Untitled Document

Day 1 : Wednesday September 27th, 2006

Skins, pedals, drums, moon-gel, sticks all Packed. Gotta pick up Dave at 7pm - last minute DVD burning and Press Pack packages mean that we eventually leave to pick up Dave at Hammersmith station about half an hour late. Nice. Traffic on the M4 was total shit. Accidents + tailbacks + thunder storms = cack driving conditions. We end up talking about LOST for 3 hours.

Get to Jonny's at about 10pm. Drop off drums, back to Ed's house for food.

Chicken and Bacon Pasta Bake waiting for us - proper bo! Watched a bit of Dawn Of The Dead, got to sleep about 1am. Drums tomorrow! Safe.

Day 2 : Thursday September 28th, 2006

Got up at about 8:30am. Paul and Ed hit the showers, cos they're smelly boys. Me and Dave keep it real and wallow in our own filth for the day.

Tesco Cranberry Wheats for breakfast.

Get to Jonny's for 10:30 - Ed's driving - holy moly! Get to work on guide tracks whilst Dave re-skins the drums - tempos seem good - job done.

The wooden drum pedals from Tama haven't arrived - bloody Royal Mail – and we don't have any slam pads, so Jonny and Dave jump in the car and head off to Bristol. They pick up the most awesome beaters - hand painted resin SKULLS!!! Oh yes!!!! We'll wait and see how they sound.

We set up the kit and scrutinize the hired cymbals – we'll start tracking tomorrow – hopefully the wooden beaters will arrive soon. If not, the Skulls will have to bring the shit!!!

Back to Ed's for some CounterStrike CS – I kicked Ed's ass! What a lamez0r (he pwnd my ass really). Then we had Chilli and the BEST Crumble in the world (thanks Ed's Mum!) – watched three quarters of Dogma, "Bong!" – off to bed. Dave kept getting up in the middle of the night to make these weird phone calls and my sleeping-bag was soggy, hmm – I needed a piss at about 3am – back to sleep. Drums tomorrow!

Day 3 - Friday September 29th, 2006

Up early again – hit the showers, have brekkie then get to Jonny's. No Iain today – he's gone to hang with his girlfriend who is back from France for a few days.

First song we nail is Siren's Chant – things are pretty slow today – we try The Starting, but it just doesn't click.

Watch Adam Sandler on Jonathan Ross – Lily Allen was pretty cool – Jamie Oliver was pissed – pretty entertaining.

Day 4 - Saturday September 30th, 2006

We carry on and nail Tunnel, 2 Words and Ebow song. Day salvaged.

Get home for more of Ed's mums' cooking – watch the end of Dawn of the Dead and a bit of X-Factor (real talent!). Dave has a shower – boy does he need it! Stinky cheeks!

Day 5 - Sunday October 1st, 2006

Thanks to Dave, the shower is busted in the morning – so no showers for us! Get to Tesco for lunch foods and get to Jonny's.

We get JNO done in 45 minutes – things are looking good. Hope and The Coroner – the last 2 songs on the album take a bit of time but we plough on through and get them finished by 7pm. We hot-step it back to Ed's house for food then back to Jonny's for a lift to the cinema to watch Talladega Nights. No trailer for SpiderMan 3 though, but the film was ok – spirits are high, but Dave has no credit or baccy and there are no shops open at 11:30pm in Tetbury, ah well – 2 more songs to do tomorrow.

Day 6 - Monday October 2nd, 2006

Last two songs to do today. Up early – showered and ready by 10:00am. Get to Tesco for munitions then to studio for around 10:50. Day starts well, Dave nails The Starting within a couple of hours. Everyone's farting like camels, control room stinks – no change there!

Get to work on the last song (JNO2) – spirits are high – all goes well. Song finished by 4:30pm. Nice one Dave. The skulls have proved to be worthy beaters – drumland uk can fuck right off!!! Ha ha.

After the last drums are recorded, we take a few photos of the kit and pack up – time for the London boys to go home.

Drums for the album – DONE!

Day 7 - Sunday 8th October, 2006

After a 5-day hiatus for work, we get back to recording duties. Jonny and Dave went through the drums yesterday, deciding on a drum sound – making sure everything was ok to start doing guitars today. With drums sorted we got to work setting up the guitar sound. We are going to be going through our usual Marshall rigs, but also through a Peavey 5150 combo. Ed's got the farts, oh lordy!.

Spend a while trying to sort out some earthing issues and eventually get to work on the first song on the album. Guitars are sounding mean. We do a track each on 'JNO' and call it a day. Back to Ed's for more of that glorious cooking. More guitars tomorrow!

Day 8 - Monday 9th October, 2006

Shower is broken – again – Dave's fault, even though he isn't here, we are sure he has something to do with it, tsk. After more Cranberry Wheats we hit the road for our daily Tesco run. Food bought, we get to Jonny's and start on 'Siren's Chant'. It goes well and we move onto 'The Starting'. This one takes a while to lock-in, but surely enough, we get locked-in and finish the job! We make a start on 'Tunnel', but time and lack of doughnuts take their toll and we call it a day.

Back to Ed's for, you've guessed it, more food – and with a sausage stew and treacle sponge tucked safely under our belts, we watch Deuce Bigalow 2. Awesome film – not as good as the first – but awesome nonetheless.

Ed uploads some pics and movies to the blog.

Good day – more of the same tomorrow.

Day 9 - Tuesday October 10th, 2006

Another early start – Ed has to stay at home and wait for the plumber to come and fix the faulty shower (Dave, tut tut!). Me and Paul hit the road and get to Jonny's. We re-do some of the guitars on 'Tunnel' and get the rest of the guitars down. It is decided that today will be an early finish, as I need to get to the bank and everyone wants a bit of a break. We get in the car and bop to Bath .

