A Quantum of Children .. erm .. in Need

Hi – Martin (the Grumpy one) here ...

As you may well know – we try and do stuff to help Shelter and support Audioscope – as a result I find myself with an e-mail from Stuart saying I am on the door for this years Audioscope gig in the evening – so I have to spend an hour checking everyone's hand as they walk in and out and tell them they are too late – they missed the best band. Nothing is too much.

Actually I am the least charitable person I know when it comes to putting my hand in my pocket – fnar – and if there's one thing I hate it's being stopped in the street by someone dressed in fancy dress with a bucket telling me I have to help Children in Need – particularly when it's the third person in the space of 100 metres (nearly said yards there – showing my age) and I have refused all of them – so this year I am getting a special T-Shirt made – and a sign up on my front door (next to the no junk mail / salespeople / drunkards offering to tarmac my drive/ god botherers / people I have invited round if you haven't bought a bottle with you notice).

And what will that T-Shirt / Sign say? It will say –

Blimey – I actually did something for Children in Need this year – I must be going soft.

Some time back – the two beardy chaps at BBC Introducing asked us if we would like to contribute to an album they were making for Children in Need. The idea was that a number of local bands would contribute a version of a James Bond theme song. Straight away Dave said he wanted to do "Nobody Does it Better" – because he wants to be Carly Simon – so we went into the rehearsal studio (Jo was in America at the time so we roped in our good friend Pete Bastard to help - Cheers Pete) – and demoed up a few versions of the song – and then forgot all about it thinking we had until November to finish it. This was in – erm – July I think.

Next thing – we get an e-mail from Tim saying that we have 2 weeks to submit the track – this is happening right in the middle of our recording and people being on holiday and stuff – so we panic – imagine we can't do it – and then in a matter of hours manage to record the track – upside down (meaning we did the vocals first with a keyboard backing – and then added all the other instruments afterwards – ((Jo - I hasten to add - had returned by this point)) which anyone worth their salt will tell you – is not the way to record (see previous posting by me) unless you are a DJ doing a remix – and they don't count (see previous posting by me deleted by Dave to prevent me being beaten up by DJ's in every town we visit).

So – to cut to the chase …. And steal from the Loverly Maria Ilett's mail – which I just got which was much briefer than this blog – and would have sufficed really so in future i will get her to write my blogs for me:

"check out our james bond cover on this link....a preview of the album 'A Quantum Of Covers' to be released on nov 10th on itunes only........

http://www.bbc.co.uk/oxford/content/articles/2008/10/16/a_quantum_of_covers.shtml"

So – don't ever say I don't do stuff for charity!!!!

Right - where's the number of my local T-Shirt printer and why is it I can't think of Children in need without remembering Joanna Lumley sat in her underwear on Terry Wogan's Lap ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAgdvPs8y0U

More Last.FM goodies

Friday's Halloween gig at The Cellar was a good one, and it was good to see all the ghosts and ghouls out to play :-)

We were giving out a CD with some new songs on - 5 tracks which may or may not make it onto the album next year. We've still got a few left so you might be able to pick one up at one of our next gigs, but if you can't wait until then, head over and have a listen to all five on Last.FM.

Keep it unreal,
Dave B

The new tracks are here!

It's finished! Five new songs. First radio play last Saturday on BBC Oxford, free copies going out at our gig tonight.

And you can listen to them on our MySpace profile and download them for a limited time.

We're very pleased with it - different from the last lot of recordings, but still very much Witches.

Maybe some of them will be on the next album, maybe not - too early to tell. But at least we have some new stuff for you to listen to in the interim.

When we did the last album we circulated some work-in-progress stuff to get some early feedback, to help shape the final album. So we're doing it again.

Tell us what you think - don't hold back now.

-Martin

Halloween party and EP launch YEAH

It's the most wonderful time of the year. No really. Much better than snow and potted evergreen trees and bloated parental turkey-based meals. For the first time ever, Witches have managed to book a gig that actually falls on Halloween. Admittedly, this does mean we'll be up against every other sod that has the same idea, however we'll be in The Cellar which is, as everyone knows, the discerning rocker's venue of choice.

