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