Having hit Natwest, we go to HMV, Smiths and CURRYS and decide to get back to Tetters.

Paul blaps on the new Lamb Of God album and that makes the journey a lot smoother!

Back at Jonny's we listen to the songs so far and then watch Neighbours – Paul Daniels gets shot, but is wearing a vest – oh! The drama!

Back to Ed's for food and telly – good day.

Day 10 - Wednesday October 11th, 2006

Late start today – we had to wait at Ed's house whilst the plumber fixed his shower. 1 broken filament later and we make our way to Jonny's at about midday. Our producers get to work (see below), as we lace down some strings on '2 Words'.

We get the song done pretty quickly and make a start on J2O. It gets to about 4.30pm and we decide we've had enough. Paul has been on the phone all day trying to sort out our tour and our ears have 'gone' – we need to refresh!

We find out that we've scored 2 gigs with Red Sparowes – 15th and 25th October. So we get to work organizing a practise.

We get in some beers and whack on the telly for a bit of X-Box fun. Ed kicks our arses! Haha.

Day 11 - Thursday October 12th, 2006

Today was a bit more productive than yesterday. We worked through the last 2 songs on the album with relative ease. We had to try and sort out the game-plan for the weekend, as we have a show with Red Sparowes in Exeter on Sunday and needed to sort out the logistics of it all. Drum kit and Sampler equipment is in London – Dave is in Cardiff – Iain is in Reading – the rest of us are in Tetbury – looks like we're gonna have to drive back to London to pick up the equipment. Time for a bit of Corsa cruising in Paul's new motor!

We move onto Ebow Song and nail it pretty quickly – we still have a few more bits to tidy up in other songs, but Jonny has had a enough for today.

We take Robbie (Jonny's dog) for a walk around Tetters. Jonny has his pooper-scooper technique down to a T! Haha!!

There seems to be a Fairground in Tetbury this weekend – it consists of 2 or 3 rides and a burger van…no one is brave enough to ride any of them.

Back to Ed's for food and a bit of ' That Mitchell and Webb Look' and 'My Name Is Earl'.

Finish the guitars tomorrow. Then back to London.

Day 12 - Friday October 13th, 2006

We finish all the guitars for the album on the 5150 in distortion setting 1.

We cruise back to London in 'Lenore' and get back just in time to see Neighbours. We find out that Dillon is not the father of Sky's baby; it's his brother Stingray! Plus, The Toad is worried sick that Paul Robinson's evil twin son has killed Conor (aka The Shamrock.) It's all so tense!!

Saturday 14th - Thursday 26th October

A brief hiatus whilst we deal with work and 3 shows (2 shows with Red Sparowes and 1 all-dayer in Redhill with Skindred and The Abominable Iron Sloth, amongst others)

Shows were pretty cool, thanks to everyone who came and saw us - can't wait to get back to recording now. There's work to be done!

Day 13 - Friday October 27th, 2006

Well, it's been about two weeks now. We drove back to Ed's from London last-night and now that we're back in the countryside, it's time to get back to work.

Oh boy it's cold today, the air is proper crisp. We blap on some 'Jairus' to warm up the drive over to Jonny's. A quick stop in you know where and we're ready to rock.

With fresh ears we start laying down the 'Marshall' guitar tracks and it's sounding pretty sweet - we get 3 songs nailed in a matter of hours.

We brake for lunch and settle-down for today's thrilling instalment of Neighbours, entitled 'Izzy come, Izzy go'. Toady is given hope that Connor is still alive, after the police in Beijing find his wallet. He questions Rob, the evil Robinson twin, about the discovery of the wallet and is convinced that Rob lets slip with his lack of reaction that The Shamrock is still alive. Back at Ramsay Street ; Cam , the good Robinson twin, is starting to remember things from his coma and he wants to know who Camilla, the hot mafia nun, was arguing with on the phone in his room at the hospital. Meanwhile at Paul Robinson's house; Izzy, Paul's girlfriend, has another run-in with Lynn, Paul's newly promoted baby-belt executive, over their feud for his love. Lynn is gloating over the fact that Gayle, Paul's ex-wife, has left and that Izzy is now leaving, but Izzy warns her that she will soon enjoy her full from grace.

Izzy waits for Paul and tells him she's loves him, but she's leaving him! And in an epic Friday cliffhanger, Lynn literally gets served over her baby-belt copyright infringement, as she is the chief executive of the project. Paul set Lynn up like a kipper and he's totally unfazed by Izzy leaving. He's straight on the blower to one of his hotties to set up a night out on the town – can he love no one?

Back to the studio for more guitars. After a few hours working on J2O we decide it's been a good days work and with the darkness settling around us, we figure it best to start on it properly in the morning and Borat is on Jonathon Ross tonight - should be amusing, check out his stuff on youTube - very funny! So it's back to Ed's with a Tesco trip on the way. We decide to try out the 70 second 'Rustler's' microwave burgers – they turnout to be pretty grim.

While forcing down the burgers we all claim to be able to cook, Rick even says he can cook better than my Mum, which we all know is untrue, what a cheeky little monkey he is. After another very average microwave concoction, Ed puts our minds at easy, telling us that him Mum will be back tomorrow and this self-inflicted microwave nightmare will come to an end.

We park our butts in front of the TV, it's pure class: 'Have I got news for you', '8 out of 10 cats' and then 'J-Ross'. We're all pretty astonished by how much we all know about current affairs and that '8 out of 10 cats' is quite funny. It's like Thursday night all over again, as we were all presently surprised by how quick, cutting and good Simon Amstell was as the new host of 'Never Mind The Buzzcocks'. He constantly shredded Anthia Turner and the guy from Deacan Blue throughout the whole program. Borat on 'Jonathan Ross' is proper jokes. We watch the end of 'Carrie' and then it's time for bed.

More guitars tomorrow.

