The Midian Sessions

I've been going down to Midian rehearsal studio in Richmond for the last couple of days in order to try to write some new songs without any distractions. Writing new songs can be pretty hard at home, particularly as there's always something else that needs doing - cleaning, answering the phone, administrivia, arse scratching etc.
I heard somewhere that Nick Cave treats his music making as a 9 to 5 day job. A clock in, clock out type of process. There's something about the psychology of paying for your time that makes whatever you are doing while you are paying for that time somehow important. A musical friend and I spoke about the difficulties of having your own home studio - you'd never finish songs, you'd be constantly tweaking etc... I'm glad I only walk into the studio now and again in some ways. In other ways however if you only walk into the studio now and again you have to channel your nerves pretty quickly 'cause otherwise they can get in the way of good takes.

So on day one I was given room 1 which was pretty good and even though a metal drummer was somewhere up the hallway, his double kick didn't bother me too much. I tried doing a Keith Richard open G tuning but couldn't get any immediate sweet results and then I tried a drop D tuning and again no immediate results. I was paying for my time damnit! I want immediate results! Actually, Midian do a pretty sweet deal - $15 for 7 hours Mon - Fri 11am to 6pm.

After fuffing around for a while, I came up with a killer riff that I think the Hoopoes are going to enjoy playing. I also wrote lyrics to the newie I've come up with. Now the trick is playing both clearly and well on the Maton - for the first time I'm going to be playing an open A chord with one finger (ah ma gawd!). I have to regularly stop and lie on a folded up towel under my spine and massage my elbows to prevent my wrists clamping up. Damn these little wrists I've got. So frustrating.

Day two at Midian was initially pretty annoying. I was put into room 4, and therefore was immediately opposite the metal drummer from day 1. I asked Stav if I could go on down to room 8 and he gave me permission, so I grabbed my stuff and went down to room 8 which I realised nostalgically was the room where the Hoopoes had had their first rehearsal. Ah sweet remembrance! I got more of the second song completed even despite regular breaks and wanders down to Victoria Street.

On the way home from Midian I dropped into Soundpark to listen to the mixdown of Ghosts by the Bulls. myspace.com/bullatthegate. It was really warm in there thanks to a strong bar heater and all of Idge's gear. As I listened muscling my way through a really large pack of organic corn chips and hummus on the table - depriving the Bulls of their dinner -- I was struck by how incremental decision making shapes a song and can sometimes lead it in an unexpected, new or positive direction. I couldn't help thinking back to the mixing of Jane Dust and how Casey Rice and I took whole days to mix each song. When we first started the mixing process Casey would burn off copies of the song onto disk - he did this about 4 or 5 times per song - but when he did it the first time I was outraged because I thought it meant the mix was locked in. He was just burning it and playing it through a little juke box he had to get a different sound. Duh.

The Jane Dust launch is going to be in September and Vitamin Records are distributing it. August 9 is the release date. The CDs have come back from the printer. My buddy Nicole Mitchell designed them. They look just great. So much better than the design I did for A Spray of Red from The Deep. God, one day some more money will drop out of the sky and I'll re-release that album with decent artwork.

I'm off to Midian again today. Hopefully some more things will be achieved and the metal drummer will be in a room far far away...

A blog!

Hi there if you're reading this. I thought I'd start a blog about making music. It's a cheap sort of website I suppose and also it gives me a bit of an opportunity to share with you how I go about making music and crafting songs. I find songwriters' stories about songwriting engaging for obvious reasons. A great girlfriend of mine gave me a killer book for my 30th birthday about Australian songwriters called Songwriters Speaking and I think it's a good idea, and it doesn't hurt anyone much, to share my thoughts about music making and music listening. So I suppose this blog will be about my music making activities and just generally music related stuff - what music I like, what bands I've seen etc. I hope you enjoy reading it. I will inconsistently add to it now and again when I get the time.
The format of the blogs will change as I get the gist of blogging. All other cultural/art/food/ commentary stuff (not music related) will be located in my other blog - Insuperable Soup.
Stay tuned for more!
Kind regards,
JD x