Montreux Jazz Festival – Performance Videos

Hello again!  Well, it’s been quite an exciting few months since the last update at the end of March, as you’ll know from various Facebook postings for those keeping track.  As ever, from time-to-time we consolidate our news into a blog and it’s that time again…

Interviews

 

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• Magazine Gap – More Alive (Live at Montreux Jazz Festival) rock song lyrics, karaoke (via Niagara Region Ontario Canada) (manonmona.wordpress.com)

In America:
Avatar Studios, New York
CRC Recording, Chicago
Piety Street Recording, New Orleans
Sunrise Sound, Houston
Capitol Studios, Hollywood
Firehouse Recording Studios, Pasadena

Norwich – The Brickmakers (7 Sept)

After the Cardiff date was pushed back until the middle of October, the Autumn Tour began with a showcase at The Brickmakers in Norwich. It was essentially a home-town gig for Tim, who brought out the Norfolk Massive (respect!). A two-tier stage with lots of space, a great sound system and a warm reception helped us feel good to be back performing.

Chicago – Goose Island Wrigleyville (16 Sept)

Briefly breaking off from the UK tour, I returned to Chicago in late September to join up with Jason, who was living there at the time, and perform an acoustic show; we were billed as “The Keen Brothers”, and it was our first time as a duo in over 6 years and a personal thrill to undertake. It was also great fun to reinterpret Magazine Gap songs much as we had started out on the acoustic circuit in London many years ago. The flood lights of the iconic Wrigley Field, directly behind the venue, came through the window to add to the atmosphere.

Personal highlight was performing “Deep Suspicions” for the first time in a very long time. It was the first song Jason and I ever played on stage together, and includes a great duet on the choruses and 3rd verse; it’s not always easy getting Jason in front of a microphone, but I like the sound of our two similar voices in harmony.

Whilst in town, Jason and I met up with Rob Loutkotka of Collision Labs to talk about the album booklet and set the shape for the rest of the design. Rob had already done a great job on the album cover, and we would continue to fine-tune the rest of the packaging for the next couple of months to get it all spot on.

Back in the UK, the tour resumed with our first visit to Wales.  The Globe Theatre is a wonderful venue (a converted art deco cinema) with a high ceiling and gallery level.  We were supported by an excellent local band Under The Driftwood Tree, who put on a great opening set.  We look back on that show as one of the best of the whole tour.  Just felt great.

 

 

Glasgow – Nice n Sleazy (30 Oct)

Album Pre-Release

We took the decision to release the album in wider formats later in 2011, but to put out in December a very limited, CD-only edition, in a special digipak to let our loyal fans to get their hands on the whole project.  We have of course been unveiling songs on the album bit by bit – on Myspace, YouTube, Jango etc – but to listen through from start to finish is the only way to experience the entire journey.

Silver Lining Video

During the additional tracking on “Slipstream” in London last year, we felt that it would benefit from a pedal steel guitar.  Joe, our engineer, knew of a great player called Rob Bond, and we quickly tracked him down.  Fortunately, he was able to join us the next day and laid down a beautiful sound that added immense emotion to the track.  It was therefore fantastic that Rob was able to join us on stage for the launch, playing that song as well as “Nevertheless”; on both tracks he was stunning.  We will look to recreate that in Milton Keynes in January.

2010 – Round-Up

On 20 April we performed our biggest ever show, a 2-hour non-stop concert in front of a great home crowd who packed the house at “London’s Oldest Live Music Venue” in the centre of the city.  The show featured 19 of our songs, including all 12 from our forthcoming “Light & Shade” album and 7 from my “No Coincidence” album (on which Cookie, Tim and Jason featured), plus the Bob Dylan classic “All Along The Watchtower” – first time we’ve performed a cover.  

