AMBITIONS, THWARTED
I've added some new photos to the photos section,
here.
I was mostly defeated in my ambitions towards concert-going this week—disasters all around. There was the aborted attempt at seeing DJ Shadow last weekend (evidently, during soundcheck, a tech up in the rigging dislodged/dropped a metal object that hit DJ Shadow in the head and sent him to hospital!) and on Friday, I left the house at midnight to head up to Le Bataclan for a clubbing night, the 10th Anniversary Party for Ninja Tunes, featuring among other DJs, Herbaliser. I had an advance ticket, but found that did me little good—the line, when I arrived at 12.20, had yet to start moving, and was a thousand people long, all the way down to the end of the block. After 20 minutes we had moved about 20 feet. The line included a mix of ticket holders and hopefuls, and I thought…is this * really * worth it? Answer: no. So, I sold my ticket to someone possessing more patience for long lines than me, and walked home.
Dom & I did take in the early set of
Benny Green at the Duc des Lombards, a once musty jazz café that’s been updated to a kind of high tech jazz ‘experience’ (their own words), in the center of Paris. What that translates to is that there are video screens in every corner, giving you multiple perspectives of the action onstage. The crowd was fairly small for this show, about 30 or so people, which meant we had a great view of the keyboard as Mr. Green (who looks a bit like the singer of I Am Kloot, were he more sartorially attuned and attending AA meetings), who is incredibly deft—his best moments are parallel runs in octaves, shockingly precise and swift. The PA is an invisible partner in the act, barely amplifying the sound—the trio is allowed to play at the dynamic level of their own choosing, which is refreshing, esp. if you more typically find yourself in a rock club on a given night.
The highlight of my week was an ultra jetset outing to London midweek—I rose predawn and met Mateo at Gare Du Nord, boarding the Eurostar for a 7.45am crossing. We were heading to London to master his album, which I produced/engineered/mixed between last summer and the beginning of this year, at Abbey Road studios. Abbey Road! We installed ourself in one of Abbey Road’s 3 mastering suites with engineer Sean Magee. Sean’s worked on records by Placebo, Pink Floyd…he knows his stuff, to be sure. I was very impressed by how lo-tech his set up was—just the old program EQs from the famous EMI desks of the 70s; the usual Prism EQ that you find in most mastering houses; and a ½” machine that acted as his main compressor. All our mixes, which were digital files, were printed onto tape, and then loaded into Sadie, the mastering program where everything is assembled. Most of the EQ was done with the EMI EQs/filters, and precise, surgical needs were attended to by the Prism EQ. The monitoring was flawless, and indeed, when you take away the typical low-end reflections/buildup/resonance of, basically every other listening environment—you are left with a much more detailed picture—I heard many things I had never heard before in the mixes (including, despite my best efforts, some phase issues in the overheads—argh!). But overall, the mixes held up and we didn’t have too many issues to address. The EQing was minimal. Sean let me go hands on, and do a bit of EQing as well. In general his manner was incredibly professional and pleasant. We came home with a reference CD each, that was very close to being perfect (there are always small changes to be made)—a few level matching issues, and two of the spacings will change—but the musicality of the songs overall was beyond reproach.
While we were working, the reception called and said that I had two visitors, and that they were on their way up (Abbey Road looks like a medium-sized house from the front, but it's a huge complex that has over 100 employees—unheard of for a studio facility)—a journey that would take them a few minutes to complete…but they never showed up. I was scratching my head, as I hadn’t told any of my London friends I was in town—since I would be working the whole time, and going back in the evening. Was it a repeat of the famous ‘Gramercy Hotel’ incident of 1991, when the desk clerk patched a London Times interview for ‘Mr. Stringfellow’ to my hotel room at 7.30am, much to my surprise—we had gotten offstage at CBGB four drunken hours earlier—and I found myself fielding questions on my (bankrupt) financial status. Turns out, the journalist was under the impression she was being patched through to Peter Stringfellow, nightclub owner. To this day I have never been able to solve the mystery—did we happen to be staying at the same hotel? Were all the hotels in NYC called in search of the elusive Kenny Rogers lookalike?
So, I was contemplating the new mystery, and about an hour later it was solved—Charlie Francis came through the door! In tow was
Corin Ashley, a Bostonian musician who was treating himself to a day in Studio 2 for his birthday. Turns out, Corin had spotted my name where I signed in on the register (an echo of the famous ‘Brubeck’ incident of 1998, when I spotted Dave’s signature on the BBC register, and ended up meeting him, being invited to his show in Croydon, and hitching a ride on his bus back to London, with an hour of great conversation en route). Corin is a Posies fan, and great singer and songwriter himself, I had just been reading about his very good album ‘Songs from the Brill Bedroom’ before my trip to London. Charlie F. has engineered various album sessions and broadcasts for REM, and was part of the ‘Four Croakers’ show at Dingwalls in 2002—where myself, Robyn Hitchcock, Mike Mills, and Scott McCaughey, plus many special guests, had a superb evening of musical cross-pollination.
After our work on Mateo’s album was done, we headed down to Studio 2, where many a Beatles, Pink Floyd, Zombies etc. session took place. The control room is situated one floor higher than the floor of the tracking room, but the tracking room is two stories high, you see. Drums and other instruments instantly sound full and musical with the room’s perfectly designed reflections. Corin had me sing on one of the two songs he was working on that day, I busted out a vocal on an immaculate U47—and then we hit the road! I was back in bed by midnight. Incredible! Thanks to Mateo for inviting me.
Beyond that it was the usual working on the artwork and mastering of the Disciplines album, lots of phone calls, etc., plus this weekend I’ve been staying close to home to soak as much time with Aden and Dom as possible. Aden was home sick on Thursday, so I spent the entire day with her—then we were also taking care of her best friend from school Colleen, as her parents were both working out of town. That was a major dose of parenthood…exhausting, but I loved it.
Tonight we checked out ballroom dancing at
Le Balajo.
I packed for the upcoming tour(s)—I’ll be gone for over a month, home for one night, and gone for two and half more weeks. This weekend Dom’s folks came up to help me corral the two girls, and to assist with Aden while I’m gone. It’s great to have a home full of one’s tribe, everyone talking at once, kitchen always going full steam. In many ways, these days of a full house have been my happiest so far. They will be missed in the coming weeks.
Love
KS
Paris
