.... and then, there was guitar!

So under the watchful eye and ear of Jeff Martin - Mark has smashed out some amazing sounding guitar track. Using the combination of Mark's Les Paul, and Jeff's 1971 Les Paul Recording through a Supro amp, the base has been laid for what will be one of the best guitar sounds I've heard on a recording in a long time!!!

The Supro is the amp of choice for Jimmy Page on the early Led Zeppelin albums, and you can see why. It has a great tone, and if this is the start of this guitar sound - I can not wait to hear what comes next.

Today the guys have also laid down some haunting sounds to flow over the top of Delirium and Desire. I won't give away too many secrets early on, but when we hear the finished product, it's amazing the detail that has gone into this sound.

At the moment we are still laying down some Supro sounds, and up next will come the Marshall, Mesa and Fender sound (see pic above to see what we have setup sound wise at the moment), along with a Leslie and so much more it's almost mind boggling!

The next few days will bring some interesting moments I'm sure........

Hats Off To Dave Langlands

So as quick as he began, Dave is done! Our monster drum tracks now have a firm partner in Daves bass work. It pretty much took a day and a half and he was done. We ended up sticking with the '76 Fender Jazz / Ampeg combo, as we only had a '93 Fender Jazz we must make a point to thank our friend Karris for being trusting enough to lend us that beautiful instrument, it really did make the difference. So we now have the basis for 10 songs plus our little outro down, I can pretty safely leak the track listing here : control / under a new sun / delerium & desire / down to size / taste of deceit / the sleeper / a thousand shades of you / collapse / despondency / cast in stone / departure ... can you feel it? We surely can!:)

So now Marty & Dave can kick back because its my head on the chopping block for the next two weeks:) A shit load of Jeff's guitars just showed up and I'm about to feel like a kid in a candy store:) gibsons, fenders, double neck matons, dan electro etc... I know all you Jeff Martin guitar nerds out there are totally going to be drooling over the next bunch on blogs:) So in true Mr. Martin style our sessions are making there way into the evening which is very fitting for the brand of dark rock n' roll we are making here, this thing is shaping up to be a monster:) - Mark

Day 3

Well, no one can be sure how it happened, the hard work, the endless practice or the influence of aleister crowley but one thing is for sure, the drums are done, tracked in a day and a half, perfectly! The sound is like bonham x 10! We are all really happy, so hats off to marty oshea!

So a short break now and a quick meal prepared by one Jeff Martin before we settle in to an evening of Bass, we are doing well for time and so far this album is turning out to be better than we could have hoped for! - Mark

Day 2 tracking drums

Friday was a combination of swimming, sun bathing and waiting around for things to kick off. Anticiption was thick in the air and the boys were waiting with baited breath for the big man to arrive. it all kicked off around 6pm and after hours of retuning drums, changing mic positions and pure god damn fear, the drum sound was acheived. A slight change of plans regarding tracking saw only drums being recorded with bass to follow. We all got an early night and started fresh at 12pm this morning tracking drums. it's now 5.11pm and we are 3 songs down, with excellent results. Stay tuned for more updates

Here we go

It's business time! Today is day one of drums & bass. Last night kenny joined us, who is Jeff Martin's tech guy and he spent the evening fine tuning drums and getting the basic drum micing prepared at Jeff's instructions. It's very different to what I have seen, and needless to say we have gone for the 'John Bonham' technique, I'm expecting this to sound huge! So with the team of Jeff, Paul, Kenny and young Angus we shall get to work!:) So Dave & Marty are first heads on the chopping block, expect a further update tonight;) - Mark

more of the same... and then we hit the studio!!!

So day 3 of driving came with some... exciting times?? About 70kms from Grafton, we hit a deep pot hole, and after that the car started handling badly... so we pulled over to find out that the back passenger tyre had been completely destroyed!! So we pulled into a nearby petrol station ( i use that term loosely.. just a petrol pump and a cash register in the middle of nowhere) and proceeded to change the tyre. Almost getting the tyre off, I found one of the nuts WAY to tight to get off, so we called on the help of a local tough guy to help us get it off!! He directed us to the nearest tyre shop to get another spare... as we still had a 150kms or so to go, and had to get back to Melbourne also at some point!!!

So after getting to Grafton, we got a new tyre, and headed on to Byron Bay, loaded our gear into the studio, and headed to Mullumbimby to stay the night, as the Studio Accommodation wasn't ready to go for us yet. Mark and I had a.... few beers, and headed off to bed.

Today we got up, headed into Byron Bay for some lovely breakfast, and into the studio to set up. The drums arrived, and got set up thanks to Greg from The Drum Cartel, great guy!! Paul, our engineer, and his assistant Angus have made us feel very welcome so far. Angus has made sure he knows how we take our coffee, because he has designated himself our Coffee Boy!!!

Dave arrived by plane (not very Rockstar Dave!!) and we got everything ready to go for tomorrow.. when Mr Jeff Martin arrives and we get stuck into making album number 4!!!! Good times.... Good times....

All the drums... two DW kits, about 8 snares and a big Ludwig KICK!!!

A nice gong ... I'm sure we'll find a use for it!!

The monster kit, all setup and ready to go!!!

The MIC gallery... oh my lord!!!!

Day 2 of long drives and country towns.....

So - From West Wyalong to Armidale... 600+kms of outback NSW ... the scenery stays pretty much the same, and the towns range from 2 houses, to a few thousand people. Nothing too exciting to report though.

We had a late breakfast / early lunch in Forbes... let me give you the hot tip, Forbes really isn't known for good meals or drinks (well by The Eternal anyway). Bad coffee, bad orange juice, tough steak and over priced chicken schnitzel.

One highlight was a little Koala that I spotted out of the corner of my eye as we flew past. We turned around the took some video of the little guy - he was pretty switched on for a Koala!! When the car was moving, he sat and watched us... until he thought we were stationary, and then he would trot along, and when we moved again, he stopped and sat down, quite aware of his surroundings... which I think is a little unusual for an animal that sits up in the top of a tree all day getting stoned... but very cool even so!!

Right now, Mark and I are sitting in a hotel room in Armidale, saving backing tracks, and updating you guys... there may or may not be a few beers involved, but with a 400 or so kms drive tomorrow.. we won't go hard at all!!!

Talk to everyone soon, enjoy the picture of the little Koala!!