‘right click’ to download – mp3 4.8mb | aiff 35.4mb thank you!
I recorded ‘I’m The Ocean’ at Limestone Studios in Sydney, all in a day… have a look here at the video blog post
The artwork is a photo from my favourite beach in the world – Hawks Nest beach where we spent Christmas holidays (that’s summer in Australia) almost every year when I was growing up.
All instruments performed by Daniel Peterson – © & ℗ 2010 Daniel Peterson
I don’t really know why this happened today, but when I woke up this morning I decided to record an acoustic version of one of my old songs (Good Love) in a day, for a bit of a challenge or something. So I told Facebook this was what I was going to do. If I didn’t tell anyone then I might not be as compelled to finish it off, and it actually did help me focus. It took me from 11:34am until 2:45am to finish, stopping only to eat a can of baked beans for 10 minutes (my body hurts from sitting in one spot for 15hrs). I got a bit carried away and recorded a full compliment of instruments, and made an alternative arrangement of the song and even changed entire parts because I felt like it. So I don’t know what this is for, I just had the urge. You can download it for free to have a listen. It’s a pretty rough mix and hasn’t been mastered obviously, but it’ll do. I might do this version live sometimes, it’s different, I like it. Maybe tomorrow I will work more on the album and not get distracted by recording old songs, who knows?!
Here’s the file… ‘right-click’ to download
A while ago now, I helped out some good friends of mine, Paperadio, on bass for a couple of years. On the night of their farewell show at the Borderline in London, I became an official member for one night only, but it was a good night-only.
During the time playing bass for them, we took a trip to New York City to film a music video for their song Long Narrow Road. I took my video camera and filmed as much of our time as possible to document it. I cut 5 hours of footage down to 28mins or so, restraining myself from using more. It was a lot of fun doing a music video on a rooftop at the foot of the Empire State Building and around Manhattan.
Split into 3 parts, here is the result of our journey to NYC. Props to the very awesome directors of the actual music video, which can watch at the bottom of the post. They are called Twin.
The song I’m The Ocean, was the first to be recorded for the album, and at the moment, it’s the first song to be finished and mastered. Recorded in Australia on my last visit home – I was out there for 4 months playing gigs there for the first time. Fun times.
The opportunity arose to put this track down in a studio near Surrey Hills in Sydney, called Limestone Studio. It was a great little place run by two excellent guys, Louis Schoorl (from Holand) and Steeve Body (from France). They were a laugh to work with. It was a bit of fluke finding two gents with whom I could feel completely comfortable recording with from the word go, especially having only done a few google searches to find them.
The initial reason I gravitated towards their studio through google was because they had all the instruments I needed to use which were set up all the time, ready to go. This was perfect as I only brought my Strat and Vibrolux with me from London. It makes such a massive difference to the recording process when the people involved are really great to work with. They made it possible to pull off recording the song in one day – thanks to their dedication and hard work. If you’re hunting for a studio in Sydney, definitely look them up!!
This video has been slapped together fairly quickly as I didn’t have a lot of footage to work with, I need to get someone to film more next time I’m in the studio!
I asked Paul to go through, in a little bit of detail, what equipment was being used to record the drums. I thought it would be nice to document for my future reminiscing of recording this album.
There was a lot of cheese and banana eating and general procrastination this day. We did manage to record drums for 3 songs eventually, contrary to the impression that this video may give.
This is a little clip that I bodged together the same evening after being in the studio. It marks an official start to recording drums for the album.
The process behind the album has already been under way for a couple of months now, demo-ing, chopping and changing, and making guide tracks for this moment. I’ve got all the material I need for the album sorted, although there are still lots of lyrics to be finished off. This didn’t hinder making a start on drums though.
So, I took my portable hard drive with my album on it to a ‘secret’ studio (secret, because the owner of the studio doesn’t know I was there using his stuff and with his engineer at the helm!), where we plugged in and I played drums along to the guide tracks. Guide tracks being, full demo versions of the songs that I play drums along to, listening with my headphones (because it’s just me in the studio, no-one else to play with :( ). Then once the drums are completed I’ll re-recorded everything else over the top of the old guides, along side the new sexy live drums. It’s a long process (should be finished within about 10 years or so!), but it’s just how it has to be when your doing it on your own! I love it though.
