The blog of photographer Kim Ayres

Recording for Blue

"If you ever need a slide bouzouki, give me a shout," I said to Blue back around Christmas, when he was telling me about the new album he was recording.

I then promptly forgot all about it, as I say throwaway comments like this all the time and no one ever follows me up on them.

However, a few weeks back Blue got in touch to say that while he'd more or less finalised the arrangements for most of his songs, he still had a handful that weren't completely pinned down yet and if I wanted to see if I could add anything with my bouzouki to them he'd be interested to hear.

I played around with a few ideas, then met up with him to run through them.

This resulted in me heading out to Chris Lord's recording studio, near Thornhill, last week to lay down some bouzouki sequences - some picking, some strumming and some with bottleneck slide.

Although both Blue and Chris were complimentary about what I was producing, I'm fully prepared for all my bits to end up on the cutting room floor. I know from my recording experiences with Marcus for The Cracked Man that ideas can be enthusiastically recorded, only to be dumped later on when the mix starts being fine tuned.

Sometime over the next few months I'll find out if my stuff has survived the final cut and either I'll be loudly promoting Blue's new album, or quietly never mentioning it again...

Nevertheless, it was a fun afternoon, and also interesting to see how Chris had created a recording studio out of what was basically a converted garage - with one room for playing and the other for mixing.

Here are some photos from the day.


Chris at his mixing desk


Blue and Chris listening back


Blue took a shot of me in action...

10 comments

maurcheen said...

Exciting! I love the recording process, though I haven't been in a proper studio in a while.

I've been auditioning musicians for the new project. My drummer has been with me for 34 years, so he stays, and we might have found our bass, though he is also quite a good guitarist!
Now did someone say slide bouzouki? ��

Kim Ayres said...

Maurcheen - if you ever get back in the studio and would like some bouzouki sounds to add to your mix, then give me a shout :)

Have you seen The Cracked Man Video Diaries we've been doing?
http://kimayres.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/the-cracked-man-video-diaries.html

Or check our feed on Facebook where the latest ones are going up :)

Pat said...

I'll keep everything crossed - which makes life a bit tricky.

Kim Ayres said...

Pat - :)

Hindsfeet said...

rooting for you, m'friend! : )

Kim Ayres said...

Thanks Liz :)

Yaya Snaps said...

Of course if you get left in I'll have to hear it...so hoping it happens :)

Kim Ayres said...

Thanks Theanne :)

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

So...are you in...? I'm vicariously enjoying the life of other creative people :-)

Kim Ayres said...

Neena - I won't know for a while yet. Meanwhile, if you fancy being our Guayana manager and could book us enough gigs to pay for it, The Cracked Man would happily come over to tour :)

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