Month: April 2016

‘Sip a Fizzy Pop’ was also a recent addition to the EP as we had been struggling to hone another song, ‘Chasm Fever’. The sound I had in my head for the song, based on the writing style, was once again ‘Arctic Monkeys’ with their 4th album ‘Suck It and See’. I’ve always liked the bright sound of the songs, that had a mix of shimmery guitars and vocal harmonies.

We started, as usual, with recording the rhythm guitar as the basis for the song. I played my Epiphone Dot through the Vox amp of the studio and set my guitar to the treble pickup for a brighter, punchier sound. This was recorded with a Shure SM57 which was the same microphone used on Alex Turner’s parts for that album. http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jul11/articles/james-ford.htm (LO3) Even though it was on a clean setting, with a bit of hall reverb added (a personal preference of mine due to the sound of ‘Suck it and See’), the higher volume of the amplifier caused it to have a bit of drive (not distortion) to the part – another technique used by James Ford.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxNSjppLWeQ

Pat performed a 12 string guitar part which consisted of picked arpeggios, starting in the chorus and continuing throughout. His playing was very reminiscent of Roger McGuinn’s style of ‘The Byrds’. This is something that I will address in mixing to get that jangly sound that they achieved. (LO3). A new addition in the song came about with the use of hand percussion. My friend, Jack, came down to play on the session and performed an acoustic guitar part, a piano line in the bridge and a guiro part. We decided to record all of the parts at the same time – myself and Pat using egg shakers, Jack using a guiro and Adam hitting a tambourine. We all stood around a AKG-C414, placed in the live room to pick up the reflections and made sure we stood well back as read in our research into how to record percussion. https://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan08/articles/qa0108_5.htm We performed a few takes of the percussion, due to the odd timing issue, although we knew it was only going to be a background part so we didn’t stress about it too much.

 

 

Lyrics:

You’ve got your scissors to cut out the middle man, stick him on your collage, bury in the sand

The never-ending fizzes of your cola can, forms a new mirage that swallows up my hand

 

Fizzy pop, can I have a sip? Effortlessly suave, pursed around your lips

Dizzy drops, effervescent drips, fizzy pop, winning lucky dips, fizzy pop

 

You’ve got your incomparable romanticism, dreams of paradise, palm-tree poeticism

An admirable set of euphemisms, meaningless advice, dick-hedonism

 

Fizzy pop, can I have a sip? Effortlessly suave, pursed around your lips

Dizzy drops, effervescent drips, fizzy pop, winning lucky dips, fizzy pop

 

Would I be a fool to even try? Am I too late to realise?

Would you like a tune? And you reply ‘depends on the phase of the moon tonight’

My eyes are sore for such a sight, angel delight

 

Fizzy pop, can I have a sip? Effortlessly cool, pursed around your lips

Dizzy drops, effervescent drips, fizzy pop, winning lucky dips, fizzy pop

 

You’ve got your never-ending sunshine optimism, the oozing cola cans, are they still fizzing?

An optical delusion, a prism, amusing epigrams, your eyes do glisten

 

Fizzy pop, can I have a sip? Effortlessly suave, pursed around your lips

Dizzy drops, effervescent drips, fizzy pop, winning lucky dips, fizzy pop

 

Personnel:

 Oliver Cobbin – Rhythm Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Lead Guitar, Percussion, Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals, Production, Mixing

Adam Thraves – Drums, Tambourine, Production, Mixing

Patrick Delamere – 12 String Electric Guitar, Bass, Percussion, Backing Vocals

Jack Kenny – Acoustic Guitar, Piano, Guiro

For this project, I wanted to write some new material to go with the songs that I had written over the past few years. The previous 2 studio sessions have been dedicated to recording two of these new additions, entitled: ‘For My Next Trick…’ and ‘Sip a Fizzy Pop’. As seen on the tick list update from last week, they have replaced two of the other songs for inclusion on the EP which is itself called ‘Humdinger’.

First up was ‘For My Next Trick…’ which had a relatively slow tempo at 88bpm. This caused some timing issues in places which was rectified by joining takes together and dropping me in where needed. The problem was partly caused by the fact that one section ends on the same chord that another starts with (E major) which meant that it was held for a long time and was hard to keep track of where it started/ended. The inspiration for this song and reference point came from Alex Turner (of Arctic Monkeys) who recorded a solo project EP, called ‘Submarine’. The nature of this record is a lot more low-key than his bands usual output, so seemed applicable to this project as the songs don’t utilise too many distorted guitars etc. (LO3)

The rhythm guitar part was recorded on a clean setting, with a little bit of hall reverb added to achieve the sound heard on ‘Submarine’. To get an even fuller sound, we placed boundary microphones on both sounds of the room. The signal picked up from these two microphones gave off a reverberated sound heard in the 2 seperate channels, showing the success of the technique (LO1). Another method we used was to prop the amplifier on its stand which we had picked up through our research that stated that ‘ lifting and/or tilting the amp [will] minimise the effects of phase cancellation’. This had been a bit of a hindrance in some of previous recordings so using this technique was a great revelation. (LO1). The use of the Shure SM57 had also come about from our research as ‘the sub-200Hz response roll-off reduces low-end cabinet ‘thumps’, which might otherwise conflict with the kick drum and bass in the mix’ http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/aug07/articles/guitaramprecording.htm This will be of great benefit to us as some of the kick drum parts performed by Adam had been washed out in the mix by both bass and guitar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our second guitarist, Pat, also added a arpeggio part to the verses of the song and a lead guitar riff in the second second section. For these parts he used a pedal board set-up which included an echo-machine simulator and an Electro-Harmonix chorus pedal. I was keen for him to utilise this pedal as it had been used by Kurt Cobain on ‘Come as You Are’, a personal favourite of mine (LO3) http://www.kurtsequipment.com/effectspage.htm. He also performed the bass guitar part on the song which was recorded with an AKG-D112 and two AKG-414s, placed further away to pick up the room sound. This was done as a result of research into the best methods of tracking bass. http://www.musictech.net/2015/09/how-to-record-bass-guitar/

 

 

 

Lyrics:

You picked apart a puzzle, you ought not to pick apart

And clicked your fingers in a rhythm I was unfamiliar with

You picked a part to play, that you played perfectly

And flicked a flickering candle, well of course you did

But now the eyes are gaping, waiting for your next trick

Better saw yourself in half again, best make it quick

 

If you are such a cliché, why then can you not reflect?

Bitter to the bitter end, but what else did you expect?

Deception is the game you play, I think it best you keep away

 

You danced a bossa nova, with your new parakeet

And played the fool in waiting, staring at your feet

You kept us all a-guessing, what is black & white?

You said you didn’t know yourself, and gave us quite a fright

And now the eyes are gazing, for the second act

Your silhouette is looming and your shadow abstract

 

Is she just an enigma, or am I all out of clues?

Bewildered to the very end, and equally bemused

Deception is the game you play, I think it best you keep away

 

You gave a good performance, pretending until the end

Hatred for the mirror, it’s now you’re only friend

The fragments of your life, in pieces on the floor

The rain always bites at you, chills you to the core

But now the eyes have faded, there’s no big return

Adopt a different guise this time, I guess you’ll never learn

 

Personnel:

Oliver Cobbin – Rhythm & Lead Guitar, Lead Vocals, Production, Mixing

Adam Thraves – Drums, Production, Mixing

Patrick Delamere – Rhythm & Lead Guitar, Bass

Jack Kenny – Piano