Andys Studio Diary - Day 2

Andys Studio Diary – Day 2


Well, it’s officially started. It’s officially official and everything. We are in the studio!! It’s built, everything works, jobs a good ‘un!! So I figured I waffle some bollocks about it all online.

Neat, huh??

…you may have noticed that day one is conspicuous by it’s absence. The reasons for this are twofold – firstly, due to circumstances beyond my control, I forgot my bastard laptop on day one. Win. And secondly, I was actually useful yesterday!

I know. Amazing isn’t it? “Singer Not Completely Redundant In Studio Shocker”, is what the headlines would have read, had any of the newspapers given a shit. Unbelievably, they didn’t. My moment of glory gone (no pun intended) unsung in the national press. That’ll teach print to be a dying medium, won’t it?!?!?! Who then now, bitches??!


…But I digress.


So here I am on day two, once again nestled in the familiar and comfortable bosom of being completely fucking useless. Unusually however, this state of affairs seems to have come about entirely of my own making today because… well, quite honestly – I’m spannered. With hardly a wink of sleep to my name over the last couple of days, coupled with the fact for the first time EVER I don’t have to drive home and can therefore drink beer (yay! by the way), I’ve relinquished my new found (and shockingly brief) Cubase Helmsman responsibilities for a higher calling. Namely; not ruining our album.


…And also drinking.


We did have a bit of a messy start yesterday though (not entirely my fault), which drew looooong into the evening/night/morning - basically until Paulie finally remembered how to play the drums. Yes I’m afraid to say “Red Light Fever” even effects the lofty heights of the hairy and unfashionable Dragnerve boys.


But yesterday was yesterday. Ancient History! Confident today in his reclaimed ability to actually play the fucking instrument he’s been mastering for the last 15 odd years, we’re flying now!! He’s nailed Clueless, Undone and A Life in Ashes so far today and I suspect we’ll have a couple more done by the time we all collapse in a heap. Credit to him though – “RLF” notwithstanding, he could not be stopped yesterday. My boy’s a machine - 16 some odd hours behind a drum-kit yesterday.


Absorb that for a moment: 16 hours.


And we’re not talking cheerful, little Ringo Starr-esque 4/4 happy-go-lucky gentleness here either. He is beating the shit out of that thing with all 4 limbs. Constantly. So it may have taken him a little while to get into his flow, but it was clear from the get go he wasn’t going to be stopped. Suffice to say he’s well into his flow now, and progress has been swift! We’ve got another couple of days for tracking drums in theory but we might end up well ahead of schedule before the day is out. Who knows – this time tomorrow, we could well be residents in Guitarland! This is great news for me, because I already know my turn at the plate is going to take… a while. “Red Light Fever” indeed.



Every once in a while, I have to take a step back and marvel at how incredibly lucky we are to have this place to work in. It’s been a hell of a slog both physically and mentally over the last 12 months or so, getting the warehouse up to snuff and all the various bits of kit in and working but now we’re here, recording in the bloody thing, I keep having little private moments of “…Holy Shit – this is OURS!!”.

We are very, very lucky boys indeed.


It smells in here