random photos

Galway Town Hall and backstage at St Michaels Cathedral

Copenhagen

Me and Mary flew into Hamburg and spent the night with my booking agents Griot in the country. I have never been so spoiled in my life.  So much for the trials and tribulations of life on the road. I have not eaten so well and slept so well in years! There is a perception that 99% of the music industry is a viscous self serving soul drinking prick and so are 99% of the people involved. In fact its only 66%. There are people like the Wulf and Marion, who run Griot, that are involved because of a passionate love of music art and literature. I sat around and listened to stories of all the awesome people they have worked with and was amazed at their tenacity. The best part was right at the end where Wulf casually mentioned that he worked as a gaucho in Argentina. Holy fuck.
Julian who works at Griot was our driver, Teutonic comedian and tour manager for this short stint and we hit the road in the morning. The Baltic was not Baltic.
Mary by this stage was like a woman in luke warm water from being so relaxed. We overshot Copenhagen and pulled into to get something to eat beside the auto bahn. We walked inside and sat down and I suddenly realised from looking around that Denmark is populated by ridiculously tall good looking people. It got worse in Copenhagen and my IQ level dropped at least 20 points. Julian just kept laughing as another Danish supermodel rode by on a bike. I was looking for a hidden camera. I kicked around the city for a while and took some photos while Mary pillaged secondhand shops for lurid green 70's tops. We got tot the venue which was fantastic. It has 5 levels and is run by the state. Every city should have one. The PA was great and the drummer from Barra Head did sound for us.
It was cool meeting everyone from PLAY REC who put my record out there. Such a good bunch of committed people. They are starting to do really well and they deserve it. Shortly before we went on master chef Simon arrived with a huge pot of vegetable curry which we all wolfed down with great aplomb. Takk Simon!
We went on and the crowd was great, you could hear a pin drop and we really enjoyed playing. Not many mistakes either, I am really enjoying me new guitar.
We improved some ends and it all flowed nicely. I told everyone to spread the word, so hopefully next time there will be more people again. Hellraiser Ten played after us and had great melodies. They used piano and i can't wait till i can afford to take one on tour. singing to Piano is awesome, but guitar is practical and cheap to travel with. Maybe i should just cut the shit, lift some heavy weights and strap one to me back.
I am really looking forward to getting back here again. Thanks to Anne Marie for getting the show on the road!.
We hit the road and were back in our German Beds at 4 am. Julian is a driving fiend and a funny fucker.

Poland

Looks like I will have some shows coming up in Poland during mid November. I can't wait. Will post it up on the live page as soon as it's confirmed. I am working like a dog a the moment 8am till 1am. Scripts, animations, music...have i bitten off more than i can chew for the next few months? Absolutely. What a bad time to cut back on coffee.
Feeling good though.

the view

Pravda

I payed Pravda last night in Dublin as part of working class heroes festival. No sound check but it sounded good. I could tell i hadn't been singing in a week or two because my throat was weaker but i don' think anyone noticed. Mary (Barnecutt) played cello with me and threatened to kill me if i ever played Throw your arms around me in the wrong key again. That's her above havin a pre gig tea. We had a laugh. It is funny, i wrote it in one key and played it live in a different key for months before Mary pointed it out to me. Playing in a third key was a step too far though...hahahaa. Anthony a friend and fan from New York was there and it was good to see him. Him and his crazy friends had driven from New York to Canada to see clann zu play. they hung out with us for a few days and were cool guys. We went and saw a few songs of peaches and then rushed back to see the wonderful Valerie Francis play. Kevin her cellist is a fucking freak, he had one rehearsal and remembered it all by ear. Insane. I checked out Giveamanakick who tore it up and then called in quits. I'm really enjoying playing the new guitar. fair fucks to the guy who beat me on ebay for the case for it. Looking forward to Copenhagen on Saturday. I have never played in Denmark before.

I got an email from Chris in Propaghandhi today asking me to play their show in Dublin on December 15th. If it comes about it will be very strange as they are an awesome punk band and i am sure their audience will be bemused to say the least. I suppose there is some lyrical connections with the social/political songs. I am looking forward to the hard working class heroes festival on the weekend. I don't know if anyone will be at my show coz Peaches is playing at the same time in another venue. I hope i get to see some of her set. I really like her stuff and her attitude. I'd say she'd be fuckin deadly live. The pic is of meself and Kate Ellis the other half of Little Black Boat. This was the first time we played together and I think this was in Stanstead airport in the uk on the way to Wolfsburg in Germany where the whole idea for the project started.

