Blog: Plinths Action

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It was a weekend full of DREDGELAND for me, commencing slightly early on Thursday when I went to see the Live Dredgeland Podcast Spectacular at the Star Of Kings on Kings Cross. It was dead good - I especially liked the fact that BOTH of the jokes I'd written (I thought there was only one so was SURPRISED when the other appeared) got LARFS. It still counts if the person who's laughing is me - MORE so, in fact, because I'd already heard them and STILL thought they were funny! The rest of the show was GRATE too, and also VERY silly. The podcast should, I believe, be out presently!

I then had a SECOND dose of Mr John Dredge and Mr Andy Harland on Saturday, when the three of us headed to deepest SURREY to record some songs at The Brook Studio. John and I have been engaged in some SONGWRITING over the past few months, utilising a new methodology for me whereby I wrote some music on my GTR, recorded it onto an mp3, and then John made up words and tunes on top. I'd had a go at this a few years ago with Mr F A Machine (with me doing the words and he the music) and found it all a bit WEIRD, and this was none less so. I don't really see how you can predict in advance how long the verses are going to be, or where the choruses go, as I always think it should be lead by the LYRICS, but I know other people are FINE with it and John managed it very well INDEED. We ended up with four songs done, so decided to enlist Andy on drums, call ourselves The Plinths, and do some recording.

I suggested we go to the Brook because Mr A Brook, who runs it, is DELIGHTFUL. Many many years ago he had a studio on Denmark Street, and I'd pop in during my lunch hour to record demoes there. It was a GRATE way of working, and I always found him to be EXTREMELY patient, very very HELPFUL, and full of IDEAS. I'd been to The Brook a couple of years ago to do a GIG too, and have been KEEN for ages to go back and actually record there, so this seemed like a good idea all round.

As it turned out, I was COMPLETELY RIGHT, it was a GRATE idea! I arrived to find that Andy B had pretty much got everything set up, so it was only about half an hour later that we'd all begun RECORDING. We'd booked in for four hours, which I thought would be ample time to do the drums and vocals, leaving me to do MY bits at home later, but as it turned out we got the guitar done too. To be honest, I never understand why other people take so long to do stuff in the studio - what are they DOING all the time? You usually only need a couple of goes to get a track sorted out, so do other bands just play POOL or something? Or is everyone else whacked out on scooby snacks that they're not sharing?

ANYWAY it all went really well, and it was lovely to be back in the studio again, although AS EVER in these situations I did have to keep reminding myself that I was NOT with The Validators and thus certain Behaviours were not acceptable e.g. when other people are soundchecking the DRUMS it is NOT all right to YAWN in an exaggerated fashion, complain loudly and FLICK Vs at the drummer. I did NOT do any of the above on this occasion, but I was SORELY tempted!

I've now got THE LOT on a memory stick, so the next step is to add other instruments and get MIXING. Goodness knows how long that's going to take - at approx 7:20am today I was reading about KICK DRUM COMPRESSION so this may all get a bit STEVE LILYWHITE, but I am hopeful that the process is mostly going to involve BASS playing. BASS playing is my favourite!

The current plan is to get these all done and UNLEASHED on the world next year, either as an EP or as a series of individual tracks, possibly with videos. It has been MOST enjoyable so far, and I'm dead pleased with how they're coming out, so be in no doubt that I shall be ALERTING everyone when they're ready!

posted 20/11/2017 by MJ Hibbett

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