A Coming Of Age Track By Track Part 10 of 12

10. Southern Melancholy

nb. Blog written coming back from Leicester, after a fun gig and with an angry belly from cheap pizza.

I think we all ended up really liking this one even though it nearly didn’t make it on the album. It was neck and neck with ‘Cryin’ In The Morning’ all the way, but won out in the back of the van coming back from a festival in Wales. Again it just felt more natural and kept up the intensity of the rest of the record.

There’s all sorts of stuff on this one. About 5 or 6 guitars including one through a spinning Leslie speaker, a mandolin. an electric flute thing, The Stockholm Strings again, piano, drums and bass of course and plenty of percussion but oddly not that much in the way of vocals.

Melodically it’s inspired by The Smiths ‘Stretch Out And Wait’ and an old Irish ballad called ‘Galway Shawl’ which is a really beautiful, aching song and something I used to hear a fair bit in the pubs of Glasgow.

It’s about the curse! Well that’s a bit strong, it’s another ‘Coming of Age’ style song and in a round about way about being a writer, and the weird conclusions you come to when people love a song of yours that is about a particularly painful subject for you, or to realise that what you’re best at is communicating feelings of sadness and isolation for other people to enjoy. It’s an odd concept and I’m very happy to be in this position but it’s weird feeling sometimes.

Of course the rest of the song is just about sadness and isolation! and being worn down by it. I wanted to make it a little like the old William Blake poems of an ancient fire and brimstone England. In fact the title I think sounds like an old hymn book and my favourite line is ‘Where angels collide, in danger I dwell’ and I haven’t got much more to say on the matter, apart from I wish it was a real flute instead of an electric one

Southern Melancholy by Ruffa Lane Records

Studio Rundown Part 2

4.The Dairy, Brixton

We did all of Ivors guitars here on a blazing hot weekend in May. We were slightly mis informed about which studio we were going to be in, and ended up having to have some fairly dramatically long wires coming down the corridor for from the amp to Ivor. Anyway we made some good progress on the first day before listening to it the following morning and completely scrapping pretty much everything bar Love3 and starting it all again. Luckily Ivor is extremely quick on the recording front and we powered through the second day, getting almost everything down. By far the most fun of the weekend was doing the Psychedelic closer the album with every effect pedal urned to stun, but I particularly liked being in Brixton as it only took me ten minutes to ride my bike home.

5. 2Bit Recordings, Deptford

This is my mate Andy Jones’ (of Lord Large and Big Babies fame) place where we recorded all of my guitars, Stephen Large’s manic organ and the three piece horn section for ‘Love3′, ‘Ain’t Nothin’ Like a Shame..’ and ‘Could Be I Don’t Belong Anywhere’.

Andy is an amazing person and a fount of musical knowledge. tell him the record you like and he’ll be able to list all the equipment used on said record, where to get hold of the equipment and find some supreme musicians to help you play it. Honestly he knows everyone.

He has a fantastic little studio in Deptford too with loads of old gear (old valve pre-amps, space echoes, effects pedals etc.) and on his suggestion, we hired in a 1950’s Selmer Zodiac guitar amp which has crocodile effect skin a Knight Rider-esque glowing tube pulsating across the top of it. Apart from it’s looks it also sounds amazing and was the perfect vintage accompaniment to Misty, my old Gretsch Nashville.

Part 3 of studio list (yes there’s more!) continues in the nest installment