Week 2!

The week got off to a less than ideal start with Nick returning from a weekend with his family with a stinking cold. He was quickly dispatched into quarantine and the rest of us got back on with getting the 12 songs we have selected for the album into shape.

Some of the songs were pretty much ready to record from the day we walked in but other ones have taken a lot of work. Steve has been very keen to sort out 2 aspects of the sound of the album. Firstly, what was the "urusen sound", and how we wanted to get that across, and secondly to make sure that album has a flow and cohesive feel to it.

Whilst some people may argue that albums are now a thing of the past in the age of itunes etc, we still feel very strongly that we want to be able to produce something that people will want and be able to listen to as a body of work. Having been playing the songs for 2 weeks non-stop now, we are all pretty sure we are achieving this with the, as yet untitled, album.

As far as the "urusen sound" goes - we are definitely clearer on that after this process, and all very excited about how the album is shaping up, but you'll just have to wait for it to come out to find out what it is!

With Nick missing 2 days of the week recovering from man-flu / not infecting the singers with it, we were sad to have to cancel the showcase we had planned for Thursday evening. We were all quite excited about playing some of the tracks to an audience, but producer Steve took the executive decision that we needed to concentrate all our remaining time on the album. So again, an apology to those of you who were planning to come along, rest assured we will be coming back to the South West in the new year to make up for it!

Nick coming back into the studio did signal a change in focus for the week, as we started to separate to concentrate on particular things. Firstly, Nick started on an intensive writing session with Steve and his assistant Joe in order to make sure he had all his parts ready and in place for recording next week. At times, this has run to 3 and 4 parts - sounding rather "epic"!

The last couple of days have been quite stop/start as we've been required to do things like mic tests for Steve. All of a sudden, having spent the best part of a fortnight in old hanger playing music, the prospect of making an album at Real World Studios has become very real. Getting to see Steve and Joe in their "natural environment" also gave us an insight into quite how lucky we are to be working with them. Nothing is being rushed or done half-heartedly with this record and we've all agreed that we've never worked as hard as whilst we've been down here.

Another weekend of relaxation is in store - plus some updates on our online pages so check them out. Then on Monday it all beings in earnest!

Urusen x