i'm writing this from the sofa in the control room at valley wood studio, where we're mixing the no.5 album. all of it. in a day. big ask - but kinda fun, and certainly in keeping with the general idea of the project. do it all, do it now, keep it raw, keep it honest, don't spend too long on any of it, lest the energy is lost.
listening back you can't help hearing your mistakes - the things you might have done another way. and then you realise that you're completely missing the point of the thing by thinking that way. we're not mixing perfect performances here, we're mixing an energy captured at a moment in time. then it sounds right.
we're also still collecting 5 snaps for the wall of 5. there are millions of them in this one room. it's getting quite silly just how many. barkley (the engineer) is working on the project in digital performer, version 5. kirsty's vocal is sitting on the desk at almost exactly the +5 mark, except when we dip the signal while she's not singing. then it sits at -5, naturally. we've made a little explanatory video, with a lovely voiceover from the engineer (who understands what he's talking about, of course).
it's lunchtime and we're three songs in. 'sandman', 'omaha', 'dust devils'. starting with the downbeat numbers and working up to deal with the liveliness of the room on the louder numbers with full bellies. at the moment it's sounding lovely and smoky, dark and late-nightish. the vibe is infectious and we're loving the audience more with every cheer.
just beginning now to mix 'faith', and the studio cat, tinker, has joined us to make sure everything's up to scratch. i captured a fleeting moment of interest on camera. something must be working for her. it's interesting that the songs we seem to be picking to mix first are mainly songs that are on 'the kansas sessions' - the album is looking about half and half old and new. i would say though that the 'kansas' songs are definitely skewed differently, with different musicians and the weight of two years' touring resting against them. i think the two albums will be sufficiently different to be truly interesting.
man, the reception at the end of that song is amazing - it was the end of the set. you can hear the crowd's feet rumbling for more. nice.
and so we're moving onto some of those more torch-like duende / saudade type songs. 'last orders', the new dark anti-war song with the interplay between fretless banjo, harmonica and bass clarinet, and 'bliss' from the first album. these are harder to get right. the dynamic range is important - keeping it dark and slightly uncomfortable. chris' playing is just lovely - never predictable, all about tone and texture - he rasps his way through the underbelly of 'last orders' on bass clarinet like an undersea current; and he's poised on the edge of 'bliss' throughout - fragile and delicate, connected to the vocal. he earns the namecheck you can hear kirsty give him over the applause at the end.
the middle section of 'bliss' gives us some trouble. the sound is so much fuller and richer than the rest of the song, with nick bowing the double bass. barkley's magic riding of the faders as we print the mix creates a result that draws the breath right out of me and then drops me into the last section of the song with a palpable sense of relief. result.
another new song, 'the last to understand' (see our podcast for the preview from the rehearsals) seems to mix itself after that. it goes really well after bliss, too (note to self re. tracklisting the album).
so onto the last two tracks of the day - the loud ones, where we will have to work a bit harder to get the thing to sit right. 'stonefruit' and 'alibi blues', both featuring inspired electric guitar work from james steel. soloing the tracks to get the sound right we're realising just how inspired actually. nice work that brute.
we'll have to wait and see still how it hangs together as a whole, but i'm quietly confident that the energy of this record is just right. maybe we'll have time before the day is out to mix one last track not on the original list - details of which we'll keep to ourselves for now...
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