HAMMOND. LESLIE. GOOD TIMES.

This is probably my most exciting/excited blog post ever.

I am now in possession of a beautiful old Hammond E262 (one of the wood options on the E100) Tone Wheel organ, pretty much a B3/C3 but with lot less features and a bigger heavier cabinet. This was designed to be the home model with its built in speakers and they were made between 1964 and 1969.

Also it has a lovely Leslie (model 145) with it. I turned it on yesterday and it was the most joyous thing I have ever heard. This is something I have dreamed of owning for years. I never thought it would happen and am incredibly grateful to Mark, Roxie and the Haines family.

Drums with Alex. (Cool Rainbows and Mali Mali)

Yesterday afternoon Alex and I ventured out to Waiuku to the wonderful Revolver studios to meet Cass and Djeisan who had been there all day working hard on finishing the Cool Rainbows album.

When we arrived Djeisan was just finishing off a mix before we moved on to tracking drums and bass for 3 songs. One of which we originally recorded about a year ago! I Can't wait to hear it all done now, its sounding amazing.

By the time we finished for the evening it was about 1.30am. We decided to sleep over at Revolver and head back early the next day. So we woke at 7 and after picking up some drums from Alex's house and dropping Cass home we made our way out to my house for breakfast before starting recording drums for Mali Mali's EP.


The drummer that was booked in for the recording fell through and I recommended Alex for the Job, he did incredibly well (as I knew he would).

With the Mali Mali EP we're not really going for a full drum kit sort of sound (bar one song when we set up a full kit with the usual mics) its more based around percussive ideas I guess. I knew its the sort of area where Alex shines and he came with some great ideas but also had some really nice tonal contributions using different drums and tunings etc

We tracked drums for all the songs today and I was happy that my Highland Marching Pipe Band Drums got a look in and sounded GREAT. I think the Mali Mali EP is coming together in a way that I really hadn't anticipated (its sounding better than I thought) and its not even finished yet, Bass and Vocals next!


Overall a very productive 2 days!

what is going on?

As some of you may know I have a bit of reputation when it comes to baking/cooking. I thought this soup was a disaster. Then I added pesto. Turns out that adding a spoon of pesto in to a soup might just be my discovery of the year. Its so good. Oh and if you're wondering yes I baked that bread.

I haven't blogged in a while, I think I am going to post less and when I do post I'll try to make it a goodie. Much like my blog things are changing a tiny bit for Little Monster. I am quite excited about some upcoming projects + prospects. But I am also excited about seeing some projects that I have been working on for a while come to a close so that you can hear them.

oh look, heres a photo of some of my pedals and amps and stuff.

Currently I am as busy as per usual. This evening I re-tracked the harmonicas on the Great North album with Hayden and I have Dale coming for some more BV's next week (ok so I lied when I said it was all tracked) and all the other projects I am currently working on are keeping me pretty busy at the moment.

In other news I am waiting for some new Focal monitors that should be in the post soon. I am very excited!

I will leave you with Artisan Guns video for "In To The Cold" Matt did a great job at directing the video, I love it so much.



I recorded "In To The Cold" earlier in the year, its available in good CD stores on Artisan Guns EP "Hearts" or on Itunes also.

Artisan Guns Ep Release Party

I was doing sound at the Rising Sun on Saturday for Artisan Guns EP Release. The show went really well. I enjoy Rising Sun when I get a decent amount of time to setup and tune everything right, it usually sounds good and either the GL2400 or Midas they usually have there keep me happy. Subterranes were amazing as per usual and Artisan Guns played an incredible set.

I took the photo above at soundcheck when I had enough time to do that, Artisan Guns draped the whole venue in flags and put ducks everywhere it looked great!

What a lovely evening!

New Toys.

Yeah pretty cool huh.

Pink Pound Experiences

Had another session with the Pink Pound Experience yesterday, got another track in the bag. I'm actually quite pleased with how it turned out so far, I think they were too. Before we stopped for lunch I think everyone was a bit concerned it wasn't sounding that good but once we got both guitars down and started tracking vocals everything tied together really nicely, its funny how these things happen.

Vocals and Drums were a bit of a challenge to get nailed right on this song but when we got them it was definitely worth it. We tracked a few of the Backing Vocals live in to one mic for a change, almost like a gang vocal but not really at all. Turned out quite nice actually, I was worried that it was going to be difficult to get everyone's voice sitting right etc but the sound of 2 or 3 people singing at once stood next to each other is great, so why not record it like that rather than recording them separately and then mixing them in Protoools.

More Chelsea!

We recorded lots of Tom today, with so many layers I didn't want the satisfyingly warm and full sound that the MD421 was giving so I opted for a good old beta58a instead to give me more attack and punch and then the Kiwi as a room mic.

Chelsea also "dropped some phat casio tone beats" and played some drone-y keys on Under. Plus various other vocal experiments, I played some jingle bells too.

We're recording in an almost modular way, everything is very flexible. We're tracking parts and then cutting them up, making loops, moving the songs around to be what they need. Its a really interesting process to see a song evolve and fun too.


I want to finish this asap so you can hear it all. (so I can listen to it on the train)

Chelsea.

Some time ago I helped mix and master a one week EP that Chelsea from Teacups recorded with Jono, Alex and Reuben from Artisan Guns. If you haven't heard her solo stuff before its very different from Teacups, lots more electronic and atmospheric but still very pretty.

We just started working towards her album and I am very excited. Very. Today we worked on a song called "Under" recording a whole heap of vocals and some piano and guitar and bass.

My converted Valve Radio guitar amp was made use of in to the Vox Cab.

I had exactly the same bizarre old guitar that James has just under my bed collecting dust. Now he has 2.

Mali Mali Recording

Recorded some electric guitars for a Mali Mali song yesterday, Andrew ran his Ibanez AS200 through his fender twin and Peter used my Gretsch through my Vox AC15. Both such great combinations, barely any playing around with sounds, just stick a mic up and go!

Then we added another track of acoustic to a different song before they had to rush off, all in all a fairly productive few hours! We're slowly getting the peices of this puzzle in to place.

The Bayonets EP Release

Excitement, The Bayonets are finally releasing their EP they recorded with me off and on over the past yearish, I think the EP turned out really good and this show is one not to miss with the wonderful Jocee Tuck and heart-warming Alaska.