Day 14 - Saturday October 28th, 2006

We all over sleep and have to shower together to save time; it saves water too, so it's all good. I have a bowl of Cranberry Wheats followed by a bowl of Sugarpuffs while Rick washes-up everything in and around the sink. We try and leave the place looking tidy for Ed's mum's return and then it's out to the car. It's slightly warmer today, which is nice. Ed blaps on some 'Poison the Well' and it's off to Jonny's.

Another productive day, it turns out. We breeze through 3 more songs and make a start on a fourth, but we opt to finish a wee bit early and listen through what we've done. Jonny messes about on Ed's keyboard, whilst we listen to the songs – some awesome ideas start flowing out – Pacman aint got anything on us.

It is time to get back to Ed's house – oven pizza time! Init!! Dilemma though, what do we watch? 'Naked Gun 33 1/3' or Kindergarten Cop???? Oooooh, tough choice! 'Naked Gun 33 1/3' cracks us up for a few hours. Ed calls it a day, me and Rick push on into the small hours with the epic masterpiece; 'Jurassic Park 2'.

Day 15 - Sunday October 29th, 2006

Ed starts the day by getting up at 7:30am, as the clocks have changed and we didn't have a clue. Me and Rick get to sleep-in for an extra hour, then it's up and out the door. A bit of 'Modern Life Is War' adds to the pleasant drive through the English countryside to Jonny's.

In a matter of hours the guitars are done and it's ebow time. We spend an hour going over the demo of 'Ebow' to get the ebow patterns back in our heads, then bosh them down and we feel it's time to reward ourselves with a walk up to Summerfield in town to get some doughnuts. We talk about the plan of action for tomorrow. It's a choice of starting the clean guitars or going to Bristol Cribbs to crash the mall Avril style. Cribbs gets the nod.

Ed's mum is back and a feast awaits us on our return. After stuffing ourselves with chicken pasta and cherry crumble we waddle through to the sitting room to watch 'The Italian Job' with an hour of 'Castaway' to start. Ed gets halfway through the acting master class from Mark Wahlberg (that's word wang!) before calling it a day and bidding us bon nuit. Rick and myself are made of stern stuff and make it to the bitter end before hitting the hay.

Day 16 - Monday October 30th, 2006

It's a day off for the devil boys. We head over to Jonny's with some 'Clouds' dub-step remixes for company. Jonny jumps in with the new 'Converge' album and the 'Envy' album and it's off to the mall. We strut around Virgin, Game and HMV trying to get noticed as the guys in DSHS, but no one is letting on that they know it's us, but we know they know. A spot of lunch and then it's into the cinema with us to see 'Click'. It gets a big thumbs-up from all and we drive home talking about how good it was. A top-notch casting of Adam Sandler (the man), Kate Beckinsale (super hot), Christopher Walken (pure class), Sean Astin (Speedo), David Hasselhoff (the hoff) gave it a fighting chance and it landed a knockout punch.

A bit more 'Converge' on the drive home and we get back just in time for 'Neighbours'. The Toad and Ned discuss how, with one of them chasing an unobtainable mafia nun and the other chasing an emotionally damaged ex-hooker nurse, thing need to change. They decide to team up, but with Ned flushing out Toad's clients' wives as cheats – joke must be set to follow on this plotline. After getting proper served, Lynn decides to fight-back and take Paul on at his own game. She bursts into his place and confronts him. He says she's going to get taken to the cleaner, with him not losing a dollar and there nothing she can do. Lynn says that she's got a tone of dirt on him and that she's going to take him down! This gets Paul going something chronic and bang they're at it. The credits roll and so do we, woops and high-fives follow – how sad are we, we love our 'Neighbours'. An episode of 'The Simpsons' followed by one of 'My Name Is Earl' and then Ed's mum says it's feeding time.

It's 'Toad in the hole' and a plethora of vegetables followed by bananas in warm custard – yum yum. We get down from the table cruise though to the sitting room for another episode of 'My Name Is Earl'. We ink-up Ed's arms with some killer tattoo sleeves and with a ding and dong Jonny becomes a welcome addition to the posse.

Available in all good Tesco stores for the genuine tough guy.

Day 17 - Tuesday October 31st, 2006

We're up and out the door in record slow time and it's off to Jonny's. We burn it off round the corner and drive straight into a village jam. There must only be about 30 cars in the whole place and we've all met on the high street at the same time. Throw in that it's only wide enough for one flow of traffic at some points and that there's a bus stuck in the middle and all hell breaks loose. Well all hell breaks loose, Minchinhampton style – there's old people waving there arms in the air whilst shaking their heads, as they're stuck and they don't want to drive with two wheels of their 4x4 Range Rovers on the pavement, others need twice as much space to get through than they really need and others pile in adding to the jam and don't just stay back to let the jam flow away. The jam is over in a few minutes and I put the peddle to the carpet and we fly through the narrow country lanes with 'Ben Folds Live' in our ears.

We spend the morning doing feedback. A few hours of steady work and the main bits are done – we'll add more in at the end when doing the embellishments, if bits are needed in other parts. Rick says it time for lunch and 'Neighbours' and we all agree.

It starts with Paul and Lynn, lets say, enjoying each other's company and cuts to The Toad dancing trough his house nude singing, "Oh yeah! I'm nude, I love being nude in my house. Oo yeah!" Only to be sprung by hot, but 14 year old Rachel. She's shocked, but The Toad is more so, as it is his house and he doesn't know she's been living there, Oh and he's nude. Steph then kicks Izzy out for giving Paul the idea of setting-up her mum Lynn. Another thrilling episode ends on a high with hunky middle aged Dr Kennedy off is head on sleep-medicine, pashing and asking his 30 something super hot but adulterous ex-ex-ex-girlfriend Izzy to spend the night with him. This is because he's hallucinating that Izzy is his ex-wife Susan and he well wants to rumble with Susan.