The guys were on fire: Cookie, who was musical director of the show and a commanding presence behind his bespoke Pearl Drum kit, kept it all tightly together as well as delivering two blinding solos in “What’s Next?” and “Inside The Bubble”.  Tim played a series of bass guitars, including his 4-string 1963 Fender Precision, his 5-string Yamaha TRB fretless, his 6-string Yamaha TRB, and his custom-made 7-string!  (No word yet on an 8-string, though we actually did see one in a music store in New York’s Tin Pan Alley which Tim declared to be excessive so we may have reached a limit!).  Alex, who had toured America with his 61-key mini-keyboard, was finally able to flex his muscles with both a grand piano and a single manual Hammond organ which he used to great effect (sometimes at the same time).  Not to be outdone, I brought two acoustic guitars (both Taylors), two electric guitars (including my 1951 reissue ‘Nocaster’, a custom Telecaster, which appears on the cover of the No Coincidence album), and my Spanish guitar for “Senorita, I See You”.

It was also the first time we were joined on stage by brass.  We first met Greg Heath, a master saxophonist from New Zealand, during the recording of the “No Coincidence” album, on which he features on “Good To Go”.  He returned for the “Light & Shade” album on which he performs on 8 tracks.  Joe Auckland, a brilliant trumpeter who ironically is not from New Zealand (Walthamstow actually), joined us more recently for the second part of the recording process and plays on 5 tracks.

The set list for the show, for any MG historians out there, was:

Completing The Album

Meanwhile, having come back from the States with two brand new songs (that only otherwise existed as files on a Mac hard drive), we returned to the studio to complete overdubs, ahead of mixing and mastering.  We started at the end of May at Beethoven Street Studios in NW London, where we recorded percussion, brass and my acoustic guitar, as well as spending a great deal of time editing the tracks (see the previous blog “Mixed Emotions” for more information on what that’s all about).

We were delighted at their reception, with the number of views, subscribers and friends on YouTube increasingly dramatically.  By the end of July, we were the #43 most viewed channel of all UK-based musicians!

We then moved on to Alpha Centauri Recording, one of the highest spec mixing rooms in London.  There we began working on the sounds and levels of each instrument, and choosing the points of emphasis; it’s a cacophony if everything comes at you all at once, so the key is to create movement in the track by having all the elements have their moment. 

Because of the complexity of the instruments, we often take away the track to live with it for a few weeks, and then come back to make more changes; sometimes, as in this case, we go away a third time, and return for a final mix.  We also took the opportunity to play around with the mix of “Our Last Stand” to make it more obviously radio friendly.  Our thanks to Joe Fields, who has now worked on every single track (recording and/or mixing), and Steve Rhodes, who owns the studio and provided the final mixes on the latest songs.

So, the album has finally been finished and has been a great journey in itself.  We started in Brixton in February last year with the first five songs completed by May, without anticipating that the rest of the album would go on to be recorded, sequentially, in Houston, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, and Chicago with overdubs back in London.

The running order was very hard to work out, but I think we got there.  It is designed to take the listener on a journey, given the variety and richness of the content.  It’s quite a ride!  The track listing, revealed here for the first time, is as follows:

Day Two – Wednesday 24 March – started with an obligatory photo shoot in Times Square.  Having worked near Piccadilly Circus for many years, which is London’s equivalent of Times Square but on 1/1000th of the scale, it is never less than overwhelmingly impressive.  It was then off to a rehearsal studio round the corner from Madison Square Garden (one day!) for our last run-through of the set and to finalise the running order. A few years back, before the band came into existence, I performed solo sets at The Mercury Lounge and The Knitting Factory in Lower Manhattan.  This time, however, there was a lot more horsepower in the shape of the entire band, not to mention all new material.

Sullivan Hall is a really great place to play: good stage and equipment with a cool atmosphere.  All in all, a great setting for our debut performance in the Big Apple, and we enjoyed ourselves.  Only hiccup was that at the start of the second song, one of the strings snapped on my guitar unbeknownst to the audience, so I had to style it out by dancing through the next two songs whilst making baseball-style coded signals to our tour manager to try to locate an alternative.  Travelling as we do at the moment, one guitar is all we guitar players can carry!  Fortunately, I managed to borrow an excellent Taylor Guitar from Matt (from an excellent band called Cool Kid Collective - check them out!), and I was back on track… 