Someone was kind enough to offer me a free pegasus guitar case to fit my new guitar. So now I'm trying to figure out how to get it from Washington to Dublin.

At the moment i'm working crazy hours to cash up for tours and the next album. I am writing an animation series for BBC and animating another for a studio in Dublin during the day and producing an animated series for Atom Films at night. Any time i have left is spent practicing the songs and running or training. Very un-rock and roll but the key to singing well is eating well and keeping fit. I'll post my regime for those of you interested in what i do to keep my voice in shape later. All this insane workload and 7 days of 15hrs working will end around December. I plan to take a few months off to concentrate on finishing the writing of the next album. If things go to plan and i get enough good shows next year I will be able to concentrate 100% on music and nothing else besides some painting and surfing to keep me sane.

I am in the last stages of a contract with a cool Indie label in the states and I will post here when it is all signed and ready to go. It is looking like an early '07 release for the states.

Thanks to everyone who writes to me with cool books to read and music to check out.

Hamburg

Hamburg fuckin rocks. Had one of best meals of my life at Cox restaurant on Greifswalder Strasse 43. Was great seeing a city so set up for bikes. Can't wait to come back and play here. Fuck it, maybe i'll move here...or Berlin...or Morocco.

4.39am insomnia

full moon shadows of bars on dirty window panes...

new guitar!

mental note...stay off ebay...stay off ebay. I bought a 20yr old lowden g9 acoustic from switzerland. It has plenty of nicks etc and it sounds like a piano. i fuckin love it. I never name guitars etc but this one gets a name. It's called ' saoirse' which means freedom in Irish. Yeah, yeah, I know it's lame naming a guitar, but fuck, this thing is almost as old as me i figure it needs some respect and a name at least. It's at the shop now getting some electrics fitted. i'll post a picture for fellow nerds soon.

I am looking forward to writing the next album on it. I have about 30 sketches and 3 finished so far. I think i will take january and february off to write...maybe i'll go to Morocco and write there. Cheaper than Dublin!

Little Black Boat - New project

hiya, heres a link to a sneak preview of a project with cellist Kate Ellis called Little Black Boat. it developed from an improvised piece we did at a show of mine in Wolfsburg Germany. These recordings were live to a minidisc in a hall last week. The violinist is Adrian Hart who also played on Song of a Thousand Birds as it is improvised you will hear the odd bum note (always from me hahahaaa) such is life and spontaneity. We will be taking this on the road too. hope ye are all well...
http://www.myspace.com/littleblackboat
declan

21st January 2006 Barcelona

- I awoke to be surprised by Turlough announcing that i didn't snore .I took off to show me ma the sites around Barcelona (she flew in with us as she was on one of her round the world travel jaunts..bad news for Turlough's liver.)We walked across to the Apollo where we were playing as it was right across from our hotel. Wow what a cool place...me and Turlough were still recovering from being treated so well by the promoters when Sergio almost disappeared through the ceiling of the balcony. he had his hand in a cast already. we nicknamed him 'lucky' from then on.We were in the middle of the bill between lots of rock bands, some of them were fantastic. (lo;muêso) were great .I was worried about how we would go down with a cello and acoustic guitar but it went out the window as soon as the lights went down. what a great audience. I felt privileged to play. GReat response. I ended up singing One bedroom apartment with out music and they sang along which was very cool. My voice was a bit shaky by the end as i pushed it too hard. but the spirit was there. there is a video and audio recording of this which should surface soon enough on the net. Afterwards i was talking to people and signing cds and discovered there were Clann ZU fans from peru there.All the people treated me and Turlough so well. we were spoilt. Afterwards the promoters and a bunch of their friends went out on the town. I tagged along. We left a club at 6 and just made it to the airport bus a few minutes before it took off. very funny.All in all me and Turlough had a brilliant time and i can't wait to get back to play in spain. Right now i have to work on some more music for the 90 min german show .PANIC!

