

While we were down at Colo, we got to meet a very interesting chap called Martin. He was at the festival on behalf of the ABC to interview and film Dougie (and the other bands there). At the end of the weekend, we sat and had a chat and he said he'd be interested in doing something with us in the future. He gave Sair a card and we didn't think much more about it. Surprisingly, we've actually had quite a few promises like this in the past (though admittedly not from the ABC), usually involving a drunk, slurring man giving Bridge or Sair a card and promising to fly us (or just them) to Europe to be incredibly windswept and famous. Oddly enough, no one ever calls.

Martin did.

Basically, he offered us a recording deal with the ABC. At first, we were a bit hesitant, as the ABC isn't really known for its folk and Celtic, and the albums it has produced in those genres are not much like us, not to mention the fact that production was already underway on our next album and, without sounding too farty, we didn't want to compromise our sound for the sake of a deal. After over ten years as a band, we've never bowed to pressure to become more mainstream, more pubby, more anything than what *we've* wanted. But this offer was great. We'd have total say in what we recorded, the style and arrangements would be completely 'us', and, most importantly, we're free to still produce our own albums.

It's a brilliant opportunity.

So, we're doing an album of Celtic music for a the ABC. I'm not going to reveal what's on it, as we're picking from a very eclectic list that we've all agreed on. I will let slip that Ready for the Storm/The Gael will most likely be there, as will Drink Up Me Boys (a song that Martin heard us perform at Colo, and all-but insisted be included). It's an album where you might be familiar with some of the songs, but it's definitely not a generic cover album. There'll also be a bunch of tunesets on there, and some *very* interesting surprises. There will also be some local and international guests that we're all fizzy about.

So, we hit the studios in Ferry Road next week for a couple of months. We're excited, tingly, a bit nervous, but really confident that it that will be a cracker. We have a couple of lovely gigs coming up (see the Gigs Page) where we'll no doubt be previewing some of the material, and at this stage, the album is looking like a Marchish release. We're going to be documenting the process from start to finish (and of course blogging), and the ABC are even going to be filming parts of the recording for future release. And then of course there will be the life-sized cut-outs of Mannie at your local ABC shop, standing right next to his hero, Andre Rieu...

Wintermoon 2010

Oh dear, I’m going to have a field day with this one…

We love Wintermoon. There is no festival quite like it. It started when we flew into Mackay and found our way squished with luggage in a minibus. When I say squished, I mean it. In total, there was Sunas (plus Bridget’s boyfriend Tom), Ann Vriend from Canada, the entire Perch Creek Family Jug Band – PLUS our luggage and instruments.



See? Complete squishage.

Prior to arriving, I had an interesting conversation with Jenny, the organiser of Wintermoon regarding our accommodation. Mannie would be banished to his very own tent to ensure his purring would disturb as little people as possible. Bridge & Tom would have their very own tent. And Paul & I, well … Jenny asked me an interesting question:

Jenny: ‘Would you mind sharing a cabin with a snake?’
Me: (pause) ‘Erm, define ‘sharing a cabin with a snake!’’
Jenny: (laughs) ‘Well the cabin we’ve housed you & Paul in is open to the elements, that is, it’s got a roof and four walls, but no glass in the windows & no doors. And a six-foot carpet python has made it her home.’
Me: (pause) ‘Um, okayyy …’
Jenny: ‘She’s very docile; she sleeps during the day and won’t bother you at all. We’ve tried relocating her, but she always comes back.’
Me: ‘Well as long as she doesn’t try to cuddle me during the night, I think we’ll be fine.’
Jenny: ‘Oh great! Thanks so much, we were having a hard time trying to convince people to stay there.’

I couldn’t imagine why! Upon arriving at our cabin, we indeed saw this incredible python fast asleep wrapped in her many coils. Our bed was wrapped in a mosquito net across the other side of the room. I eyed the snake again. As long as that she didn’t come anywhere near me during the night we’d get along fine!






It turned out our worrying was for nothing. The snake moved from one beam to the other and wasn’t a bother at all. I gave her the name of Bess Hiss, and Paul & I grew quite fond of her. Outside the cabin, in her enormous web, sat the biggest golden orb spider I have ever seen – as big as a dinner plate. Jenny told us her name was Charlotte, in honour of Charlotte’s Web, but Paul secretly nicknamed her Spawn of Shelob from Lord of the Rings! I’m really not fond of spiders at all, they creep me out. But I didn’t think Charlotte would bother us somehow (otherwise she would be chased out with something long and pointy!), and despite looked both impressive and icky, she kept to her web. Nice spider!



