originally posted on 07/05/12
So here is my first little delve into the world of making a record. I do have a habit of waffling (in real life too) so I’m hoping to keep that under control and keep in interesting for you. If you have anything to say or add to these sections please feel free to comment. I’m happy to answer any question, within reason. Questions about what I like to wear to bed at the weekends etc… may be sidestepped.
So it’s been a while since Iko committed anything to record. The experience of making ‘Ludo Says Hi’ was an amazing one. It pushed the band and our partners in crime (Sean Genockey and Ed Woods) to the absolute limit. Over an eighteen month period we wrote, recorded, drank, partied, shut our selves away and damaged our fingers in the pursuit of rock and roll. We are still immensely proud of it as an album and it makes a follow up tricky. We do not have the leisure of time, for reasons that I can’t go into, but rest assured, our aim is to better it where possible, and within a fraction of the time.
So it’s no industry secret to say that records tend to be made in a certain way. There’s no hard fast rules but in the days where nobody has any money, you’d have to be a profitable successful act to book a studio for 6 months and write/record everything there. Hence bands go through a phase called ‘pre-production’, which is just a flashy name for ‘picking the songs we’re gonna record’. When it came to Ludo Says Hi we had around 25 to choose from, some fully formed, others just in pieces. With the luxury of time in the studio I think we wrote around 3 from scratch because we felt that there were gaps to plug. Medicine was certainly written fully in the studio.
So Iko now are at ‘pre-production’ stage, almost. We are writing songs. Probably have 20 ideas and 12 fully realised songs. Our personnel have changed from Ludo as we are currently seeing our drummer Rob take a back seat to pursue life on the open waves with Disney. As such quite a bit of the writing is being undertaken by myself and Neil (keyboards) as we have always have had that writing partnership at the heart of both buffseeds and Iko. I’ve known Neil since my early teens and he came to my first ever public gig. Stood in the crowd. We’ve been writing songs ever since. Most of I am zero began with Neil and I in my lounge at Heathfield. So this record is no different. And it may involve us calling on the talents of other friends to help us commit it to tape (or mac hard drive as it’s now commonly known).
One accusation thats been levelled at me (amongst others!) over the years is that I tend to get bored easily and move on. Like, the shiny new thing is the thing I like. So I’m in danger of sounding a little like this when I say that the things we are currently writing, are the best we’ve ever written. I suppose you would hope for progression, but for me I want to pursue the quality. My favourite song from Ludo is wrecking ball. Have we out-wrecking-balled ourselves yet? Yes I think we have. I think we’re honing the art of pop rock. Like, I can’t be arsed to try and categorise our sound. We’ve written for tv and film. We would like anything we write to appear on tv and film so that is in the back of our minds. But whether it’s pop rock, indie rock, post-rock pop punk folk. It really doesn’t matter. Is it any good? is what history asks.
I want the songs to have a depth and a truth. Without which, we might as well not bother. I want them to be naturally catchy, get under your skin. There’s a sense in which we are now stepping up and fully realising our potential. I don’t want this to sound arrogant, it’s not meant like that. But I do want you to believe us when I say, the thing that comes next, will blow you out of the water. Cause I’m already listening to demo’s and picturing them fully realised as I know Sean can do, and I already know the effect it’s going to have.
That’s all for now. As you can imagine, there is a raft of things I want to talk about but we are best to wait until summer kicks in properly before expanding the whole picture for you. Needless to say, writing and recording an album is the most fun any musician can have with their clothes on, so if you meet me now, you’ll probably see me at my happiest. Feel free to comment/disagree/ask questions.
I’m here all week ;)
Kieran