Joining us on 31st October will be The Hellset Orchestra - both of us will be performing headline sets - and there will be ample support from the likes of Thumpermonkey Lives! (sounds like some kind of early nineties Amiga 500 release) and the mighty Von Braun, favourites of ours and regular haunters of Martin's studio (it's not been the same since).

We've realised now that we do actually have to release something, being that we've been banging on about it being an EP launch for some time now. We've recorded five songs. Some or all of them will be with you on the night. We're still deciding. Maybe we'll chuck them all in the bin and then set fire to the bin shouting 'no no no no no' and then there'll be nothing. Who can say.

One thing is (reasonably) certain. This stuff is work in progress. Before the last album came out we circulated a free CD of nearly-finished songs just to see what people thought of them, and that worked well - it got us lots of feedback and helped push the album in the right direction. I feel we're at that stage now, which is kind of exciting and daunting all at the same time.

Anyway, enough of all that - there'll be prizes for the best dressed, and there'll be free CDs for those nearest the stage. Plus four ace bands and DJs till 3am. Tickets only available on the door (£5), doors at 8pm, first band 9pm. We've been putting in the hours in the rehearsal studio putting together a live set that will rock your brains. Where else are you going to be? At home with your kittens? We will find you.

- Dave G

Mixing the EP Mixing the EP

Hi Witches fans - Martin here

Dave is complaining that he always has to write the blog - so I'm having a go.


Recording an album is a funny old game.

You spend hours in the rehearsal studio writing songs and everyone has their own bit which they've written and you finally go into a recording studio to record it and finally everyone gets to hear what you do properly.

Why now? Well - when you rehearsse you have a drummer in the room with you - so everything is really loud and while you get the overall sound and feel - nothing is really clear.

In a recording studio it's - well - different.

You start by all standing in the room with headphones on - and you play the song - much as you would in rehearsal. Then everyone complains that they can't hear anything properly because you all have headphones on - and everyone wants to hear something different. This is acheived by having a headphone mixer - so each person has their own individual mix of how they want to hear the song - so for example the bass player will want to hear lots of drums and bass and a bit of vocal so they know where the changes come - but the guitarist (me) will want to hear just the drums and guitar and a bit of bass and a bit of vocal and definately the keyboards - so you all have to adjust everything.

And finally you press the record button and you're off.

Then you get this thing called Red Light Fever - which is when people suddenly realise that this is it - and you are putting something down for the whole world to hear (or your mates - depending on how good and popular you are) and panic sets in - and the first few takes of a song are always rubbish - because people need to relax a bit.

But finally you get there.

But actually you're not there at all - because all you really wanted to record was the drums - everyone else is plugged straight in so there are no loud amplifiers in the room to interfere with the drum recordings. Once you get the drums down - you then start recording each instrument individually.

And at this point - you get to hear what everyone else is actually playing - because what the engineer hears is again different from what the band hears - and he has solo'd your part and is listening to it under a microscope so to speak (can you listen under a microsope?) - and so is everyone else who is not playing - and you find out that what is being played on one instrument doesn't neccesarily tie in with what someone else is playing - and you have to change it. Sometimes this can be a bit of a political exercise because people can be a bit presious about stuff - and sometimes it's easy.

It also means you finally get to hear properly what is being sung - which can sometimes cause great hilarity - I remember one occasion back in the days when I used to think I could actually sing and fronted a band when i got to the end of the vocal take and there was a long silence - and then a voice came out in my headphones saying - "er - could we maybe take a look at the lyrics Martin - there seems to be a few concerned faces here".

I always imagine that happening in the studio when "Gay Bar" was recorded ....

So there is potentially a lot of compromising - although I reckon that the less you have to compromise because you're all reading from the same hymn sheet - the better the song is - and the better the band is.

Finally - after all that - everyone has played - and everyone has sung - and you have brought in additional people to play stuff to make it sound even better (or worse) by adding flutes and cellos and saws and bagpipes and stuff - and you end up with loads and loads of music - and you then have to mix it - to get all the levels right - and make sure everyone is happy.

In the old days of tape - you had maybe 24 channels to play with - which meant that you played your instrument once because you couldn't do 16 guitar takes - there just wasn't the room - but now in the digital age you can do 16 guitar takes and keep them all and then pick the best bits - which is great unless you're the one who is deciding what the best bit is.

