Progress #2
Progress #2
It’s summer, we don’t have air conditioning and it’s hot enough to boil a monkey's bum. Today we share a little of what we have been up to backstage.
Good morning you beautiful people!
We hope you are enjoying the varied nature of our VIBES articles and thought we would share a little of what we have been up to on an artistic front. At the foot of this article, there is an exclusive video for our paid subscribers.
Recordings
It’s now 0830 and 28°C. This afternoon it will be 39°C and hot enough to boil a monkey’s bum (now which iconic British comedy series does that come from?).
We don’t have air conditioning, which makes working with all the analogue gear - which by its very nature generates heat - nigh impossible.
This doesn’t stop us from planning the next two single releases and double album project which we will start recording as soon as it gets a bit cooler.
Around half the tracks have been written and in various stages of completion. One disc of the double will be heavy, guitar-based rock n’ roll and the other acoustic - both of course with a Starlite & Campbell twist.
The Siren
Today we reveal the next single: our version of Tim Buckley’s classic, Song To The Siren.
We posted a live version of the track a couple of years ago and thought it would be worth adding drums and additional instrumentation to make it an official single release.
We love this song and it really suits Suzy’s very British vocal delivery.
The duo
Touring a full band is expensive and very troublesome so we are working on a sophisticated duo set using an analogue drum machine, synthesisers, sequencers and of course Wurlitzer, guitars and vocals.
We want the set to be really organic and not fixed by rigid backing tracks or structures and plan to premiere the set in a future live stream. Which reminds us, have you booked your tickets yet for the next one on October 2nd?
Access is free to paid subscribers to VIBES or Bandcamp.
It’s a technical struggle (see Simon’s section below) and will take a lot of practice, but know it will be worth pushing through the excruciating pain of the learning curve.
Life & death
We decided this summer we would spend more time off.
Holidays are just not us, and since we got together over 11 years ago we have almost worked flat out, seven days a week and taking only one true holiday.
In June 2023 we started to work out three times a week in the Dream Gym, five minutes from our house. It’s a fantastic discipline and we feel so much better, mentally and physically.
Our favourite beach is a little over an hour away and now go once a week with a picnic and suitable beverages. The naturist part is rarely busy - August being the exception - and they accept the hounds no problem: everyone keeps themselves to themselves. No music and no mobile phone signal. Glory.
We adore the Oceano Atlântico and once you have battled through the surf zone and avoided the killer undertow, the swimming and water quality is outstanding.
The funeral
Last week we heard the terrible news that the son of one of our best friends lost his life in a motorcycle accident. He was 24.
We have never been to a Portuguese funeral and the customs and practices are totally alien to us. Simon is considering writing an article about it as the wider world deserves to know, but let’s see - it’s a sensitive subject.
The main square in Samora Correia was packed as was the Church and the Crematorium. We have never experienced such a raw and public outpouring of grief. Heartbreaking.
Requiescat in Pace Miguel Tiago Rosa Ferro.
The frown
We booked to see our current favourite band The Smile in Valencia next week but sadly they had to cancel due to Johnny Greenwood falling ill.
It was disappointing as we were meeting our eldest son James and his fiancée Sarah. We love Valencia and having lived there for four years, know it really well.
The accommodation was booked, and we have never really spent any quality time with Sarah so decided to go anyway - which brings us nicely on to…
The wedding
Two weeks later on Friday 13th September, they are getting married. In a crypt, in London.
The flights have been booked and accommodation arranged. We must thank our superb friends for letting us stay in their apartment. London is very expensive…
We have been asked to play at the ceremony and have been wrestling with a few tunes - some picked by us and some by the joyful couple.
Rather than book an additional seat and bring a guitar, I am borrowing my old Taylor, which is now owned by Jim. I last used it when playing live on Bob Mills‘ Talk Radio show back in January 2022.
We are leaving the squeakers (Edith and Françoise - our two new Labrador Retrievers) and the woofers (Bob and Hummock) in the good care of Rita and the team at Hotel Canino da Quinta de Santa Maria. It’s the first time we have left the squeakers - lump in the throat.
