We were working hard on the sonics for tomorrow’s/today’s (Saturday, 26th) In Deep Music Archive October fundraiser, with a whole set of different songs and new challenges to deliver them. There’s some we have never played live before and some we are revisiting, some we know well and some we forgot we had, there’s a lot of songs to choose from and I hope you like the deeper catalogue as well as the more well-known songs, some of which we played on the September livestream.
I’ve been thinking how we can keep on improving the sonic quality of the livestream experience, so first thing today I went down to Danceplanet and bought another mic stand (45 euros). I have an AKG 414 that I bought in the 17th century and it’s a really great mic for acoustic guitars. It means that Olivia can use the Nord 2 exclusively for her violin and vocals. Before, we were sharing that one mic, a compromise for both instruments. (This is great nerd information.)
I went to Tubitek around the corner from Danceplanet to see if I could exchange my brand-new copy of Van der Graaf Generator – Pawn Hearts (1971). I unsealed the shrink wrap, took it out of the cover, put it on the turntable and was horrified to hear a constant click click click on the first track, a large scratch across the first grooves of the record. They didn’t have another copy and none of the suppliers seem to have it in stock at the moment, but if one shows up, they will exchange it for me. How does it get scratched inside the shrink wrap? It must be someone in the packaging plant or a robot who resents anything analogue.
A sesh with Bob in Boston and then straight after Matias arrived and we started working on incorporating the new set-up into the sound. We worked on it for hours. There are so many variables, so many parameters to look at. Finally, we got there, trying different mic positions, different guitars, different songs, trial and error, and one can only hope it sounds as good tomorrow as it did today, especially after all the effort we put in. Matias is playing one of the songs, with me just singing, so that’s new too.
Music today has been Big Star – Radio City (1974). I dropped into Tubitek to pick it up, it’s an exclusive UK release and it’s always good to have a brand-new copy of a classic. This is the album with one of their best-known songs, September Gurls.