Back to the studio and back to work - I say work; it's fun. First up, Jonny digs-out his brother's dodgy old FX pedal, which has a proper lame pitch-shifter that sounds kick-ass – Jonny tries to kill the Peavey 5150 combo with a half hour of super deep rumble guitar distortion. We then wreak havoc with Rick's new digital delay pedal on Ed's Marshal head and cab, creating track after track of structured noise; we are musicians. The next few hours are spent trying different guitars and amp settings on the Marshall , to get a good clean sound. We get a few tracks of clean down, but we're not happy with the sound. We talk about what other guitars we have at our disposal that don't have EMGs or humbuckers and if we can use them to get a better clean sound. Jonny cries-out for coke and donuts; which brings an end to today's recordings. We listen back to what we've got done today and decide that with supper pending, coke and donuts would be best utilized tomorrow.

We spend another ten sweet minutes with Ben Folds getting back to Ed's place. Emails are attended to and we watch Marge become a police officer in 'The Simpsons'. Ed's mum calls out that dinner is on the table and we run though like pigs to the trough. After our fest of baked potatoes with a plethora of toppings, we trot back through to the sitting room to watch Barcelona v Chelsea in the European champions league. It's a cracker of a game, with silky skills, crunching tackles, a volatile atmosphere that leads to bout after bout of pigeon-chested handbags, rice pudding with strawberry jam and four well good goals. Chelsea equalize in the third minute of injury time sticking it to the ever-up-themselves Barcelona, making a sweet end to the game for me and Rick, as we support English teams in Europe, even if it is Chelsea Jonny rolls round with 'The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift'. It's pure gold and we're all happy with how the past hour and a half was spent. Ed texts Iain tell him to be at Jonny's for 10:30 with new strings for his bass. Iain replies with an okey-dokey. Jonny says farewell and drifts home, Ed calls it a night and myself and Rick watch a bit of TV before getting some shuteye.

Day 18 - Wednesday November 1st, 2006

With AFI ringing in our ears we rendezvous with Iain at Jonny's; it's time to add some bass to the mix. We spend the morning getting a bass sound that we're all happy with. Take a bass, add some new strings, tune, run through a nice head with a big old cab, EQ for a few hours until brown on top and you'll get a lovely full sound with some middle in there too. Add some overdrive and you're ready to lay down some DSHS bass-lines.

Lunchtime. We chug down on our sangers and watch ‘Neighbours'. 14-year-old Rachel gives Stingray the cold shoulder and then sees Dr Kennedy in the nude - she's got an eyeful this week. Susan gets the all clear from Rachel and Zeek to hook-up with Carl (AKA Dr Kennedy). Izzy lies to Carl to set him free, after he tells her that he did love her when they were together. She says that they didn't rumble last night and she spent the night on the couch. So all is now sweet and Carl can get back together with Susan, but we all know Izzy's missing earring is going to show up at some point and throw a spanner in the works.

Back to the studio and it's photo time. A few group photos in and outside the studio and then it's back to work. The afternoon is spent laying down bass-lines, as Iain is only here for the day we push on into the dark hours to get as much done as possible. Jonny says he's going out, so that the end of today's recording session.

Back to Ed's for chow, it's chill tonight so we're all eager to get back. We slap on ‘My Name Is Earl' and wait for dinner. It's extra hot tonight and we get runny noses, but that doesn't stop us scoffing it all down and following it with cherry crumble and custard. There are two custards on the menu this evening and after we all try both, it's agreed that the cheaper no-name brand lets the crumble take centre-stage and is therefore the better of the two to have with the crumble. Ed's mum allows us to get down from the table and we go through to the living-room to end the day with some more ‘MNIE' and a bit of ‘Borat in the USA '.

Day 19 - Thursday November 2nd, 2006

Emails, shower, breakfast and we're out the door. It's another spectacular English winter's day and Jack Frost has been to give it all a classy finish. We race over to Jonny's with ‘Comeback Kid' for company.

It's back to clean guitars today, as Iain is at Uni. We spend the next few hours battling with tuning. It's a hard slog; take after take of useless tracks, but the good ones get laid down lowly but surely and it all start to sound quite nice. Time for, a late lunch.

With food in our bellies, we resume battle. It's an uphill battle and after a few frustrating hours Rick cries out that we should call it a day and start afresh in the morning. We listen back to what we've done and also a few of the other tracks and our spirits are raised by the fact that the tracks are starting to sound pretty dam sweet. We pack-up our stuff and head back to Ed's. It's freezing and pitch black, winter is settling in.

We scuttle from the car into the warmth of Ed's house and blap on the TV. We watch the news and an episode of ‘Friends', and then it's time for dinner. The feast of chicken wrapped in bacon, pasta, cauliflower and broccoli goes down like a treat. There's not much on TV, so the call goes up for some ‘MNIE'. A few episodes later and it's time for ‘Never Mind The Buzzcocks', in which Simon Amstell shreds Vanessa Feltz throughout the entire show. It's almost uncomfortable to watch, but it's well funny. Shame he didn't lay into Matt Willis (ex-busted) a bit more, he was lucky, Vanessa took the heat. ‘Bo in the USA ' was a bit lame tonight. A last few hours of the evening were spent on-line, before some much needed sleep.

Day 20 - Friday November 3rd, 2006

We awake to another fine day. It's a bit warmer, but it's still freezing. We zing through our morning routine, then jump into Ed's car and fly off to Jonny's with ‘Red Sparrows'. We make a quick stop in Tesco for some provisions on the way and then it's time to rock.

The morning goes much the same as yesterday. What's up with all the guitars? Is it the sudden change in weather that's making them impossible to tune or is it the intonation of the guitars or is it just the chords? It's frustrating to say the least, but track after track is laid and the clean guitars are close to being finished. A quick stop for lunch and ‘Neighbours' and we're back at it. It's crunch guitar time. The whole afternoon and early evening is spent doing the crunch tracks. Job done and it's off to Ed's place for food and some Friday night TV.

