A STUDIO IN WEST BRUNSWICK

There is a recording studio in the heart of West Brunswick that sits in the backyard of a man called Lachlan Wooden. It looks, for all intents and purposes, like a single vehicle garage; a clever suburban ruse that hides the treasures that are revealed when you walk through the door.

Lachlan, owner and engineer, has lovingly lined this garage with wood and cloth, built a sound proof booth with salvaged glass and doors from a defunct major recording studio and made and hung purpose built wooden sculptures that make sure everything recorded there sounds kind to the performer.

He has a sophisticated set up of preamps housed in shelves he's made from recycled timber, an old Yamaha mixing desk, and old a tape deck he bought online that warms everything that runs through the leads and preamps to the protools set up on his computer.

He gets hold of good microphones to record the sounds, he makes everyone feel welcome and he's on board from the word go as if he were a committed member of the band or team. He also brews a mean beer that he offers from the taps of his homemade bar. He's also a family man with a gorgeous brood of girls including his warm, friendly wife, Ange. They're currently cooking another kid due in March.

I used to live next door to Lachlan and Ange.

It's been great hanging out in West Brunswick these last three days. It always feels a little bit like visiting a mate's cubby house when I hang out with Lach in his studio. My friends Greg Craske(Double Bass) and Emily Hayes(Backing Vocals) and my daughter, Ella (Backing Vocals) joined Lach and I this weekend just gone to track what is turning out to be a pretty gorgeous album which I can't wait for you to hear.

We've recorded all the ukulele tracks, all of the guitars, all the double bass tracks, and the lead and backing vocals. Only got some overdubbing to do including a few more voices on the chorus of "The West Brunswick Boat" song, a couple of harmonica tracks, some clarinet, my "legitimate" main classical instrument all through high school, glockenspiel, piano and we're thinking about bunging a hammond organ on a track or two as well. Probably another day and a half's worth of recording work.

Then mixing, mastering and printing. I reckon it'll be ready for you at the end of February.

In the meantime, have a sneak listen to a rough mix of the title track, "West Brunswick" and enjoy some pics from our studio sessions on the weekend (I realise I'm not in any of them. Next lot, eh?!) Not the best quality of the photos - not sure why!

A SUBURBAN DREAM

I grew up in Blackburn North in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. It wasn't one of those privileged suburbs like Camberwell or Hawthorn, although people from Blackburn proper would probably argue otherwise.

It was a suburb where dads went out to work and mums stayed home and looked after their children. It was a suburb where families went to church each Sunday and alcoholics lived in six out of the ten houses in my court.

It was a suburb where children were asked regularly to hop into stranger's cars, eccentrics wandered about the streets shaking their red Shirley Temple curls as they talked to someone only they could see and the occasional flasher unzipped their trousers to unsuspecting high school girls walking along Cootamundra Way on their way home.

It was a suburb where the occasional school boy murdered his father and got away with it until one of his 16 year old accomplices, who helped moved the body from the woodpile when it started to reek, turned himself into the police 15 years later.

It was a regular suburb in the mortgage belt of Melbourne inhabited by a mix of office and factory workers from all over the world living their suburban dream.

I was no different. I also had a suburban dream; to live in Carlton where students were educated enough to have grand thoughts and musicians played in hotels. A place where I too could be a "real" musician.

When I "grew up" I moved to a share house in Lygon street that was owned by the Catholic church. I shared the house with my sister and her partner, a chef and two actors from the VCA. Rent was $30.00 each a week. But we all know what happened to Carlton. The educated students got good jobs and bought the houses they used to rent and gentrified the place which pushed the house prices and rents up and pushed me over to West Brunswick.

Don't kid yourself by thinking West Brunswick was some hip inner city suburb 20 years ago. It wasn't. I was back in the suburbs again a little more west than Blackburn North but in a place where people from all over the world lived, where the neighbours were friendly and sometimes, if you were really lucky, you got to live in a street where you could make an album with your neighbours and fulfil your suburban dream.

My dream becomes a little more real for on December 5th, 6th, 7th and 8, myself and a group of very close mates, including my best friend Emily, my Viking Warrior, my Wangaratta mate Luke, my musical buddy Greg, sound engineer extraordinaire and mate Lachlan and my daughter Ella are going to record a homage to the suburbs, "West Brunswick".

The album will be launched in house concerts in around the Northern Suburbs of Melbourne including West Brunswick, Regional Victoria, ACT and NSW and maybe even QLD.

But first, I'd like to share a Suburban Dream at my house.

If you'd like to share a Suburban Dream at your house, drop me a line at yarrabinrecords@gmail.com, and I'll come and play a West Brunswick house concert for you and your mates.

