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RECORDED: Recorded & mixed by Giacomo Fiorenza at the Alpha dept studio in Bologna Italy over 8 days during August & September 2004 with additional recording by Francesco Donadello. (Bass guitar on song 7 recorded by Matteo Agostinelli).
MASTERED: By Matteo Agostinelli at Alpha dept studio in May 2005.
LABEL: Homesleep Records of Bologna Italy www.homesleep.it RELEASE: January 2006 (IT) February 2006 (Europe).
TRACKS: 01. When Your Heart Breaks (Into Many Little Pieces). 02. In Your Dreams. 03. Slipped Away. 04. She'll Be Home Soon. 05. Spent Too Long Walking With No Heart To Follow. 06. This Goodbye Kiss. 07. Look How Time Flies. 08. Those Memories. 09. Change With The Season. 10. Up Sticks And Go. 11. Haven't You Got Anywhere Left You Can Run To? 12. We Didn't Move A Muscle. 13. Heading Home.
MUSICIANS: Giacomo Fiorenza (bass). Sean Newsham (bass). Emanuele Reverberi (trumpet & violin). Antony Harding (voice, nylon acoustic guitar, Wurlitzer piano, Eko steel acoustic guitar, Rhodes piano, conga drums, Clavinet, Baby Grand piano, maraca, Ludwig drum kit, Eko Panda 61 organ, Solina String Ensemble & Silvertone electric guitar).
THE MAKING OF:
DAY 1. Tuesday 31st
August. (Recording with Giacomo). On the first day of recording Giacomo and I arrived about 13.00 to find the air conditioning
broken! Phew! Imagine the heat of a late Italian summer trapped in a room with no windows and two big sweaty men! Then we had some problems with my nylon acoustic guitar. There was a slight vibrating sound audible
inside whenever I played it. Stumped, we jumped in the car and rushed it over to
the old guitar expert in Bologna, who tapped it a few times, tutted and changed two of the strings. We returned about 16.00 and started again. The vibration was less noticeable due to the new strings (but it was still there). We decided to crack on regardless. (It wasn't until a couple of months later that I solved the mystery of the vibration. I simply removed the outer part of my pick up input, turned it around and screwed it back on. There's been no vibration since! So anyone else out there with guitar problems, I'm your man!)
So eventually we started with the song In Your Dreams (a song about wanting to stay in the safety of your dreams to avoid life). I played the nylon acoustic guitar
part, both the Wurlitzer piano parts and a track of brushed snare drum and left the vocal and backing vocal for later on in the evening. Then we started When Your
Heart Breaks (Into Many Little Pieces) (a song about the joys of breaking up and of being skint). Again I started with the nylon acoustic guitar (with some slight vibrating). Then we began Slipped Away (a song simply about running away). I played the Wurlitzer piano first, then overdubbed the Eko steel acoustic guitar (a big heavy Italian made jumbo steel acoustic), then I played Francesco's vintage Ludwig drum kit (just the kick, hats, snare, tom and ride) and finally I sang the vocal and the backing vocal. Sounded great! Then we tackled Look How Time Flies (a song about not having enough hours in one day). I decided I wanted to record the voice live whilst playing the electric guitar (we chose a vintage Silvertone 'amp in case' guitar going through an
old FBT amp) which actually worked really well (on the second take I think) and then I added the backing vocal. End of day one! Back to Giacomo's for some home made Italian food!
DAY 2. Wednesday 1st
September. (Recording with Giacomo and Matteo). We started day 2 with me playing some drums (kick, snare, hats) to When Your
Heart Breaks (Into Many Little Pieces) and then I played a track of Eko Panda 61 organ (an old Italian made keyboard. I used the reed/flute sounds with added sustain). Then we started work on Spent Too Long Walking With No Heart To Follow (a song about wasting too many years looking for love in the wrong places). I played the nylon acoustic guitar first and then added a track of Rhodes
electric piano. It sounded a little too spacious so I played a track of conga drums which came in about half way through. Then we started She’ll Be Home Soon (a love song about waiting for your lover to return home safely from work or from play). I played the Panda organ track first (using the flute sound with vibrato), then some drums (kick, hats and rimshot) and then the nylon acoustic guitar. Finally I played the Wurlitzer
low notes & the Wurlitzer high notes onto the instrumental end section. It was great to have the use of a proper piano at last (a small grand piano called a Baby Grand) so I attempted to play This Goodbye Kiss on it, (a song about how long a goodbye kiss can actually last) then I added a track of Solina String Ensemble (the horn sound. It's basically a syth/keyboard that has really good fake string and brass sounds on it) and then I played some drums (kick, hats, snare). Giacomo later realised that the piano wasn't quite in tune so we planned to do it all again another day. So we moved on to Haven’t You Got Anywhere Left You Can Run To? (a song about age creeping up on you and your hopes and dreams running out of time and space). I played the nylon acoustic guitar track and then the Wurlitzer Piano track and the Wurlitzer Piano bass notes, plus another track of nylon acoustic guitar for the solo section. Then came one of my favourites Change With The Season (a song about, if things are gonna change then let's go with the changes). I played the Solina String Ensemble first (using a real droning violin/viola sound) then I played the Eko steel acoustic part and then some drums (kick, hats, snare, tom, ride) onto the end section. We then went back to Look How Time
Flies and Matteo (Yuppie Flu/Homesleep) recorded Giacomo playing the bass and then I played a plastic maraca (which I whacked against my thigh a little too enthusiastically, leaving a nice purple bruise the size of my hand). Very catchy. We finished day 2 with Giacomo somehow recording himself playing the bass track on In Your Dreams. Clever boy!
