A Very Little Christmas

Well the Christmas album is out now, if you haven't got it yet you can download it for free from www.littlemonsterstudio.co.nz/avlc.html or you can purchase it from good record stores in NZ. So far we've had 2200 downloads from all over the world. Thanks to those who've been sharing the link around so far. If you haven't  yet we'd really appreciate it if you wanted to. I just want to give a Christmas present to as many people as possible. 

Today I was reading the text from Phil Spector on the back of his Christmas record (and even though I am sure he would probably hate my christmas album/me) I thought I'd post an excerpt it here because it sums up some of my feelings towards and behind "A Very Little Christmas"

"...This album was produced solely for you and only with you in mind. It is an endeavor to epitomize the great young stars in the recording field, singing some of the greatest music ever written. It comes from me to you with the sincere wish that you understand and appreciate this endeavor into something new and different for Christmas. I am very proud of my artists at this moment and very grateful for having the opportunity to express myself as I have been able to do in this album. I, along with The Crystals, The Ronettes, Darlene Love, and Bob B. Soxx and The Blue Jeans, hope that you enjoy and love this album as much as we enjoyed making it for you and wish you the Merriest of Christmases and the Happiest of New Years and we thank you so much for letting us spend Christmas with you.

Phil Spector, Producer "

- liner notes from "A Christmas Gift For You" (you can read the rest here if you want)

This is also happening next wednesday, if you're in Auckland it'd be great to see you there. There will be free mince pies. FREE MINCE PIES! Plus good bands playing hooray. 

Ruby Frost - Lennon Cover

Ruby Frost and band were over yesterday recording a John Lennon cover. It was quite a different process from all the recording I've done with her so far. In the past we've done almost everything in the computer with software synths, plus maybe some percussion here and there and a bit of electric guitar or bass (and some hammond of course) but this time round we recorded real drums, real synths, even guitars played by real people...

Cam, Haddon and Jimmy (and even Ruby herself) are all really good musicians so the parts are played really well and its got a really nice groove which I think is important for this song. However it doesn't give me as much flexibility with the sounds as I would with programming the parts, so we spent a lot longer thinking about synth sounds etc instead of programming all the parts in and then considering sounds.

We recorded what was probably one of the most obscenely rock and roll guitar parts I have ever recorded. Haddon played power-chords through my big muff and stood leaning back and forth to get just the right amount of feedback to keep the chord sustaining... We tracked it for the whole song but I think I might just use it here and there and maybe quietly in the mix.

Drum sound is pretty huge, I've got a ribbon set up quite far back in the room which I've got limited really hard to almost sound like distortion. But it really helps to have a consistent and central hitter like Jimmy with a really nice sounding drum kit.