Well where did that past year go?
It all started with the simple plan of recording the Dali’s Angels in an almost live way, with very little extra production other than what the band would have used at a concert. We recorded the backing tracks at the Grove studio 2 with house engineer Josh Telford helping out. Most things went straight into the vintage Harrison desk there. Josh dug up some great mics and a couple of nice pieces of outboard to control the kick and snare. I decided to capture all facets of the drum sound with plenty of ambient and close mics setups just in-case we’d need them. The guitars also had both valve and dynamic mics on them so that we would have more choices further down the track. As it happened that’s exactly what transpired.
We’d recorded all the vocals here at the Point Studio. No solos were redone, it was all as it arrived at the mics in the live performances. The tracks were sounding pretty good although it was at this stage that I first realized certain things that I would liked to have changed or treated differently and the restrictions were becoming more distracting with every listen.
Turtlerocks Rick O’Neal was employed to master the final mixes. We mastered the first five then the final five in two sessions and we thought it was finished.
Now the record didn’t sound that bad, but …
I played the CD to a few people and the reactions were mixed. It’s hard in this day and age to produce demos. And that’s what these were, well recorded live versions of the songs laid bare so that the listener could hear the potential of the “Talent”
Well that would have been all well and good back in 1989 but in 2010 the differences between a demo and the finished product have blurred right out. Tracks are created in bedrooms, rehearsal rooms, anywhere you please! So your best not leaving anything to the imagination. Which by the way is in short supply in the A&R of today’s record business. They weren’t getting it because we hadn’t given it to them.
I did some remixes to give the lads an idea of what could be achieved with a little more attention to the production and arrangements. It was decided I was going to slowly work my way through the tracks. Meanwhile I’d suggested to Luke Costelloe (Singer/Songwriter). We might need more songs. He was feeling pretty much the same way and already had a few ideas on the go. So we bunkered down in the studio to work on demos for the band. Three songs came from those sessions and they all made it onto the record.
New recruit, Taylor Molnar (bass player) had finally played on a couple of tracks which was great for him and stressed the fact this record is about where the band is right now. So much had changed in the past twelve months. The record they were trying to make now was something they really wanted to hear more than something they wanted to feel good doing.
My quest had been to define their sound and thanks to the earlier recordings I had a document to reference throughout my search for their identity.
Nightswim the record is finally out on the Point Studio independent label. The CD has ten tracks while the online Bandcamp album has an extra track included. The first Single is – Microscopes. Check out the video on YouTube.
For a full stream of the entire album for free, visit the Bandcamp page