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June 17th 2004
We had agreed on a selection of songs for the first
volume to cover songs I wrote for Uriah Heep, given new life by
new arrangements, musicians and instrumentation. I will be working
with the Symphony again on some tracks and I am really looking forward
to that. Based on the selection, some of the basic drum and bass
tracks had already been recorded (a nice idea that would give us
a lot of headaches later on) so we decided to get stuck into work
on the "foundation" tracks, beginning with the Hammond
parts. I was physically quite tired so it was a good idea to begin
with the parts that I didn't have to think about too hard!! I had
a choice of a standard B3 or the new XB3 which I had worked with
before and which is excellent for recording. I wouldn't choose it
for live work but, after some adjustment and experimenting with
microphones on the Leslie, we quickly laid the tracks and it was
pleasantly surprising how fast we were moving and how quickly we
could hear the results as the tracks began to grow.
One of the biggest challenges of course was the language but we
had foreseen this and Egor became my faithful shadow, as he translated
the technical language between myself and the engineers as well
as normal conversations and interviews. There is a lot of interest
in the press because this is the first time a so-called "Western"
artist has made a record here. And some are quite surprised at it
all, implying a lack of confidence in their facilities and, worst
of all, in their players. I am confident that this project will
change their thinking, that this skepticism will decrease and I
am quite sure that others will eventually follow this path. From
my experience there are a lot of great players here but, because
of their strict training and background they just tend to be a bit
"stiff" so I am teaching them to relax a bit and not to
be afraid to break musical rules. I suppose it's kind of an "attitude"
thing!
Sadly, my beloved Monica is not here with me. We are almost inseparable
now and so it's a bit strange being apart but, for a number of reasons,
this was not a good time for her to leave Spain, although I think
the prospect of sitting around in a studio for endless hours while
I had fun wasn't particularly appealing anyway. We talk a lot and
I'll be doing these projects in three or four short trips so it
will be difficult but not too terribly bad!
At the end of the day it was time for me to go back to the hotel
which wll be my "home" (minus Monica and the animals)
for my time here. We are taking most of our meals in the studio
so we can maximise on the time I am here and on this particular
night I was so tired I just fell out of my clothes and into bed.
Next
day...
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