Instore

I did an instore at Tower records in Dublin yesterday. THere was a mix up and Calexico were supposed to play the same time as me but went on after me instead. Two songs in and the microphone gives out and dies, so i got in the middle of the crowd and sang without a pa, just me and shruti box for a couple and just voice for one. I did a version of a clann zu song, at least the first vocal part of 'Bethlehem to Jenin'. I have been sing ing that and the last half of one bedroom apartment with just voice at some shows. A nod to the past. People like them to i think. Me sisters were there and brought some food from a chinese meal they had before hand. I was dyin with hunger and hadn't eaten since breakfast. Its hard on days i am singing i have to be strict with what i eat..no dairy, no sugar, loads of water, no coffee etc. A pain in the arse but it makes a big difference if i am singing for 90 minutes. After the show i went to a 'rock Jihad' at the international bar where they were playing Dead Kennedies and Bad Brains all night..oh yeah...

20th January 2006 - Barcelona

20th January 2006 - Barcelona - Me and Turlough got into Reus airport in the morning. I had been explaining that i always get stopped at airports and given the third degree by airport police. He thought i was joking till they took my passport and then his and ran us through every interpol list and god knows what on their computer. I think they have this vision that if you have an Irish passport you should have red hair white skin and freckles. I told Turlough to smile or we would get the rubber glove treatment. Fortunately he realised I wasn't joking. We had a show to do and it could be uncomfortable after a probing by the policia. Finally they let us go after everyone else had collected their bags and we were the only ones left in the building. We exited into the arms of (a very worried looking) Sergio and Sonia the promoters for the show. Onwards! the first show was at FNAC in the center of barcelona, i didn't know what the hell this was but everyone told me it would be great. it is best described as a mini auditorium with great acoustics in a shopping mall. People play all the time. As soon as we started the room was full. We had a brilliant sound and apart from fucking up curfew we played well. my voice felt good. Someone recorded it, so no doubt it will appear on the net somewhere. I really wished i could speak more than a few words of Spanish. Afterwards we hit the town for some food and craic (irish for fun not the cocaine)

it's snowing

25th November- mmm it's been a while since i've written here. I have been ironing out the live show. In the last month i've played shows with different cellists plus some on me own. It's been unusual in that some of the shows you could hear a pin drop. I've never experienced that before and it is strange but very welcome too. I suppose because some of the songs are fragile and sparse people treat the atmosphere of the show in the same way. It's been interesting as well having people fly in to the country from major record companies to check out the live shows. Very very strange... i take it all with a healthy dose of salt. I cycle everywhere in Dublin and have been knocked off me bike by cars two nights in a row and now my back and neck are a bit fucked. I have been writing new songs to keep me sane during the cold and dark that is a Dublin winter. I am very happy with them. I'm enjoying trying them out live too. Starting to get the recording itch, but i'm going to wait till i have a whole load to pick from.Its snowing outside as i type...time to pick up the guitar and see what happens.

Ukraine

6th October - Well the cd is online now and people are nice enough to order it. I can't thank ye all enough for ye're support.Blackbird song is still getting a spin on Irish radio and BBC northern ireland are giving it a great lashing altogether which is great. Im locked away practising makin the live show ship shape. Rehearsing with Turlough on cello over the next few weeks. There is a chance i might be playin on a few Irish tv shows which will be hillarious. im enjoying the shows a lot, each one is getting better and better and i'm learning quickly what works and what doesn't. Can't wait till i can afford to take more musos out with me. Im just back from the Ukraine where i spent two weeks on aship with a load of insane animators from around the world. best craic i've had in a long time. A million thanks to all the awesome people i met along the way and thanks for putting up with my 7 7 words of Russian and 3 of Ukranian. Awesome country awesome people. Spasibo!

Kiev

2nd September - I have a pile of new books sitting in a corner whispering --read me ...readme... . I am off to the Ukraine on the 19th for 10 days as part of an animation Festival I have a film in. They hold it on a cruise ship that goes down the Dnieper river from Kiev to Oddessa and Sebastapol on the Black sea. It stops in various towns along the way to play the films. they asked me to come along...i din't have to think twice. Kiev? Fuck yeah...

Ronan O Snodaigh

31st August 2005 - Played at the Crawdaddy supporting Rónán Ó Snodaigh. what a great show! It was weird before hand as there was a lot of record company people supposed to be there which didn't eventuate. i Don't like thinking about any of that when I'm playing. the songs should be the songs, no more no less whoever is there. I had a ball. All the time spent on these songs is paying off. IT's all a big experiment. i have never played on me own before this year. And now i can't imagine it any other way, sure guest musicians at various shows but at the core it should all work with just me voice and a guitar. Me voice was flyin and i really really enjoyed meself. Thanks to everyone who showed up and made it such a great night. Rónán was on fire and his bodhrán playing went supersonic. People jaws were on the floor. he got me back up on stage in the middle of his set to play Apple tree which i fucked up the guitar on but no one seemed to notice. It's weird playing it on acoustic with no delays or anything. I have to work on that one.

