Presenting "World of Gutters"

I'm proud and happy to present my new album, "World of Gutters" for your listening pleasure. Bandcamp.

The new album

is called World of Gutters. I was on the Q20A bus one day and saw a van pass by with the logo "WORLD OF GUTTERS" on the side. It struck me, somehow, and popped into my mind when thinking of an album name. I guess the world is a world of gutters, but remember what Oscar Wilde said about that...

Stay tuned...

... for a whole lot of new tunes in various formats. Details soon!

Pop heaven

"Five to Four," a song from The Pomegranate Heart, is featured on today's mix over at the Pop Heaven blog. The mix also includes my old favorites "Shine On" by The House of Love and "Sennen" by Ride: distinguished company indeed.

"Rent Day"

My recently-recorded song Rent Day is featured in the current edition of the Home Made Hit Show, which is dedicated to one-minute songs. You can find the link at the side of the page. "Rent Day" was a fragment that had been left aside until the HMHS's one minute song challenge: the fragment didn't have to be expanded, it could be a song as it was. A very liberating experiment. (Not surprising that I love haiku, probably.)

Back to work...

I'm just back from a wonderful fortnight in Colombia and am already back in recording mode: today I finished a song provisionally entitled "I'm Tired." It's somewhat unusual in being basically lyric-led.

Old song: "This DJ Plays B-Sides"

For your listening pleasure, a song from The Pomegranate Heart, This DJ Plays B-Sides. It was the very first song I released onto the information superhighway... You can download the whole E.P. right here-- just scroll down a few posts! Enjoy.

Recording: a song without a name

Late last night, I finished another song: this time, a newly-written one. The instrumental tracks had been done about a month ago in fits and starts, so I just had to do vocals. In keeping with my current trend, there are several vocal tracks, but not the kind of lush harmonies on "Car Tapes." It's a jangly number, based on a chord sequence in Nashville tuning. Nashville tuning, for those of you who don't know and are interested, involves leaving the top two strings as normal, and then using the high strings of a twelve-string set on the bottom four, tuning them an octave above standard tuning. Johnny Marr used it a lot in The Smiths (on "Half a Person" and many other songs). The only unfinished aspect of the new song is that it doesn't have a title... Hmmm.

Recording again: the wonderful world of backing vocals

Well, a rough draft of chapter two of my dissertation is done and now I am back recording. I just finished "Car Tapes," the song I mentioned a few posts ago; I added a lead vocal, a vocal doubling the lead vocal, and no less than three tracks of backing vocals. It's by far the largest number of vocal tracks I've ever done on one song; I've hardly ever even done backing vocals, in fact. But "Car Tapes" was crying out for them. Maybe it's all the 60s soul I've been listening to lately. Recording vocals can be quite stressful for me. First, I have to be alone in the apartment, and preferably in the building, but of course the latter is quite difficult to achieve... otherwise I am too mortified to sing. To prepare, I warm up by singing along to some songs I enjoy singing along to (today's winner: "Older" by Bawl). Then I set up, sing along to the track a few times, have a glass of water, and record. I'm very pleased with the results and excited about this track.

Classic Irish indie from the 90s

I know I'm supposed to be finishing this chapter, but I was so excited about this discovery that I had to post. Around 1994 and 1995, I was studying for my Leaving Cert (shudder) and I would have Dave Fanning on between eight and ten every school night while I was doing my homework. Whenever I heard something I liked, I would scribble a note in my homework notebook. Then, next time I heard it, I would tape it. (Yes, it was a long time ago!) If I'd taped more than two songs off a particular album, it would go on my list of wanted albums. Unfortunately, the list always far outran my financial means, and one of the albums I never got round to buying was The Language of Everyday Life (Dead Elvis Records) by a Dublin band called In Motion. They were a bit shoegaze, a bit C86, a bit Cocteau Twins, and totally brilliant. (They had a video featured on No Disco in which their drummer wanders around Dublin in a nice frock.) Fast forward some years, and I would often find myself wondering what happened to them and where I could find that album. No myspace page, no videos on youtube, seemingly nothing. Did no-one else remember how good they were? Well, as I have just discovered, the folks over at Indiecater records do, and they have done a digital release of the album. You can hear one of the album's highlights, "Hollow Blow" here-- just scroll to the bottom. Apparently they would like to do a vinyl release, which I think would be terrific. Incidentally, if you take a look at the site, you'll also find classic albums by Sunbear and The Brilliant Trees. Enjoy!

The Dissertation

I'm a little out of the music loop this week as I'm aiming to finish a dissertation chapter by Friday night. I won't bore you with the details of that. After Friday, I'll be doing a few days of intensive recording before I head off on my travels; I'll tell you all about it here. In the meantime, enjoy the EP download below!

The Pomegranate Heart EP download

More recording...

Yesterday and today have been dissertation-focused (which is good) but I did record a lead guitar part for "Car Tapes," the song I am working on at the moment. It's a very simple part, but what often happens to me is that I mess up the simple parts far more often than the more complex ones. I think I probably lose concentration. Recording is my passion, but it can be very annoying at the same time. Anyway, the part eventually got done!