I’ve had two days in the studio so far and completed 4 songs for drums which is not too bad. It always takes me longer than I think it will, but that’s all good. I will be heading back there soon to finish the other songs that need drums. I’ve since been at home choosing the best takes and doing a preliminary mix, and I am extremely happy! I can’t wait to finish the album and show you all. I am loving it. Some of the songs take a fairly big diversion from what I normally ‘sound’ like! It’s going to be cool to see how people react. For now though, it is all slightly on hold until I work out how to pay next months rent in 15 days, so I’ll be piecing it together as I go… somehow!!
Oh yeah, I was recording to 2 inch tape, it sounds the dogs and it got me excited, so I had to mention it! You know… I’m usually just recording in my bedroom, not through £100,000′s worth of equipment , it’s the simple things in life that get me pumped! ha! But it reminds me, I have some massive thank you’s to shout out at some point. There has been a lot of support from people already in these initial stages, and I’ll mention those a little later on. For now though, seriously, I would probably have moved back to Australia if it wasn’t for my friend Johnny lending me his Pro Tools rig and Apple (fast-as-they-come) Mac to be able to do the majority of the recording at home! So thank you man! And to Paul in the studio… what a privilege it’s been! Many thanks to you too!
I have some more video footage to come for the second day of the drum session, which I’ll edit together soon hopefully.
I borrowed a Ukulele from a friend who lives up the road in Tooting (I should really give it back now, but I like this first attempt at writing a song on the Uke so much, that I want to record it properly and put it on the album (Huge props to Mark Thomas for letting me borrow it!). I’ve started incorporating Uke into my other songs now too as an extra layer/colour to my tracks. I dig the sound of it along side what I already do, it nicely adds a little Hawaiian sunshine.
I thought about putting up a demo of this new song ‘Change Of Tune’ on myspace, but decided it would be good to make a little video of it instead… This is 5 or so months ago, and I didn’t really tell anyone about it until now, it was a weird time for me… I’m back now, and I think this song encompasses that in a way.
Strawberry Blonde EP was my first release… and with the run up to putting out the debut album, I’ve decided to make it available for free! Share it with anyone you want (email it round if you like, or you can use the twitter / facebook / myspace share links at the bottom of this post to point people here).
I recorded this 4 track EP in 2007 at the previous house in South London that I lived. My house mate Olle and I combined our accumulated recording equipment. I sold some of my stuff to buy microphones and other bits (but mostly used my credit card to make it happen), and he provided the computer with Pro Tools, and the drum kit. We had one neighbour who complained a couple of times about the ‘noise’ being made, and eventually got a couple of letters from the council, soz. That didn’t halt the recording though, I mean, how else is a musician supposed to afford to record these days, if not at home right?!
I wanted to limit myself to using just drums, bass and guitar. I remember specifically trying to write and produce these songs in such a way that I could represent them at gigs as close to the recordings as possible, performed as a three piece. It was a kind of creative challenge that forced me to make the songs work without much instrumentation. I ended up breaking the rules slightly, particularly on Strawberry Blonde of course, when I chose to use piano as the principle instrument. A bit of an experiment for me musically, having never really written songs on piano before. It was an exception to the rule also because it was the only thing I didn’t record at home. I took my laptop and a few microphones up to a piano which was in a beautiful sounding chapel at my Dad’s work because… well that’s where I wrote the song a year earlier, and there was something oddly nice about recording it on that same piano, like I’ve documented that experience a little better or something?
I had lots of time to get the songs just how I wanted them and also, to learn how to record/mix in the process (the mastering engineer at Abbey Road gave his seal of approval which was very reassuring!). Not having anyone else involved in the recording process however, did mean that I went over my deadlines all the time, so I just ignored them in the end, but does that really matter? If anything, it made me more proud of the finished product because of the time and energy that went into it (at one point I accidentally deleted all the finished drum takes and had to do them all again… whoops!). Forget deadlines though, what recording at home meant, was that I was able to track the drums to Strawberry Blonde in the nude. I would set up the track to ‘loop record’ (so I could do several takes back to back, no pun intended) with a 16 bar count in, and I’d run into the ‘live’ room, lock the door behind me, strip down, pick up my sticks and put my headphones on, all in time for the first bar!
Huge thanks to Matt Ellis, who designed the EP artwork, to Andrew Whitton, who took such great photos on Primrose Hill, and to Olle for lending me his gear, without which this EP could not have happened!