среда, февраля 03, 2010

MAKING THE ALBUM VOLUME 6.
Originally written on Monday, 17 August 2009 for member's of 'Delicacy' Darren's official fan club at www.darrenhayes.com

Well I noticed in my last update I said Justin and I would get through another 3 songs before he left. We got through one. I'll called it 'W'. It was a huge song and took more effort than we anticipated. Mostly because we got stuck into recording percussion inspired very much by Michael Jackson's 'Off the Wall' album. I have always been fascinated with the sounds in the song 'Working Day and Night'. The original demo of the song had M.J and his siblings playing percussion by tapping on glass bottles. I think the album version obviously has a more polished version of the technique but it still sounds so raw and tribal. Incidentally Pharrell Williams used this vibe to the next level on his productions when he started playing paint cans on his records as drums. So what did I do? I enlisted the help of 1. The coke bottle 2. The breakfast bowl AND 3. The paint tins.
So it's one louder.

In a video blog coming up I'll post some video of my expert playing. I was using forks as drumsticks and I broke the breakfast bowl. I am not sure if magic is captured on film. But believe me the sound probably made the song sound at least .0001 percent better! This is the song that has a massive brass section on it as well. The plan is to record them in Australia when I head down under in September.

So Justin left, and we really only got through 4 songs in total but started the fifth 'T'. Then I literally went straight in to working with Brian West (of Track and Field) in a studio in London. He was over visiting from L.A and we spent two huge days together writing and recording a brand new songs called 'E' and it's freakin' amazing! But honestly, after working with Brian I had done 17 days straight recording and I was completely wrecked. I was desperate for some time off but we had some of Richard's family coming to stay with us so I didn't really have a chance to collapse for a few days. But I love them so much so it was hardly a chore.

As I type this I've just finished 'happy love day' which is a thing Rich and I do when we insist on time alone together. We went to London Bridge and walked around the half empty Borough Market area and along the Thames, across the Millennium Bridge and eventually to Covent Garden and to my favorite coffee house. It was so lush and lovely to be like a kid skipping school together. We had a lovely dinner and I fell asleep in the cab on the way home! Tomorrow I have a momentous appointment that I'm sure I'll fill you all in on after the fact. And then I must go to bed early as I have an extremely early flight to Sweden. Eeeek it's all happening!

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