Day Three – Thursday 25 March – began with a 10am start at Avatar Studios.  This recording studio, which dates back to 1977 (and was known as The Power Station until 1996), is one of the few remaining major studios in New York.  Studio A is like a wood-panelled temple and is widely regarded as the best drum room in the world.  It had become a mission of ours to find a way to squeeze into our diary and theirs for that particular studio whilst in NYC to take advantage of the room, and studio manager Tino was kindly accommodating.  And yes, Cookie loved the incredible acoustics of the room. The sound of the drums was impeccable.  Meanwhile, for the first time Tim recorded with his bespoke 7-string bass guitar.  Anthony, who has recorded John Mayer there among others, was our first-class engineer for the day.  We laid down a brand new track called “Silver Lining”.  As usual, after significant pre-production in London, principal tracking was completed relatively quickly, and we were done by mid-afternoon. 

We then headed off to catch our train from Penn Station to Philadelphia, which is about 50 miles southwest of NYC.  Being English, the idea of a comfortable train that leaves on time and… wait for it… arrives on time is really quite exciting.  How do they do it?!  Anyway, Amtrak gets my vote.  Philly is another interesting city, and we took in some of the Historic District (Liberty Bell, Independence Hall etc).  Didn’t get to run up the ‘Rocky’ steps unfortunately. Next time.

Day Four – Friday 26 March – began with a two-hour drive south-east to Cape May, which is at the base of the peninsula that forms the bottom end of New Jersey.  Cape May is a seaside resort and major tourist spot in the summer, with one of America’s 10 best beaches.  We were invited to be part of a music conference and that night we had a lot of fun performing in a venue located right on the beachfront with the Atlantic Ocean before us.  We hadn’t quite realised up to that point that our tour on the East Coast would be quite so literal.  Great audience that night, and we made lots of new friends.

Day Five – Saturday 27 March – began with a photo shoot on the beach, with the weather much improved from the day before.  We then returned the hire cars to Philadelphia International Airport and took the two-hour flight up to Chicago, which is the largest city in the Midwestern United States and the third-most densely populated city in the country.  Its unspoilt shoreline on Lake Michigan is quite special, and the city has such a rich history with a lot of spectacular architecture.  The view from the top of the John Hancock Tower was something to behold, as was seeing the ‘Silver Bean’.

Day Six – Sunday, 28 March – was another recording day.  We headed to downtown Chicago to record our second new track at Chicago Recording Company (aka “CRC”).  This famous recording studio dates back to 1975 and has been used by a range of artists including Michael Jackson, Carole King, Coldplay, Kanye West, The Smashing Pumpkins, and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers.  Survivor (you know of “Eye of the Tiger” fame) were recording upstairs – seems Rocky had caught up with us! We were in one of the two main rooms, Studio 4, which was a fantastic environment to lay down our new song, “What’s Next?”.  The song has a bluesy, rocky, R&B, funky vibe, so doing it in Chicago and in that studio was very fitting indeed.  Alex recorded a B3 Hammond Organ and Fender Rhodes for the first time (and brilliantly). Jason recorded his original 1957 Telecaster, which has great character and sound, as well as his new custom Les Paul.  Our engineer for the day, Mat LeJeune, was another top-flight professional to work with.

Day Seven – Monday, 29 March – allowed us to do a bit of sightseeing of the city, before our performance that night at Martyrs, which is located in the trendy Lincoln Park area, a centre of Chicago’s music scene.  This excellent venue has superb sound quality and engineers, and has registered as one of our best shows to date.  We performed “What’s Next?” for the first time, and were delighted that it went down a treat.  The audience was great – we were particularly pleased and grateful to see many who had made special trips from Indianapolis and Detroit, 200 and 300 miles away respectively!  