DAY 3. Thursday 2nd September. (Recording with Francesco). We started with me playing the ride cymbal on Up Sticks And Go (a song about moving home and country), which I only played for a few bars and Francesco (Giardini di Miro) looped it because I was too lazy to play it all the way through) and then I played the nylon acoustic guitar track,
the Panda organ track (horn sound) and the
Eko steel acoustic solo part.
Not bad, but it didn't sound quite right. Then I remembered I'd got the guitar and organ parts the wrong way around! Doh! We moved on to Those Memories (a song about daydreaming of days gone by). I wanted to try to sing and play live (just voice and nylon acoustic guitar), so we tried it with some extra microphones for ambience. It was Ok, but not good enough. So we then tried the same idea for We Didn’t Move A
Muscle (a song about how the real small things in a relationship can seem so huge when you're young). We did the voice and Eko steel acoustic live and it took many, many takes and still didn't sound right. So we went back to Change With The Season and Sean (from Quickspace/Homesleep) came down to the studio (with some rather large beers) and generously played a nice bouncey bass line onto the end section. We ended the day fittingly with Heading Home (a song about driving home through the pine forests of Sweden late at night in the summertime). I played the Solina track in one take, with one drop in (the horn sound) and then I played the Eko Steel acoustic track and we did head home about 23:00. End of day 3.
DAY 4. Friday 3rd September. (Recording with Francesco and Giacomo). I sang the vocals on these three songs Spent Too Long Walking With No Heart To Follow, Change With The Season and Heading Home. Then I redid the Panda organ track (horn sound) and the nylon acoustic track on Up Sticks And Go and added the Eko steel
acoustic guitar for the solo and later I sang the vocal. Then we worked some more on When Your
Heart Breaks (Into Many Little Pieces). Giacomo played the bass, recorded by Francesco, then I sang the vocal and the backing vocal. Then I did the vocals/backing on Haven’t You Got
Anywhere Left You Can Run To? and the vocal on She’ll Be Home Soon. It took awhile but I finally reached the high notes! Then we returned to We Didn’t Move A Muscle and we re-recorded the song this time using the nylon acoustic and then overdubbing the vocal. It still didn't quite work. Finally I added the backing vocal to Those Memories and that was the end of day 4.
(Saturday 4th & Sunday 5th September. 2 days off).
DAY 5. Monday 6th September. (Recording/mixing with Giacomo). Giacomo mixed these four songs: She’ll Be Home Soon, Heading Home, Those Memories and We Didn’t Move A Muscle. Then Emanuele Reverberi (Giardini di Miro) came down to the studio and played some lovely trumpet on the instrumental end section of Change With The Season, and two perfect violin parts on the middle eight of Slipped Away and two great violin parts onto the instrumental break of Spent Too Long
Walking With No Heart To Follow. Giacomo mixed Change With The Season, In Your Dreams and
Haven’t You Got Anywhere Left You Can Run To? and that was the end of day 5.
DAY 6. Tuesday 7th September. (Recording/mixing with Giacomo). I decided at the last minute to redo the vocal on Slipped Away (much better) and Giacomo mixed it.
Then I played a very simple Clavinet part on the chorus of Look How Time Flies and Giacomo mixed that along with: Spent Too Long Walking With No Heart To Follow, Up Sticks And Go and When Your Heart Breaks (Into Many Little Pieces).
Finally we re-recorded Those Memories (the voice, the nylon acoustic and the backing vocal) much better. End of day 6.
DAY 7. Wednesday 8th September. (Recording/mixing with Giacomo). Giacomo mixed Those Memories. Then we re-recorded We Didn’t
Move A Muscle for the third time, adding the backing vocals. My voice sounded tired and beaten but it seemed to fit the ordeal we had had recording the song so we settled for it and Giacomo mixed it. And so we reluctantly returned to This Goodbye Kiss, the baby grand piano now in tune, and we redid the piano/vocal/backing vocal but it still wasn't quite working. The piano just wasn't fitting in against the old drum track. So I redid the drums (and Giacomo looped them as a last resort) and I redid the baby grand piano. It just about worked! We left totally exhausted at 4am!
End of day 7. One day left...
DAY 8. Thursday 9th September. (Recording/mixing with Giacomo). We listened to all the finished mixes with Daniele (Homesleep's big boss) and they all sounded really good pumping out of those huge speakers. I think he was pleased. And so we moved on to the final song! I sang the vocal and the backing vocal for This Goodbye Kiss in the control room (as the calypso band were using the live room) and played the Solina 1 & Solina 2
parts (violin/viola sounds)
and Giacomo mixed it. We got there! We finished in eight days! I left the studio around 21.00 with an unmastered CDR of the finished mixes in my bag, worn out and never wanting to sing ever again, flying to London in the morning.
Footprints through the snow.
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