A bit of ‘Friends' followed by ‘The Simpsons' to start and then some ‘MNIE'. A call comes through that food is ready, so we rush through to fill our rumbling bellies. It's chicken korma tonight, which we all lap-up like hungry dogs. A bit of treacle sponge with custard for pud and we're all proper stuffed. We take our places in front of the TV for a string of cool shows. ‘Have I got news for you', ‘8 out of 10 cats', J-Ross and ‘Later with Jools Holland' – what a combo.

Day 21 - Saturday November 4th, 2006

What's up with the weather? It's another well nice day. The word on the lane is that the pan-lady is out in Tetbury, so Rick and I don't make sandwiches. I'm driving today, so it's a bit more of ‘Ben Folds Live' for today's journey to Jonny's. I spy the pan-lady on the way through Tetters, so the rumours were true. We jump out at Jonny's and Ed looks in the boot to find that he's left his sandwich behind, so that means he's going to be getting burgers too.

We figure that Iain won't be on time, so Rick lays down the clean guitars at the start of ‘Ebow'. Iain arrives and starts tuning-up while Rick finishes off and then it's time for some more bass. The next few hours are spent pounding out bass lines and it's nice to hear the tracks with bass on. Time to take a walk into town and meet this pan-lady that we've heard so little about.

We walk into town with meat on our brains. There she is, outside the butcher's shop and that's a big-ass pan she's using to cook the burgers. We form a queue and one by one get served. Now that's a tasty burger. With food in our stomachs and love in our hearts, we walk back to Jonny's. Into the studio we go, for the afternoon session.

The afternoon goes much the same as the morning. Iain becomes one with his bass, but the pace is too slow and we only have today and tomorrow to get the bass finished. Time to head back to Ed's for pizzas, beers and a movie. After stuffing ourselves, it takes us about an hour to decide on ‘Hear no evil, see no evil', which goes down quite well. Devils out.

Day 22 - Sunday November 5th, 2006

It's a well-oiled routine and we're well oiled from the night before, so we're out the door and on the road to Bandit Studio before you can cook a rice pudding. After a brief run round Tesco for lunch rations, it's straight to Jonny's with no messing.

Jonny's making Iain sweet with a hard morning of laying down bass licks the likes of which you'll never hear. Hours tick over and with time sparse, it's a working lunch for the devils. The arvo brings a change to the frustration of the morning, as it's time to do some writing; writing in the lush language of bass that is.

Day 22 of recording comes to an end. It's back to Reading for Iain to attend very important university lectures and London for Rick and myself, as Rick has a week of work staring in the morning. We spend the 2-hour drive plotting how the devils can get a tour van in less than two weeks in time for the UK Tour.

Monday November 6th, 2006

It's a well-earned day off for Jonny. Ed and I spend the day working on new intros for the live set, Rick Green-Thumb get down to it and Iain increases his growing grip on the universe learning how to control physics at uni.

Day 23 - Tuesday November 7th, 2006

So, what can I say? Its the 23rd day into recording, Iain is still at uni until tomorrow, and Jonny and I (Ed) have nothing to do. OHH NO YOU DIDN'T!! I mosey on over the Jimmy's around midday to find him decked out in his new van's gear; ‘vans' shoes, ‘vans' trousers, ‘vans' t-shirt, ‘vans' hoodie, ‘vans' cap, ‘vans' ‘vans'! The man's a nut! After that short interlude, we decide to do some singing, holy moley, singing?! My time has come! In just a few hours we manage to fit in singing on 3 songs, and chicken and bacon sandwiches. Damn we're fast.

I then go home and settle into a baked potato and some wonderful E4 viewing. Such as the same 2 episodes of friends, watched twice of course thanks to the +1 feature, and some scrubs. I then decide to do some brain training on my DS, I have got my brain age down to 30, only 10 years off my own age. In your FACE Richard Chapple. Right now it is quarter past 10 and I'm killing time until the Royal Tenenbaums is on. Then I shall have sweet dreams of Iain finishing his bass parts tomorrow... yeah right. hehe. Peace out.

Day 24 - Wednesday November 8th, 2006

Today Iain is back in town to lay down some bass. The bass is restrung and he's ready for action, over the course of the afternoon, Iain gets the ends of ‘Sirens Chant', ‘The Starting' and ‘Hope' finished, he also puts down his tracks for Between Two Words and The Coroner. In all, quite a productive session.

Iain goes home to get some food and to take his car home, whist Jonny and myself eat Pizza. When Iain eventually returns, we drive to Reading for practice. At practice we add some new tunes to our set for the gig this Friday. Look out Horsham, you will be the first to hear these songs :D

Day 25 - Thursday November 9th, 2006

Today we started late, I was pretty tired after getting back late from practise, so we leave off until early afternoon. When I turn up in Tetbury we unload the car, because we couldn't be bothered last night. We're energetic chaps you see. It's then straight to work! I do the singing on ‘The Coroner' and ‘The Starting', and we're finished in an hour and 45 minutes. Not a difficult day.

The evening is spent the same as most in front of the TV watching repeats of ‘Friends'. haha. Tomorrow I may do some singing early on, then off to Horsham to rock the casbah. Night night!

