Bitnormal Sampler

After a few months, the Bitnormal release page now stands at 16 seperate releases from 9 different artists. For a new-comer to the page, that's a lot of electronica to get your head around. LAst year I got to a stage with my Mender bandcamp page, where I had created and uploaded so much free music that people were simply put off by how much content was available. This is something I have come to consider when trying to promote our label. How many people arrive at the page with no knowledge of who our artists are and how they sound r indeed, what the over-all feel of the label is like, and are instantly daunted by the scale of our back catalog.

So I had this idea last night. Lets put out a sampler that gives you a taste of the sounds going on with our label. 6 tracks that capture the essence of the artists and offer the listner a bigger picture of Bitnormal.

Inspired by the epic branding elements designed by Pete Clark, I knocked together a cover and put together my own selection of Bitnormal artists and sent it to Chris. Earlier today the Sampler went up. Hopefully it is the first of many. It is totally free (as opposed to Name Your Own Price) and features some stunning remixes alongside some original independant material.

Recording the ATC EP

At the end of last year, Todd, Martin and I went to Snug Recording Co. to lay down tracks for what would become my swan song as the drummer of Alright The Captain. The band had been a huge part of my life for nearly 5 years and it would not hit me until well into 2013, just how much this life event was guna shake up my world.

Hyperbole aside, the birth squeeze of Conversation Skills for the Socially Anxious was a fairly turbulent 6 month process and one that I have not really documented until now.

The legend that is Rich Collins helped us tack the short but intense 5 song EP in less than two days of live takes and a few over-dubs. We managed to put the whole thing down in a day and then spent a few hours adding some texture and polishing up some scuffs here and there. We were aiming for a record that reflected the live experience of the band.

After we got the tracks down and spent some time layering tasty plug-ins and re-amping the bass tracks, we banged them on a portable HD and I took them home to have a go at mixing and tweaking them in-house.

This part of the process was also important as we wanted it to be a full-on DIY job; a testament to what we could achieve on our own!

I was apprehensive about the whole thing as I was starting to realise how much this actually meant to me.

My daughter was born a month or two before we went into the studio and as I got my head around what it meant to be a father, it was starting to become clear just how much of an impact she would have on my involvement with the band and so I had to get this right. For my part, it had to reflect what I had achieved with this band as a drummer and also what we had achieved as a unit.

For better or for worse, I produced and mixed the tracks using Ableton Live as it is simply all I know these days. I've been told that it's not ideal for mixing on but I know the results I can get from it and as this was the biggest project I had worked on to date, I needed to use what I was comfortable with.

I arranged all the tracks in the same project so that I kept a consistant sound for all the mixing. Whilst I was there, I edited a lot of bits out and added some subtle glitches and bizarre intros to a couple of tunes.

Also I utilised Ableton's presets to great effect, placing some tasty chains on some of the tracks to get trashy sounds and noisy textures.

I managed to get a really pokey kick sound which I am particularly pleased with. It really bites at the speaker cone with it's top end whilst remaining big and rounded. Also I went for a really trashy snare sound, picking out the raspy snare with the bottom mic and running a brutal multiband compression on a send channel.

We took 4 or 5 different recordings from each guitar track, running it through multiple heads and mics, meaning I could blend these to get different tones for specific parts. I love the drop 2/3's of the way through Bolognaise Holiday where Martin's guitar goes proper twangy before kicking in with that grungy distortion.

I went to town with the send channels on this recording, mainly to blend effects in with the mix rather than slap them over the top and lose that warmth that Rich captured in the studio.

It was a massive learning curve and if I did it again, I would definately create and save a mastering chain and deal with each song in a sperate project. Especially on my 13" MacBook Pro, the whole thing felt unmanageable at times!

I used a few familiar features in different ways too, such as the markers which I added reminders and mixing notes to the songs so that I knew where I had put certain bits of automation (again, when the project is so big, it's easier to slap an effect on a channel or cut a part out and forget that you already have some automation going on)

Also I used the labels to make the project make more sense!