Saul Williams

27th Aug 2005 - Just saw Saul Williams play...play is a shite word....explode..thats it explode. That was one of those life changing gigs. I can't sleep. i can't eat. I still can't get the smile off my face and my face hurts. I danced so hard my great granchildrens muscles will feel sore. Do yourself a favour and buy his self titled album. Don't download it...he deserves every cent. A rarity in this world of shite. fair fucks to the man....fuck i am never going to sleep.

recording 20

25th May

Waiting for Richie to call so I can come over and do bass. He was flattened yesterday with food poisoning. He reckons he will be ok today but I doubt it. I am finishing all my bits and pieces anyway, I have a line of guitar to do on Black bird song and some throat singing harmonies too put on the end of Song of a thousand birds.
I am already thinking of the artwork, I want it to be a 12 page full colour booklet. I was looking at getting a book made of it but the cost would have meant it doesn’t come out till next year. I want the booklet to be a piece in itself to compliment the music, something that would make you pick it up even if you didn’t know what it was and want to read it.
I bought an electro acoustic Alvarez off ebay and I am converting all the songs to acoustic for the live shows. It will mean I can tour more places as soon as its out, just me and me guitar, a few pedals and me shruti box for flavour. I am looking forward to being able to say ‘Yes!’ to offers of shows without having to wait and consult a legion of people, and then trying to organise the chaos so you can travel as a group on no cash. So far so good, the acoustic is sounding really good and I am thinking the next album will be predominantly recorded that way. Albeit with a really nice guitar, a Lowden or a Mcilroy.
I don’t know what it is but the simplicity works with me voice. I hope to be able to take out a cellist and fiddle player with me to the bigger shows and festivals. Maybe even a drummer or percussionist too.
I think it will work acoustically as I wrote everything so that the songs would work as just guitar and voice, that was me only criteria. I’m looking forward to hitting the road and playing to people again.

recording 19

24th may
Adrian came round to put down the last of the fiddle. It was an experiment really. We weren’t sure if fiddle would fit with the song slow dissolve. Adrian busted out this mad riff on the chorus that reminds me of classical french court music or something and then went into a mad staccato piece at the end. Very happy with it. He nailed the whole thing in a few takes. The guy’s intonation is scarily good.

recording 18

16th May
Went round to Richie Egan’s (AKA JAPE) house with me laptop and he put down the bass lines. Everything in one take and one or two extra as safety takes. Great guy to work with. I have been lucky with this album. We chatted about how hard it is as an indie musician and sure fuck it tis worth it. I took the tracks away to listen to and we will finish the bass on the weekend. The last piece of the puzzle…then its mixing time.

recording 17

8th May
Adrian came over in between his hectic schedule as a fiddle in demand and we started to record his parts. Jaysus this boy has some serious musical chops… He was putting down lines and trying to avoid clichéd string parts. He did a great job and we chatted about musical instruments and recording and tai chi…great day altogether. He nailed about 3 tracks in the few hours we had.

recording 16

2nd May
Turlough arrived back after his travels round Europe and came over for a day. We had great craic working out the parts and he layed down some deadly cello lines again. (Jesus Turlough I’m still not right after those dodgy sandwiches from up the road). I put down some bodhrán on the track we worked on for most of the day, “Throw your arms around me”. This will probably be the first track on the album. I’m likin the sound of it so far. Will be interesting to see what Adrian puts down for fiddle.

recording 15

25th April
In me last week of animation then I am locked in here mixing. I borrowed a beautiful lowden acoustic from Mick Molloy at a session on Sunday and recorded an acoustic version of Throw your arms around me, I like the vocal as its raw and somehow right, so its untouched, raspy bits and all. Rónán Ó Snodaigh came over today to lay down some percussion. He ended up picking up the lowden and laying down a lovely african sounding guitar melody over the top. He added a simple percussion line to song of a thousand birds and a lovely bodhran piece to the end of Apple tree. He is insanely talented and I was chuffed when he told me that he really liked the songs. Sometimes your heroes are nice people too. You can check out his stuff and his band Kila here. Highly recommended.