We then had a little bit of downtime in the US before flying back to London.  Preparations are now well underway for our full concert at The 100 Club next week, with an extended set list and additional musicians in the equation.  Should be yet more fun… 

See you soon

There is a brief pause after the recording of all the instruments and vocals has been completed to share the general satisfaction at the collective brilliance of the contribution of each of the players.  Then the mixing process begins… Countless hours are eaten up over several days, over several weeks, usually in a basement studio devoid of any natural light.  The ingredients are there, but so many critical choices have to be made to ensure that what sounded good raw, sounds even better when mixed.  And it can go oh so horribly wrong.  Many bands tell of having to scrap a mix and start completely afresh.  The reason for this is that what is done to the raw material can result in unintended sounds, and too many errors like that contribute to an overall mess. Plus, the songs have to be compressed to suit a commercial format but get carried away and an exciting track that had life and vitality in the studio, is suddenly DOA requiring panicked defibrilator-type action to rescue the situation before too much hair is ripped out and toys thrown.

Firstly, editing. Each song has at its heart the core band: drums, bass, piano, guitars, vocals.  Because we are driven by the desire to enrich our music with as much colour as possible, whilst keeping the overall thread of the sound, we also have additional elements that we like to add.  This mainly includes percussion (the great Kofi) on every track to various degrees, plus a brass trio and string quartet on selected songs.  Before getting into the studio, there is a preparatory stage where we carefully edit.  This involves checking all instruments are rhythmically accurate (i.e. on the beat and in line with the others), as well as selecting the best parts of the vocal and electric guitar takes, and selecting which bits of percussion to use.  It helps when you work with a producer who is so clear-minded about what works and what doesn’t; Cookie is incredible.  Then the mixing engineer can begin his work.  This year we’ve worked with the brilliant, cool and unflappable Joe Fields.

The mix always starts with the rhythm section, specifically drums and bass.  The bass can be reasonably straightforward, as at most it’ll be recorded by direct input into the sound desk and/or by a mike aimed at an amp.  The key is to ensure that the top, mid, and bass frequencies are where they should be, before effects are added (everything is always recorded ‘dry’), and Tim is on hand to ensure his signature sound is spot on.  The drums, on the other hand, can be time-consuming because you have a dozen microphones in and around the drums; the snare alone can often have three!  The bass drum has to be tonally right, the snare as crisp and warm as possible without being too sharp, the high-hat, toms and cymbals need to be balanced, and then the overheads and room mikes (positioned several feet away) need to be brought in to help bring an overall sound.  Again, the drums are warmed up with subtle effects.  The acoustic guitar, which provides another key rhythmic component, is then added in and blended to ensure the song is driving nicely along without being too noisy – one sound can overwhelm another to make it mushy.

All the time, the greatest challenge remains not killing the energy of the track whilst accepting the need to compress it sufficiently to be acceptable across numerous mediums (radio, stereos, TV etc).  Historically we have had the problem where the live, raw version seems infinitely more exciting than the first mix.  Deciding on effects can be tricky to. The vocals, for instance, like everything else are recorded completely ‘dry’, in a dead room.  This allows complete freedom of addition rather than subtraction.  The exact same vocal, which will ultimately be selected, can go through various incarnations and sound too dull, too bright, too boomy, too far away, too close, too thin, too loud and on and on.

That gives us a first mix, which we like to take away and get comfortable with; it is usually the first time we have had a recording of the songs to take home with us, so the first occasion we have the time to really listen to and take in all the individual parts in the mix. This allows us to return with detailed notes about parts that should be removed or enhanced.  We also listen to the tracks in multiple settings – the car, the kitchen stereo, the iPod, the TV/DVD, the computer, the mini hi-fi – as well as through headphones and through speakers at different volume levels (with apologies to the neighbours), so as to become aware of any major problems that you might not easily pick up in the studio.  Frequently we’ve worked on something all day and then immediately listening back to it in the car on the way home you will suddenly be asking, “What is that?!”  On one recent mix it all sounded fantastic in the studio, but at home through headphones the high volume of the egg shaker drove us to distraction!

We then do what’s called a ‘recall’, which can take over an hour to get the settings on the mixing desk back to the exact positions they were before (following detailed notes the assistant engineer makes each time).  Lots of minor tweaks then get made over the course of the day and we’re on to Mix #2.  In an ideal world, that should be it, but in our experience, there are then a very small but larger enough number of final adjustments that need to be made to take the mix closer to the 100% we want, so one last day is required.  There may be things that we would adjust again if we had yet another day, but at that point we ‘call it’.  Then it’s off to mastering, which is a mysterious process where all tracks are enhanced by ensuring the frequencies are smooth and that each track is at the same level as the others.  It’s usually advised to have someone completely fresh do this, and there are specialists who only master.  We’ve worked with Steve at Abbey Road and John at Metropolis who are two obvious examples. 