Saturday Arvo Rewrite

Today was my first Saturday home in weeks. I ordered myself a day in bed to recuperate from the weeks of work and travel. Being innately anti-authoritarian, I decided not to listen and got up instead and had a morning of emotional housekeeping; clearing, cleaning and sorting 'til I got hungry.

After lunch, I found myself with headphones on sorting through arrangements for "West Brunswick". I spent time with my best mate last night, talking about, among other things, the progress of the album. And, although we didn't say anything significant, I did admit that I was struggling to find the sound for the album, she just sympathised and nodded her approval when I said, "I spose I should just keep it simple".  Well that fairly innocuous conversation triggered a major shift because today I know exactly what to do with the sound and arrangements.

With that sorted, it was time to tackle a rewrite on The West Brunswick Wedding Song, which only a couple of close friends have heard. It was the weakest song for all sorts of reasons so today I sat down and rewrote the whole damn thing. It's now leaner and richer than it was with a clearer emotional centre. I'm pretty pleased with the result. I hope you like it too. So here's another dodgy recording for your listening pleasure. I hope you like it Allie and Adrian.

Here are the words in case you can't understand them;

When love came to Yarrabin Street
The April sun shone
Warmed as we stood on our wedding soled feet
With our best clothes on
Adrian gave Alice a ring
And Alice promised Adrian the splendid things
Of Life and loss and smooth and rough
And sure and tough and songs of love, love

And Buddy Holly sang x3
Its alright x2

When love came to Yarrabin Street
It closed down the road
And gathered outside for a Tom Waits song
And an Irish brogue
Now with each break in the traffic their voices still ring
As they married us all to the splendid things

Of Life and loss and smooth and rough

And sure and tough and songs of love, love

And Buddy Holly sang x3

Its alright x4

When love came to Yarrabin Street
West Brunswick shone.

Here's the audio:

House Concert Hosting

Last Saturday evening, I hosted a house concert at my place. As I am planning to tour "West Brunswick" to houses and tiny venues, I thought I should host a concert myself to see what my hosts may experience and to find out if there are any drawbacks or inconveniences to hosting. One of my biggest fears is to be an inconvenience or a nuisance so to ask people to host my latest work is accompanied by deep fear as well as great hope. Best to face some of those fears head on to clear the path.

So this is how my house concert unfolded:

I invited Luke R Davies to come and play a couple of sets at my house and we set a date.

I sent two emails, a facebook event invitation and one reminder and I had a full house. Easy!

Everyone prepaid which meant they turned up on the night and Luke got paid well. I kept a list of audience members so I knew who had paid. Easy!

Because it was so easy, I really looked forward to the evening and having all my mates over to share what I believed would be a lovely experience.

The day came, Luke, his partner Cassie and all the instruments arrived from Wangaratta. While they popped out to do a little sightseeing, James and I set up the loungeroom as a theatre - it looked brilliant -  some guests remarked that it looked a little like The Butterfly Club, nice one!

My gorgeous friend, Jeff, called in the afternoon and offered to help with catering. He picked up the delicious turkish breads and sweets from a local Sydney Road bakery that I had planned to serve. He also accommodated my mum who'd come down from Warburton as a surprise guest.

As guests began to arrive, James sat in the kitchen picking tunes on the banjo, he was joined by Silas Palmer, Chloe Hall's partner, who plays stellar violin. The fellas ripped out some classic Australian folk tunes while guests mingled, cracked open the drinks they'd brought and found their seats. It was a welcoming, wonderful way to begin the evening.

Guests seated,  Luke entertained for the next two hours (with a break in between to refresh drinks and eat) with his mix of classic old time country blues tunes, his original Wangaratta songs, played on both standard and homemade instruments. Each of the homemade jobs came with a story.

In the kitchen, James danced with Rose Turtle Ertler  and my mum to the more foot stomping tunes and Silas joined Luke on stage to add some amazing jazz fiddle to some of the songs.

It was such a great night I'm going to host again in a couple of months.

And now I feel very comfortable asking people to host a house concert for my "West Brunswick" tour. I reckon the hosts of "West Brunswick" will enjoy their experience every bit as much as I did mine.

There is something magical about having a performer come and enchant the house and its guests for an evening.

A letterbox drop

This morning, I walked round to Lachlan's house and popped the rough musical sketches of West Brunswick (The album), the one's you've been listening to, into his letterbox. Nine songs that in a few weeks will be ready to record. Nine songs? There are some I haven't shown you. I thought I'd leave them for a surprise when you finally hear the finished album.