recording 15

March 26th, 2005 Turlough showed up early and we lashed into it. I had a problem with a chord in the chorus of 3 days from now and Turlough agreed it wasn’t working, we pulled out the guitar and within a few minutes we located the problem and got rid of the note that was throwing it all off kilter. The cello was spot on. I am now really fucking excited and looking forward to getting all the other sounds in and mixing it. I have never looked forward to mixing a record in my life as it’s usually like pulling your own teeth. (i'm sure it will wear off after the first hour of listening to a kick drum on repeat…) Claire Bonass came in and sang a few lines on the chorus of slow dissolve. Her voice scares me it is so good.I went to see dead can dance at the Olympia a few weeks ago and Lisa Gerrard was the same. She scared the bejaysus out of me…from the first note to the last it was perfection and she didn’t falter for a millisecond. Inspiring…as soon as I leave concerts like that I want to go home and stay awake for week writing.

recording 14

March 25th, 2005
Turlogh came round to my place today and we started on cello. We had only today and tomorrow to finish al the cello parts as he is heading off around Europe for a month. Turlough plays in a Dublin band called the chapters. I had access to an empty room next to mine in the falling down Georgian house I live in. High ceilings and wooden floorboards, Turlough was lovin the sound and it didn’t take us long to find the sweet spots to set up the mikes. In between people cutting their lawns and car alarms we got cello down on three songs. I changed me mind and got rid of cello on throw your arms around me, Turlough wanted to put down something on apple tree… it worked a charm. IT has lifted the whole thing. We ate lots of good food and talked about music. He played me a guy called tom McRae after seeing the mbira I had in me room.

recording 13

March 17th, 2005
No work at the animation studio today and I have hitred a nice preamp for the day to finish any wee vocal and guitar bits I have to do. Outside Dublin is preparing for the blood, puke and piss fest that is Paddy’s day. I am staying away from the hordes as I have to work on this and B I will only end up in a fucking fight on Camden sty. I would like to go see Damien Dempsey who is playing at vicar st. I think he is great. Not a big fan of the paddy’s day song but the rest of the album is fucking class. A top guy as well. Everybody who calls him token paddy is full of shite. They don’t have the balls to write songs like he does. Fair fucks to him.
* Note I was right - 700 people arrested last night for public order offences. (i.e. beating the shite out of each other) The streets were war zone.

recording 12

March 4, 2005
Since I last wrote in here I have been working up to 15 hrs a day in an animation studio scraping the cash to live and record this record. I have been a fucking zombie.
Asylum studios
I was lucky to find this studio just off O’Connell st in Dublin. It was the only one I could afford that had all the things I wanted to record drums. Cion o Callaghan is doing the drums on the record. I had met him when he filled in on drums for a few months in Clann Zú when we were based in Dublin. He plays percussion in Paddy Casey's band these days. A gasman altogether, I had rehearsed with Cion during the week and he had what I wanted down. So I was fairly confident. The only thing against me was time, coz I could only afford a day. So Cion had to nail his pieces. We set up the drums in a dance studio next door with wooden floorboards etc, very live sounding. Jimmy the engineer was really fucking quick setting up the drums and before along (way faster than I’m used to in studio) we had a sound I was looking for. I plugged in and off we went. Cion nailed all the takes in one or two goes. We were finished all the tracks by 6 and we had time to lay down Cion playing a kehone, a Peruvian box percussion instrument. I transferred the files to me Mac and caught the bus home delighted with meself. It’s all shaping up now.

recording 11

4th Feb. 2005
Have been working insane hours at an animation studio in town. Saving the cash to pay the musicians and studio. Have found a studio within me budget to record the drums. I am working till mid April on these animations and had planned to postpone the recording of drums and cello till then. But I met Turlough the cellist tonight and he is away traveling in April so I have to move everything forward and get the drums and cello done in next six weeks. So sleep will be down to 5-6 hrs a night from now till then. I went and saw Rónán Ó Snodaigh play last night at the crawdaddy. He invited me up and I sang, “Leaves in the autumn” unaccompanied. It felt good. That guy is so fucking talented it scares me. Nina Hynes supported and her new stuff is really really good. I hope we can play a show together.