Wired for sound
We subscribe to The Wire magazine whose partnered venue for experimental music is Cafe Oto, not far from Jim and Sarah’s place and are considering booking to see John Stevens.
It looks like a cool space - a cafe selling books, records, tapes and CDs by day and a venue by night.
As we are there a few days before the wedding we will certainly visit some galleries and museums. Sadly we will miss Beyond the Bassline which finishes on August 26th.
Products for guitar & bass
With our partners in the UK, Spain and Portugal we have developed a range of products for guitar and bass: amplifiers, speaker cabinets, FX pedals and instrument cables.
We road-tested them over the last few years and have just put a selection on the Supertone online shop.
It’s all badass stuff and if you are in the market, check it out here.
Suzy
It’s all happening on the bass guitar front and last week I recorded a long video interview with Raul, the editor of Bass Musician Magazine where I talk all things music, art and of course bass!
Walking the bassline
The second edition of my regular column Walking The Bass Line (a guide for new bass players) will be released shortly in that very magazine and a long-form version on VIBES soon afterwards. You can find all my bass articles here.
Feeling the love
Last week I had some exciting news about a new artist relationship with a fabulous company. I can’t reveal who yet but it will sit nicely with our current list of Hipshot, Mike Lull, Sequential, Curt Mangan, Ellio Martina, Radial Engineering, ACS, Scott Dixon, Hudson Electronics, Matamp and Fylde Guitars.
It’s a tough world and finding a community with which you feel an affiliation is rare. I can’t wait to tell you all about them.
I love the work of Anton Corbijn
A few years ago I started shooting and editing our band videos and until then didn’t really understand how long it takes and how difficult it is, which gives me the utmost respect for great filmmakers.
It’s not so much the vision but how to translate the story into visual images when you don’t have a multi-million-pound budget or a team of camera operators, make-up artists, special effects units and so on at your disposal.
Saying that, even though the creative process is more challenging I have found that I’ve learned so much more and the result is 100% authentic and ultimately more satisfying.
Getting my head around editing with Adobe Premiere Pro has been a huge challenge as it’s not particularly user-friendly or intuitive and can’t believe how much hard disk space it takes.
Our latest record STARLITE.ONE is principally an audio-visual project and I am currently working through the tracks; two are completed with seven to go! Blow Them All To Pieces and A Part Of Me Is Broken (Part Two) are very long and take a lot of footage, time, energy and creative nouse.
Shoes and BIG knickers
I’ve been itching to diversify and combine the transformational elements of music with a visual narrative to the art of storytelling - that exposes you to experience something familiar in a new way - if that makes sense - and am currently working on two art installations. These will become a part of our wider multimedia project STARLITE.ONE.
Raising A Nation
I’ve always been fascinated by washing and clothes hanging on the line - flapping away like mini-sails on a ship. These costumes that have been washed clean from their earthly Thespian roles are pegged onto a line, devoid of human animation, hanging silently above the street for all to see.
Lisboa is famous for the grandmothers who can often be seen standing on their balconies in the older part of the city, hanging out their washing complete with big granny knickers.
They don’t give a damn who sees their underwear which got me thinking that these women have given birth to every human walking the planet.
I wanted to celebrate them and all mothers and grandmothers in our new exhibition/installation entitled Raising A Nation.
Of course, it will also celebrate the fathers and grandfathers - it takes two to tango - watch this space.
In Your Shoes
Another thing that fascinates me is the shoes that we all wear.
I believe that happiness starts from the ground up. If you are wearing a fabulous pair of shoes, you walk differently and it gives you that extra special spring in your step. It makes you feel good - sometimes amazing.
Have you ever wondered what kind of shoes Albert Einstein, John Lennon or JS Bach wore?
Looking at the soles of their shoes you can tell how a person has walked - some people lean to the right and have a heavy right foot and you can see when the heel is worn upwards like a curve in a skateboard park.
What conversations would they have been privy to if shoes had a memory? Shoes on the ground are like a fly on the wall.
