i thought I would write a post about the equipment and software that we use to do our recordings for two reasons. Firstly I think it’s interesting and secondly my band mates have absolutely no interest in what I’m doing as long as it sounds good in the end.

I am learning to produce as I go, we started the band in July of 2018 and it’s still a learning curve, every day as they say is a school day. We tend to master by sitting together and fiddling around till we all like the sound.

So the microphone we use for the main vocal is Kie’s Shure Super 55, which I love for its range of response and warmth. We use an X32 rack mount mixer for both live and studio work (yes I know it’s not 96K but to be honest by the time you’ve produced an mp3 or a CD I personally can’t tell the difference). Computer end I run Reaper with the Native Instruments Komplete package. I love the sounds in Komplete and am really enjoying exploring what they can do. All this is bought together by Reaper, amazing value product and highly recommended!

For “Take My Hand” the bass was recorded with my Warwick RockBass, the lead guitar is an LAG Roxane (found in cash Converters) and the drums were done using beats generated with MT drums and played using Drum Lab. We are using synth sounds and session strings from the Komplete package.

Guitars vary from the LAG, to a Hondo professional or an Admira Spanish guitar (charity shop purchase). Steve has guitars coming and going on an almost weekly basis so there are many more that I’ve already forgotten. Amping is done using Guitar Rig, god I love the ambient section. Basses include the Warwick, a Dean, a Tanglewood 5 string and on one song an upright bass sound from Komplete. Steve plays pretty much everything and we layer up tracks, with Kie adding vocals and occasionally guitar (on her beautiful black Hofner Verythin). I started off trying to play bass, the problem is what do you do when someone else is so much better? You let them play and learn to produce! We use a mix of artificial, electronic and real drums, Travelling in Time is a Cajon.

I don't claim to be an expert but so far the journey has been a fun one and very soon we'll release our first album! All this probably started as my mid-life crisis but I think that it's a damn sight better than blowing a fortune on a car. So if you have any suggestions/guidance for me I am open or if you have any questions then please ask :)

Take care,

​James xxx

I’ve been in a little bit of a dark and lonely place over the last year.
“After the Storm” is about being lost and not quite knowing how to find your way. Sometimes you just have to believe that even though your surrounded by darkness, that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. 
​
I’ve thankfully now re-found my light.
But to anyone whose currently still in darkness, don’t give up - keep faith in that fact that you will eventually find a path.

xx

I've always been a Daddy's girl....
My mum is absolutely brilliant and I love her more than words can say, but when I was growing up, it was always me and my dad who went off together on little adventures. He was my hero and I truly believed that he could do anything. 

I lost my dad to Cancer last year, exactly one week and one day after his 76th birthday. Even though I had known for some time that it was coming, when it actually happened I was totally devastated.

My dad was brave, kind, uncomplaining and a true gentleman right up until the very end.
I miss him each and every day. He's always in my thoughts and I still can't quite believe that he's gone - but memories are strange things, they can be so vivid that sometimes its as though he's still here, and a place, sound, sight or smell instantly makes me feel as though I'm travelling back in time.

Father's Day seemed to be a fitting day to release this track. I hope he would have liked it.

Love you always Dad.

​xx

Little Hurts was a song that I wrote in the middle of a really big argument - literally! 
I stopped shouting pretty much mid sentence, flounced off (obviously in a very dramatic manner) and started writing the lyrics,  because I had a sudden, almost epiphany type moment where I realised that yes, while I was really (wanting to lash out, draw blood, and inflict slow, painful torture kind of) angry, and that even though I wanted to scream and shout, that there was no point because I was still in love, still wanted there to be an 'us', and even though I felt deeply wounded by the words that had just been exchanged, I started to realise that my words also caused him as much pain and together we realised that it was pointless carrying on with the conflict  because we still wanted to be with each other more than anything else.

So... does he still sometimes make my blood boil to the point where I could cheerfully throttle him?
Absolutely!
​
Do I ever really want to be without him?
​Never.........

So...

We finally managed to all find the time to get together to work on some recordings - we've had a number of songs that are "almost there" for a while and we had all agreed to get them finished before we started working on anything else.  We sat down with the full intention of finally finishing at least one of them. Things however as usual didn't go quite to plan - Steve (its always bloody Steve!!) ​started playing the guitar while waiting for James to finish setting everything up ready to record and got a chord progression stuck in his head. And rather predictably, that's  when all our carefully laid plans for finishing what we had already started went straight out of the window,  as both Steve and James disappeared into creating yet another piece of music that we  didn't need right then. I tried to keep them in line, I really did, but it was pointless, and anyway I got caught up in the magic of what they were doing so started writing some lyrics - and that's how Strands Of Silk came into being. It was one of those songs that just flowed - I was writing lyrics as fast as they were coming up with the music - hardest thing about the whole process was naming the song - I think we've gone through 4 different names for the song before finally settling on Strands Of Silk! 

Anyway, we hope you enjoy it.

It seems like its been a long time coming, but finally after fighting off various colds, sore throats and other assorted minor ailments, we are back with another new track. 

Dark Water is a love song. I've been through some quite traumatic and turbulent times throughout my life, and at times really felt that I had lost my way. Dark Water is about being saved by someone that I love with all of my heart, someone who lights up my darkness, holds my hand when I feel lost and who I know will always walk life's path with me, no matter how rocky.

He knows who he is...

It feels like such a long time again since we've posted anything new. Life has thrown some hugely challenging experiences in our direction over the past months which put life on hold for a while. But finally, we have something new to release.

My Second Face is a song that pretty much sums up the inner turmoil that I often feel between the person that I feel that I am supposed to be and the secret part of me that is hidden deep inside.

Hope you like it.

Life can throw some difficult obstacles in your path, and often seems to have a habit of making you deal with issues you really don't feel quite ready to deal with. Winter is a song that I wrote a short while back, and was born because of the growing realisation that certain people who have always been a hugely important part of my life are getting older, their health is deteriorating and that they won't be around for ever. 

It was important to me that it didn't become a sad and depressing song - there is enough going on in the world that makes me sad - I wanted this to be more of a bittersweet celebration of the circle of life and hope that comes across in the song. 

I hope this song brings some comfort to anyone who is or has been in a similar situation xxx


Kie

After what had seemed like an endless run of days when life has generally gotten in the way of fun, creativity and music, we’ve finally found the time to finish working on our second original song, ‘Ghost Of Me’ - an original song about how in adulthood you realise that many of your childhood dreams will never come to fruition, but that's OK- there's always still time to achieve something, even if its not what your childhood self might have envisaged. 

Loving the end result - hoping you like it as much as we do :)

Kie