Thursday, November 27, 2008

Sydney Wrap






Thought I'd post a blog today and provide a bit of a wrap up to my Sydney trip a week or so ago.






Let me share some highlights - (in order of appearance)






1. Don Bartley (Benchmark Mastering) - I was with Don on Friday at his level 7 studios in Castelreagh St. Don Bartley is widely regarded as Australia's leading mastering engineer and his discography (e.g., The Beatles, Metallica, Silverchair, Powderfinger, The Quills haha etc) certainly lends support to that claim. Don was the mastering engineer for our Thought In Your Head Tour DVD. For all of you that don't know what 'mastering' is (not that I really do), the best way I can describe it is the process by which your recorded song/s go from being incomplete to complete - mastering makes the recorded song sound whole and full, balanced and glistening. Think of it la bit like a proof reader of a novel. Anyway, Don is a man of few words but incredible talent and I was fortunate enough at the end of our session to spend some time talking with Don about the evlotuion of recorded music and how different sound waves are cut off in CD and MP3 format and the best thing we could possibly do is return to vinyl! Don really did blow my mind and I was greatly fortunate to be able to spend some one-on-one time talking to a true Australian music legend. Oh yeah, and he did a superb job of the CD/DVD too!






2. Meeting with Sebastian Chase - what can you say about this man? Sebastian essentially founded independent music in this country and is undoubtedly one of the most significant figures in Australian music history (a good friend of Don Bartley's too!). I went to Sebastian's office around midday (had to excuse myself from The Don) and didn't really know what I was getting myself into. Sebastian meets with band and band representatives all the time and it is no wonder why! He is an absolute wealth of knowledge and after an hour of talking with him my head was totally spinning. He offered many great insights into the music business, and important things to note about being successful. But truly, the greatest thing about meeting with Sebastian was that it was even possible in the first place. People like Sebastian are often far too busy or 'important' to meet with people like me and the fact that he was willing to take time out of his day to empart knowledge and share experiences is something that I think means more than anything else. Following my meeting with Sebastian I went back to Don's studio to finish the mastering.






3. Plug in City @ Spectrum, Oxford St - after finishing with the Don at about 5.30pm I went back to the Hotel and met up with Lara. I slept for 15mins (I had been up since 3am) and then got dressed and we went to the sky bar at the Hotel we were staing at and proceeded to take advantage of the free booze that we were offered. Lara and I stayed for 2hrs and had our fair share and then ventured over to Darling Harbour for dinner. This was all a premable to my meeting with Rachael from Hubb management scheduled for later that night. This was a late night meeting at a small smokey bar in Sydney's Oxford St precinct. We arrived and to my absolute aural delight, a band called Plug In City were playing. I had never heard of these guys before but I was so impressed I went and tracked them down on myspace and have been listening to them ever since. I met with Rachael and shortly thereafter we proceeded to Kings Cross to try a few bars out. The night ended with me coming home and ordering room service at about 3am and falling alseep before it arrived. I don't know exactly what happened to the food but I defintely ordered it and it wasn't there when I woke up so who knows!






4. Billy Hyde's Drumcraft - not that this was the highlight of the trip or anything, but...on Saturday morning I ventured overt to Billy Hyde's at Surry Hills (5min from the CBD) and spent the day there with Jonno, Ludwig expert. I have been researching and pondering my new drumkit acqusition for about 5 years now and today was the day that I finally got to make it happen. Jonno spent the day with me wondering around the store and trying different drums and cymabls etc out to make sure what i was buying was exactly what I wanted (and as it turned out only about 5% of the gear I ordered was catually in the store - the rest has to be either custom made or ordered in from OS). I have a very clear idea of what sounds I want to be able to create from my kit and although I probably tested Jonno's patience on more than one occasion I am very confident I achieved my goal of getting one awesome sounding setup! Although I could write 27 paragraphs about the gear I got and why, I will make mention of the 4 snare drums I purcahsed (as well as the Ludwig Custom Maple Outfit). The snare drum is the classic drum for me and it is quite incredible just how much different snares can change the overall feel and finish of a song - something I have come to learn from listening very closely to lots of records! To this end, I realised that I need a variety of snares to be able to capture the mood and feel of our songs. So, what did I do? - I bought 4! In fact, my sanre drums are worth more than the rest of the kit put together (except for cymbals, but don't get me started on cymbals because I will go on forever. I am a cymbal enthusiast to say the least!!). Anyway, for the drummers out there a picked up Ludwig 14x7 maple, an OC 14x6.5 vintage 1960's black oyster finish, a Brady (Aus made) 13x4, and a Brady 5x7. This range of snares will really open up my sounds behind the kit and I hope that someone out there other me actually notices! But, the reality is I wont have any of this gear until about April next year because it all had to be ordred in etc. There is so much other gear that I got it's not funny but I will save that for another time and introduce the new setup to you all slowly!