recording 11

7th January 2005
It is howling outside and pissing down, The last few days have seemed really dark, dark when I get up and dark when I leave e job and head home. I picked up the guitar and finished the germ of an idea I had the other day, I lay down on the floor with the wind outside tearing everything asunder and wrote the words in one go. I picked up the guitar and sang it all in one go. It just wrote itself, simple song and the words are uplifting. Although what I think is uplifting or positive other people sometimes laugh and say i'm fucked in the head. The title at the moment is “when so little means so much”. This song was what I needed to finish the album writing wise. I am fairly sure this song will make the cut. I think now that the ones that get cut will be ones that don’t fit with the album as a whole rather than they not being better or worse songs. These are all just a snapshot of where I am now. What I write in a month’s time will be totally different. I feel a sense of relief at having the missing song done. It seems complete to me although I am far from it, as I have to record it all. I am in two minds about drums on some tracks; alternative percussion may be the go, boxes, and bits of metal. Who knows? I called the TV station that the bands “Mandala” I saw the other night were on and I got their number. I spoke to the Tabla player and if the songs I have written are in the same key as his drums he will play on there. I couldn’t tell him what key its in coz I don’t have a clue. So I will send him the tracks and see what he thinks. I offered me services as a “voice as instrument” on their recording too and live if they needed it, singing Indian scales etc is a challenge. I love that kind of vocal. It would be very enjoyable. I hope the roof stay on me house tonight.

recording 10

3rd January 2005.
I wanted to get two songs written that had been half formed and record the vocals for them today. Went to plug in me guitar and got nothing, opened it up and yep one of the wires had come loose. No problem solder it…out of solder, go to shops on bank holiday and get solder. I managed to find a hardware shop open and came home to fix it…soldering iron knackered …back to shop to find they are out of soldering irons. Into the heart of Dublin with a crazed look on me face going into fish and chip shops askin if they knew of a hardware store open. Long story short and 4 hrs later I did it and fixed the guitar in short order. I finished the song based on the riff I had canabalised from the middle eight section of “strength don’t leave me now”. It is called “curfew” and it wrote itself really, simple song. Put down the guide guitar and lashed into the vocals. Did an alternate version of "deep in the ferns" and decided that the original was better and now I have a spare melody left over which is gnawing in me brain as another song. I’m going to have to put a stop to this soon as I will have two albums worth to choose from and its already doin me head in figuring which ones to cut. Could be worse if twas the other way round I suppose. So shut yer mouth declan. Anyway I got all the vocals done I wanted to with the wee bit of equipment I hired over the last week and a bit. It goes back tomorrow morning and I head back into the animation studio for a few weeks during the day to pay for some more equipment and musicians etc. At night I will be going through the takes I did and laying down guitar for the ones that only have a guide on em. Then it’s the fun of getting the drums, percussion, cello,fiddle, bass and bits and bobs that will make up the sauce on the meat and potatoes. Just saw an awesome Tabla player on a TV show here from a Dublin band called Mandala, will have to try and find him. Nothing on the web. I wish days had 48 hrs in them, sleep was not needed and I could just make music all day. Shutup declan you eejit and get to sleep. The diary will be more sporadic from now on as lots of it is boring until the other musos add their flavours. Will work on the site in the mean time.

recording9

2nd January 2005
I had a great day of vocals today. I had been trying all morning to get the end of “song of a thousand birds” to work. Different guitar rhythms, different vocals and none of it working. It was all sounding …adequate. So I sat there and just shut the fuck up for a minute and listened…. and lo and behold in the silence the end came to me. I set up the room mike and put down the percussion with me boots stomping on the wooden floor. I got rid of the guitar altogether at the end. I layed down the vocal over the top and it all just sat perfectly. I set up the mikes again turned on the amp and improvised the intro to “lay me down in the ferns”. A melody stuck out of it and all of a sudden i'm rewriting the whole song with a new chorus. I haven’t finished it and I want to get it down (vocals at least) before I have to give this preamp back. I like when things happen off the cuff and the song changes whether you want it to or not.

recording9

1st January 2005
Well I waited for ages today until me voice was in form and started singing. I did the vocals for the new tempo version of “ 3 days from now” and it sounds much better like I wanted it to. Came up with a nice harmony for the chorus on “slow dissolve”.
I decided that the middle 8 melody on “Strength don’t leave me now” was to be stolen and turned into another song that might even make the album. It just happened what can I say. Audio mitosis. Going to work on that tonight before I sleep and see what happens, if not it will make the next album, I am excited by the year ahead.

