Strange Life EP Recording Progress

I started writing the EP in early 2006. Once the writing process had finished I recorded and arranged the songs roughly in my home studio to see what shape they took. After a month or so of trying different arrangements and tempos etc I had what I thought were the best possible structures.
My next step was to ask the musicians I wanted to play on the EP with me. Thankfully everybody I asked said yes! Phew!
First stop was Jimmy Copley (JC) on drums. I have known JC for around four years now, and I never tire of watching him play and never will. I met JC through Bernie Marsden (BM) who has always been a family friend and a mentor for my guitar playing. I was obviously honoured that JC was happy to drum on my EP. JC has played with some fantastic people over the years including Jeff Beck, Paul Rodgers, and Go West to name a few.
I sent JC the demos and he liked the songs so he came to the studio and played along to the tracks. We had to work a little bit backwards because I couldn’t get everybody in one place at the same time. I asked Nick Fyffe (NF) to play bass on the EP, as I admired how his versatility and great playing shone through in his work with the band Jamiroquai. I met NF at a gig he was doing with Ian Paice, Don Airey and Bernie Marsden. I sent him the demos, which he liked and agreed to play on, the only trouble being he was about to embark on an American tour with the UK band Hard Fi.

When I said we had to work a little backwards you can see what I mean! After JC had laid down the drums I had to wait a few months before NF could record the bass. We used my guide bass until then, and I recorded all my electric guitar parts next. This was a really quick process, all the parts were worked out in my home studio and were ready to go!
I used three different studios to record in. This was purely for logistical purposes. Drums and Guitars were recorded at Din in London, by studio owner and very talented engineer Julian Simmons (JS). (www.dinsound.com)
Din was recommended to me by Producer Ian Shaw (IS). I received an email from IS asking if I was looking for somebody to Produce the EP and coincidently, it was the day I had finished all the arrangements. I called Ian and arranged a meeting to show him my demos, I listened to his recent recordings and we both agreed it would be great to work together. IS has worked with some great artists over the years including Primal Scream, Julian Cope, Super Furry Animals. Ian and I decided to use his studio Warm Fuzz London to record my vocals and acoustic guitars. (www.warmfuzz.com)
JS recommended a great pianist friend of his for the next part of the recording. Along came Will Foster (WF). All piano parts were recorded at Din and after WF heard the demos he knew what I had in mind and got them spot on. (WF plays with Bernard Butlers band The Tears).
I wanted Hammond on “Dance In The Sun” so BM suggested Don Airey (DA) (currently with Deep Purple) to which I obviously agreed and thankfully so did DA!
At this point NF was back from America so we recorded the bass and the core was finished.
On the song “Starship Eyes” I asked Fergus Gerrand (FG) to play some percussion for me. I’ve known FG some years, we played in the same band for a while. FG is a tremendous percussion player and a fantastic drummer. FG has many credits to his name including Madonna and Mike Oldfield.
The strings on “The One Thing I Like About You Is Everything” and “Strange Life” Unplugged version were arranged by another old friend Jake Walker (JW). (www.jakewalkermusic.com )
After all the arrangements were sorted JW invited his string quartet to Din, these guys contributed something really magical to the song, now in its final stages!
The last part of the recording was the backing vocals, I felt a female voice would be perfect for two of the songs and a male voice on the other. BM kindly stepped forward for the male backing. People obviously know him best for his amazing guitar playing with Whitesnake and his own Stacks band but totally overlook the fact that he has a great voice too! For the female voice I approached Mo Birch (MB) (currently singing with Robert Plants Honey Drippers band) who I knew through her husband and Magnum Keyboard player Mark Stanway.
I sent MB the track and she loved them and agreed to sing on them. We recorded MB at Mad Hats studio in Coven. (www.madhat.co.uk)
So now everything was in place to start mixing the tracks. IS and I decided how we wanted things to sound etc and finished the mixing at Warm Fuzz.
One week later the Strange Life EP was born!

Written: Nikki Murray


http://www.nikkimurray.com

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