We met and caught up with all manner of brilliant and interesting musicians. I was asked by our dear friend and brilliant songstress Nadia Sunde if I would like to be a part of her Best Band in the World for the weekend. What a treat! Nadia’s music is infectious, there were lots of cheers (mostly from us in the band having far too much fun) and some great guest harmony singing as well as wonderful audience participation.



The entire weekend was basically a great big party – hot days, cool nights & an amazing line-up of performers! On the last night, after a particularly wilting humid day, I decided to have a shower and freshen up for the night of fun ahead. Paul walked into the cabin before I did & stopped, as he had spotted a snake gliding between the rafters. This one was far smaller than Bess and much faster. Oh & had some sort of tiger markings on it ... so after locating Jenny’s partner Chris, he went off to find the Snake Catcher. There’s something both unsettling and relieving in that the Wintermoon organisers keep a bonafide snake catcher on site! Ten minutes pass and the snake decided that our cabin was far too boring, so it headed out into the night. Meanwhile, Chris comes back and announces that he can’t find the snake catcher, but he’ll take care of it. He then produces a snake handling stick in one hand and a beer in the other – what reassurance!

Feeling rather icky about the whole thing, I decide to go and have a shower in Jenny’s organic house – her bathroom has an enormous bay window that faces out into the rainforest, so showering is a wonderfully organic experience with Mother Nature right in your face. I walked into the bathroom when a little voice in my head literally said, ‘It’s time to face your fears, Sarah’. Remember me telling you that I’m really not fond of spiders? Well I had no sooner put my toe in the shower when I saw something in the corner of my eye. There, on the shower taps sat the biggest, hairiest dinner-plate sized huntsman spider I have ever seen. I completely freaked out at this monstrosity, started hyperventilating and actually said out loud, ‘I’m facing my fears, I’m facing my fears ... f**k it; I’m having a sink shower.’ Fortunately a friend of Nadia’s heard me freaking out and quite calmly picked this thing up in her hand and ushered it out of the window! My hero.



Mannie and I got up to quite a lot of mischief at this festival. A drink vendor sold the most delicious fruit slushies we’d ever had, and so on the last night (it’s always the last night isn’t it?) we added a heap of vodka to them and decided to go and catch the our mates from the amazing duo Swoon and the funky Kamerunga. It was such a great night! The guys from Kamerunga played such brilliant tunes & songs you couldn’t help but get up and dance. So. Much. Fun! On a particularly funky ska track, Mannie, breathless but exhilarated, decided to do his infamous pogo-dancing. I’ve never seen anything like it; he jumps really high and then does a dolphin-like wiggle in the air before coming back down and doing it again. I couldn’t move from laughing so hard. He did this throughout the entire song & afterwards we went to catch our breath. Our friend Julie came up to me and said, ‘Was that Mannie I saw dancing up the front?’
Me: ‘Yeah, isn’t he crazy? Hey Mannie, show Julie your pogo dancing!’
Mannie: ‘No, I’m trying to catch my breath,’
Me: ‘Oh go on,’
Mannie: ‘Nooooo, I’ve shaken up all the vodka & I feel sick’
Me: ‘DO IT!’

So Mannie grinned (he just couldn’t help himself), pogo jumped three times, landed heavily on his left foot, looked straight at me and said, ‘I think I’ve hurt myself...' and then promptly threw up behind a tree.

Not. Good. Poor Mannie! The benefit to all this is that women everywhere came out of the woodwork and helped Mannie get comfortable. One bandaged his foot, another mopped his brow, one gave him drinks of water, and the rest made sure he wasn’t going to try to walk. Turns out Mannie partially tore his Achilles heel and spent two months with his foot jammed into a special boot to avoid surgery.

The next morning we had to play a gig on the main stage at 9am (sob!), and Mannie the Brave (held together by coffee, nurofen & a little bit of water), managed to just get through it (sitting down, of course). We have an interesting sound file of that concert that we'll throw up in the next day or so :)