I think that should do for now.




While writing this I just picked up Coldplay tickets so I am stoked!!!




Also, last night I went to see John Mellencamp and Sheryl Crow which was very very cool. Mellencamp is an industry icon and a legend in his own right. His band were on fire and he played a great set. The only dissapointment was that he didn't play 'Cherry Bomb' which, along with 3/4 of the crowd, was my favourite Mellencamp song. But in saying that, the rest of the set was brilliant! Thanks to Lara for buying the tickets.






Cheers


John.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Sydney

I am posting this blog from a tiny (as in 2 computers) internet cafe in Sydney. I am here for the weekend to do a number of pretty exciting band related things...

Firstly, I am about to venture up to to see Don Bartley (aka 'The Don') at Benchmark Mastering to have him master our live CD and DVD which we are going to launch at The Globe on December 6. While this is all happening I have to pop out around lunch time to go and meet Sebastian Chase. Sebastian is an Australian Music Industry icon and to be quite honest I am pretty nervous about meeting him. I am going to talk to him about a range of industry topics and my main goal is to learn as much from him as I possibly can in the short time I have with him. When I finish with Sebastian I will return to The Don and complete the mastering process. This should all wrap up by about 6pm whereby I will return to my hotel (which was kind enough to upgrade me to a suite) and take in 2hrs of free food and drink.

The other main reason I am in Sydney this weekend is because tomorrow (Saturday) I have an appointment with Australia's leading drum store, Billy Hyde's Drumctraft Sydney. The reason I have this appointment is to order a new drum kit!! For any drummer the purcahse of a new rig is unbelievably exciting and this is no exception. For the drummers out there I am looking at a Ludwig Legacy Classic or a Ludwig Maple Classic. There are so many things I love about Ludwig - I love the tradition associated with Ludwig drums, I love the sound, so many of my idols have and/or do play Ludwig and all-in-all they are big, loud, statment drums which suit me perfectly.

The purcahse of this equipment extends beyond personal gratification however. I will also be purchasing electronic equipment which will be used to really open up so many new sounds and possibilities for The Quills. The way I see it, I am actually doing the band a great service here - buying equipment for the greater good! Dave has told me that as long as I come back with a white drumkit he will be happy. I don't think Andrew believes that I will actually go through with it and I'm certain Billy Bodean is just as excited as I am. The drumkit will take 6mths to deliver because it needs to built in the US so more waiting to come...

Anyway, I will blog again when I return to Brisbane and talk about how things went and some highlights from the trip.

I might also mention that it is a pleasure to have my girlfriend, Lara, along for the trip with me. Although she did say she has only come for the shopping!

Peace
Pickering.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Listening to live recording

Just thought I'd drop a quick line as we're all sitting here listening back to some live recordings taken from our recent tour. It's always a slightly awkward experience sitting in a room listening to recordings of yourself as you end up trying to find all the mistakes you might have made!

I'm listenting right now to 'If This Is All There Is' recorded at The Zoo on Thursday Sep 25. I think it is a bit quick (which is my fault), but it has good energy and remains steady throughout (which is a good thing!). The more I hear it, the more I like it! And I tend to be super critical of our performances..

As we filmed the shows as well, we are actually thinking of making a tour dvd - including some previosuly unreleased material. This is an exciting idea, but a few things need to fall into place for it to happen. Our thanks, to all the people who made the recordings possible!!

Let's hope we can get something interesting out of it all...

John.