Lachlan is a great sound engineer who co-produced The Bride. He used to be my next door neighbour. I hope he likes the tracks. I felt quite self conscious handing over my inferior recording attempts to an expert, but he's a good fella and won't really care one bit. We've talked about recording the songs straight to tape, like we used to before the advent of digital technology. I like old school ways, they're more familiar. Analogue creates a warmer tone and has some really interesting limitations that I quite like.  It is better suited to a musician that plays the whole song from beginning to end without dropping in than to a musician that likes digital recording because of it allows one to stop and start throughout the song.

The whole idea of recording to tape reconnects me with my younger self going to Bakehouse studios in Richmond in the mid 80's before it was Bakehouse. I recorded a demo of songs straight to tape  One or two takes for each song. 6-10 songs in one session including a mix down. Simple! I like that. I don't know whatever became of the demo. I do know I had no idea what to do with it after I made it.

This was before community radio had really taken a foothold so there weren't a lot of places to send demos to other than 3XY or Michael Gudinski and I didn't believe I was pretty enough or skinny enough to even get a look in. So for a shy, suburban girl like me, it was never going to be sent to anyone, I was too afraid of some sort of perceived cruel rejection. Truth be told, I just didn't have the guts.

So, my adult life has been as much about getting up the guts to do what that 18 year old could'n't.  West Brunswick is the next step along the way. It is as much for that shy girl of 18, who hoped for something wonderful but had no idea where that something wonderful was, as it is for the suburb and my friends who live there. I hope they all like it. Mostly, I hope that by the end of the process, I still do.

Onward and upward as Mr Lewis said.

Two Ukes, One Song and no rain today....

A Sunday song for you. Originally written for Carl Punnuzzo and performed and recorded by Carl Panuzzo and Penny Larkins.  When I first heard them sing this song, I thought my heart was going to grow so big that it would fall out of my chest and my soul felt like it was actually being sucked out into the universe. Was I experiencing what Mr W. at confirmation class suggested would happen at the second coming when the chosen souls would become light and spirit, enraptured forever? (Mr W. was into end times stuff - if you didn't go to church when you were a kid and you don't know what the hell I'm talking about, ask someone that did)

Not to be. That glimpse of heaven finished with the song. I was still in the pub, the beer was still in my hand and the Gods of Singing, I mean Carl and Penny, were still on stage. Bloody hell!

Well, this mortal, with flawed voice and two ukuleles and a touch of hubris, has had a crack at covering the song that I wrote - can you do that- aiming to pop it on the upcoming album? It's the exception to the "West Brunswick" album rule. Only Albion Street is mentioned, not the suburb.

I hope you like it, Carl and Penny, even though I reckon your version is the definitive one, I kinda like this one too.

The Ukulele Rain Song - Draft Copy
Recorded Sunday Afternoon in my lounge room on garageband.

The business of the build.....

Have you heard of that personality test where you find out if you're a builder or a director or an explorer. Well, turns out I'm more your explorer type, which is great news for a creative type. However, I'd quite like to be a bit more of a builder. Builders make structures that last, that you can live in and touch and walk around.

Being an explorer is a constant frustration to the more practical, builderly types in my life. All I can say in my defence is that I take after my father. Our family would all take a deep breath whenever he promised to fix or build something and prayed that he wouldn't take the end of his thumb off again. My dad was a great thinker and a fiend at cryptic crosswords, he was a brilliant community minded fella and a fine host who loved jazz and red wine. He just couldn't build or fix stuff although he'd sometimes have a crack. However, what was in his head just never quite materialised.

I can't really build stuff either unless you call stacking two desk drawers on top of each other to create a bookshelf, building. I find it hard enough letting my landlord know if there's a problem with my house. The thought of actually owning a house or worse, building a house, sends me running to the kitchen to shove my hyperventilating head into the paper bag I keep in the bottom drawer for just such moments.

It once took me two years to tell a landlord about the blocked shower head. While I was happy enough to "explore" other ways to shower, guests, and my daughter, got a bit pissed off when presented with the bath or bucket option.

At the moment, I am facing the task of building a website. A completely perplexing task that will require a tradesperson of some patience who can not only build the thing, but build it so I can use it without breaking it.

This Website will be an archive, a showcase, a repository, a gallery, a storybook, an album and a movie theatre. An artists space. So I place my ad:

WANTED

Patient, efficient, creative website builder.

Willing to work with a songwriter.

You will be greatly admired for your builder's skills

as you construct a user friendly artist's webspace. 

Must know what you're doing.

 She hasn't got a bloody clue.

 Though, she is pretty good with a blog. 

Website to be up by end of September.

Here's a song from the forthcoming album which is scheduled for recording in September, to whet your whistle while you think about whether you want the job. A taster of an arrangement for the title song, "West Brunswick" featuring ukulele and guitar, recorded on garageband in my lounge room.