So, it’s been a great few days. On Wednesday we headed to Celtic Connections in Glasgow supporting Sandi Thom and The Herald ran a good interview beforehand. We played:

The Shame
You’re Not the One That I Love Anymore
Untied
Like John Lennon Said
Scotland the Brave
Counting Chimney Pots

After the show we loaded our gear really quickly, apologised to Sandi Thom’s band for not being able to hang around, and headed over to the Royal Concert Hall to do a late night session. We quickly legged it over the road for some food then got on stage at 10pm and played a short set. We all wanted to hang around and have some beers with Findaly Napier and co  but we had to get up early to drive to Ardgour  to track the new record the next morning. We were focusing mainly on making sure piano and drums were nailed, but we recorded Call Back (which will be on the new record) and ‘Like John Lennon Said’ live, the latter me sat at the grand piano, very fcking hungover having drunk red wine, white wine, beer and gin and sprite the night before – tip – they don’t mix). Anyway, there’s nothing better than a single live take, warts and all, to get the right performance. It’s always tempting to keep revisiting things, but I’m not doing it this time around. The place is beautiful as you can see from the photo above (a massive stag walked up the path as I had a coffee on the Saturday morning too – I scared it off though by manly shuffling my feet, coffee on the ground ready to run back into the house and hide if necessary). Anyway, I was dead keen to get a pure and natural piano sound (which we did) and a flat and big drum sound (which we also did) and listening back to the tracks now I think the ideas of the sound I want in my head will, for this record, be realised. A massive thanks to Nick Turner for recording it all so well and for having us stay in their amazing studio, and of course to Simon and Bevis for getting down some great takes. I can’t wait for you to hear it.

On the Sunday (Iain Morrison came up too -  he played pipes for me on “Won’t be Found”) we did a session for Radio Scotland in front of about 30 people. We got some video footage which we’ll put up asap. It was a great atmosphere. Iain played a few of his beautiful tunes, I played some of my classics and we covered Van Morrison’s into the mystic with me on bass duties. Mary Ann Kennedy also played harp on Scotland the Brave and it sounded like it has never sounded before – v nice. It was then back to Edinburgh for string recording. In stepped the legend Gavla, who sorted out a selection of quality mics and we recorded the ace string quartet in my studio. There wasn’t much space and my tent still smells from the festivals last summer but I think it has worked out. Again, there is a bit of a theme here, I am letting go a bit with this album (last time I played all the string parts – not this time). I also asked my sister Jane to do the arrangements, and they came to life with the players.

Tomorrow I am going to lay down a couple more guide vocals to three of the tracks (’Shudder Like You’re Freezing’, ‘Ride the Storm’ and ‘Don’t Hold Me Back’) and emailing them to management to make sure they are all cool with what’s going on. Then on 9th and 10th Feb it’s vocal recording back at Argour, followed by mixing and it’ll be in the can. So far this has been a pretty easy process, I don’t know why. I guess I have some experience now, I know what to do and what not to do, and I have a clear idea of what I’m trying to achieve, fingers crossed things continue to go as they have been.

Onwards,
Alex