Day 26 - Sunday November 12th, 2006

After four fairly stressed days (somewhat spread out, damn higher education), two sets of (WAY overpriced) strings and only six bass tracks down, it only takes a bit over three hours for me to nail ‘Ebow' and the two most tech-ish songs on the album, ‘J20' and ‘Tunnel', punctuated by a lunch break of; quatro formaggio pizza and Redemption-TV previews. Professional speed. Chart Filled in. Job done. (robbiedog called in to redo the parts without my knowledge....etc)

Ed, Jimbob and I listen through to everything so far, and its sounding pretty beefy, can't wait for the finished thing. Til then, back to dissertation and sucking up to lecturers before I break for Xmas a week early for the tour! TTFN x

Day 27 - Tuesday November 14th, 2006

Today is the first day of screams. Without further ado, I do some quick warm ups, and we're off into sirens chant. It's all pretty fun, and we have a good day. Before we know it we've got the whole song done with doubles and everything. We decide to call it a day, and I make my way home. Not a lot is done this evening apart from play a bit of Lucas Arts' "the dig", which is totally righteous, everyone should check it out. See ya.

Day 28 - Wednesday November 15th, 2006

I get up pretty early today with the intentions of getting our merch order sorted out for the tour, but as I no longer have word on my computer after a recent format and can't find my copy of office, I need to use a different computer. But all the files are on my computer... ahh we see a problem. It takes a few hours to upload certain 600dpi files to the server, and get some images over to my sister's laptop, then to write up an order, and then try and attach it to an email and send on a very poor signal strength. Not much fun. haha. Anyway, I eventually get to the studio, and we do all the screams for JNO, and by the end I'm pretty shattered. Now to band practice in reading! After a very windy and wet drive, we get through 6 songs and the kick skin gets a hole! So we end up going home earlier than planned. I then get some much-loved sleep.

The End of 2006 to The Start of 2007

Recording was put on hold for a few weeks.

We went out on the UK 's roads with the awesome ‘Exit Ten' and ‘Fell Silent'. The tour on the whole was very cool and much fun was had by all. We spent the tour in vans from hell, which lead to hours on the road side in the freezing cold and numerous technical problems which climaxed in the brakes failing on the motorway and a glimpse of death for some of the devils - but all's well that ends.

We all went our separate ways for Christmas and New Year, apart from Ed and Jonny who had more quality time in the studio ahead of them.

Ed rocked and rolled around the studio clock in the run-up to Christmas laying down a week's work of vocals.

The Start of 2007 to Friday January 12th, 2007

Jonny makes a start on mixing the beast.
Ed pops in from time to time, laying down killer vocals.
Rick and I go back to work, plus, DSHS admin starts again.
Iain does Uni work?
We all talk to Ben (sItCOmsoLdiErs) and the label about the first single and it's video.

Monday January 15th to Friday 19th, 2007

Extra Guitars – Read all about it!

We're all back in the studio (apart from Iain who's at Uni) and our aim is to put this puppy to bed by the end of the month – well recording wise.

For Monday and Tuesday Rick's fingers create magic on a variety of guitars and the songs start to get topped with sweet icings.

Wednesday is spent trying more sample ideas and butting heads over what the definition of a sample is.

Thursday and Friday push us to the brink. We can't compromise on any final guitar, vocal or sample parts. We always knew the time to make final decisions would come, but its hit us hard - tensions are high and morale is at an all time low. The excitement filled days of September seem so long ago. We finally agree on something; it's time to take a step back and let the air cool down. Rick and I head back to London.

Monday January 22nd to Friday February 23rd, 2007

Jonny mixes.
Ed works on vocal ideas.
Rick works.
I do DSHS admin.
Iain attends Uni.
A few practices and gigs are done.
Multiple drummer auditions are held in London and Gloucester.
We all talk to Ben (sItCOmsoLdiErs) and the label about the first single and it's video.

Monday February 26th, 2007

So we're all back in the studio, the aim, finally putting this bad-boy to bed – well we started recording back on Wednesday the 27 th of September 2006, which was exactly 5 months ago!

Rick and I meet J-Dizzle at his place around 2pm, but Ed's car has a gammy leg, so Rick and Jonny get to work on the end of ‘Sirens' while I cruise over to Ed's to pick him up. Do all good things come to those who wait? Well it's more a case of taking our time to get it right, but that's what I call an ending! A few tweaks here and there on a few tracks. Decision time: The long or short intro to ‘Ebow' (now named: ‘Dawn On The First Day')? We spent the next hour weighing-up both sides of the argument and can't come to a decision – now that doesn't sound like us, does it? We call it a day and head indoors to watch ‘Neighbours'; we eagerly await finding-out what happened to Janae after Thursday's cliffhanger. Not a peep. It must have all been in Friday's episode. For those of you of you who found this write-up of ‘Neighbours' too short, checkout: http://www.neighbours.com. Back to Ed's for TV and chow.

Tuesday February 27th, 2007

While Ed and Rick spend the day watching a man putting up a fence in Ed's garden, I get some quality time with Jonny.

It's an intimate one on one sample session, to wrap-up the samples on this bad-boy. With two immense professionals fully focused on the task in hand, we wise through everything in a matter of hours. Some ideas are set, others will go to the vote with Ed and Rick tomorrow.

We're seeing a drummer tonight, but we don't have to be in Bristol until 7pm, so we swing round to Ed's with the new ‘Lamb Of God' DVD and chill with the boys for a couple of hours. It's a three-hour session on the 3 rd floor of a derelict building (official sign on the door said: Building closed due to risk of fire and lack of safety), located in one of Bristol 's more, shall we say, interesting areas. While Rick pays the ‘owner', he knocks over his drink (which was resting on the ‘owners' amp) and covers it in Coke. The guy is well cool about it, much to Rick's relief – he was a nice guy all round.

We head home for ‘Anaconda'. We're all quite pooped and like the cast, we start to disappear one by one.

We got this message a few days later from the guy:

Hi guys. Thanks for coming over to rehearse in our studio. If I'd known you were that good I'd have done a bootleg while you were there! Seriously guys your awesome. I've just been listening to both tracks, which really knocked me out, so emotional-vocals incredible. Hope to see you again. Good luck. Dave

Wednesday February 28th, 2007

We sit down and go over the samples. To my surprise Ed and Rick dig everything that was done yesterday. Rick cries out, “Lunch time!” But then realises his grave error – it's only 1pm – then says, “We can't lunch now, as it would be out of sync with ‘Neighbours'. Shall we quickly lay-down some guitars?”

