Welcome, it is Day 5 in studio for Turin Brakes and that means the updates of Day 4 are in. First up, there is no the Horses Mouth on the official Turin Brakes site today.. Maybe tomorrow? However, Rob Allum, the drummer boy, has taken the time to answer some questions on his myspace blog, and nicknamed two new songs. “Gemini” was the first one, the two new ones are called “Mastermind” and “A&R Delight”. He also describes the studio setup and things like that. Here’s the full message…
Hello folks, Just on a dinner break on our fourth day in the studio… sorry for posting nothing earlier- I answered some questions but as I was about to post, my frikkin’ battery ran out and I lost it. Don’t you just hate it when that happens? Anyway, Holly, Yes there is such a thing as drum score which looks a bit like normal music but each line relates to a certain instrument ie; bass drum, triangle whatever. However, written music hardly ever gets used in a rock’n’roll situation! I used to be able to read music a little bit but through lack of practice I’d be very slow now…I could certainly never sight read. I don’t know when you might need that? Perhaps if you go to do a session for the DFS sale advert or something just so as you wouldn’t waste valuable studio time learning a tricky passage?? I’ve done loads of albums and tours various situations over the last 15 years but only on a couple of occaisions would it have been useful if I could have sight read… One example: When I’ve worked with Lee Hazlewood and there were so many tunes with tricky arrangements to learn in one go with little rehearsal time.. Eddie sometimes writes himself out a bit of music when he has a bass line that needs to be exact or there is a change in arrangement etc. Just by way of shorthand I guess?
Moon Jnr, We are recording all these takes with the whole band playing together and trying ideally to get great takes where the magic is there between us all. We did 16 takes of a song (which I shall name ‘Mastermind’) yesterday! The tune we’ve been working on today (which I shall call ‘A&R Delight’, once we had got the final arrangement together we did perhaps 5 takes? The last two being pretty spot on. There will inevitably be some overdubs but the thinking is that if you can get something that moves you and feels amazing with just the basic 5 tracks (drums, guitar/voc, guitar/voc, bass and keys) then you have the tune right there. The overdubs just give that little extra magic sparkle!! We’re set up all in a big circle pretty much, although O has had to go into a little foam box so he can sing the main vocal in the live take without the drums and amps spilling into his vocal and acoustic guitar mic too much. To answer your drum mic question; I’m using a basic set-up of four drums 22″ tama Bass drum, vintage Rogers 1965 metal snare, vintage Slingerland 13″ and 16″ toms (Ethan’s toms) and a cymbal set (all Zildjian K dark). Believe it or not we are only using 4 mics on the whole kit! One about three and a half feet directly above the snare which picks up all the overhead stuff and more(some kind of sixties AKG). One (an old BBC mic from way back when) about ten inches above the far edge of the floor tom which will pick up cymbal stuff too. A standard mic on the snare and Bass drum mic about six inches in front of the front head. Sounds really phat but with space and air too. Quite an exciting sound…thanks Ethan Johns!
R.x
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