The song I’m The Ocean, was the first to be recorded for the album, and at the moment, it’s the first song to be finished and mastered. Recorded in Australia on my last visit home – I was out there for 4 months playing gigs there for the first time. Fun times.

The opportunity arose to put this track down in a studio near Surrey Hills in Sydney, called Limestone Studio. It was a great little place run by two excellent guys, Louis Schoorl (from Holand) and Steeve Body (from France). They were a laugh to work with. It was a bit of fluke finding two gents with whom I could feel completely comfortable recording with from the word go, especially having only done a few google searches to find them.

The initial reason I gravitated towards their studio through google was because they had all the instruments I needed to use which were set up all the time, ready to go. This was perfect as I only brought my Strat and Vibrolux with me from London.  It makes such a massive difference to the recording process when the people involved are really great to work with. They made it possible to pull off recording the song in one day – thanks to their dedication and hard work. If you’re hunting for a studio in Sydney, definitely look them up!!

This video has been slapped together fairly quickly as I didn’t have a lot of footage to work with, I need to get someone to film more next time I’m in the studio!

I asked Paul to go through, in a little bit of detail, what equipment was being used to record the drums. I thought it would be nice to document for my future reminiscing of recording this album.

There was a lot of cheese and banana eating and general procrastination this day. We did manage to record drums for 3 songs eventually, contrary to the impression that this video may give.

This is a little clip that I put the evening after being in the studio. It marks an official start to recording drums for the album.

The process behind the album has already been under way for a couple of months now, demo-ing, chopping and changing, and making guide tracks for this moment. I’ve got all the material I need for the album sorted, although there are still lots of lyrics to be finished off. This didn’t hinder making a start on drums though.

So, I took my hard drive with all the pre-production demos on it to Sleeper Studios where I played drums along to the guide tracks. Once the drums are done I’ll record all the other instruments over the top of the old guides.

I’ve had two days in the studio so far and completed 4 songs for drums which is not too bad. It always takes me longer than I think it will, but it’s all good. I will be heading back there soon to finish the other songs that need drums. I’ve since been at home choosing the best takes and doing a preliminary mix, and I’m really happy! I can’t wait to finish the album and show you all. I love it. Excited to see how people react. For now though, it is all slightly on hold until I work out how to pay next months rent in 15 days, so I’ll be piecing this album together as I go… somehow!!

Oh yeah, I was recording to 2 inch tape, it sounds awesome and it got me excited, so I had to mention it! You know… I’m usually just recording in my bedroom, not through £100,000′s worth of equipment!

I have some more video footage to come for the second day of the drum session, which I’ll edit together next.

I borrowed a Ukulele from a friend who lives up the road in Tooting (I should really give it back now, but I like this first attempt at writing a song on the Uke so much, that I want to record it properly and put it on the album (Huge props to Mark Thomas for letting me borrow it!). I’ve started incorporating Uke into my other songs now too as an extra layer/colour to my tracks. I dig the sound of it along side what I already do, it nicely adds a little Hawaiian sunshine.

I thought about putting up a demo of this new song ‘Change Of Tune’ on myspace, but decided it would be good to make a little video of it instead… This is 5 or so months ago, and I didn’t really tell anyone about it until now, it was a weird time for me… I’m back now, and I think this song encompasses that in a way.

This is a music video made by a good friend of mine, Aaron Kelly, out of love. This songs called… Good Love. I like what he has done a lot, and I still get people saying how much they like it nearly 3 years later, which is nice for the both of us. This is the third track off the EP, available for free.