Rick and I create mouth-watering hotdogs out of freshly cooks ‘ Cumberland ' sausages and humus – yum yum! Jonny sits-out on ‘Neighbours', what a fool! It's another amazing episode of spectacular highs and epic lows, climaxing with big face (aka: ‘Katya') coming out of her coma to electrocute evil ‘Guy' with a resuscitation blap pad. Thus saving herself and her cowering younger brother ‘Zeke' the geek, from certain GBH. She then immediately returns to her state of rest – roll credits. Now that's what I call trash TV and I didn't even mention: Dr Kennedy giving up medicine and his surgery. Or all the love interests, new and randy or dying and volatile. Or seventy something wannabe airhostess Lou's age discrimination lawsuit against ‘BonZair Airlines' for dis'ing him in front of all the other applicants.

The arvo brings vocal time. A few singing ideas for ‘The Starting' are laid. Then a heap of amazing vocals to ‘Between Two Words' are recorded, making it one hell of a song – what a contrast from a once thought instrumental.

We head off to meet Sleepshow-Matt for a cheeky pint at the ‘Crown' in Cirencester. After meeting Matt, we drop into McGrim's for some ‘food?'. In fits of laughter we analyse our salt and sugar induced high and predict the inevitable crass leading to depression and silence. Home for some: TV, ‘Morgan's Spiced Caribbean Rum' and the second half of ‘Anaconda' – thank the lord for multiple screenings on free-view.

Thursday March 1st, 2007

It's a relaxed start to the 29 th of February for the devils. After breakfast, showers and some laptop action, we swing round to Jonny's for 12am. It's bounce-down time, but first, a few ideas for gaps between songs are aired and killed.

At 1pm on the dot, Ed's mobile rings and he goes off to meet Leks – a potential new drummer. We spend about half an hour playing through ‘Darkness' and ‘Like It's…'. He's pretty damn good! Could he be our new drummer? We'll see after the final auditions on Saturday in London.

Back to Ed's for some lunch and to pack – we've got a practice in London with Red-Dave tonight. The traffic on the motorway isn't too bad and we cruise down the M4 to London in no time. Ed and I listen to the latest mix of the album nice and loud. We discuss our feeling on: the album as a whole, individual songs and parts of songs. The album for the first time is sounding complete, which is a relief after all this time and effort. Rick and Jonny reminisce about times past and listen to the sound of the road, in the old man car. We load our equipment into the rehearsal room, set up and have a quick bite to eat. Dave arrives, which queues repetitions of the set.

A quick drive home to Fulham and after unloading at Rick's place, it's round to my place to unload, park and bed – but not without a half-hour late night discussion around the kitchen table, about current musicale affairs and the memories they invoke.

Quite a good day for the devils.

Friday March 2nd, 2007

I'm up at the crack of dawn (8:20am), as I've got to go dan the tan all to get a new parking permit - I just love having to pay £95 to park outside my own home. Back home to check on the sleeping devils. They're still fast a kip, so I watch Sunday's episode of ‘Lost', which I taped on? You guessed it, Sunday. It's another infuriatingly slow passed episode, in which we end up knowing less about what's going on than we did before we saw the episode! If only all the episodes could go at the pace of ‘Forty days and forty nights': the episode in which we see the events of the first forty days and nights that the survivors from the tail-section of the plane went through. The scrip writers should take a leaf out of the ‘24' plot pace book, or maybe the slow pace is all part of the ‘Lost' experience. If you've not see ‘24'; give episode one of season one a go. As, if you like it, you'll have a few seasons of pure TV gold head of you.

After getting up at about 1pm, I feed J-Dizzle and Gibbo. It's pasta for all, but a carbonara sauce for Jimmy, pesto for Ed. I have a bit of both and mix some of it together; it works quite well to our amazement.

The arvo and evo is spent playing Wii at Rick's.

Saturday March 3rd, 2007

We spend the day auditioning drummers in Acton . After a no-show in the 5 – 5:30 slot, 4 mics with delay and 4 devils, all hell brakes looses. We make one hell of a racket, as we get high on laughter. So much so, that the 5:50 to 6 drummer double-checks at reception that there's not a ‘drum n bass MC crew' in room 6 and that it is in fact the DSHS drum auditions.

Jimmy and Ed go back to the country and Rick and I go back to Fulham.

Sunday March 4th, 2007

It's a well-earned day off for the devils.

Monday March 5th, 2007

Jonny mixes.
Ed works on vocal ideas.
Rick and I do DSHS admin.
Iain attends Uni.
The drummers who auditions are told that we've pick our man.
We all talk to Ben (sItCOmsoLdiErs) and the label about the first single and it's video.

We find out a 9pm that Dave is stuck in Ireland , as his flight has been cancelled. 7pm tomorrow is the next flight and therefore he won't be able to make the Gallows gig!

Tuesday March 6th, 2007

Rick and Dave get up at 8am to sort out an earlier flight. It's £100 down the drain, but if it means Dave can make the gig, it'll be worth it. We all hope that he'll get there in time.

I spend the morning doing DSHS admin and then head over to Rick's to load the car. Then it's off to the ‘100 Club' with us, to support Gallows.

Dave makes it just in time and walks in halfway through sound check to a big cheer and our worries evaporate. Alex from ‘Cry For Silence' played for the first half of sounds check - He's a top lad and they're a top band. Go check them out, he shreds on an eight-sting beast: http://www.myspace.com/cryforsilence

As ‘Gallows' rock the stage: two of the ‘Deftones' boys walk in through the back door, to our surprise and the evening takes an interesting turn. I chat to Chino about the new album and have a giggle with Abe on how we looked at their DVD to see which skins he uses for recording. Hope they listened to the copy of the album that I gave them, but it may be in London 's rubbish system by now.

