…sitting down with a CD of three mp3 demo tracks one of them I've always referred to as 'the piano song'. I cranked up my old 16 track portable studio, set up a microphone loaded up the song, opened up the mic and thought to myself, what am I going to do with this? I don’t want to f**k up such a beautiful piece of music!…you guys can be the judge once you hear it
So headphones on, pen in hand, I just started listening to the song a few times. I couldn't turn it up loud enough and due to neighbours I couldn't blast it through the speakers late at night.. anyway I’m rambling on here.
With pen in hand I started scratching lyrics down. Before I knew it, I had pages of stuff all over the floor so I said OK, stop, I was just writing for the sake of writing! I gathered up the pages and just sat and listened to the song again and just hit record…and that was it after a couple of different takes. I stuck with the first one and sent It back to Brendan…It was rough and raw but it seemed to work…this was an early demo of the song which helped develop the final song 'From Here'….
'Run Riot' and 'Red Flag' got pretty much the same treatment but took a bit more time to do - longer songs/much more going on…
I had been watching television with the sound off while doing some of the work and the news was on. There was something significant happening in another part of the world at that time that helped me work on one of the tracks - which I had called a different name but it had to be changed for good reasons…maybe more on that another time…oh the mystery of it all…
With all the recordings there was a lot of fun running into some very late nights/early mornings - lots of vocals done late at night with lots of tea.... and wine
The second single face down was definitely one of those late night vocal takes. Kerry is an amazing place, especially the sky at night, right on the ocean.
It was a cold time of the year and this island can be pretty cold but nothing clears the head like the cold sea air when recording sessions are getting tough!
I’m not going to get into explaining the songs well not now anyway but feel free to email or Facebook or tweet what you think or feel about them…
To me it’s a personal thing I think everyone gets their own meaning from songs, movies, books and so on so “don’t ask me what it’s about”…anyway I think you get what I mean…
The house…the piano
There is something very special about where people choose to work be it music, art, writings…and being woken up each morning to the sound of ivory keys from a magnificent Steinway piano makes the coffee all the more sweeter…Brendan would always be up before the temper mental singer who wouldn’t go to bed early…always has to have one more chat…and try writing some song on the piano at 4am…thinking he’s Elton john…
Back to my point…to me it’s all about the space and we’ve had some amazing space to work in and some lets say unusual ones... like my sitting in room in Stoneybatter
”…Can you hear that ping terry”…
”No Brendan, but if you can hear then it’s there”…”So I will go get a beer and you fix it, good man”
…I’ll be in Kavanagh's (great little Dublin pub 2mins from my sitting room door)
Anyway rambling again…I recorded some years ago in Ventry, just outside of Dingle near Tralee. It is an amazing place. I spent a week there - tea and White Russians that time round…so this time when the lads decided that we wouldn’t go into a conventional studio but instead we would record “in the house”…it brought a smile to my face..Just doing our own thing, in our own time, no pressure, no watching the clock…
Great way to start a day, warm cup of coffee, a hand full of pages of words, lines, rants and scribbles. Watching the mist over the mountains rolling in…all great…until Brendan kicks me up the arse to do some work…but it’s not really work now is it…?
There’s a great view from the house - big front windows - so lots of air and brightness during the day to get the grafting done and then at night switch on a few low lights and the big bay windows turn into a real-time movie screen…I think that’s where the song 'Drive' came from actually - watching the headlights of the cars in the distant mountains, twisting and turning, disappearing and re-appearing again…singing is better at night don’t ask me why but there’s a bunch of reasons…and depends on the individual I guess…but I think one element is the chaos of the day is over and everyone is sleeping or resting…
Just to finish for now, we really hope you like the new single, get on to iTunes & to help get things moving. Go spread the word about the band and the songs…We are all really looking forward to all your reactions…music is such a great medium and we feel really grateful and privileged to able to make music and share it with you.
Oh and if you have lasted long enough to get through reading this post without me putting you to sleep, I thank you!
Thanks a million to every single one of you…
It really means a lot to us…
Terry
So headphones on, pen in hand, I just started listening to the song a few times. I couldn't turn it up loud enough and due to neighbours I couldn't blast it through the speakers late at night.. anyway I’m rambling on here.
With pen in hand I started scratching lyrics down. Before I knew it, I had pages of stuff all over the floor so I said OK, stop, I was just writing for the sake of writing! I gathered up the pages and just sat and listened to the song again and just hit record…and that was it after a couple of different takes. I stuck with the first one and sent It back to Brendan…It was rough and raw but it seemed to work…this was an early demo of the song which helped develop the final song 'From Here'….
'Run Riot' and 'Red Flag' got pretty much the same treatment but took a bit more time to do - longer songs/much more going on…
I had been watching television with the sound off while doing some of the work and the news was on. There was something significant happening in another part of the world at that time that helped me work on one of the tracks - which I had called a different name but it had to be changed for good reasons…maybe more on that another time…oh the mystery of it all…
With all the recordings there was a lot of fun running into some very late nights/early mornings - lots of vocals done late at night with lots of tea.... and wine
The second single face down was definitely one of those late night vocal takes. Kerry is an amazing place, especially the sky at night, right on the ocean.
It was a cold time of the year and this island can be pretty cold but nothing clears the head like the cold sea air when recording sessions are getting tough!
I’m not going to get into explaining the songs well not now anyway but feel free to email or Facebook or tweet what you think or feel about them…
To me it’s a personal thing I think everyone gets their own meaning from songs, movies, books and so on so “don’t ask me what it’s about”…anyway I think you get what I mean…
The house…the piano
There is something very special about where people choose to work be it music, art, writings…and being woken up each morning to the sound of ivory keys from a magnificent Steinway piano makes the coffee all the more sweeter…Brendan would always be up before the temper mental singer who wouldn’t go to bed early…always has to have one more chat…and try writing some song on the piano at 4am…thinking he’s Elton john…
Back to my point…to me it’s all about the space and we’ve had some amazing space to work in and some lets say unusual ones... like my sitting in room in Stoneybatter
”…Can you hear that ping terry”…
”No Brendan, but if you can hear then it’s there”…”So I will go get a beer and you fix it, good man”
…I’ll be in Kavanagh's (great little Dublin pub 2mins from my sitting room door)
Anyway rambling again…I recorded some years ago in Ventry, just outside of Dingle near Tralee. It is an amazing place. I spent a week there - tea and White Russians that time round…so this time when the lads decided that we wouldn’t go into a conventional studio but instead we would record “in the house”…it brought a smile to my face..Just doing our own thing, in our own time, no pressure, no watching the clock…
Great way to start a day, warm cup of coffee, a hand full of pages of words, lines, rants and scribbles. Watching the mist over the mountains rolling in…all great…until Brendan kicks me up the arse to do some work…but it’s not really work now is it…?
There’s a great view from the house - big front windows - so lots of air and brightness during the day to get the grafting done and then at night switch on a few low lights and the big bay windows turn into a real-time movie screen…I think that’s where the song 'Drive' came from actually - watching the headlights of the cars in the distant mountains, twisting and turning, disappearing and re-appearing again…singing is better at night don’t ask me why but there’s a bunch of reasons…and depends on the individual I guess…but I think one element is the chaos of the day is over and everyone is sleeping or resting…
Just to finish for now, we really hope you like the new single, get on to iTunes & to help get things moving. Go spread the word about the band and the songs…We are all really looking forward to all your reactions…music is such a great medium and we feel really grateful and privileged to able to make music and share it with you.
Oh and if you have lasted long enough to get through reading this post without me putting you to sleep, I thank you!
Thanks a million to every single one of you…
It really means a lot to us…
Terry