After rather a while perfecting our chops in the studio, The Maerlock are back on the road.
We kicked off this season's gigs (I hesitate in calling it Summer!) with a show at The Met in Bury, where we had the privelege of sharing the bill with the fabulous Lau. It's in Outer-Lancashire somewhere. Actually it's really close to Manchester but it always seems to take AGES to get there owing to the rush hour traffic and AAAGES to get back owing to my inability to circumnavigate Manchester going the correct way round the M60.
Anyway, what I really meant to say was that Roger Liptrot from Folk Images came and took some great photos, you can check them out on http://www.folkimages.com/images2008/pages/themaerlock.htm.
We shall also have some Youtube footage shortly... watch this space.
Sarah
Sunday, 20 April 2008
Monday, 14 April 2008
The show goes on
After a brief moment when the sign on the studio door placed doubt in the minds of The Maerlock as to whether this project could continue...
it was thankfully established that we could in fact re-enter the studio. We wonder if pIF's momentous shopping trip to Ted Baker could have done something to dispel any fears from Fellside Central that there were in fact vagrants in the band. I mean, one can't go round with trousers stuck together with gaffer tape for ever...
It was a near miss, but I think Olly saved the day by his highly creative pan-pipe, I mean, marimba playing.
Sarah
PS The album's out mid-June.
it was thankfully established that we could in fact re-enter the studio. We wonder if pIF's momentous shopping trip to Ted Baker could have done something to dispel any fears from Fellside Central that there were in fact vagrants in the band. I mean, one can't go round with trousers stuck together with gaffer tape for ever...It was a near miss, but I think Olly saved the day by his highly creative pan-pipe, I mean, marimba playing.
Yes, the marimba did get carted up 3 flights of stairs to the studio, all for the purpose of 5 notes... but they're good notes! See if you can spot them on the record... then we'll know that we didn't blow our budget on extra vehicles to transport huge percussion instruments around for nothing. I forgot to mention the orchestral bass drum...
So life is getting back to normal in Manchester after some larks up in the Lake District. Olly has negotiated the loan of a rather nice piano (and the house that goes with it) to put some tracks on at the end of this week, and then we're done. At least the weather's a bit warmer than when we did the The Maerlock Big Band recording in Feb.
So there shouldn't be so many technical issues with dexterity of the digits...
Here endeth my slightly feeble attempt to fabricate a feasible tale out of a few of the random photos I have of the recording process... It's probably time for bed now. If you want to know more about pIF's Ted Baker story, you'll just have to ask him!
Sarah
PS The album's out mid-June.
Tuesday, 1 April 2008
Fellside session (Easter Break)
We're in the middle of a five-day recording session at Fellside.
We're getting used to the studio and our engineer is getting used to us. Some things we just nail. Some things take ridiculously longer than one might expect.
It's difficult knowing when to say when. When you listen to a track repeatedly to pick apart the minutiae of timing, etc., it is very easy to lose perspective.
We've had some rather amusing Ron Burgundy-inspired jazz-flute moments.
Oh and every night we have huge discussions (arguments) about what we're going to call the album. This argument starts over breakfast and has been known to overflow into recording sessions, break (fag and tea) and meal times. Olly even sent pIF a text about it just as he was dropping off to sleep.
So, we've narrowed it down to one or two possible titles... Well, four or seven...
We've had cause to refer to Youtube for inspiration on several occassions - notably: an excerpt from Anchorman, Bjork's Play Dead, the Crimp-off from the The Mighty Boosh and Hide and Seek by Imogen Heap... And we had a good laugh listening to the Treme Brass band.
Band relations are doing well and everybody seems to be bearing with each other with a good deal of patience and humour. And occasional sarcastic asides. But really being together every day for most of a week is fun. Last night Toby even managed to interest pIF and Sarah in a programme called Skins. And we had a merry time around the piano singing songs by Stephen Sondheim and Jason Robert Brown.
This morning all attempts at April Fools gags fell flat. It seems we're just not that funny. Although Toby kept bleating on about some BBC footage of flying penguins - which it turns out was true!
We've had some very pleasant experiences of multi-tracking working out well. Especially in the percussion department. The highlight so far was the bowed marimba notes. Tomorrow's session will feature orchestral bass drum. Bring it on!
Oh, and Linda's cooking is immense! (Linda is the wife of Paul, who signed us). We've had amazing meal after amazing meal. Our advice - if you want good food and you are a folk band, get signed on Fellside!
We're getting used to the studio and our engineer is getting used to us. Some things we just nail. Some things take ridiculously longer than one might expect.
It's difficult knowing when to say when. When you listen to a track repeatedly to pick apart the minutiae of timing, etc., it is very easy to lose perspective.
We've had some rather amusing Ron Burgundy-inspired jazz-flute moments.
Oh and every night we have huge discussions (arguments) about what we're going to call the album. This argument starts over breakfast and has been known to overflow into recording sessions, break (fag and tea) and meal times. Olly even sent pIF a text about it just as he was dropping off to sleep.
So, we've narrowed it down to one or two possible titles... Well, four or seven...
We've had cause to refer to Youtube for inspiration on several occassions - notably: an excerpt from Anchorman, Bjork's Play Dead, the Crimp-off from the The Mighty Boosh and Hide and Seek by Imogen Heap... And we had a good laugh listening to the Treme Brass band.
Band relations are doing well and everybody seems to be bearing with each other with a good deal of patience and humour. And occasional sarcastic asides. But really being together every day for most of a week is fun. Last night Toby even managed to interest pIF and Sarah in a programme called Skins. And we had a merry time around the piano singing songs by Stephen Sondheim and Jason Robert Brown.
This morning all attempts at April Fools gags fell flat. It seems we're just not that funny. Although Toby kept bleating on about some BBC footage of flying penguins - which it turns out was true!
We've had some very pleasant experiences of multi-tracking working out well. Especially in the percussion department. The highlight so far was the bowed marimba notes. Tomorrow's session will feature orchestral bass drum. Bring it on!
Oh, and Linda's cooking is immense! (Linda is the wife of Paul, who signed us). We've had amazing meal after amazing meal. Our advice - if you want good food and you are a folk band, get signed on Fellside!
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