The Homemade Recycled Paper

 
Here is the recycled paper I made at home a few days ago. Notice the parchment paper (aka greaseproof paper), which I've found to be the best material to dry the sheets on. Initially, the pulp sticks to it so you can hang it up in front of a window (or better still, on a clothesline) and, as it dries, it begins to loosen; when it's ready you can just peel it off.

Video: Tour of the, um, studio

A short tour of the studio, aka the spare room in our apartment, aka The Green Room, aka the craft room, aka the study, shot just this morning!

More music: "The Interview"

The Interview was written about eight or nine years ago, following my first "grown-up" job interview, which I found an interesting, if slightly absurd, experience. It struck me that some of the questions they asked could be sort of interesting if removed from the horrible context of selling one's labor power. The song was performed once in 2002 at the Taibhdhearc Theatre, Galway. It was recorded during the summer of 2008. Ridiculously obscure fact: this was the first time I played mandolin on one of my recordings. I bought the no-name mandolin off Craigslist from a nice Russian lady in Flushing, Queens for fifty bucks. The song is not, at present, part of any larger project.

Recording!

Yesterday I recorded the basic tracks for a new song called "Car Tapes." It's a summery, up-tempo number, written some years ago. I had done a version of it earlier this spring, but it turned out sludgy and torpid and not at all like the sparky, danceable pop song that it was in my head. I scrapped the whole thing and started again-- simplified the drums, tried to play more vigorously on the rhythm guitar parts, and used my trusty Boss Overdrive/Distortion pedal to add some sweet and satisfying crunch to the chorus. The results were exactly as I'd hoped: when I played it back on my speakers ($10 at a stoop sale in Brooklyn Heights!) I felt like dancing.
I'm recording on Kristal Audio Engine, a freeware multitrack recording program. I do some editing there and some on Audacity (also freeware!). Right now, I have a drum track (from my Alesis SR16), a bass track, and three guitar tracks covering all the rhythm parts: one distorted and two clean (with chorus and slight reverb, my favorite effects combo). Today-- if I get enough dissertation work done!-- I'll add some of the remaining tracks. That's lead vocals, at least two or three backing vocal tracks, and a lead guitar track. After that, I might add in a couple of small extra things to bury in the mix, but we'll see. I want to keep this as uncluttered and energetic as possible.

Speaking of the Desperate Bicycles...

... I think it's time I posted something about my influences. Although I only heard about the Desperate Bicycles long after I had begun my own adventures in DIY music-making, their raw enthusiasm and true punk spirit helped renew my own commitment to, and joy in, making my own music regardless of circumstance. You can read a bit about them here. The point here is don't wait for x, y, or z to fall into place; create with whatever you have, right now. It's the same spirit that moved Toasted Heretic to record brilliant albums on a portastudio and self-release them on cassette. Toasted Heretic, in case you didn't know, were extant in Galway in the late 80s and early 90s. When I heard about them as a secondary school student, I was floored by their priceless name and inspired by their DIY approach. "Wait," I thought, "You can just go and make an album yourself for almost no money? I want to do that." And I did: Toasted Heretic's guitarist, Declan Collins, engineered and co-produced my first album, "Blank Melodies." (Recorded on portastudio, of course!) I'll post more about that some other time.

Homemade Recycled Paper

This weekend also marked my first foray into the messy and fun world of making one's own recycled paper. As the Desperate Bicycles once said, "It was easy, it was cheap: go and do it!"
There are loads of places online where you can find instructions. It is a lot more fun and rewarding than shredding, I can tell you. Now it is all drying in the sunshine on big pieces of parchment paper.
I'm thinking of doing a (very) limited edition physical CD next time I do an album-- which should be over the summer-- and I'm going to do the packaging on homemade recycled paper.

Happy Pride

Happy Pride to all on the 40th anniversary of Stonewall. In spite of torrential rain, I had a great time participating in the 17th annual Dyke March, which tends to be my personal Pride highlight. The Dyke March is a non-corporate political event in which queer women march-- without a permit!-- down Fifth Avenue, celebrating our diverse and powerful community and basically telling the world that, if it doesn't like that, it can feck off. To me, it's truer than the other Pride events to the original spirit of Stonewall and Pride generally.

Forthcoming blog items

In the near future, expect full upload of The Pomegranate Heart with commentary; more individual tracks; some thoughts about my influences; and a bit of history, but not too much, probably.
In the medium term, I'll be working on a bunch of new tracks over the summer. I'll be writing about the recording here, and eventually, of course, you can hear the results here too.

Review at DIY culture blog

Here's a review of two songs from The Pomegranate Heart EP at the Try This At Home blog. It's an excellent read for anyone into DIY culture. (Not just because I'm featured!)
The songs are Leaving Town and Tidying.

Video of my song and a dog...

Someone's put a video of their dog on Youtube to the accompaniment of "One December Day." Incongruous, but I like it. You can watch it over on the video bar to your right as well. The song isn't on any EP or album, and is from 2007.

Five to Four at Burning World

"Five to Four" is featured on the current podcast over at Burning World. You can download the podcast here.

Hello, and a song

Here's a song from my 2006 E.P. The Pomegranate Heart. It's called Five to Four. Enjoy! You can find all the mp3s for free, but if you would like to pay for the E.P., you can do that too-- see the soundclick link at the side of the page.