The trip started on Friday, 21 August when we flew directly from Heathrow to Houston, which became our home base for the tour.  Sunday was the start of an intense 10-day schedule, spending all day rehearsing for the gigs and on final pre-production on the new material about to be recorded.  The next day, Monday 24 Aug, we began tracking at Sunrise Sound Studios.  We had one song planned per studio (with a fifth track in reserve time-permitting).  In Houston we recorded the title track to the album, “Light & Shade”.

Midday on Tuesday, 25 Aug, the band flew north-west to Los Angeles, which being a 3hr 30 mins flight isn’t as close as you might think (over 1,500 miles actually), but made it in good time to get over to the iconic Capitol Records building in Hollywood by late afternoon.  Their incredible studios are on the ground floor, and the rich history of the place is evident from photos on the walls and memorable moments from film – Studio A, where we were recording, was featured in the film “Ray” for the recording of “Georgia On My Mind”.  Capitol is the sister studio to Abbey Road in London (both owned by EMI) and having mastered the NO COINCIDENCE album there, Cookie and I found strong comparables.  We were also given exclusive access to the roof, which has an incredible 360o view of LA, and we took advantage to do a quick photo-shoot before getting down to recording “Swansong”.

Our session started after a full orchestra had departed after recording music for the next season of “Mad Men”.  Studio A and Studio B are actually linked so they can be turned into one giant room for larger scale recordings.  The downside is that despite heavy doors and sound buffers there can be ‘spillage’ from one to the other.  Didn’t matter to us, because we were making all the noise, but Cookie’s drums affected the recording next door of John Mayer’s vocals.  Although the idea of being on a John Mayer record is appealing, this wasn’t quite what we had in mind.  We did though get to meet his co-producer and drummer Steve Jordan, who came round to check out all the noise.  Great guy.  He and Cookie hit it off – unsurprisingly really, as they have a lot in common and are quite similar in many ways.  We managed to work out ‘turns’.

We finished the session at 11:30pm, and then began again early the next day, Wednesday, 26 Aug.  We drove to Pasadena, an historic, upmarket, attractive town in LA about 40 mins from Beverly Hills.  Firehouse is a relatively new studio, but no expense has been spared in its construction or fit out.  Although the building is over 100 years old (so ‘ancient’ in LA terms), inside it was like going forward another century.  A really important part of making a studio work is that intangible and unknown quantity known as ‘the vibe’; actually all the studios had the right feel and atmosphere for the specific tracks we were doing, and Firehouse was no exception – very comfortable and the day was a breeze.

We had intended to record just the one song, especially as we had to leave by 4:30 for the evening’s performance, but things moved so smoothly that we managed to do two: “Inside The Bubble” and “Something To Be Said” (two very different tracks).

Wednesday was also Alex’s birthday and the hilarious, larger-than-life veteran LA studio manager, Candace, was kind enough to sneak in a surprise chocolate cake.  Then it was a mad dash across town to The Mint to check in with Gilli Moon and the rest of the line-up ahead of doors opening at 7pm.  The evening was an interesting mix of artists (from folk and country to dance and rock), and we were given the headline slot – which has the advantage of allowing us to have the longest set, but the disadvantage of being last (which on a school night can be fatal).  After 3.5 hours of music, we weren’t sure who would have the stamina to remain for us, but lots did and we were very grateful for that!  The challenge was therefore to see if we could not just play well, but overcome their natural mindset before we started of perhaps hearing one song and then calling it a night.  Given the response, I think we accomplished that. 