I learnt a lot of techniques during this project, (mostly through error!) but I also learnt to trust my instinct. I had a lot of other audio tech friends chipping in with advice which made me nervous. I found myself panicking that other audiophiles would trash the end result because the kick was too boomy or the cymbals are side-chaining or whatever. But in the end I decided that I had produced enough music of my own to know what sounded good and what didn't. Also I began to look back at some of the albums I knew and loved and found myself picking holes in their production, forgetting how much I loved them for what they were. For instance, RHCP's Californication is a terrible album, from a production point of view. Seriously, it sounds shite! But the songs are great...

...and in the end who really cares? What we wanted was a solid live album that reflected the noisy, chaotic sound we had perfected over the years of touring and writing and throwing stuff at each other in the practice rooms. The songs spoke for themselves and all they needed was a bit of 'umph' to get the message across. Surely this is what recording and production is about; capturing the moment of creation.

I am proper proud of the results we got and of the time we spent with Jamie (the new drummer in ATC) who sat with us and listened and contributed to the pot of ideas and opinions that lead to the way it now sounds. I am proud that my time as drummer for ATC has been marked with such a raucous set of songs that speak for themselves about how much fun we had making them.

Soundtrack and video

Today I am blogging about a couple of recent(ish) visual arts projects where my music was used. I am very proud to be a part of both these projects and glad that the creators felt that music was suitable.

First up is this short time-lapse video that was made to promote 3 days of spraying poetry quotes on the walls of Derby's Blue Note Club. The words and art were done by Joe Coghlan and pictographik the video was edited by thought projector. The music featured is from my second solo album 'The Subtle Sting of Change'


Then there's this fantastic film made by members of Derby's Q Club. The Q Club is an arts project aimed at getting kids involved in film production; 50% are kids on the autistic spectrum and 50% are looked after kids. I love this. It's got references to Halo and Portal and one of the kids is wearing a Rise Against T-shirt! Awesome.

Self Publishing

Today I am thinking about the notion of value.

In just over a month, Shep and I will be speaking at a Self Publishing Fair at +Derby QUAD.



We will be talking about netaudio and digital distribution in oppostition to the music industry and how rising technologies can affect how musicians are able to self-publish.

For me, the concept of netaudio is intrisically based on the notion of value; that is to say, how much value a person places on the product. In the last few months I have been closely analysing the sales statistics of Bitnormal releases. As a netlabel we aim to make our releases available for a nominal price (that includes free!) in order to give the user the option of having the audio for nothing or choosing to support the label by offering a nominal fee. But does this model work? Is it self sustaining?

It is important to remember that audiences do not invest in music as a stand alone construct. They invest in the aesthetic of the artists themselves. This is a matter of semiotics. That is to say, the meaning that audiences derive from the sounds and the images associated with the artist.

It interests me then, that some things sell more than others.

What is it that drives audiences to invest time and money into an artist and what kinds of choices exist in the gap between streaming audio online and clicking that download button?

I have written a few words on the topic of value and aesthetic before but today I am wondering if there are any new words to say...

First Post

So this is my first ever blog post. Of any description....

I wonder whether, for a 30 year old guy in the 00's that is a faux pas? I don't know. I'm pretty sure I don't read any other blogs of anyone I know so maybe it's ok. Blogging definitely sounds like something I should be doing since I am doing a lot!

The other night I showcased a new project I've been working on called KADE which  is a live, improvised, electronic-performance-based type thing featuring myself on laptop and vocals and Shep On Bass. We performed to a select audience at an exclusive album playback for +Boards of Canada's new realease Tommorrow's Harvest. It was great. +Glenn Millington got use of this studio in Derby called Dub:rek and set up some great visuals and ambient lighting (it's all about ambient lighting!) Glenn also performed some of his material live which is great. Shep and I released a couple of his singles on our label Bitnormal Records earlier this year. He performs under the name o_S_k_m, you should totally have a listen cos it's great stuff!

The Bitnormal stuff is going really well, although I'm not sure my skills lie in the administration of a label. I'm trying really hard not to piss Chris off with my terrible organisational skills, coupled with my complete lack of time at home since my daughter was born but it seems like I am slacking on the duties I said I would under-take. the fact is, I am working really hard to stay involved and I have ideas and networks with people that are of real benefit to the label. I think as I adjust to father-hood, I will find a way to fit things in. We have some great artists releasing stuff on the label now and I want to be fully behind it. After all, my second Rysic Cygo album is due out soon and I need the momentum behind me so it doesn't just flop.

Any way...got to go now. More blogging later....