recording 8

31st December 2004
Spent most of today on “old boat” doing guitar. This song is in a strange tuning and I like the feel of it. I remember writing the lyrics and melody while in a van going surfing in Cork the day after a Clann Zú show at the Cork film festival. I was looking for a break and there was an old wooden boat half sunk into the mud of an estuary, broken and forgotten. It summed up how I felt at the time perfectly and the words came out in one go along with the melody. I sang the vocal into a video camera I had with me and forgot about it. Then I remember sitting down in a hallway in Prague and singing it to Benjamin from Clann Zú while we were waiting for something or other and him saying he liked it, at the time I had the idea that it would be one unchanging riff the whole way through. But the chorus made itself known in the flat in ranelagh one night when the lads were back in oz for xmas. This was the first song I ever wrote a guitar part for. So it has had a long development for such a simple song.
I discovered on listening back to the tracks from before that there was some bleed of the click track from my headphones into the room mike for some of the guitar tracks I had done and realized that some of them will have to be redone. So I decided to concentrate the last couple of days I have with this nice preamp (a chandler tg2 in case there are any nerds interested) working on vocals. I did another version of “wind that shakes the barley”” just for the hell of it and then headed down to Whelan’s for New years.

recording 7

30th December 2004
Time screams away and the pressure is on…today I got the guitar done for “welcome home”. This song means a lot to me and I want to get it right, again I can hear the cello parts in my head. It will be funny humming this stuff to Turlough, but the cello seems close to the human voice to me. It’s probably my favourite instrument to listen to. Tomorrow I hope to get two songs done with on guitar. Leaving one day for the last song and then two days for vocal retakes, some adlib bits I want to add and whatever else I can think of. I am feeling exhausted mentally, there are so many possibilities. I can’t get overworked and lost in this recording or I will lose all the simplicity I wanted. It is so different playing guitar live and recording where everything is exposed; there is no hiding behind performance and the live air.

recording 6

29th December 2004
Spent today working on “3 days from now” very frustrating, something just wasn’t right and it didn’t have the feel that I wrote it with. Racked my brain all day different takes and nothing worked. I like this song a lot and I like the lyrics a lot. Was considering scrapping it altogether. Called it a day and went down to Sin é and sung a song with Liam Malone. Was great seeing him and Claire Bonass play, If I had spare cash I would put them out on my label, its only a matter of time before someone does. Came home and realized I had been too close to this song and couldn’t see the wood for the trees. Next morning and I realize the pace is all wrong, far too fast. So I will rerecord the whole thing at the end of this session. I may replace the melody of the verse with a piano part too. It will be worth it.

recording 5

28th December 2004
Finished the guitar on “Song of a thousand birds’ after a crisis in confidence on the guitar sound for half a day. After hours and hours of moving microphones around the room I ended back in the exact same spot I started with and as it always goes I was delighted with the sound. Tomorrow I will have to get two songs done as I only have this preamp till the 3rd of Jan. Even when I am doing it diy there are still deadlines! I ended going outside yesterday for the first time since I started this block of recording as I ran out of food. The light was intense. “Song of a thousand birds will be one of my favourites on this album I think. It’s simple and moves well, I can hear the cello and percussion now. I am really looking forward to adding all the other elements. I hope I have left enough space in the songs for everything.
I was thinking this evening that I am already looking forward to writing and recording the next album when the pressure of this one is out of the way. Glutton for punishment.

recording 5

27 December 2004
Did the guitar for “slow dissolve” , finally got a take I was happy with. I think I have to redo the vocal as I recorded it with too much juice and I think its distorting in places. Long day. I hope it picks up tomorrow and I’m not banging my head against the recording wall. The process gets in the way of the songs sometimes. Some other times it flies.

recording 4

26 December 2004
Spent most of the day trying to get a sound I liked from the mics on the amp. Lots of boring techy stuff with effects before and after the amp. It was a suck it and see day. I got the guitar done for “slow dissolve”. I also put the original guitar for “apple tree” which Benjamin from Clann Zú played in 2003 thru the amp and rerecorded it. It was originally recorded thru a little solid-state practice amp in a flat in Dublin. But the take was deadly. I could play that a thousand times and never get the same feel as that take so I resampling it was the best option. It s the same with the demo vocal I did for it, the feel on it is hard to match again so I may use that too. Some times it is the time and place over anything else.