The gig was incredible for us.  The reaction was like nothing else we’d ever experienced, such as the audience frequently applauding mid-song as we moved into choruses.  Unusually we did not have a prepared set-list, opting to feel our way, and that turned out to be a good plan in itself. The crowd’s enthusiasm gave us great inspiration, especially after four straight days of rehearsing and recording (covering 1,500 miles along the way), and the band stepped up to the occasion.  The evening proved to be one of the highlights of the whole trip – it was our first show in the United States and the reception has further fuelled our ambitions, overcoming any anxieties we might have had about response from Americans. Thanks guys – it meant a lot to us!

Cookie and I left very early the next morning, Thurs 27 Aug, flying from LA to New Orleans as I had a solo performance to give at 8pm at the hotel where the Cutting Edge Music Business Conference was taking place.  We were already scheduled to perform on Saturday, but by coincidence Tony Moore, who runs our ‘home venue’ of The Bedford in London and has become a good friend to us, was a panellist and invited me to do a spot at this acoustic event he was hosting. It was very different being back on my own, especially after all the time spent building up the Magazine Gap sound, which is so much larger and more powerful now than little ol’ me.  But, the songs are meant to stand up in their own right (and hopefully do!), and I did enjoy the challenge of being a one-man band again.  Nice to see if I can still pull that off from time to time!  I also got to play piano again, having surrendered those duties some time ago when Alex joined the band.

Friday 28 Aug was spent networking at the Conference – a mix of really pleasant, smart professionals and utter plonkers who clearly need to be put out of their misery.  When record labels say they are only interested in new acts who are already selling records, you wonder what the world is coming to…  Meanwhile, the rest of the band had returned to Houston, and then drove over to hook up with us that night in the French Quarter, which is like nowhere else on earth, and has to be experienced first-hand. Bourbon Street was a sight to behold! 

Saturday, 29 Aug, was our performance at the Balcony Music Club, and we had a lot of fun that night.  (Nice to have the band back!).  Different atmosphere to LA, as New Orleans has its own vibe, and you are competing with a thousand other joints in close proximity, but performing in this historic town was hugely rewarding in its own right, and we made lots of new friends in the audience that night.  It was the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and it was extremely fitting to perform “Nevertheless” from the NO COINCIDENCE album, a song that was written in its immediate aftermath, and to dedicate the performance to those who have suffered as a result.

Sunday, 30 Aug, took us to Piety Street Recording, the studios where earlier in the year Dave Matthews Band had recorded their recent album (and one that I think is possibly their best yet and which I haven’t stopped playing since).  The studio is in the Upper Ninth Ward district and managed to survive Katrina. 

A very different set-up again, but wonderful all the same, and very suited to the track we recorded: “The Promised Land”. This song tells the story of a missionary and blues guitar player who settles in Louisiana and makes his name performing and preaching in New Orleans.  As this was actually my first visit to the city, I never imagined I’d record this song there, but it couldn’t have been more fitting.  Only problem was that I had written one line as “New Or-lee-anz”, which nicely rhymed, but had discovered that locals call it “Nu Orlinz” (or “N’awlins” if you want to get really accurate!).  Don’t remember the syncopation of ‘The House of the Rising Sun’ being in Nawlins, but there you go!  Ultimately I used some poetic licence to find some compromise between the two.

I also shot some hilarious footage of Alex monkeying around with a new found studio toy, which we will hopefully work into a music video at some point.

On Monday, 31 Aug, we drove the 350 miles / 6 hours back to Houston. On Tuesday afternoon we returned to Sunrise Sound to do some editing work on most of the tracks.  Then Wednesday, 2 Sept, was our final performance at Rudyard’s, a nice, open first floor venue in Houston, and the room was packed.  Again, that gave us a great lift and we played our longest and biggest set accordingly.  We lurve Texas!  Thanks y’all for comin’.

After a few days ‘vacation’ (finally!), we flew back to London, feeling tired but elated.  We have since completed the tracking with brass, percussion, strings, Hammond and backing vocals, and are about to begin the intense mixing process.  We also have a ‘homecoming’ show at The Bedford next month to look forward to.  It’s been a great few weeks, and given us all a huge boost of confidence in what we’re trying to do.  Appreciate everyone who has joined us on this journey so far…

James