The second day-night of recording was a journey to say the least. The session lasted from 9am in the morning until about 1am at night. The entire gamut of emotions was run through the band, with moments of elation (good takes) and some real frustrations (repeated mistakes). Next weekend we are going to record vocals and guitar in the Blue Mountains and hopefully the week after that get it mixed and mastered.

Until about ten o’clock at night my vocals were being recorded with my home mic (a Rodes NT1A) – I thought it sounded terrible, which I supposed was just because I sound terrible. But as a last ditch experiment because it was too late for drums we plugged in some AKG pencil mics and the difference was huge. So I am actually quite excited to find out what sort of sounds we can get down in the next weekend.

I decided to take my digi-vid camera along to try and document the process. I think I might take it along more often. Maybe to some of our bigger gigs – I’ll def take it to the Bondi Festival. So look out for a few episodes of Going North in the ‘motion’ section

I think my novel will have to wait until exams are over – I am getting to busy with university and the band. I hope the break from it will give me some perspective and some objectivity about the writing.

Creative News: I had my first recording session with the band today. It was long and quite exhausting but the gear we rented is giving us a good sound. However I’m rather unsatisfied with the quality of the vocals. Recording continues tomorrow and hopefully by the end we will have the raw tracks for an EP.

On the electro-house front I’ve finally gotten in contact with another producer and we’re going to start creating tracks in tandem. I’m looking to transform my folk songs into psychedelic-drum-choirs… or something to that effect.

On the novel front some of the momentum I had has been over-ridden by more immediate concerns, but slowly it continues. Certainly the ideas have been given time to ferment and (painstakingly I must admit) I feel the various weaknesses are being purged.

Smart-Roster is still a little bit up in the air. The programmer I’m working with is also a university student so the time he can dedicate to Smart-Roster varies week to week. But I am finally accessing the prize-money from Dept. State and Regional Development.

When exams are over I have promised myself to return to the easel. (I actually have a particular sketch of mine that I would like to translate into a full painting).

Okay its already midnight and recording begins early tomorrow so I must collapse into bed now. Till next time world.

Been a-while since blogs – many things to update. On the band front we’ve just set up in a house to start recording a demo. Its all a very home-job affair borrowing mics, gaff taping equipment, mattresses for sound proofing etc. Me and the bass player did a duo gig on the top level of Ruby Rabbit. A place called De Nom – which is a private members club. It was a very unusual gig.

The novel edits continue. I am currently at about a quarter of the way through the proper first edit. I’m also changing significant portions of the story, which is taking time.

University is irking. Swallowing up swathes of good time. I have exams coming up soon (of course they coincide with the recording process!) which will totally kill the creations for a-while.

On the electro-house front, I’ve gotten in contact with two producers (both of whom I’m meeting separately tomorrow) – I’m looking for producers to collaborate with. Like the Dynotaurs or something haha.

Anyway, thats the situation for now.