Day One: We arranged to meet at the studio for about 10. Steve beat me there and was having a cup of tea and chat with Glen whilst waiting for me. I was itching to go so started unpacking whilst Glen made me a brew. With Glen's help we managed to get all the gear through the house to the decking outside the studio (see photo). As we had both decided to streamline our gear as much as possible and Steve had invested in some new stands so we were set up in double quick time. The only slight problem we had was Steve mangaing to scrape his Mum's car when moving it after we had unloaded. Luckily we managed to get some stuff to cover it up when we nipped out for lunch.
True to his word Glen had re-arranged things so that we could use the large half of the studio and had plenty of room to spread out in comparison to our rather cramped experience last time. This was extremely fortunate as it was a very hot, extremely muggy day and we would probably not have survived the heat.
Glen outside the studio:
Once set up we got straight into recording and did a mixture of ambient and sequence based tracks, plus work on some ideas for use in our upcoming live performances.
Astrogator in the studio:
We nipped out around 6 to book in to the hotel and thanks to Glen's wonderful map drawing skills managed to get almost but not quite completely lost, though not for too long as Chesterfield isn't actually that big. (the B&B we used last time had unfortunately just been sold). On our return we did another session until 10 then went for a curry. We went to the same place, got the same table and had the same food and it was gorgeous just the same.
We went backed to the hotel for a well deserved shower and off to bed, ready for an early start on day two.
Day Two: We awoke to find the weather had changed somewhat and found that although it was still hot, it had clouded over. We had fun getting back to the studio due to some roadworks prompting a bizarre diversion through the countryside. After another diversion for breakfast we arrived at the studio in the middle of a huge downpour and got completely soaked. No sign of Glen as he'd been out for some beer the previous night, so we had quick cuppa then back into the studio for some more recording. Strangely enough the heat was even worse and got extremely tiring. We had quite a productive day ending with a totally retro Mellotron and sequencer fest. Then it was time to pack up at the end of two days that had flown by.
Big thanks to Glen for cups of tea, helping with carrying the gear and generally just a being a cool dude, even on day two when he was nursing his hangover. We both can't wait for the next one, but we've got a few gigs to perform first.
More photos here
