recordingrecordingrecording

More vocal tracking today. Dan and I were both a bit (very) tired, which made for interesting recording times. But we got lots done and are happy about their album being SO CLOSE to being all tracked.

Tomorrow I have some time to catch up on some mixing and then in the evening I start on some new stuff with Mali Mali.

Percussion Obsession.

Percussion is something I can never have enough of.

I recently hired out all my tambourines and shakers etc to Ben from Kingston when he was tracking their albums percussion which has inspired me to expand my collection. I bought a few bits and peices yesterday (more than is in the picture) I got the bells and the seed pods at tradeaid. The seed pods sound incredible, we used them in the mess at the end of Autumn by Artisan Guns. I am on the look out for more bells though.

Kingston came back Wednesday and Thursday and we got heaps done, but still more to do. Once everythings tracked we'll send all the files over to the US for mixing and mastering. Its kinda nice to be involved in a project where I know I won't need to obsess over how the mix sounds for months afterwards.

Tonight Hayden Dale and I are going to try and move the piano. This should be fun.

Kingston Album

Woo. More Kingston Vocals today, this morning we did some gang vocals, my Kiwi set to wide Cardiod works really well for this. Then Shohan dominated her parts on "Miss You" before Dan Scott and I spent the rest of the day working on "I'm Gonna Be With The King" which we finished.

Now I am working on comping up the doubles and harmonies and doubles of harmonies and everything else we did today!

Everyone's voice seemed to be on form today, some really great singing, especially Shohan and Dan. The song is sounding HUGE, Brandons doing a great job on it.

Kingston Album Tracking

Kingston are so close to finishing their Album. They've been over in Canada and New York tracking Drums, Bass and Guitars. They came back to New Zealand a couple of months ago and their producer Brandon Friesen has been over for the past 3 or so weeks finishing off Vocals and adding more guitars and synths etc out at a batch they've been hiring at Piha.

Brandons headed of to Australia and New York before returning to Canada and I've been left to track 3 songs worth of vocals, plus some doubling of vocals and harmonies and some more guitars.

Today we finished the Vocals on "Miss You" and Scott put down a fair bit of guitar pieces here and there.

What I've heard of the album sounds HUGE. Can't wait for Brandon to give it his final touches so I can see how its all going to sit in the mix.

Kingston and Best Before Hamilton and Tauranga

(Hamilton-Elevate Youth Hall)

Just got back from the other dates with Kingston and Best Before, all the bands were great to hang out with. I had a great time in Tauranga with Grace and Best Before on Sunday before their show on the Monday.


As it was the last night of the tour Kingstons manager (and current session guitarist!) Tim decided that each band could do whatever they wanted to the other band...

Kingston introduced Best Before as "The Fags" and played Gay Bar through the PA while Best Befores new band name was put on the front of the kick drum. Later while they were playing Kingston got up on stage and put hats, bras, make-up and feather boas on Best Before and in their last song sprayed silly string all over them.

Best Before retaliated with a special show in Kingstons last song. The following video should explain all...

(Making the most of Kingstons special gifts.)

Kingston + Best Before tour

Started the first date of the Kingston + Best Before shows tonight (I don't think 3 dates really constitutes a tour) tonight was at Zeal, which is always a nice venue. I am a big fan of the QSC HPR series, they never fail to impress. Zeal has four of the 3 way powered cabs loaded with a 15"s, four 18" powered subs and 4 of the 12"monitors. I am so glad that my friends at Jands sorted them out with such a great PA. (and enough DI's for ridiculous synth bands who need 6 DI's, plus a DI on the bass = 7! Crazy.)

Kingston are fresh back from recording their album in Canada+America, so fresh that Scotts guitar etc is still in customs and he's borrowing my Tele, tuner and Hotcake for these shows. I love hanging out with the Kingston guys and am looking forward to the drive to Hamilton with Ben Barter tomorrow.

Best Before and Kingston (despite not really being the sort of music I would choose to listen to at home or on the bus etc) both really stand out as well rehearsed bands who have sussed out their live performances. Really great performers, confident, engaging, interesting and exciting.

Looking forward to the next 2 Dates, looks like it could be fun! (I forgot my Camera so photos are courtesy of Sha's IPhone, she runs a cool website here)

Kingston V Advert

Kingston's track "You Want It" recorded here is currently being run on TV ads for V energy drink heres a youtube clip of the Ad



Its a pretty cool Advert, I'm really proud of the Kingston guys, they work really hard and with their album due to be recorded in Canada over the next few months it seems that things are really paying off for them!

We recorded the song a few months back, just before they headed off to L.A, Germany and Japan. Drums and bass were done live with a guide guitar track, later we tracked guitars over the top. Finally Dan came in to do his vocals for this and the 4 other songs we demoed in the evenings over a week. Here's some of the only pics from those sessions (too busy working for photo taking! I think Shohans camera took these)