Sunday: 1pm-9pm spent in the Hackney studio with Alexander M, in the last stages of the Fosca album. We record Rachel’s vocals for ‘Confused & Proud’, ‘Evening Dress At 3pm’, ‘We See The World As Our Stunt Doubles’, and ‘In-Joke For One.’ Then I add my own vocals, and we sort out the mix of ‘Stunt Doubles’, turning it into a song from the repetitive showcase of riffs and hooks it had been before.
Sometimes a song will be ready for the studio, fully formed. At other times, the song comes together in the editing and mixing, and this is the case today. How many verses? How many bridges? How long should the coda be? When should the guitar solo start? When can we start fading the thing out? The recording process, particularly with the luxury of cutting and pasting on a computer, is a cross between solving a puzzle and putting forth arguments in a debating chamber. WHY is this take better? WHY should the glockenspiel be louder? WHY should the drums do something odd at this point? A reason must always be given.
Sometimes it’s like pulling teeth, other times it all comes together and makes sense and the heart lifts. Hours pass quickly. I leave in the evening, still with work to do, but we’re nearly there. ‘Stunt Doubles’ is 1980 Taking Heads meets 1972 Bowie. ‘Confused And Proud’ is early Cocteau Twins with a touch of late Kraftwerk. ‘In-Joke For One’ is vaudeville garage pop, with a cinema organ solo and Beatles harmonies. ‘Evening Dress At 3pm’ is pure Sarah Records, and features Rachel and Kate singing lead on the verses, with me on the choruses and the coda.
Alexander M is good company: a producer with a philosophy degree and a shared love of Laurie Anderson. We discuss Ms Anderson’s 1982 album Big Science, re-issued this week with a few inevitable extra trimmings. One of which is a photo of her on the back of the CD which makes a nice counterpoint to her monochrome robot-gamine pose on the front. Here, she’s in a man’s shirt and tie, walking along the early 80s Manhattan waterfront with a shy, self-conscious smile, the Twin Towers behind her. As the lyrics to ‘O Superman’ now take on an unavoidably eerie prescience post-9/11, the image is perfect, balancing the chilling side with something warmer and optimistic. Less performance artist, more Annie Hall. And ‘Let X=X’ is still an exquisitely beautiful and simple song that moves me to tears.
Saturday: Fosca’s first rehearsal for the Swedish festival date, and our first time playing together for over a year. We’re in Zed One Studios, Camden. It’s one of the better examples of its kind, generally less malodorous and less decrepit than the average studio within the more affordable price range, though at times I think I can smell what might be someone else’s gingivitis on my microphone. Still, this is an occupational hazard of using hired equipment. Mental note: I should really bring my own mic next time, as I own one of the same make but entirely untainted by the dried saliva of a hundred strangers.
A trio of young people at the bus stop on Archway Road, carrying large rucksacks. They are possibly off to Glastonbury.
Boy: I’ve got everything. I’ve packed my Trilby. And my spare Trilby.
