Seeing The Light

Technology is an amazing thing. These days I have more recording equipment and processing power available to me than many studios had in the hey-day of rock'n'roll in the 50s and 60s. Even the Beatles only had access to 4-track tape recorders in the early 1960s. My hard disk recorder can record eight inputs at a time, and play back up to 16 tracks, all in digital. To further complicate things, it also allows up to 8 takes per track. On my Apple Mac I can record as many tracks as the specification of my computer will allow. Currently the track count for my re-recording of Lightkeeper stands at 48 different "takes" on the hard disk recorder and track count on for the mix now stands at 32! It's only since the 1970s that so many tracks could be played back at mix time (on analogue tape) and, frankly, it's kind of mind-boggling.

It's further complicated by the fact that I am song-writer, guitarist, singer, studio engineer, producer and client! It's hard to step back from it all and just listen to the song and hear what it needs. This is why I've not listened to it for a day now, and will try and clear my mind before working on the mixes later this week. In case you didn't realise I'm working on this track for a charity album which will be released later this year. The album will be called "Faith" and includes a number of artists that I've seen or played with live, including Luke Jackson, Eddy Johns and Kayley Weller. It's in aid of Cystic Fibrosis and will contain 16 tracks in total. If you want to follow progress then check out their website here:

http://www.allroundmusic.co.uk/

As mentioned my own contribution will be a new (and unique) mix of Lightkeeper, featuring Haydn Callow on drums, Paul Tkachenko on bass and, err, me on everything else. This recording will exist as two mixes, one shorter one for my use on demos and a longer "album" mix just for this record. So essentially if you want to hear that mix, you will have to buy the album. You can follow my own updates on the track here or on Twitter. I will also be working of a shorter version for my own purposes, and I'll let you know as soon as you can hear this version.

In other news, last Thursday was a cracking night down at the Montague Arms again. This month's highlights included a laughing bear, a horse comedian, a real human comedian, Aaron Barschak, pie roulette and the excellent Dead Victorians. The latter featuring a unicycling violinist and the maestro Paul Tkachenko (again) this time on accordion, saw and bells!

Quite frankly a full review would be impossible, but here are some video clips:

http://www.youtube.com/user/charlotteyoung

Next one is July 9th - be there for more of the same, only different.


In the meantime, I'm playing tonight at the Abbey Tavern in Kentish Town. Full list of gigs is as follows:

15th June 2009
RAW Rocks @ The Abbey Tavern, 124 Kentish Town Rd, London, NW1 9QB

21st June 2009, open mic from 7.00pm onstage after 8.30pm
Stripped Bare @ The Phoenix, 37 Cavendish Square, London, W1G OPP

25th June 2009, open mic from 7.00pm onstage after 8.30pm
Stripped Bare @ Edinburgh Cellars, 125 Newington Green Road, Islington, N1 4RA

28th June 2009, doors 7.30pm
15 Minute Club @ Prohibition, Unit 1 Tower Bridge House, St. Katharine Docks, E1W 1AA

1st July 2009
Stripped Bare Acoustic Productions presents:
Wood 'N' Strings @ LOOM featured act
Loom Bar, 5 Clipstone Street, London W1W 6BB


See you soon,

Daren
xxx

P.S. The picture is Paul Tkachenko (AGAIN!!) this time playing Sousaphone for the Jazz Kings as part of the Croydon Jazz & Blues Festival. He's a busy boy!