In Your Shoes will be a collection of personal stories about real people telling tales of their childhood dreams and what happened that changed their world - illustrated by an actual pair of their shoes for you to experience.
It will be a place to walk around where you may find a new inspiration in the way you walk, inspired by the footsteps of others. You may even find yourself buying a new pair of shoes that change the direction of your life.
You are the principal protagonist in your life story - the writing of which is up to you…
Naturally, these both will have music to accompany the visual narrative and we have been brewing up some suitable sounds in our Supertone sonic laboratory.
DIY
Living in a new country always takes time to settle in and a big part of the expression of the studio is about how it makes you feel, being conducive to a creative and liberating environment.
I am ‘fettling’ up the outside of the studio at the moment as we have a lot of enquiries and bookings coming in and wanted to make it a great place for lunch and chilling.
So, visits to the great local garden centre and hardware shop (yes, Portugal still has wonderful independent, cost-effective shops with knowledgeable staff) are regular. Plants and fencing are in place; paint and outside lights are ready to be deployed.
Simon does the drilling and electrics, I do everything else.
Simon
If you read my last update you will know I have been in a land of maintenance hell.
Keeping the studio running and up to speed is a big job and combined with domestic repairs, instrument setups/restringing and DIY I have been very busy.
Two fans
One particularly troublesome aspect of travelling with our hounds in summer is the heat in the back of the Van of Rock (VoR).
In the past, Suzy has managed to travel with Bob and Hummock in the front seat but now impossible with four.
As all six of us are travelling to Valencia at the end of the month and next year we will be touring as a family, I bit the bullet and got stuck in.
The VoR has basic air conditioning and thought if I fitted two low-level fans on the diving bulkhead, one sucking and one blowing, all six of us could share the cool air.
I like to do things properly and ordered 12V motor speed controls and isolation switches only to find the fuse box is inconveniently located under the driver’s seat and has to be removed for access. What a bastard. Damn you designers at Volkswagen.
Analogue recording techniques
Last month I continued the series on analogue recording. It seemed to go down pretty well and currently planning the next one - this time about tips and tricks when using compressors.
For you SCUBA divers and car mechanics this is an audio signal processing operation that reduces the volume of loud sounds or amplifies quiet sounds, thus reducing or compressing an audio signal's dynamic range, not something for charging cylinders or powering pneumatic power tools.
The studio
As Suzy mentioned, we are getting a lot of enquiries and bookings for the Supertone studio.
I do love the challenge of recording other artists as it teaches me something every time, forcing me to get to grips with the technical side of what we do and occasionally - shock/horror - reading the fucking manual (rtfm).
There must be an easier way to do this…
Keeping abreast with updates and learning new techniques in Pro Tools and Ableton Live (our Digital Audio Workstation software of choice) is tedious and I tend to tackle it on a song-by-song basis which is probably not a good idea as it can suck your creativity dry, but it seems to work for me.
Practice
I dislike practising. That’s it, but as a musician, it’s a necessary evil and there is an enormous sense of satisfaction when your playing becomes more fluid and accurate.
It does spark new ideas which are committed to the already overflowing reservoir of riffs, melodies and lyrics lurking on my iPhone.
Piano, synthesiser, vocals and guitar all take work. It’s not just the instrument itself as with electric guitars and keyboards the programming and tone sculpting takes time and usually requires deep dives into manuals.
If you are interested in knowing my approach to practice drop me a line or comment below…
The Starlotron
I am particularly interested in sampling and its manipulation using Virtual Instruments.
We create these by sampling sounds and processing them digitally using Native Instruments KONTAKT. This makes the sounds playable in pitch on a keyboard. Very cool eh…
My first foray into creating one of these badgers was the Starlotron, made by sampling Suzy singing individual notes of a scale. It can be found on a few of our tracks, but is most noticeable in our interpretation of Our Lips Are Sealed.
So that’s been my last few months and can’t wait to get back to recording.
Subscriber exclusive
Today, exclusively for subscribers on Bandcamp and VIBES we share a video of chatting about where we are at right now.
Thanks again for supporting our work as independent artists.
Much love
Suzy & Simon
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