recording 3

25 December 2004
Woke at 7.30 to a call from me friend Paula in Australia reminding me it was Christmas. It was freezing, got up and sure enough it was snowing outside. I listened through the takes from the day before and they were grand. I chose the ones with most spirit to them even though a few were not the ultimate takes in terms of singing but they sat right in me head anyway. My grand plan of the other people who have flats in the house moving out for the e day fell flat on its arse, so I moved all my recording gear down to the bottom storage flat which was half drenched in water from leaking pipes. Working with little islands of dry patches and hoping I wouldn’t fry meself or what little equipment I have I started on the last few songs for vocals, I got “ apple tree”, “ 3 days from now” “strength don’t leave me now” and “ deep in the ferns” which was the vocal melody from an early Clann Zú song that never got used. I really like the new music I came up with to go with the vocal melody. I like the new lyrics too. I have just realised on putting all these songs together that there are recurring themes showing up. Did a version of “wind that shakes the barley” too, I do that song live sometimes at the end of a show or if equipment breaks down. I would die happy to write a song like that. Packed all the equipment back up and tomorrow I start with the guitar, should be fun and a challenge as I have only been playing guitar since I decided I wanted to do this album. I hate playing with a pick as it feels more natural to me to use me fingers but it is hard to get it sounding as tight when you record it. I am still not sure which drummer will be playing on this record; it depends on who’s free when the studio is. I have it narrowed down to three. I am considering doing a stereo mic recording of the drums here in one of the spare rooms with a lovely sound. I love those kind of drum sounds on Billie holiday records etc. Turlough from the chapters is playing cello on 7 of the songs and there are drums on 6. Rónán from Kila will be laying down some percussion and hopefully Adrian from riabla will be putting down fiddle, he is blistering. Not sure of who is going to play bass on the two tracks that have it. I have a few choices to go with. Was thinking maybe double bass. We will see. I hope to have this fucker in the bag by March.

recording 2

24 December 2004
I am dying of a headache, which I rarely get. Spent a lot of time putting down simple drum patterns to play along to as the click is annoying me and I have some weird gappy bits where it skips a beat or holds a beat (which I discovered only on playing along to the straight click and wondering what the fuck was going on). I never think of that stuff when I write. But there is no escaping it when you are recording it. Especially in the situation where I’m recording the basic tracks and have to have them right for the other musicians so they can follow what’s going on.
I managed to get the vocals done on three tracks, minus an ending on one. The tracks were “ slow dissolve”, “old boat” and “ welcome”. I am not listening back really till the next morning so I can get the spirit of it right and moving. I don’t want it to sound laboured and contrived. Something I have to be wary of because of the way i'm recording.
My neighbours have the patience of saints because I’ve been belting it out. One of them is a fiddle player so I don’t feel too bad. It takes me half an hour to throw away the self-conscious feeling where I hold back on the voice. It has to sound free.
Oh Christ this head is killing me and idiots on the TV are talking about Christmas plastic surgery gifts. I want to burn the fuckers.
Thought for the day:
How about donating the cash from your new tits you want, your liposuction, your dick enlargement, your botox to a starving kid, or well for clean water or fucking anything else. If you really are into plastic surgery buy a kid with a cleft palette surgery or clear someone of glaucoma so they can see.
Feck I need to put me head down on me leaba. Goodnight.

recording 1

23 December 2004
7.30 am up and showered cant sleep. Nervous and excited as always when recording vocals. I am off to big bear audio to hire a really nice preamp to add to my average microphone. Hopefully it should all sound good. I am getting a good deal on it as I am hiring over Christmas, every penny counts in the world of the indie muso. It all works out as I’m recording in my bed-sit in Dublin and all the other people living in the house will be taking off for Christmas dinners at home with their families etc. Hopefully I will get at least two good recording days for vocals out of it. I have recorded all the guide guitars to clicks bar one which I have to do today, I still haven’t finished the ending on one, its 90% there. One of these songs will be culled from the album, I wont be sure till the end. It’s pissing down outside and gale force winds; I’m not looking forward to the walk there and back. I am paranoid about catching a cold or flu. I have been off bread and dairy for a few days now and will be off it till I finish all the vocals. The voice is a weird instrument and it sounds different every day. Volatile is the word. Fingers crossed.
Decided yesterday that the working title for the album is “a touch of cold water.”

LATER: well I managed to get the gear all hooked up and found a sound I liked with the microphone in the room. I lashed into “song of a thousand birds” and put down 3 or 4 takes. I am trying to use complete takes for the vocal rather than cutting and pasting bits I like. So there will be the odd syllable or note I don’t like, but that’s the way it works sometimes. Perfection is for the purists. I just want to be able to get close to the vibe I have in me head for these songs. Intimate.