Wednesday March 7th, 2007

It's a slow start for the devils. I dabble online while Jonny sleeps and Ed showers. Rick and Iain play Wii at his place. A spot of lunch is followed by a relaxing afternoon of Wii. Then it's off to ‘The Underworld' to support ‘Amplifier' – They're a rock band, so their fans will probably hate us.

So we get to ‘The Underworld' and are told that ‘Amplifier' want to prog away for two hours and that means there's not enough time for two support bands. It's progressive music to our ears. We had reservations about the show and it will make everyone happy if we don't play, so we say it's not a problem and they say see you in a few weeks for you headline show (May album tour).

Jonny and Ed head home to the country, Iain gets the train back to reading and Rick and I go home to Fulham. We'll reconvene on Saturday to have a first full practice / second audition with Leks – one of the drummers in the final two.

Thursday March 8th, 2007

Jonny mixes.
Ed works on vocal ideas.
Rick goes to play a gig at ‘The Joiners' with his other band.
I do DSHS admin.
Iain attends Uni.
We all talk to Ben (sItCOmsoLdiErs) and the label about the first single and it's video.

Friday March 9th, 2007

Jonny and Ed go through some songs with Leks in Jonny's live room.
Rick heads home to Fulham for Southampton.
I do DSHS admin.
Iain attends Uni.
We all talk to Ben (sItCOmsoLdiErs) and the label about the first single and it's video.

Saturday March 10th, 2007

We have our first full practice with Leks, our new drummer. He's super tight and his performance lifts a huge proverbial weight from our shoulders – twelve months without our own drummer has finally come to an end. We all go home very happy; it was a good day for DSHS.

Sunday March 11th to Friday March 16th, 2007

Jonny and Ed go through songs with Leks in Jonny's live room.
Rick works.
I do DSHS admin.
Iain attends Uni.
We all talk to Ben (sItCOmsoLdiErs) and the label about the first single and it's video.
Leks, Rick and Ed look for vans.

Saturday March 17th, 2007

We have our second full practice with Leks. He's got most of the songs down already, which is nice. Red-Dave is back and this time he's playing bass – Iain has an exam on the day of our next gig. He's looking pretty lively for someone that was getting free drinks all night at his birthday drinks. I never did get him that birthday drink – he kept saying he was good. An excellent practice all round. On the drive home Dave says that he thinks we're definitely picked the right guy for the position – I hate it when he lies.

Sunday March 18th to Thursday March 22nd, 2007

We drive down to Ed's on Thursday night for a two-day mixing session. If all goes well, the album will be ready for mastering.

Friday March 23rd to Saturday March 24th, 2007

We have a three-day mixing session.
The days are spent at the studio tweaking the tracks.
The evenings are spent listening to the mixes on different sound systems.

Monday March 26th to Thursday March 29th, 2007

We spend the week mixing over the net - All done in the band area of our Forum.

We listen to the tracks and post our views. Then Jonny makes the changes and we listen and comment again. This is repeated until compromises are found/made or devils give up on parts, tracks and the whole thing.

A very crap week – It's hard to make six people happy about everything, as we all have our own feeling on how things should sound. Tensions flare, views are aired and scars are made. Mix finished.

Friday March 30th, 2007

Jonny bounces down all the tracks and then burns everything onto a couple of CDs. A short walk down to the post-office and they're in the post to Loud Mastering. That's the recording and mixing side of things done, bring on the mastering session.

Thursday April 5th, 2007

It's an early start for us today, which is a bit of a bummer as we got back to Jonny's quite late last night after bombing it back from the BMTH gig in Southampton (which we kicked ass at). Fun times!

We're up and out the door in record quick time. Everyone even gets to Jonny's on time, which could be a first. Off to Tesco to get provisions and then it's down the M5 to Taunton with us.

A full complement of devils roll up to the studio right on time (11am) and after the pleasantries it's straight to work. We've got a whole album to master and compile (plus, two edits of 'Between Two Words') in a few hours and we don't have the money to run over.

After hours of John D working his magic (and a quick lunch break. No ‘Neighbours' tough) the album stands up to the four ‘Deftones' tracks that we gave him as comparisons - ‘Feiticeira' and ‘Korea' off ‘White Pony', ‘Hexagram' and ‘Minerva' off ‘Deftones'. The album has it's own character, but now also has equal power, volume and scope.

Time to move over into Jas's studio to compile the monster. It may be a monster, but we hope it's not that kind of monster ;) The seven of us click into action and we wise through the compilation in no time. Jas says we've got time for a ten minute break before he runs the master off, so we step out for some fresh-air and sunshine, before taking our seats for the first presentation of the album in it's full glory.

After an emotional fifty-two minutes, we take a seat in the 'chilling area?' for some pizza and UEFA Cup footie actions - Paul Robinson so got the ball ref!

The clock strikes 9pm and we say our goodbyes to a couple of super nice and talented guys - who we hope we'll get the chance to see again a some point in the future to master our second album.

The traffic is light and we fly home in under an hour. Leks, Ed and Iain head home happy little devils. Jonny and Rick compare the album to other albums on Jonny's stereo, while I have forty winks. An hour of TV and then it's time for bed (12pm). We've got to drive up to Manchester for the 'Between Two Words' video shoot tomorrow. We don't have to be there until 7pm, as we're shooting in a steel mill at night, so that will let us get our strength back.

Conclusion

The 5th of April 2007 finally saw the musical side of the creation of our debut album ' A Fragile Hope ' come to an end. It was a super cool day for all of us. Now only Paul Jackson's artwork is left to do and then it'll be a finished piece for the world to judge.