Blog: Crystal Palace Session #1

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On Tuesday morning I was up bright and early to head to distant Crystal Palace, there to commence recording sessions on the ALBUM what I am recording with Mr CJ Thorpe-Tracey. I was last round that way back in February when I went to see Ben Moor preview 'A Three Thing Day', which was GRATE. The studio I was headed to was very close to where that had been, which meant I had to climb up the HUMUNGOUS HILL again, although this time when I got to the summit it was daylight so I could see the AMAAZING views over London. I still don't like hills (why can't people live somewhere flat?) but this was pretty good!

The studio in question was OneCat, under the guidance of Mr J Blusher. Chris had been there LOADS for his own band stuff and also with The JimBob Big Band so had recommended it as a good place, and he was entirely correct. It's been YEARS since I was last in a Studio Environment so it was lovely to be back, although it seems things have ADVANCED somewhat since then. After one recording, for instance, I said "I might need to do that again, there was some popping on the mike" and Jon looked at my funny, perhaps unsure if I was joking. "We can fix that on the track" he said. COR!

The plan for the session was to record piano and vocals for the six songs we'd played in Brighton in August, which is very nearly what we did. First of all we did the PIANO and guide vocals for In The North Stand, It Only Works Because You're here, Born With The Century, Chips And Cheese, Pint Of Wine and The Perfect Love Song (in that order, I think) with a break towards the end to pop out to fetch some lunch. We were going to do 7 Hearts too but Chris wasn't quite ready for it so instead we did a DIFFERENT cover version what we worked up there and there in the studio like some kind of ROCK WIZARDS. I'll save the details for another time, as it's hopefully for a THING that'll be out soon, but it sounded dead good.

After that we started doing some Actual Vocals, which I must say I found Quite An Experience. Usually when I do gigs I BELLOW the words to get them across, which I am very happy with doing, but here I was trying to do something more like ACTUAL SINGING. Millions of years ago, when we recorded Say It With Words I made a determined attempt to sing that way, but in the decades since I've not done it so much, so this was a bit weird for me to start with. Also, it was in a different setting from usual, with someone else in charge, and most of all the SONGS were all RATHER EMOTIONAL, so it rather got to me. By the end of the day I was hankering for a MASSIVE DUVET to go and hide under as I was feeling VULNERABLE AS HECK!

Luckily for me Chris and Jon were both LOVELY about it and v encouraging, although sitting with them and listening back to raw tracks of me singing like this was still EXCRUCIATING. However, a wonderful and magical thing happened as Jon expertly COMPED the tracks (i.e. sticking together the best bits from each take) until it sounded Pretty Good. It was a hugely reassuring process, like having a really nice haircut or something where someone you trust Makes It All Better!

It was, not to put too fine a point on it, a fantastic day, and listening back to the recordings now I'm even MORE happy about how it worked out, as they sound FAB. The plan is to try out some more songs in December when Chris and I do our gig together at the King & Queen then head back into the studio with Jon to do some further recording. Once we've got a nice batch it'll be time for some ARRANGING and so forth, so it'll be a while yet before we're ready for public consumption, but as I say there should be SOMETHING available before the end of the year. It is all PRETTY EXCITING, and I can't wait to UNLEASH some of this stuff on people!

posted 29/10/2025 by MJ Hibbett

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