And finally when that is decided - and everyone is happy - well - you're done.

But it takes forever to get it just right. Back in the days when we'd load all the gear in the van and head out to the middle of nowhere to a studio and record everything live in a day and come away with a finished mix having handed over our bouncy cheque it was all so much easier - but it was also so much worse - I have real problems listening to some of that stuff now.

So anyway - at the moment - we are in the middle of deciding what stays and what goes and whether we really wanted to put that bagpipe on the song anyway (I can say this safely because there is no bagpipe on anything - more by luck than judgement though - the bagpipe player had a blowout in his bag and couldn't play).

But on the bright side - 3 of the songs are pretty close to being finished - and the other two have some minor decisions to be made - but - hopefully by the end of the weekend everything will be in the can as we still like to say (along with "We're rolling" which is a lie because that refers to the tape spools going round and round - and there isn't a tape machine in sight in the studio - it's all on computer - but saying "we're commiting to disk" just doesn't sound as Rock).

And while all this is going on we are fitting in Gigs (Clapham was great - thanks everyone for coming along - Witney on Saturday night if you can make it) - interviews (we did a radio interview last week and Jo couldn't make it - but Rich's better half stood in - which was great since she has a broad American accent and said stuff like "I'm just here to rawk"! which had us all in fits of laughter) - photos - rehearsals.

And then we have to decide what goes on the release for the end of the month ... oh blimey.

But it will all be done by the time we turn up at The Cellar on the 31st. And I'll be the one with the grey hair - because I have to try and co-ordinate all of this - keep everyone happy and produce something which will make us world famous.

That was a long blog wasn't it.

I don't think Dave will be asking me again.

Cheers
Martin

Audioscope and Shelter

It's confirmed - we'll be playing at Audioscope this year, which is excellent news. Last year was amazing; we played alongside some truly incredible bands. Most noteworthy would have to be Sh*t and Shine, who are frankly indescribable, but with their six drummers created one of the most dynamic live performances I've ever seen.

This year's lineup looks equally exciting. As always, Stuart and Simon (principle organisers) have put together a lineup of bands that, on the most part, I've never heard of (which is part of the fun I think), however a few familiar favourites have also made their way onto the bill. I'm particularly happy that The Workhouse are playing - I love this band and everything they do. They played at our launch last year, and it was breathtaking.

It's good to be involved in Audioscope, since it allows us to continue to help Audioscope raise funds for Shelter, a charity we've been involved with for some time now, since our performance for Audioscope last year. Since then we released the Shelter-fundraising Live and Undead video and we held a special fundraiser gig at The Wheatsheaf with the help of Ivy's Itch and Fee Fi Fo Fum.

The work of Shelter is nothing less than essential. When you walk around Oxford you are constantly faced with the issues of homelessness and bad housing, and as such it is hard to imagine a more deserving charity than one that tackles these crucial issues.

Witches continue to wholeheartedly support the work of this very important charity, and those Audioscope boys, and hope that as many of you as possible will come along to Audioscope this year to help make it the most successful one yet!

Some basic info: there are two events this year. We're playing at the second event, which will take place on Saturday 15th November in The Jericho Tavern. The lineup includes Kid606, Boxcutter, That F*cking Tank, The Oscillation, Soeza, Witches, Hey Colossus, The Workhouse, You Animals and
Sunnyvale Noise Sub-Element. Tickets here.

The first event takes place at The Regal on Monday 10th November, and features Don Caballero, Hreda and Secondsmile. Tickets here.

For more information see our gigs page. See you there!

-Dave G

Sixxxxxx Records

Tomorrow we're heading out to London to get lost and cause chaos at major intersections, before arriving hopefully not too late for a gig at Project Orange in Clapham (details at witchesband.com/gigs).

Sixxx Records have put together a cracking lineup of bands, including Namaste, Sketchbeat and Towers Open Fire. We're second on - according to the promoter we'll be onstage at 9pm. This is our first time at Project Orange but we've heard good things so go on, get on a tube, sod the credit crunch, come see us Witches play.

(goes off to dig out London A-Z since he's too stingy to buy a TomTom).

- Dave G